BXBX NOVEL Chapter 92
Ces had been assigned to work at the Garnet Palace to greet guests, so she had seen everything.
Once Hannah heard what happened, she started bawling, and Lili hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep after hearing about it as well.
“Couldn’t the Magician of the Black Tower heal His Majesty?”
“The Emperor doesn’t acknowledge it himself so…..”
He himself didn’t want to fix the situation, so there was nothing they could do.
“Haaa. I’m so worried.”
“Me too. Poor Princess Athanasia. What should we do?”
But Lilian was worried about both Claude and Athanasia.
Princess Athanasia had already been hurt, and once his memory came back, Claude would be in pain as well.
It would be nice if no one was hurt anymore. It was rather a relief the Emperor hadn’t sought Princess Athanasia after the ball. She thought that the princess would be forced out of her palace again because of what happened at the ballroom.
“Today, I’ll make the chocolate cake the princess likes.”
“I’ll help too.”
Lili sighed. Not a day passed without concerns.
***
“Princess, aren’t you reading today?”
Lili carefully asked me, who was flopped down on the couch.
“It’s not interesting.”
I hadn’t moved my position once this afternoon, and I was looking at the sunlight.
N, no. I wasn’t looking at it, I was just blankly staring at it….my hobby these days was just staying still.
I tried to word what I was doing, but I gave up and just blankly stared at the sky.
I don’t have any thoughts. Because I don’t have any thoughts….
“It’s already 3 in the afternoon. Should I bring you some desserts?”
“No thanks.”
These days, I didn’t really want to eat anything so I just said no.
Lili, Hannah, and Ces seemed extremely shocked that I said no to desserts, but these things happened sometimes.
I knew they had been feeling unsettled these days because of me.
I was sorry about that, but having to react to everything other people did made my headache.
So although I knew they were worrying about me, I just spent the day lying down like this.
Even in front of Lili, I just tossed around in my bed or the sofa.
From some time, after Jannette’s letters were cut off, I was spending life in isolation. Wasn’t this the life of a backroom princess Claude wanted?
But Lili didn’t give up.
“Then how about a walk? Then rays are nice.”
“I don’t want to….”
“No. You need to move more in times like this. If you want to be alone, I won’t follow you. Hm?”
Lili was indeed powerful. She was trying to make me get up from the sofa and bed that I had been staying in for several days!
I couldn’t deny her desperate eyes and ended up leaving my room.
“Princess!”
“Are you going on a walk?”
Like they had planned it, Hannah and Ces were waiting outside the room for me as soon as I left. And they looked at me with shining eyes.
“You’ve made a good choice.”
“Yes. The weather today is so nice.”
They seemed to be extremely happy that I finally left the room.
They made me feel like a bad guy for not leaving my room.
“I’ll be back.”
I awkwardly walked past them, receiving warm welcomes from all the maids in the hall.
As soon as I went outside, the sparkling sun shined on my head.
It’s so bright. Ah, it’s been a while since I got direct exposure to the sunlight.
I thought it would be best if I went inside after walking around a bit, so I began to walk.
But no one was looking at me from above, right?
I suspiciously raised my head. But the reflected sunlight blocked my vision of the inside. I gave up, looking back down again with my eyes narrowed.
My clothes were extremely simple since I didn’t really have anywhere to go these days. So walking seemed to be a bit more comfortable then before.
As Lili wanted, I looked at the trees and the leaves and the sky and slowly walked around the palace.
And I entered a garden brimming with white roses.
The rose garden was filled with even more beautiful roses than the garden where I spent time with Claude. This was the garden that Claude abruptly made me after I said roses were pretty.
I walked through a path that was in the middle of the garden. And my hands reached out to a fully bloomed flower and its leaves. I felt its touch and approached it.
Then, I stroked it and pulled hard at the stem.
When I dropped my head, I saw the plucked rose shining brilliantly in the sun. I stayed still for a moment and dropped in on the ground.
Along the path, I picked other roses too.
I didn’t know why, but as soon as I saw the roses, I wanted to get rid of them from my sight.
When I looked back, the roses were all scattered on the floor like the pebbles in the story of Hansel and Gretel. I just quietly looked at it and turned forward again.
And when I lifted my head, I saw a man looking down at me silently.
The wind happened to blow and fluttered his hair. It also scattered the roses, leaves, and my dress.
Claude and I just quietly looked at each other.
His appearance was completely unexpected, but I wasn’t too surprised seeing him.
It might’ve been because I thought he might come to see me one day.
He wasn’t looking at me with the hostility he had at the ball. His deep green eyes pierced through me.
The silence felt long but also short at the same time. He looked at me with indifferent eyes, but when he began to walk again, I unconsciously flinched the rose that was in my rose.
The distance between us quickly decreased. In his shadow, I looked up at his face.
He looked like a person that had been sick for days.
Claude slowly opened his mouth to speak.
“I shouldn’t have let you live.”
Now, I wasn’t even surprised at his words anymore. But his voice felt different than when he had threatened me in the past. His low voice continued.
“If I had got rid of you when I first saw you, I wouldn’t have had to remember your face.”
When he said that, his eyes slightly changed color. His indifferent eyes now felt icy.
Claude extended his hand to me.
Then, the sound of something crashing together shook my eardrums. A sharp light shined with the sound of something breaking. I was pushed back by an unknown force and the scattered roses shook.
Past my flying hair, I saw the coldly flashing eyes.
“Funny. The magic in your protection magic is definitely mine.”
He dryly laughed like he had heard a humorless joke, and I realized what he just did.
“I don’t know what the combination is, but magic doesn’t lie so the magic is definitely mine. But to think I’m destroying it.”
He once again reached out to me.
“There’s not a tragedy like this.”
The white roses flew around me. Their scent tickled my nose and another force shook the air again.
Ah….Claude was actually trying to kill me.
Not just threatening me, but for real. The protection magic that was supposed to be protecting was being destroyed.
“That face. That expression.”
At that moment, Claude’s face crumbled.
“It’s getting on my nerves.”
Clang! Swoosh!
“It’s over if I get rid of it.”
I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me or himself. But that wasn’t important right now.
Boom! Clang!