Chapter 95

“….why are you empty-handed again?”

Waiting out in the garden, Rashid narrowed his eyes as soon as he saw Catherine and her bare hands. There were no hints anywhere on her black dress that she had brought someone else.

“Didn’t I tell you to bring it properly this time?”

“…..Your Highness.”

Catherine calmly called his name, her voice surprisingly composed.

Her face, which did not shy away or pale feebly like yesterday, raised his interest.

“What excuse are you trying to use this time?”

But Rashid had no plans of letting her go so easily.

Unless, did this woman think that he would do something like that again?

When she herself was a witch?

When he thought about how she was painfully hiding her beloved pet because she was afraid of him, displeasure filled his chest.

Some might say that a mere animal like that was nothing, but an obstinacy exceeding that of any battlefield was boiling within him.

“Go on, talk. There must be something you prepared.”

“……”

“Catherine, who do you think you are.”

Even still, he really did want to hear what her excuse would be.

He was a man who didn’t know that his face had softened to some degree, just because Catherine was not seized by fear and had no tears dripping down her face.

“If you really need to see what I do  first to be satisfied, then…..”

“Come with me.”

“….What did you say?”

“I’ll go to show Your Highness personally.”

Smile. Seeing her white and even teeth showing themselves, Rashid placed a hand on the handle of his sword.

Dangerous things must be cut down.

This was an action that stemmed from an instinct that he’d built up over a long time, but it was himself this time that made him falter.

“……This is just…..”

“I know. You’re not going to kill me.”

“……”

This woman was definitely dangerous.

The more Catherine’s smile brightened, the more Rashid’s neck stiffened.

Rattle. This strange emotion that started up his spine did not disappear easily, no matter how much he tried to stop it.

“I thought perhaps Your Highness wanted to see our Reina a lot more than I had assumed.”

“….hoo.”

“So I, too, wanted to show her to you when she’s having more fun. After all, if I forcibly bring the shy child, she’d barely be able to show you her face. Rather than that, it’ll be better for you to see her pretty form when she’s playing outside very well.”

“Look here. The reason I told you to bring your daughter here was…”

“Let’s go. Please?”

Hurry.

Catherine came right in front of him, as if she was about to pull on his hand, and smiled at him. Under the sunlight, and at this close a distance, her purple eyes sparkled more than it had ever before.

“Oh…. As I thought, would you rather not go with just the two of us?”

***

“…….”

For someone who’d followed as soon as I’d brought up belatedly calling the Princes, Rashid’s eyes were full of suspicion.

‘And why wouldn’t they be.’

He wouldn’t be able to make it any clearer that he was thinking, ‘Now what is this woman planning to do now.’ But I couldn’t help that my heart was already excited, and laughter kept bubbling up to my lips.

“Your Highness, we won’t go too far.”

And I won’t harm you.

Seeing his face stiffen the moment I turned around, I bit back a smile. Come to think of it, I felt a little awkward smiling this naturally in front of this man.

‘If Haniel was just a bit bigger, would it have been different?’

He definitely wouldn’t have been a kind brother to her, but it would’ve been great if she knew he wasn’t that trashy as a brother, that she would declare to never see him ‘fo-eva’, like that.

“…..”

But if that had been the case, Haniel wouldn’t have needed to escape home like that, and she wouldn’t have met me.

If I thought about it that way, I couldn’t tell what was right, and my heart became a bit distraught.

I wanted our Haniel to be more loved than anyone else, but I couldn’t let her go. This two-faced heart of mine mixed in with my footsteps as we walked the perimeter of the lake.