Chapter 23

Becoming a Monster’s Bride (8)

Roelin didn’t wish to be caught by the man who was just walking ahead. She didn’t even know she wanted to find her own pride since she was only dreaming of a new life away from Rakain entirely.

‘How does it feel to have nothing to fear at all?’

Roelin vaguely wanted to imagine that kind of feeling. However, to picture something that she had never experienced before was much more difficult than she thought, so she eventually had to give up such an attempt altogether.

For her, all the time which she had lived so far was an object of fear in itself.

Everyone in the world—except for herself—had been a scary and terrifying object.

In contrast to her own twin sister, who would have never been afraid of anything at all.

Roelin tried very hard to hold onto her bitter heart and looked at his back once again. He appeared utterly confident. She felt as though he had never been shaken before in all his life.

A person who was so different from her own self.

She wondered if there was another person who would be just like him in this whole wide world.

Roelin recalled the conversation she had with him last night.

She said that he wasn’t a monster.

The question that Kergel had asked of her.

< Is there any evidence to being a monster? >

……she couldn’t even answer that question herself.

In fact, it would have been more accurate to say that the words to answer him were already lingering in her mouth, but she simply couldn’t utter them out.

The monster was actually herself—not him.

A bitter smile drifted by Roelin’s mouth and soon disappeared entirely.

After living in such captivity all her life, she suddenly became the wife to a man who should have been the husband of her own twin sister.

For her own, it was a means to escape from the Palace, which had been no different from prison itself.

‘Do I deserve a sense of return for myself like this?’

In the first place, this marriage itself was a fraud.

Roelin became sad and brushed off her face. Just then, severe dizziness struck her all of a sudden. She faltered unknowingly while feeling some sort of ‘blinking’ in her head.

At that same moment, her eyes instantly turned white. Subsequently, it became distant as if her whole body’s senses were closing in and soon, chills began to occur as the scenery in front of her changed.

…The Separate Palace in Rakain.

The prison-like space which she had just thought a little while ago—

Roelin could no longer breathe as she felt her heart had frozen all over.

“What is it? I definitely… Was it a dream or something? Did I have such a vivid dream?”

Roelin hurriedly looked back. The coolness of the fireplace, which its fire had long since extinguished, was vividly conveyed. Moreover, on the bed that was draped with thin sheets, a book which used to be read had been left covered for a while.

“No, that can’t be true. I… How do I get out of here?”

Roelin, who couldn’t contain her fear, shook her head violently as she slowly turned blue.

Her blue eyes were quickly filled with tears. As she thought that the feeling of liberation which she had felt for the first time outside of the Separate Palace had been a mere dream, an uncontrollable feeling of despair upon herself eventually sank in.

Roelin collapsed under the weight of that very despair. She couldn’t even think that the dress she was wearing would get dirty then. Tears began to burst and burst before they trickled down her cheek.

At that time, someone had grabbed her wrist abruptly and pulled it away as it was. And there it was, a seemingly criticizing voice could be heard.

“I’ve already told you to be careful. You’re more demanding than I thought.”

“……?”

Roelin couldn’t wipe her tears as she looked at it defenselessly. It was someone else’s big hand that had been holding onto her wrist. It was that particular hand. But there was no way to confirm his actual face. For some reason, it was due to the fact that her eyes were being blurred out. Tears did not cloud her field of vision. To be more specific, it was just like mist in the early morning…

“Ah!”

Roelin’s blue eyes widened immediately. At the same time, the fog that had blurred her eyes began to clear away slowly. Soon after that, she was able to finally see the face of the person who had pulled upon her wrist.

She saw that slightly ruffled black locks instead. And the moment she was faced with the golden eyes that kept on looking at her, she gradually came to her senses.

“Your Majesty.”

“You were almost trapped in a fantasy. Even if you did get drifted away from that road, it was fortunate that you didn’t go too deep. If that had happened, there would have been no other way else for you.”

Kergel spoke in a calm tone as he raised her up by giving some strength to Roelin’s wrist. Roelin looked at him with an embarrassed look before she started gazing around belatedly.

Only then did she realize that they were standing quite near to the boundary of the trail.

“Oh, that fantasy was…”

That had been what it was. She muttered casually while taking in the whole background as she breathed a sigh of relief. Her breath was trembling, perhaps because of the remnants of her emotions that hadn’t disappeared just yet.

“You must have been subdued rather hard. It’s not like you’re already deep inside the fantasy anyway.”

Kergel, who had watched all of that, opened his mouth as if it was somehow surprising. Roelin replied as she brushed her pale cheeks with her palm.

“It had been so vivid that I thought it was terribly awful.”

“Anyway, it’s quite unexpected. There is actually something that you’re afraid of. No matter how happy a person is while having been living with everything, there must still be something that you are afraid of, right?”

Right at the question that Kergel had asked indifferently, Roelin hesitated first before she forced herself to raise the corners of her mouth and soon nodded in response.

“I guess so. Anyway, thank you for saving me, Your Majesty.”

“It was lucky for you. There would have been no way to get you out if you were to go even just a little further. Since there’s no way you’ll still be this lucky next time, be careful then.”

After he had accepted her gratitude rather roughly, he took another step. Roelin looked at Kergel and turned to gaze at the white fog that was already outside of the trail. It had been such a vivid illusion that her fingertips were still trembling incessantly.

After heaving deep breaths, she then curled her fingertips tightly and turned her head. Subsequently, she soon took another step in following him.

***