Chapter 120

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

“Ray. I’ve found you at last. Why do you hide from me?”

“Who’s there!?” 

“Ah!!”

A man spoke to me from behind me. I felt like I’d heard this voice, before. It felt like a voice I’d heard in an unwanted memory. Yuki cried out in my mind, wailing from just beside me.

I turn around nervously, and there stood His Highness Naaotto. 

“Huh!!?” As I reflexively tried to escape and turn over, suddenly, my right wrist was grasped.

Yuki was panicking, too.

“Yuki! Try to calm down, please! No matter what you do, don’t revert back to your original form. Whatever happens to me, please take care of my kid.”

“!? Rachel! There’s no way I can do that! You’re going to help with that, too. I appreciate it, but I can’t let you come into harm’s way, either, Rachel. And anyway, nothing will be settled whether I return to my original form or not.”

“I – I know that! But!! Yuki, please understand. Please calm down, for now, so that His Highness Naaotto doesn’t take notice.”

“…Fine, I understand.”

Even if Yuki reveals herself now, nothing would change the circumstances, surely. Then again, it’s possible that things could turn for the worse if she did. Taking that into consideration, it would be safer for Yuki to stay in cat form for now. Surely, a means for escape will come about.

Yuki, not able to do anything, impatiently waved her long, black tail about, but she nodded reluctantly.

“Thank you, Yuki-sama.”

“Could you please… release my hand?” I beseeched His Highness Naaotto straightforwardly.

“If I released your hand, you’d flee, wouldn’t you?”

“Is it acceptable in this country to grasp the hand of someone you don’t even know? I, for one, am uncomfortable with a stranger taking my hand. Would you please let go of my hand?”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“Well, well… Ray has gotten quite bold, hasn’t he? For him to bear his teeth at me.”

“This piece of work…”

“Yuki! Please stop!!” Yuki was poised to attack His Highness Naaotto with her sharp claws, so I hastened to stop her.

“I wouldn’t happen to know you, would I?” I cooly asked His Highness Naaotto. Though we were making such a ruckus, the city’s passersby paid no mind. It was as if we had been cut out of our surroundings altogether. There were people passing right by us, and yet they didn’t even turn towards us one bit.

“Come now, you can’t be serious? I knew it was you immediately, Ray. You thought you could escape me just because you died? No, you cannot escape me. That is your destiny.”

“…I think you’ve got the wrong person, no?”

“There’s no way I would mistake you, Ray. You are, indeed, Ray. If you’ve forgotten that fact, why don’t I remind you?” His Highness said, forcefully. He wore a smile painted in shades of insanity.

“Rachel! Hurry! Transport us!”

“I can’t! If I transported us now, His Highness Naaotto might be transported along with us.”

Yuki was feeling endangered and begging me to transport us, but at the moment, it simply wasn’t possible. As long as His Highness Naaotto didn’t release my hand, it would be impossible to transport. If we transported without him releasing my hand, His Highness Naaotto would be transported along with us.

“I’ve had enough. I’m leaving.”

“No, I will not release you. After all, I’ve finally found you in hiding.”

“I’ve already told you, again and again, I don’t even know you! Please let go of me.”

“I realized very quickly that you were the crown prince of the great Empire. However, the defenses afforded to a crown prince were quite formidable. I couldn’t lay hands on you. And yet, you were kind enough to bring yourself to me. So, now, tell me. Why would I ever release your hand?”

“I am not Rachel-sama!”

How? Wasn’t I supposedly in Lyla’s body? How did His Highness Naaotto know that I was the one hidden in this body? Could it be that he was bluffing?…”

“Although I will say, you have changed in appearance quite a bit. I know you like the back of my hand. It seems as though you’ve been stained by some impurities. That must be why you defy me so. Such a bad child.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He managed to get his hand not just my arm, but my waist. I couldn’t control my movement. What was about to happen to me? Could I find a perfect moment to transport? Yuki would have to be with me for that.

“It’s okay if you don’t understand. Why don’t you come with me to the castle?”

There was no way a weak girl’s body could stand up to His Highness Naaotto’s might. There was nothing I could do but be taken away forcefully by His Highness Naaotto. Yuki followed behind us, sticking to the shadows. All I could do was go along with Lord Naaotto and pray that he wouldn’t notice Yuki.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]