Chapter 141

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

After seeing the lady servant’s expression when she brought me my meal, I quietly took it and began eating.

Yuki, Edward, and Makoto were all still pretending to be under Lord Naaotto’s control, and so ate their meals as well, with no hesitation.

Lord Naaotto saw us eating, and cackled gleefully.

“So, you’ve eaten it?” he asked.

“…Yes,” I answered. I showed Lord Naaotto my empty plate.

Of course, Lord Naaotto’s blood did not work on me, and I was completely unchanged from my usual self. It seemed his blood didn’t work on Yuki, either.

From the look on the lady servant’s face, though, it was likely that there wasn’t even any of his blood mixed into the food, anyway.

Just in case, though, I decided to act as though I was under his control to see how he would react.

“Hahahahaha. Look, Lord Edward – Ray is mine, now. I will be able to control her,” said Lord Naaotto.

Edward showed no reaction to Lord Naaotto’s speech.

“You must be disappointed, huh, Ray? Tomorrow, I’m going to be declared the crown prince in a formal ceremony tomorrow. It will be announced all throughout the country and beyond. I will have you beside me at that ceremony. Of course, you’ll be there as my fiancée. Huahahahahaha. I can’t wait for tomorrow,” said Lord Naaotto, delighted. I looked back at him with a blank expression.

“What’s that? Those eyes! You’re protesting with your eyes. You can’t deny me anymore, though, Ray,” said Lord Naaotto, smirking and laughing away. He continued to laugh as he walked out of the dungeons.

After making sure Lord Naaotto had left the dungeons, those of us left behind met eyes with each other.

“He is so annoying,” said Yuki.

“He really is. Even just pretending to obey him is pretty hard,” said Makoto.

“I don’t like how he talks about Rachel like she’s just something to be used for his convenience,” said Edward.

“…So I was right in thinking it was all right to eat that meal,” I said.

As each of them voiced their distaste of Lord Naaotto, I let out a sigh of relief. It appeared Lord Naaotto wasn’t controlling any of us.

I had been thinking things would probably be fine because of the lady servant’s expression, but the small part of me that was still worried felt much better after that.

“Yes, I agree. It was fine to eat,” said Yuki.

“That lady servant was a smart one, too,” said Makoto.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“I wonder if there’s anyone still under Lord Naaotto’s control in this entire castle,” said Yuki.

“I think there’s probably no one left under his control. After all, I was led to every little corner of the castle, and I applied my healing magic on everyone,” I said. 

If there were still some people under his control, they would have to be people living on the land around the castle. I didn’t have enough time to get to those surrounding lands, though, and I didn’t have permission to leave, either. Therefore, it was possible that there were still people in the lands near the castle that was still under the control of Lord Naaotto due to drinking his blood.

“Tomorrow will be the deciding battle,” said Yuki.

“Yes. We have to try to settle everything tomorrow,” I said.

Everything would come down to the events of the next day. If we didn’t execute our plans perfectly and we couldn’t succeed in our goals, Lord Naaotto would be widely announced as the crown prince. We had to avoid that at all costs.

We then carefully discussed what each of us had to be prepared to do before the events of the next day.

“Rachel-sama – please come over here,” said Margarita-san, the next day. She had come down to the dungeons.

Margarita had opened the cell that Yuki and I were in, and led me out of the cell. I was probably going to be brought to Lord Naaotto to stand beside him as decoration.

I pursed my lips tightly. When I looked over at Edward and locked eyes with him, he nodded at me reassuringly.

Margarita glanced at me, and she left the cell without even locking it behind her. When she stepped onto the step to get out of the cell, something crashed to the floor at her feet. Margarita, however, showed no signs of noticing, and continued onward.

“Um… Something just…” I started to say to Margarita, but after taking a closer look at what she dropped, I suddenly stopped talking.

Ah, I see, Margarita. You dropped it on purpose.

“Is something the matter?” asked Margarita.

“No,” I said, “I thought I might have heard something, but it was just my imagination.”

“I see. Well then, we don’t have much time, so let’s hurry upstairs,” she said.

“Yes,” I replied, and looked over at Yuki. She saw me looking at her and nodded.

“Oh, yes – one more thing. Today’s is the day Lord Naaotto will be announced as crown prince. It is a glorious day, and so the guards may be celebrating. However, Lady Rachel, please make sure you refrain from celebrating, yourself,” said Margarita. She was pretending to talk directly to me but was clearly making sure that Edward could hear her.

She was saying the castle’s defenses were weaker than usual, today. Not only that, she was probably trying to drive the point home that the people tasked with defending the castle were all free from Lord Naaotto’s blood magic. The preparations seemed to be advancing according to plan.

“Yes,” I said, “I understand.”

I followed Margarita out of the dungeons and headed up to the drawing-room.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]