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No matter how high <Patch Notes> was placed on the shelf, it didn’t seem to matter to Illestia. He didn’t even bother to fully extend his elbows, let alone stand on tiptoe to get it, and I realized once again how unfair the world was.
“Thank you. I get to stay alive thanks to you.”
I stretched out my arm to receive the <Patch Notes> from Illestia. It was futile.
“The assassin is dead. I never even informed my mother about the attack. My aide is very loyal. So who leaked it to you?”
It seemed Illestia hadn’t come to help me after all. With a flick of his wrist, he moved the <Patch Notes> away from me, just like I did when I played hunting with Lilu.
He seemed to be suspicious of me. According to him, it was a difficult situation not to do so.
We stood opposite each other in a narrow aisle, so I couldn’t see his expression very well. I couldn’t fathom how seriously he was taking the situation now.
I wish I could pass it off as a joke. My parents had always told me that I would get my ass handed to me one day, and today seemed to be that day, so I was careful not to talk nonsense.
“Absolutely not what you guessed. I told you, I’m from another world—”
“You said we were lovers, ‘Ari’.”
Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist. It was a very rough move. I froze in surprise, and he didn’t miss a moment.
Dalton’s tomboy had been so easily subdued by the Crown Prince of Illestia. He gently pressed my wrists, which he was clasping, toward the bookshelf, trapping me between the bookshelf and him. He bent his head down to stare, and there was something odd about the way he looked at me.
I had been in a relationship before, which meant I wasn’t naive enough to not know what the heat in his flawless, almond-shaped amber eyes meant.
“We were passionate, weren’t we?”
I felt myself heat up a little when he pronounced ‘passionate’.
“I mean mentally. We were passionate mentally!”
He smiled sheepishly at the lame excuse.
“That can’t be right. I don’t have much patience.”
It seems that one of Keran Illestia’s many talents is to say dangerous things with a good-natured look. I hurriedly rolled my eyes and looked around. If I yelled out here, would anyone hear me? Are the students who are studying still here? I couldn’t be sure how much time had passed while I was making my way through the maze of bookshelves.
“Concentrate.”
His whisper touched the tip of my nose. I was sure this was a trap Illestia had laid to try to trick me, but part of me felt like I might actually end up kissing him.
Illestia’s lips were now only a finger away from mine. The breath he exhaled leisurely mixed with mine. My toes curled, and my eyes squeezed shut—
“Are you expecting it?”
A laugh settled in my ears. In an instant, as he pulled away, everything went back to normal—the warm air, the rush of exhilaration. Only my pounding heart proved that something… had indeed happened. I hated being on the losing end of an argument, so I tried to reply, ‘What a bummer,’ but the words didn’t come out, probably because I was so tense.
“I have no patience and I am also greedy, so I have to take what I give. If I was really in love with you and called you by your nickname, why would you call me ‘Illestia’?”
There was no escape from Illestia’s logic. I admitted that I had been completely and utterly defeated.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t believe you, Ari. I’ll read the book first and then give it back.”
Even after my flimsy lie was exposed, he still called me ‘Ari’. To me, it felt like a warning of sorts. A warning not to try any more bullshit.
***
I didn’t know much about Keran Illestia until now, but now I know he’s a man who’s tenacious enough to search my dorm room for me on weekends. I assumed he was too busy with student government, but apparently he was not.
“Are you my stalker?”
I felt a sense of deja vu. I think I’ve said this before.
“You should say ‘watcher’, Ari.”
He was kind enough to correct my poor use of language. His attitude revealed his determination to do the things he had to do, whether he was fed up with them or not. Also, even though a few days had passed since we met at the library, he was still calling me by my nickname, and at this point, I was certain he was teasing me.
“I don’t care what you think, Keran. Following someone around without their consent is called ‘stalking’ in the rest of the world.”
So I decided to fight back. I wasn’t cut out to be a pushover, even if he was the impossibly handsome crown prince of the Holy Illestia Empire.
He had a look on his face that said he was dying of displeasure every time I said his name, but he forced himself to hold it back. It gave me a little euphoria, and I could now see why Kyle would go up to thirty-two verses of teasing every time.
“Okay then. What magic did you use?”
“What?”
“This book. I can’t read it at all, let alone what looks like cryptic text.”
Ah. Keran in the original world said something similar. He had said that the text was hard to read in “places where books are normally read,” and that was why he’d chosen a sword training ground.
When I think about it, it’s a strange story. It’s almost as if someone is trying to prevent us from reading the patch notes. Just like when I fell asleep as I tried to focus on Kyle and Blossom’s incomprehensible conversation.
Anyway, the important thing was that I had to read it, and I knew how to read it. I was already feeling overwhelmed by the thought of deciphering it alone, so there was no way I could refuse the help that came knocking on my door.
“I don’t know what kind of magic it was, but…
I deliberately paused. It was to arouse Illestia’s—no, Keran’s curiosity.
“I thought you said you couldn’t believe me.”
“What? That we were ‘passionate’? I don’t believe it. The other world, to some extent.”
“You believe in that?”
“At first I thought it was just Bishop Bailey’s prank, but your credentials are too clean for that. Thanks to you, I learned a little bit of information about you. The love letter you sent to Kyle’s older brother was a masterpiece.”
“Would you lose your memory if I hit you in the head right now?”
“Hmm… not recommended. You would lose your life before my memory.”
He smiled gracefully. I followed suit and pulled up the corners of my mouth.
“Anyway, I decided it had nothing to do with the Heathrond Holy Parish. Well, if someone had gone to such great lengths to deceive us, there would have been nothing I could have done to avoid being taken advantage of.”
“That’s unexpectedly refreshing.”
“Like my mother always said, it’s only natural for the strongest to rise to the top. Would you like to take a walk for a moment?”
Although a polite ending particle was used, Keran didn’t seem particularly inclined to listen to my opinion. I trailed a half-step behind him as he led the way.
“I’ve never thought of another world, but it has occurred to me that this one seems to exist for someone.”
“For someone?”
“I mean Flora. For her, this world is too…”
Keran hesitated for a moment to choose the right words.
“Too… generous.”
“I’m surprised. I can’t believe you would say that.”
“What, you didn’t think I’d notice because I was blinded by her?”
It was accurate. As if my expression were a sufficient answer, he laughed out loud. Looking at him this way, he looks like the Keran Illestia I know.
“I’m aware that I sometimes prioritize her over much more important things. That’s where I first felt the sense of discomfort.”
“It’s definitely not you.”
“The most emphasized thing in Illestia’s royal studies is the absence of unnecessary emotions. I… I’ll be honest… I never thought I’d be so stupid. I didn’t expect me to be so stupid. I was confused. Is that what love is supposed to be?”
There was something so ticklish about the word ‘love’ coming out of Keran’s mouth. I scratched my forearm exposed under the short-sleeved blouse.
“Once I realized that, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who became stupid. Bryce, Edgar, and Jaden… Even the Marquis acts like an idiot when she’s involved. So I checked, just like I did with you. Who the hell is Florence Bell?”
“Who was it?”
“It was nobody.”
It didn’t seem to mean that she was an insignificant person. The side of Keran Illestia’s face was perfectly proportioned, so much so that he sometimes looked like he had been chiselled from marble, all the more so when his expression was as rigid as a statue’s.
“There was nothing. And that’s not the same thing as having a clean identity as yours. Florence Belle didn’t exist until she entered Fitzsimmons Academy.”
“Is it possible she had another identity?”
According to Edgar, Miss Proctor, the fortune-telling instructor, was not really ‘Maeve Proctor’.
“Although it sounds like I’m bragging, Illestia’s intelligence is the best on the continent. I already know about the spies in the academy.”
Keran quickly shook his head, dismissing my opinion. It was annoying.
“One day, a person appears so suddenly, and the world moves as she wishes? I love Flora, perhaps, but that’s why I had to check further. And then you showed up. You said you were from another world…”
“….”
“Unlike Flora, you didn’t ‘come out of nowhere,’ so it’s hard to fully believe it, but… This is no ordinary book. Maybe it has something to do with the other world you mentioned.”
“Does that answer your question?” he added and gave me the <Patch Notes>. We were now walking side by side.
I wasn’t sure if he trusted me, but I was sure I could use him for my own purposes. So I said.
“Okay, follow me.”
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