Since When Were You The Villain?

Chapter 63.

 

“You should wear one too, lady.”

“Me?”

“Then are you planning to wear it at tomorrow’s ball?”

When Mikhail turned his words back on her, Sophia burst into laughter.

“Oh, come on. We should wear them now.”

Unlike Mihail, Sophia wasn’t embarrassed by such things.

Without hesitation, Sophia pressed the pink rabbit hat onto her head.

“How does it look?”

“It suits you better than I thought. But wait, there’s a strand of hair sticking out for a moment…”

As Mikhail gazed at Sophia wearing the rabbit hat, he cautiously reached out his hand.

His fingertips tidied up the errant strand of hair that was poking out from under the hat.

A white finger brushed against her forehead, and a soft, sweet fragrance emanated from his wrist.

“It’s fine now. You look really beautiful.”

“Beautiful, you say?”

Sophia extended her head slightly and looked at the mirror that Mikhail had looked at earlier.

Inside the mirror, she saw Mikhail wearing the bear hat and herself wearing the rabbit hat.

Side by side, wearing animal hats, they looked rather good just like that.

‘I wonder how Killian would look wearing a hat like this.’

A bear hat? No, maybe a rabbit hat would be quite cute.

As she was lost in her thoughts, Sophia suddenly snapped back to reality, widening her eyes.

‘Why am I thinking about Killian again?’

Here was such a handsome young man right in front of her, Mikhail.

Wasn’t this the time to enjoy the moments with the original male lead, who had come all the way here?

“Well, what should we do now?”

At that moment, Mikhail smiled brightly and asked what they should do next.

It seemed he wanted to spend a bit more time with Sophia, even after the dart game.

‘Right. I need to get a hold of myself.’

It felt like her thoughts were getting carried away due to romance clichés.

Otherwise, how could she possibly fall in love with a serial killer?

With strong determination, Sophia had to fix the button she had wrongly fastened.

This might be an episode where the novel’s god arranged for her to experience a romance other than Killian.

“Come to think of it, Lady probably hasn’t been to this kind of festival much.”

Sophia nodded her head.

“Is there something you’d like to do?”

Of course, there was!

“Eating skewers.”

Sophia answered without a second thought.

“Skewers?”

“It’s said that during the Founding Festival, you must eat skewers.”

“Haha, who says that?”

“I read it in a book.”

In the world of romance novels, there were precisely two symbols of festivals.

One was fireworks, and the other was the skewers sold on the streets!

Not eating skewers at a festival was like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower, or going to Vietnam and not eating pho.

(Pho is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat.)

“Sounds good. Shall we go buy some skewers?”

In response to Mikhail’s question, Sophia eagerly nodded her head.

With their animal hats still on, the two of them walked side by side down the street.

Reflecting the genre’s characteristics as a romance fantasy novel, there were skewer stalls scattered throughout the street.

From common chicken skewers to sausage skewers, fruit skewers like tanghulu, affordable spice-sprinkled lamb skewers, vegetable and mushroom skewers—various types of skewers were visible.

(Tang hulu, also called bingtang hulu, is a traditional Northern Chinese snack consisting of several rock sugar-coated fruits of Chinese hawthorn on a bamboo skewer.)

At this point, skewers could be considered one of the empire’s representative traditional festival foods.

“Which skewers do you like?”

“Well… that’s a really tough question. I want to try them all.”

Sophia, who was just laughing moments ago, suddenly turned serious.

“Then let’s try them all.”

Mikhail reassured her and led her to a nearby skewer stall.

The first stall they encountered was a chicken skewer stall.

On the grill, faint smoke rose as rows of glistening chicken skewers lay.

The appetizing smell wafted in all directions, along with the smoke from the grill.

The culinary industry seemed to have developed quite well here, as there were three different flavours of skewers available.

“I remember you liked spicy last time…”

Mikhail recalled her preferences from their meal with Killian.

“I do, I like spicy!”

“Do you want to try another flavour?”

“If we buy several skewers here, I might get too full to eat the others later.”

“Haha, you’ve got it all planned out, lady.”

“Of course. I already have such a small stomach; if I don’t strategically fill up, I’ll miss out on the delicious stuff later and be sad.”

Determination seemed to radiate from Sophia’s expression, adding an air of resolve to her stance.

Seeing her ready-for-battle appearance, Mikhail found himself smiling again.

It seems like whenever we’re together, I can’t help but smile.’

Whether it was last time or today, Sophia had this knack for putting people’s hearts at ease.

Her clarity of intention and her lively, unpredictable nature were incredibly charming.

“Well then, let’s get one spicy chicken skewer and explore other options for the rest.”

Mikhail bought two chicken skewers and handed one to Sophia.

Seeing the reddish-hued chicken skewer, Sophia’s cheeks bloomed round and plump with happiness.

“This was my dream!”

“It’s an honour to help fulfil Lady Sophia’s dream.”

“It’s really you who helped fulfil my dream. By the way, since you’ve been paying for everything, from now on, I’ll buy the next skewer!”

Sophia held one chicken skewer in her hand and led the way.

Right next to them was a stall with skewers of sausages, leeks, mushrooms, zucchinis, tomatoes, and various vegetables.

Since these skewers didn’t have distinct flavours, Sophia rifled through her wallet to calculate the cost before Mikhail could pay.

“I was going to pay for it…”

Mikhail felt apologetic for not stopping Sophia’s quick calculations.

Even though he was a crown prince, he couldn’t take advantage of his younger brother’s fiancée and his lady’s position to get things for free.

“Buying and eating skewers like this was also a part of my dream.”

Sophia took a bite of the chicken skewer, making sure to speak in a way that wouldn’t embarrass Mikhail.

A piece of chicken skewer with a shiny sauce on it tore off tenderly. The sauce had a sweet and spicy flavour, making it truly delicious.

There were crispy parts on the surface where the sauce had caramelized excessively, and those were also a delight.

“How’s the taste?”

“Satisfied, very satisfied. The chicken is so tender, almost like duck meat. How can it be this delicious?”

Sophia wrinkled her nose as she savoured the chicken.

With her eyebrows furrowed, and her expression seemingly upset, anyone would think she was angry.

Mikhail looked at Sophia, who was moved by a piece of chicken skewer while wearing a rabbit hat, and raised an eyebrow.

Perhaps it was the pink rabbit hat, but Sophia, nibbling on the chicken skewer and wrinkling her nose, looked incredibly cute.

Watching her, his mood also improved.

After the sausage skewer, they collected various kinds of skewers, like lamb skewers, shrimp skewers, olive cheese skewers, skewers alternating between pork and vegetables, strawberry skewers, and more.

Before they knew it, Sophia had a plentiful assortment of skewers in her hand.

“Maybe I was too greedy…”

Sophia murmured while looking at the skewers in her hand.

The skewers in her hand could almost cover her face.

Of course, the nature of the skewer makes it look more than the amount, but Sophia remembered that her stomach was always smaller than expected.

“It does seem like a lot.”

Mikhail looked at Sophia, who was holding skewers like a bouquet.

Because she was so petite, the skewers looked even larger in her hands.

Her round green eyes, with a piece of mozzarella cheese between her teeth and her cheeks slightly puffed out, reminded him of a herbivore.

‘She’s like a herbivore.’

With the rabbit hat on her head and holding the large skewers like a bouquet, Sophia looked as cute as if she had jumped out of a fairy tale.

“Since it’s inconvenient to eat on the street, shall we go to the park? There should be a place to sit and eat comfortably.”

“Sounds good.”

Sophia nodded, and the pink ears on her rabbit hat swayed lightly as she did so.

The two of them walked out of the bustling food alley and headed towards the park.

As they moved away from the centre of the festival, the surroundings started to feel a bit quieter.

That’s when it happened.

“My fiancée, who hasn’t been in touch at all, is here, I see.”

A familiar voice reached them from behind.

Startled, Sophia turned her head and saw Killian, dressed in a military police uniform, patrolling the streets. He was standing there like a solid presence.

“Killian!”

Sophia froze, the skewer in her hand suspended mid-air.

It had been almost a month since they last met.

And Killian, whom she hadn’t seen for a while, looked even more handsome than she remembered.

Were his eyes always this deep?

And why were his shoulders so broad and straight again?

His pitch-black hair sways unrealistically, as if made of silk, in the breeze. At that moment, Killian lightly placed his hand on her shoulder and slightly bowed his head.

In an instant, their faces were closer, revealing his sharp jawline as he looked down, his red eyes fixed on Sophia.

The scent that wafted from him, hitting her all at once, made Sophia’s heartbeat faster.

The girl who had been quiet and well-behaved while being with Mikhail now seemed to create a fuss just from Killian’s appearance.

She had lived well all this time without seeing his face, missing him, or wanting to see him.

As Sophia held her breath, Killian’s red lips swiftly plucked one of the roasted cherry tomatoes from the skewer before she could react.

Casually chewing on the tomato, he looked at Sophia.

Her heart seemed unusually agitated today, causing her chest to thump for no apparent reason.

Just then, Mikhail smiled and spoke up, breaking the tension.

“Killian, you were on duty, huh? Is the military police commander himself patrolling?”

Killian’s gaze turned towards Mikhail; his expression slightly surprised. “Mikhail, you’re here too?”

Mikhail shrugged playfully. “Well, it’s a festival. Even the busy shop owners get a break, you know?”

Kilian chuckled lightly. “I suppose you’re right. It’s good to see you both enjoying yourselves.”

Sophia’s heart was still racing, a mix of Killian’s unexpected presence and Mikhail’s easygoing manner. She managed a smile, feeling a bit flustered by the situation.

‘Right. Why is Killian here?’

Indeed, in modern times, isn’t it absurd for the police military commander to be patrolling?

Translator note: Guys these days I am a bit busy so the update will be a little slow. Please bear with it my dear readers

 

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TRANSLATOR:

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