The Lady is a Stalker

As she was hit by the cool breeze, she could feel her eyes slowly closing. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt something approaching her from behind. It was too bothersome to open her eyes, so she pricked up her ears and focused only on the sound of footsteps. The person who discovered her was startled and stopped walking.

 

The owner of the footsteps, who she thought would leave any moment, froze in place as if he had seen a ghost. She was feeling sleepy, but she wished they would just disappear instead of arguing. Contrary to her wishes, the footsteps stopped for a while and then came closer. Then it stopped right at her bedside. And she felt a piercing gaze looking down at her from right above. The gaze was so intense that she felt as if her face was tingling. It seemed like he was probably someone who really disliked her.

 

Since she was in a situation where she was so hated, there were too many reasons to point out, which was a problem. She felt a sense of death so strong that she thought she was going to be murdered, and she slowly opened her eyes.

 

“…”

 

‘What, you’re the crown prince.’

 

For some reason, she thought it had a special power. When their eyes met, she saw his golden eyes widen in surprise as he stood against the sky. Yesterday, she got kicked out for joking, and it was still awkward to meet face to face. But why was he staring into the face of a sleeping person? When she blinked with a puzzled expression, the crown prince stiffened and reflexively took a step back, as if he had finally come to his senses. Then he looked at her with a wary expression. It seemed like he was on guard because he probably guessed that she was going to do something to him.

 

She didn’t follow him, and strictly speaking, the one who came close was the crown prince. She understood that he was reflexively wary when he saw her, as the crown prince had also been wronged, but she couldn’t help but feel that it was unfair to her if she was misunderstood so deliberately. When she didn’t rush at him like usual, didn’t look at him, or did anything, he cautiously let down his guard… was he a small animal? She felt somewhat shocked by that reaction.

 

This little guy has a lot of doubts. What was he going to do? He hesitated and then muttered in a low voice.

 

“…I thought you were dead.”

 

Today, she heard many times that she looked like a corpse. But, to her, who was perplexed by the outward expression of the Crown Prince’s wish that she be dead, the Crown Prince’s words, ‘I thought you were dead,’ were not a concern for her, but more like a scolding, ‘If you die here, who will clean up your body?’ she heard it. But unfortunately, she had no intention of satisfying his wish.

 

She answered blankly, without even turning her gaze towards the crown prince, who was looking at her with distrustful eyes.

 

“If you starve for a day… a person will not die…”

 

“What…? Ah.”

 

The crown prince asked her back what she said as if she was talking nonsense, but then he let out a small exclamation as if he remembered what had happened yesterday. The crown prince, who had been pondering for a while with his brow furrowed, cautiously opened his mouth.

 

“…Were you really doing such a useless thing?”

 

The crown prince who spoke those words had a much calmer expression on his face than when she last saw him.  He seemed to be thinking for a moment about the possibility that she was actually worried about him. However, after finishing his thoughts and shaking his head, his face immediately became cold again. In any case, the answer had already been given within the crown prince. The crown prince’s distrust of her was not a wall that could be easily broken down like this. Even if it were her, she would definitely think that he had some ulterior motive. Anyway, since there was nothing left for her to do now, she thought that the crown prince would soon leave and closed her eyes again. Even after a while, she didn’t hear the sound of them taking steps again. When she opened her eyes again to his surprise, she saw him still looking down at her with his arms crossed. He had an uncomfortable expression on his face, as if he were wearing clothes that didn’t fit. She sighed inwardly. What on earth made that guy so upset?

 

“I heard that you received an extra uniform from Damian. I never thought you would actually wear it.”

 

“I told you I would correct myself.”

 

She spoke with a slightly dissatisfied face at the prince’s unexpected words. In the military, they kept giving her bad treatment for wearing dresses, so she wondered what bothered her again this time. But when she looked at him for the first time, a faint smile appeared on his lips. What, why was it like that?

 

“Not long ago, you said that you, a nobleman, could wear such shabby clothes. You said they don’t fit your aesthetic standards. Why did you suddenly change your mind?”

 

Feeling like the conversation was going to be long, she slowly got up from the floor of the training hall. If what she felt earlier was correct, the crown prince was fighting her. Until now, although the Crown Prince had disliked Princess Seravi, he had always ignored her, and he never spoke to her first, as if he were just going to start a fight without any business, like now. It was a wise choice by the Crown Prince, who realized that mixing words would only cause stress.

 

She couldn’t figure out why he suddenly changed his attitude on such a topic. Did he feel like he wanted to touch her because he was being ignored? He told her to correct herself, so she just listened. She didn’t even want to receive praise in the first place, but it felt like her poor boss was constantly picking on her even though she did a good job. There was no one here who would laugh at her for insulting her. So she couldn’t gain any benefit. The more they talked, the more the prince’s mood would deteriorate. But for him to say this to her… In short, she could only think of it as the crown prince’s anger. He seemed to be letting his emotions take precedence over reason. This was an uncharacteristic behavior for a man who was said to be wise and cool-headed.

 

She couldn’t know the prince’s inner thoughts, but she felt like he was a child who desperately wanted attention by arguing with someone who was still. Since he was an opponent with nothing good to gain from fighting, she tried to ignore his hostile words as much as possible, but if he started arguing so openly, she couldn’t just continue to ignore him like he was now.

 

“What are you complaining about?”

 

“What am I?”

 

In response to her question, the crown prince even tilted his head with an expression as if he truly knew nothing. He didn’t seem to notice how much of a jerk he was being. He even seemed a little amused, though maybe it was her imagination. The crown prince probably didn’t want to get personally involved with her. She was curious as to what the crown prince’s intention was, taking time out of his busy schedule to argue with her when he had no one else to point out.

 

“You usually don’t care what my clothes are like.”

 

It was described in the novel that the crown prince had never given Princess Seravi a cold look until now. Whether she is beautiful or not beautiful… Even so, since he was a man, if he was exposed, he would usually attract more attention, but for some reason, the way he was wrapped up tightly seemed to be attracting the crown prince’s attention more. Children of that age would be at the age when their curiosity was at its peak. Could it be that he was not interested in women? No, it could be that she was young and didn’t know anything. In response to her question, the crown prince asked back as if he was frustrated.

 

“You’ve never acted with my attention. No matter what I said, you didn’t even pretend to listen…”

 

“…”

 

“Now you can’t pretend to listen to me, pretend to care about me, tell pretentious lies, then suddenly change your behavior and say you don’t have any intentions, right? Tell me what kind of dirty intentions you have.”

 

The crown prince opened his mouth as if he were talking quietly, but as he spoke more and more, he ended it as if he was angry. He somehow seemed angrier now than when Serabi had come into his bedroom.

 

“‘What are your intentions? What are your intentions?’ I’m not planning anything. What on earth are you misunderstanding?”

 

The crown prince asked sharply at her answer, saying it was unfair.

 

“You really don’t have any ulterior motives? So you’re trying to tell me that you just wanted to cook, so you went into a kitchen you’ve never been in before, and you’ve never worn anything other than a dress before, but suddenly you changed your mind and wanted to wear a uniform?”

 

“Yes. I suddenly changed my mind.”

 

“…”

 

In response to her answer, the crown prince stopped what he was about to say and looked at her with his mouth open and a puzzled expression on his face. It may be a bit shameless, but she had nothing else to say other than this answer. Even if she told the crown prince that the contents had turned into a person from another world overnight, there was no way he would believe her, and if she was caught, she would definitely be taken to the magic tower and used as a research subject. That didn’t mean she was a smart enough person to suddenly come up with a believable lie. Moreover, it seemed like the crown prince was anxious to catch her tail. If he found even the slightest contradiction in her words, he would bite and not miss it. 

 

In that case, the best answer was to simply say that she changed her mind without making a fuss. And why should she not pay attention to the crown prince? Even for the crown prince’s subordinates, no matter how informally the crown prince treats them, they inevitably have no choice but to keep an eye on the crown prince, who is their superior. She added to the prince who was still standing blankly.

 

“…And it’s natural for me to keep an eye on Lord Raven. Because I want to look good to Your Majesty.”

 

In fact, there was a separate reason why she had to impress the crown prince, but didn’t Princess Serabi passionately admire the crown prince?

 

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Translator Note: