The Lady is a Stalker

“It was better before. Why are you doing this? Have you decided to change the way you bully me? I feel like I’m becoming weird because of you. If you want to go crazy, you have to go crazy alone!”

 

He finished his sentence as if he were vomiting and took a deep breath to catch his breath. The crown prince, who had not even shed a drop of sweat even after walking around the training ground a hundred times, was now breathing heavily with his head down and exhaling. Her shoulder hurt from being held tightly, but she couldn’t say anything. She tried to go out as brazenly as usual, but she was so overwhelmed by his force that she couldn’t.

 

…What did she do? She looked back on her memories and tried to recall whether the new crown prince had ever bullied her so badly that she exploded like that… she didn’t know! The only part that stings was that she took advice and said some harsh words to the crown prince, but even that would have been a hundred or a thousand times better than what Princess Serabi usually did. However, seeing the crown prince, who was famous for his warm and kind heart, expressed such anger, he must have done something wrong without realizing it. She placed her hand on top of the prince’s hand, which was still trembling on her shoulder, and opened her mouth in a trembling voice. As soon as her hand touched the crown prince, he started to tremble as if he had touched a disgusting insect. It was a reaction that occurred unconsciously. But she didn’t force himself to shake off the hand she was holding. He seemed to know that the contact was not with sexual intent.

 

“I’m sorry…”

 

She didn’t know why she had to apologize, but she offered her apology in hopes that this situation would end quickly. But despite her apology, the crown prince lowered his head and said nothing. 

 

‘Do your thinking alone!’

 

She had no intention of interfering with his thoughts, but it was starting to become difficult to bear. She opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

 

“S-s, I feel like my bones are going to break…”

 

He was startled by her words and took his hand off her shoulder. The crown prince seemed to have been so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice that he had been holding her shoulder. The shoulder that had been grabbed by the crown prince throbbed with pain. ven though the Crown Prince was only fourteen years old, his grip strength far exceeded that of an adult man. She felt like she would let out a moan involuntarily because of the pain she felt even if she stayed still, but she didn’t want to show herself weak, so she gritted her teeth and swallowed the moan.

 

After facing the crown prince in silence for a while, the prince finally opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.

 

“…Do you remember?”

 

“…”

 

“The day you killed your first person.”

 

The crown prince’s face showed no emotion as he spoke about the events of that day. The look in his eyes was so cold that it was hard to believe that he was the same person who had been so angry and outbursts of emotion just moments ago. It was difficult to meet his dead eyes, so she lowered her head without saying a word. What led Princess Serabi to commit her first murder… What could I say, of course it’s because of the crown prince. The victim was the daughter-in-law of Sir Baekhan, whose name she couldn’t remember. The whole incident ended when Serabi, who misunderstood the relationship between her and the crown prince, rushed at her and pushed her into her arms. The Duke’s power destroyed the evidence and the case was treated as an accidental death, but it was a major incident that made the crown prince suffer from guilt for the rest of his life. After that incident, Princess Serabi became aware of her own feelings and began to become crazy obsessed with the crown prince. She used all possible means: kidnapping, confinement, violence, drugs… Although it failed several times.

 

The crown prince spoke with a deep sigh, as if all the hardships he had endured so far were condensed.

 

“That’s enough. I’ll listen to you this time. If I die because of you, I won’t chase after you even if I die.”

 

The crown prince who said those words looked very tired. He seemed like someone who had given up on something.

 

“…My subordinates say it seems like you have made a transformation. But I don’t trust you. Because people don’t change that easily.”

 

“No matter what you do, I will never like you.

 

“Hey.”

 

Those words somehow sounded like a promise the crown prince was making to himself rather than something he was saying to her.

 

“…”

 

She thought it was fortunate that it was her and not Princess Seravi. She, who could safely be considered a third party, felt depressed even when she heard this, but if Princess Serabi heard these words from the crown prince she loved, she would not be able to live any longer. After keeping his mouth shut for a long time, not knowing what to answer, the crown prince sighed and took his steps.

 

“…Excuse me first.”

 

Just like that, the crown prince disappeared, leaving me alone in the hospital room. She was left alone in the hospital room where the crown prince had left, lost in thought. In this world, there were things that could be forgiven and there were things that couldn’t be forgiven. What Princess Seravi committed was one of the latter. Moreover, there was no way in this world that the sad prince would forgive Serabi, who was so crazy about him that he even committed her murder.

 

If the crown prince ever liked Serabi, or even her at all, it could only be said to be a miracle.

 

* * *

 

From that day on, the crown prince appeared at every meal as promised. Although it was a promise that was made with a bit of a trick, the crown prince kept even such an insignificant promise. That didn’t mean their relationship got any better. In fact, a colder wind blew than before. In the first place, Prince Raven did not have a personality so harsh that he could push away anyone who approached him with favor. However, he felt like a great contradiction had arisen within the crown prince because of what Serabi had done to try to be friendly to him. Even if he tried to see her again, he seemed to think that he shouldn’t because of himself, or more precisely, out of guilt for the people who were sacrificed because of Princess Serabi. Although the contents belonged to a completely different person, there was no way the crown prince would know about it, and she had no intention of explaining her situation in detail to the crown prince at the risk of being treated as a mentally ill person. It would have been easier if he just did as he pleased, but the crown prince was too moral to do that. So from that day on, she didn’t even pretend to approach the crown prince anymore.

 

No matter how much he didn’t like ‘her’, there’s no way he wouldn’t be hurt if he openly criticizes her because he didn’t like her. No matter how much she approached him with a pure and innocent heart, not only was he not the prince that she could trust, but it only made him suffer more. In fact, it would be correct to say that she was now in a state of half-giving up. Now that she knew that he hated her so much, he was wasting his time telling her to do whatever she wanted out of frustration. Just like that, she was living his life indifferent to the crown prince, as if he was not there.

 

It was a holiday that came after a long time. Because a lot of things happened, she somehow felt like she had to make the most of this holiday. She went out early in the morning, avoiding the eyes of the servants. In principle, when a noble went out, there always seemed to be two or three servants around, but since she liked to be alone, she didn’t like having people around. Instead, in order not to reveal that he was a nobleman, he came out wearing a hood that covered his face.

 

First of all, she was planning to go to a tea shop that she always noticed on her way to and from work. She would stop by the bookstore and look around a bit, and since she had work now, she would buy the ingredients she needed for cooking and then come back. Thinking like that, she was humming a song and walking around excitedly, which was unusual for her. At that time, she heard a loud sound coming from somewhere and she stopped in her tracks and looked in that direction.

 

A loud noise was made when a child hit a moving carriage.

 

“You damn commoner!”

 

A man who appeared to be a nobleman got out of the carriage and started kicking at the child lying on the floor. The kicks were full of nerves. Given the circumstances, it seemsed like they hit first, but why were they getting angry? Anyway, you’ve had a hard time doing ‘noble’s work’ since morning. With that thought in mind, she tried to continue on her way. She was not on the side of justice. If you look at his personality alone, she was close to a villain. Although she didn’t kill people like Princess Seravi, she wasn’t the type to tolerate injustice like Prince Raven. Rather, she found it annoying to be involved in such matters. Therefore, when she tried to ignore it and turn her head.

 

Even if a commoner child hadn’t run up to me and grabbed her and looked up at her like he was looking at a rope of salvation.

 

“Um, please help me…”

 

“…”

 

She looked down into those earnest eyes. Before she knew it, the driver who was escorting the carriage approached and looked at her and the commoner boy in turn. Even if she were wearing a hood, her facial expressions and silver hair would not make her look like a commoner. However, she did not look like a high-ranking nobleman. Unlike there, there wasn’t a single knight or servant accompanying him.

 

The knight who was looking at me opened his mouth.

 

“Do you know this guy?”

 

“This is a kid I know. What happened?”

 

“Really?”

 

After sighing a little internally, she finally answered while hiding the commoner child behind her. She wasn’t a righteous person, but she was not so vicious that she could ignore it, even though she was told to save her life.

 

“Please pass it this way.”

 

“Why? If it’s because of an accident, I’ve been watching since a while ago, and it looks like they hit him first. If you can, just ignore it.”

 

“I don’t think that will work. The Baron has always been complaining that she feels bad because that commoner child has the same hair color as hers.”

 

“Haa.”

 

She let out a light exclamation as if she understood. Right. What a ridiculous cavil. He probably caused the carriage accident intentionally.

 

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Translator Note: