The Lady is a Stalker

She said that, but in reality, her heart wasn’t okay at all. When he lost her temper, he hated her to the point where he thoughtlessly tried to kill her. How long had it been since she was hated by someone like this? Even during the war, and even now that she became Princess Serabi, being hated was common, but she still couldn’t get used to it. Even if she was stabbed a thousand times, it still hurt. She thought she had no expectations from the crown prince.

 

She said in a voice that seemed painful as the crown prince grabbed he by the collar as he was about to turn around.

 

“…I won’t kill you.”

 

“…”

 

“There are times when I hate you so much that I want to kill you, but I still won’t kill you.”

 

“…”

 

“I won’t. I won’t kill you. I won’t kill you…”

 

The crown prince barely held on to his collar with trembling hands, lowered his head, and repeated those words in a watery voice. He sounded more like a promise to himself than to her. Or it could have been something he said to the monster inside him. Inside the crown prince, there existed a monster that hated her very much. It’s probably something called ‘trauma’ that pops up as soon as reason disappears. Even when the crown prince lost his mind, he only tried to kill her. Not the elf child they met for the first time today or the elf god she was clashing with with all her might, but her who stayed still. Perhaps the most honest reaction came because she lost her temper. Maybe he tried what he wanted to do the most. Any way you looked at it, it seemed dangerous to stick next to him any longer.

 

* * *

 

The elven god sent her and the prince out of his territory, saying he had something to talk about with the elven child. After finishing his binge, the prince seemed to have fainted again and fell asleep, so she was alone. While she was looking at a strange stream of water climbing a tree that she couldn’t see in real life,she heard someone approaching from behind. It was Prince Raven.

 

He made eye contact with her, hesitated for a long time without saying anything, and then opened his mouth with difficulty.

 

“…I want to apologize for what happened earlier.”

 

When he mentioned what happened earlier, he seemed to be referring to the time when the crown prince lost his temper and tried to kill her. But it’s not just a day or two that the crown prince disliked her. It was funny that now he was apologizing for almost killing her. It’s just that he lost his sense of reason and ended up expressing it in an extreme way, but his feelings of contempt and hatred for her were the same as before and now. He was just under the illusion that she was the only one who had improved a little.

 

“Why are you apologizing now? Haven’t you continued to blatantly despise me?”

 

The crown prince trembled at her words.

 

“I did that because I didn’t know you! Now I don’t think that way at all. Rather, I…”

 

She made a dumbfounded look at the crown prince’s answer, and then cut him off and said in a bewildered voice.

 

“You’ve been with me for 14 years and yet you don’t know me?”

 

“Because you keep acting strangely! How could I have approached you because I was scared!”

 

Were the things that Princess Serabi did to the crown prince something that could barely be described as ‘strange behavior’?

 

“If a good guy does something bad even once, he is criticized as a bad guy, but if a bad guy does something good even just once, he is treated as a good guy when you get to know him. Even though you did that to me, what kind of person are you? I don’t know.”

 

Her teeth gritted at his pitiful thoughts. She already knew his true feelings. What kind of apology was that to someone who hated her so much? It felt absolutely disgusting. If he hated her, just let her hate him too. He hated her to death, but he didn’t want to be hated? What was it? It’s twice as cruel. As she continued to react hostilely to the Crown Prince’s apology, he frowned and said in frustration.

 

“Why are you listening to me so crookedly? If you’re dissatisfied with me, tell me!”

 

“I have no complaints.”

 

“Don’t lie, you’re suddenly being so cold to me and you’re saying you have no complaints?”

 

“Then would you like me to go back to how it was before? To be crazy obsessed and clingy like a psychopath, that’s what you want?”

 

He looked at her with eyes that saw something very foreign and unfamiliar. His eyes were trembling, filled with confusion.

 

“Why has it suddenly changed like that? Is there a reason?”

 

“It’s just that. I just thought I couldn’t live like this forever.”

 

The crown prince was silent for a long time after hearing what she said. He hesitated for a while and finally opened his mouth.

 

“What the hell are you doing to me?”

 

‘Do you like me?’

 

Perhaps that was the last word the crown prince failed to say.

 

“Serabii-.”

 

At that time, an elf child came up from behind and hugged her legs. The timing was unfortunate. This was her chance to say she didn’t like him anymore and leave cleanly.

 

Heaving a weary sigh, the prince disappeared back the way he came, leaving her and the elf child alone. The elf child, who had been looking at her stiff face for a while, grabbed her collar tightly and said with a serious expression.

 

“I think that guy will eventually kill Serabi someday.”

 

“…”

 

“I’m not a prophet, so I can’t necessarily say that’s the case, but I can read minds. I can predict people’s future to a certain extent. For Serabi’s sake, I’ll give you some advice. It’s best to get as far away from that guy as soon as possible.”

 

She was already thinking of doing that. Since an elf child who could read people’s minds spoke with such confidence, she felt even more inclined to distance herself from the prince.

 

* * *

 

Leaving behind the words, ‘I’ll go see you after the coming-of-age ceremony,’ the elf child returned to his village.

 

‘Ah, now that I think about it, I don’t even know his name yet.’

 

Still, he was the person she once thought about marrying, but he sent her away without even telling her his name. It was truly a pity. Because they had parted ways at the end, she was reluctant to see the crown prince’s face, so she spoke to the second-in-command and received about a month to leave. She had calculated that by the end of the vacation, the crown prince would have forgotten about their argument. She also wrote down the resignation letter she would submit at that time.

 

Tired of lounging around at home, I was now at the national library, the largest in the empire. It was when she was sitting in an empty chair and reading a book about magic whose meaning she could not possibly understand.

 

“Serabi?”

 

When she heard someone’s voice calling her, she just shifted her eyes and looked at the owner of the voice. He was wearing his hood down as if he didn’t want to be noticed, but she could tell his identity right away. For some reason, she was very excited when she heard his voice after a long time. Looks like something good happened.

 

When the crown prince called her in an excited voice, the eyes of the people who were reading books around her instantly turned to this direction.

 

“Keep your voice down. It’s a public place.”

 

“…”

 

She didn’t know what expression he was making because more than half of his face was covered by the hood, but the crown prince kept his mouth shut as if he didn’t like something about her reaction. She thought he would soon disappear somewhere else, but surprisingly, the crown prince sat down next to her. If this continues, she would be mistaken for a member of the same group.

 

She quietly turned her back on the prince and tried to focus on the book. She was trying to focus on her book and waiting for him to return, but instead of returning, he started talking to her as if they had been in the group from the beginning.

 

The prince, who had been quiet, spoke in a low voice and said something unexpected.

 

“…I want to know how to control the power of the dragon.”

 

“It would be impossible.”

 

She answered firmly without taking her eyes off the book she was reading. At her answer, she felt the crown prince open his mouth and stare at her. Has he completely forgotten about the fight they had in the forest? She didn’t know the prince’s intention in suddenly telling her such a serious story, but even at the end of the novel, the prince was unable to fully control the dragon’s magical power. By the end of the novel, the Crown Prince was 20 years old, so there was no way that he, who was only 14, could fully use the dragon’s magic.

 

The crown prince, who was unaware of this situation, spoke angrily at her remark, which seemed to be ignoring him.

 

“Don’t be so assertive. I’m serious. If I lose my sense of reason, I won’t be myself again.”

 

“It’s an instinct.”

 

“…”

 

This time, she answered without looking up from the book. The crown prince, who had hesitated for a while at her firm words, opened his mouth again just as she was falling back into the book. His voice was trembling, as if he was scared of something.

 

“…Even if that happens, if the same situation happens again, I might hurt you again, and I don’t want that…”

 

Even though he knew that it was impossible, the crown prince spoke in a panic. For the first time, the crown prince felt like a child her own age. It was only then that she turned her gaze from her book and glanced towards the crown prince when she heard that pitiful voice. Why on earth did he have such a pained expression? When the Crown Prince found out that her shoulder was damaged because of him, he made a similar expression. Should she just say straight up, ‘I’ll leave you soon, so there’s no need to try to control your power.’ Or would it be better to pat and comfort this little child whose face is suffering from self-reproach? No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with an answer, so she decided to just focus on the book she was reading.

 

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Translator Note: