The Lady is a Stalker

“…sorry.”

 

“It’s okay. Now it’s nothing new.”

 

The crown prince let out a sigh and turned away from her. Although she said there was nothing to worry about, the crown prince could not hear her and was very upset. He looked down at the floor without saying anything for a while, catching his breath, and then spoke again in a calm voice.

 

“I’ll keep my promise to take you home. And…?”

 

The crown prince, who continued speaking, suddenly bent his back. He picked up an ordinary rock rolling around on the floor. She watched his actions curiously.

 

He suddenly looked at her, his golden eyes shining. He suddenly stiffened his body reflexively with a sense of death that sent goosebumps all over his body, but the place where the crown prince’s eyes shined was not at her but behind her back. Before she knew it, the winged monster that was targeting her was screaming. The body of the monster pierced by the stone was strangely distorted. The monster screamed in pain, spurted blood from its entire body, and immediately fell down the cliff.

 

…she opened her mouth slightly and looked at that unusual sight. Goosebumps appeared all over her body.

 

“…Even without magical power, I am the strongest. I have enough power to protect you.”

 

No matter how you look at the prince, who was expressionless and covered in demon blood, he did not appear to be on the side of justice. Maybe the most dangerous thing wasn’t something like a monster… As her thoughts reached that point, she felt cold sweat running down her back.

 

‘Hmm, maybe I just made a huge mistake…’

 

“Your Highness.”

 

“What?”

 

She was going to call him ‘Raven’ as usual, but she felt a sense of distance, so she changed the title to an honorific title. The crown prince, still offended, answered in a grumbling voice.

 

“You’re human, right?”

 

At her question, the crown prince looked down at her with a cold expression. His face looked like he was asking if that was a question.

 

‘Umm. I thought we had become closer, but once again, it feels like we’ve become hundreds of light years away.’

 

“I made a mistake. Please forget it.”

 

It was a desperate effort to change the atmosphere in her own way. The crown prince seemed to feel even more depressed at her slip of the tongue. She was asking in a positive way when she asked if he was human… As expected, she was very bad at pleasing other people. She opened her mouth once more to change the cold atmosphere.

 

“Um… You were just trying to throw that at me… No, no.”

 

The more she spoke, the more she felt that the prince’s energy was changing unusually, so she hurriedly summarized her words. Looking at the prince’s evil eyes, she somehow felt thatshe should not hear an answer. By the way, it felt like the crown prince himself was overusing the word ‘strongest’. Did he like it? She wanted to ask, but the prince was in a crawling mood right now. After two years in the workforce, her intuition was telling her not to talk nonsense to her boss. She gave up trying to change the mood any further.

 

“Let’s stay at the Empty Dragon Lair today. It would be dangerous to move at night.”

 

Although the crown prince tried to hide it, he still had complicated-looking eyes. She gathered the piles of old maps, old books, and banknotes that were in the dragon lair and lit them on fire with a matchstick. It was probably an item of value beyond imagination, but since she had no particular material desires, she just decided to burn it coolly. The crown prince did not try to stop her or explain the value contained in the old treasure. She sat down against the wall and just silently stared at the fire she had lit. As she was thinking about this, she remembered the time she met an elf before. Back then, just like today, she spent a night in a cave with the crown prince. As she continued to think like that in a daze, she found herself peacefully falling asleep before she knew it. She had already forgotten that the crown prince was angry. She was dozing off in the temporarily peaceful atmosphere, and the crown prince, who had been staring blankly at the crackling bonfire for a while, suddenly started talking as if muttering to himself.

 

“…My mother.”

 

“…Cough!”

 

Because of the prince suddenly throwing out such a huge topic, she suddenly lost sleep and her body became stiff. Well, she had no choice but to react sensitively because she made a mistake earlier when she came in with the blinker on. She didn’t think the crown prince ever opened up about his mother even once in the original work. That’s why she forgot until now.

 

She pretended to put firewood in and glanced at the prince’s expression. The crown prince had an expression on his face that seemed to show no emotion for someone who was talking about his mother’s death. She was the only one confused by that topic.

 

The crown prince stared at the lit bonfire in silence for a while and then sighed.

 

“…Officially, it is said that she died of lung disease, but in reality, she was murdered. It was poisoning.”

 

It was a fact she already knew. But she pretended not to notice and turned her head away. If the crown prince had always been quick-witted, he might have noticed her awkward reaction and become suspicious, but fortunately, the prince didn’t seem to be particularly interested in her reaction. He just needed a place to vent his feelings.

 

“…She was a person who could not be called a good parent even with empty words. I had three brothers whose faces I did not know, and they all died while being used as mother’s chess pieces.”

 

“…”

 

“But she was trying to be a good parent to me. I really thought she was trying to make me emperor because she loved me. No, I knew, but I didn’t want to believe it. God’s blessing to the empire, a genius and all. In front of me, she used all kinds of rhetoric and spoke passionately about why I should succeed to the throne… She called me a monster behind my back. Hehe, she said she gave birth to me, but it was really creepy. I just worked hard to satisfy her expectations. I wasn’t born like this because I wanted to.”

 

As he said that, the crown prince smiled slightly. But anyone could tell that he wasn’t laughing because he was really happy. He sounded like he was making fun of himself. His smile must be because he thinks that his talent that overwhelms his situation is a blessing. Being born with talent was like being deprived of something from the beginning. And what the crown prince was deprived of was being loved by his parents, learning what he didn’t know, and living together with people.

 

The crown prince, who was smiling, suddenly lost his pessimistic expression. He returned with a calm expression on his face and spoke in a low voice.

 

“Actually, you were afraid of me. You asked me earlier if I was a human, right? Aren’t you saying the same thing as my mother?”

 

“I am…”

 

As she opened her mouth to say something, the crown prince slowly turned his head and looked into her eyes. His eyes were full of resentment. Was it towards her, or was it towards his already dead mother? No matter what she said to him now, he wouldn’t hear anything. Still, she spoke in a voice filled with resentment. My fist was clenched so tightly that it turned completely white.

 

“I… I have never thought that way.”

 

“Don’t keep coming back to me. I’m… Who do you think killed my mother?”

 

As she was about to argue, the crown prince cut her off and asked so.

 

“…I do not know.”

 

There was no way she could have known that part because it wasn’t even in the book. But what was certain was that she knew more than others, but what she knew was not everything. There was actually a backstory to the story about Serabi entering the crown prince’s bedroom and being kicked out, but she couldn’t find out the parts that weren’t written in detail in the novel.

 

“It’s me.”

 

“…”

 

“I know who poisoned my mother’s teacup. I witnessed the crucial scene with my own eyes. But I didn’t say anything to my mother. I didn’t try to find out who was behind it, and I have no intention of punishing that person. Honestly, I’m grateful. It touched my heart. If someone hadn’t poisoned my mother’s teacup, I could have killed her.”

 

It was clear what the crown prince’s intention was in saying these words to her. What was the reason for revealing to her his private history that he had not revealed throughout his life, and perhaps even planned to hide in his grave?

 

“This is the true nature of the Raven you love so much. What do you think, do you still like me like this?”

 

He spoke with a sneer, but his eyes, unable to hide his emotions, were shaking as if he was anxious. She didn’t know what change of heart occurred, but it seemed like the crown prince was planning to shake off her obsession, which had been consistent with neglect until now. But, if she told him that she really hated him, his eyes would quickly turn hurt. However, there was a big error in the crown prince’s question.

 

“It’s not…”

 

She never liked the crown prince from the beginning. She merely stated the obvious fact, but as soon as he heard those words, the crown prince’s eyes, which had been shaking anxiously with weak expectations, changed to empty, like a candle being extinguished. After hearing what she said, he muttered self-deprecatingly in a somewhat watery voice.

 

“I guess so…”

 

“…”

 

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Translator Note: