The Lady is a Stalker

“Yes. She always felt isolated at social gatherings, and she has turned down all the noble men’s requests to dance.”

“I didn’t mean to go that far…”

He certainly told her to wait until he came, but he didn’t mean to block out all the men around her.

Since he hadn’t made up his mind properly, he didn’t know when he would return, but it was painful to say that he asked her to wait without getting married. But there was no way he could ask her not to date other men.

They had kissed a few times, no, she had almost done something worse in the past, but Serabi and he were actually not related at all. When he was young and felt an unknown fear of feelings for the first time, he had barely asked her not to get married before they broke up.

It was something he did impulsively when he was young, but now that he thought about it, he couldn’t have been so reckless. It was fortunate that Serabi was a good girl. When he was young, he thought he would be able to understand Serabi’s feelings a little when he was her age, but she was still an unknown being.

He hoped she wouldn’t marry someone while he was away.

Even when he was young, he felt bad whenever Serabi’s marriage was mentioned. When she suddenly decided to marry an elf, he didn’t know why, but he thought it was absolutely not possible. At the time, he thought he was making a rational decision, but now that he thought about it, he didn’t have the authority to stop her even if she married someone from another race.

When Serabi was sixteen, he was told that she was of marriageable age and that she should start preparing for marriage, and he kept worrying about it. He was worried until the very end, right before they broke up, and he was finally able to leave after getting a promise from her not to marry. But no matter how much he promised, he was still anxious. He should have made it more certain, he should have at least written down a contract, so why did he feel reassured by just one word from her? Every day, he worried that she might get married by now. No matter how stubborn Serabi was, she couldn’t refuse if her family pressured her.

Hewas so anxious that he wanted to go back even a day earlier, but somehow it took more than 4 years. Adriana, who originally planned to train for 20 years, was shocked by this absurd achievement, but time couldn’t pass that slowly for him. He hoped that she wouldn’t marry anyone, but this wasn’t what he had hoped for.

He didn’t know that she would act so drastically because of one word he said. But… to be honest, he didn’t feel that bad. No. Rather, he was happy. It felt like he had received an unexpected gift.

He had known for a long time that she liked him… but he had never felt Serabi’s sincerity so deeply.

He felt dirty for thinking such thoughts. And yet he was so happy. Serabi always made him feel contradictory emotions at the same time. He was so gloomy and happy knowing that she had been isolated for the past three years. He really was the worst person. There was a time when it was unbearably painful, but that was all in the past.

…It was painful to admit that he liked her. It would have been much easier to be trained by a dragon. His emotions changed dozens of times a day. Sometimes he hated her, sometimes he loved her, and sometimes he felt creeped out. Sometimes he wanted to talk to her for no reason, and sometimes he hated her appearance.

Serabi’s existence was chaos itself to him.

He vaguely knew that if he admitted his feelings, he would feel better. However, the things she had done in the past out of jealousy blocked him. In fact, he vaguely sensed his own feelings, but he couldn’t admit it because of that.

He could forgive the things she did to him. He only cared about the things she did to other people. Just admitting that he liked Serabi meant giving up something inside him. Admitting that he liked Serabi meant admitting that he was the worst person.

He thought that was wrong. He thought that she was someone he shouldn’t like. He thought that liking Serabi was a selfish feeling that only he knew. So he made a promise. He made a promise in the hospital room, and he made a promise several times alone. However, the more he struggled, the more he was in pain. He was the one getting hurt.

That contradiction gradually made him a person he hated. In the end, he was the one who couldn’t hold out and gave up. He felt at ease enough to be proud of himself after admitting that he liked Serabi. In the end, he lost. In the battle between morality and desire, if people knew about his feelings, they would definitely despise him. He couldn’t help being despised. However, he wanted to tell them that he was in pain enough to want to die. 

“C-come to think of it, that person is…”

For a moment, he forgot that there was a person in front of him and got lost in his thoughts. When he came to his senses and raised his head, he saw the news man standing awkwardly.

He was about to open his mouth to tell him to leave now that it was enough, but unexpected words poured out of the man’s mouth.

“A few years ago, there was a rumor about an affair between a commoner knight who was His Majesty’s subordinate. Since there hasn’t been any other rumors yet, I think it ended as just a mishap…”

“What? That’s a ridiculous rumor. It can’t be true.”

“Yes. I think so too. Anyway, if it’s a provocative story about noble guys, I just like it…”

Serabi must have had a hard time. Rumors of an affair with a man she didn’t even like. If he were here, such rumors wouldn’t have come out. Well, regardless of whether it was true or not, it wasn’t unreasonable for such rumors to come out.

Since they had been together for a long time without dating or getting married. In fact, it was because of him, but the nobles couldn’t have known about that, and if it was just a provocative rumor, they’d go at him with open eyes regardless of whether it was true or not.

Serabi wasn’t the type to try to explain false rumors about herself, and he couldn’t even imagine how much Serabi, who was single-minded, must have suffered inside. Like an idiot. He could have used a little trickery. Just believing his words to wait like that and waiting. What if he had changed his mind in the meantime?

Well, he did tell her to wait, but… Now that he thought about it, he really did something terrible to Serabi.

“Repay…”

“Huh?” 

“I guess I should return the favor.”

The man asked back in a puzzled tone at his muttering, but he quickly fell into deep thought.

* * *

One day, while she was so busy, an invitation came flying in from the palace for the first time in a long while.

With the crown prince gone, there was no way anyone in the palace would have business with her. But the name on the invitation was Crown Prince Raven.

“…”

She held it for a moment, thinking about what it was, and concluded that it was fake. Of course, it was too out of the blue. She decided to ignore the invitation that gave off a suspicious vibe. How dare they call someone in the name of the crown prince when there’s no crown prince? Besides, if the sender of this invitation was really the crown prince and they had business with her, they could have just gone straight to the duke’s house like before. But even though she ignored it and ignored it again, the invitations piled up every day.

She felt like she was being possessed by evil, as if they were trying to see who would win. Then, the employees at the mansion also started to notice her. It started.

A week after the first generals who were in front of her piled up in the duke’s house, she finally made a move. She now wore a magic stone around her neck as a habit and left the duke’s residence early in the morning. This magic stone, which contained the magic of a dragon, was more effective than most self-defense weapons. It basically blocked the very thought of approaching her, and if someone with malicious intent tried to approach her, it would emit a terrifying aura.

When she arrived at the palace, she got off the carriage, dismissed the attendants, and walked briskly down the palace hallway alone. She didn’t know what they were doing to her, but she was annoyed that they kept calling her by the name of the crown prince.

Of course, Princess Serabi had been famous as the crown prince’s stalker since she was young, but when on earth did she talk about the enemy? Was there anyone who still thought she liked the crown prince? She wanted to see his face at least once to see what kind of backward person she was. And she would tell them to their face.

She had no interest in the crown prince. Since she didn’t have any contact, it’s no use trying to call her by impersonating him. Thinking that, she opened the door to the room where the person who invited her was. 

“…Oh.”

She let out an uncharacteristically dumbfounded sound at the unexpected person inside. A man with long, rough blond hair that looked like it had been grown out carelessly and red eyes that had a dangerous glow. The most striking thing were the red eyes.

Red eyes weren’t common, but they could be found often, but his felt different from the red eyes that were common in the village. When their eyes met, his pupils dilated as if in surprise.

The eyes looked more like those of a bird of prey than a human. She somehow felt like she was standing in front of a beast about to start hunting. So she instinctively grabbed the magic stone hanging around her neck. She wasn’t the type to remember every single face of the people who passed me by, but she could tell with certainty that the author in front of me was someone she didn’t know.

Because, even if she had seen someone so beautiful even once, there was no way she would forget them. She thought the red eyes were a little creepy. She heard that he was a beautiful person overall.

She stared blankly at his face from afar for a while, then suddenly came to her senses. So, that guy kept calling her, pretending to be the crown prince? But who was he really?

She thought the red-eyed man would soon explain why he called her, but he just blankly stared at her and did nothing. And she also stared at him to figure out his identity.

He stared blankly at her and then suddenly lowered his eyes and looked at her neck. It seemed like he was looking at the red magic stone hanging around her neck. After staring at it for a moment, he looked up again and looked at her.

Their gazes, filled with a strange light, met in the air. She had a gaze that contained a sense of caution, and the other side seemed to be happy for some reason. But when she looked closely, he looked like someone.

He stood blankly for a while and then opened his mouth with a trembling voice as if he had come to his senses.

“…It’s been a while…”

“…?”

It’s been a while. It’s as if he’s known her for a long time. She was a little puzzled, but she nodded her head roughly. He must have known her since he had been so persistent in sending invitations and calling her.

The man’s face brightened at my actions.

 

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