The Lady is a Stalker

He even smiled with that face, and it felt like the surroundings had brightened up.

She didn’t know because he had only shown her his hardened face until now, but when he smiled, his red eyes that resembled those of a bird of prey also seemed affectionate. He didn’t say anything for a while. I thought I could hear his eyes rolling as he searched for words. He was biting his red lips so hard that they looked like they would burst at any moment. After hesitating for a while, he opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.

“Hey…!”

“Are you the one who called me here by impersonating Raven?”

Unable to endure the awkward silence, she tried to ask a question first, but it overlapped with the moment he was about to open his mouth.

He looked bewildered and asked her back as if he didn’t understand her question.

“…I didn’t hear you right.”

“I don’t know what your relationship with Raven is, but impersonating him is a serious crime, so please stop. Aren’t you a nuisance to Raven?”

In fact, she wanted to say that he was a nuisance to her, but she casually mentioned that he would be punished if I impersonated the Crown Prince’s name any longer, and demanded that he stopped this. Then his face hardened as if he had heard it even though he didn’t think he would. He quickly approached her.

When she instinctively stepped back, he must have thought she was trying to escape, so he reached out behind her and slammed the door shut.

“…”

She hadn’t originally intended to run away, but now she desperately wanted to. However, her escape route was blocked. Somehow she ended up getting caught between him holding the doorknob and the door.

His beautiful face was looking down at her from right above her. His red eyes, which looked like they were hurt, were slightly wet.

Was he crying?

“…”

She didn’t mean to say that when someone was crying, but it was a breathtakingly beautiful scene. When she was absentminded for a moment, he seemed angry. And he said to her in a voice that seemed sad.

“What did you just say to me?”

“Yes… Yes?”

His words sounded like a resentful voice, ‘How could you say that to me?’ At the end, there seemed to be a slight sob mixed in. What the hell did she say… was it that the word ‘nuisance’ was the problem? Or was he scared that she said he was impersonating the royal family? Because he thought she would blame him?

Even so, it was a bit of an intense reaction.

She thought back on what she said, but she couldn’t find a reason for the man to react so violently. When on earth did they meet before and why was he so disappointed?

As if he had read her thoughts, a resentful light passed through his red eyes. When she saw his tearful eyes, she felt like she had made a huge mistake. But the one who impersonated the royal family without fear was this guy, and she only warned him, “Impersonation is a crime, so don’t do it.” She didn’t really hold him accountable. And the only person who could hold him accountable was Crown Prince Raven. So there’s no need for him to be so scared.

“I… I won’t report you, so don’t cry. I’ll let you off easy.”

“…”

He spoke through his clenched teeth in a voice that seemed like it would break.

“You, me, how much… how much I.”

“…”

He kept mumbling the same words in a growling voice as if he was about to explode in anger, and then suddenly spoke in a voice that seemed to have suddenly snapped.

“How much I.”

…He released the strength with which he had been holding the doorknob, like a puppet whose strings had snapped. His arm fell limply.

She couldn’t think of anything as she met his empty eyes. She was overcome by the feeling that she had committed a great sin against this person. She didn’t remember doing anything particularly sinful, but she was certain that she had done something terrible to this person. After standing there for a long time without saying anything, he spoke to her with a face that seemed to be suppressing his emotions.

“I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“…”

“I won’t call you out anymore. I can’t promise that.”

He spoke without even making eye contact with her. He looked very disappointed.

When she saw his red eyes that looked hurt, she instinctively apologized.

“Um… I’m sorry.”

“What?”

He looked at her with a pouty expression like a spoiled child, only turning his eyes away.

“We knew each other, right?”

He looked even more hurt at her question. Did she step on a landmine?

He looked like he had been confirmed dead.

Judging from his reaction, she could tell that they knew each other even without saying a word. Moreover, she thought that they might have been quite close.

Before she possessed that body, he knew Princess Serabi…

Unlike her, whose interpersonal relationships were narrow, she had a wide range of interpersonal relationships, whether good or bad. If it had been normal, she could have just asked him what our relationship was, but if she had asked that, he, who looked like he was about to cry even now, would have burst into tears. Somehow, she felt like she was experiencing deja vu in this situation.

Although she didn’t know anything about him, she thought that he would cry at any moment. And for some reason, that scene was so easy to imagine that was the problem.

It was as if he had cried several times before.

“Just go.”

He ordered her with a voice that was filled with emotion. No, it sounded like he was asking her. Maybe it sounded like he was telling her to just get out of here and stop talking nonsense. Somehow, the more she talked, the more she felt like she was hurting him. She thought it would be better not to talk anymore, so she turned her back on the red-eyed man. She grabbed the doorknob to go out, but somehow her hand didn’t have the strength to move. It wasn’t rational. She knew it.

She looked back slowly. He was still staring at the floor with his head down.

“I…”

Somehow she felt like she was going to die from guilt, and she couldn’t bear it.

The reason she didn’t try to fix the things Princess Serabi did wrong was because she didn’t feel any guilt because it wasn’t her fault. But this time, it felt different. It felt like the arrows of the man’s resentment were pointed straight at her, not Princess Serabi.

This must be guilt.

She felt nervous for some reason and held the doorknob tightly as she spoke. 

“I don’t remember what our relationship was like…”

“…”

“Tch, if we start over as friends, then it’s okay.”

She regretted those words as soon as she said them.

She was not the type to be a big talker. But somehow she felt like she had done something terribly wrong to him. So she thought she had to fix it.

Sequoia’s face distorted subtly at her empty words.

* * *

Raven recognized Serabi at first sight. She had become much more beautiful than when she was young.

Suddenly, he was concerned about his hair, which had grown all messy due to his training. There was no way there was a hairdresser at Dragon Lair. When it grew long, he would cut it with a knife, and when it grew long again, he would cut it off, so it was in a mess. The length wasn’t even right and it was messy.

More than anything, Serabi didn’t recognize him at all.

He naturally thought that she would recognize him. He had never even thought about the possibility that she wouldn’t recognize him. In the first place, for four years how could she not recognize the person she had been waiting for with her neck stretched out?

He was puzzled, but he tried to understand that it was because his appearance had changed so much. At first, it didn’t take long for him to realize that Serabi really didn’t recognize him.

‘You really don’t know me?’

Serabi had confirmed several times that she didn’t recognize him. She even said she didn’t know him while wearing the magic stone he had made around her neck. He felt empty and his spirit was fading away. What the hell has he been doing until now…?

His feelings were so light, so why did he believe that Serabi wouldn’t change?

If only he had admitted his feelings sooner… No, no. These were all useless assumptions. He felt pathetic for trying to rationalize himself like this. Just before his mood fell into the abyss, Serabi opened her mouth with a strange expression.

“If we start over as friends, then it’s okay.”

Friends, friends. There was a time when he thought he could be friends with her. But not now. He already knew how dirty a person he was. The evil feelings inside him couldn’t be satisfied with just being friends.

But if he showed these feelings in front of Serabi, who innocently said she wanted to be his friend, she would definitely run away.

Even if it was mutual in the past, now that she had forgotten him, it’s probably the most common feeling. In that case, he would seduce her instead.

If she didn’t remember him, he would just make her fall in love again. He decided to postpone revealing his identity until later.

He awkwardly shook hands with cold eyes and looked down at the hand extended to him. Then he carefully took the hand. He hid his feelings and smiled broadly. The corners of his lips trembled, but it barely looked like a smiling face.

Serabi’s expressionless face cracked for the first time. 

“What should I call you?”

“Sequoia.”

He said his middle name, hoping that she would finally recognize him, but Serabi just nodded with an indifferent expression. His mood was gradually sinking.

 

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Translator Note: