The Lady is a Stalker

After saying that it would be good to start with friends, she felt so embarrassed that she wanted to die. Why would she start with friends again? She was not a kid.

If someone saw her, they would think she was a young girl who had just turned twenty. She didn’t know why she was acting like this, but one thing for sure was that she couldn’t leave Sequoia alone. No, actually, it wouldn’t be her, but anyone else would be like that.

When she saw that puppy-like expression on his face, no matter how iron-clad she was, she would want to do anything for him. Plus, she would want to find the person who made him make that expression and punish him to the ends of the earth… Wait, she was the one who did it? She turned everyone in this world into her enemy without even realizing it.

Anyway, his crying face has incredible destructive power. And for some reason, it seemed to work particularly well on her. Of course, Sequoia’s face was beautiful, but that was only an objective fact. Subjectively, she didn’t really like his face or anything… His crying face touched her subconscious.

There were a few things she found out about him. His name was Sequoia. Since it’s not a real name, she thought it might be an alias. Or maybe he has a middle name or a second name, so he might be a member of the royal family. The fact that he called me to the palace, and his hair color was the same as the emperor of this empire, she thought he was probably a member of the royal family. If he could use the name of crown prince at will… He must be quite high up in the royal family. The crown prince never talked about the palace at all…

He had resented her for something she had done to him in the past. Oh. And she thought his smiling face was pretty.

She guessed that’s all she found out about him.

The day after she met Sequoia, Damian called her as soon as she got to work. And then came the shocking news.

“You don’t have to come in starting tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

What kind of sudden dismissal notice was this? She suddenly became unemployed like this! As she made a shocked expression, he opened his mouth with a calm face.

“It’s vacation.”

“Ah.”

‘Then tell me that first.’

She didn’t want to misunderstand. Anyway, she hadn’t had a vacation in the past four years, so what’s the wind blowing and giving her a vacation she didn’t even ask for? She asked back with a bewildered face.

He ruffled his hair as if he was somehow annoyed.

“It’s an order from above.”

“Who?”

Now that the Crown Prince, the Commander-in-Chief, was away, who could give him orders? And there’s no way that the higher-ups would directly give orders for a single member’s vacation… As he was thinking that, Damian said.

“…Just think of it as a reward vacation from me. You’ve been working all this time.”

“Huh? Then what about sleep?”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

Somehow he’s prickly.

Unlike the crown prince, Damien wasn’t the type to throw tantrums, but today he seemed incredibly depressed. Even if he didn’t bother to scratch, he had a lot to think about, and he didn’t have the energy to please his boss. She slammed the door shut with a slight bang and went out without saying anything.

* * *

How long has it been since she had been on vacation? The last vacation was right before the crown prince left, so it was four years ago.

After so long, she realized that she had really been living a hectic life. Even so, she didn’t feel comfortable.

She didn’t feel bad about having to take a vacation for no reason, and as she was rolling around on the bed thinking about this and that after coming home, she heard a loud noise from outside.

It sounded like the servants were calling her name from outside. She heard it, but she ignored it because it was annoying and tried to go to sleep.

At that moment, the door suddenly opened and an unexpected person appeared.

“…Hi.”

As she blankly looked up at the red eyes from the bed, she felt a sense of deja vu.

Seeing this, she thought that Sequoia must be a proud bloodline of the crown prince. Was it a family history that he could come and go to the duke’s house at will? There were a lot of things she wanted to ask, but she should start with the most basic ones.

“So far… what’s going on?”

She barely managed to get up from her sleepy body and asked. No matter how whimsical it was, it didn’t mean that he could barge into her house just one day after becoming friends. Besides, her eyes were tightly shut because she was about to fall asleep.

She closed her eyes tightly because of the sleepiness that was creeping up on her, and when she opened them again, she made eye contact with the red eyes that were staring at her from close range. Before she knew it, Sequoia was very close. It was so close that their breaths almost touched. She was so surprised that she took a deep breath.

In contrast to her bewildered self, he just had a shameless expression on his face.

“Wh-what are you… What are you doing?”

She asked, stuttering her words in embarrassment. But he answered her question without blinking an eye and with a calm expression.

“Temptation.”

At those words, she stared blankly at Sequoia’s face.

Why did he suddenly barge into my house? Did she hear wrong? Did he just say temptation? Even the royal family did things like temptation… No, it’s not like he couldn’t do it, but she was so embarrassed.

Various thoughts flashed through her head at once. But how did this guy know that she would be home? Usually, he would be working at that time. He showed up shamelessly as if he had no doubt that she would be here. But those thoughts soon flew away. The more she retreated and ran away, the closer he came.

Suddenly, a beautiful face suddenly appeared in her vision, and she couldn’t think of anything. She was embarrassed to meet his eyes staring straight through her long blond hair, so she slowly turned her eyes away.

Sequoia, who had been closely observing her expression, twitched her lips with a slightly nervous expression.

“How is it?”

“What, what is it?”

She asked, trying her best not to look in his direction. How was it? She didn’t even know what he was going to do…

Oh, come to think of it, he himself said at first that he was trying to seduce her. But he was so clumsy… Was suddenly barging in and blindly sticking your face in seduction? Who on earth taught him that?

In fact, if Sequoia, a member of the royal family, were to use proper seduction techniques, it would be something that would cause controversy in the world. She was racking her brain about what to say to him, and he added.

“If you’re pretty, you can’t do anything.”

“…”

She shut her mouth at that shameless remark. She couldn’t understand the mindset of handsome guys. But she definitely thought that this was the most powerful seduction technique she had ever experienced.

Suddenly, her mood calmed down as if she had been splashed with cold water. Of course, Sequoia’s face was still beautiful, but she didn’t feel as excited as before because she thought that there was something else going on. Before she knew it, she had returned to her usual expressionless face.

“How is it?”

He asked her with a nervous expression. She nodded her head after thinking about it for a while and answered.

“My heart is racing so hard.”

Sequoia, who heard her, furrowed his brow and slowly walked away from her. Judging from his disgruntled expression… She thought he probably found out that she was lying.

He turned his back on her as if he was hurt.

“Liar.”

The resentful voice that shot back at her… It seemed like she was hated again. What did she do wrong? She guessed the fact that she tried to make him feel less embarrassed was the cause. But if she said that she didn’t feel anything when she was tempted with all her might, wouldn’t that be embarrassing in its own way?

Should she apologize? She was sorry for not falling for the temptation? But wasn’t it a funny situation to apologize for that? As she lay on the bed with a complicated expression on her face, thinking, he sighed and said.

“Okay. I didn’t think it would end up like this anyway.”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be hurt much. 

She let out a sigh of relief. But there was one thing that kept bothering her.

She carefully opened her mouth.

“Uh, but…”

When she called, he turned his head and stared at her. He pretended not to be angry, but he was definitely upset. His red eyes were filled with discomfort. It was like looking at the eyes of an eagle or a snake or some kind of beast.

Was it because they were not human, so they were honest, or because they couldn’t hide their emotions? They were uncomfortable eyes. But she thought they were much more to her liking than the ones of humans who never changed their expressions and kept lying.

She stared at those eyes and opened her mouth.

“I think it’s better not to do things like this.”

“…?”

His red eyes were filled with doubt. He had an expression that said he couldn’t understand what she was saying. 

“Of course, Sequoia is beautiful, but…”

“If you do that to anyone, there could be a really dangerous moment.”

Sequoia opened his mouth to refute, as if something in her words bothered him. She quickly cut him off and added.

“Um… And I don’t think it’s a good idea to use your body like that.”

“…”

“Wouldn’t it be better to cherish yourself a little more? I don’t know…”

“…”

She said that much, but he didn’t respond at all.

He just stood there with a complicated expression on his face, not responding.

 

—————————————————————

Translator Note: