The Villainous Tyrant Has Returned

The olives that were under the tree are about to come out of the shade.

Rustle.

I heard someone walking from afar.

Goosebumps ran down my spine. Since no one call her name, it seems like the rustle sound not the person who Looking for her.

‘There aren’t wild beasts living in the imperial palace, right?’

Olive crouched down behind the tree trunk. Her small shoulders were shaking.

Trudging. Trudging.

The footsteps got closer and closer. Olive stopped breathing heavily.

She covered her mouth and nose with both hands to hide her presence as much as possible. The toes inside her leather shoes curled up.

At that time, someone placed a hand on Olive’s shoulder.

“Kyaaaah!”

Olive squeezed her eyes shut and let out a loud scream.

Is he a kidnapper? You’re not trying to kill me, are you? Dozens of bad assumptions filled my mind.

Olive waved her limbs in the air and resisted the assailant. As she was doing this for a while, something strange occurred.

The gunman didn’t drag her away or harm her.

She just took a step away and she felt like she was being watched.

Olive slightly opened her tightly closed eyes and checked what was ahead.

“Ah.”

A small exclamation came out.

A beautiful boy with short hair redder than the afternoon sun was looking at him with his head cocked.

The boy’s eyes were also red like burning flames.

“Are you done?”

“…What?”

Olive asked back and stared at the boy’s hand. A boy who looked about her age was holding a hunting sword larger than his height.

“A weird punch in the air. Are you done?”

“Oh, yes.”

Olive shrugged her shoulders while answering that question. When she saw the sword the boy was holding, her body naturally trembled.

‘Surely you won’t swing that thing at me?’

Olive glanced at the boy alternately, once at his sword.

Sensing Olive’s gaze, the boy glanced at Olive once, then picked up the sword and skillfully put it into its sheath.

“I thought the green rabbit would be here.”

“Green rabbit?”

The boy’s words were strange. Although her own hair color is close to green, he is said to be a green rabbit to a very smart woman.

Those words didn’t feel very pleasant. Olive pouted her red lips.

The boy’s eyes wavered for a moment as if he was embarrassed.

“Who are you who call me the green rabbit?”

Olive asked his name in an unfriendly tone.

The boy who looked like a doll turned his head slightly, thought about something for a while, and then burst into laughter.

His smile, as beautiful as his face, was like the early morning autumn sunlight.

Olive was unconsciously distracted and kept looking at his face.

“Ludwig is my name.”

Ludwig held out his hand to Olive.
But Olive couldn’t react right away because she was staring blankly at his pretty face.

“Are you going to keep sitting?”

Ludwig waved his outstretched hand again.

“Ah.”

Olive came to her senses late and closed her mouth. Then she took the hand he held out and stood up. Unlike his cool-looking face, his hands were very warm, probably due to his high body temperature.

“How old are you?”

He looked about my age, but his eyes were adult-like.

‘Looking at him well-dressed, he looks like a nobleman.’

The slightly arrogant way he spoke was quite annoying, so i asked him his age outright. But he gave an unexpected answer.

“I’m the same age as you.”

“same age? Do you know how old I am?”

“12 years old.”

Ludwig lifted his eyebrows and answered simply.

“How did you know my age? Did you know me?”

“…I know it to some extent.”

Ludwig gently stroked the back of Olive’s hand, which he was holding tightly.

“I thought I knew you well, but actually I know nothing.”

Ludwig’s red eyes darkened slightly as he mumbled something unintelligible.

A sad look was evident on his face, which seemed emotionless like a doll. The depth of that sadness seemed too deep for a 12-year-old to embrace.

‘Did I ask something strange?’

Olive, feeling somewhat sorry, quickly changed the topic.

“But do you know the way out of here?”

“Here? well. When I came to my senses, I found myself back here. I don’t know either.”

“Are you saying you don’t know the way out of the maze garden?”

“Oh, right. Maze Garden. Yes, this garden.”

Ludwig chuckled and stared straight at Olive.

Olive felt embarrassed as she stared at his face.

Olive, embarrassed, shook off Ludwig’s hand that she was holding. Then, I rubbed the area around my cheek that was itchy when his eyes touched it and looked around into the air.

Ludwig, who was quietly looking down at his hand that Olive had thrown away, put his hand out in front of Olive again.

“I know how to get out of this garden. Follow me.”

Olive slowly lowered her eyes and looked down at his hands.

Is it because of swordsmanship practice? His scarred hands were a full length longer than her own.

‘The height is similar, but his hands are very big.’

Yes, I will catch everything. Olive grabbed the hand he held out. He gently squeezed her hand as if holding a piece of glass, then walked half a step ahead of her and spoke to her.

His steps were calm. He somehow felt like he was not a 12-year-old boy, but a grown man.

Ludwig had an air that was uncharacteristic as a boy.

As I walked along with Ludwig for a while, I began to see a familiar entrance to the garden.

As if to hasten her slow pace, Olive walked quickly and pulled his hand.

“I didn’t know much when I came in. I was really deep in here.”

“You’ve always been like that. you’re very scared, but you digs into my opponents without hesitation.”

“Huh?”

The boy named Ludwig blurted out something unknown from earlier.

‘What on earth is he talking about?’

Olive, who didn’t understand what he meant, gave him a look demanding explanation.

But Ludwig gave no particular answer. His lips were in a pretty curve and he was smiling refreshingly.

As he reached the entrance to the garden, Ludwig stopped in his tracks. Ludwig’s red eyes swept across the labyrinth garden, with olive turned away, and then back to her.

Her hand that was holding hims tickled. Olive tried to slip her hand away, but he held her hand tighter.

“I was able to guide you through this maze garden because I know it well.”

“…Uh, thank you. Thanks to you, I got out.”

My toes and fingertips. I felt tickled for no reason and contracted inside.

Olive lifted the tip of her chin proudly, recalling the rules she had learned in her etiquette class. I didn’t want my shyness to be discovered by an unfamiliar boy.

“But I don’t know how to get out of here.”

Ludwig looked seriously into Olive’s eyes.

‘What a way to get out of here. Didn’t we already get out?’

Maybe this guy is a little crazy. Olive tilted her head.

“So, I want you to tell me.”

“What?”

“I plan to learn from you.”

Yes, I plan to learn everything from you from scratch. Ludwig repeated those words once more.

“No, so what-”

“People…How to treat people.”

Ludwig’s focus was somewhere far away, not reality.

Olive glanced at where his eyes were directed and looked Ludwig up and down.

I guess it’s true that his mind is strange. Even the sky is indifferent. Why did you give such a beautiful boy such a difficult time?

“Isn’t it natural to treat people like people?”

“Is that so? I don’t know. Other things are easy, but I don’t know about them. not yet.”

“What happens when you find out that you treat people like people?”

“If i know that, i can get out of here.”

Maybe. Ludwig let out the last word as a sigh and bent down on one knee.

Even though he was the same age, he exuded a mature elegance. He slowly lowered his head and kissed the back of Olive’s hand that he was holding.

At that moment, Olive felt ecstatic, like she was a princess in a fairy tale. Heat rushed to her cheeks.

Ludwig’s lips stayed on the back of her hand for quite some time.

“It was nice to meet you, Lady Olive.”

Ludwig slowly parted his lips and stood up.

“The knights will pass by here soon. You will be able to return to your original position. Next time we meet again, then… I’ll show you a more changed side.”

Ludwig said goodbye to Olive with unknown words.

Olive was frozen like a plaster statue and couldn’t move. My eyelids blinked rapidly like the wings of a bird.

Ludwig smiled slightly as if Olive’s reaction was amusing, then turned his body and disappeared somewhere.

Olive stood and looked at his back for a while until he became a small dot and was no longer visible.

He stayed in Garnet Palace, west of the imperial palace.

Garnet Palace was the smallest of the residences within the imperial palace. It was mainly a place where the imprisoned royal family stayed.

Ludwig had been living there quietly since he was very young.

Other members of the royal family would have shuddered at their life, which was tantamount to confinement, but Ludwig was always calm.

Even if the quality of the food served on his table wasn’t good or the clothes weren’t plentiful, Ludwig didn’t complain at all.

He didn’t desire anything.

The emperor who gave birth to Ludwig cried out that he was a cursed child and turned away from him.

The blood clot that came out of its mother’s stomach wasn’t able to be held in its mother’s arms once, but was thrown out to the Garnet Palace and grew up in the hands of an unfamiliar nurse.

He rarely showed his face except during formal imperial palace events.

Except for some nobles in the capital, few people knew of Ludwig’s existence.

However, the support expenses for this small palace weren’t poor.

The emperor, who was fair in his work even though he did not have children of his own, paid equal support to all princes and princesses.

Ludwig received a rather large amount of support compared to the size of the palace.

The reason the palace looked like a crumbling ruin was because the servants had been stealing support money from Ludwig. Even though Ludwig clearly knew the truth, he didn’t try to fix it.

There was no need for that kind of money. Even if I ate good food or looked around at dazzling jewels, there was nothing enjoyable about it.