Chapter 17
The somewhat deranged princess was impervious to his power and ferocity. It was clear that the princess was more unpredictable than Leopold, the adolescent boy in the midst of puberty, and, as the princess had said, there was no way to stop her from sneaking out of the castle.
Johannes, thoroughly exasperated, retreated from the forest. This retreat was the first he’d experienced since setting foot on the Westel continent.
She was the woman who made him feel the bitterness of defeat, something he had completely forgotten.
If this could even be considered a battle.
Suddenly, the smile from the watchtower, the flushed cheeks that shamelessly called a strange man by a nickname, and the ticklish voice all flashed through his mind. Johannes shuddered slightly and opened his eyes.
“……”
He saw the woman searching through the bushes, relying on the moss that emitted a white light at night. Johannes was aware that he was being swayed by this crazy princess.
‘…What is she doing, unable to find a single dagger quickly?’
The woman flitted about, looking as if she would fly away with a gust of wind, and her slow movements made him want to constantly nag her. Just when he managed to swallow his complaints, she would turn around, as if she knew, and make eye contact, waving her hand…
“……”
As luck would have it.
A dull headache throbbed, and he closed his eyes again. Her gaze lingered for a while longer.
💎
Once again, he found himself in the night forest. Johannes spent his time leaning against a sturdy tree trunk, far away from the woman. Naturally, there was no conversation.
“Hey, Johan. There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask…”
So, only one-sided questions poured out.
“How long have you been coming to the forest?”
Johannes remained stubbornly silent.
“I’ve been coming since last spring, after my Sione got married. Before that, it was Sione’s job to come to the forest. Have you ever met my sister here?”
However, the woman continued to speak softly, regardless of his silence. Johannes wanted to cover his ears if he could.
He didn’t want to know about the woman. If he knew, he would dwell on it, and if he dwelled on it, feelings, whether good or bad, would inevitably accumulate. Johannes was wary of that. Because everything that happened in this forest shouldn’t hold any meaning, it should crumble away like a dream.
But even if he covered his ears with his hands, the woman’s voice slyly slipped through the cracks. It was that ticklish a voice. That was one of the reasons Johannes stubbornly kept his eyes closed.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
The woman added thoughtfully, then,
“Then, did you come to the forest to rest?”
Whether she was just trying to act mature, she asked again soon after. And now, she even answered her own question.
“This place is so vast and empty, it feels like it would be okay even if I disappeared.”
“……”
The half-witted princess seemed truly foolish, but sometimes, she seemed to know everything. Perhaps that was why he couldn’t relax in the forest.
The woman, after being ignored for a long time, finally turned her head and went back to what she was doing. Johannes, who had been waiting for that moment, slowly opened his eyes.
“……”
Even from a distance, the woman stood out. Her gleaming white skin and silver hair shone unbelievably, as if they absorbed all the moonlight. Sometimes, he couldn’t believe the woman moving before his eyes. When that happened, Johannes felt a strange sensation and closed his eyes irritably.
Such days repeated a couple more times. Johannes thought they were ridiculously irrational and illogical days.
That day was similar.
Johannes was leaning his head against a rough tree trunk with his eyes closed. The rustling of leaves in the wind, the gurgling sound of water flowing somewhere in the forest, and the sound of the woman moving about busily were particularly clear. In reality, closing his eyes was useless.
The woman’s form, and her movements, naturally formed in his mind.
The woman bent low, rummaging through the bushes. She would constantly move about like that, then suddenly become quiet. Immediately after, without fail, he could feel her stealing glances at him. Whenever that happened, Johannes unconsciously tensed up.
Did she think he wouldn’t know just because his eyes were closed? Her gaze gradually grew bolder. In fact, it seemed like she wasn’t even trying to hide it. Considering her behavior so far, that seemed to be the case. This time, intending to give her a hint, he opened his eyes and looked at her.
Her eyes widened slightly, but she didn’t avoid his gaze or look flustered. Instead, she met his gaze, her eyes curving gently.
‘…Damn it.’
She was a crazy woman, after all. Johannes ended up being the one to avert, no, withdraw his gaze. The woman continued to scrutinize him for a while longer.
That strange gaze. And the smooth cheeks that sometimes flushed apple-red, the pink lips that parted towards him, their meaning was quite blatant.
Did she, like her promiscuous siblings, have a hobby of seducing men? Was she foolishly mistaking the joy she felt at her enemy’s death for love for him? Or maybe it was both.
In any case, the haughty princess of Bellares was far from aloof. She seemed to have no shame. As if she would readily fall for him, no matter how he acted.
She must have lost her mind.
She was favorable towards him, so it would be easy to take her. But her unusual behavior made him feel averse to it.
Did she know what her desires meant, what consequences they could bring? Johannes, assuming the half-witted princess knew nothing, decided to ignore her once more. He believed this wouldn’t last long. The woman was a haughty, aloof Tessaria, so she would quickly be disappointed in the ruthless beast from across the ocean. He was willing to make it happen.
It was at that moment.
Rustle.
“……”
Johannes’s eyelids twitched.
Had she finally gone completely mad? The woman, who had only been watching him from afar, began to approach.
Johannes quickly regained his composure and pretended not to notice her approach. He steeled himself, thinking it was finally time to show his true colors. For now, he would observe what this crazy woman was trying to do. If she tried anything foolish, he would subdue her mercilessly and teach her a lesson.
The woman crouched beside him, exuding a sweet scent, like honey or something. Johannes momentarily forgot to breathe, caught in an inexplicable tension. He wasn’t aware of it.
He felt the woman lean towards him.
Damn it.
His pulse quickened in response. Something seemed to flicker near his face. It must have been right before her hand touched his eyes.
Damn it, this crazy woman, really.
“What are you doing?”
Johannes glared at the woman with burning eyes.
The woman wore the most bewildered expression he had ever seen. She blinked as if their eyes had met for the first time. Then she said,
“Well… because it’s pretty.”
It was something he’d only heard when he had chubby, pink cheeks. Even then, it had been a tease, so Johannes couldn’t stop his face from slowly contorting.
「Crazy talk」 (1)
He blurted out an Itium curse without thinking. Even though she must have known it was a curse, the princess just smiled faintly as if saying, “I’m serious.” Johannes was once again overcome by a strange sense of defeat. A childish urge to see the woman’s face contorted with fear welled up inside him.
Johannes pulled her wrist, which he had been holding gently, without hurting her. The woman, momentarily losing her balance, swayed as if she would fall into his arms.
The moment she reflexively grabbed his shoulder, Johannes caught her around the waist as if pulling her closer. Their eyes met at a distance where their noses almost touched, and their breaths mingled.
Johannes said in a low, husky voice,
“You shouldn’t look at me like that.”
“How do I look at you?”
“Like you’re about to spread your legs.”
He deliberately chose a vulgar expression, speaking gruffly.
The woman’s eyes widened. Johannes anticipated the next moment, when the woman’s smooth face would distort with shock, his victory.
Footnotes
- Itium language is marked with 「」.
