Chapter Forty-Three: Sweet Sweet Étienne
1634 Words
“Excuse me, Countess Evergreen?”
I turned to face a grizzled old man standing next to a much younger gentleman.
The lights were dimmed, so I could hardly tell if the younger companion was handsome or not.
“Uh, forgive me; your name has just gone through me.”
“Quite alright, countess, I am Baron Kelos; this is my son, Peter Kelos, an imperial knight.”
“Lovely to meet you, countess.”
Peter bowed.
“A pleasure as well.”
“I was just telling my son that you used to be the smartest in the royal academy, an honour amongst all honours.”
“She did not even finish.”
Finor added begrudgingly, a show assuring that he was eavesdropping.
“I bet you were reminded of that each semester when your name was announced under first place. A spot you could only claim with my absence, a bitter reminder of your leering mediocrity.”
“Hah-!”
He sneered, then for the first time since the ‘main’ characters arrived, he turned to face me.
“I did not mean to cause conflict between his highness and the-,”
The Baron began, but Finor interrupted.
“That is not something you can resolve, Baron. The fault lies with the countess and her brashness, perhaps learned in the streets.”
Finor looked proud at his words, and though I should be upset, it was cute that he thought he could hurt me by mentioning my life as an adventurer.
‘Hmm…or did he mean streets as in a p********e joke?’
‘Well, anyway, I’ll take the cuter version.’
I turned my gaze to the Baron, cutting my view of Finor.
“Thank you for speaking so mightily of me. Is there something you need?”
“Not particularly. I wish to dance with the countess.”
This time rather than the Baron, his son responded.
‘Ah!…this might turn into an engagement proposal.’
Before I could offer a response, Étienne’s voice blared loudly in the speakers.
“May I have your attention?”
I turned to the main podium, where my gaze met Étienne’s.
‘s**t…!’
He did not even dare hide that he was addressing our noisy group.
Regina’s gaze moved from Étienne’s then to whomever his gaze was pointed at, me.
Paleness replaced the blush on her face before a vivid expression of disgust, worry, then…finally an angelic smile, one as plastic as my own, only if I gave such it would be termed devilish.
‘...she is not happy to see me.’
‘I guess I wasn’t invited. So much for sisterly support.’
“I am pleased to, from henceforth, announce my association, in love and happiness with-,”
Étienne began his mandated speech; however, the only thing louder than his voice were the whispers surrounding me
“Beautiful!”
“Breathtaking”
“She looks like an angel.”
“I heard she started a clinic for the peasants?”
“She is popular among commoners for that.”
“She’d make an interesting Empress, perhaps the first one to bridge the social-economic barrier.”
Not a single bad thing was said about her.
Rather than feeling jealous, I felt sorry for her.
How hard it must be to have everyone only ever talk positively about one, as though they are a doll that ever only acts accordingly.
‘Still…what is this sickening feeling.’
‘Why? Why? Why….?’
‘Why should cheaters and murderers get a happily ever after?’
I sighed heavily to change the malicious train of thought forming; it was the same reasoning that got Arusei branded as a villain.
‘I want to live this life outside the plot until I finally die’
But even though I tried to change my train of thought, I still felt bile rise up my throat.
“I hear that their union was blessed by the pope?”
“No, the pope only said that whoever marries Regina is destined to be the new leader.”
“Oh my! That means he is practically the Emperor now.”
“Better than Elora, whoever heard of a princess succeeding the throne.”
“Women don’t lead. The results of this race have already been decided.”
“I wonder why they decided to do it this way.”
“You didn’t hear…? Étienne refused to marry the p********e's child. Apparently, she helped the former headmaster of the academy embezzle, but the Emperor favoured her, so this was the way to appease him.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised to find that she and the headmaster were involved romantically.”
“That he stole for her?”
“Could be….”
‘Seriously…sickening…’
‘Haah..!’
What the hell am I doing? I should capture this moment! The leads are together, so we are near the game’s end!
Afterwards, everyone should resume their previously appointed fiancée, and life should move on.
‘Save.’
*Ding*
{Progress saved successfully, a new checkpoint has been unlocked.}
‘Let’s make sure to never be fifteen again.’
As soon as the light previously dimmed in the halls returned, I turned in the direction of the bathroom.
*
*
*
Even after emptying the contents of my stomach, I still felt sick.
I ran the cool sink water over my hands then, washed my face and stared at my pale and haggard expression in the mirror.
‘Hah…! Thank goodness I am alone here, because-,”
The bathroom door opened.
“This sucks.”
I nearly sucked my lips all to pull the words back as an image of Étienne appeared in the mirror.
“Y-your highness, this is the ladies' bathroom!”
“It does indeed, ‘suck’, doesn’t it?”
He said instead.
“Your highness, this is the ladies' lavatory, please; this borders harassment.”
“Your face is wet. Did you cry?”
“W-what?”
“My engagement…it must have been hard for you.”
“H-hard?”
I frowned.
‘Am…am I having a stroke? What the hell is he saying?’
“Arusei, I will not harm you.”
He strode closer, and I instinctively reached for the knife tucked in the lace on my thigh.
“Of course, you will not harm a Countess during the last few years of your campaign.”
I retorted stiffly as I backed away from his oddly calm movements.
“I asked you so many times why you hated me, and once you were gone, it came to me…rather the gods sent the answer to me.”
“Whichever cult you are trying to sell, your highness, I am a proud non-believer.”
He c****d his head to the side.
“Why is it that that mouth hurling nothing but quipped sarcasm hardly mentions anything of vitality?”
“Like what, your highness? What should we, who have no relationship beyond schoolmates, discuss?”
“The fact that you remember everything.”
“I...what?”
Étienne strolled closer until I could no longer smell the freshener in the bathroom but instead his mild cologne.
“Aren’t you a little too close for an engaged man-,”
“From your death, I cannot remember more.”
He continued.
“W-what? From my-?”
“So that means you distorted time from your death.”
His eyes held no question; he was ‘telling’ me this for a fact.
“Y-your highness, do you need to see someone? Are you feverish?”
“Do I need to mention the tree ink on the back of your hand or the suppleness of your creamy chest for you to beli-?”
Smack!
Before I was aware of myself, my hand smacked hard against the paleness of his cheek.
“You shallow bastard!”
His gloved hand touched the now darkening skin, and rather than hurl insults at me, his smile widened.
‘No, this…this isn’t good.’
‘I am dancing to his tune….’
“There she is…my Arusei.”
He reached for the hand that had slapped him, then forced its palm open and pressed it against his thundering chest.
“Feel how my heart races just for seeing honesty on your face.”
“You could be charged with s****l harassment!!”
“Come on, my love, do you really think anyone will believe you? The best they will come up with is that I perhaps forgot to pay you.”
“Is that a dare? I have practically nothing to lose!”
His other hand reached for my cheek, but instead, I pointed my retrieved blade to his face.
His gaze dropped slowly to the knife’s glimmer. He sighed and dropped my hand, only he took a step closer rather than pull away, drawing a threadlike line of crimson where my blade pointed.
“Arusei, think about this clearly…you could be my concubine, and then Queen. Is that title not better than ‘leader of cannibals!’?”
“Title? You pioneered my death, you lunatic! You think I would choose you again?”
He shook his head and slid his hand to my cheek, forcing my gaze to the mirror.
“But look at how good we are together. I mean, just the fact that I remember what you-, what we have been through before…do you not see that even the gods want us together?”
“Is it not a blessing that I am a non-believer then?”
“You can't leave me….”
He pressed his nose to my hair and inhaled deeply.
“Étienne.” I said as calmly as I could, “You f*cked Regina on our bed-,”
“One more time….”
He interrupted.
“…?”
“Say my name once more, like you used to.”
- Writer
