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“I-I’m finally meeting you…. My apologies, last time I was in such a state that I couldn’t even greet you properly….”
The woman blushing and stuttering in front of Hereis was Princess Dione.She was his friend’s younger sister, but she wasn’t exactly someone he could treat casually. Hereis adjusted his posture and gave a gentle smile.
Ding!
“Looks like I can pick anything? It’s been a while since we had such an easy set of choices~.”
-True lol
Without much hesitation, Mo Je-won clicked the first option that appealed to him. Princess Dione’s red face flushed so hard it looked like it might explode.
-Easy game, easy life.
The Crown Prince let out a smirk and tapped the Princess on the shoulder.
“Man~ I’m worried your face might actually pop, Dione.”
“B-Brother!”
“Why ‘Brother’? Don’t you usually just call me by my name?”
“W-Wait, when did I ever…?!”
The Princess clenched her fist at an angle only the Crown Prince could see. Though she had an innocent look on her face, a murderous rage howled behind her smile. Theodore flinched and immediately changed his tune.
“Ahem! You look as elegant as always. That’s my sister for you.”
Of course, all of this was caught on screen.
-LOL
-Immediate attitude shift.
“Anyway, the Saintess looks like she’ll be busy for a while… Hereis, you have nothing to do until she returns, right? Why don’t you hang out with our Dione for a bit~?”
“Me?”
“Ah, Brother!”
-God-dor making opportunities.
-I should start calling him ‘Brother-in-law’.
Hereis looked puzzled, while the Princess was shy but clearly didn’t refuse. The Crown Prince winked and gave a thumbs-up to the Princess as he pushed the two of them along.
“The knights of the Holy State have a few things to discuss with me, so go on and enjoy yourselves~.”
Ilian and Beatrice, having a rough idea of what was happening, looked at each other with troubled, stiff expressions. In the midst of it all, the Crown Prince gave a wink and a big thumbs-up to the Princess as she glanced back.
“Um, well, you see…”
In the Princess’s room, Hereis glanced around with uneasy eyes. Being led straight into the Princess’s bedroom was flustering enough, but…
The walls were covered in marks where picture frames seemed to have been recently removed, which felt quite eerie. Furthermore, the Princess was stuttering, unable to even meet his eyes, and staring only at the floor, making the atmosphere suffocating.
‘What am I supposed to “hang out” with, Theo…?’
Just as he was internally cursing the culprit who created this situation, the Princess spoke in a voice filled with emotion.
“I-I’ve been a f-fan for a long time!”
“Excuse me?”
Hereis had received countless confessions in his life, but the Princess’s abrupt statement left his head spinning.
“Ah, I-I mean, I heard you were close with my brother Theodore, haha! I’ve heard so many stories about you, Sir Hereis, that I guess I started feeling a one-sided sense of closeness!”
“Ah… that makes sense. I’ve also heard much from Theo about your brilliance, Princess. That you brilliantly found solutions even for the complex state affairs His Majesty was agonizing over.”
This was a phrase Theodore used like a habit to dump his own duties onto her. Had she heard it from the Crown Prince, it would have earned a slap to the back of the head, but coming from Hereis’s mouth, it sounded like a sweet serenade. Princess Dione’s lips twitched.
“Ahaha! Did my brother r-really say that….? Oh my, he e-exaggerates so much~.”
“Theo isn’t the type to say empty words.”
“Ah, please stop. I-I don’t know what to do with myself!”
-Can it really be this easy?
-LOL the Princess has the lowest difficulty.
-Je-won, what do you think of the Princess?
-Is the Princess your type?
Mo Je-won took a moment to admire the illustration of Princess Dione on the monitor.The red-haired beauty was covering her face with both hands as if embarrassed, and through her slender fingers, her pale gold eyes were stealing a glance at the protagonist.
“She’s beautiful, but personally, I prefer the intellectual type over the sexy older sister type.”
-Unlucky.
-Ahhh, nooo.
-Gotta respect the preference though T_T
-Je-won seems to like the cute types like Edelina.
“What? Are you calling me a dummy right now?”
-If it sounded like that, you nailed it.
-Stop with the truth bombs;;
-Our Je-won isn’t a dummy.
Mo Je-won, pouting, skipped to the next scene without a word.
-Oh, he’s sulking.
“M-may I ask… why exactly you came to the Imperial Palace, Sir Hereis!”
Ding!
-333
-That’s a bit much.
-Look at him being all smooth lol.
While the first two choices are the actual reasons he came to the Imperial City, he’d have to pick the third one to raise affection. However, Mo Je-won hesitated.
“Everyone. A thought just occurred to me—wouldn’t it be better to play hard to get to speed things up?”
-Boo, now of all times?
-Don’t forget your duty as a streamer.
-You said you’d do your best for every heroine T_T.
-You didn’t act like this with Edelina; this selective cold-shoulder is too much.
“Did I say that? Fine, fine. A man’s gotta keep his word. I get it.”
-If he goes back to his roots, it’s a bad ending.
-No lol, that’s going too far.
As Mo Je-won moved his mouse, Hereis approached the Princess with a deep, sultry gaze.
“If I said it was because I wanted to see you, Princess, would that sound too much like flattery?”
“Ugh…”
Was it too much stimulation?
The Princess actually took a step back, clutching her heart.
“Not at all! I’m honored! H-however, I suspect that you came to the Imperial City because of the Saintess, not for matters involving the Knights, Sir Hereis?”
-Oh, she’s quick.
-She’s too self-aware.
“Ah. My apologies, but you’ve hit the mark.”
“I see…. Because you are the Saintess’s… Companion.”
The Princess hesitated for a moment before asking in a cautious but certain voice.
“…Was it your choice to become the Saintess’s Companion, Sir Hereis?”
“My… choice?”
-Suddenly?
-Does he even need to consent?
-God basically hand-picked him.
Who would dare ask for consent regarding Ralphican’s will?
Hereis was puzzled, while the Princess’s eyes grew sharp.
“So there was none.”
“…God’s will does not require my choice. Besides, the title of the Saintess’s Companion is a very great honor—”
“Do you truly believe that?”
“…….”
“In my eyes, Sir Hereis, you look like nothing more than a hollow puppet with a title, being dragged around just so you can be easily manipulated.”
-Whoa…
-She’s not wrong.
-But isn’t this blasphemy?
A hollow puppet. Hereis quietly chewed over the words.
It was a somewhat aggressive expression, but it could certainly be seen that way.However, that was…
“Princess. It may look like I am being used, but every task the Saintess asked of me was for a moral cause, and I was grateful to be able to help.”
That’s right. And was that all?
“It was all thanks to the Saintess that someone like me could become a hero who saved the world and could save Edelina. I believe that is a debt I cannot repay even if I devote my entire life to it.”
The Princess let out a hollow laugh at Hereis’s words.
“Sir Hereis, you are naive. Because you are such a kind person, the Saintess must have found you easy to handle.”
“What… did you say?”
“Do you truly think the Saintess resolved all these incidents with the pure goal of saving people?”
“Of course. After all, she is the one sent by Ralphican—”
“No! It was all just a means to secure her own influence! Sir Hereis, it seems you have never seen the Saintess’s true colors!”
“True colors…?”
“At the investiture ceremony, the Saintess publicly mocked the Prince of Kleheim and said this: Kleheim had rebelled against Ralphican, which is why the revelation was not delivered to them.”
“Th-that is…”
“What kind of selfish revelation is that? Are there no believers in that country? Is it right that even the sincere believers have to die just because the country behaved a bit poorly?”
Hereis became confused. The Saintess had clearly said she couldn’t reveal the prophecy due to certain circumstances.
In reality, it was to punish a country that didn’t follow the Holy State?
If so, then the Saintess really lied to him just to use him…
“And, do you really think the Saintess helped Lady Peyers? Wasn’t the major turning point of the trial when a large number of students who supported the Lady wrote and submitted statements? Even without the Saintess, she would have been found innocent!”
“But the Saintess truly performed a miracle—”
“You surely don’t believe that everything turned out well solely because of the Saintess, do you?”
Taking a breath, the Princess continued.
“It might have just looked that way because the timing happened to match, but in reality, it might have been thanks to you or others, Sir Hereis! I’m sure there are many things that come to mind for you, too!”
The Princess didn’t know everything Hereis had gone through with the Saintess. There should have been plenty of things to say in rebuttal. There certainly should have been, but…
‘Why can’t I deny it?’
A tiny crack was forming in Hereis’s feelings toward the Saintess.
“She makes a good point, doesn’t she? Looking back, if it weren’t for Hereis, Belita couldn’t have become the Saintess, and the magic beast terror could never have been solved by the Saintess alone, no matter how much holy water or prophecy she had. Seeking out Hereis’s house in the first place, or coming along on the expedition when she told him not to… listing it out like this, it really is suspicious. Didn’t she plan all of this from the start just to know everything and use him?”
-Gasp, no way.
-But that’s how stories progress.
-Isn’t that a bit of an over-interpretation?
“More than anything, I am worried about your future. As a hero of the continent and the God-chosen Companion of the Saintess, you will live your entire life bound to the Holy State.”
“…….”
“Is that truly what you want to do, Sir Hereis?”
-I’m getting goosebumps.
“I…”
“Sir Hereis, you are someone already performing brilliantly as the Vice-Commander of the Imperial Knights. I resent the Saintess. Resent her for shackling someone like you to her side in the name of God just to use you conveniently!”
Ding!
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