I Am Troubled That My Fiance Is a Villain Chapter 13
Prepare yourselves for this annoying chapter.
âIt seems youâve become so important to call a marquisâ daughter without any honorifics, Alois.â
I wonder if Iâve been face-to-face like this with Alois ever since that awkward lunch. Looking at him again, his appearance is really flashy and frivolous.
Bern, who had hidden me behind him, took half a step forward.
âWhat do you want?â
Bernâs eyes flashed with a dangerous glint, just like that time when he squared off with the man at Thanksgiving, his usual carefree feel gone. I even felt as if the air crackled.
Aloisâs smile faded, and it looked as if he wanted to kill Bern.
Seems he wasnât just a frivolous guy.
I recalled Clarissaâs and Dariusâ warnings about Alois.
Compared to him, His Highness, who was off to the side, looked a little daunted⊠Good luck, Your Highness.
âI mean, you already know even without me saying it, right? Thatâs why you even brought your close friends from your club.â
Surprisingly, I didnât think heâd be the kind of guy to use such a cute word as âclose friends.â
âOi, Alois.â
With his neverending, malicious attitude, Aloisâ shoulder was gripped by His Highness and pulled back.
âSorry, Bernhardt. We just came to confirm something with Lizisama.â
âGo ahead.â
Being friends, His Highness was still worried about the confident Bern, and I nudged him on the arm.
Bern slightly turned around and smiled at me, as if to give me peace of mind. Immediately, he turned around to look at His Highness and Alois with a cold gaze.
Thatâs not it! Even if I was worried about that, you got it wrong!
Without being able to communicate my thoughts, the conversation continued.
Seems like His Highness felt a little hurt at that. Wait, thatâs right. Thatâs cause heâs royalty.
âToday after school, between 5:30 and 6 pm, my friend, Lila Carneille, was pushed down the stairs by someone.â
5:30, huh⊠Thatâs around the time that Darius invited me to the underground storage room.
At that moment, Darius ran to join in. Seems that Bern really chewed him out, seeing as he wasnât able to meet up with us until now.
As he settles his rough breathing, Katerina repeatedly pokes him with her fan. âHe looks really pathetic,â wasnât what I thought, but instead went, âServes him right.â
âAlthough it only resulted in Lila spraining her wrist, but because of this, her life could have been in danger. Also, this handkerchief was left at the scene of the crime.â
His Highness put out his hand to the side as a male student surrenders the handkerchief.
It goes without saying that the handkerchief was unfamiliar to me.
âWith just this, it wasnât conclusive enough to say it was the culpritâs. However, possibilities were sufficient enough. And finally, the initials embroided on this handkerchief are L.R. The same initials as Lizisama.â
His Highness spread the handkerchief to clearly show the initials. On the corner of the white handkerchief was a small, cute flower embroidery, and on the right corner was a detailed L.R. It looked like an exceedingly normal, ladyâs handkerchief.
âLizisama, where were you today after school? The mysterious part about this is that no one had seen you.â
His Highness was trying to make it as fair as possible, but in his eyes, you could see that he thought I was the culprit. I donât know whether it was Alois, or Lila who had been telling him things. His Highness has always had a strong sense of justice.
âI was in an underground storage room.â
âWhy were you in that kind of place?â
âMy friend, Darius Jill Wehner, called me there.â
What should I do? I donât know what to say if he pressed further about the reason.
I had no time to rack my brains. Then, Darius stepped up and continued my words for me.
âI called her to help me take some chairs to the art room.â
âWe didnât ask you, Darius.â
Without a momentâs delay, Alois quipped.
âYouâre the one whoâs rude.â
While smiling like a fool, Darius talked back to Alois. And for the first time, Alois had on a sour expression.
First of all, seems like the talk between Darius and Bern went well.
Because Darius revealed his relation with our club just now, he must have suggested to help Bern with dealing with Alois and everyone.
This is most likely due to Bern joining the Second Prince faction. Although itâs earlier than planned, thereâs no doubt that heâs decided to have the Hidden Student Council join the Second Prince faction.
ââŠSo after going to the storage room, you went to the club?â
It looked like even His Highness was cooperating with Darius and Bern, which shocked me. I donât know much, but it seems like something happened between the two. In the game, they looked like close friends on the surface. Their actual compatibility must not have been bad.
I glanced at Bern, wondering what to say, as he softly put his hand on my back. For now, Iâll be honest.
âNo. When we tried to leave the room, we noticed that the door was broken and were locked in.â
It really was broken, but they wonât be able confirm that because Bern broke it. It did make a loud noise.
âPlus, there are three other girls that have the same initials as Miss Lizia, but they had proof that they were either at their clubs, or at the dorms. Moreover, those three people said they didnât own any handkerchiefs.â
âSo with that trivial and circumstance evidence, Lizzyâs the culprit?â
âItâs possible. But isnât that enough? Miss Lizia is friends with Katerinsama, and there had been rumors of that Katerinsama not liking Lila.â
âStop it, Alois.â
Alois didnât stop even with His Highness admonishing him.
âAnd isnât it that even Miss Lizia herself doesnât like Lila? How about it, Bernhardt?â
âWeâre not insulting her, weâre just making sure of things.â
âMiss Lizia, Iâll ask you again, is this yours?â
His Highness presented the handkerchief for me to look at, and I denied it.
âNo, itâs not mine. I still have my handkerchief with me, so that couldnât be mine.â
âBut whoâs to say that oneâs yours?â
Damn this guy.
Alois had turned what Bern had said about the handkerchief being baseless, on us. He had countered back about this handkerchief being baseless as well.
Like this, it just becomes a pointless argument⊠No, because itâs Alois, bad impressions of us will spread. If only there was a chance to shut him down, weâd win.
Bern raised his voice, in a slightly annoyed tone.
âI mean, I was the one who prepared the handkerchiefs that Lizzy uses. So I put the Brunsmeier seal on all of them.â
An unspeakable mood wrapped around the air, just like with the Hidden Student Council earlier.
Normally, doesnât everyone want to be able to say that a man gave them a womenâs handkerchief?
I mean, he gave it to me, so youâd normally take it, right? Furthermore, he stitched it himself, although he could have been worse at it than me, I had no choice but to use it, right?
Iâm not really that great at embroidery, but if a guy close to me is amazing at it, Iâd be motivated to get better. Itâs not because Iâm frustrated, okay?!
With Bernâs intervention breaking the mood, Alois cleared his throat once and let out an unpleasant laugh.
âOh yeah, thereâs a rumor I want to make sure about the Duke Brunsmeier as well.â
âRumor?â
âYeah. Stuff like embezzling funds from the National Treasury, or taking bribes for government workâŠâ
Our surroundings filled with chatter.
âAlois, this isnât the time to bring that up.â
âBut Your HighnessâŠâ
Seems like the other party isnât in agreement. Alois wants to crush Bern by any means necessary, but it seems like he canât really control the honest Prince.
âOh, have I done something like that?â
He said in a cold voice, and the temperature quickly went down in one fell swoop.
âNo, no, Iâm talking about Duke Brunsmeier, youâre his sonâŠâ
âWhatâre you talking about? Duke Brunsmeier is in front of you.â
âHuh?â
The surrounding people, His Highness, and Alois all had bewildered expressions.
To say that kind of thing in this situation, I donât know whether Bern is also mean-spirited or a nice person. Anyways, with the fight having cut off at that, it was probably planned.
âIt was sudden, so it hasnât been made official yet, but Father retired because of illness. He also asked His Majesty for permission. Which means Iâm now Duke Brunsmeier. If Mr. Alois is talking about the previous Duke, then would you be fine telling me how to atone for my crimes, instead of dragging and lashing out at an old, sickly man? âŠWell, theyâre all groundless rumors anyways.â
âI havenât heard of this.â
His Highness shouted in a surprised voice.
âIs that so? Since His Highness seemed to have been too busy with something to break off his own engagement with my sister, Katerina, of course the news would come late.â
Sarcasm. That was pure sarcasm.
I knew that Bern had been leaving school pretty often because he had to talk to his father about transferring the title of Duke Brunsmeier.
It seems that the Duke was quite hesitant, but Bern gave him two conditions, and the title was transferred to him without any problems.
Actually, a part of what Alois said was true. And knowing that thatâs what heâd attack with, since itâs Bern, he planned for it.
Anyhow, one of the conditions he gave the Duke was that if he retired, he would make all the evil rumours disappear. I canât even think of what he did to make them disappear, but I want to believe he didnât do anything underhanded. If he did, then thatâs not good.
âMay I interject?â
In the middle of the chatter about the youthful Duke Brunsmeier, Katerina asked in a dignified voice.
His Highness looked terrible as he stared at Katerina, and then gave her permission.
Accompanied by Helena, Katerina stepped forward in a dignified way and slowly looked around. She really looked like a queen and unconsciously became serious.
Everyone concentrated at the words she would say.
âAlois-sama, you wanted to say that because I wanted to take revenge for stealing His Highness, I ordered Lizia to push Lilsan, is that correct?â
âAfter all, thatâs very likely, Katerinsama.â
âThatâs outrageous. To think of me as a woman whoâd do such a thing.â
âIs that so? There are rumours about your violent temperament as well.â
âMentioning more rumours? You must like rumours even more than me.â
Katerina refused to back down, and brushed Alois aside.
âPrince Edwin, if you told me to break off the engagement, I will accept it right here, right now.â
âYou fine with that, Katerina?â
Bern looked at Katerina with wide eyes.
Or rather, everyone was, as if witnessing something unbelievable.
With his beautiful face, His Highness stood there, stupefied.
Smiling at how she was able to surprise her brother, Katerina loudly declared.
âTo chase after a man who doesnât love me in return, no matter how much has passed, I donât have the time for that!â
Those words were very Katerinish, still confident no matter where she is.
She has yet to recover from the time that she became depressed when His Highness didnât choose her. But even so, itâs like her to choose another path.
Somehow, I think itâs because of Ionius.
She had only looked at His Highness, but when you look at it from outside, those two understood each other really well. And thatâs what changed her. Iâm sure.
I forgot about the uproar of my surroundings and was optimistically moved, but a voice that I didnât want to hear jumped in.
âHey, hey! Itâs like a party in here.â
At that moment, with his robe waving and a shit-eating grin, he cut in between us and His Highness.
Ugh! Lucas!?
I unconsciously grimaced, and the sharp-sighted Lucas looked at me. He laughed with an unreadable look in his eyes from behind his glasses.
With disheveled, long hair surrounding his youthful face, you wouldnât think heâs nearing 30 years old.
Iâm surprised heâs a teacher with that suspicious appearance of his.
Moreover, this person is the type of teacher that would show up at the end of a fight.
âI heard all about it. Iâll take care of this, is that fine?â
âTo bother Rottger-senseiâŠâ
âDonât be so cold. For the sake of my beloved student, Iâll even remove one or two pieces of clothing!â
Heâs the type of person that never listens to anyone. Heâs a little similar to Bern in that aspect, but I still canât like Lucas. Which is strange. From behind, with his long robe, Lucas looks like a magician.
âIâll ask both Rietberg-san and Lilsan separately.â
âEh?â
âSince this is a serious matter, I canât just leave it to the students! Letâs strike while the iron is hot!â
âBut I donât think this is that serious of a matter! W-waiâ!?â
Without delay, Lucas dragged me. I shouted as I resisted in vain, with drag marks appearing on the ground.
I unconsciously grabbed Bernâs arm, but he never stopped walking, as if saying he doesnât mind. Wait, donât you have too much energy!?
ALOIS I HATE YOU. But Iâm glad he got burned twice by both Bern and Katerina. Also, Darius, I love you, coming to save your âfriend.â And Ionius x Katerina please.
Edit: Also, itâs not linked on NU I believe, but we did also translate a Valentine AU. It has spoilers (though theyâre not explicitly mentioned in the story), you guys can check it out .
E/N: Alois is really annoying. He keeps making mostly baseless arguments and refuses to give up. Please go away.
I second Ionius x Katerina. May their ship have safe and successful sailing.