Chapter 28

Chapter 28

We all head out to the courtyard together, Oswell included. And since he wouldn’t be able to walk well with the heavy chains binding his arms and legs, he’s now sporting a pair of handcuffs that Rona had pulled out from who knows where. (Seriously, where do they even sell this stuff?)

While walking towards the courtyard, I have Sarah give us a rough explanation of what had happened.

“That stupid girl took things way too far! And poor Rodinet was so shocked that he ended up collapsing. He went down pretty hard, but since they were standing on the grass, I think he was okay. When I left, Rodinet was still passed out on the ground and Wood was taking care of him while also giving Leila a good scolding.”

Leila must be a whiz at ravaging people’s mental health. He put a guy on the ground and I’m sure Lufrey isn’t fairing much better right now. The only reason we had Lufrey tag along in the first place was as protection for Leila, but the poor guy’s probably going crazy having to deal with the mess that perv’s made.

“Oi! What the hell did you do to Flügel!?” Oswell cries, frantically charging towards Sarah.

So says the attempted murderer. How ironic. Does he really have the right to be asking that in this situation?

“Nothing! All we did was have him talk with Leila!”

Right, all we did was wake the prince from the beautiful dream that he thought he was living in. We just made him face reality.

We had Leila call Flügel out and explain to him just what sort of person he is on the inside: ‘I like women.’ ‘Guys can all go and eat sh*t for all I care.’ ‘I have a hobby of flipping up girls’ skirts.’ ‘In order to see girls naked, I train my skills day and night.’ The list goes on and on. We planned to have Leila just tell Flügel the truth about himself. And since such an abomination can’t really be considered a girl, we figured Flügel’d be devastated enough to fall out of love with him.

When I said he was going to suffer a miserable fate, I was talking about this. Absolute, soul crushing disappointment. With a likely chance of never being able to trust women again. That was all. We weren’t going to kill him or torture him or anything. At least, that was the plan. But it seems like that pervert went and overdid things. Again. Which was completely unnecessary considering the prince’s nature.

The hidden character, Flügel, is a somewhat perplexing type of yandere.

One might call him a “pursuer of perfection.”

If it’s for the sake of achieving his idea of perfection, he’ll do anything and everything regardless of the consequences. As a person who will become the next king, it’s not really a bad trait. Since he’s a perfectionist, he’ll do everything in his power to become an ideal ruler. He’ll spare no effort in amassing the knowledge and wisdom to be a great monarch, so in a way it’s a great characteristic for him to have.

But, unfortunately, that obsession didn’t lead him down such a path. Instead of focusing his efforts on becoming a great king, his whole world started to revolve around Leila. Flügel’s every thought and action became driven by him. Which is why he must have come to the conclusion that he needed to eradicate everything and everyone that came close to Leila. He didn’t just want Leila to be his, he wanted to create a world in which he was the only thing that mattered. And he wanted to become someone that suited Leila perfectly. Which is why he couldn’t come after me himself, but had to send his servant to do the job for him.

“What in the world did that guy say to him…..?”

“Terrible things, Cecile. Things that you and I wouldn’t dare repeat.”

Sarah’s face turns pale and she clutches at her stomach as if even just the memory of Leila’s words were making her feel sick. It must have been a storm of words that aren’t fit for television. Or maybe they were even worse than that.

I kind of knew something like this would happen. So I couldn’t exactly send Leila in by himself. For him to use such vulgar, repulsive language with a prince who has completely lost touch with the real world and who considers Leila to be an ideal woman…. things could potentially get out of control. So I planned to send Leila along with another person to act as his guard, but finding someone to do that was more troublesome than you would think. Ever since that day when he publicly went off on Alec, the rest of the students in school have tended to avoid him.

So, that means finding someone to protect him was completely up to me. But, it’s not like I have a lot of friends either….. However, I do have someone that owes me a favor.

“Hey, Sarah…. I did what you asked, right? I got Leila out of your hair, so that means that you’re in my debt, wouldn’t you say? So there’s no way you’d refuse to do a favor for me, now would you?”

I approached Sarah like so and although she was extremely reluctant, she ended up agreeing without much fuss.

Leila was ecstatic at my choice of defender, but I couldn’t bear letting her go alone into the lion’s den like that. Even if Flügel didn’t do anything to her, I could hardly trust Leila to leave her be. Which brings us to our next defender…. Lufrey Wood, thank you for ‘volunteering’. Thank goodness you’re an actually decent person. But, I really do feel bad for doing this to you, so I hope you’ll give me the chance to apologize for using you like this someday.

It was easy to convince him to help though, because of his good-natured personality. I just said that Leila was going to encounter a dangerous person. I told him that I didn’t think his life would be in danger (since the other party is extremely attached to him), but that I was worried about him, so I was hoping that Lufrey would protect him.

I purposely phrased it in a way that would weigh heavily on his conscience, so although Lufrey didn’t look happy about it, he couldn’t ignore my request. He ended up accepting it as well. He did have one condition though. He wasn’t too keen on having anything to do with Leila, so he told me that he doesn’t want to know any of the details of what is going on.

And that was fine by me. But since we had Lufrey on board, we then wondered if we really needed to have Sarah there as well. Was there really a need to involve her in all this? But in the end, we decided to have her tag along as a messenger so if things went awry, we would know. Which turned out to be a great decision on our part.

And since Lufrey was there as well, Sarah’s motivation became sky high which helped everything proceed smoothly.

Except for one thing: with Lufrey being there, Leila ended up being in a bit of a foul mood.

And possibly as a consequence of this foul humor, he ended up spouting all those dirty words and being way more explicit than he had to be. So, once again, he’s managed to ruin what should have been a great plan for us.

“That sh*tty brat!!”

“Hey! Aniki! Don’t ruin Gray-Sama’s gentlemanly image when there are other people around!”

“Blockhead! Don’t call me Gray-Sama. It’s so gross! And you run so slow. Can’t you go any faster?!”

Less bickering. More running!

Though, I have to agree with the sh*tty brat comment. That’s… he is. He truly, truly is.

“Ojousama.”

“What?”

“Excuse me,” he says, and then scoops me up off the ground mid-stride, settling me effortlessly into his arms.

Being carried by someone is nerve-wracking on its own. But imagine being carried by someone who is sprinting full speed ahead. It’s absolutely terrifying!

“Ah! No! I’m scared! Put me down!”

“If we were to go at your pace, the sun will rise before we get there, Ojousama. So just be good and hold still, please.”

Yeah, I’m slow. But not that slow! Even at my pace, we’d still get there way before morning arrives!!

The moment we near the courtyard, we hear the sounds of an argument taking place. And as we open the door we’re greeted by the sight of Leila and Lufrey grappling with each other. At their feet lies our country’s prince collapsed on the ground, eyes closed.

Seeing this scene, Oswell tries to rush forward but ends up being yanked back since Rona is still holding the chains attached to his handcuffs. Which is a good thing. We can’t exactly let an attempted murderer go running freely over to his accomplice! But at the same time, I’m a little perturbed by the fact that Rona seems so used to all this. Just what sort of life has she been living up until now?

“I can’t stand that high and mighty attitude….!!!!”

“Quit it with the false accusations, you female molester…..!!”

They’re actually on good terms with each other, aren’t they? To just be pinching and scratching each other’s faces like that makes it seem like this is just a little spat between good friends. Lufrey must have given Leila an earful for having said way too much. But there’s no way that Leila would just take that lying down. He probably refused to listen to Lufrey’s scolding, things escalated, and here we are with a nice little physical altercation on our hands.

“Leila! What did you do to him!?” I yell, shoving my way out from Ashley’s arms and darting towards them, wedging myself in between the two.

When Leila sees me, his face lights up.

“Cecile! Listen! It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

No, I’m 100% certain that this is your fault. You definitely did something. And don’t shove your face into my chest like that!

“Hugh, that b*stard! I thought he was supposed to be my friend! But that as*hole had ulterior motives for acting all friendly!”

“….I’ll listen to what you have to say for the time being. So, what exactly did you end up saying to him?”

“I’m sorry for calling you out so suddenly,” Leila says theatrically, putting on a shy, innocent expression. He seems to be reenacting the scene for me. “I’ll be a bit embarrassed if I’m wrong, but Hugh…. Um…. You see me as just a friend, right?”

Wow. That face is so unbelievably cute….. it’s such a shame the insides are total trash.

But, it seems like the beginning of the conversation wasn’t the problem. If that’s the case, then why is everything so messed up?

Lufrey heaves a huge sigh like he’s at his wits’ end.

“Such flagrant lies. You didn’t talk using that disgusting tone.”

“Wood’s right! What she actually said was, ‘Hey. Would ya stop looking at me with those horny eyes?’ She was being extreme and vulgar right from the start! I was hiding in the shadows just over there so I heard everything!”

That’s quite the good Leila impression, Sarah.

“Weren’t you warned to be careful and to handle this as delicately and as peacefully as possible?” Sarah asks, punctuating her point by tapping her index finger on the top of Leila’s head and smiling ever-so-sweetly. “Ugk!” Despite being so close to a girl, Leila grimaces. He then glares at his two classmates who had just ratted him out. Like this is their fault. You have no right to be mad when you’re the problem here!

“But! But!” Leila stammers. “Who cares what I said? That guy didn’t even care when I said that! ‘I’m seriously in love with you. So I’d like for you to really think about it.’ That’s how he replied! And then he brought his face close to mine!!”

“Wow…. I’d love to have someone say that to me…” I murmur dreamily.

“Alldington-Senpai, me too! That sounds amazing!”

“Right?” I say, glancing over at Rona and sharing a fangirl moment with her. Leila doesn’t seem capable of sharing our enthusiasm, so he just stands there pouting in dissatisfaction.

But on the other hand, Sarah is nodding along with Rona and I. If you’re actually a girl, I guess it’s pretty normal to long for such a situation to happen to you. Plus, to have a hot guy say something like that to you…. I don’t think there’s a girl alive who wouldn’t feel at least a little bit happy about that.

‘I’m seriously in love with you. So I’d like for you to really think about it’? If someone were to say that line to me, I don’t think I’d even need to think about it. I’d probably end up saying OK without even thinking twice.

“He said, ‘I’m seriously in love with you’…. Has anyone ever said that to you guys? No one ever has to me.”

“No one’s said that to me either!”

“I’d like to hear…. Wood say that to me someday…”

To have not only Sarah and I fangirling like this, but to also have Rona standing there excitedly chattering on with us, the three of us must have made quite the bizarre spectacle. The couple of actual boys standing around are all staring at us with a dubious, glazed over look in their eyes. All except for Ashley.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll say it.”

“Ashley, let’s have a nice, long conversation after this. Because you don’t seem to have any sense of TPO. You need to learn how to read the mood and choose your words accordingly.”

Gray-Senpai, who’s in danger of being completely forgotten, is looking at me with this unbearably frigid gaze, and Lufrey isn’t much better. With a face full of scratches, courtesy of Leila, he’s looking at me with these tepid eyes like he’d literally rather be anywhere else other than here.

“Oi! Flügel better be okay!”

“He’s fine.”

At Oswell’s frantic outburst, Lufrey is the one who answers. His reply comes immediately and his tone is super nonchalant, like he’s seen it all before.

“He’s just had a bit of a shock is all. Cause of that female molester. Just where did you even learn that from? Those filthy words?”

To cause someone to collapse just by saying a few words, what a horrifying guy. Even if you take into account the fact that the prince probably grew up in this perfect little bubble of a world, I’m sure whatever Leila said was outrageously over-the-top.

“Mister Wood, I’m sorry for getting you involved in all of this. Are you okay? You must have been pretty shocked as well…?”

“At this point? Nothing can shock me anymore…”

Ah, he must have built up an immunity to it. You have my sympathies for having to deal with that atrocity for so long.

“When do you think he’ll wake up?”

“Should be anytime now. It probably only took me like a couple of minutes to come to.”

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

Oh. So when you first encountered Leila, you also ended up collapsing. Seriously, I am so sorry you’ve had to deal with this.

I’m about to express my sympathies when I see Flügel’s eyelids start to flutter open. Ah! Not like this! Not yet!

“Sarah! Hurry up and take this toxic waste away from here!” I say, snagging Leila by the collar and shoving him over to Sarah with a bit more force than was maybe necessary.

“Whaddya mean toxic waste!? Isn’t it all thanks to me that we were able to solve things peacefully!?”

Peacefully? It’s thanks to you that the prince fainted in the first place!

“Why do I have to be the one to take care of this thing!?”

“You…. did you already forget that you owe me? And just who do you have to thank for actually being able to have a fun school life, huh?”

“Ughh….”

‘If I knew you were this sort of person, I would have thought twice about asking you for help,’ is what your face is saying right now, Miss Cosgrove. But isn’t it a bit late for that? You should’ve done your research. My personality has always been awful, you know?

But she doesn’t say anything. She just reluctantly leaves the courtyard, dragging Leila behind her, with Lufrey following them out. Okay, good. In the end, I guess everything turned out alright.

“Flügel!”

“Oz…?”

Somehow, despite still having the handcuffs restraining him, Oswell breaks free from Rona’s grasp and rushes over to his master’s side. He falls to his knees in front of where Flügel is lying. With his hands behind his back and to have him kneeling in that way with such a forlorn look on his face, the scene looks almost surreal. Flügel sits up, his back ramrod straight. He gives Oswell a good, long look from head to toe.

At the same time, I take the chance to look closely at Flügel for the first time. His face and mannerisms really are befitting of a prince. I just never noticed until now since my focus was always on Rona (as a possible hidden character candidate).

“Thank god you’re okay…!” Oswell cries.

“Oz, what happened!? What’s with that look!? Your face is black and blue!” Flügel yells back, his voice full of concern. He looks genuinely worried for him. He looks him over again to assess the extent of his wounds, but then he finally notices me standing a ways off behind Oswell. When our eyes meet, his whole face stiffens.

Which, all things considered, is a reasonable reaction. Since if his plan had succeeded, there’s no way I would be here right now. I wouldn’t be anywhere in this world anymore.

“Cecile Alldington…… You…. As expected, it really did end up like this.”

“To say that you expected this to happen, may I take that as a compliment acknowledging my abilities, Your Highness?”

Flügel nods his head towards me then smiles while glancing at Oswell before replying.

“Yes. When this guy mentioned meeting someone unlike anyone he’s ever met before, I didn’t know what to think. But you really are unique. I can clearly understand now how Oswell fell for you.”

“…..Does that mean that you ordered him to kill me because you knew that he had come to like me?”

If that’s the case, isn’t that way too cruel?

He may be a prince, but I can’t help but be rude and stare at him a bit reproachfully. But Flügel doesn’t seem to care. At my words, his gaze drifts away from Oswell and back to me, but his easy smile remains in place.

“Oz wouldn’t be able to kill anyone.”

At that, we all stare at Flügel in surprise. Even Oswell himself seems taken aback by his words.

“He’s already a criminal. So he knows. He understands just how painful it is for one person to kill another. So I figured that Oz would end up coming back without being able to kill you. It would have at least served as a means to keep you in check though. After using Oz to hurt you, I had intended to send a warning to you myself. To tell you to stay away from Leila Morton.”

Looks like we hadn’t been wrong about his motive. It’s true that his feelings for Leila had been what drove him to act.

“I already knew that Oz wouldn’t be able to kill you, but since he’s always obedient to me, I knew he’d still try his best to carry out my orders. I thought that you’d probably end up with some minor injuries and be a bit shaken, so I planned to threaten you afterwards not only to drive in the point but also to tell you this: ‘I ordered Oz to kill you. But he didn’t. You owe him your life,’ or something like that.”

For what reason could he have for telling me that? ….Is what I’m about to ask when Flügel continues speaking.

“Since you’ve always got that faithful dog of yours following you around, I didn’t really think that Oz had any chance of winning. So I thought I’d help him out a bit. ….I never had any intention to actually kill you. Though, it’s true that I intended for you to get hurt. And even if I did have an extra purpose that wasn’t self-serving, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m the one that had the most to gain from all this. So I’ll accept any punishment that you see fit.”

“So are you through with Leila now?”

“Wow. You really are quite vicious, asking me that so soon. Though I suppose I don’t have much right to complain considering I conspired to have you physically hurt.”

Honestly, I’m so mad right now that I just want to give a good sock to the face, but I can’t resort to using violence against a member of the royal family. Ashley, you too. Please, I’m begging you. I’m holding myself back here, so you need to find the strength within yourself to do the same. If you go crazy on him, then we really might end up having to commit lover’s suicide together. Let’s just forget this so we can both live on happily.

“But, Your Highness. None of us are in a position that would be able to even attempt to punish you.”

We could report what happened to the academy of course, but they would undoubtedly just cover up the whole thing. And if we attempted to punish him ourselves, then our heads would literally fly. This guy should have already realized that though, which is probably why he was so willing to  ‘accept any punishment.’

“Yes. Well, that certainly limits the punishments that you can give me but…. if it’s within my power, I’m willing to do whatever you ask of me until you feel satisfied. No matter how disgraceful it might be.”

Oh no. I just imagined something that I shouldn’t have. Hopefully Ashley will forgive me.

Going off of Rona’s expression, she’s probably thinking along the same lines that I am right now. No matter how disgraceful it is? Like, for instance, dressing him in woman’s clothing? Or, possibly, making him and Oswell pose in compromising BL positions?

Rona and I exchange looks. She’s smirking so devilishly and I’m sure I must be smiling in the exact same way. We’re both definitely imagining the same scenarios. Ah, that would be so great. Too bad I don’t have the courage to actually ask for that.

“Well then first off, from now on please do your best to build a good relationship with all of us. Also. The Randolph Dukedom. The Morton Barony. The Wood Earldom. The Cosgrove family. And my family, the Alldington Viscountcy. As the next king, please promise to let all of our houses prosper in the future.”

Since each and every heir to these houses are trustworthy people who are worthy of such grace, such a request shouldn’t be hard to accept. And, this way I can stop any of our houses from falling into ruin like the plot of the game suggests they might.

“I believe impartiality and equality is one of the most important aspects of being a ruler, but….. So long as no one finds out about this, that shouldn’t be a problem. I shall do as you say.”

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh……

What was I thinking? Why was I acting like such a goody-goody? If he was going to say yes that easily I should have asked for more. I should have asked for him to give me some land or something. I’m sure Father would have appreciated that…. Wait, no! I should’ve demanded he elevate our rank! I could have let Father become a Marquess or a Duke!

Though…. Would Father actually be happy with that? He’s such an upright person that if we were to get our hands on a higher rank or land in that way, he might not actually be happy. He’s a man who doesn’t need much to be satisfied with his life. In the first place, the only reason he received a title at all was because he was a hard worker, not because it was something he dearly wanted. He’s the type that will be happy with just the little things in life. As long as his wife’s there, everything is great. Or so long as he has his daughter around, he’ll be content. Rather than offering him a rank and land as a gift, he’d prefer that I make handmade sweets for him.

“Also, until you all graduate I will leave this academy in your care. I’ve caused much more trouble for you than I should have, so Oswell and I will take our leave once things have been settled.”

I only have a small number of friends, so it feels kind of lonely to have one of them drop out so suddenly like this. But of course…. that doesn’t mean I have any intention of interacting with him or Oswell in the same way as before. Now that I know Oswell’s weakness, I don’t plan to just let that information go to waste. I’m going to make him work off his transgressions against me.

And as for Flügel, if he were to leave this academy for no apparent reason, I doubt his father would just let that go. He’d dig and once he realized that we were somehow involved, there’s no way things would end well for us. So….

“You two. Especially Your Highness, Flügel…. How could we have you leave? You should stay! And while you’re here, please take over the role of monitoring Leila Morton for me. You have my heartfelt gratitude for taking on such an important job.”

I’ll just have them take over perv-watch from now on. They can stay, and I’ll be free!! It’s a win-win for everyone.

“Wha…..–“

“Hm? Your Highness? Are you alright? You seem unwell all of a sudden? Your face has gone rather pale. –But, you did say that you would accept any punishment, did you not? Your Highness?– No, no. I’m not questioning your sincerity. I know you would never lie about something like that. I was just wondering aloud. Please don’t pay my rambling any mind.”

This sort of punishment should be well within reason, right? Just think of this as minor payback from a Viscount’s daughter