Episode 91
"...Haa."
Klana, who had been staring blankly with tears flowing the moment she saw Prey, only came to her senses after he started frowning at her.
"Th-this is... I mean..."
Hurriedly wiping away the tears sliding down her cheek with her hand, Klana tried to make some excuse but couldn't say anything.
Because she didn't even know herself why this phenomenon was occurring.
"Ugh, uuu..."
To make matters worse, now even her hands started trembling.
"...It's nothing."
Due to the unknown symptoms that had been tormenting her for several days and her inexplicably heated heart, Klana, who could neither do this nor that, ended up slumping onto the sofa and muttering weakly.
"Hmm... so that was true."
The 1st Imperial Princess, who had been watching that sight, muttered in a low voice, while Prey asked with a listless expression.
"So, what is it you want to talk about? I'm a bit busy right now, so I'd appreciate it if you could tell me quickly."
"Well, I'm sorry but it seems the story will be a bit long."
The 1st Imperial Princess, who had regained her composure at some point, answered Prey, then looked at Klana who was still wrapped in mild panic and added.
"Of course not me. It seems Klana has a lot to say."
"Sigh... then it can't be helped."
Prey, who sighed at the 1st Imperial Princess's words, gave orders to the girls who were lying prostrate in front of him in a wrecked state.
"Go play with Lulu in the next room. Those who fight know they'll go hungry."
It was an insulting tone that didn't even treat the girls in front of him as human beings, but the girls simply bowed their heads with dead eyes.
"Lulu, see you a little later?"
"Haa... y-yes..."
Prey, who spoke with a gentle smile to Lulu who was following them out with a pale face, hardened his expression once they left and asked.
"So, what is it you want to talk about?"
"Ah, well. It's about the support request from the Cloud Kingdom. You're aware that a secret meeting is being held at today's birthday party, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"I came to tell you the location."
As the 1st Imperial Princess said that and looked at Klana, Klana slowly raised her trembling hand and snapped her fingers.
"Ah, w-wait a moment."
But perhaps because her hand was trembling, only a faint light leaked out and nothing happened, so flustered Klana started snapping her fingers repeatedly.
"Chirp!"
"...What is this?"
After snapping her fingers for a while, a small canary popped out and sat on Prey's shoulder, and Klana spoke with an effort to look calm.
"Th-that bird will guide you to the location."
"That's right, just follow that bird. Well, I've delivered all the messages, so I'll be going now."
"You're leaving already?"
When the 1st Imperial Princess, who was watching the scene, raised the corner of her mouth and stood up, Prey asked with a puzzled expression.
"Ah, there was something I originally intended to talk about... but now it doesn't seem to matter anymore."
Then, the smiling 1st Imperial Princess answered with a wink.
"Please keep doing that from now on too, Prey."
"Yes? What do you mean by..."
Prey, who heard those words, tried to ask with a still confused expression, but the 1st Imperial Princess waved her hand and left the room.
"........"
And when only Prey and Klana remained in the room, a long silence began to flow.
.
"...Have you been well?"
"No."
Prey, who had put on a nonchalant expression, broke the long silence and asked me. When I answered immediately, he sighed and asked me again.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"First, explain about those girls earlier."
When I questioned him about what happened earlier to Prey who asked calmly, he said with a shameless expression.
"Well, it's nothing special. They're slaves I keep."
"Slaves... you say?"
"No, rather than slaves, they're pets. I do give them affection."
Hearing those words, I began to speak in a cold voice.
"There's going to be a meeting about the slave market in a little while... and you're tormenting girls our age, treating them worse than slaves."
"So, you're going to assassinate me?"
When Prey sneered, my heart heated up again. Just like it always did whenever I thought of his voice over the past few days.
'Again... it's starting again.'
My hand hidden under the desk started trembling again. No matter how much I clenched and unclenched my hand to stop the trembling, it wouldn't stop.
"Just kidding, kidding. Why are you overreacting like that?"
"...I'm not in the mood to hear jokes."
Glaring at Prey who was asking questions as if teasing me, I raised my voice and shouted.
"You! What did you do to me..."
"Oh right, I have a gift to give you."
But when Prey interrupted my words and took out a box from his bosom, my voice wouldn't come out of my throat as if it were a lie.
"It's a sign of reconciliation. Take it."
"Huuuh..."
"Klana?"
When Prey finally spoke with a calm expression, I lowered my head deeply and fell into thought.
'As I thought... there's no doubt. Prey did something to me.'
For the past several days, thoughts of Prey wouldn't leave my head.
Moreover, whenever I recalled his face or voice even a little, my chest would heat up and my hands would tremble wildly.
At first, I suspected that I might have fallen in love with Prey, but soon concluded that couldn't be the case.
There's no reason I would come to like Prey, whom I hated enough to want to kill, whom I actually tried to kill, overnight.
Then there's only one answer.
That Prey, bearing a grudge against me, did something.
'Just now... he said "assassinate me too," right? Given that, Prey is indeed...'
Did he perhaps notice my assassination plan and is taking revenge using the Demon King's power?
No, even if he didn't notice the assassination plan, he has plenty of reason to do something like this to me.
After all, at the last ball, he said he would play with me and then discard me.
"Don't open that box."
Having reached that conclusion, I said to Prey in a cold voice.
"What?"
"Did you think I wouldn't know? Whatever gift is in that box, it's surely something that strengthens the spell you cast on me. Am I wrong?"
Prey, who heard my words, made a puzzled expression.
"If not, what reason would you have to give me a gift? Tell me."
"I told you, I want to reconcile."
"Do gift boxes given as reconciliation gifts contain dark magic power these days?"
Anger surged up.
Prey, holding out a box that radiates dark magic power in front of me, is so hateful, and I want to kill him so much.
But my heart keeps racing and my hands keep trembling.
It's as if my brain is commanding me to hate him, but my heart is telling me not to.
"I asked Kania to get this gift, so dark magic power could have mixed in, why make a big deal about that?"
"Stop lying. Did you think I wouldn't know you did something to me?"
I extended my trembling hand to him, who still had a shameless expression.
"Just seeing you... no, even just thinking of you makes my hand tremble. What is this?"
"...Ah."
Prey, who heard those words, made a flustered expression for a fleeting moment.
And in that instant, something inside me snapped.
"Put away that box. I don't need any gift from you."
"Should I take that to mean you don't want to reconcile?"
"Were we ever in a relationship where reconciliation was possible?"
When I said that, Prey shrugged his shoulders.
"I thought we could be."
"I don't think that will ever happen."
Saying that, I stood up and said with a deeply furrowed brow.
"I hate you so much, Prey."
"Is that so? I like you."
"Watch your mouth when you speak."
"It's true."
Then Prey spoke with a calm expression.
"I don't know well why your hand is trembling, but I didn't do it. I'm certain."
"Just how long are you going to keep lying..."
I, who was about to explode with anger at such Prey, suddenly stopped speaking at a thought that crossed my mind and began to recall the situation from earlier.
'...Certainly, something was strange.'
The flustered expression Prey made earlier was somewhat strange.
It wasn't the shameless expression or the vile expression he usually made when caught doing something wrong... he made a genuinely flustered expression.
And most importantly, there was not a single bit of malice in it.
Until he handed over the gift, he had his characteristic shamelessness when doing bad things, but when he made that expression just now, it was like that time, as if he was worried about me...
'Wait, like that time?'
I, who was connecting thought to thought, momentarily stopped thinking at a word that suddenly crossed my mind.
What is 'like that time'? Has Prey ever worried about me? No, in the first place, would there be a reason for that...
"Anyway, you don't need this gift, right? Then, just get out."
"Until the end... you're not going to tell me what you did to me?"
"Well, I didn't do anything."
Looking at Prey who was gesturing for me to leave with a tired expression, I hurriedly started heading for the door as my hand began to tremble again.
"Are you really not going to take this?"
Hearing Prey's words from behind as I grabbed the doorknob, my hand started trembling again.
"I-I don't need it. Any gift from you."
Eventually, to hide my agitation, I answered in a deliberately cold voice and quickly exited the room.
"Good. Did you successfully ruin your relationship with Prey?"
"...Haa?"
But when I left the room, someone with their face covered by a veil grabbed me and whispered in a low voice.
Startled, I looked to the side and quickly realized her identity.
"Rosewin?"
"Judging by your expression, it seems you've ruined it quite thoroughly."
Rosewin, who said that, winked and began to whisper.
"Then, let's start the operation now."
"N-now?"
"Of course it has to be now. A heartbroken man is easily swayed by even small temptation."
Having finished speaking, Rosewin, with smiling eyes, started heading toward the room where Prey was.
"W-wait...!"
"Hmm? What is it?"
Seeing her like that, I unknowingly called out to stop her.
Why am I acting like this?
"Ah, no... no, wait. I mean..."
"Hehe, don't worry."
When I was flustered, Rosewin raised the corner of her mouth and said to me.
"I'll perfectly steal Prey from you."
Having said that, Rosewin opened the door to Prey's room and naturally went inside.
.
"Ugh, uuu..."
Klana, who had been blankly staring at the firmly closed door, began pacing anxiously near it.
"Why am I like this... why on earth..."
I tried closing my eyes and meditating, taking deep breaths, even biting my nails, but the anxiety wouldn't go away.
"...Uuu!"
Klana, who had been pacing anxiously for a while, hurriedly headed somewhere.
"It's for Rosewin's safety. Prey might cross the line."
Eventually arriving at the balcony of the room where Prey had been, Klana began resonating with the golden canary she had placed on Prey's shoulder earlier.
The canary Klana summoned was one she mainly used to talk with when she was lonely and no one knew, a technique she had never shown Prey even once until now.
Therefore, certain that she would never be caught, Klana connected her sight and hearing to the canary and began checking the situation inside the room.
"Prey, why do you look so glum?"
"No, just... something happened."
Eventually checking inside the room, Klana slightly frowned seeing Rosewin asking questions with her hand on Prey's shoulder.
"By any chance, were you rejected by Klana?"
"No... it's not that. I just tried to reconcile..."
"Was this a reconciliation gift?"
When Rosewin tilted her head with a puzzled expression, Prey spoke with a sullen expression.
"Rosewin, would you even take this?"
"I'd love to. I welcome any gift."
"...Even though if you take that, you'd have to date me?"
When Rosewin spoke with twinkling eyes, Prey laughed and tested her.
"How is it? Want to take it? Or not?"
"..........."
"Just kidding, kidding. Next time you visit the information guild, I'll give you a better gift then..."
"...Give it to me."
"What?"
Prey, who was shaking the gift box in front of Rosewin and then trying to put the box back in his bosom with a sullen expression, started to make a flustered expression when she snatched the gift box.
"W-wait. Why are you taking my gift..."
"Hmm... quite elegant wrapping paper. It must have been hard to get."
When Rosewin, who interrupted Prey's words as he was about to say something with an expression saying he couldn't understand, praised the wrapping paper, he started to make an awkward expression.
'T-that box is...'
Klana, who was watching that scene, muttered with a pale expression as Rosewin started reaching for the box.
'It's definitely dangerous...!'
From that box, dark magic power was definitely felt. So if she opens that box, Rosewin will be in danger.
"I-if she opens that..."
Thinking that, Klana hurriedly tried to control the canary connected to her, but with her hand trembling again and solar mana not coming out, she turned around with a pale face.
"Oh my, what is this."
"Uh... that's..."
Klana, who was heading toward Prey's room biting her nails with an anxious expression, ended up biting her finger hard when she saw what Rosewin took out of the gift box.
"Is this... something you prepared for Klana?"
"No, just... it was displayed at the very front of the flower shop... and how can you touch that..."
"Are you lying in front of me? How cute."
What came out of the box was neither a mass of dark magic power, nor a spell scroll, nor a cursed necklace.
"But still, for it to be a canary flower... and seeing as it's yellow, the intention is too obvious."
It was just a yellow canary flower inside.
"...Huh?"
Klana, who was blankly watching that scene through the vision of the canary sitting on Prey's shoulder, muttered with a trembling voice.
"That can't, that can't be true...?"
It was right from that moment that Klana began to feel that something was wrong.