Chapter 114 – I Was Always Standing One Step Behind
As Rosanne shed her tears, Rio went right up to her.
“Hey… Rosanne.”
“I betted 3 gold…”
Three gold was about three million won in her previous life.
“Why… why did you bet so much?”
Bella was embarrassed and soothed Rosanne.
“Because I'm Lady Bella’s lady-in-waiting, so I bet on you…”
The reason was actually a bit different.
She didn't want to bet that the man who dumped her would win. Besides, she bet everything she had to flatten Kiehl's high nose. Of course, she didn't expect that Bella would fall over on the man's lips and she to lose her three gold.
At that, Bella quietly tapped Kiehl's side with her elbow.
“It’s because you beat badly.”
“Who provoked in the first place?”
Bella thought he would open his wallet and take out her three gold pieces.
However, Kiehl…
“According to Imperial law, all gambling over ten silver is illegal. If you don’t want to go to jail, give it back, Iwer.”
…Spoken like a Crown Prince.
At that mont, Rio looked at him blankly and then clapped his hands.
“…Your Highness. Do you only look at the law at tis like this?”
The three gold was theirs, so they didn't want to give it back.
Iwer also hesitated, but Bella also helped a bit.
“Yes, Iwer. Give Rosanne’s money back. Or lose your neck? Choose.”
Things seed to be settled neatly.
Zanbar, whose pride was hurt by the defeat of the demon king whom he trusted rather than money, began to take offense.
“Little boy. You’ve been wanting it since you were a kid! How dare you try to beat our princess!”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I raised him, but he didn’t even know grace. Even demons know grace!”
He gradually approached Kiehl, rembering that Kiehl had taken Bella's heart in the demon realm.
“I recognized you the mont you pointed your sword at the princess!”
At that mont, Bella stood in front of Kiehl.
“You guys are the ones who made a fuss about saying that the warrior appeared and had to be killed.”
“If I had known it was the Young Master, I would have stopped him first.”
She chuckled at the bewildernt and kicked Zanbar in the knee.
“Then, why don’t you put a doorbell on the demon king’s castle? Don’t you rember when you went to watch in droves?”
Just as Zanbar was about to beco quiet with an ‘Ack’ sound, Jenkins asked what he had always been curious about.
“By the way, the Young Master is as tall as . Did Miss recognize him at a glance?”
“…Huh?”
She knew that it was Kiehl who would enter the Demon Realm anyway.
“The demon realm is a bit dark. The Young Master was short when he was young, but now he is as tall as .”
“Well. I almost didn’t recognize him. How many years since we’ve last seen each other? 4 years?”
Bella turned her head to look at Kiehl.
“…2859 days.”
“Did you just say any number?”
He smiled a little bitterly and pinched Bella's cheek.
“Seven years and nine months…”
“Is that so?”
“And 25 days…”
Bella didn't listen to Kiehl's words and reached her hand over his head.
“I'm sure he was this big the last ti I saw him.”
Then, with her other hand, she pointed towards her chest. The next mont, Rinne pushed Rio's back.
“Kiehl grew taller and taller in just a few years. When Rio doesn’t grow even 1 cm.”
“What are you talking about?”
While the twins were fighting each other, Rosanne, who had received the three gold back, felt uneasy. She carefully raised her hand with her face looked terribly scared.
“Then… perhaps Lady Bella… is a demon?”
She was even more afraid of what happened after that.
Like a scene from a scary story that she heard as a child, she didn't even blink an eye as she looked at Bella all the ti as if ti had stopped.
“…She did not know?"
Kiehl turned his gaze to Rio, and Rio turned to Bella.
“Why didn’t you tell her about it when you were always together?”
“…The Demon King is Rosanne’s employer, right?”
Bella excused herself by fiddling with the back of her neck.
“No, since Iwer said she was a demon… I thought you would know, Juan Cruelle also noticed, since we share the sa room, of course…”
A cold sweat broke out on Rosanne's back.
“I-I was keeping an eye on it, too. I wasn't sure, that’s why I'm asking now.”
“Really? I'm glad. I thought I made a mistake again.”
Bella let out a relieved sigh.
When the ti ca for the sun to slowly set, Rio asked Rosanne.
“Is Rosanne going back to your quarters?”
“Huh? Yes.”
“Co with . I’ll see you off.”
He offered to see Rosanne off. After a little distance from the group, he asked about what happened a little while ago.
“Is this the first ti you’ve heard that Lady Bella is the Demon King?”
“…Is she the Demon King?”
Rosanne said she noticed, but in fact, she didn't even suspect it. She thought it was because it was called the Animal Kingdom in the first place.
“It's confidential, so I'd like you to keep it.”
“But Kiehl… is it okay if Lady Bella is the Demon King?”
Rio sighed heavily.
“He would have liked Lady Bella even if she was a worm.”
“Haha, Really?”
Rio covered his mouth for a mont, but Rosanne rather laughed funnily.
“Are you okay? You, Kiehl…”
Unable to bear the words, ‘You like him,’ he glanced at her.
Rosanne rembered the day she took the potion. Kiehl was a bad person to Rosanne, and she really wanted him to really be a bad person.
— “Kiehl, the person you like… they say she’s a demon.”
— “…So?”
— “You can’t be with demons.”
— “Who said that?”
— “Lady Bella.”
Rather, Rosanne was the bad person to him.
— “I decide my fate. Not you.”
He was just a wounded lion struggling for life. No one seed to have heard it properly, but the words Kiehl said clearly continued to ring in Rosanne's ears.
— “… 2859 days.”
— “7 years and 9 months… and 25 days.”
How desperately he searched for her, the words did not reach Bella, but reached Rosanne. Like her, who couldn't confess for fear of being rejected… he must have been afraid of it and hid it for so long.
The wind was blowing, and she could sll the hot sumr.
Like the last night during the relic trip.
“Rio. I felt like that day was destiny…”
She always thought it was destiny that ca to her, who wanted to travel away from the County.
“…When I first t Kiehl.”
eting Pur and going to that old mansion, it felt like everything was destined for Rosanne.
“Though he was looking for Lady Bella from the beginning.”
Uttering so, she glanced at the setting sun dyeing the sky red and yellow in the distance.
“You know, Kiehl never really liked .”
The brilliant afternoon when she looked at the sunset and thought of the end, and the sunset always followed the night.
“But, why did I like him?”
She could tell for sure when she saw the two of them together.
Kiehl was not the person she had known.
He was not the one who led the journey away from the County. Maybe that was why, even when she saw Kiehl kissing Bella, her lost three gold ca to mind first. When she felt the sorrow in his eyes toward Bella, she thought that it would be good for the two of them to do well.
“Because it is the first freedom I get, because Kiehl is the center of the trip. I guess that felt like my destiny.”
Rosanne spat out her words, revealing her own doubts one by one.
“I didn’t like Kiehl.”
“…Rosanne.”
Tears flowed from Rosanne's eyes and down her cheeks.
“I liked the feeling of destiny.”
When her tangled thread was unraveled, as if everything would be solved, Rosanne felt like everything was sorted out.
“I put an illusion on my own that Kiehl is the one who will save .”
Rio slowly put his hand on her shoulder.
“I knew from the start that Kiehl didn't care for . I like that fantasy…”
“….”
“That’s why I forcibly continued my feelings.”
“Rosanne…”
“If this is what I get by insisting that this is my destiny, I don’t think it is my destiny.”
Rio slowly lent his shoulder to Rosanne.
“I am stupid.”
People say that Rosanne was frustrated, always stupid, and got caught up in accidents. The Rosanne that Rio saw was just more understanding and broad-minded than the others.
“Because you are a good person, good things will co to you in the future.”
And seeing her understand and accept herself for the first ti, he patted her on the back.
* * *
While Rio went to see off Rosanne, Rinne volunteered to escort Kiehl alone. Bella dismissed the demons and quickly approached them.
“By the way, are Rio and Rosanne very close?”
Then, Rinne clicked her tongue as he watched her brother walk away.
“It looks like he is chasing her one-sidedly.”
“Don’t guess for nothing.”
Rinne looked at Kiehl's eyes and shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s not a guess. That's a reasonable doubt.”
“Do you have any evidence?”
She cleared her throat imdiately.
“Listen, Lady Bella. Kiehl gave Rosanne a mission.”
“…Rinne.”
Kiehl glared at Rinne, telling her to stop but she ducked to Bella’s side and continued talking.
“Because the Crown Prince shouldn't get involved in the contest, he hung up sothing like a handkerchief as a sign to co out at night.”
Bella knew this, too.
“But even though Kiehl never called her, he hung a handkerchief every day.”
Even Kiehl didn't know about this, so Kiehl frowned as he tried to stop Rinne’s mouth.
“…Rio did?”
“It is. What do you think, it seems like he’s chasing her one-sidedly right, Lady Bella?”
Rio should have died in this novel in the first place.
“Yes…”
Maybe this could lead Rosanne to her happy ending, she thought. When she suddenly saw a positive future, Bella praised herself.
“Well, I have a good sense for things like this.”
“….”
“Do the ladies call a master of relationships for no reason? Just looking at it, it's obvious that Rio likes Rosanne!”
Kiehl looked at Bella with a bitter look. Even though he didn't understand when she showed off like that from a young age…
As they arrived at the main palace, he grabbed Bella's wrist.
“…Bella.”
As Kiehl halted his steps, Rinne turned around and went on her way first.
“Because I won the bet…”
He lowered his body closer to Bella and tempted her.
“Sleep with tonight.”
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