Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
POV: Violet
“Are you okay, Vi?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve calmed down now.”
Exhausted from the haunted house, we were taking a break in a place without many people around.
To be honest, if I wasn’t found out, I would have liked to have toured around the school festival with Lord Clo and the others until it was time for the play, but I really couldn’t afford it. It was clear to me that if I didn’t recollect myself, nothing good would happen during the play.
“So that’s what a haunted house is like. It was my first time, but it was fun!”
“T-there was an arm… flowers, I don’t want to see white flowers for a while…”
Gray and Amber went in after us, but Gray seemed to have come out enjoying that fear instead.
He enjoyed the students melting and flowers changing into hands with his eyes shining, looking even more reliable than the terrified Amber, who was still trembling while clinging to Gray’s arm.
By the way, Burnt apparently took on the challenge alone and completed the haunted house by closing his eyes midway through the darkness. I knew he had a good hearing, but I feel like that’s somehow the wrong way to challenge a haunted house.
“It’s almost time, let’s go.”
Lord Clo checked the current time and urged us to go to our original destination, the theater.
It’s time already? We didn’t have much time to start with, but it looks like we might be in trouble if we don’t leave soon.
“What is it time for?”
“We were invited to the play as VIPs. We have to give a brief greeting to others who also got invited before the play starts. ‘Oh, so you were invited too. By the way, how have you been lately? Hahaha’, kind of like that.”
“Nobles seem to have it hard too…”
“The nobility is especially concerned with appearances. Besides, since we were invited by somebody else, we can’t just be absent for no reason.”
“I’ve heard rumors that the invitations were sent in the name of a royalty.”
“Yes.”
The word that we’ve been invited in the name of the royal family has also spread through the academy? Just who spread it?
Although this play is performed by the students, the plays, tournaments, and the parties at the Azalea academy school festival serve as social events to some extent. Lord Clo doesn’t like the noble society, and he himself is unlike other nobles, but if the invitation is from a royalty, he can’t ignore it. Our position is already bad as it is; we cannot disobey the orders from the highest authority.
“Can I come with you halfway? I don’t have a VIP seat, but I do have a ticket.”
“I don’t mind it. Is that okay, Lady Violet?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
When we agreed, Kriemhild seemed delighted from the bottom of her heart. As usual, she’s so expressive that just watching her makes one feel happy. Her radiant smile is something I’d love to be able to do too. I’ll probably be too embarrassed to do it too.
… Come to think of it, I remember that Apricot and Emerald said something about Kriemhild’s smile making them uncomfortable before. They said something about it being a different type of smile. I wonder what they meant by that. That being said, they couldn’t explain it in detail themselves. I quite like her though; she reminds me of Lord Clo somehow and I find her endearing.
“Rather than that, Kriemhild, is the haunted house going to be fine?”
“In our class, nobody wanted to be left in charge during the time of the play and it almost turned into a battle royale, so we’re temporarily closed during that time period.”
“Is that…okay?”
“Ahaha, but we couldn’t do anything else… Char was especially scary. He looked like he was ready to use his battoujutsu.”
In other words, the whole Luna class wanted to see His Highness’ play.
… His Highness and she are really popular even now.
“Well then, let’s go — hm?”
Trying not to dwell on unnecessary thoughts and looking forward to speaking with Kriemhild to ease my mind even just a little, I felt a commotion around us as we made our way to the theater.
Glancing around, I saw a strange crowd of people a bit away from us, with someone seemingly moving within it.
“Who might it be? Did someone famous arrive?”
“Oh, I know, Kriemhild. This is like when you’re doing an impersonation of somebody, and the real person appears from behind, causing a commotion. The person being impersonated is in the center of that group…”
“You know some strange things, Gray. And you’re probably wrong.”
“Then, this is like a saint discarding a part of the armor worn during her triumphant return to bestow a part of her power to the people, in the end raising the morale of the masses by being left with a single piece of cloth remaining…”
“Yeah, that’s not it either. Tell me the name of the person who taught you that the next time I visit Shiki. I’ll give them a good scolding.”
While Gray was still showing off the knowledge he obtained from who knows where, for some reason, I found myself curious about that ‘someone’.
I felt like that ‘someone’ was heading our way.
I felt that I knew that ‘someone’ very well.
But that should have been impossible. He should have been busy preparing for the play right now, so he couldn’t possibly be in a place like this — yet, here he was.
“I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but it was you after all.”
The person who appeared in front of us was somebody who I wanted to meet, but was unable to.
The person who I had been in love with ever since I was a child, and never doubted that we would be together.
But he was also the one who rejected me in public, saying that he never wanted to see my face again.
“How dare you decide to show yourself in front of us. You’re just shameless.”
He was dressed in a costume for the play and glaring at me with his beautiful purple eyes full of contempt and hostility.
“Don’t you think so? – Violet!”
“Your Highness… Vermillion…!”
His Highness Vermillion, who I loved for over ten years, was standing in front of us.
“”Thank god he doesn’t have orc’s body…!””
“What?”
For now, we felt relieved.