Chapter 375
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 375
Chapter Title: That's Really Impressive.
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Clearly, a smile adorned her face.
Yet that voice pierced the heart like icy thorns, cold and sharp, bringing down frost.
"Isn't it ridiculous?"
In that frozen space.
Li Chingwei lifted her teacup.
And as she savored the fragrant black tea Rose had brewed, she continued softly.
"That a knight nobler than anyone else would betray his friendship and even sell out his country to become a traitor."
"……."
"Well, that's love for you, I suppose."
A force that could redeem villains or corrupt lofty heroes alike.
That was why love was said to be so grand.
She spoke as if in admiration.
Then Li Chingwei smiled faintly.
"Now, shall we rewind the story?"
"……What story do you mean?"
"The tale of the knight who betrayed his friend and kidnapped the princess."
The novel hadn't ended yet, she said with a chuckle.
Li Chingwei set down her teacup and continued the story.
"Word of the knight kidnapping the princess reached even the battlefield."
"The rivals who'd started a war just to steal her away were furious at suddenly looking like dogs chasing after a chicken."
"Furious enough to chase the knight all the way to a distant island nation."
Like reading a fairy tale to a child.
Or recommending a book to a friend.
With a beaming smile utterly devoid of malice.
"The knight fought his best against them but was ultimately captured and met a gruesome end."
"But then, an unexpected figure appeared to save the knight."
"The prince he'd betrayed."
The knight might have turned his back on the prince for love, but the prince still considered him a friend.
Friendship was an emotion as profound as love, she murmured in admiration.
Li Chingwei continued.
"Only then did the knight realize how grave a mistake he'd made in betraying the prince, and he repented."
"So he released the princess and vowed to serve the prince loyally until death to repay the favor."
"Thanks to his loyal knight's aid, the prince overcame all rivals and finally married the princess."
After defeating the desert king.
Subduing the northern grand duke.
Sealing the demon king with the princess's blessing, and more.
She recounted the prince's, knight's, and princess's tumultuous adventures with delight.
"In the end, the prince wed the princess, and the knight served her as his lady for life, always by her side."
"And so the three lived happily ever after."
"A splendid happy ending, right?"
Too sticky for a fairy tale.
Too vivid for a novel.
After staring at Li Chingwei, who smiled faintly upon concluding what sounded like a blueprint of a tale, Rose finally spoke softly.
"……Yes, quite an entertaining story."
"Right? I especially love the friendship between the prince and the knight."
One might mistake it for hearing of an acquaintance's death—Rose's face was that rigid.
Yet Li Chingwei never lost her smile.
"To abandon even the love he threw everything away for and pledge loyalty instead... That's something only true friendship could inspire."
"……."
"I want to be friends like that with you."
"……."
"The kind of true friend you could entrust your most precious partner to without hesitation."
A touch shyly.
With anticipation.
Li Chingwei smiled faintly.
Her smile seemed so joyful, like a girl making her first friend.
"……So."
But Rose didn't smile.
She merely gazed at her with eyes dark as the abyss.
"Like that knight, if I don't grovel at your feet like a dog for life, will you tear me to shreds?"
"What do you take me for?"
She denied it, insisting she'd only shared a story and wondering why Rose would misunderstand it so darkly.
But Rose had seen it.
Through all the innocent smiles, shyness, and surprise—like a pure girl.
Her obsidian eyes, deep and murky, hadn't wavered once.
That was why.
Rose wasn't surprised by her next words.
"Of course, I'd be delighted if you became such a friend."
"……."
Not a threat.
Not a deal.
Not a plea.
Words that, at first listen, sounded like a genuine desire for friendship.
Which was why they forced Rose to imagine the consequences of refusing—and she closed her eyes.
She hadn't thought she could just brush it off.
She'd only hoped she could.
But reality was cruel.
Li Chingwei already knew of her betrayal and sought retribution by taking everything from her.
She couldn't blame her for being ruthless.
The fault lay with Rose from the start.
From the moment she'd betrayed the Seven Dragon Society and spurned Li Chingwei's goodwill to choose one man instead, she'd known it would come to this someday.
Clink.
That was why Rose lifted her teacup.
The tea leaves she'd personally fetched from the Serpent Earl's estate to keep her promise to Li Chingwei.
After staring into the clear, transparent black tea she'd brewed herself, which rippled gently.
She flicked her wrist.
Splash!
The next instant.
Scalding black tea spilled out.
Her beautiful dress soaked through.
Blood-red tea dripped down the hem in droplets.
"……Rose?"
"Oh dear, what a blunder."
Perhaps because it was so unexpected.
As Li Chingwei blinked in surprise.
Rose murmured softly.
And, as if she weren't the culprit who'd spilled it on herself, she wore a faint smile.
"At this rate, I'll get burned, so I should take off some clothes."
As if mere tea could burn her.
She muttered matter-of-factly, as if it were the most natural thing, and began unfastening her tea-soaked uniform.
Swish.
The long coat slipped off.
The sturdy outer layer peeled away.
The shirt beneath came undone.
The moment her bare skin peeked through the loosely opened collar of the disheveled shirt.
"……."
Li Chingwei's face, watching her inexplicable actions, lost all expression.
Skin white and pure as white jade...
No—skin that should have been pure, marred by red marks.
True to a princess with dragon royal blood, even battle wounds had vanished without a trace.
Yet someone's marks, etched so deeply they remained vivid, captured Li Chingwei's gaze.
And there weren't just one or two.
Between her elegant cleavage.
On her rounded shoulders and smooth abdomen.
Along her hollow collarbone and slender arms.
As if claiming ownership.
Intense marks etched across every inch of her body, fully revealed through the thin, clinging wet shirt.
Rose slowly raised her hand.
"Li Chingwei, in that novel you just told."
"……."
"Do you think the knight who kidnapped the princess left her untouched until the prince came looking?"
Her fingers glided over the 'male' marks on her body, making them even more prominent.
Rose smiled.
Unlike her usual faint smile.
Intensely vivid.
Beautiful.
And sweet.
"If I were that knight, I'd have seduced the princess somehow during the kidnapping."
"Devouring her body from head to toe, marking her as mine until she fell for me completely."
"……."
"To borrow your words, yes—like a dog in heat drooling after her."
Having abandoned country, friends, and pride to fall into depravity, becoming a 'beast' would have been easy, she asserted confidently.
Rose continued.
"Even if it meant being torn apart by her other suitors, the knight wouldn't have regretted it."
"……Why not?"
"Because at least the princess would grieve for the knight she loved."
"……."
"And one more thing."
Staring straight at the black-haired girl whose expression had vanished.
She spoke with a smile.
"The ecstatic time spent monopolizing the princess for three days and nights would have been worth staking his life on."
"……In the novel I read, the knight had the princess for more than just three days."
"Then all the more so."
If death was the price for ravishing the world's most perfect, scorching body at will, it was a bargain, she said as if it were obvious.
Rose added offhandedly.
"Thinking that way, the ending of your novel makes sense too."
"It does?"
"Yes. The part where the knight serves the princess as his lady for life."
"……."
"As you know, Li Chingwei, in noble society back then, a knight serving a lady meant a legally sanctioned affair partner."
In an era where marriage was politics.
Nobles who could only wed for alliances craved true love.
Thus arose courtly love—chivalric romance (Fin'amor), where lovers were tacitly permitted.
The origin of what we now call romance, she pointed out with a smile.
Li Chingwei asked without smiling.
"……So even if the princess married the prince, she truly loved the knight?"
"A prince who married for his country, versus a knight who abandoned his country for her love. It's obvious which way the princess's heart would lean."
"……."
"Especially if the prince incited monsters to attack her kingdom just to marry her."
Marriage to the prince would be mere formality.
With true affection.
Stealing kisses in secret.
Pressing bodies together through the night.
She was certain the princess's passionate times were with the knight.
Rose trailed her long, slender fingers along the deepest mark on her abdomen.
"In that sense, yes, it's definitely a happy ending."
The prince gains his kingdom.
The princess finds happiness.
The knight enjoys heated trysts.
Thus, the three could live happily ever after, she said with a smile.
"If that's the kind of friend you want, like that knight, then yes. I could gladly become one."
With a face pure and innocently lovely.
Yet wearing a smile that could never be called chaste or pitiable, Rose met her gaze silently.
Finally, Li Chingwei spoke softly.
"That's welcome news, but I'm not sure the prince would forgive the knight even knowing his true feelings."
"He surely did."
"Why?"
"Killing the knight would have earned the prince the princess's eternal resentment."
"……."
"Plus, he absolutely needed that knight's power."
For his country.
Because he truly wanted the princess.
Or for some other goal.
A prince ruthless enough to seize her by any means would have, Rose was certain.
She remembered.
When she'd confronted Li Chingwei upon first suspecting Lemon's Dragon Psionics.
Li Chingwei's answer: she'd hidden the truth to protect the Seven Dragon Society—and more than that, him.
Of course, she was the Black Dragon Princess.
A girl who was lies incarnate.
But if there was even a shred of truth in those words...
"Even if he saw the knight whispering love to the princess and ravishing her body right before his eyes, he'd permit it."
No matter what.
Li Chingwei couldn't reveal the truth.
If word spread that neutral Rose had betrayed them all, the Seven Dragon Society would plunge into civil war.
"……Just how depraved did that knight become?"
"To the depths of the ocean floor."
She hadn't expected Rose of all people to stake her life—not to mention the society's fate—on such blackmail.
Smiling back at Li Chingwei's cold stare.
Rose added one more thing.
"But that's not the only reason I'm doing this—it's not just because I've fallen."
"Then why?"
"Because I can't trust you, Li Chingwei."
Dropping all metaphors.
Casting aside empty pretenses.
Rose fixed her with cold eyes, her mask-like smile gone.
"I can't understand why you're so obsessed with uniting the Seven Dragon Society, even at the cost of giving him up."
"……."
"So I'll say it upfront."
She'd never intended to cooperate with Li Chingwei.
The Black Dragon Princess was someone who might betray you at any moment once trust was given.
Thus, Rose declared.
"If you betray the Sword Duke, I'll kill you."
The society's strongest in a fair fight.
The ultimate assassin if she abandoned honor.
The princess declared this to the first girl she'd ever considered a friend.
And slowly rose.
"But if you give your all for him to the end, and he wants you too..."
Leaning forward deeply, her shirt gaping to fully reveal the red-marked cleavage between.
Close enough for breaths to mingle.
Rose whispered in Li Chingwei's ear.
"I could lend him to you sometimes."
Even in a political marriage, it was pitiful for a bride not to bear her groom's seed.
She'd allow this much, she said, smiling again.
"Because we're friends."
Like the Blue Dragon Princess she was.
A merciful, gentle smile.
But those blue eyes held base pleasure.
The vulgar face of a beast that had bitten through a rival's throat to claim the desired male, steeped in immorality and possessiveness.
"Think carefully about my proposal, Li Chingwei."
Crackle.
"……."
With that intimate whisper.
Leaving behind her discarded coat and uniform, Rose vanished through space without a trace.
Li Chingwei stared at the empty spot for a moment.
Then drained the remaining tea.
She set down the empty cup and reached under the table, pulling something out.
A cover depicting a dashing prince.
A beautiful princess.
A stalwart knight.
As if prepared as a gift for someone.
Bound with a blue ribbon—the novel titled The Princess's Happy Ending.
After staring at it.
Thud.
Li Chingwei tossed the book into the trash.
She rose from her seat and murmured softly.
"Friendship really is impressive."
Admiration?
Regret?
Or scorn?
A soliloquy no one would know.
With that, even Li Chingwei left the room.
Left in the empty reception room were two things.
The black tea, still brimming in the cups though surely cold by now, and the book in the trash, still adorned with its pretty ribbon.