The Extra Saved the Terminally Ill Princess and Ran Away
Ah… that ring? It’s actually the hair accessory I gave you, reworked into this ring. I thought it would be better if the person I loved received a ring like this.
The only place I could ever be with Lily.
When I asked about the ring at the Swordsmanship Top Student Training Ground, that was Lily’s answer.
She tilted her head and scanned my eyes with suspicion, wondering if I was angry that she had reworked the gift I gave her into a ring.
Since she thought the ring I gave her was the accessory I’d given her long ago, she must have read my blank expression as a misunderstanding.
With two sapphire eyes brimming with anxiety, she took one step toward me.
“No, no… it’s not that. It’s just that my eyes were so sharp I didn’t even notice the thing I myself gave her… I’m sorry you made this ring for me just to remember me. I’m so loved I lost my words.
I took a step forward to apologize, and then stopped mid-step as something suddenly clicked in my mind.
Was our relationship always like this?
Before Lily lost the title of Empress, we were the only two precious friends in the world.
After she lost it, we became a head-lowering sinner and a victim who leaned into anger.
After I faked my death, she became a girl who coldly rejected a commoner swordsman’s heart to protect her chastity toward the person she loved.
But right now?
This girl whose eyes could be seen as pitiful enough to captivate even a king’s heart if she only wished for it.
Her figure was so delicate that a man’s lust would stir at the sight.
Was it that this country’s most beautiful girl was lacking in appearance alone, or that even her bloodline made her as unreachable and perfect as some imagined woman?
Even the flowers that smelled of spring around her were so beautiful she looked as if she would wither at a single glance.
As the princess of the highest rank, she had been utterly merciless to every man who approached her, never forgetting the one she loved.
Now she was staring at me with a side of her heart still carrying the fear that she would be abandoned again.
From the interrogation room to my training ground, even though she had come to stretch before the tournament, those eyes never left me for even a single second.
If there had been even a trace of effort to pull away, I would have been grateful, but her eyes clearly showed no such intention.
That was the moment I stopped my steps and spoke the words that came out.
To recall our twisted relationship, I spoke lightly.
“How could I, a mere attendant, tell Your Highness how to behave?”
“Eh? Eh? Finn…?”
As I sighed loudly and deliberately avoided her gaze, she reached out with her thin hand toward me, sensing I was about to pull away.
“Why are you making that face?”
I told her the reason behind my actions.
“Didn’t Your Highness tell me to uphold the line?”
The cold rejection she had once thrown at me, thinking I was just a reader named Kim Bin.
“Eh…?”
Her lips trembled and refused to close, as if shocked.
I made a face that showed I was deeply wounded, as if the unnaturalness was clearly visible, hoping she would catch on that I was joking and react to it somehow.
“Then how could this attendant discuss right from wrong with Your Highness, a princess? I must know my place as a commoner. I will uphold the line, just as Your Highness said.”
Tock. Tock. Tock. Tock.
“W-What, Princess…?!”
Tock.
Seeing Lily begin to create transparent tears that rolled down her cheeks, I called out to her urgently, but it was already too late.
“Hik…!”
The tears were already streaming endlessly down her cheeks.
“I-I was… that was what I said because I thought you were Finn… hik, it was a joke…!”
This idiot.
Why would you cry like that? You should have at least made the joke better.
“Sorry for being cold… but… I couldn’t help it either….”
Squish. Hoping Lily would stop crying any more precious tears, I pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her head.
Lily’s shoulders still shook as she sobbed uncontrollably in my arms.
So I gently stroked her hair and whispered, “I was too reckless with my words just now. It wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.”
“It was just a joke… even if it was a joke that made the person being joked about cry, please stop crying, Your Highness….”
“Hik…! Y-You’ll never call me Your Highness again…?”
“Of course not. Which servant in this world would spout such nonsense? I’ll go deal with that attendant myself.”
Who, exactly?
I sighed silently, knowing Lily couldn’t see my expression.
It was a sigh born from the fact that the situation I had feared had come to pass.
From the beginning, I had never intended to reveal to Lily that I was Finn for the rest of my life.
Even if she had discovered the fact that I had sacrificed for her, at that point I thought there was no point in spilling the secret after building up so many ties with Veri.
What kind of character was she?
She was incredibly dependent and obsessive toward her core focal point.
Yet if I, now Veri, had become that new focal point for her, and I revealed that I was Finn?
Wouldn’t she just be patting me on the back and comforting me instead of overcoming the pain of the past Finn?
If that happened, she would simply become my pet.
A woman who would follow my every whim, barking when I barked and wagging her tail when I wagged mine, like a slave… no, even below a real slave, just a pet.
Some people might like that kind of woman.
Powerless to control a beauty? No, it’s not even a fantasy to understand.
But I don’t deal in that kind of relationship. What kind of bullsh*t is that?
Where is the love and consideration in that kind of relationship? I don’t think it’s even a relationship a normal human could pursue.
Anyway, if both of them loved each other, wasn’t it fine? If both were satisfied, there was no problem.
Because of that, I wanted to toy with the woman who had a dependent nature, order her around, and watch her tremble at my words.
I wanted a woman who would gladly spread her legs when I told her to and receive it without complaint… that was just a matter of preference. At least I didn’t fit that category, so I shook my head.
I didn’t want Lily to become my pet or slave.
I just wanted a life partner to share love with and walk alongside.
That was why I had thought I would never tell Lily for the rest of my life that I was Finn, and I had even planned to find an artifact for permanent appearance change to achieve it… but
Now that she was trembling from my open joke, a hollow sigh escaped me.
The joke I had thrown out to recall our relationship of constantly watching my every move had only solidified the situation further.
The thin ice of reversing master and servant status in an instant.
Of course, if I walked carefully, we could maintain an extremely normal romance… but I didn’t trust the meticulousness of a man like me.
I would definitely mess up somewhere, and that would make Lily tremble like a trauma sufferer.
So, to bring this twisted relationship back onto a normal track even a little, the best judgment right now was to use whatever means were necessary the moment something happened.
The most important thing was to ease her guilt toward me and her fear that I might abandon her again.
Lily, her tears having stopped but her trembling hands still clutching my collar in my arms.
Sarak.
Just then, as I also sat there pondering without a clue what to do, stroking her silky hair with her, there was a knock.
“Berry-nim, the tournament preparations are complete. Since the main arena has collapsed, the final has been rescheduled to be held outdoors specially, so please come to the plaza in front of the main building as soon as preparations are finished.”
Grace, appearing at the most perfectly timed moment as always.
But this time, since I didn’t even know what to say to Lily, she became the perfect excuse.
“Your Highness, shall we head back to the main building first?”
“Y-Yes… uh….”
Even though her face had been pulled from my chest, Lily still couldn’t loosen the hand clutching my collar.
Her eyes were still filled with all sorts of anxiety, so I stroked her hair to calm her.
“Your Highness.”
“What… Finn?”
“This final is a special event match, and there’s a notice that we’re allowed to use our original weapons.”
“That’s right…?”
“Then this attendant will make sure Your Highness can stand proudly in the special box and watch the shining full moon. How about it? Aren’t you looking forward to it?”
I smiled confidently as I said that, and Lily pointed out the window to me.
“It’s… daytime right now?”
To the Lily who was asking what full moon I would show in the middle of the day, I answered with a clever smile, using the term she would have thought I had used for something I did for her sake.
“This one who was able to raise the brilliant sun in the night sky to protect Your Highness, if Your Highness would only promise to smile at me, could I not show her even one moon in the daytime?”
For you, I could light the sun in the night sky and even bring a nonexistent moon. That was the promise I had made.