Chapter 18
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess — Episode 18
Once again, he found himself questioning it. Kael stopped sparring and stared at Rosana.
Even the way she bit her lip and frowned whenever the training overwhelmed her was radiant.
Kael slowly closed his eyes, then opened them.
"I don't know what I'm looking at. Are you really the same lady I knew?"
"I have my doubts as well, Your Highness. It seems we may have brought back a different person."
Kael could not deny the absurd remark. He had just been thinking the very same thing.
"Huff, huff! When do I get to hold a longsword? I want more detailed instruction."
"That will be difficult today. I believe you need to build up the fundamentals first. Of course, given the circumstances, we will move quickly, but I still think it is too early."
"Ah . . . I was looking forward to it!"
Rosana clicked her tongue in disappointment and rubbed her cheek. She looked like a dejected puppy.
Truly unlike himself, Kael burst into a hearty laugh.
It felt as though hot sunlight was seeping into his heart, which had been sealed tight like an ice castle. The rigid line of his mouth finally softened. Kael covered his eyes and laughed freely.
He could not remember the last time he had laughed so easily.
Or whether he was even laughing properly.
Or why he was laughing at all.
He simply laughed. As if it had spread to him from Rosana.
Rosana had been someone who could not even open a bottle cap for fear of breaking a nail. On the rare day she chipped a nail or damaged her hair, she would tremble with a pale, stricken face.
'Ah, Father . . .'
'What? What are you trying to say? My lady, don't make a fuss over something like this. It's nothing—'
'It isn't nothing! My nail just broke! Ah, I can't—I can't!'
And then she would not even leave the house until her nail or hair had returned to its original state. Rosana had been that exhausting a person.
"......Perhaps her environment was what had been ruining her."
"What do you mean by that . . . ?"
Kael frowned slightly. Rosana joining the expedition had made no sense from the beginning. If her claim that she had volunteered was a lie—if he discarded that premise and reconsidered everything—
". . . What sort of man is the Duke of Ardena?"
"Well, he is known to cherish his daughter."
"And so he sent that daughter here?"
"Ah . . ."
Millus's eyes went round.
Kael narrowed his eyes and sank into thought. Perhaps the ducal house held a secret he did not know.
Once he stripped away the assumptions that had been imposed on Rosana, other things began to come into view. Rosana as she really was.
* * *
A few days later, one evening.
Ever since seeing Lillia's small feet, one thought had not left my mind.
I had to teach the children something.
Among the young children, some had been adopted into families as substitutes for people meant to join the expedition, while others had been pushed forward simply because they came from powerless collateral branches. Thinking about children dragged all the way to a battlefield against their will made my chest tighten.
Lillia and the other children were completely defenseless. They were all only around ten years old—what difference would it make to shove a sword into their hands?
If the kids learned even how to run, hide, and buy time, their odds of survival would rise. In the original story, nearly all the children were wiped out; Seraphine grieved over them while Kael fell into darkness. Did the story really need that?
I wanted to save even one more of them. So after the march and our meal at camp, I gathered the children that evening. Fortunately, perhaps because Lillia liked me, the others came along easily too.
"Kids, starting today we're going to play a fun game."
As soon as dinner was over, I called Lillia and ten other children together to a clearing. Every one of them was glancing around warily, but their faces were full of curiosity. Lillia stood in the very front row, her eyes sparkling.
"Rosana, what kind of game?"
"Are we playing with dolls? House? Then I want to be the mom!"
"Not that. Tag."
"Waaaaah! Tag!"
I planned to draw on everything I remembered from my previous life. I would adapt the camouflage and early-warning techniques drilled into me endlessly at training camp until even a ten-year-old could understand them. Well, in its own way, it really was a kind of tag.
I pulled a length of string and a few bells from my pocket. They were cheap bells I had bought in the market, but they were good enough for this.
I tied the string low between the trees and hung the bells from it.
"Now, what happens if someone touches this string?"
"Jingle-jingle!"
The smallest boy shouted excitedly. The loose shoes he wore looked twice the size of his feet. They had clearly been handed down from someone else.
"That's right! It'll make a sound, won't it? You run away without making a sound! I'll be the monster. What am I going to be?"
"A monster!"
"What happens if the monster catches you?"
"Aah, it eats you!"
"Right? So you run away carefully so the monster doesn't notice you. Can you do it?"
"We can do it!"
"Then shall we start by tying the strings?"
The children swarmed over, raising their hands and insisting they wanted a turn. I couldn't help smiling as they squabbled over who would go first. Even amid this ruined reality, the children's laughter remained pure. Lillia was beaming among them too.
I paired the children up and scattered them across the clearing. Lillia was paired with a prim little girl with her hair tied in two pigtails.
The children burst into giggles. One child who nearly fell while scattering grinned broadly and scratched the back of their head.
"We're all done tying them!"
"Then we start now!"
The children began carefully fleeing through the traps we had set up. More than speed, I wanted them to learn how to escape without being noticed. Standing still with my eyes closed, I could hear their muffled giggles and sense them scampering around.
The children really seemed to think this was just a game. But I believed it would help them at some point.
I believed that, when the moment came, it could save their lives. I wanted those kids to survive and see the light with me.
The next day, we played a different game. If you play the same game every day, you get sick of it. If they had learned how to run, then they also needed to know how to hide. The children crowded in front of me with shining eyes.
"Now, today we're going to play hide-and-seek."
"Waaaaaah!"
I stood the children at one side of the clearing and explained the rules. I was the seeker. The children would hide within a designated area, and if they reached the tree on the opposite side without being spotted by the seeker, they won.
"What if we get caught?"
"Then I'll tickle you!"
"Eeeeeek!"
The children burst into laughter again.
"But the winners get a special prize."
I took a pouch from inside my clothes and showed them the dried fruit. In that instant, the look in the children's eyes changed completely. Lillia was already licking her lips. It was a snack the children would love.
"Start!"
At the signal, the children scattered in a rush. They all hid behind trees, among the bushes, under the supply carts. They had apparently tried to use their heads, but every one of them had a hem or the tip of a shoe poking out beside their hiding spot.
I deliberately pretended not to see and passed them by. There was no way monsters would notice even clumsy signs like those. Every time I passed by, I could almost hear those tiny hearts pounding.