Oh, I Have Never Abandoned That Tyrant - Chapter 2
This princess has been notorious since she was young. It was understandable that the courtiers were trembling from a distance, and the families who gave a lot of love gradually gave up, so it was worth knowing even if they didn’t listen carefully.
“You can’t die. Why don’t you go out and calm yourself?”
“I can’t believe the princess cares about my heart…! I’m truly going to die in peace.”
I nodded as if I knew and got up from my seat.
“I’ll leave now. If you need it, please call me anytime.”
Norman quickly stepped down at the same speed as the light, wiping away tears, perhaps noticing that it was really time to get out.
There was a careful sound of the door closing. The sound of the dress following my steps filled the room.
Soon my steps stopped in front of a large mirror. The sight was still full of unfamiliar appearances.
Long, wavy platinum-colored hair and big eyes as if holding a sparkling emerald sea. A beautiful girl full of freshness was looking back at me.
‘Alicia Astad.’
The youngest princess of the Kingdom of Astad, who was struck by lightning seven years ago. Her heart suddenly stopped beating and this year when she turned 18, it started beating again when I opened my eyes in her body. A stranger that was not even mentioned in the original.
But what shocked me more than that was that the year of Lari’s death was seven years ago.
‘I can’t believe seven years have passed since I died and came back to life in another body.’
At first, I couldn’t feel the seven-year gap at all. While I was curious about Thierry, the news made my shock grow even bigger.
The boy, who is already 20 years old now, exterminated the imperial family three years ago and ascended to the throne to become a ruthless tyrant.
‘That gentle kid… He used to hold my hand tightly at night because he was scared…’
Did he meet the female lead? That’s why you became emperor? Was the original like this? I didn’t think so.
“Yeah. If it went as it was, I wouldn’t have been questioned. In the first place, the villa is difficult for outsiders to visit, so it doesn’t make sense to infiltrate it unless you intend to.”
During the six years there, no one was interested in us, let alone Thierry’s father, the emperor. The villa that no one was looking for was like our own fortress, but out of nowhere, someone came and killed me.
Seeing that Thierry grew up safely, it was clear that they were aiming for a maid, not a prince from the beginning. I opened my eyes from another body now to see what kind of harmony it was, but as a result, my death was too dubious to say that I was fortunate to be revived.
What do you mean, the second possession?
This strange phenomenon should also be pointed out seriously, but I was at a loss where to start looking into it.
‘…Hoo, I’m getting a headache.’
It’s too much right now, but I think I’ll have to secretly find out about the villa situation someday, but I’m not sure if it’s possible now.
Who was the intruder who killed me seven years ago, and what happened to the villa after that? I was just at a loss because these were problems that I couldn’t recognize by myself.
But there was only one thing that was clear. That my life now is completely out of the original content.
“Should I say that it’s a relief?”
It was a feast of question marks for a while, but when I thought about it carefully, I thought it was not a bad way to end my relationship with Thierry.
I maintained a good relationship with Thierry, but it was to keep me alive.
‘Although that last promise to be together… In fact, that was also a promise that would naturally not have existed when Thierry grew up. If he meets the original female protagonist, he will be busy loving her regardless of whether I was a maid or not.’
I am now a princess of the kingdom irrelevant to the original plot, and Thierry established his empire with his own power.
Time has changed a lot, so it was right not to look back on the relationship that ended by drawing a new future in each place.
‘I’m going to be fine.’
However, as if this was not the end, the relationship with Thierry continued horribly after that.
***
“There might be a war?”
“Last year, the Tahel Kingdom collapsed. But the next place that was pointed out was our kingdom.”
“How could he come this far…”
“I guess the Emperor of Podia is looking for something.”
I was on my way to the restaurant. The maid’s chatter heard in the corner hallway attracted my ears.
‘If Podia, Thierry?’
I slowed down and moved toward the corner.
“What is he looking for?”
“I heard they are digging for information about elves.”
“Elves? Haven’t the elf races been gone for a long time?”
“That’s what I thought, but wouldn’t it be a secret seeing that he’s digging everywhere? Anyway, I’m worried that the war buff will really come all the way here.”
To say that it was just gossiping, there was sincere fear and deep sigh in the maid’s voice.
“I heard he’s a tyrant who will remain in history for a long time, but it’s scary just to hear it.”
“There are all kinds of rumors. When he was young, he suddenly went crazy, and when he lived with blood instead of bread…”
The sound of the maids’ words gradually grew farther away. In an instant, it became quiet.
‘Thierry will come here? To fight a war…?’
I stared at the air as a stiff person.
‘It’s probably a false rumor, right? There’s gossip everywhere. It’s overflowing. Haha…’
I tried to laugh it off, but unlike my heart, my face gradually became teary.
‘What the hell happened? Why did the cute Thierry grow up like this?’
I know well that Thierry was not destined to live a great life.
However, to accept the comments about him casually now, the image of a child with steadily shining eyes while we have been together for six years since the age of seven was vivid in my mind.
And even our first meeting.
“My name is Lari. I will be serving your Majesty in the future.”
Although he is from a royal family, Thierry has been alone since birth. Crumpled clothes, untidy hair, and pitifully slender cheeks.
At first, I was anxious to know that the future where Thierry would kill me, but as soon as I saw the fragile child, the thought flew away.
I looked at Thierry staring at me with an emotionless face and smiled with a bent eye.
“Can I hold your hand?”
After slowly getting down on my knees and looking at Thierry, I asked carefully, and waited patiently for an answer. With both hands outstretched, I held the palm-opening position for a while.
“…”
I didn’t know how much time had passed. About the time my legs were numb, Thierry’s hand brushed against mine.
“…Thank you.”
I tried to break his boundaries, but the reaction was quicker than I expected. I was prepared to be ignored for some time. I squeezed that little hand.
As if waking up in the novel to let me know that this place was real, the warmth of the child’s hand was transmitted.
At that moment, I could feel it. That I couldn’t go back to where I used to live. And that I was truly alone.
From now on, this will be my reality.
Feeling like I was about to cry for some reason, I wrinkled my eyes slightly and muttered.
“Warm.”
It was the warm body temperature of another person that I felt for the first time when I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar world. The eyes staring intently at me reflected my crying face. There was an emptiness in the child’s eyes that reflected on me.
I impulsively whispered to the child.
“Your Majesty, you are with me now.”
Thierry, who was staring blankly at my face smiling broadly while hiding my trembling lips, soon nodded weakly.
***
I rubbed my forehead with one hand and tried to erase the blurred memory.
“At this rate, I don’t think we’ll recognize each other even if we run into each other.”
Because we’ve become so different from what we knew. I took a step, spitting out a small sigh.
But I stopped in front of the carpeted central staircase shortly after.
‘Whew, why are there so many stairs here?’
Perhaps because of a previous death, there has been a trauma on the stairs since I lived as Lari.
It’s okay to go up, but I’m scared and anxious because I think I’ll lose my footing when I go down. So when I went down, I had to hold the handle and go down slowly.
The villa I used to live with Thierry was on the first floor, so it was okay, but here, the bedroom is on the second floor…
“Your highness, are you holding my hand so that I don’t fall down?”
Suddenly, the cute boy, who nodded, crossed my mind.
I couldn’t go often, but sometimes I went up and down the stairs to clean the second floor. But maybe he noticed that I was anxious about the stairs, and at some point, when I stood in front of the stairs, Thierry approached and held my hand first.
‘He was so cute… I’m sure he grew up to be a really handsome guy, right?’
My heart melted into the afterglow of repeated memories. It wasn’t to this extent as soon as I woke up, but it seemed like this because of the rumors that I might encounter him again.
‘No, no! Get a hold of yourself. Even if we encounter each other, we will reunite in the worst situation. It’s good for us to live without encountering each other.’
I shook my head from side to side, shaking my thoughts. Then, after taking a big breath, I held the stair handle tightly and carefully lowered one foot down the stairs.
***
A month has passed, but the dining table was still awkward.
Neither the feast I saw for the first time in this world nor the noble sitting at the table and eating food with several people have been adapted. Besides, my family, who reacts burdensome-ly to every step I take, made this place even more burdensome.
“Alicia.”
“Yes?”
I lifted my eyes and looked at a handsome man sitting opposite me. The first of my two older brothers with platinum blonde and emerald eyes was Padel Astad.
“These days, your walk time is longer than usual. Aren’t you overdoing it?”
“It’s okay. I’m controlling it properly so that it doesn’t strain my body.”
When I answered with a light smile, Padel stared at me with a curious expression.