The Sword and The Dress - V2C5 PART7

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Hi folks! My back (or hip to be precise) is getting better 😀 Thankfully I wasn’t seriously injured so I managed to finish editing a half of the chapter. And ‘cuz it’s only ‘a half’, the remaining half will be posted next week. Do remember, this chapter is “incomplete“. Pls come back again next week for the full chapter.n
Here’s the full version of the last part of chapter 5. Next week we’ll move onto chapter 6, the last chapter of book 2. Since ch.6 isn’t that long, I plan to just divide it into 2 parts. And for that reason, each parts will have +/-2300 words (which is much more than my usual average word counts for chapter parts) so I might need longer time to finish it (re:editing). Just wish me luck to finish it within 10 days 💪💪nn
“…, huh?”

So it turns out he doesn’t want to confess. I might have shouted something like ‘if you like someone else, you shouldn’t hide your feelings!’, but uhm… I think it’s also fine for him not to confess and just leave it as it is.

“Then let’s just leave it as it is. There’s nothing that can’t be done.”

“…, but Lord Roel is a man. We can’t keep being engaged like this anymore.”

“…, what?”

Ah shit, what are you talking about now–

“I’m a woman!”

A female! A girl! A woman!!

“…, woman?”

Captain Jullius muttered in a daze. That’s right! I’m a woman!

“I’m a woman! Ever since I was born until this day I’m definitely a woman, I’ve never been a man!”

The pale grey eyes blinked slowly, seemingly contained disbelief, and then they started to regain their glow and became clearer.

“But, that… a woman?”

“Yes.”

“… Lord Roel….?”

He looked like he was recalling about my past self. And then he tilted his head.

“…, a woman?”

“…, although my past appearance didn’t look like a woman, but I’m definitely a woman.”

Although it’s doubtful enough, but it’s true that I’m a woman. I don’t know how to prove it to you when I can’t even dig up my dead body.

“It seems that Captain didn’t know because you didn’t engage much in high society circle, but while it’s quite unbeliavable, it’s a fact that everyone knows about.”

Your first impression of me when you saw me for the first time as you made your debut in high society, must be that of a handsome man– and as things progressed, the surrounding people would start approaching and swarm around the handsome Lord Roel, when in all actuality I’m a woman. Ohohoho, it used to be like this. As such, it’s only natural because when people saw me, the first thing their eyes saw was my appearance and it lead them to recognized me as a man in their minds, hence most of the time they forgot the fact that I’m a woman and treated me as a man. That being said, it made me think of an instance; if a cat looks like a dog, barks like a dog, and acts like a dog, then it’s a dog, even if you know it’s a cat.

“A woman, you said…”

“Yes. I’ve always been a woman, be it in the past or in the present.”

“Then…”

“I won’t be returning as a clergy and our engagement will remain the same. I’ve told you, nothing’s changed. It’s still the same. If we stay engaged like this and presume that nothing wrong happens, then we’re supposed to get married within half a year.”

I looked at him and told him with a smile. Really, did you become like this because you mistaken me as a man? Well, if it’s revealed that the person he’s engaged to turns out to be a man, then he would be taken aback for sure.

“So–“

I was going to say that there’s nothing to worry about but my tongue went stiff. The pale grey eyes that were still looking at me, brimmed with tears. As tears welled up in his eyes, they started to spill over and trickled down his cheeks. Uh, uh, uh–

“Wa, wait a minute!”

Wait! This is a foul! No, don’t cry!

“C, ca, captain! Why are you crying!”

Wha, what to do? I’ve experienced on how to take care of a woman crying several times before, but this is the first time I have ever met a man crying! What should I do?! Both my hands were fluttering around in agitation. What is it? Should I just wipe down his tears? But I don’t even have any handkerchief on me right now. Or should I give him a hug? Can I kiss his cheeks or forehead like I did to the ladies to soothe him? Arghh!! why are you crying?!

“I, I thought I couldn’t be with Miss Epheria anymore…”

“Th, that’s not true! We can still be together! I’m not going anywhere!”

“Miss Epheria… no, Lord Roel.”

The tears-soaked eyes were looking at me. Because his eyes were wet with tears, the color of his eyes looked even pretti– no, it’s not the time for this. As I’ve been wondering on what I should do, I decided to just stand on my knees and stretched out my arms then gave Captain Jullius’ head a big hug.n
“I’m not going anywhere so don’t cry.”

“I really like Lord Roel a lot.”

“I also like Captain Jullius.”

His hand reached out to my waist. But he didn’t hug me in return, he just grabbed the hem of my dress tightly as if he’s desperately hanging onto it instead.

“But I think even though Lord Roel is a woman, for Lord Roel to become Miss Epheria, it didn’t do you any good, so…”

“Why do you think so? I’m not going back as a clergy anymore though? At most, it’s just changing from being a former holy knight to Miss Epheria, an ordinary noble lady. The current situation doesn’t change.”

“I… actually what vice-captain said is right.”

“…, yes?”

He put more strenght into his hand which was holding onto the hem of my dress. Heh, vice-captain? I mean, not our vice-captain(Sieg) but that bastard Luth. It’s about what he said to Captain Jullius back then. As I was trying to recall my memory of it, the sound of horse’s hooves could be heard along with the appearance of a large black horse all of a sudden.

Neigh!

“Blackie?”

After I called its name, Captain Jullius whose head was in my embrace, raised his head. The black horse which had its rein and saddle without anyone rode on its back, lowered its ears and had them pulled backward indicating that it recognized its master. Then Clauen on horseback appeared from behind, seemingly to have followed Blackie n
all the way here. Did he purposely release Blackie to find Captain Jullius?

“Captain!”

Clauen quickly dismounted from his horse then ran towards us, and when he saw Captain Jullius’ face, he immediately shouted at me.

“Why did you make him cry?!”

“No, I’m–“

Well, I guess, to say that he cried because of me is somewhat right. As I gave him a vague answer, Clauen glowered at me.

“What the hell was this woman talking about? Whatever she told you, you don’t need to worry about it!”

“Lor–, it’s not Miss Epheria’s fault.”

Captain Jullius sat upright and wiped the tear marks on his cheeks away using the back of his hand.

“And rather, I was the one who was being somewhat dishonest myself.”

“What?! Wait a minute, Captain! You haven’t told her anything yet, have you?!”

Clauen seemed really flustered and alternately looked at Captain Jullius and me. If it’s about the fact that Captain was once a sacrifice before, I’ve already known about it. But judging from Captain Jullius’ attitude, it seemed that there’s more to it than meets the eye out of consideration for someone.

“Miss Epheria needs to know. She has the right to know.”

Captain Jullius continued to speak to me as he stood up.

“It’d be better for you to learn about it from the High Priest than me.”

“The High Priest?”

That being said, we’ll have to return to the Holy Church so Captain Jullius can receive his blessings anyway. After Captain said that, Clauen jumped in fright.

“Captain! Do you believe in her to the point that you’ll tell her everything?! No, at least you have to discuss it with Ortzen before you make any decision!”

“Ortzen will agree.”

“Captain!!”

Clauen had a baffled look on his face as if he just heard something really absurd, but what Captain Jullius has said was very likely to happen. That way, it’s possible that Ortzen would also know of my real identity. If we’re going to request for their cooperation in catching the Demon King, we’ll have to reveal it, I guess. Apparently the High Priest seemed to know more about Captain Jullius, if that’s so, then as the former Captain of Holy Knight Squad he could tell me about it anytime. And thus, for the sake of gaining Ortzen’s trust, we would have to agree to reveal the secret.

As Captain Jullius insisted on being stubborn, Clauen could only sighed deeply in distress. Then he looked at the surroundings before looking at me with a determined look on his face.

“As it’s come to this, I’ll reveal the truth I’ve been hiding all this time. I believe that… Miss can keep a secret.”n
“What is it?”

“To tell you the truth, I’m actually a demon, not a human.”

“Oh, really?”

As expected, this guy’s truly a demon. Well, from the looks of it, I think this guy must be a very weak demon. If he’s a Demon King then he could conceal his mana, but he’s just a weak demon, and those who possessed medium amount of mana wouldn’t be able to escape the eyes of the clergymen. Not to mention that if he’s particulary weak, he barely had enough mana to show, so he didn’t differ much from humans unless he intentionally revealed his identity. The only distinct differences would be that demons had a long lifespan and strong regeneration power.

The circus performer guy was taken aback by my flat reaction and said it again once more.

(T/N: it’s been a long time since Clauen was referred as ‘circus performer’ lol. Actually it’s a pun (if not intended) made by the author since 광대 can be translated as ‘circus/acrobatic performer or clown’. Well you know, if you say it fast, Clauen sounds similar to clown)

“I said I’m a demon, you know? I’m not kidding!”

“Yeah, a demon. I get it right.”

I replied while nodding my head. I wonder if he revealed his identity first so I wouldn’t get too shock when I heard Captain Jullius’ secret later. His way of thinking out of consideration for Captain Jullius is really admirable. On top of that, he didn’t hesitate to even give half of his yearly income to Captain, and I bet Captain must have saved lots of money.

“…, wouldn’t people usually be surprised when learning about it?”

“Normally, people would be surprised and directly attacking you, but my reaction was different from ordinary people so don’t recklessly tell other people.”

“I won’t! Am I that stupid?!”

Clauen blushed and shouted.

“Really, you’re indeed a weird woman.”

“What? What’s wrong with me?”

But of course, it’s true that I’m not your average lady though. I called for the grey horse that was grazing at the lakefront.

“Then, let’s go back to the Holy Church now.”

I had no intention of forcing you to reveal your secret against your will, but if you wish for me to know about it, then I won’t back down either… No, truthfully I wished to force Captain Jullius to tell me everything by himself. I’m his fiancee after all. I want to know more about him.
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