Chapter 104

Chapter 104

Translator: Yonnee

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* * *

I found Liam and Schubert outside while they were talking. The duke was dressed in plain clothes that servants usually wore.

When I told him about Alexander’s condition, Liam went into the cabin with Mercy, and they brought Alexander out.

“We’ll be on our way then. Keep in touch.”

“Yes.”

Everyone was busy talking about and checking each other’s positions. It was the final run down before the operation began. Mercy waved at me.

“See you later after work, Sister[1]! I hope we can meet and hang out before you go back.”

I glimpsed a sphere of light as Mercy waved her wand in the air, and then she disappeared. Liam handed Alexander, who had been brought outside of the cabin, over to Schubert.

Schubert held the blue dragon with a grim expression.

As I was perplexed by his reaction, Liam explained.

“Baron Schubert is not very fond of reptiles.”

When we left the castle, he yelled at me about why I didn’t tell him that Blanc was a dragon, and it was only now that I understood why he said that.

Liam stood in front of Alexander.

“Now then, Dragon. Tell me, how close do you want to be to the King?”

“It would be ideal to be right next to him.”

“That wouldn’t be difficult.”

Liam nodded gladly when Alexander answered that way, then he looked over to Schubert. Now that I think about it, Schubert’s outfit was also different from before—he’s also wearing clothes that were similar to Liam’s. I guess they’re going to infiltrate the villa.

Alexander turned to me. Then, he spoke.

“That girl, too. She needs to be as close as possible.”

“…Me?”

I asked back with a puzzled expression. Liam balked when Alexander nodded in response.

“Wouldn’t staying at the garden be sufficient”

“No. As close as possible.”

At the sudden problem that arose, Liam groaned.

“…If the disaster puts her in danger, I will not be able to face His Highness.”

“It’ll benefit her, too. And it wouldn’t put her in any danger as you think. If you don’t listen to my demands, then the deal is off.”

Alexander threatened the duke firmly.

“I will not hurt even a single strand of hair on her head. I swear it.”

As though fully aware of what Liam was worried about, Alexander assured this. Liam sighed in return.

Alexander then looked at me and opened his mouth to speak.

“It’s your decision, Human. Are you going to stay close to me or will you only look at me from afar?”

The look in Alexander’s eyes was clear. The same as Blanc.

I didn’t need to think about it for long.

“I’ll go.”

Liam’s sigh became louder, and he muttered under his breath, “What will I say to His Highness?” He looked at me intently, and somehow, that made me uneasy.

“You take care of the aftermath.”

“…Pardon?”

“Since this is something you want to do, you’re the one who’ll report about it to His Highness.”

“No, but, why is Your Grace passing off your work to a simple maid like me!”

It’s obvious that Albert’s going to be angry. If I apologize many, many times, then maybe he’ll let this slide, but…! Even still!

Liam dodged my gaze. As he put one hand on Schubert’s shoulder, he added.

“Ah, by the way, it’ll be Schubert who’ll help you run away later.”

“Excuse me? How…”

Liam and Schubert exchanged glances. It seemed like they talked about this separately before.

“He used to work in the intelligence field.”

Schubert exhaled and crossed his arms.

“Finally, I can speak however I want. I’m called a baron, but I’m really from the bottom. The fact that you don’t want to be a burden to His Highness, that’s impressive.”[2]

What the, why did his way of speaking change…? It’s like he turned into a completely different person. Where did that boy who spoke like Liam go…?

Was this what Mercy was talking about earlier? Something about Schubert’s true self?

“…So I guess you were just pretending to speak like that before?”

“A-hem! After seeing how much you’re working hard for His Highness’ sake, I just decided to acknowledge that you’re a decent person, ‘s’all. I mean, I guess your food’s great, too… And you can make His Highness smile…”

Schubert let out a cough as he gave his reasons. He seemed to be embarrassed from his actions.

But he acknowledged me. I’m glad that I finally won over Schubert. It’s a little sad though that it happened only when he found out that I’ll be running away from Albert.

And listening to Schubert, I kinda…

“I kinda like the way you talked before.”

“I think so too.”

“No, but, talking so stiffly like that is just so suffocating!”

Liam and I said so with a serious tone, but Schubert grumbled behind us.

“Anyway, isn’t it time to go?”

While Schubert was pressing down on the side of his forehead, he spoke with a rough tone. It suddenly felt like I gained a younger brother.

Still though, after he heard my plan of leaving for Albert’s sake, he seemed to have genuinely dropped his guard around me.

He looked like a puppy, but he’s more like a kitten. I’m more of a cat person though, so that’s nice.

Schubert took the lead and Liam followed behind him. Schubert complained about my formal way of speaking, too, but Liam just insisted that he should just match the tone and speak formally as well.

I laughed softly as I listened to their bickering.

Then, soon enough, we arrived at the villa.

¹ It’ll be ‘Sister’ instead of ‘Unnie’ when Mercy says it since she’s using it in a different context compared to Rosé in the previous chapter. ↩

² It doesn’t translate to English well, but he’s speaking informally at that part. ↩

additional notes: There’s an emphasis on one’s way of speaking in the past couple of chapters because there’s a particular hierarchy when it comes to speech levels in Korean, and the most common that are used are: informal, semi-formal and formal. (There’s some other speech levels in between, but those are just used in old timey settings.)

Schubert was speaking formally all the time to Rosé before this chapter, and the reason why Rosé joked about preferring the formal way is because Schubert’s younger than her (it’s very rude to talk to someone older the way he is right now). The informal way of speaking is used when talking to people who are younger or in a lower station/rank, but it can also be used between people who are close to each other—and this is also why Rosé said it feels like she gained a younger brother.

Sorry about the sudden Korean lesson asdhfkdj I couldn’t translate the underlying connotation directly to English smoothly enough