Chapter: 34
Alexis was pushed back before he even had time to resist. He staggered a few steps backward before coming to a halt.
“……Jeanne?”
He stared at her, mouth hanging open, as if it had never once crossed his mind that she might reject him.
“What on earth is this…?”
“Your Highness, Alexis de Brienne.”
Stepping back once more, Jeanne clearly enunciated his name—an unmistakable warning not to come any closer.
“You are being rude.”
“W-What did you say?”
“Just now, Your Highness insulted my lord, Grand Duke Claude de Lorraine, calling him ‘that bastard’ and ‘a scheming wretch.’”
“……Y-Your lord?”
Alexis’s lower eyelid twitched.
“Who do you think is your lord?”
“If someone else had heard what Your Highness just said, it would have caused a serious controversy.”
Alexis questioned her again, but Jeanne deliberately did not answer. She faced him while suppressing everything—her former loyalty, the pain of betrayal, even her desire for revenge.
As if he were nothing to her now.
“Why have you been acting like this since earlier? What on earth did that bastard Claude threaten you with…?”
“I’m the one who wants to ask, Your Highness. What grievance do you have that you keep picking on my lord?”
When she referred to Claude as her lord once again, Alexis’s face visibly twisted.
She could understand his confusion. To him, his past life was as if it had never existed, washed clean like a beach after the tide. From his point of view, it must look as though she had betrayed him overnight.
So what?
Even if it had never happened for Alexis, for Jeanne it was a wound she would carry for the rest of her life. She could understand—but she had no intention of forgiving him. It didn’t matter if he found it absurd or pointed at her as a traitor.
Unlike her previous life, Jeanne now valued herself above all else.
“I will pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”
“…….”
“If you have business with His Grace, I will call him for you.”
Even though they were outside, being alone with Alexis felt suffocating, as though she were trapped in a sealed room. She wanted to get away as soon as possible.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
As if he would never allow it, Alexis grabbed Jeanne’s arm and violently spun her around.
She tried to regain her balance, tensing her body, and a tearing pain shot through her injured side.
She let out a small groan and frowned, but Alexis—unaware of her injury—clamped down on both her arms to stop her from escaping.
“Speak clearly. What did that bastard say to you?”
“Let go of me.”
“Did he say he’s better than Alexis? That he’d make you his legal wife? Some ridiculous nonsense like that?”
Alexis’s rambling had gone beyond irritating—it was utterly repulsive.
She tried to wrench her arms free, but the more she struggled, the tighter his grip became.
“I said, let go.”
“Don’t kid yourself. That bastard’s always been desperate to prove he’s better than me.”
“Your Highness.”
“It’s obvious he seduced you just to beat the Royal Knights—”
“I came here of my own will!”
She finally snapped and shouted.
“…What?”
“Let me make this perfectly clear. His Grace asked whether I would consider joining the Lorraine Order, and I liked the offer.”
Alexis’s face stiffened at alarming speed.
As the strength drained from his grip, Jeanne shook him off sharply. Even his touch made her skin crawl.
“I came to Lorraine by my own choice, passed the trial, and became a knight. You ask what he said to lure me? Nothing of the sort. I wanted to come here even if I had to use the antidote as an excuse. Is that enough for you?”
She fired the words at him without taking a single breath.
Whether it was because she spoke nonstop, or because rage was boiling up from deep within her chest, her heart throbbed as painfully as it had after slaying dozens of monsters.
“…Your own will?”
Alexis, who looked utterly stunned, suddenly let out a hollow laugh.
“Do you even know who made it possible for you to wield that sword?”
Anger dripped from his voice.
“It was all me! I’m the one who found you rotting away in some backwater village!”
“…….”
“If it weren’t for me, do you really think a lowly commoner like you could’ve enjoyed this kind of privilege?”
After spewing his tirade, he glared at her as if daring her to say something in return.
“You’re mine. I found you, I raised you! How dare you even think about going to another man!”
It wasn’t entirely wrong. If he hadn’t written her a recommendation for the Royal Military Academy, there would have been no Knight Jeanne Leclerc.
“…Yes. I acknowledge that thanks to Your Highness, I was able to set foot in the Royal Military Academy.”
But that didn’t mean Jeanne had nothing to say.
“However, without me, Your Highness would have died long ago.”
“…!”
“You said sending me to the academy was repayment for saving your life. Have you forgotten already?”
“That was—”
“And I was sponsored by the Brienne royal family, not living off Your Highness’s personal fortune. There was no clause in the scholarship requiring me to join the Royal Knights after graduation.”
“…….”
“You just said I belong to you. No. I belong to myself. Whom I serve, and for whom I swing my sword—that is my choice.”
Alexis, who had been so domineering just moments ago, now trembled, lips pressed tightly together.
Whether he had nothing to refute, or whether he was simply enraged by Jeanne talking back—it didn’t matter to her.
“So that’s why you chose Claude.”
After a long silence, his breath came out rough.
“Yes.”
In truth, in this life she intended to serve no one and swing her sword only for herself. But if she answered honestly, she had no idea what he might latch onto next.
So she hid once more behind Claude, using him as a shield.
If I say I serve another lord, even Alexis won’t keep claiming I’m his.
At least, that was what she thought.
“…Claude. Claude. Claude!”
“…?”
“Why is it always that bastard? Why does everyone choose him?!”
Alexis suddenly screamed, clutching his head and thrashing about like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum because he couldn’t get what he wanted.
Then he glared at her with bloodshot eyes.
For a split second, the image of Alexis sentencing her to death overlapped with the present, sending a chill down her spine. As if her body remembered the pain of her past life, her fingertips trembled and her knees went weak.
Against the sun, his face was pitch-black, the whites of his eyes floating eerily within it.
He stepped closer.
“Do you think I let you live all this time just to hand you over to him?”
Jeanne took a step back.
“I’ll die before I give you to that bastard.”
He advanced another two steps. Then her back hit something hard.
She glanced behind her. She had been driven all the way to the railing. Beyond it lay a steep cliff, with a road far below where people looked no bigger than fingers.
She had spent ten years with Alexis. Like it or not, she knew him well—such as the fact that once he lost control, no words could reach him.
But she couldn’t overpower him either. Damn it all, he was a prince of the realm, and even using force would be enough to spark conflict between Lorraine and Brienne.
In the worst case, they might take it as a declaration of war—and the Golden Dragon could appear.
She couldn’t put Lorraine in danger because of herself.
That left only one option.
She had to jump.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jeanne climbed over the railing and threw herself off.
“Jeanne!”
Alexis screamed behind her. She thought she felt his fingertips brush the ends of her hair, but she couldn’t look back.
She was already falling.
The air resistance was fierce, dizzying enough to make every cell in her body tense. Even so, Jeanne didn’t scream. She focused on wrapping her entire body in aura.
Normally, falling from this height would shatter her body, but with aura, she could limit the damage to a broken arm or leg.
That’s still better than being dragged away by Alexis—
Thinking that, she glanced down—and froze in horror.
There was someone standing right where she was about to land.
Wait—don’t tell me…!
Black hair. A Lorraine uniform.
It was Claude.
“Move!”
Her voice thundered through the air. Claude looked up.
Their gazes collided in midair, and Claude flinched in shock.
“Move!”
Fearing that Claude would get hurt, Jeanne shouted desperately.
“Hey! Didn’t you hear me?! Move!”
But instead of dodging, Claude was already cloaked in aura, as if calculating how best to catch her safely.
It was too late to avoid it.
To hell with it.
She stretched her arms downward, gambling everything. Claude kicked off the cliff and leapt high, catching Jeanne in midair.
Platinum-blond hair rippled wildly as Jeanne entrusted her body to him. The moment she was in his arms, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
When her feet touched the ground, Jeanne carefully released her grip.
“Are you insane?”
Before he could even calm his racing heart, Jeanne snapped at Claude.
