“Puh-choo!”
After a blockbuster weekend, I became a complete patient.
I coughed and sneezed incessantly while riding back to the residence. It seemed to have evolved into the flu.
“Brigadier General… I’m sick.”
“There’s an advantage to being quiet when you’re sick.”
Masera was still grumpy and sulky. But he showed the kindness of lending me his shoulder.
I leaned my head on his stiff shoulder and sniffled, reconstructing the events.
Masera was the first to enter the room where I disappeared, and despite finding a note implying elopement, he came to find me.
How would a typical male lead in a novel react?
“Knowing the female lead is running away, the pissed-off male lead imprisons her and ties her up like an exorcism ritual…!”
Suddenly, I remembered a dark fantasy trope I heard from my sister in my past life.
Tied up like an exorcism? How do they eat, how do they go to the bathroom? It’s truly cruel.
How can that even be romance? My sister, who liked that kind of thing, must have been out of her mind.
I glanced up at Masera, who had a strangely dark fantasy male lead vibe.
In just one day, he had dark circles under his eyes and looked decadent.
His languid eyes looked down at me, so I quickly closed my eyes again.
“The Brigadier General didn’t sleep a wink all night looking for you.”
Someone had told me.
Thinking that there was someone who would worry and look for me if I disappeared, my heart seemed to fill with warmth. All this time, I had been a lonely person dropped into a strange world.
Hehe.
There’s even someone to wipe my runny nose… Huh?
I opened my eyes wide at the feeling of something wiping my nose.
Masera was stuffing a wad of tissue up my nose.
“Like a broken faucet.”
He said in a calm tone.
I didn’t know if it was a joke to keep me from being embarrassed, or if it really looked that way.
Unable to breathe through my nose, I asked in a nasal voice.
“But are you okay, Brigadier General? Aren’t you going to catch a cold?”
“I didn’t do anything to catch it.”
A brief awkward silence flowed.
Looking back, we definitely did something that night that could have been contagious.
“…I’m not that weak.”
Masera said, breaking the silence.
“Yes… that’s right.”
I quietly took my head off his shoulder and put some distance between us. Whether it was because of the cold or embarrassment, my face felt hot.
‘Why did he kiss me back then?’
I couldn’t bring myself to ask.
Masera rested his chin on his hand and stared out the car window.
I blankly stared at his sharp jawline and prominent nose, then quickly turned my gaze to the other side.
“Starting tomorrow.”
He started, still fixing his gaze on the car window.
“I will sleep in the same room.”
“Because it’s dangerous?”
“Yes. I won the word chain game, so I’m going to do it even if you don’t like it.”
Honestly, cadmium was cheating! Winning with cheating and then saying we’re going to use the same room?
Our conversation ended there. I couldn’t speak well because my nose was blocked.
Suddenly, soft hair tickled my neckline. A chilling scent like the dawn air lingered at the tip of my nose.
Masera’s head, who had dozed off, was leaning slightly on my shoulder.
‘He said he didn’t sleep a wink.’
He must be tired.
He was a man with a large build enough to cover my body, so it was a bit burdensome, but wouldn’t that man need a place to lean on sometimes?
As soon as we arrived at the residence, a soldier wearing a white doctor’s coat over his military uniform came to my room.
It was Captain Carlton, the medical officer.
After examining me, he raised his glasses and took out a syringe.
“Princess, are you ready to be brave?”
He was using a tone like he was from pediatrics, but his expression was completely soulless.
I shook my head when I saw the syringe with an ominous needle size.
“No?”
“It’ll sting.”
“Aaaaaah!”
It wasn’t just a sting.
It felt like my arm was on fire. It was a terrible intravenous injection, with pain spreading through the blood vessels in my arm.
“One more sting~ You’re a big girl, right~?”
“Aaaaaah!”
He only treated me like a child in words, but the needle was a harsh one for full-on adults.
He didn’t forget to clap three times in praise after inserting a huge amount of IV fluid.
“Princess, do you know anything about your family history? Because of the medication.”
“Um, I don’t really know…”
Was he talking about albinism? It shouldn’t be known to the public yet. I pretended not to know for now.
Then the captain, who had been staring at me intently, asked.
“Strawberry-flavored medicine? Grape-flavored?”
“St, strawberry.”
“Apply this ointment to your face. It looks like a strawberry.”
He was talking about my cheeks, which had turned red from the sun.
After Captain Carlton left, I realized that the cold medicine he gave me was not strawberry-flavored but a bitter adult flavor, and I trembled with betrayal.
A little later, Eugene came to my room.
“I heard you caught a cold from the snowman.”
“Who said that?”
“Doctor Uncle did. He also said big sis cried like a five-year-old baby after getting a shot.”
“No, I didn’t? I didn’t even flinch?”
Carlton, that damn military doctor…
“I drew cats so you can get well soon, big sis.”
Eugene unfolded a picture with cats drawn on it. He kept his distance, not wanting to catch the cold, and covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief.
I chuckled.
“Eugene, did you take good care of the cats while I was gone?”
“Dahlia and I gave them food and changed the water so it wouldn’t freeze. We finished preparing for the cold weather.”
Eugene, who had become a full-fledged can opener butler, said proudly. Then he put his drawing on the side table.
“You can’t die. Uncle will be sad.”
“Brigadier General was worried about me?”
“Yeah. He makes a sad face. He always looks the same, but he has expressions.”
After Eugene wished for my speedy recovery and left, I fell asleep again.
How much time had passed? In my sleep, I felt a gentle touch stroking my hair.
It was an affectionate touch, like my dad’s hand that used to stroke my hair when I was little.
When I opened my eyes slightly, I saw a sturdy back in uniform turning away.
‘It was the Brigadier General.’
Did he think I wouldn’t know if he secretly stroked my hair?
I smiled to myself, then suddenly opened my eyes wide.
‘I didn’t expect to be seduced too?’
What should I do?
The feeling of the moment he kissed me came to mind.
At the same time, the anxiety that the end was already determined crept in.
I prayed that the current daily life would last as long as possible.
* * *
“The People’s Liberation Front has dispersed its organization to avoid the military’s eyes. In the process, it was divided into moderates and radicals, and the meeting place where I belong is…”
Based on the confession of the woman arrested at the scene, they found out that the meeting place was a fireworks store.
Masera led his troops and arrested those who conspired to kidnap Cynthia.
Masera personally investigated their leader in the interrogation room.
The leader was a young man about Masera’s age.
“Brigadier General Vicente. No, Masera Guise. Do you remember me?”
At the leader’s question, Masera tilted his head and scanned him.
He added.
“We met at the war orphan accommodation facility.”
Actually, I didn’t remember. There were so many children like that.
I didn’t feel anything special just because he was from the same accommodation facility. It was just realizing that the kids who cried looking for their parents had grown up like me.
“Masera, you’ve been oppressed and lived the same way. So shouldn’t you have the same intentions as us?”
“What intentions?”
“To annihilate the Bariesa bloodline so that the monarchy can never be established again. Inheriting the intentions of the revolutionary army that changed the rotten world is the Liberty Association.”
Masera, who had barely slept, pressed down on his heavy eyelids.
“Kidnapping the Princess and demanding money is the cause you’re claiming?”
“It’s a concept of activity funds.”
The leader smiled grimly.
“The Princess is quite pretty, isn’t she? You’ve played with her enough, so aren’t you tired of her? Didn’t you secretly want us to take care of her?”
Masera reached out and grabbed the leader’s chin tightly.
“Euugh!”
Was it because I was tired? The pain in my jaw from the suppression process throbbed particularly.
“Royalty and revolutionary army, to me, they’re just the same perpetrators.”
Masera muttered lowly and continued, tightening his grip.
“The royalty gave my mother the excuse to die, and the revolutionary army took direct action. Ironically.”
Looking back on my harsh life, there was no one who wasn’t a perpetrator.
I thought it was meaningless to define it as evil by tying it to a certain group or bloodline.
Because then I would end up hating the world itself.
At that moment, the leader, who had been glaring with his chin grabbed, chuckled lowly.
“You, who have killed so many people and have the eyes of a demon… Do you think you can live like an ordinary person? You can’t trust people.”
Ordinary person?
Masera released his hand.
Masera’s darkened eyes stared somewhere in the air. Maybe it was because he hadn’t slept, but suddenly everything felt tiring.
“You worked hard today too… Where are you going? Can’t you see how admirable I am for waiting up late?”
I don’t know why the noisy Princess’s chatter came to mind, but I wanted to go back and rest.
The leader smiled when he saw Masera take out a gun from his pocket.
“See, we’re broken people.”
Masera, who was pointing a gun at the person cursing him, had only one thought.
Just, may it be like this now.
It was enough to have someone waiting for him and a place to return to.
* * *
But, contrary to the two people’s wishes, a huge scandal broke out early the next morning.
Articles with photos of Cynthia and Carlos hugging began to pour out.
