🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 3
It was because of the man’s light yet languid, oddly peculiar way of speaking.
But anyone could sense the firm core beneath it.
As he stepped forward before the Captain of the Imperial Guard, the atmosphere once again grew taut, ready to snap.
A towering height that even the guard captain—so confident in his own build—had to crane his neck to meet.
The man who had stepped forward wore a faint smile on his handsome face.
Even in this very moment, when his family was on the brink of ruin.
“Y-Young Duke, this cannot be….”
But when the captain met his gaze, he realized those crimson eyes were not smiling at all.
Theodore Calyps parted his fine lips.
“What husband in the world needs another man’s permission just to look at his wife’s face?”
The guard captain faltered for a moment, and the Princess’s personal physician quickly cut in to divert the tension.
“Her Highness’s body rests in the chamber! Go and confirm it for yourself! Poor Her Highness often complained her food tasted strange! I too once tasted her meals, and then my body—”
But the physician’s words never finished.
A stir rippled through the hall, shaking the air.
Theodore’s crimson eyes turned toward one spot.
And so did everyone else’s.
“Eek!”
The physician gasped for breath.
It was only natural.
For it was a bizarre sight indeed.
A woman stood precariously among the restless knights.
She looked ready to collapse at any moment, yet her eyes as they swept across the assembly were outrageously defiant.
Theodore’s gaze fell on the bloodstain at her chest, then down to her bare feet.
As though she didn’t even realize she was barefoot, she stepped forward again.
Thud!
“Young Duchess!”
A knight rushed to catch her as she crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
But almost instantly, she sprang up as though she’d never fallen, rubbing her face.
Grit.
In the shocked silence, a grinding noise was heard from somewhere.
No one imagined it had come from Belladis Calyps’s mouth.
At last she lowered her hand from her face, faintly smiling as she muttered:
“This damn body.”
This wasn’t a body. It was a burden.
“Damn it.”
Her vision blurred.
For Bella, who had never known what it even meant to have “eyesight,” it was maddening.
Even though she walked straight, someone at her side constantly corrected her direction.
[…Hey, you. You are walking while actually thinking, right?]
Ophaniel’s voice, which she thought she’d left behind, rang in her head.
She wanted to retort that even thinking was a burden in this wretched body.
“Your Highness!”
Someone came running and blocked her path.
It was the imperial physician.
He looked like he had just seen a ghost, utterly terrified.
Yes, it was you.
That face that had scrutinized this body so shamelessly…
“Your Highness, how… how did you come here?”
“By walking.”
“…Excuse me?”
At that brazen face, the anger that had filled her ever since she’d opened her eyes in this body began to seep out.
“Why? Surprised I’m not dead?”
So this shameless bastard had a huge hand in why this body was so ruined.
“Oh, yes, you’re surprised. You were sure I was dead. But here I am, alive.”
“W-What nonsense is this!”
The physician’s eyes flared in anger.
It was the same look he wore when threatening this body. At the sight, fury welled deep inside her.
And immediately, the reflex engraved in her soul burst forth.
The habit of an ace operative who had once mercilessly beaten down demons.
Wham.
But the problem was…
“Ugh.”
The one groaning was her.
“……”
The physician, who should have been doubled over holding his stomach, only blinked in confusion, looking from his belly to Bella.
So did everyone else in the hall.
Then Ophaniel, eyes wide in shock, began babbling.
[Hey! If you’re gonna hit, you gotta sneak it from behind! Now everyone’s looking at you funny!]
Bella was just as shocked.
Her wrist had nearly snapped from just one punch.
“How pitiful… It seems Her Highness’s mind has been disturbed from her brush with death.”
Clutching her wrist and curling up, Bella lifted her head.
The physician, wearing a sorrowful face, spoke.
“Do not worry, Your Highness. I will root out those who caused you such pain, so that this may never happen again.”
“Leave not a drop, Your Highness. The sovereign’s precious elixir must be wholly absorbed into your body.”
“Come, Your Highness. Allow me to escort you.”
“You will root out those who hurt me, so that this may never happen again?”
At Bella’s words, the physician nodded with determined sorrow.
“Without fail.”
“Good. Then…”
[Hey, hey! What are you planning to say this time? Tell me first…]
“Kneel.”
“……”
It was as though no one in the hall dared even breathe.
The physician blinked, darted his eyes around nervously, and finally asked:
“Did you just say…?”
[Hey! I told you, tell me first what you’re gonna say!]
“Shut up! You’re no help, all you do is yap. Ugh, my head…”
“Pardon? Are you speaking to… me?”
[Shut up?? Filthy?? How dare you! Do you even know how much trouble I’m going through for you?! If I just walk away, you’re doomed!]
“Yes, yes, go ahead. You won’t go far. You kneel! How many times must I say it?”
Muttering to the air, then suddenly snapping in anger—
Clearly, she had gone mad.
A look of relief even flickered across the physician’s dazed face.
Raising his voice so all could hear, he shouted:
“Her Highness’s mind is gravely impaired!”
And just as he turned toward the Captain of the Guard—
“Shall I make him kneel for you?”
The words were casual, almost careless. Yet they carried an undeniable weight.
Step. Step.
Leisurely footsteps echoed through the hall.
It was as though time had stopped, and only he was moving.
At least 190 centimeters tall, his lean frame was dressed in a perfectly fitted black uniform.
It deepened his presence—but that alone was not it.
The sharp line of his jaw, the proud bridge of his nose, the shadowed eyes that held a burning intensity.
As he approached her, Bella—for the first time since her birth—felt the sensation of a “racing heart.”
Thump, thump.
So hard it felt like it might burst.
But even that pounding was only the tip of the iceberg.
The moment Theodore Calyps stopped before her—
What was this?
As though her breath had been stolen.
As though she wanted to flee anywhere.
And yet, a ticklish feeling stirred beneath her ribs.
This strange sensation.
“Shall I make him kneel?”
His calm tone made the ocean within her chest surge.
But Bella saw it.
The coldness hidden in those crimson eyes.
“Her Highness is unwell, Young Duke—ugh!”
The physician’s protest ended in a cry.
Theodore casually tapped the man’s hamstring with his foot and pressed lightly on his shoulder.
In the blink of an eye, the physician’s knees hit the floor.
It all flowed so smoothly, so effortlessly, that no one realized force had been used.
[Oh~ this guy knows how to use that body~]
Ophaniel squinted and grinned.
“So, what next?”
As if to say, Just give the word.
Bella looked down at the kneeling physician and spoke.
“Inside his jacket. Right inner pocket.”
“Your Highness! Young Duke! Release me! Ack!”
The physician struggled wildly, but Theodore calmly pulled open his jacket and retrieved the item Bella had named.
“Ah! Return it!”
The physician screamed like he might faint at any moment, but Theodore’s face betrayed nothing.
As though offering her a flower, he held the vial out to Bella and asked again:
“What next?”
Taking the vial from him, Bella replied:
“Open your mouth.”
[That’s the Young Duke! Speak politely to him! Please, you must get along with this one!]
Fair enough. He was right.
My 0.1%. I must protect it.
“Yes, sir.”
