PASEJC 14

Chapter : 14

“…What?”

Silence fell.

“Like me.”

“…….”

Frisia’s complexion, which had been tinged with apricot just moments ago, rapidly cooled.

Is this man trying to ruin me again?

She had thought it suspicious. She should have realized it when he obediently followed her and played the game with her. She had been having such a pleasant time that she’d let her guard down. Frisia couldn’t give any answer at all—she just stared at him, lips parted in a daze.

Hatz had a habit of blurting out completely unexpected things at sudden moments. To her, he was bewildering today as well.

Hatz, too, was flustered. Only when he saw Frisia’s expression darken did he remember—the engagement pledge he had briefly forgotten.

“No, wait. It’s a misunderstanding.”

“…A misunderstanding?”

“It’s not what you think. This.”

“…….”

Hatz looked down at Frisia and spoke as calmly as he could, but Frisia glared up at him with her brow deeply furrowed. To someone already offended, there was no way Hatz’s barely visible panic would come across.

Frisia bit her lower lip. It felt like she’d been flying through a dream only to be thrown back down onto hard reality.

“You’re being remarkably polite about suggesting we break off the engagement.”

“I told you, that’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“What I mean is…”

It was exactly what he’d said. Purely, simply, he wanted her to like him from now on. But how was he supposed to explain that? As Hatz hesitated, Frisia’s frown deepened.

What misunderstanding? If it’s not about breaking off the engagement, then it must mean he’s planning to ruin me. I was trying to be nice for once, and he’s carefully talking about calling off the engagement. I should leave before my mood gets even worse.

Frisia looked around, searching for Ron, who should be nearby. Fortunately, Ron wasn’t far away. But his gaze was fixed elsewhere.

What is he looking at?

“…Ron?”

As Frisia tilted her head in confusion, Ron suddenly dashed into a dark alley and vanished.

“?!”

Startled, Frisia dropped the apple she was holding.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, Ron was just there, but…”

“…?”

While Hatz bent down to pick up the fallen apple, Frisia started running toward the alley Ron had entered.

“Frisia!”

Hatz shouted as he chased after her, but Frisia rushed into the alley without even noticing her hat fall off and her long hair whip in the air. It wasn’t far, but Ron was fast.

Only after running deep into the alley did she finally spot him.

“Ron— kyaaaak!!”

Frisia screamed and froze in place. Ron was facing a man dressed in black, holding a knife. It happened in an instant—the fight began.

Ron blocked the man who lunged at Frisia. With a swift kick, he sent the dagger from the man’s hand flying into the wall. Ron and the assassin, who was no easy opponent, began trading blows.

Ron struck the man’s face with his foot and quickly drove him back against the wall. When the man staggered for a moment, Ron subdued him in an instant. Before she knew it, Ron was pressing down on the assassin’s neck with his right arm.

“Don’t look.”

Hatz, who had followed closely behind, grabbed Frisia’s shoulder and turned her toward his chest. Her heart raced at the sudden, unexpected incident. Hatz gently patted her shoulder while watching the scene before them with cold eyes.

Soon, a sharp cracking sound of breaking bones rang out, followed by the dull thud of a body hitting the ground. Frisia slowly turned her head to look at Ron.

“An assassin.”

Ron spoke coldly, his eyes sharper than Frisia had ever seen. She lowered her gaze to the assassin lying beneath Ron’s right foot and squeezed her eyes shut at the sight of his unnaturally twisted neck.

“An assassin…? What on earth is going on all of a sudden…!”

That was when it happened.

In an instant, men dressed in black appeared and surrounded Frisia, Hatz, and Ron. The assassins held long, well-honed swords that gleamed in the moonlight. Frisia’s face grew paler by the second.

What is this…? What is happening all of a sudden…?

Her mind spun. The looks in Hatz’s and Ron’s eyes changed. The atmosphere turned threatening. They didn’t need to say anything to know—these assassins had come for Frisia.

“I’m not usually a merciful person in situations like this,” Hatz said in a low voice, “but I’ll give you a chance.”

“A chance to live. Just once.”

The moment Hatz finished speaking, Ron snatched the sword from the assassin in front of him and slashed his back.

Thud!

With swift, heavy swordsmanship, one assassin fell immediately. Though startled by Ron’s speed, the remaining assassins didn’t retreat.

“…Foolish.”

Hatz swept his gaze over them. Then he placed Frisia’s hat back on her head and lightly raised his left hand near her shoulder. In that instant, Hatz’s subordinates burst out from behind and dealt with the assassins. It all happened in a blink.

This time, even Ron looked at Hatz in shock. When Hatz tilted his head again, his men took the fallen assassins and disappeared. As the situation settled, Ron asked Hatz with a stunned expression,

“Do you usually travel with this many subordinates?”

“Today was an exception.”

Hatz answered casually and looked down at Frisia. She stood with her head bowed, hat pulled low.

“Frisia?”

There was no response. Come to think of it, she hadn’t moved at all for a while. Hatz and Ron exchanged uneasy looks.

Did she faint from fear while standing?

Hatz reached out to check on her. Just then, Frisia’s small fist began to tremble slightly. Hatz stopped his hand, and Ron stepped closer to her.

“Your Highness, are you al—?!”

“…Ha….”

A soft sigh, followed by a laugh. Ron flinched and halted. Then her slender shoulders began to tremble as well.

Hatz frowned slightly and took a step back.

“Frisia? Are you—?!”

“…Haha….”

Hatz looked at Ron with a bewildered expression, and Ron shook his head quickly, as if to say he didn’t know either.

“Hahaha….”

Frisia was laughing. She kept letting out a laugh that sounded somewhere between a hollow chuckle and a lament. Anyone could see she didn’t seem sane.

“Ahahaha!”

After laughing softly, she suddenly threw her head back and laughed loudly, heartily—like someone who had given up on everything. Ron and Hatz recoiled, each stepping back. Frisia soon stopped laughing and tightly clenched the wooden rabbit doll she had kept in her pocket.

My pleasant day is completely ruined. Everything’s a mess. Of all days, assassins—why today? Didn’t Father decide to let me live?

There had been no major changes between the Switcerad family and the Emperor. If there had been, it would have affected Hatz, and there was no way she wouldn’t have known while staying at his estate.

If there were no problems in their relationship, the Emperor wouldn’t have attempted an assassination—for the sake of the Switcerad family, and for his own sake as well. Even if she was an exiled princess, she was still of imperial blood.

The Emperor had quietly covered up even the engagement for his own benefit. So there was no reason for him to target the life of Frisia, who was still engaged to Hatz.

If it wasn’t Father… then who sent the assassins?

As Frisia pondered, her hand suddenly began to tremble violently. With a faint clatter, the wooden doll slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor. A line of dialogue flashed through her mind.

“You survived because you’re my fiancée. From your stepmother.”

At the time, she had thought Hatz said that because everything Father did was for her stepmother. After all, it was Father who destroyed her mother’s family. But… could it be?

The meaning of those words…

On the day she was expelled from the imperial palace, she never met Father. It was her stepmother, Bloé, who drove her out.

But because she was the kind, beautiful female lead, Frisia had thought she was merely conveying Father’s will. But what if that wasn’t the case? Doubt crept in.

If she were to name just one person who would want to kill her here, there was only one. The original novel’s female lead—the woman who expelled her from the palace.

The culprit is… her stepmother, Bloé.

The moment she reached that conclusion, it felt as though a massive stone pressed down on her entire body, stealing her breath. When Frisia lifted her head, starlight glittered in her eyes against the night sky.

It clearly said she lived happily ever after in the end. Then she should have just lived happily with her father like the original story—so why is this happening to me…?

“Ha, haha….”

A hollow laugh escaped her without her realizing it.

Hatz and Ron watched her with worried eyes until she finally calmed down.

Frisia had been standing in front of the mirror for thirty minutes already, staring intently at the face that was no longer unfamiliar to her.

“Where did everything go wrong…?”

She had only wanted to live comfortably. She didn’t desire power or wealth—nothing like that. Just enough money to live freely without worrying about others. That was all. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

Was it pork belly? Was it the pork belly’s fault? Did things go wrong from there? Or was it about the inheritance? Is she trying to kill me over the little bit of property I got while Mother was alive? Was even that too much for her to spare? Life never goes the way you want, but still—nothing goes right at all.

Thud.

Frisia threw herself onto the bed and buried her face in the pillow.

She thought of Bloé’s face. With her long, light-brown hair, she was so pure and delicate. The first time she met her, Frisia had thought, Ah, so this is the female lead… she really is different from Rocherin.

The smile Bloé gave Frisia on the day she entered the palace holding the Emperor’s hand had been beautiful—soft and gentle. Exactly as she’d imagined.

“I actually liked her quite a bit.”

That was true. Frisia had liked Bloé—until she came here. She was a woman who loved a man to the very end, even though he entered a political marriage with another woman for power. Readers’ reactions ranged from “this is so frustrating” to “she’s pitiful,” but the prevailing opinion was that she was a poor female lead tossed around by the male lead.

A pure, pitiful heroine who respected the man’s choices and waited with an untainted heart. When Frisia was still Juhye, she’d initially found it unbearably frustrating. But Bloé’s love was so earnest, so desperate.

Reading the original story, you couldn’t help but acknowledge it as true love. The only one readers criticized was Rocherin.

And yet that pure, fragile Bloé tried to kill me. Even Father, who slaughtered everyone connected to my mother, let me live. So why does my stepmother want me dead? I haven’t done anything.

“Argh!”

It hurt. Frisia tugged at her hair in frustration.

“I need to confirm it.”

She sprang up from the bed and headed for the door. In the hallway, maids were waiting.

“Where is Hatz?”

“Yes, Your Highness. The young duke is currently in the study on the fourth floor—”

Before the sentence even finished, Frisia headed for the stairs. Just then, she ran into the butler coming up from the first floor, holding a single yellow envelope.

Not the usual thick stack of documents. A letter? Or an invitation? For some reason, it caught her attention. As she stared at the approaching butler, he noticed her and quickly hid the envelope behind his back. Huh?

“Y-Your Highness.”

“What’s that? What are you hiding?”

“Ah, y-yes. It’s just a letter that arrived for the young duke.”

Suspicious. Very suspicious.

“Give it to me.”

“Pardon?”

Frisia snatched the letter from the flustered butler and looked at it. The recipient was, of course, Hatz. And the sender was… Jennifer?

“Who’s Jennifer?”

The butler’s shoulders jumped in surprise.

“Your Highness, please calm down. This is—”

“She’s a woman, right?”

“What? N-no!”

“She is. It’s a letter.”

“No, it’s not—”

“I’ll take it to him.”

A smile spread across Frisia’s lips. What a windfall. So Hatz had a woman. A hidden one? Someone important enough to send letters?

Clutching the envelope tightly, Frisia hurried up the stairs. She flung open the study door—

Bang!