It was just one blow.
What Klaus was holding was not a sword but a scabbard.
Goalterror Velen, who had been hit by the scabbard, foamed at the mouth and fell forward.
The guard knights standing around him had been taken care of by Klaus without anyone noticing them.
The two guard knights standing on either side of me took out their swords and shouted faintly.
“Hey, they’re taking you hostage!”
“My goodness. How can the lines of the hostage situation be so obvious and without any thought of progress?”
“What, what?”
The two escort knights who were holding me turned to look at me.
Oh my, shouldn’t you understand what I’m saying right now?
Soon, one of the guard knights got angry and held a knife to my throat.
“You don’t seem to know what the current situation is…!”
“No, if I didn’t say that, you wouldn’t put a knife to my throat?”
Klaus Ertikev’s swordsmanship skills seem to be widely known throughout the empire, so even those guys will know that they can’t even compare to each other without me.
‘So it’s clear that they’ll use me as a bargaining chip.’
Anyway, whether you say something or not, you’ll be holding a knife to your throat and trying to make a deal, but wouldn’t it be beneficial to talk in this situation?
“I’ve always wondered, why do you say such corny lines?”
“Don’t you know how precious your life is?”
“If you kill me, I will be killed by Your Highness… but if you let me live, there will be room for a deal.”
Normally, small people like you think of your own safety as the top priority.
But I kept my mouth shut because I felt like if I said that much, I might hurt Soinbae’s pride.
Klaus took my words and spoke.
“Can’t you tell from that attitude?”
… … yes? what?
“The Countess Elena Seves has secretly shared a sword with me since we were young… No, she is like a teacher who taught me swordsmanship.”
“What nonsense…!”
The small men were surprised and trembled with their swords, but this time I was also surprised.
What kind of nonsense is this? … ?
“Is my teacher trembling in fear now that you have caught him?”
“that……!”
“Just by looking at that attitude, you can tell my teacher’s hidden skills.”
No, aren’t you telling too many lies?
The reason I’m being fearless is because I’m just trusting the protection spell you cast and coming out empty-handed!
‘what? wait for a sec. Now that I think about it… … .’
What’s there to be scared of when Klaus is right in front of you?
I suddenly realized and gained confidence, so I took part in the scam.
“Your Highness. Didn’t I tell you to hide that fact?”
“I’m sorry, Master. Their attitude is so funny.”
How, you even use honorific terms?
Since we had already guessed together several times in the salon, Klaus and I’s acting had matured to the point where we could predict each other’s next lines just by looking at each other’s eyes.
And the two people who were fooled by this acting looked at me as if they didn’t know what to do.
“……Ha, I promised myself not to get blood on my hands, but I guess I’ll end up pulling out my sword.”
“Master.”
I think that’s a bit excessive.
Ignoring the look in Klaus’ eyes as he said that, I continued my line.
“Gollterrorist Velen, I thought you would understand my meaning after being beaten, but you were truly a ruthless person. Rest in peace.”
Klaus closed his eyes tightly, as if he was tired, and began to memorize his own lines.
“Anyway, there is no way for you to win against Master. Here, I will give you Seon Daekji.”
“A choice?”
The man standing to my right asked sharply.
“First. Surrender peacefully. Then you can give some testimony. Then, I will assume that you did not participate in today’s incident.”
The fact that I’m only going to pretend that I didn’t participate in today’s incident means that I will be punished if my previous crimes are proven.
I, the only one who understood Klaus’ speaking style, laughed lightly.
Klaus continued.
“Second. If they don’t surrender, just make them surrender.”
Before I could finish saying those words, the man on my right moved.
“Hey, profit!”
“die!”
visor!
The sound of swords clashing with swords was heard. When the man holding me lost strength, I turned to the left.
Meanwhile, Klaus’ long sword blade was raising the sword of the guard knight on the right.
“One is surrender, the other is life….”
Klaus grinned, his eyes shining.
“I’ll make you regret your choice.”
I closed my eyes tightly.
Soon a terrible sound rang out from inside the small warehouse.
The guard knight who surrendered was captured and sent to the interrogation desk, and all of the Belen count’s double ledgers hidden in a small warehouse were confiscated as evidence.
Klaus and I watched the officials moving around diligently on the second floor terrace of a luxury tea house.
“Still, I’m glad one of them surrendered. I can get information from him.”
Klaus rested his chin on my words and spoke grumpily.
“Jeongbo, if you hit that stupid count’s son, he’ll come out. I’m glad the lady wasn’t hurt.”
“Oh, that’s right. Didn’t you dodge really well in that moment?”
“It looks like Hertha made sure to educate him.”
“After all, slugs have a knack for rolling, and I also have a knack for dodging.”
Klaus just turned his head and looked at me.
Unlike the gaze he had been looking out the window a while ago, his eyes were very warm and friendly.
Like someone who sees something lovely… … .
“……Don’t look at me like that.”
Look, I keep thinking about this these days.
‘Because Klaus keeps flirting as if he meant it… … .’
The bigger problem was that I wanted it to be sincere.
When I stretched out my hand to cover Klaus’ eyes, Klaus lightly tickled my palm with his index finger.
“How did I see it?”
“You know that better.”
“I need to know what kind of gaze the young lady doesn’t like.”
“Something like that.”
“So what is my gaze? It’s normal.”
What’s normal about that?
When I first met him, I thought, ‘What a strange animal there is…’ … ‘I looked at him with an expression like, ‘It’s completely different from back then!
“Your highness is looking at me like I’m really cute right now.”
“That’s because she’s cute. It’s not even a day or two that I’ve looked at a young lady and called her cute.”
“No, that….”
In other words, I had forgotten that he was someone I couldn’t communicate with.
“Your Highness, you are looking at me as if you really love me.”
“Yeah. It’s lovely.”
“So, love….”
… … Has the meaning of ‘lovely’ changed without my knowledge? Does it mean something different in this world?
“Your Highness, perhaps?”
“The meaning of lovely is what you think it means, so don’t ask.”
Klaus, who could now read my question just by reading my expression, lowered himself a little more and looked up at me from a low perspective.
“No. To be precise, I see it that way because I love it.”
uh?
Now, let’s calm down.
First, I pinched my cheek.
“It’s not a dream.”
Maybe something got into my ear.
“It’s not even an auditory hallucination.”
Then what I’m looking at right now is not Klaus… … .
“It’s not a hallucination. I’m in love with the young lady?”
“No, no. No, not this.”
“what?”
No, it’s not like that anyway?
But before I could answer, Klaus frowned and tilted his head.
“No, didn’t you know what I liked more than that?”
“yes.”
It was an immediate answer.
Klaus blinked as if in shock.
“You said you liked it.”
“I thought you liked me as a friend.”
“You also said you were jealous.”
“I thought this was the same case with our dog Coco….”
“I thought the young lady was trying to make me angry, but she really meant it?”
“Your Highness didn’t correct me when I said that in the first place….”
I spoke in a hushed voice.
“I thought we knew each other’s feelings by now.”
When I think about it, it seems like there were a lot of flags… … .
Klaus is making me misunderstand. If all I thought was courtship, I think I expressed my feelings very directly… … .
So, although I thought to myself a few times, ‘Does Klaus really like me?’, I never thought he would really like me!
That’s not it, I knew but I pretended not to know… … .
‘… … No, this is all the world’s fault!’
Who would trash the arrogance confession from the beginning and make people doubt even in such an obvious situation?
‘is not it? Actually, was it that I was oblivious?’
Was the female protagonist of ‘Why is the female protagonist so tactless?’ me? Or is this all a hidden camera… … .
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
… … I don’t think it’s a hidden camera.
Klaus smiled empty-handedly.
So, so far, Klaus has given me clear signals that he ‘likes me’, but over and over again, I thought ‘this must be my mistake’ and moved on.
Oh my, you idiot. I pretended to be quick-witted, but I didn’t really have the most important sense.
“I thought that the lady was hiding a third secret plan that I didn’t know about, so she had to pretend not to know what I was feeling.”
“Have you ever considered the possibility that I don’t like you?”
“Elena.”
Klaus’ voice was deep.
His cool hand touched my cheek.
“You don’t know what your face looks like right now, do you?”
“Huh, what do you think?”
“Bright red.”
“Can’t you just pretend not to know about that?”
“I heard the young lady doesn’t like me.”
… … She was digging alone because she got caught anyway.
I placed my face in Klaus’s hands and closed my eyes.
Behind the overwhelming embarrassment and shame, there was clear joy and excitement.
“If you didn’t know, you shouldn’t have revealed it like this.”
“be quiet.”
“I thought the young lady knew everything and was pretending not to know, so I tried to do whatever I wanted.”
“Well, please be quiet.”
“Open your eyes, Elena.”
Klaus’s laughing voice passed the tip of my nose.
I narrowed my eyes.
Klaus was in front of me, closer than ever.
“Will you allow me to do whatever I want?”
“……If it’s based on common sense.”
“As instructed.”
A soft voice rang in my ears for a moment before soft lips pressed against mine.
A soft sensation hovered over my lips as if playing with me, and the heat that slowly entered between my lips was extremely sweet.
The embarrassment of my past actions that had been lingering just before was quickly pushed out of my mind, and a fever slowly began to bloom in its place.
The senses soon took over everything.
