Chapter 39: The Princess and the Commander

“Viktor, look out!”

As soon as I shouted that, I pushed Viktor’s body as hard as I could and felt a sharp pain on the back of my left hand.

“Ahh!”

“Princess!”

“Princess!”

I crouched down and held my left hand with my right hand while enduring the searing pain, but bright red blood poured out from between my fingers.

In fact, there was a thin transparent string tied to the dagger that Rabi had released, and he was trying to stab Viktor from behind by pulling the string.

When I realized this, my body moved before I could think about it, and as a result I was able to save Viktor, but instead, the back of my hand was cut with the dagger.

Viktor and Rabi rushed over to me, but when Viktor saw the blood on my hand, his behavior suddenly changed.

“—You! You hurt my princess! I’m going to kill you with my own hands right now!”

“Ughhh!”

Viktor grabbed Rabi by the chest and lifted the sword he was holding off the ground.

I was surprised at such a Viktor, but when I saw his face, his eyes were completely in a bad state.

This is bad! He’s serious!!!!

When I guessed that, I immediately stood up and hugged Viktor from behind to stop him.

“Viktor, please calm down! It’s just a little cut and I’m fine!”

“…”

“Please! I don’t want Viktor to kill people so easily!”

I shouted this to Viktor and strengthened my arms to hold him.

Then Viktor heard my voice, and he slowly lowered his sword and threw Rabi to the ground.

“Cough! Cough!”

“…for the Princess, I’ll spare myself the trouble of killing you.”

Viktor told Rabi and suddenly he whistled.

Then soldiers came out of nowhere and tied up Rabi in a flash.

Rabi was about to be taken away by the soldiers, but he stopped and turned to me.

“…Princess, I’m sorry I hurt you. And thank you for saving me.”

“Rabi…my injuries are nothing serious, so I’ll be fine. So go make good on your sins.”

And so Rabi was taken away by the soldiers this time.

As I was looking away from Rabi, Viktor, who was next to me, suddenly knelt down and gently touched my injured hand.

“…Princess, I’ll patch you up.”

“Oh, no, I’ll do it myself.”

“No! Let me do it!”

“Oh, yes…then, please.”

Viktor protested too seriously, so I decided to take the treatment quietly.

Viktor put his hand in his pocket, searched for something and took out a light blue handkerchief from there.

Then he gently wrapped it around my injured hand as if it were a broken object.

“…Princess, is it too tight?”

“No, that’s fine. Thank you, Viktor…Fufu, it’s the opposite of that time.”

I chuckled and thanked Viktor.

But Viktor stared at my hand, which was wrapped in a handkerchief, and then slowly raised his head to look at my face.

But his expression was stern for some reason.

“Viktor?”

“…Princess, why did you do something so rash!?”

“What?”

“I’m sorry you had to suffer these injuries while defending me and others…”

With that, Viktor turned his gaze to my injured hand again with a pained expression.

“Please. Please think of yourself first, rather than me!”

“I…I can’t do that.”

“What? Why, Princess!?”

“Because…my body moves unconsciously! I—when someone is about to be in danger in front of me, my body moves before I can think about it in my head. So I can’t respond to Viktor’s request.”

“Princess…”

“And I…I don’t regret saving Viktor and injuring myself at all. In fact, I’m really glad that Viktor was saved, you know?”

I showed him that with a proud smile on my face.

“Ha~!…Really, just who are you?”

“What? Viktor!”

Viktor stood up vigorously and hugged me to his large chest.

I was surprised by Viktor’s sudden action and my aching injuries were blown away.

“Hey! What happened Viktor? Ah! Maybe there are still others!”

“…No, it’s just you and me now.”

“So why would you…”

I looked up from Viktor’s chest with such confusion and saw Viktor looking down at me with serious eyes.

“Princess…I will definitely come for you one day, so please wait for me.”

“…Huh? Viktor, are you going somewhere?”

“No, no, that’s not the case…”

“So what do you mean by…oh, you’re talking about something related to Nina’s escort mission? If so, give Nina the priority! I don’t need you to pick me up to escort me, so you can just focus on your mission.”

I smiled at Viktor to reassure him.

But when Viktor saw my face, he froze and covered his eyes with his hands and let out a big sigh for some reason.

“Viktor, what is wrong with you?”

“No…you were that kind of person, weren’t you?”

“???”

I looked at Viktor, who slumped his shoulders in a gulp and was clearly depressed, and I was disconcerted as Viktor hugged me, wondering what was wrong.

“…Well, let’s get back now. Since everyone is very worried about you.”

“Oh, yes.”

Hearing Viktor’s words reminded me of Kaiser and the others.

That’s right, if they kidnapped me in front of everyone like that…as expected, they should be a little worried about me, who isn’t the heroine…right?

I was gradually losing confidence in myself, and while thinking about this, I remembered the words of Rabi I had heard when I was locked in the warehouse.

‘Break off the engagement and get engaged to another woman.’

…maybe they aren’t too worried about me.

This thought made me a little sad.

Then suddenly my field of vision went turned around, and I realized that Viktor’s face was even closer.

I was startled by the suddenness of it, but soon I realized that Viktor was holding me in a princess carry.

“Huh? Wait, Viktor, please put me down!”

“No, the princess is injured.”

“No, no, no, no, I mean, even if you say I’m injured, it’s the back of my hand! I can walk on my own normally!”

“It doesn’t matter where you were hurt! I want to take the princess this way!”

“Ugh…but I’m embarrassed…”

“Then I’m going to go. Princess, please hold on to me in case of danger. Oh, let’s wash those hands in the lake I found on the way here.”

As soon as Viktor said that, he started to walk away with his stalwart.

I almost lost my balance because of his movement, so I hurriedly held onto my chest.

Viktor can be a bit forceful sometimes…

I was so stunned, but I gave up and Viktor held me quietly.

I washed my dirty hands at a lake on the way and cleaned the wound again, and then Viktor wrapped a handkerchief around me once more and picked me up again and took me to the place where everyone was waiting for me.

In the end, the unexpected event of the kidnapping happened, but somehow my hand injury was all that mattered, and although I was relieved that everyone was really worried about me, I was able to get back to them safely just fine.

But when Nina found out about my injury, she looked pale and almost fell over, and Kaiser and the others grabbed their swords with scary faces and tried to go back to the place where Rabi was being held, and I had a hard time calming them down. Eventually I did though.

Then we hurried our way back to the capital.

But even there, there was turbulence.

My father was so distraught when he learned of my kidnapping and injury that I was forcibly sent home to recuperate. He insisted that I be allowed to recover at home.

My mother, brother and even the servants in the house were in a panic and treated me as if I were terminally ill.

An imperial doctor was immediately called in to re-treat my hand that had already been treated.

Well, the doctor diagnosed that the wound was not so deep, and that it would soon get better, but still, everyone refused to let me out of my room.

“…Brother, I’ve had enough of this, I want to get out of here.”

“No, not yet. What if that wound affects your health?”

“I don’t think it’s too much to worry about…”

“That’s the danger of being careless! Now see, more importantly, we’ve got some delicious grapes that Cecilia likes to eat, right?”

“I’ll eat…”

“Fufu, well then open your mouth.”

“My right hand is fine, so I can eat it myself, okay?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s good.”

“……Ahh”

“You like it?”

“It’s delicious.”

“Okay, one more.”

While we were talking like this, my brother made me eat more and more grapes.

Honestly, if it was me in the past, I would have been very happy about this situation, but as expected, I was fed up with this kind of situation every day.

“You’re home every day, brother. Is your work okay? I’m sure you were supposed to be helping father, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Father has asked me to make sure Cecilia is well taken care of instead.”

“Huh…Huh? But can you really leave your fiancée, Lady Marie, all alone?”

“That’s okay too. Marie is the only wonderful woman who has accepted to let me live with Cecilia, you know. Marie has asked me to put Cecilia first too.”

“……I just heard something very disturbing…What do you mean I’m going to live with brother and Marie?”

“That’s exactly what I said. It means that even if I marry Marie, Cecilia will still be able to live with us forever. So don’t worry about it, you can break off the engagement with Prince Kaiser.”

Then he smiled at me with a very nice smile.

I put my hand on my forehead as I looked at him with shock.

No, no, no, no, no… I can’t just stay in a newlywed’s place with impunity! I don’t want to live with my sister-in-law all the time, even if Marie is the sweetest person in the world…I wouldn’t want to. And I don’t like it either, because I wouldn’t feel comfortable…Well, I can’t say anything about ending the engagement with Kaiser because it depends on how Nina and Kaiser feel…Anyway, for now, let’s must heal my wounds and return to the castle as soon as possible! For the record, I don’t want to be here!!!!

I swore in my heart that I was fed up with the excessive nursing days, so even though I was still confined to house arrest for about a month, I managed to convince everyone to let me return to the castle.

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