Chapter 397 – Next Worst

000

The chair prepared in the carriage was holding Amelia’s body like another prison.

It’s not like she’s been shackled or her arms are locked to her armrests her, so she can’t move.

It was as if a heavy stone had pressed her body down from above, and it was impossible to get up from there.

Perhaps it was because of her poor sleep her at night, her body her felt heavy, and she flinched every time a person passed by her carriage.

Most of them were vassals of the kingdom preparing for the march.

Feeling that their gazes were directed at her, Amelia lowered her head over and over again, as if hiding her face from them.

Every time I breathed, I felt my breath fill up, and my eyes felt dry every time I blinked.

It was as if they had been thrown into a harsh environment where no one could live, in the polar regions.

Every second, every second passed, Amelia’s mind quickly weathered.

However, Amelia thinks.

As soon as possible and surely.

If only she could kill her own feelings her and be her her doll her.

That the pain would go away, and she would stop torturing herself.

As it has been every year, the environment has changed a little, and even if circumstances have changed.

All she has to do is not change.

The King’s Way – Furthermore, it is the word of a traitor who sets an example for the people of the Kingdom.

Now that there is no empire, he is the enemy of the people who gathers their anger in one place.

A scapegoat to show that even such a being has the mercy of ‘life’.

At times Amelia, though she felt as though she would be gutted by the pitiful indiscretion of the beings she was supposed to protect.

Unfortunately, Amelia is a good person. Also, she is the kind of good person who finds relief in blaming herself rather than blaming others.

‘…Divine light. Holy Spirit who protects me and this land…’

So, she quietly clears her mind, recites it several times to clear her head her, and recalls her prayer her in her mind her once again.

A warrior of the spirit, chosen to defend the kingdom.

Saint Princesses are not protected by kingdoms.

She never takes back the sacrifices and compassion she gives them.

Suddenly, the prayers in her head stopped her and Amelia lifted her head and looked up at the sky.

There, as if celebrating Victory Day, as if wishing for peace in the kingdom, I could see birds flying freely.

Birds flying through the sky with their two wings, unfettered by anything.

She involuntarily lifts her arm, which only feels heavy.

She wanted to ask that she be lifted up to the sky as well.

“It might not be bad to just go up and disappear.”

At that time, when Amelia’s body her felt a rattle and the wagon shaking.

Surprised by the presence of the woman next to her, Amelia lowers her raised arm and grabs it with her other hand.

“…Cleon.”

When Amelia turned her head to look there, her armed Cleon was looking at her from outside the bars of her carriage in which Amelia was riding.

“…Hello Amelia. I don’t think I’ve slept well. So you’re not tall enough?”

“…Haha…”

Hearing Cleon’s joking greeting, Amelia shows a small, tired smile.

Cleon looked at her without saying a word, then looked at the cage that was holding her.

Even within the royal capital, it was not that different from the iron-barred carriages used to transport criminals that could sometimes be seen passing by.

It looked as if his arm could pass through the gap between the large bars.

Then-

Dismissed! As sparks flew, the defensive magic spread across the carriage burned Cleon’s fingertips.

“Cleon!?”

When Amelia is startled by Cleon’s sudden action of her, Cleon tries to shake off the feeling by shaking his hand.

“The defense barrier is properly set.”

[Is this an issue that you have to deliberately put your hand in and get hurt to check? It?]

When Galatea, who was hanging on her waist her, spoke as if she was tired of it, Cleon laughed and laughed.

“Gwa, are you okay? Hand…”

“Ah. It’s okay. It’s not a big deal. By the way, it’s definitely a great defensive barrier. It must have been set up by skilled magicians in the palace. If it’s an external attack, it should be able to block most of them.”

After hearing Cleon’s words of her, Amelia quietly nodded her head, and the tip of her gaze her continued to look at Cleon’s fingertips of her.

Just in case.

If Cleon’s hand her had passed through the defense barrier without incident.

She may have taken his hand.

I wonder if he was shocked that he realized that his self-control his was cracked.

Amelia calmed her trembling hands by squeezing them.

She takes a big deep breath.

Including the fact that he looked up at the birds right before Cleon spoke to him.

All, it is their own weakness.

After thinking that, her heart her calmed down to some extent, and Amelia’s usual self her gradually returned.

“Are you okay, Amelia?”

“…Yes. It’s okay. Thanks to you, I was able to calm down a little. Cleon.”

Amelia answered Cleon’s voice, worried about her.

Cleon looks at her quietly, then he says.

“…It’s okay if you don’t have to be so cold.”

“…Yes?”

At Cleon’s unexpected words, Amelia asked back as if she had heard it wrong.

“Amelia. The situation you’re in is ‘serious.’ In that situation, you don’t have to be cool like an adult.”

“…”

At Cleon’s words her, Amelia looks at him with a slightly dazed face.

“For the peace of the kingdom. To unite the will of the people. …A situation where a child like you gets caught up in the affairs of unreasonable adults, such as a cause. It’s okay to get angry at the irrational, absurd reality, it’s okay to cry.”

Amelia who is for everyone in a place where everyone is unknown.

More than anyone she knows, she is unmatched in her kindness.

However, the environment around her that surrounds her does not treat her kindly.

“You don’t have to hold it down, hold it. Amelia. Say you want to run away. Say you want to live a normal life. I’ll help you with what you want.”

At Cleon’s words, Amelia shook her shoulders as if a little surprised.

It took some time in silence to accept the meaning of his words her.

If you say you want to run away, if you say you want to get out of this prison and leave with him.

He is saying that he will help you.

That Cassius is trying to make himself king.

The sword of fate as a warrior protecting the royal capital, which Aurelia asked Amelia for.

If it was Cleon- he should be able to break that chain with the magic sword at his waist and bring himself out.

With his choked throat his, he wanted to tell me to take him with me right now and go somewhere unknown.

However-

But obviously, it ruins everything.

The mission as a guardian that Amelia herself will throw away.

Although it is said to be a confined existence, Cleon will encounter a situation where her princess is kidnapped. And their colleagues her.

The royal capital that has lost its guardian will be helpless by the devil’s conspiracy.

Eventually, the balance of not only the kingdom but also the entire continent will be disrupted, and the world will plunge into darkness.

So, Amelia treats her own honest wish as ‘evil’.

In a situation where she suppresses herself, she chooses ‘next worst’ and talks to Cleon.

“—Cleon.”

After a long breath, Amelia called his name her.

Carefully rise from your chair and approach with trembling steps.

He stretches out his hand toward the outside of the cage where Cleon is standing.

Unlike Cleon, he did n’t rebel against Amelia, the object she needed to protect, as if she did n’t reject her barrier.

Even so, an invisible physical force acted between the bars, and Amelia’s arms her did not pass through as if there were a wall.

So, Amelia, who brought her finger her there, conveyed her own wish her to her her Cleon her.

“—Stay by my side. If the world isn’t kind to me. Let me be by your side who’s kind to me.”

Looking at Amelia who said that in her trembling voice her, Cleon got down on one knee with her.

It was like a scene from a knight oath ceremony.

She swore with her head bowed, bending her right arm inward and placing her fist on her left shoulder her.

“Okay Amelia. I’ll stay with you. But promise me one thing too.”

“…”

Amelia maintains her silence as she watches Cleon’s words and her actions her.

And quietly, she waited for his words to follow her.

“…As I said before, if you want to get angry, you can scream, if you want to cry, you can shed tears… But, just one.

While saying that, Cleon looked up at Amelia and spoke.

“Because that’s what those who oppress you want most. It’s okay to scream and cry. No, maybe it’s better to laugh at them to your heart’s content. If you won’t run away. Fight. No, you have no choice but to fight.”

Amelia clenched her fist at Cleon’s words her.

And, she had seen him before-

Along with Ruba, Cleon treated himself without prejudice and resisted the perception of the world.

He did not break his heart even when he learned of his previous life, past, and his own mission his, which could only be called a cruel fate.

And once again, to stand by the man who would stand by him, even when his own life his might be in danger.

He, too, had to become like Cleon.

“Can you promise me?”

“…Yes. Cleon. I promise. I- I will never, no matter what happens. Cleon promised to be by my side.”

Her answer her gave Cleon a satisfied smile and nodded her head.

“Okay. —Well then, today is a carriage date with Amelia.”

At Cleon’s words in her, Amelia blinks her eyes two or three times before speaking in a panicked voice.

“Hey, a date!?”

“…Is this blasphemy anyway?”

Embarrassed by his remarks her, he stepped back from her cage and looked at Amelia hiding behind her chair her, Cleon scratching her head.

[Seduce a woman irresponsibly like that again…]

Galatea sighs at Cleon’s unconscious words in her.

“Amelia? Dating is a metaphor…”

“Ah, that’s right! I know! Ha, ha ha…”

At Cleon’s excuse-like words her, Amelia stuttered her words, but she could n’t hide her blush and fanned her face her with her hands.

‘Ah, why all of a sudden… I thought I knew that Cleon was that kind of person…’

Listening to Cleon and their conversations her with Lubera and other female colleagues.

Amelia, who felt sympathy and shame when Cleon unconsciously uttered words that made them feel ashamed.

When it happens to her, she breaks into a cold sweat as her heart beats out of control.

“…Oops… Did something go wrong.”

As Cleon said that, a voice through communication magic flowed into his ear her.

[Lyla, I want to report it.]

[What?]

[Cleon is seducing Princess Amelia.]

Hey.

In his head his, Cleon wanted to put a stop to Gray’s words, but unfortunately, this was a voice that came through Lila.

It was impossible for Cleon to transmit his voice her directly to Gray.

Layla was silent for a moment at the sound of Gray’s voice in her.

Soon, the voice of communication magic flowed in once again in a surprisingly kind voice.

[——Ah, as expected Cleon. You were a lolicon are you okay. I will accept such a Cleon.]

[…Wait Laila. Must be wrong Because I didn’t say it with that thought in mind. To alleviate Amelia’s tension, as a joke…]

She tries to make excuses to calm Layla, but Cleon’s ‘female bias’, which Layla is grasping at, has made Cleon unable to escape.

[You know that the trust level of Ferdiana Sasha is 0 at the time she touched her, right? Ah, is Ruti a similar body type?]

[…

[… I think it would be better to keep a little distance from Cleon.]

And when he hears Gray’s cold voice after hearing Laila’s words, Cleon is silent.

Even if I said more than this, it was difficult to get out of the frame created by the two of them.

“Cleon.”

At that time, Amelia cautiously gave her words to Cleon, who had become quiet.

“… Amelia. I’m not really looking at Amelia through her sexual eyes her or anything like that.”

“…Huh?”

And, Cleon’s remarks made the situation worse.

[It’s the worst.]

With Galatea’s remark, Amelia staggers back into her chair.

“…Amelia?”

“… It’s okay. It’s okay. The things that I couldn’t sleep suddenly came…”

Amelia answered Cleon’s words with a trembling voice.

The girl has not even confessed, but as she feels the feelings of a broken hearted person, she blankly looks out of her window.

At that time, as the procession in front starts to move, the magic of automatic driving on the carriage is activated.

Amelia’s carriage also moved along with it.

“—Is it starting soon?”

Cleon looked up at the sky while standing on top of her carriage, regaining his distracted concentration of her.

The full-scale march begins the moment the lead carriage enters the main road of the royal road.

Cleon, as well as the comrades who guard the surroundings.

As the strings of her tension tightened, her mouth her fell silent.

As Amelia looks at Cleon, she recalls her promise her to him once more.

‘Without breaking your heart. Be honest with yourself.’

Those words are rooted deeper in her heart than any promise or advice she has ever heard or given to someone.

While swearing that she would absolutely keep this promise.

She was sitting in her chair, showing her dignity as her as a princess.

—However, this march that Amelia and Cleon have just begun is a gear that accelerates their great destiny.

I didn’t know that the promise the two made would come true in the worst form.