Conflict for the Reincarnated Princess

Conflict for the Reincarnated Princess

I bolted upright in a frenzy. The chair made a clattering noise.

“Lady Rosemary?!” Klaus asked, startled.

How could I be so stupid?

I hadn’t even considered the possibility that Hilde could be at risk of harm. She knows their plan! If they’ve decided that they don’t need her anymore, then there’s no way they’d just let her be!

“Where are you going?”

I hurriedly dodged past Klaus, and he chased after me.

“Hey, what’s wrong?!” Lutz shouted.

“Princess?” Teo called.

The two of them had overheard the commotion and poked their heads out of the greenhouse. Their expressions were darkened, and they had judged from my panicked state that the situation was tense.

“What happened?” Lutz asked. “We can’t know unless you tell us.” He rushed over to me and shook me by the shoulders. What he’d said made me bite down on my lips.

That’s exactly it. Nobody will understand unless I say something. But I mustn’t tell Lutz and Teo. I’d only be putting them in more danger.

I wanted to divulge everything, but there wasn’t a single person I could confide in. This situation tormented me.

“I’ve remembered that there’s something urgent I need to do,” I said as an excuse.

“Huh?” questioned Lutz.

“I’m sorry,” I said apologetically. “Farewell for today.”

Lutz seemed like he had more to say, but I shook his hand off my shoulder and smiled at the both of them. Teo was watching me with concern from behind Lutz.

I swallowed my urge to run, and walked away as slowly as I could. Though I could feel them peering at me from behind, I didn’t turn around.

“Lady Rosemary, where exactly are you going?” Klaus asked after we’d progressed through the hallway in silence and rounded the second corner.

He’d waited to ask until we were far away from the greenhouse, probably guessing from the way I’d dodged Lutz’s question that I didn’t want the two sorcerers to hear my answer.

“I want to find Hilde,” I answered quietly.

Klaus circled around in front of me. He stood in my way, blocking my path forward, looking more serious than I’d ever seen him.

“I must protest.”

Klaus was usually soft on me. He would joyfully grant most of the requests I made, and rarely had he ever refused me or objected. It was rare for him to present direct opposition to me, like he was now, unless there was a threat to my safety.

“Klaus.”

“I mustn’t allow you to be exposed to danger,” he insisted.

My shoulders started trembling when I heard Klaus’s statement.

Klaus just said that going to Hilde is dangerous.

“...So you know then,” I stated.

Klaus didn’t reply.

In other words, he knows that Hilde is in a perilous position. Naturally, if Klaus knows, then so does the royal guard. But then, why?

“You’re not taking her into your protection?” I asked.

“She’s not ours to protect,” Klaus said, and his eyes were awfully cold. “I’m sure you understand.”

Makes sense. Of course there’s no way they’d take custody of her. However likely it is that she might wind up dead, Hilde is on the enemy’s side.

In the eyes of my country, she was a traitor.

The royal guard couldn’t risk letting the enemy discover their movements. They’d much rather abandon Hilde to her fate than let that happen. She would be written off as a piece of internal discord in the enemy camp.

My heart began to thump and throb, making an eerie noise. Blood coursed through my body as though I’d been running. I breathed in and out over and over, restlessly, but I still felt like I was suffocating. Cold beads of sweat dripped down the back of my neck and my spine. I was about to faint with my eyes still open.

Right now, I could affect whether someone lives or dies.

The reality of the situation struck terror into my heart. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t doing the deed myself, or that she might be involved in an evil crime. None of that lightened the weight that was crushing me.

At this very moment, I’m being forced to make the decision to potentially let a fifteen-year-old girl die.

I can’t bear this.

A hoarse grunt escaped my mouth. I realized that I’d unconsciously wrapped my arms around myself, and my entire body was quivering in small tremors.

I’m scared. So, so, so scared.

Fear pushed all other thoughts from my mind. My head went blank, and I couldn’t figure out what I ought to do as a princess. Or as a person.

“Let’s go back, Lady Rosemary.” Klaus broke his brief silence. He looked at me as I trembled in terror, and softened his expression to a gentle one. He pointed back the way we’d come, urging me to return.

The soothing tone of his voice, like one used to calm a child, robbed me of my capability to think. It felt like he’d gently shielded my eyes and ears and told me, It’s scary, but just don’t look, just don’t listen.

“It’s the boys you care about, not her. Am I wrong?”

“Klaus.” I pivoted, guided by his voice.

I took one step towards the greenhouse, then another unsteady step, and another, as though I were a puppet on strings.

Klaus was right. The ones I wanted to protect were those two kind boys, my precious friends, Lutz and Teo. A girl whom I’d never even spoken to couldn’t possibly compare.

That’s it, however I try to dress it up. I can’t pretend that I wouldn’t make the choice if I had to.

I knew that I would choose them over her, and I despised myself for it.

I stopped walking and hung my head.

“Lady Rosemary?” Klaus called out to me.

I stood still, unable to respond. Sobs threatened to rise up my throat. I wanted to scream, to let the pain out.

Moving forward. Turning back. Both options frightened me.

I don’t like either. I don’t want to go to either place.

I want to save both of them. I’m greedy, and selfish, and egotistical, and so I want to save them all.

Everyone.

I don’t want to just say “It can’t be helped.” I don’t want that phrase to become someone’s epitaph.

That’s not the sort of person I want to be!

But realistically, what can I do?

Acting alone, what little power I had couldn’t achieve very much. Though I was a princess, that title didn’t come with any real authority. I couldn’t compel anybody to act.

What should I do? What should I—

Just as I felt cornered, a deep voice replayed in my mind: If there’s anything worrying you, please come to me before taking action. I’ll do whatever I can to assist you.

“Sir Leonhart...” I murmured.

“Is something the matter?” Klaus looked at me, confused. It seemed that my quiet words hadn’t reached his ears.

I spun around.

“Lady Rosemary?!” Klaus raised his voice as I turned my back to the greenhouse and started to walk away. Once again, he blocked my way forward.

“Klaus, move out of my way.” I shot him a glare.

“Even if it’s your order, that’s something that I cannot do.”

“I’m not going to Hilde,” I clarified.

“Then where?”

While suppressing my growing irritation and impatience, I opened my mouth to answer, but at the last moment, my attention was ensnared by a figure that I spotted behind Klaus.

I stared up and down at the girl’s petite frame, and my face betrayed my utter disbelief.

She was beautiful.

Her flaxen hair was long and straight, and her eyes were green. Even with the distance between us, I could still tell that she’d gone pale. She’d crossed her arms below her belly and was biting down on her lips.

I could sense a grim resolve from her, the sort that makes you worry about whether she was thinking of ending her own life.

To my unconcealable shock, the figure standing in the center of this drama had shown up out of nowhere—Hilde Kremer.