Chapter 200

The Crown Prince stood up, and he held me like a baby and jumped out of his seat with me. And we quickly walked through the remains and gold coins to the aisle where we first escaped.

I glanced along the way, the bodies of the monster he had beaten with his sword were scattered everywhere.

'Crazy...'

It was a tremendous sight that made me cry.

Climbing up the wide stairs, he sat behind the least dusty and cobwebbed pillar. And hugged me tightly in his arms. Not letting me touch the dirt in the slightest.

I wriggled around in his arms, and until then I slipped down the mirror wand that had been uncomfortably placed between him and me.

"...Are you feeling better now?" The Crown Prince asked anxiously.

Sitting on his lap, there was no distance between us.

I was a little embarrassed to cry up until now, so I looked down and avoided his gaze. Then he suddenly reached out his hand to me.

"You're no child, and yet you're crying." "I-I will take care of myself!"

I rubbed my eyes in a hurry to avoid his hands trying to wipe them off. "Don't. Your hands are dirty."

He took at my dirty hands-off in astonishment.

Then he kicked with his tongue, narrowing his forehead looking at my reddish eyes. "Well, it's already red."

In the end, his hands caught my face which was avoiding him.

Unlike my hands, that was dirty from trying to steal the mirror, his hands didn't even have a splash of blood.

Callisto carefully wiped the tears off my eyes with his fingertips. And then, "huu, huu", softly blew his breath on my red eyes.

Because of that, his bangs moved gently and tickled my forehead.

My heart fluttered from his lovely touch as if he seemed to handle a child. "You're feeling better now."

Finally, he took off his hand that was carefully wiping the corners of my eyes.

His mouth, which was softly smiled in satisfaction, was right in front of me. I was overcome with a feeling of crying again.

"I'm not asking. I'm not going to ask you anything, so why don't you loosen up that chewing dog-shit look?"

I don't know what my expression was like, but he wriggled his eyebrows and grumbled irritably.

"...Your Highness."

After a long time, I began to open my mouth after hearing the man's vulgar words. It was mostly an impulse.

"It may sound crazy, but I'm actually not Penelope." "Oh."

The Crown Prince said with a look of surprise.

"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard from you." "I'm not just saying this."

I stared at him, who seemed to not be listening seriously, he shut up again. He soon lowered his face. "...It's a joke. I'm listening seriously. Go on."

"..."

"I told you I was wrong. Huh?"

When I saw him with his dog-like face with his eyes lowered, I felt relieved. I knew I was being soft, but I just wanted to say. Anything, and everything. My frustrating situation and the secrets that I've been hiding.

"...I lived a good life in a very far place that you don't know, and then I was dragged here suddenly out of nowhere."

"Why were you dragged here suddenly out of nowhere?"

"I don't know. I just woke up and thought it was ridiculous to be adopted daughter of the Duke of Eckart..."

"That's a piece of bad luck. Of all things, the Duke of Eckart, who thinks only about his business affairs."

The Crown Prince replied with a funny face as if he were playing along with a child. I felt a bit awkward, but it wasn't wrong.

Among many characters in the game, I thought countless times why it was Penelope. "...But I tried."

"What?"

"Just do this and that."

To be exact, to survive with the game story.

"I knew whether it was the spirits of ancient wizards or not, that they would send me home if I listened to them. So I followed my orders very hard."

"..."

"You know what? I couldn't see the end of it even though I tried my best. I would think I was done, then something else happened... and then it really did seem like the end, and something new arrived."

"..."

"I couldn't handle it, so I tried to solve it in another way, but now I can't." I know now that I'm going to die here, I can't go back to my reality.

My real body is lying in bed and in a coma. Maybe that's why I came here.

Suddenly, a sense of hopelessness hit me.

"...What should I do now?"

I asked Callisto for an answer with a lost face.

But he didn't know what I was feeling, he spoke with an impudent face. "What should you do? Just live here with me."

"Please don't say such terrible things."

"Huh, is it such a terrible idea to live with me?"

The Crown Prince, who couldn't understand my feelings, soon narrowed his forehead and asked back. "...Why are you trying to return back?"

"What?"

"Have you hiding something from me? There must be a reason for you to go back." "...Do I really need a reason to go back home? Ju-just..."

While answering like that, I was worried. Why did I want to go back so stubbornly?

"... Actually, the college was kind of a waste of my time." "College?"

"I studied so hard that I was at the top of the class." "You...the top?"

He looked back at me with strange eyes. I felt a little bad, so I bit my teeth hard and emphasized. "Yes, the top. First place. First place."

"What was there to learn. To learn how to insult the Imperial Family?" (NOTE: BRUHH LMAO)

"No, it's not like that. It's archaeology."

Perhaps it was an unexpected answer, but the Crown Prince's eyes grew and returned to normal. I muttered sadly, thinking of the major I was learning about.

"I've dreamed of becoming an archeologist since I was a kid."

"Oh, that's why. I thought you looked like you were good at excavating relics..."

He nodded silently as if he was remembering back to the time of the hunting competition long ago. "Why did you want to be an archeologist?"

I paused at his question.

My old past, which even I had forgotten about.

After living in a corner of the house, when I heard enough of "beggarly girl" to scab my ear, the past was so disgusting.

I wanted to erase it. If I could, even the memory of my miserable mother. But when I look back, I've never dreamed of it as much as that time.

"...I lived alone with my mom when I was young, and my house was really poor." "..."

"My friends bragged about going to the zoo and amusement park every weekend... and the only place my mom could take me was the city museum in front of my house."

I added, glancing at Callisto's countenance.

"It was free entrance until I became an elementary school student..." "I see."

I thought he'd be sarcastic or sneering at something, but he listened to my story with an unexpectedly serious look.

"...I used to try to memorize all the artifacts on display every time because I was afraid my mom would be upset."

"..."

"And when I got home and listed the things I saw, my mom clapped her hands and said, 'My daughter is the smartest in the world'."

- So smart... you could be an archeologist.

- Really? Then I want to become an archeologist!

A piece of a distant memory flashed through my mind.

Even if I got zero on the test, my mom always complimented me.

I tried so hard to be a diligent daughter, and I thought I was only a step closer... 'But I was dragged here and it became useless.'

It was at that moment that I remembered my memories with a bitter face. "You have the same dream as me."

Suddenly the Crown Prince opened his mouth. I came to my senses. "The same dream?"

"My mother, who was becoming increasingly insane because of the frivolous baron's family's attitude and my father's indifferent eye contact, had whispered hundreds and thousands of times to me to be a perfect emperor."

He was talking about the current Queen now. He continued.

"I'm going to climb to the highest position as my mother had hoped, and break this fucking country down."

'Crazy, that's a completely different story!'

When I found out why Callisto was so obsessed with being the 'perfect emperor', I was dumbfounded, and spit out my mouth.

"...I didn't think of something weird like that." "Of course it was before I met you."

The Crown Prince spoke with a wry smile on his face.

"I thought it would be okay to throw away the damn Crown Prince's position until now..." "..."

"Listening to your story has changed my mind. I'd better keep it in my hands." "...Why?"

"So when you do what you want to do, there won't be any crawlers." He casually told me his reason.

'To abandon the Crown Prince position, and to keep the position.'

"I'll make it all happen. Magic, archaeology. Everything you want to do." "..."

"So... why can't you stay with me instead of going back?"

He slowly raised his hand to my cheek. His hands were trembling, slowly to caressing me. "...Why?"

I asked again, I could feel the expression on my face slowly disappearing. I said it with a desolate voice. "What does this have to do with us?"

When everything was over, when the game finally reached the end, I had no reason to stay here any longer.

I didn't know why he was shaking me again.

I cut off him because I didn't want to hear being his right partner again. "Don't look at it like it's nothing."

Callisto suddenly raised his face.

"Because there's nothing going on between us." "..."

"Did you forget? My rejection before my coming-of-age ceremony." "...How could I forget that?"

Since we met again, he had become a painfully smiling man.

"I saw how you... after hearing my bullshit, were disappointed, and how you were dying." "..."

"If you were angry, you should have slapped me, why did you have to drink the poison?" It wasn't because of him that I drank the poison.

But Callisto's face was so distressed that he paused for a moment.

The Crown Prince, who was looking down at me with a sweet smile, suddenly opened his mouth.

"...Maybe you went to an college which taught bad things, but you always pick up words that hurt people like a knife."

"Who the hell would say that..."

"The dignity of the Imperial family is also that you can't do rude things in front of the Crown Prince. And why do you always look so sullen, tch."

The Crown Prince, who had cut me off with glaring red eyes, murmured upset. However, unlike his words, he patted my cheek with affection.

"And yet..." he whispered with a faint smile.

"I love you, Penelope Eckart."