Meeting My Mother-In-Law (1)

After their supposed "date," Saber and Reaper parted ways.

Reaper returned to the inn in the city, while Saber stayed in the Black Market, heading in another direction. Yuki had instructed him earlier to visit a certain place there, and he was now on his way.

"Why are you late?" Yuki's voice was sharp.

"What...? Miss me?"

"Do you want to die?"

"Sorry, ma'am... I'm just joking."

Yuki rolled her eyes.

After their brief exchange, Saber immediately went to take a bath.

"I've already prepared you some clothes," Yuki said.

Yuki smiles as he follows her into her bedroom, she opens a drawer and starts searching through it. It doesn't take her long to find a t-shirt and pair of shorts, they were pretty big so he'd have no problem fitting into them.

"Sure, sure, go ahead," she says, trying to remain casual, but she can't help glancing at his body. It's not exactly hard to miss the strong and toned physique beneath the thin fabric of his clothes....

"Mmm..."

She notices that the shower only took a couple minutes, she was expecting him to take a longer time. As she waits a part of her wants to ask him what took him so long, but that would probably make her seem intrusive.

The other thing she notices, because she can't help but look, he's still all wet when he gets out. His dark hair is slicked back against his head, and water runs off of his body in small rivulets — it makes her want to touch him.

Shit... What am I even thinking?

Yuki slapped her cheeks.

'Don't go falling for me. It's dangerous... Not for you, but for me.'

She recalled what Saber said to her on their first night. Yuki didn't know why he said this, but somehow, she's starting to understand why.

"That was dangerous..."

"What was dangerous?"

"I'm not talking to you!"

"...!??"

Saber unconsciously backed away when he heard her loud scream.

"Geez... Just shut up for a second."

Yuki facepalmed to hide her face and rolled around the bed out of embarrassment. Her heart started beating fast, face flushed red like a tomato as she glanced through the gap of her fingers to look at Saber's all-knowing face.

"Yuki... You're not falling for me, aren't you?"

His eyes never left her direction as he waited for an answer.

However...

He never heard a word come out from Yuki. But instead, what he received next was a kick straight to his chin sending him unconscious.

***

[𝗔𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗢𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲]

Alice lay on the grass, her personal maid, Jenna, looking at her with concern.

"Your Highness..."

"I'm fine... You can leave me now, Jenna." Alice forced a smile, gesturing for the maid to leave.

Jenna sighed deeply before bowing. "As you wish, Your Highness... I'll come back in twenty minutes."

Alice pouted, showing her displeasure, but Jenna ignored it and left.

As soon as the maid was gone, Alice's expression turned emotionless. She took a deep breath and turned her head slightly towards the fountain.

"Who's there?"

Her eyes glared at the man in the suit.

"As expected of the princess~"

Saber clapped his hands, pretending to be amazed.

He slowly approached her and stopped, crouching down when he was only a meter away.

"What do you want from me?"

Alice's expression remained unchanged as they locked eyes.

"I'll repeat my proposition from yesterday."

Saber smiled, but his eyes remained cold. Although Alice didn't sense any malice, she stayed cautious.

"I'll help you walk, but..."

"But what...?"

Alice's ears perked up. She hugged herself for comfort before speaking again.

"I don't care what your wish is. As long as you can heal my legs, I'm willing to pay any price, even if it means selling my own body," she said, her eyes never leaving his.

"Hahaha... Talk about commitment. Thank you for the offer, but no thanks. What I want is money~"

Saber jokingly made a hand gesture and stuck out his tongue.

"Originally, I was planning to seduce you into giving me some gold, but—" Saber clasped his hands together. "—seeing you like this... I can only pity you."

"....."

Hearing Saber's words, the princess lowered her head.

"Pity, huh..."

Did I ever wish to be born like this?

As she thought of the man's words, she began to recall what happened the previous month after her brother's disappearance. Julius and the other messengers from nearby kingdoms had visited them.

The messengers came to inform the princess of their intention to break their alliance.

As for Julius, he wanted to break their engagement.

Remembering this, Alice laughed at herself.

Julius' choice might have been cruel, but Alice could understand his point.

Not only was she crippled and impulsive, thanks to her OCD, but she was also incompetent and inexperienced as a ruler.

Adding to that, she was sickly. She couldn't cook, she couldn't do chores, and she had to rely on the castle's maids for everything. There was no way a man could like a mentally ill, crippled girl like her.

Unless, of course, that man had weird kinks.

Her brother, Maximus, supposedly the next ruler, might have been a jerk, but unlike her, he was competent enough to rule.

Incompetent.

She often heard people call her that, even from her own subjects.

However, she couldn't blame them, nor could she feel angry.

After all, they were right.

Their words were true.

She was incompetent.

"Ahh...."

Alice slowly raised her head, her gaze landing directly on Saber's. Her eyes looked empty and lifeless, almost comparable to a dead fish.

With a twisted and stiff smile, the princess spoke.

"I'm sorry for being pitiful."

***

After their brief conversation, Saber escorted the princess back to the castle.

"Your Highness... Who...?" the maid began, her eyes wide with concern.

"Let's talk again later after you get some rest, princess," Saber interjected smoothly, leaving Alice in the maid's care. He watched them until they disappeared down one of the corridors.

As soon as they were out of sight, the smile on Saber's face faded.

"Your daughter seems to be holding her pent-up emotions to herself..."

Saber glanced over his shoulder.

A beautiful woman with dark hair appeared, approaching him.

"...What are you trying to say?" she asked.

"Nothing much. In a sense, it seems to me that you are more incompetent than her, Your Majesty."

The Queen didn't argue with his words; she simply nodded.

"You are right. I'm very incompetent when it comes to parenting."

Saber chuckled softly before turning around and summoning his sword, pointing it at the Queen.

"I never expected to see a real DEVIL pretending to be human in broad daylight."

The atmosphere around them turned icy as they locked eyes.

The Queen glanced at the tip of the sword and sighed.

"You really are different from the last time I first saw you..." she murmured, before returning her attention to Saber.

"Saber."