TIRS 09

CHAPTER 9.

 Why Do You Keep Avoiding Me? Like a Rat.

After I finished greeting Mother and stepped away, people gathered around me, offering words of comfort.

Among them were Elizabeth and Sylvia—who, until just recently, had sky-high favorability for Hezen.

“Are you alright, Louibelle? I can’t believe Lord Hezen hid something so serious and still got engaged to you…”

“Oh, Your Highness! I already suspected there was something fundamentally wrong with him when I heard he doesn’t even wash his hands after using the restroom!”

“That was close! You almost ended up marrying a eunuch!”

“Haha… Yes, right.”

I gave vague responses and tried to make my way outside, but Sylvia suddenly grabbed me.

“Your Highness, your taste in men is downright pathetic.”

“…Huh?”

Then out of nowhere, she started picking a fight.

“You really need to sharpen your judgment.”

Her tone was snappish, but her face was slightly flushed as she kept talking to me.

‘Wait a sec… is she…?’

I started to get suspicious of her behavior.

“I agree with Sylvia,” Elizabeth chimed in, coughing a few times. “Your judgment is so terrible, it’s a disgrace to the royal family.”

‘Did she just call me Lou-Lou? A nickname?’

My mood lifted strangely for a moment, and I blinked as I looked at them.

But I quickly shook it off.

‘Nah, no way.’

Thinking they liked me once was more than enough.

Just then, a murmur spread through the hall.

Gasp!

I turned my head instinctively toward the sound—and froze.

“Oh my, it’s Prince Salto!”

Sylvia whispered excitedly next to me.

The very Salto—no, Anselot—that I had been avoiding all week had just entered the ballroom.

But something was strange about him.

Red blotches were splattered across his white hair and formal attire like…

“Wait, is that blood?”

“….”

At Sylvia’s shriek, I quietly held my breath.

Anselot, completely unfazed by the murmurs around him, strolled in calmly, covered in blood.

Then, as if searching for someone, he scanned the crowd—until our eyes met.

“Ah, Princess Louibelle.”

He smiled gently as he called my name.

He walked up to me and bowed gracefully.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Please forgive me for not escorting you, Your Highness.”

He smiled warmly as he spoke.

I could feel curious eyes fixating on us due to his friendly attitude.

“I had to receive a… gift.”

At the word gift, a flicker of menace flashed in his eyes.

People around us started nervously shifting their gazes.

My eyes were drawn to the bloodstains on his hair and clothes again—but I absolutely did not want to know what that “gift” was.

Because I had the feeling that the moment I found out, I’d end up like it.

“…No need to apologize.”

I forced a polite smile.

“So kind of you,” he said cheerfully, tilting his head toward me before whispering softly in my ear.

“But why do you keep avoiding me? Like a rat.”

Meanwhile, Hezen had barely managed to reattach his dentures.

Thankfully, he still had some [Sticky Slime of the Honey Snail] in his inventory.

But even with his teeth back in, his Charm hadn’t fully recovered.

Probably because his Honor had taken a hit after that humiliating scene.

“Damn it. What the hell is going on?”

He trembled just thinking about the humiliation he suffered.

The stares, the whispers, and his plummeting favorability wouldn’t leave his mind.

And then it happened—

[SYSTEM] You’ve obtained the title: (Rare) “Seedless Watermelon”.
[SYSTEM] Gained 2,490 EXP as a rare title reward.
[SYSTEM] EXP exceeds the limit. Level is capped at 10 during the tutorial stage.
[SYSTEM] Due to the new title, Honor has decreased by 600. (Honor: 199)

His jaw dropped.

“S-Seedless Watermelon…?”

Could it really mean what he thought it did?

[SYSTEM] Rumors of your impotence have spread. Charm -500. (Charm: -1)

“…!”

His eyes bulged out in shock.

“I-I-I-I’m a eunuch?!”

What on earth had happened at the ball while he was gone?

“My Honor and Charm…”

Everything he’d worked for had collapsed in an instant.

At this point, he didn’t even care about recovering his lost stats.

“This damn game!”

Hezen no longer wanted to keep playing.

Fuming, he pulled up the interface and looked for the [Exit] button.

But something was off.

The button, once blue, had turned gray.

“What the…?”

He clicked it anyway.

[SYSTEM] You cannot exit the game while a scenario is in progress. Please complete the scenario.

“What the hell is this?!”

Panic set in.

He couldn’t log out?

No matter how many times he clicked it, the same message popped up.

His face turned pale.

From the start, this had all seemed fishy—handing out special items and premium coupons under the guise of a “special event,” and now this?

“Th-Then what am I supposed to…”

Was he… trapped in the game?

The thought sent chills down his spine.

“No… there must be a way to exit. There has to be.”

He frantically re-read the system message.

[SYSTEM] Please complete the scenario to exit the game.

Gulp.

He swallowed hard.

His only choice was to finish the scenario as fast as possible.

But to do that, he needed to trigger his “Awakening.”

And the condition for that was the death of his lover.

“Louibelle! I need to find Louibelle!”

Hezen burst out of the lounge.

He had originally intended to build a harem, not rush through the storyline to awaken.

Hunting down the Light Dragon to reach the ending wasn’t nearly as fun as seducing all the female characters in a world that revolved around him.

But now? Now he just wanted to end this damn game.

Thankfully, finding Louibelle wasn’t hard.

Despite being a supposed extra, she always stood out.

“But why do you keep avoiding me? Like a rat.”

“….”

His gentle whisper drained the blood from my face.

“In exchange for lending this, I ask to stay by the Princess’s side.”

“Literally. While I remain in Azester Empire, I want to be as close to the Princess as possible.”

Anselot had made that offer with the kind of eyes that said he’d kill me if I refused.

Since I needed the pendant to deal with Hezen, I had no choice but to accept.

But even if he was now all polite and gentlemanly, his true nature was still Salto.

A murderous psycho freak.

Not to mention he was a suspicious one—he didn’t even have a system window above his head!

So I’d been dodging him all week with every excuse I could think of.

Still, I played dumb.

“A-Avoiding you? What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

He stared at me blankly.

I stammered, quickly changing the subject.

“Th-Then what’s with all the blood?”

“Curious?”

“No! Not at all!”

He chuckled at my outburst.

“How adorable.”

“……”

Why did that sound more like ‘Act cute one more time and I’ll kill you’ to my ears?

Just then, my brother Orent approached.

“Prince Anselot. What in the world happened to your appearance?”

He was standing right next to me and clearly saw us talking—yet he completely ignored me and addressed only Anselot.

Anselot’s face instantly darkened with annoyance.

Fortunately, he couldn’t stay by my side forever.

As an envoy from Luenhart, he needed to greet my mother.

“Whew…”

As Orent led him away, I slipped out for a breath of fresh air.

The cold night air brushed against my cheeks.

‘What’s his angle?’

I couldn’t figure out Anselot’s intentions.

He was the last person I wanted to be close to.

His murderous tendencies aside, he was riddled with red flags.

I’d survived over a decade in this palace learning how to read danger.

And every instinct I had screamed: Anselot Luenhart is dangerous.

‘No way I’m getting involved with him.’

But I had more pressing concerns than that suspicious lunatic prince.

My time was still running out.

‘By now, Hezen’s probably reattached his dentures using that sticky slime.’

It was almost time for him to show up again.

He had to recover his lost honor somehow.

‘Though after what I just said, his honor might’ve dropped even lower.’

As I stood under the moonlight, lost in thought—

“Lou-Lou!”

Hezen appeared with a desperate shout.

‘There you are.’

I turned to him with a sweet smile.

“Hezen, did your teeth stick on well?”

“You—you’ve been spreading rumors about me, haven’t you?!”

He grabbed me by the collar and yelled.

Being close to him, I could see his interface.

His skill [Ruth’s Footsteps] still had five hours of cooldown left.

My eyes curved into a smile.

Hezen froze when he saw my expression, dazed and at a loss for words.

‘Tsk. Still clueless, even now.’

Without that skill, Hezen couldn’t dodge my next attack.

[SYSTEM] ‘s Rage has reached MAX!
[SYSTEM] ‘s Strength is temporarily boosted!

Just seeing his face again had maxed out my rage meter.

“Agh…!”

Realizing too late what was happening, Hezen let go of me and tried to run.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I grabbed his wrist and grinned.

[SYSTEM] EMERGENCY!
[SYSTEM] feels murderous intent toward you!
[SYSTEM] WARNING! is targeting your family jewels! If this continues…

And this time, I really kicked him in the jewels—with all my strength.

“AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!”

A scream of pure agony burst out as system alerts flooded the air.

[SYSTEM] EMERGENCY! They’re gone!
[SYSTEM] EMERGENCY! You have become a eunuch!