NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53
Margaret and Jenis finally had some time to themselves. This was because Jeongjae was currently engaged in a one-on-one meeting with the village chief, Hark, to devise future plans for managing the territory.
Sitting quietly in the office while sipping tea, Jenis spoke to Margaret, who was wandering around the office.
“Um, Your Highness?”
“What’s the matter, young lady?”
Margaret turned to face Jenis as she responded. Jenis pointed to the seat across from her and tapped it lightly.
“How about we have a quick chat? Opportunities to meet in person with the princess of the Elven Kingdom are rare, after all.”
“We will see each other often from now on. But well, it wouldn’t hurt.”
Margaret plopped down into the seat opposite Jenis. As Jenis rolled her eyes between the teacup and the ceiling, she suddenly launched a surprise attack.
“Your Highness, you like the baron here, don’t you? Not just as a companion, but more than that.”
Caught off guard by the sudden onslaught, Margaret became flustered and accidentally slipped her foot, leaning forward and bumping her head on the desk. If Margaret had been drinking something, Jenis would have gotten a face full of fairy nectar as a splatter shower.
“W-what nonsense is that? I won’t deny it, but there’s a context to bringing up such things!”
“Actually, I do appreciate context, but we don’t know when the baron will be back, and you’ve been staying in this realm for days. Rather than just exchanging glances, it’s better to get our positions sorted out, don’t you think?”
“So you didn’t think I was the only one exchanging glances. That’s quite a relief.”
Margaret rubbed the area where she had bumped her forehead on the desk as she spoke. Jenis opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“So you mean to say that you’re glaring at someone whose intentions you are not even sure of?”
“Is it that scary? Now that I think about it, I seem to have often heard people say I’m scary for some reason.”
“Not just scary! I think even the hero would tremble before you.”
“The guy actually shakes in front of me quite often. I thought he was just pretending to be slick and brave, but if I was genuinely scaring him, I feel a bit sorry.”
“So, does the professor know about this? That you like him? Does he understand it properly?”
Jenis threw out a difficult question again. After a moment of contemplation, Margaret’s expression turned serious, and she made a vague gesture, neither nodding nor shaking her head.
“I think it’s… not impossible for him to know. No, it’s true that he probably didn’t know until recently, but shamefully, that matter has already been advertised between us. He must have… realized it in some way or another.”
“Your words are quite ambiguous. What do you mean by that?”
“It looks like he’s trying to deny that he knows I have feelings for him. As if it’s not a fact, as if it couldn’t possibly be true. He seems to be subtly trying to evade and dodge the issue.”
“Isn’t that a roundabout way of rejecting it?”
Jenis said playfully. Margaret nodded with a slightly sulky expression.
“True, but it’s difficult to completely deny. What you say might actually be true. It really is like that.”
Margaret thought that Jenis would have a smug expression after being so bold. Nonetheless, this Elven Princess had genuinely understood that the young lady had her heart set on Jeongjae.
But Jenis was looking around seemingly absent-mindedly, wearing a somewhat bitter expression.
“Though you’re someone far greater than an amateur magician like me, in this matter, we find ourselves on the same level. Truly.”
“On the same level? You and I?”
“He’s not an insensitive person. No, he’s very sensitive to human emotions. He might not know much about politics, but he understands how to read emotions. He quickly grasps the atmosphere and picks up on signs I wouldn’t have thought of to yield the best results.”
“He definitely has that aspect.”
Margaret agreed. Jenis, still wearing a bitter smile, took a sip of her tea.
“Princess Margaret, I can hardly believe he hasn’t been able to notice my feelings for him after spending a few days together. Really.”
“Isn’t it possible he might be that oblivious? People’s personalities are incredibly diverse.”
“If that’s so, there must be some reason behind it. Psychological defense mechanisms, perhaps, or pessimism about his situation, or extreme low self-esteem… Do you have any insight into what’s going on?”
Hearing Jenis’s words, Margaret’s breath hitched in her throat.
Not long ago, that dreadful magic scroll. A disaster scroll capable of turning an entire region into ashes, one that could even reduce the user themselves to ashes.
The man who had conceived such a scroll. It makes sense, doesn’t it? He is a man who, in some sense, has abandoned any lingering attachments to life. Only such a person can genuinely focus on and prepare to execute such a scroll.
Margaret remembered the bright-eyed glint she had seen when he had shown her that scroll. A look filled with nothing but certainty and joy, with not a hint of fear or worry.
How could a person who had any interest in life express such things, revealing just passion and not any kind of grimness? Only someone who has nothing left to lose could possibly act like that.
“Someone who has no interest in life wouldn’t have any interest in romance, would they?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Margaret perked up her ears, gathering herself from Jenis’s sharp inquiry. After all, it also led her to think about this girl’s feelings for Jeongjae.
It felt like a breach of etiquette to disclose the secrets of ‘Manhattan’ to such a child. Margaret couldn’t imagine how much shock and confusion this little girl would experience upon learning that.
“He seems to not want to create unnecessary attachments in a life where he might not know when he will die. He’s still struggling to adapt to this world and fears making connections that bridge himself to this world. What I mean is… he is a man who has experienced leaving a world he once loved. Even if he pretends to be nonchalant, there’s no way the experience of being crushed under a book wouldn’t leave a mark of shock on him. He has left everything he cared about behind. A world we do not know, a civilization we cannot even imagine, people we do not know…”
“Is he afraid of creating such relationships in this world because of the experience of losing everything he cherished in an instant?”
“That was Walter Hellhound’s speculation. According to him, the ancestor hero of Walter was also very obsessed with finding a way back to his original world. There are many records stating he was determined to find a way for the close friends and family he was waiting for.”
“Has he ever said he wanted to go back even once?”
“No, and that makes it even more concerning. It’s clearly a hidden desire buried deep in his heart, yet it shows signs of trying hard to conceal and suppress it. In the end, it is those very lurking desires that will surface the most and have the biggest impact.”
A silence fell between the two. At a glance, it sounded more like a conversation between two psychiatrists addressing a patient than a conversation between romantic rivals, yet beneath it lay a subtle competition about who understood Jeongjae better.
In fact, Jenis had no way to surpass Margaret in the present. She was aiming to learn and elevate her stance in this competition against Margaret.
“But… love always blossoms in the toughest, most desperate times. Saying ‘this isn’t the time to have interest in romance’ is strange, indeed.”
Even the rulers who seemed to show no interest in anything aside from work often had numerous children, and even in desperate bands of wanderers, children are still born.
That’s just how humanity and living beings are. A man who claims to be too mentally occupied to be interested even in lust doesn’t seem believable to Jenis.
“If there is such a desire, then it makes sense. If the pain he carries doesn’t engulf all other thoughts, then surely that’s the case.”
Margaret completely overcame the shame from bumping her forehead on the desk and regained her dignified demeanor as a ruler.
“Don’t assume that you can fully understand someone, young lady. Even the fairies, who are guardians of the same forest, have failed to understand each other, swinging their weapons at one another for thousands of years. Even though we have been given more than ten times the time to get to know one another, it hasn’t even been that long since the elves have begun to understand and respect each other. Even so, there are no elves that can completely understand other elves, and no human can fully understand another human.”
“Then we must not give up even more.”
“Not give up? What on earth are you referring to?”
“Taking his heart, of course. Isn’t it so? In any case, he must live in this world. We don’t know whether there is a way for him to return, but we must at least assume that he needs to live in this continent.”
Jenis smiled slyly. For a moment, Margaret blinked, then burst into laughter, as if she couldn’t believe what she had just understood.
If Jeongjae’s issue is about belonging to this world, and if it is the reason he is wandering in this world while even shaking his desires for life, then what they desired was to create a reason for Jeongjae to have an attachment to this world.
The two women hoped that they would each get to play that role. Though they were unwilling to acknowledge it, they couldn’t deny that both were formidable competitors for each other.
Despite calmly conversing, both were women of strong character. If a girl who harbored affection for someone disregarded them, thinking they were tacky and unrefined, they would certainly not let that situation slide.
In terms of capability or status, Jenis couldn’t match Margaret, but Margaret likewise resolved to keep her guard up. A mere newcomer who had just graduated from school and faced thousands of orcs in her first battle without breaking would not easily bend before a princess who could even make the hero genuinely scared at times.
Walter Hellhound had described her as an exceptionally bright young magician, but Margaret felt there was more than that to Jenis.
For example, it was not entirely impossible that a red jewel that had not seen its master for a long time could come into her hands…
“If that happens, it will be the revival of Reynacel.”
“What did you just say?”
“Never mind. Just talking to myself.”
Margaret shook her head from side to side and then perked her ears up as she stood up. She seemed to indicate there was nothing more to do in the office.
“Anyway, audacious young lady. Now that you’ve challenged Margaret of Eramenia, it’s best for you to be prepared for the outcome. I’m a fairy who has no intention of going easy in a contest. Is that something you already know?”
“I definitely know that and more. I will be thoroughly on my guard, Your Highness.”
Jenis flashed a bright smile. After Margaret nodded once, she opened the door and stepped out of the office. Jenis repeated her leisurely sipping of tea.
Once Margaret had completely left the room, the pace at which Jenis drank her now-cold tea began to quicken. In a hurry, she finished all the liquid left in the cup, wiping her mouth slightly and shuddering her body.
“Why does it have to be that kind of person? I can accept that I have a rival, but couldn’t it be someone a bit more ordinary? Like another young lady from a noble house, or some famous witch, or even a knight? Among all the possible candidates, why must it be her!”
Jenis sprang to her feet from her seat. With a look of utter frustration, the young Countess let out a sigh filled with annoyance.
“Why does it have to be someone I have no confidence in defeating in this world? Why must it be like this?”
It was not hatred or disgust towards Margaret. It was merely a deep lamentation about her own predicament, which had turned her into a rival of one of the most powerful beings on the surface.