I Will Break Off the Engagement Because I'm Jealous - The Untalented Villainess Who Rejected the Prince Searches for a Safe Haven with the Cheat Heroine - Chapter 4.10

The spirit carriage descended the mountain and quietly advanced north across the plains. Beyond this point, there were only a few settlements near the border. Even after entering the Empire’s side, the imperial capital should have been relatively close.

The journey’s end was approaching.

“Lady Emilia, do you remember?”

Perhaps having waited for Emilia’s sobs to subside, Iris spoke up.

“Remember what?”

“The first time we met. Right after entering through the academy’s main gate, at that spot.”

“I remember. You came straight toward me and gave a splendid bow.”

That unforgettable meeting with Iris. Iris, who had been wrapped in an overflowing, dazzling aura. Even now, that radiance hadn’t faded. If anything, it seemed to have grown even brighter. That the distance between herself and the world’s heroine, who’d been like an idol, could shrink so much. Emilia once again felt it was unbelievable.

“Yes. After that, I asked you something rude, didn’t I?”

“Rude? What was it?”

“‘What does it feel like to be ‘Talentless’?'”

Prompted by Iris, Emilia tilted her head. It hadn’t left a particular impression on her.

“I’d been asked that so many times, it wasn’t really rude.”

“That’s how it seemed. Lady Emilia, do you remember how you answered?”

“‘It doesn’t really matter either way,’ I said.”

She remembered the answer. Because Iris’s subsequent reaction had been larger than she’d expected. Without raising her voice, her eyes wide open as if she was looking at something dazzling. As if she was looking up at something.

“At that time I decided. I decided I would follow you, Lady Emilia.”

The connection wasn’t making sense, and Emilia furrowed her brow. Iris was smiling.

“Huh?”

“Most commoners are Talentless. But they don’t say that.”

Averting her gaze, Iris looked forward. Emilia, drawn along, also looked ahead.

“‘It’s frustrating,’ ‘I’m jealous’… I heard many stories like that from the people in my mother’s Blaze Brigade. Most people felt, ‘I’m jealous, but there’s nothing to be done. There’s nothing to be done, but I can’t help feeling frustrated.'”

“Hmmm…?”

“But. Lady Emilia, surrounded by people who all had Skills… didn’t say that. Even though at the academy, everyone compared each other based on the superiority or inferiority of their Skills. You were the only one who didn’t care about it.”

Leaning back slowly into the seat, Emilia chewed over Iris’s words. Then, vaguely, she voiced her thoughts.

“Those with Skills are all dragged along by them. They can only think about using their Skills, and they have no conception of what to do with them. At first, I wanted one too… but as I watched, I grew to dislike it. I thought if I got one, it would probably become boring.”

“And your impression after getting one?”

“‘It doesn’t really matter either way.'”

The moment she said it.

“—As I thought, you’re the absolute best! I’ll follow you for my whole life!”

A hand reached out from the right, and Iris clung to her. Unaccustomed to the rare contact, Emilia’s face turned red as she flustered and she cleared her throat, trying to maintain her composure.

“What are you saying? What about getting married then?”

“Mine doesn’t matter! If Lady Emilia gets married, please hire me as a maid!”

Faced with Iris’s exuberance, Emilia couldn’t help but relax her cheeks into a smile.

“The world’s most excellent maid, huh. But I’d like to give you a slightly better stage to shine on.”

“That’s fine, really.”

“It doesn’t sit right with me. It makes me feel ‘muddled’.”

When she said that, Iris looked up at her.

And showed her a beaming smile.

★　★　★

The night deepened, and the carriage was stopped. The border was still some way ahead, and they had decided to rest before reaching it. Considering Emilia’s fatigue, Iris had volunteered to keep watch through the night.

Emilia was breathing quietly in her sleep.

“Lady Emilia… once you fall asleep, you sleep soundly until morning, don’t you? If I don’t practically knock you out of bed, you won’t wake up.”

Iris muttered to herself. Facing Emilia’s direction. Staring at her soakingly.

“I—I told a lie.”

Iris clenched the brooch at her chest.

“I knew about the legend of the ‘Dragonbird’s Tear.’ That a man gives it to the woman he loves. I knew…”

Her face. Twisted. Like a smile. Like she was crying.

“First, I made sure word reached Sieg’s ears that I wanted this. At the same time, pretending it was for the reward, I got close to him. I demonstrated my ability and my ‘posture of offering achievements’… and was recognized as having loyalty. On top of that, I personally handed that manuscript, ‘On Flora and Spirits,’ to Prince Sieg. Wishing that if there were a very beautiful gem, I’d like it. Of course, I didn’t know if this would be given to me.”

Looking back, it was over these past two months. Or perhaps, it was over the roughly half a year since meeting Emilia.

Her secret, scheme.

“I’m good at gambling.”

Iris showed a grin. A smile no one would see.

“When I received this, I was so happy. I went to tell Lady Emilia right away that we matched. Of course, I could predict how you would feel about it.”

The hand clenching the brooch trembled. That, too, had been a gamble. There was a possibility Emilia’s suspicion wouldn’t be directed at Sieg and she would immediately come to dislike Iris.

But Iris had won the gamble.

“Based on the legend, the only one who could have given this brooch to Lady Emilia was Sieg. You didn’t say it out loud, but you treasured it greatly. I understood very well that you loved Sieg. So, I…”

She gently brushed aside the silver strands of hair falling over Emilia’s sleeping face. Watching Emilia shift slightly with an affectionate gaze.

“It was me who subtly informed you, who seemed anxious, about Sieg’s state, fanning your distrust. Didn’t you think the evidence and testimony of the wrongdoing were found a bit too easily? I placed the things I had investigated where Lady Emilia would notice them. I guided you to where the witnesses were. Of course, including the sacrifices paid for obtaining the ‘Dragonbird’s Tear’.”

Iris exhaled. Remembering the critical moment of her tightrope-walk of a plan. If she didn’t maneuver behind the scenes without being discovered, and if Emilia didn’t pick up on all the hints she’d placed it wouldn’t even be a contest. Even if she put herself in the line of fire, she’d just be crushed by Sieg. Unless Emilia herself broke things off with Sieg.

Iris’s wish would never have been granted.

“I knew immediately that you, after agonizing, were trying to test Sieg. So, I got ahead of things and got hired as a maid. I deliberately made blunders in public. It was too obvious, Lady Emilia. You’d scold me harshly in front of others, then apologize to me later with teary eyes. Of course, showing you the old dresses and textbooks was deliberate too, you know? You splendidly picked up on all my setups—”

“And so you won the gamble for me. You splendidly won the annulment of the engagement.”

With a clear, sunny smile, Iris looked up at the ceiling. A single tear traced a path down her cheek.

“The other party is the Crown Prince, after all. For someone like me to manage it, the only means I had was to take Lady Emilia out of the country. His surroundings are packed with devotees, and assassination would have been difficult. Considering his physical abilities, not laying a hand on him and doing this roundabout thing was the correct answer.”

Having overcome the difficulties, Iris, now overwhelmed with emotion, shed another tear. It wasn’t for thinking about her own hardships.

What she held precious was.

“As for the things during the journey, there were no particular setups. Preparing the carriage for us to properly escape was the best I could do and that fierce pursuit was truly unexpected. Yes. I only prepared things up to the start of this journey. After that, I did nothing…”

“But you. You chose me. You chose me…!”

Emilia’s, choice.

The choice she had made.

It was surely a grave mistake.

“Do you know what feelings I have every single night, looking at your sleeping face!? Desperately not wanting to be hated, enduring until dawn, unable to sleep at all! I want to keep looking at your defenseless self forever! I can’t stand it, I want to reach out and end it all! I want you even if I ruin everything! Lady Emilia!”

A relationship between the same sex—such a thing wasn’t accepted. Wherever they went, stones would be thrown. And yet, Emilia had chosen such a partner. She had chosen for the two of them to go on together.

“I love you!”

Iris was in love with Emilia.

“You are the sun. The only light in this world who doesn’t drown in talent. And such a person chose me! Even said she would stand at the summit of the world with me! I can’t stop trembling with joy!”

Her feelings were far more sensual than if they were directed toward the opposite sex. Something that painted over the faint, remembered first love with something murky and black. Just thinking about it made her writhe, made her feel ‘muddled.’ Yes. Just as she said.

If she resisted it, she would surely go mad.

“But”

Iris lowered her gaze, lowered her face, curled her body and drew closer to the sleeping Emilia. Staring soakingly at that sleeping face.

“If you knew everything I did. If you found out I made you and Sieg break up. You would surely… come to hate me. Come to loathe me. But I felt ‘muddled’… I couldn’t bear it! I couldn’t bear seeing you and that guy getting along!”

The spittle flying from her screaming mouth landed on Emilia’s face. Later, she would have to wipe it, how would she wipe it, with what would she wipe it? All while possessed by such passions.

“You said it! You said you could forgive me for anything, no matter how terrible! That even the Sieg you loved could be taken by me, if it was me! I don’t need that sort of thing… so then I will take you! I won’t hand you over to anyone else! I can’t hand you over…!”

Iris’s agonized cries, like screams, wouldn’t stop.

“Ahhhhhhh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Lady Emilia, I’m sorry! Forgive me, please forgive me, I beg you.”

Her ‘muddled’ feeling raced through her entire body. Scorching her body with heat, making her tremble. Her breath was ragged, sweat dripped, her eyes were bloodshot.

“I’ll accept any punishment for what I’ve done. I’ll do anything for you. So please!”

She saw only Emilia in the world.

“Please forgive me for having fallen in love with you, Lady Emilia——————”

As if praying to heaven.

Iris gently stroked Emilia.

So as not to defile her, not to stain her, so that her own black desires wouldn’t fall upon her.

So that this love would never, ever be realized.

★　★　★

The two’s journey toward the Empire.

Was about to end.

The journey aiming for the summit of the world — the peaceful abode for the two of them — continues.

Would it end in the Empire? Or would they have to go to another country?

And the true nature of the two’s ‘muddled’ feelings.

Was still, known by no one.