The Reincarnated Villainess Whose Romantic Trauma From Her Past Life Is Too Strong Is Sweetly and Painfully Doted On by the Prince of the Neighboring Country - Chapter 42

“………………What?”

Chieri, suddenly losing track of what had just been said to her, stared back at Ryuto after a very long pause.

Marriage?

Who?

…………With whom?

“I’ve got a job now, I’m a working adult and this time, I can support you, Chieri. So…”

“Wait… Wh-hold on a second, Ryu-kun.”

Ryuto remained sitting in a formal posture before the low table, his fists clenched tightly on his knees and his head bowed as he spoke. Chieri hurriedly cut him off.

“By ‘marriage,’ are you talking about you and me? But I’m already twenty-nine, you know? And you’re only twenty-three, Ryu-kun.”

No matter how you look at it, isn’t the age gap way too big…?!

Chieri’s awkwardness was at its peak, her sense of guilt skyrocketing. As she blurted that out, Ryuto, who had been listening with a look of doubt, let his expression darken even further.

“A six-year difference isn’t that big a deal.”

“It’s a huge deal! I’m already almost thirty!”

Almost thirty.

Even though she was the one who said it, the words stung her. It was true. She was an “around-thirty” woman now.

That was exactly why there was no way she wouldn’t be flustered to receive a proposal from a fresh-faced twenty-three-year-old who had just entered the workforce.

“…But when I’m thirty, you’ll be thirty-six. When I’m forty, you’ll be forty-six. Is there really that much of a difference?”

“That’s…”

Is he right?

It was true that when she compared twenty-three and twenty-nine, the gap between forty and forty-six didn’t feel quite as wide. But then again, if she thought about it more carefully, it felt like he was just using sophistry to cloud her judgment.

“…………I’ve always loved you.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

Still looking down, Ryuto let those words escape in a tone that sounded desperately earnest.

“I never actually wanted to go to the Takamiya house. I wanted to live in this house with you and Grandma forever. I liked this house, I liked the atmosphere here, and I liked you. But I did it to protect you both, to gain the power to do so. I thought that was the best way, so I went.”

Shift.

At the sensation of Ryuto turning his face toward her, Chieri’s shoulders gave a startled jolt.

She was shaken by the realization that the person facing her didn’t look like “Ryu-kun”—the little-brother figure she had doted on for so long anymore.

His features were certainly Ryuto’s.

But he was a man.

A normal man.

No! Rather than normal, he was quite attractive.

“It’s… it’s just too convenient…”

“What is? Me?”

“…No, not that…”

When did he—stop using ‘boku’ and start using ‘ore’ to refer to himself?

Even such a trivial detail made her heart pound violently, as if he had become a man she didn’t know at all.

“…You just think you love me in the same way a normal person loves their mother or a kind older sister, Ryu-kun.”

Because we aren’t blood-related.

Because you were happy I was kind to you.

Chieri refused him, telling herself that he was simply confusing affection and family love, and that it would be too selfish of her to accept him based on that. However…

“My mother was never kind to me, and until you appeared, there wasn’t a single woman who treated me with kindness. So, I don’t think ‘normal’ applies to me, does it?”

“Then… even more so, you’ve just mistaken my kindness for something else…”

“Chieri.”

As Chieri tried to retreat with a string of excuses, Ryuto grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

“Don’t try to dismiss my feelings with a word like ‘mistake.'”

In that instant—

The moment he grabbed her arm and spoke those words, refusing to let her avert her eyes, the dam in Chieri’s heart broke.

(N-No… wait a minute…)

An indescribable, overflowing emotion toward the person in front of her—an emotion that had been lurking somewhere all this time—surged through her from her heart to the tips of her toes.

(You’ve got to be kidding… wait…)

Helplessly tossed about by feelings that were spilling out on their own, Chieri tried desperately to resist in her mind.

—He’s six years younger.

—I spent all this time thinking of him as a brother.

Those excuses sank to the bottom of her heart without meaning anything at all.

“—Chieri.”

As he called her name, he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. The gentle scent of trees wafted from him, and Chieri felt a confusing surge of emotion that made her want to cry.

“You can’t, Ryu-kun…”

“I can.”

She tried to push back against the shoulders of the man holding her, but she was no match for his strength.

—No, that wasn’t right.

To be precise, if Chieri had truly tried to push him away, Ryuto would have likely given up and released her.

But Chieri couldn’t do it.

Unable to push him back, her hands remained in a half-hearted position, eventually clutching the fabric of his coat.

(Ah—. Now he definitely knows.)

He knows that she doesn’t hate being held by him like this.

That she was happy to be told he loved her.

That she was on the verge of accepting his feelings.

(—How wretched.)

I know I should be firm and push him away if I really care about his future.

Realizing how wretched she was for feeling joy deep in her heart, she was disgusted with herself—yet she couldn’t deny the comfort she felt within his arms.

Noticing that Chieri had stopped resisting, Ryuto pulled her even tighter.

Her heart felt so full she couldn’t take any more. Cherie softly closed her eyes in Ryuto’s arms and gave up on deceiving her own feelings.

From that day on, Ryuto began to visit Chieri’s house frequently.