I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

It was similar to Claudia’s reaction, but it was subtly different. I looked carefully at the expression that seemed quite uncomfortable and replied.

“His Highness, the Second Prince.”

Felix then had an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Has the meaning of a good person changed without my knowledge?’

Yes, I fully understand how you feel. The Second Prince was like a sheet of paper and had an image of a stumbling dog¹.

‘Well, not yet, actually.’

Right now, if we could attract the Second Prince to the same side, it would be a positive thing. But Claudia’s partner…….

Huh, no. No way. There’s no way I’d approve of it!

‘What if he falls in love with our Chloe?’

But if he didn’t fall in love, we wouldn’t be able to bring him to our side. I was sure he was currently having a hard time with no motivation or will.

Due to these worries, I hesitated and couldn’t approach him easily.

Moreover, it may be luckier for the Second Prince not to become involved with us.

Currently, I was in the position of going through fire and water². The Second Prince was a pure man, officially recognized by the readers. He was the owner of the best personality.

‘Is the feeling of love necessary to make him move?’

Well, what if the Second Prince was a woman? As I imagined it, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred that seemed to show a deadly strategy.

It was a change in strategy. I suddenly felt unfounded confidence that I’d be able to seduce him…….

But then, a soft fabric fluttered over my head. Felix gently dried my hair which was dripping wet and forming water droplets.

“Irene.”

At first, I didn’t even realize he had called me. The smell of well-dried sunlight from the fabric seemed to exude from him as well.

The warm scent of spring that didn’t match the season paralyzed me for a moment.

He was too close.

“You want to build an acquaintance with His Highness, the Second Prince …… Is that what you’re saying?”

Felix’s question was pushed aside for a moment. It was because my heart rang too loudly.

As he ran his fingers through my hair, he stole a clump of water that had formed at the ends.

“Irene, you have to answer the question to be a good child.”

“If you didn’t hear it, would you like me to say it again?”

He pressed his lips against my ear and whispered sweetly.

His glasses were foggy for a moment due to my breath, and when cleared, it revealed a mysterious sky color that resembled a turquoise stone.

The term “turquoise” came to mind as a link between the sky and the lake. It was also an analogy that I always thought of whenever I looked into those eyes.

Sometimes it was as clear as the sky and sometimes as deep as a lake. Those eyes could make you lose your mind.

I stiffly blinked my eyes. Only then did I realize that I had been soaking wet from playing in the water.

When I suddenly became conscious of that fact, words popped out of my mouth.

“Well, I was just saying I wanted to win His Highness, the Second Prince over, to our side.”

“Ah.”

Felix, who briefly agreed, folded his eyes gently and smiled like the sun.

“……I see.”

He gently stroked my wet hair, letting it fall naturally.

Suddenly, the strange atmosphere that made my skin feel numb for a moment completely disappeared.

‘What was that just now?’

I thought hard about it, but the conclusion was that I had no idea.

“If that’s Irene’s intention, I won’t stop it. But it’s dangerous, so don’t be reckless.”

Felix spoke as if he had read my thoughts.

I had a dumb look on my face and felt a little prickly inside, but I had no choice but to nod my head like an obedient child.

Sure, whatever you say.

“Good girl. Let’s go in now.”

Felix reached out to me, saying I would catch a cold. I hesitated and looked down at his hand. I then poked it with my finger. He laughed as if it was ticklish.

Whatever, it didn’t matter.

‘The feeling from earlier was strange.’

I wriggled my fingers for a moment and carefully held his hand.

Somehow the palm of my hand tickled, but my whole body didn’t heat up as if electricity had passed.

My heart was also still.

‘I wonder if I broke down for a while because Felix was so shiny.’

As expected, the people in this mansion were the only people who were harmful to my heart. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to live for long.

While lamenting to myself, Felix brought me inside the mansion.

* * *

After I dried myself completely and changed into my new clothes, Felix called out to me.

I followed the instructions of the servant and saw not only Felix but also Hugo.

I stood on my toes and whispered to Felix.

“What the hell is this?”

He leaned down to reach my eye level and whispered to me.

“I think Irene has a plan.”

I didn’t have any plans yet. I was currently just struggling to bypass the original as much as possible.

“I also have a plan.”

Felix grinned like the sun while saying so.

I guess they wanted to share information and fight together instead of just keeping it to themselves.

He had a good point. As the three heroes began to move in earnest, the stage for me to grumble alone had passed.

That was why Hugo was here.

I stared at him. Then, the middle-aged man with an elegant appearance with his back upright wriggled his eyebrows as if asking, ‘Do you see the moon?’

I felt it every time I saw it, but Claudia looked so much like her father.

“I had a brief conversation with my father in the study the morning after I heard about the future from Irene.”

“Remember? It was a long time ago,” Felix said in a low voice.

Was that when I fell asleep on Felix’s lap? I carefully ruminate over the memories of what happened quite a while ago and asked.

“But, according to the Count, Felix was afraid he’d wake me up and said ‘Shh’……. so nothing much was said.”

Felix pinched my cheek at the word ‘Shh’.

No, it’s not a word I chose. I literally just quoted what Hugo had said.

I looked back at Hugo with injustice. But he sneakily avoided my gaze.

…… Betrayal!

“I’m going to keep it a secret from Chloe for now. She’ll get hurt.”

Wouldn’t it hurt more to keep it a secret?

Well, it was the same. To a certain extent, that was what I thought.

How could we tell her that they were all going to die very miserably because of completely insane guys and that her sweet brother would kill his own family?

Claudia may collapse in shock or become bedridden.

‘It something that hasn’t happened yet.’

At the moment, we only knew that the men had started to move with determination and that we should start preparing, right?

And once the plan was set to some extent, we could then carefully tell them so that they wouldn’t get hurt.

Hugo accepted the remark and said.

“I’ve told you before. Claudia is pure and simple, so when she gets emotional, she tends to do things first and then think later. We need to be careful about what we say, so let’s settle this amongst ourselves first.”

And then he added with an awkward expression that didn’t match his dignified appearance at all.

“I don’t know what’s going on.”

Huh? Didn’t Felix already tell his father everything?

As I turned to Felix, he pinched my cheek again, then belatedly stroked it gently and asked me more tenderly than anyone else.

“Can I tell my father everything I heard from Irene?”

The whole Chamberlain family was at stake, so it would be better to inform Hugo. It didn’t matter if you kept it a secret from others.

‘So if I told you not to say it, you wouldn’t?’

I was confident he would do that.

But if he said that to his father, his father would be very disappointed.

Look. The Count was already making a face that said, “Even if you raise a child…….”

“Yes, I think it would be nice for us to think about it together.”

It was better to have at least one more ally. So we explained all the details to the Count.

When he heard everything, Hugo’s reaction was this:

“Those X X b*stards X X X who X X dare to harm us X X X X X…….!”

“Father.”

He ran wild with rage and loudly cleared his throat at the polite words of Felix.

“It seems like they have given up on being human beings. It’s a shame.”

And he finished his speech with a noble and gentle voice.

That’s right, Father³. You’re correct. One of the three abandoned his humanity and became a junk car while the other’s nuclear waste.

Additionally, there’s also the nickname of ‘non-recycling garbage,’ which the perfect siblings gave them.

The collective name for them was the ‘three useless brothers’.

Thus, the Claudia Happiness Squad gathered.

It was not a big deal, but it was surprisingly cool to be able to work together with these people I had been working to protect.

Felix was a man of integrity who didn’t usually talk about other people’s stories, no matter how much the other person threatened to kill him.

Of course, it wasn’t just about talking. Occasionally I couldn’t even figure out what was going inside his mind and was like ‘what?’.

In any case, the three useless brothers, who didn’t even have the minimum level of morals, were always full of arrogance and breathlessly swearing.

Additionally, Hugo’s words were so intense that if he spat out one curse, it would be enough to pierce the heart.

‘Yukshiral⁴’ the ones trying to kill us.

Felix didn’t seem very pleased. It wasn’t because of us. He just seemed to dislike the vulgar language.

“But do you believe me?”

When I revealed the truth to Felix, I felt uneasy and thought he wouldn’t believe me.

He was such a gentle and caring character that he would see a stranger on the street for the first time and listen to them attentively without hesitation.

But his father also believed me instantly as well.

I was grateful that he believed it, but it felt strange that he accepted it without any doubt.

“I don’t believe it, but I have to. In fact, I thought their movements were unusual.”

Then Hugo continued.

“If the Crown Prince wasn’t able to meet Claudia, he would forcibly summon her. But at some point, he quieted down.”

The title changed from ‘His Highness’ to the ‘Crown Prince’ in an instant. It was very desirable.

“At what point?”

“Well, I don’t know. Perhaps it was after the Empire’s Foundation Day.”

Sure enough, they held hands. They cooperated. It was without a doubt.

* * *

^{1. Irene is pretty much saying the Second Prince is weak :>↩}

^{2. To ‘go through fire and water’ means to be faced with many challenges in the process of accomplishing something. In this case, Irene has mixed feelings on whether to involve the Second Prince in their scheme.↩}

^{3. The author uses ‘Father’ (아버님) instead of the previous use of Orabeoni (오라버니).↩}

^{4. ‘Yukshiral (nom)’ is a Korean expression that means to kill someone by tearing their body into six pieces.” It is a very violent expression for condemning someone (it also proves how strong Hugo’s language can be..!).↩}

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