WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
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◈ The Protagonist of a Romance Fantasy Only Likes Me ◈
Chapter 15: Warrior Marigold. (10)
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20.
What a spectacle.
That was the only way Lancel could describe the current situation.
It really was a spectacle.
“I have admired you for a very long time, Miss Mary! Please accept my proposal!”
“Um... have we known each other for a long time?”
The first pattern. Mindless lines.
Despite meeting her for the first time, they would start by throwing out a clichéd confession.
Surprisingly, they made up the largest group.
“Mary, when I see you, my heart feels as though it is flying across the Ronaronia Plains. O woman like the coy moonlight that rises after the bright sun sets! This empire without you is like an empty night sky, so how could words possibly describe my heart without you...!”
“I’m sorry!”
The second pattern. Poets.
They put in plenty of effort and got nothing for it.
For one thing, it was all far too grand.
And where even was Ronaronia? Lancel had never heard of such a place.
Their speeches were needlessly long, so Marigold often cut them off halfway through and ran away.
“Listen. I am a man destined to become the strongest on this continent. I will surely distinguish myself in this war and enter the empire’s finest order of knights. Aren’t those good enough conditions for a woman of humble birth like you?”
“...”
The third pattern. People with too much pride.
At this point, Lancel could not tell whether they were flirting or insulting her.
“Now, Miss Mary, let’s do this. Out of three hundred gold coins, I’ll give you one hundred. It won’t be difficult at all. Just pretend to fall in love with me for a little while. You can earn a hundred gold coins without even leaving your seat. Doesn’t that sound good? Isn’t it a brilliant idea?”
The fourth pattern. Negotiators.
They started appearing once emotional approaches clearly got them nowhere.
One thing worth noting was that not a single one of them was willing to give up half or more.
“Woman. Will you marry me, or die by my hand?”
The fifth pattern. Not worth discussing.
* * *
“Pwahahaha! Those idiots are trying so hard.”
The Sixth Prince stood some distance away, laughing uproariously at the farce he had created.
“They can’t even seduce one woman, so I guess none of them will ever get married. Idiots.”
For several days, he did not approach Marigold himself.
He merely sat back and watched, as though he were certain he could make her his whenever he wished.
Lancel found Mary hiding in a corner to avoid the men.
“What are you doing?”
“Eek! Ah, Master.”
She looked close to tears.
“...What do you think His Highness is planning?”
“Nothing at all, probably.”
Lancel pressed a hand to his throbbing brow as he looked at the dejected girl.
‘Sixth Prince, you cause trouble wherever you go.’
He seemed to regard this expedition as nothing more than a game.
It was as though he had completely forgotten that this was an Imperial relief force sent to rescue the Fifth Prince’s army in crisis.
What if they lost the war?
Everyone here would bear the blame.
Everyone except the Sixth Prince, who was the cause of all this.
The disgrace of failing to rescue a prince was not something that could simply be overlooked.
Lancel was certain every knight and commander would lose their titles and be sent away to some distant province. Some might receive even harsher punishment.
And Lancel could not be sure that he would not be one of them.
* * *
“What were you thinking when you made this wager?”
“Hm?”
The Sixth Prince answered with an easy grin.
“Do wagers need a reason? You make them because they’re fun.”
“Fun...”
It had already been two days.
For two days, a school of piranhas chasing three hundred gold coins had been battling wits with Marigold.
Lancel could not forget the sight of her nodding off with half-dead eyes.
...Master, please hide me somewhere. People follow me everywhere I go. Everywhere...
============
Marigold saw greed lurking in the eyes of those who approached her while crying out their love. Humans are truly frightening. So frightening.
※Marigold’s stamina and condition greatly decrease. Fatigue continues to accumulate.
============
“Why? Do you want it to stop? Then you only need to admit one thing.”
The Sixth Prince lowered his voice ominously.
“That your relationship with Miss Mary is not simply one between superior and subordinate, but something much more intimate. If you admit that, I’ll call the whole thing off immediately.”
“...”
“Of course, a nasty rumor will spread through the Imperial Capital. That a man who married only three days ago is already keeping a lover at his side...”
‘Of course.’
The nobles of the Imperial Capital were always deeply invested in other people’s affairs of the heart. The moment news spread that Lancel was abandoning his wife to have an affair, those idle fools would undoubtedly tear him apart for months.
The Sixth Prince was using that to keep Lancel from interfering with the wager.
He also seemed inwardly certain that Lancel and Marigold were in such a relationship.
“Then the news will reach Lady Iceford in no time. What do you think the Court Count will say when he hears? That old man may seem kind, but do you know he is actually a frightening man?”
The Sixth Prince’s hand slowly crept onto Lancel’s shoulder.
“So I’ll take Miss Mary, Lancel. Think of it as the price for having boldly taken Lady Iceford, whom I had my eye on. It might be some consolation.”
His eyes suddenly met Marigold’s in the distance.
‘Hm... My goal was to marry her to a prince, but somehow the prince walked right into it himself?’
Perhaps this would be the easier path.
Now that things had come to this, bringing the Sixth Prince and Marigold together might be the fastest path to making her an imperial consort.
Even in this sorry state, he was still a prince. One of the eight characters responsible for one of the game’s main endings.
Why had Lancel spent decades searching for Marigold?
Was it not to bring her together with a prince?
And now, every condition lay before him.
All that remained was a choice.
But...
“...”
Lancel let out a quiet snort.
“Why are you laughing?”
The Sixth Prince’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Was what I said amusing?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
Ignoring the Sixth Prince’s sharp glare, Lancel continued.
“Don’t you think you’re overlooking something important, Your Highness?”
“...What are you talking about?”
No matter how much he was a prince.
‘You won’t do.’
Lancel turned his eyes toward the Sixth Prince.
“Why are you already so certain Mary will fall for you?”
“...?”
The Sixth Prince looked as though he truly could not understand.
Perhaps it was something he had never considered. The common mistake of a man in a position where he could have anything he wanted.
But Lancel knew.
Marigold, the protagonist of this world, was not so soft that just any prince could have her.
And if Lancel interfered from the side, the possibility would be even lower.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
The next day, Marigold received an invitation to dinner from the Sixth Prince. It was to be a meal for only the two of them.
Marigold refused.
Not the invitation of an ordinary person, but an invitation from a prince.
.
.
.
“Insolent bitch!”
The Sixth Prince flung the table aside in fury. Dishes and food spilled from the overturned table with a crash.
The things he had arranged to create the right atmosphere for Marigold now shattered and scattered everywhere.
“...She really said that?”
“Y-yes, Your Highness. I clearly heard her say that she did not see any reason for the two of them to dine together.”
“Huh. Hahaha.”
The Sixth Prince’s face twisted with disbelief. Until now, he had never invited anyone and been refused. He felt heat rising to the top of his head.
“Lead the way. I’ll go myself.”
Thud, thud. He hurried down the train corridor.
He irritably threw open the door to the dining car, where Lancel and Marigold were.
“Lancel Dante!”
“...? What is it, Your Highness?”
Lancel Dante and Marigold.
The two of them were shamelessly sharing food in a corner of the dining car.
It was a modest meal of a piece of bread and a few slices of ham.
Comparing it to the lavish feast the Sixth Prince had prepared would have been unfair.
“I came to see what the woman who refused my banquet was doing, and this is what I find...”
For a while, Lancel simply stared at the prince without responding.
“I see.”
He wiped the grease from his hands as he continued.
“Still, please do not be too disappointed, Your Highness.”
“What?”
“You are courting Mary right now, aren’t you? That sort of thing can end in rejection.”
“C-c-courting? Courting?”
The Sixth Prince looked as though he had suffered a tremendous blow to the head.
“Your Highness?”
After standing there blankly for a long while, he whirled around so violently that the air whooshed, then disappeared.
Had he been too shocked to speak? Lancel thought it was probably for the best.
“Maybe things will quiet down now.”
“...I really hope so.”
Marigold let out a deep sigh.
Three hundred gold coins were at stake. Even now, people constantly appeared to make advances at her.
But they were not complete fools.
Watching even the Sixth Prince return empty-handed, they were beginning to realize there was no way to win Marigold over.
As helplessness spread, defeat darkened the men’s faces.
“It’s hard enough just to speak to her. How are we supposed to seduce her?”
“Three hundred gold coins, my ass. I couldn’t do it for a thousand. She avoids you the moment your eyes meet...”
This expedition was not a pleasure trip to begin with.
‘People who gathered to go to war cannot keep obsessing over a ridiculous wager forever.’
Only a few days remained until they reached their destination.
The soldiers of the First Imperial Relief Force were slowly waking from their dream and returning to reality.
What awaited them was not three hundred gold coins, but a battlefield that demanded blood.
============
TIP: Marigold’s condition is too low. How about going on a picnic soon to lift her spirits?
============
Shadows had formed beneath the eyes of Marigold, who was nodding off.
“Once we get back, shall we go somewhere quiet for a trip?”
“What?”
Marigold said nothing for a moment at Lancel’s words, then gave a small nod. It felt as though the exhaustion on her face vanished in an instant.
“...I’ll go. I want to.”
21.
============
Dawn, October 13, Imperial Era 818.
When the man hiding in Marigold’s bedroom lunged at her, she reflexively struck him with her sword. She defeated the intruder in a single blow. All that diligent training paid off.
※Marigold has achieved the “First Kill” achievement. (Sensitivity, Faith, Elegance Down!! Charm, Sex Appeal UP!!)
============
Bang!
Lancel threw open the door to Marigold’s room.
He had only just woken from a deep sleep, but any trace of fatigue had long since vanished.
Marigold stood before him, trembling.
The blood-soaked sword hilt slipped from her hand. Bright red blood dripped onto the floor.
“M-Master.”
Without a word, Lancel examined the man collapsed before Marigold.
No pulse. He had died from a single stroke. The man had died with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
It was not the Sixth Prince, of course. But he had clearly been sent by him. The dead man clutched a small pouch in his hand.
‘Could this be...?’
Inside was finely ground purple powder with a sweet scent.
Lancel already knew what it was.
“Blindweed.”
It was a highly valuable poisonous herb that first made people lose consciousness, then blinded them.
Something seemed to burn within Lancel. An emotion he had briefly forgotten since meeting Marigold.
“Sixth Prince Karin... You finally crossed the line.”
Only the sound of train wheels cutting across the rails broke the silence.
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