The Youngest Daughter Of The Great Wizard Of The Famous Swordsmanship [EN]: Chapter 143

Confession

2024.03.22.

Soon, Joshua’s lips slowly and carefully descended upon Rosette’s fluttering, closed eyes.

Rosette’s eyelashes trembled. The spot where Joshua’s lips touched felt as hot as if it had been burned.

Joshua pressed his lips on the other eye as well, then lowered his head a little more.

His lips slowly approached Rosette’s lips. At a distance where they were almost touching, Joshua’s breath tickled Rosette’s lips.

It was when Joshua was finally about to kiss Rosette.

[Beep!]

Bbibbi, who had been gaping with his beak wide open, belatedly covered his eyes with his two wings.

[Bbee, bbeeep!]

Rosette, no! I never allowed this!

At that moment, Silver, who had been watching, swallowed Bbibbi, who was sitting on the chair, in one gulp, and disappeared like the wind. Bbibbi’s voice shouting, ‘Beep! You barbaric wolf!’ faded into the distance.

Joshua, startled by Bbibbi’s sharp voice, raised his head again. Instead, he carefully wiped Rosette’s soft lips with his thumb.

Rosette slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Joshua. His golden eyes still held heat.

Joshua, who had been gazing down at her, spoke in a whisper.

“Rosette, I will become the Emperor.”

“…….”

“It’s not because I’m greedy for the throne, but to protect my people. As a prince, that’s the only way.”

She understood. He was a prince, and to protect himself and those around him, he had to become stronger than anyone else.

So Rosette had decided early on to make him the Emperor, to protect Adrian, who cherished Joshua.

“You said you didn’t want to be Empress. I was sincere when I said I understood that feeling. In fact, if I could have chosen my status, I wouldn’t have become a prince either.”

Rosette picked up on a subtly different nuance in his words. He said ‘you’ instead of ‘thee’.

It was just a difference of one word. Yet, Rosette felt that the distance between her and Joshua had become much closer.

Rosette was silently waiting for his next words when Joshua gently took her hands and kissed her fingers.

“But Rosette, can’t you choose Joshua Ernhardt, not the First Prince of the Ernhardt Empire?”

“……Excuse me?”

“Can’t you just look at me as me? Not as the Emperor of the Empire, but as a man.”

Rosette thought she knew what Joshua was trying to say.

She had never been in a relationship before, but Rosette was already twenty years old, and she wasn’t so ignorant of relationships or romance that she couldn’t recognize the sincerity in his words.

However, Joshua’s words had some contradictions, even with a little thought. Unless Joshua gave up everything he had and left the Imperial Family, he was a prince.

No matter how much Rosette treated him as ‘Joshua’, the people around them wouldn’t just stand by and watch.

So it was right to refuse him firmly. She thought that was the way for everyone.

But Rosette asked something completely different from what she felt.

“May I ask why you’re saying this?”

She wanted to hear Joshua’s true feelings more clearly.

“I…….”

Joshua whispered, kissing Rosette’s fingers.

“I like you. Maybe since quite a while ago.”

Joshua could no longer ignore the feelings that had sprouted in his heart. Silver had even proved it directly, and more than anything, the feeling had grown too big to ignore.

He didn’t know when it started, but it must have been a feeling that had sprouted quite a while ago.

Once he became aware of his feelings, they quickly grew in size. Feelings that he could no longer hide leaked out without him even knowing.

He didn’t expect Rosette to like him back because he had committed a sin.

At the time, he had made the best choice for him, but it wasn’t the best choice for Rosette.

“I know it’s going to be embarrassing. I’m not saying to accept my feelings right now. I’m just saying, I hope you’ll give me a chance.”

“I…….”

Rosette pressed her lips tightly.

‘What should I do?’

When she gradually became aware of her feelings for Joshua, Rosette couldn’t help but think about the practical problems.

She was Adrian, and Joshua was a prince.

So at this moment, there was only one answer she could give.

“Would it be okay if I thought about it a little more and gave you an answer?”

Joshua smiled without showing any disappointment.

“I’ll wait. As long as it takes.”

* * *

[Beep! Bbeeep!]

Bbibbi went into the water that Joan had floated in a basin and washed his body repeatedly. It was already the third time he had plunged into the water and taken a bath of anger.

[Bbeeep!]

Silver, you barbaric wolf! I won’t let you get away with this! How could you eat me!

If Silver had heard, he would have excused himself by saying, ‘I didn’t eat you, I just kept you in my mouth,’ but unfortunately or fortunately, Silver wasn’t here right now. Of course, even if he made that excuse, Bbibbi wouldn’t have batted an eye.

[Bbeeeek!]

When I see you next time, I’m going to pluck all the fur off your body!

Bbibbi, who had come up onto the towel and was shaking his body to get rid of the water, tilted his head, looking at Rosette, who was blankly staring out the window.

[Bbee?]

Then, realizing something, he fluttered and sat on Rosette’s shoulder.

[Beep!]

That’s right, Rosette! What happened between you and Silver’s owner?

As soon as she heard those words, Rosette’s face flushed.

“Nothing happened!”

[Bbee……!]

Surely Silver’s owner did something to you……!

But Bbibbi couldn’t continue speaking because Rosette quickly grabbed Bbibbi’s beak. Every time Bbibbi flapped his wings in protest, small droplets of water splashed into the air.

“Nothing happened with the Prince. Really. Really! So don’t mention the Prince. Got it?”

Rosette released his beak only after Bbibbi nodded.

[Beep!]

If it’s not, it’s not, why are you getting angry? It’s not like you, really.

Rosette ignored Bbibbi’s grumbling and staggered to the bed and lay down.

Even though she closed her eyes to sleep, Joshua’s face kept appearing. She pictured him staring at her with golden eyes that held a heat hotter than the sun.

‘What should I do?’

Rosette buried her face in the pillow and stamped her feet. But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t easily come to a conclusion.

In the end, she went to sleep without making any conclusions.

* * *

“Father, are you perhaps tired?”

Daniel hesitated and asked, carefully observing Duke Adrian’s complexion as he processed documents.

Since becoming a Sword Master [a highly skilled warrior], the Duke, who had gained a stronger physique than anyone else, didn’t get tired easily. He slept less than others, and even if he stayed up for several nights, it didn’t show.

Duke Adrian’s complexion wasn’t very good these days. His eyes weren’t bloodshot, but his skin was slightly rough, and his expression was troubled. It was a face that Daniel had never seen before.

“Why do you ask that?”

“The North has been in an uproar because of the monsters lately, so you’ve been busy. I thought you haven’t been able to sleep properly because you have a lot of work to do. If you’re okay with it, I’ll take care of the urgent documents, so why don’t you take a nap…….”

“Thank you for your concern, Daniel, but I’m fine.”

The Duke’s voice was as gentle as usual, but his expression was still not good.

“Then do you perhaps have any concerns? It would be stranger if you didn’t have any concerns because the situation in the North is so grim.”

“That’s not it either. I’m sorry for making you worry.”

The Duke smiled and focused on the documents again.

He told Daniel that he had no worries, but in fact, Duke Adrian had a secret worry these days.

‘I can’t figure out why I’m having such dreams.’

Originally, the Duke didn’t dream often. He didn’t know why, but he thought it was a characteristic of a Sword Master. All he ever dreamed about was his dead wife.

But recently, Rosette had started appearing in his dreams repeatedly. The first dream he had was on the day she collapsed at the hunting competition.

In the dream, Rosette was smaller in height and build than she was now. Her wrists and ankles, which were exposed through her shabby hood, were nothing but skin and bones.

And that wasn’t all. Her pink hair, which everyone praised as beautiful, was dry and lost its luster because she didn’t take care of it at all. Her sunken cheeks, which revealed her cheekbones, were also rough without any shine.

At first, the girl in the dream was so different that he couldn’t even recognize that the child in front of him was Rosette.

Would she have grown up like that if she hadn’t been adopted into the Adrian ducal family? The Duke was shocked by her different life, which he had never imagined.

But what was even more shocking was the content of the dream.

-You’re good. Did the Marquis of Dallas send you?

In the dream, Rosette had the eyes of an assassin and had come to kill him in the middle of the night. It was the already dead Marquis of Dallas who had instigated her.

The Adrian Duke in the dream treated Rosette like a stranger, but soon he pitied her and hated the Marquis of Dallas, who had made her a murderer.

Originally, he should have captured her and revealed all the ugly aspects of the Marquis of Dallas, but he didn’t feel like it.

-Aren’t you suffering from being used by the Marquis? You remind me of my daughter. It’s not too late now. Go back. You don’t belong in this kind of work, or I’ll help you get out.

Rosette’s expression wavered at those words. Soon she turned around and started walking away, as if she had given up on the assassination.

But she couldn’t take a few steps before her body stiffened. Then she suddenly ran at the Duke.

His body moved instinctively. The moment he tried to put more strength into the hand holding the sword and aim for Rosette’s vitals.

“……!”

Adrian saw the unfathomable sadness in Rosette’s blue eyes. Unable to attack, he hesitated for a moment, and Rosette struck his heart.

It was an attack that he probably wouldn’t have been able to defend easily even if he had fought back properly.

That’s how he died in the dream. Until the last moment, he hoped that Rosette would not be caught and would escape safely.

After waking up from the dream, the Duke sat blankly on the bed for a while, immersed in complex emotions. For a moment, he couldn’t properly distinguish what was reality and what was a dream.

The heart that had been stabbed by a sword made of mana in the dream throbbed, and he sweated coldly. The pain confused him even more.

‘Until then, I thought a dream was just a dream.’

In vulgar terms, he thought it was just a dog dream [meaningless dream].

He was glad that Rosette was able to grow up safely in his arms and that the same thing that happened in the dream didn’t happen.

But the problem was that the dream continued to repeat itself after that day.