Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 197 – Sophie Linier’s Dream ―The Given Words― VI
Even his good looks are something others would be jealous of.
Without showing that inner complaint in her expression, Sophie asked with a straight, ladylike expression,
“So, how far was the diary written?”
“Until the day the subject of concubine was brought up.”
“I see…”
In other words, there was no way of knowing Consort Floria’s thoughts after that.
“Hahaue’s daily routine began with visiting Consort Floria’s mausoleum and spending a few hours there. Don’t you think that’s scary? She is still that much obsessed with her even after her passing.”
As Remiel spat such words, Sophie had a dumbfounded expression.
“If you ask me whether it’s scary, I have no answer to that.”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask? Because I’d do the same thing.”
“Hah?”
“If I were in her position, I’d visit daily as well. Isn’t that obvious?”
As soon as Sophie said that, Remiel’s mouth cramped.
Unaware of his disgust, Sophie spoke sadly.
“Although I’d hate it so much to the point my brain refuses to even imagine such a thing, if… if such a thing really happened, I’d also offer my prayers and worship every day. I’d make sure not to miss a single day!”
In the first place, Sophie had written her letters to Tenma even now. Speaking of obsession and persistence, she was confident she wouldn’t be losing to the queen.
Moreover, since the other party would be Christina, the obsession wouldn’t even be comparable to Tenma.
After all, Sophie was sure if Tenma knew about the letters that she still wrote to this day to him, he would definitely roll his eyes and criticize, saying, “Uwah, that’s disgusting…” but Christina wouldn’t do so.
If it’s the gentle Christina onee-sama, she wouldn’t be like that cold-hearted Tenma and instead be happy without blaming me for continuing to think of her for the rest of my life. She would say, ‘As expected of my younger sister!’
As Sophie intertwined her fingers and wore an enraptured expression, Remiel murmured with a face like he swallowed a bug,
“I can’t understand…”
“Oh my, you’re a man lacking in empathy. Certainly, the misunderstanding that happened between the two is something sad. If we think about His Highness, we couldn’t help but wish that they chose a different option… However, why did we one-sidedly decide that Floria-sama’s life ended unhappily?”1
“…”
“Did Floria-sama really think her life was unhappy? Did she really spend her last moment in sadness and despair as she passed away…? I can’t speculate such a thing since I have never met two of them―but well, if I am to say anything about it…”
Two pieces, black and white, were lined up side by side.
Taking the two with her hand, Sophie slowly gazed into Remiel’s purple eyes.
“Floria-sama’s longing for Her Highness never disappeared from her heart. That is my thought.”
The miracle of meeting someone they admired and the days they spent with them.
As the girl told him that someone who held such memories wouldn’t have held a grudge against the other party, Remiel held his breath for a moment.
“……Even if it shortened her life as a result?”
“Do you really think Floria-sama couldn’t have escaped before it reached that point? As a woman who could lead to a dispute over the succession to the throne—moreover, the person who didn’t wish for that—there should be many people who could have offered their help to prevent that.”
“Despite being a woman yourself, you’re quite harsh toward a woman who was driven into a corner. The other party was part of the royal family. Considering the spark that would ignite if she fled, Consort Floria would also be in that conflict…”
The man who confused everyone with his usual eccentricities spoke with a serious attitude, but Sophie brushed him off.
“You also don’t understand. That’s not what I want to say. It’s about why Floria-sama made that choice.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Fleeing means separation. If she escaped, she would never be able to meet Her Highness ever again. Floria-sama was someone who admired Her Highness and put her effort into enrolling in ‘The Queen’s Rose’, right? In other words, Her Highness is someone that Floria-sama thought of as a special person ever since she was a child.”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she had devoted most of her life to the queen.
“Could she afford to lose that? Even if the position of concubine wasn’t something she wished for, would she slap away the hand of her most beloved who tried to keep her at her side?”
“Why are you asking me? There’s no way I could know… What would you do then?”
“That’s why I told you earlier. Her yearning never went away.”
“Gh.”
“If it was a feeling that could easily disappear, Floria-sama would have escaped before she became a concubine.”
As the girl looked far away and thought of the person who had passed away, Remiel grit his teeth.
She really was similar. The girl’s thought was really similar to Consort Floria’s.
“…The fact that your thoughts are close to Consort Floria’s means that history is likely to repeat itself. I told you before. You might end up in the same fate.”
Remiel’s voice as he clenched his fists on his knees had a hint of impatience.
“Yes, I remember that.”
“The moment I first saw that woman, I knew her nature is the same as hahaue.”
He wore a calculated smile with emotionless eyes.
To Remiel, Christina was like a copy of her mother.
“To that kind of woman, the closer she gets to the royal palace, the more she harbors darkness behind her smile. She would become nothing but a woman who only held the concept of living as a queen.”
The meaning of her birth would become to marry the heir to the throne and bear his child.
As a result, it would gradually kill her mind.
“If aniue were deprived of his right to the throne and it passes to me, that woman would become my fiancée without changing her expression whatsoever.”
“As annoying as it sounds, that is indeed what would happen.”
Sophie didn’t deny Remiel’s words.
Considering Christina’s origin as a duke’s daughter, it couldn’t be refuted. The Wellin’s surname wouldn’t allow otherwise. Christina herself also didn’t shy away from letting her family name influence her destiny.
“I’m telling you that’s because of her dignity as the daughter of the duke. That doesn’t mean onee-sama is a machine.”
“The result is the same, right?”
“…It seems you are afraid of history repeating.”
Things would repeat over and over. Similar women would do similar things. Like cause and effect.
Remiel seemed terrified of that.
“But you see, it wouldn’t be the same. Everything is different. You seem to see Christina onee-sama and Her Highness as the same, but there’s no one in the world who’s exactly the same. Same could be said for me. Floria-sama and I aren’t the same. Even if the path we walked looked the same, it’s completely different.”
Remiel spoke as if Christina was an emotionless doll, but that was also wrong.
She certainly had a doll-like beauty, but within that, the lump of womanly attractiveness named Christina Wellin was there.
“The Christina onee-sama that I know is someone filled with humanity. She has a strong curiosity, she likes to prank a little, and she certainly holds His Highness dear. After all, she is someone who has cared about me since long ago.”
“Long ago…?”
Remiel suddenly lifted his hips and leaned forward.
“That woman had known about you since long ago?”
“Yes, His Highness seemed to have slipped and spoken about me, though… Why are you so surprised?”
“――――When people get the thing they wished for when they desired it, do you have any idea how much it would affect their life from that moment onward?”
Hm? I think I heard something similar just recently?
Rather than recently, it was just last night. Sunny’s face came to Sophie’s mind.
[“When people get the thing they wished for when they desired it, they would call it a miracle.”]
It was Sunny’s smiling face when she said that.
“I learned about that when I saw aniue. Before aniue went to Talis, he felt like a corpse that was just kept barely alive. His eyes lacked strength, and he would fall ill from the slightest things. The royal palace was nothing but poison to him.”
Realizing he could have ended up like Consort Floria if it continued, he was allowed to leave the royal palace for a while.
“I thought it would only serve as a temporary measure. It didn’t fix the root of the problem, after all. However, aniue’s expression when he returned once from his stay in Talis was completely different from before…”
Remiel didn’t have many opportunities to meet Ferio back when he traveled back and forth from the royal palace and Talis, but Remiel’s eyes widened when he saw Ferio was certainly improving.
His complexion was getting better, and he seemed to be mentally stable.
Even when some aristocrats who didn’t think well of his recreation spoke ill of him, Ferio could brush it off.
On the contrary, he was even laughing secretly.
[“It’s much easier to deal with since they weren’t as eccentric as she was.”] ― he said.
“Aniue failed to get what he desired when he wanted it back in the royal palace. However, he earned that later on.”
“?”
“……Did you also give that to that woman?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Unable to understand Remiel’s thoughts, Sophie’s face was covered in confusion.
Author Note:
I’m alive ( ;∀;) I almost died several times, though…
I intended to keep living in June, so please take care of me (‘◇’)ゞ
Also important news!
Comicalize volume 2 was released on Friday, May 12th!
It also includes 4-komas drawn by Mori-sensei, so please have a look!
Please buy some (*’ω’*)
Thank you to those who commented on the purchase comment section.
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