It Seems Like The Infamous Trash Can is Right Here! - Chapter 196
Seeing my face turn white, Lionel opened his mouth with difficulty.
“Actually, I didn’t want to tell you this story. I didn’t want to make you feel anxious, and I didn’t want to make you think about the crown prince. But…”
He gripped my hand tightly.
“Since he’s already set his greedy eyes on you, we must prepare and be on guard. In all the many lives I’ve lived through, not once has he ever given you up or abandoned his pursuit.”
I felt a chilling shiver run through me.
‘Wh-what kind of crazy bastard…’
What did I even do, why is he doing this to me?
Unless I was born with nation-toppling beauty, honestly I’m not quite at that level!
If we’re talking about pretty, Vivian is much prettier than me.
This is exactly the kind of situation where “caught by the wrong person” fits perfectly.
Thanks to Crown Prince Axion’s obsession with me and refusal to offer me as a sacrifice, this world might not be destroyed, but that didn’t mean I could be happy about it.
So the only method really is rebellion, huh.
“But why Dantère of all people…?”
From my earlier conversation with Vivian, I now understood clearly. Why Lionel is trying to recruit Dantère to our side.
“Among the Imperial Family’s direct line, Dantère is the only one who hasn’t contracted with the foreign deities. Only that guy has the qualification to not renew the contract.”
The goal was to eliminate all other direct members of the Imperial Family, spare only Dantère, and nullify the contract with the foreign deities.
“…Won’t the Empire fall in a different sense?”
Would it really be okay for someone as promiscuous and pleasure-loving as Dantère to become Emperor?
Lionel must have taken my words as a joke because he even laughed lightly! This isn’t something to laugh about…
“We can just threaten to kick him out if he doesn’t do it properly.”
“Um… the Emperor?”
“There’s no reason we can’t.”
Lionel shrugged.
I understand well how he thinks of Dantère.
‘Well, severing the connection with the foreign deities is the top priority.’
We can think about what comes after when the time comes.
We’ve failed countless times until now, so this time won’t be easy either.
I looked down at Lionel’s hand gripping mine tightly.
How much he must have agonized before confiding this story, how much he must have suffered. I can’t easily fathom it.
But honestly, I was truly grateful to him for telling me the truth.
Even if he hadn’t told me anything, I wouldn’t have been able to blame him, yet he decided to contemplate and overcome the trials ahead together with me.
“Lionel.”
I lifted my gaze from his hand with bulging veins and looked at his face.
“We’ll be able to do this well. Right? If I trust you, and you trust me.”
Lionel’s red eyes, fully capturing my face, wavered.
“I don’t know the past lives you’ve lived through. I don’t really know what I was thinking or what choices I made either. But there’s one thing I’m certain of.”
Every time I saw Lionel’s past, I saw, felt, and thought everything from his perspective.
That process actually made me understand my past self better.
“From the moment I met you, there hasn’t been a single moment I didn’t love you.”
Lionel’s eyes, reflecting on the meaning of my words, slowly widened.
“Not loving you would be harder than dying, and loving you would be easier than breathing.”
‘I still am, even now.’ I whispered softly.
Even in moments when I should have been suspicious and guarded, I kept growing fond of him.
How hard I tried to find reasons why I could trust him. Appearance, character, I grabbed at whatever I could, persuading myself that there was no one like him.
Just because I liked him.
Because I wanted to love him.
Even without remembering anything, my soul was loving him with such familiar ease.
“So… what I want to say to you is…”
Having said everything I wanted to say, belatedly becoming shy, I looked at him and grinned.
“Do you want me to be your lap pillow?”
