Flirting With the Villain’s Dad

Chapter 7

Sergey didn’t appear out of the blue to rescue me.

A large hand pressed against the pillar I was hiding behind. I looked up in terror from where I was squatting at the people who appeared before me. The glow of the silver hair was nearly blinding as it swayed in the breeze. Clear amaranthine eyes looked straight at me.

I froze, unable to even take a breath.

The man smiled, one hand on the pillar and one hand holding a shiny helmet. It was the kind of smile a languid leopard might wear. “Pink hair…” he murmured.

I said nothing.

“…and sky blue eyes.”

My chin trembled. My teeth chattered helplessly.

The man was a stranger, and he was looking down at me like I was prey. But I recognized his features—unblemished silver hair and amaranthine eyes with a reddish glow.

That was how the villain of Brigitte Wants to Be Happy, Dekalb de Bellecourt, had been described. The novel said that Dekalb was identical to his father, the previous emperor of Bellecourt.

Then the man before me was…

His smile grew deeper.

He was the emperor of Bellecourt, who died brutally at his son’s hand in the original novel. This man, who would become the father of the villain, extended his hand to me.

“Got you, princess of Livovny.”

“Ugh…” A sound escaped me, but inside, I was screaming, Sergey, you jerk!

* * *

The eastern powerhouse of Rhyger, the fifty-second emperor of Bellecourt.

It was genuinely by coincidence that Euredian Louis Soledor de Bellecourt discovered the princess of Livovny. He hadn’t actually done anything. He hadn’t exactly been looking to specifically kidnap the princess of Livovny, either.

The foremost priority for the ambush was to teach the arrogant Kingdom of Livovny a lesson. Taking a member of the royal family hostage was secondary.

He didn’t particularly endorse this attack himself, either.

Bellecourt had always been the protector of peace on the Rhyger continent. Since that same empire had shattered the peace, it didn’t take a genius to know that the fallout would be complicated.

However, Livovny was so arrogant that even Euredian, himself, couldn’t handle it.

Just what did they think Bellecourt was? Ten percent of the mana ore from their trade agreement with Azekian?

He hadn’t expected it, but they were hardly better than thieves.

Euredian’s lips quirked into a crooked smile.

It really did seem like he would have to take one of the royal family members with him to bring this arrogant kingdom to its senses… It was almost like fate had intervened when he happened to catch sight of a fluffy pink something in the distance.

He watched in wordless curiosity as flashes of light pink hair flew from pillar to pillar. It was a girl hopping between them. A slender girl with hair like the spun sugar dessert that children so enjoyed.

Euredian watched in bewilderment as the girl hopped between pillars. The way she looked around the pillar before each jump seemed as though she was attempting to hide herself, but he had never seen someone move so obviously before. She reminded him of a bunny, or perhaps a careless cat.

She hopped again. Her yellow dress was woefully inadequate for avoiding attention, and the hem peeked out from behind the pillar.

It was funny to see her looking around so cautiously in spite of it. Then their eyes met. All of her delicate features doubled in size in her shock—eyes, nose, mouth.

Maybe not the ears…

But what caught his attention were her sky-blue eyes.

Pink hair and sky-blue eyes.

The pages flipped in his head as he searched his mind for profiles of the Livovny royal family.

Yes, there it was. That rare color combination. The youngest princess of Livovny.

Taking her would do. Euredian’s lips curved languidly. The entire process hadn’t even taken a few seconds.

* * *

Jingle, jingle.

What was that sound, you might ask? It was the sound of me being carried like a sack of potatoes over the emperor of Bellecourt’s shoulder.

Why is the ground above me and the sky below…? The whole world had been turned upside-down.

With nothing else to do, I counted the pebbles on the ground. All the blood rushing to my head made my vision waver. My stomach had already grown numb from being crushed against the hard metal pauldron on his shoulder.

In other words, I was being kidnapped by the emperor of Bellecourt.

I could hear the desperate cries of the Livovny knights who recognized me.

“Princess Yerenika!”

“You vagrant, unhand the princess!”

The brave knights of Livovny who rushed in to save me all got kicked aside by this monster of an emperor. Every time he so much as moved his foot, my organs wailed.

Ah, I don’t know if it’s my stomach or my intestines, but something’s gonna snap…

I didn’t even have the energy to fight because I felt like my heart was about to leap out of my chest but for a completely different reason.

The moment the emperor had discovered me, he grabbed me by the armpit and tossed me over his shoulder. Considering the hardness of the armor he was wearing, his treatment couldn’t have been any crueler.

The emperor kicked another knight who rushed at him.

“Tsk. They’re persistent,” he mumbled irritably, and I moaned in pain. It hurt!

My plans had long been ruined.

I mean, I said I would stop my sister from being kidnapped, not that I would get kidnapped in her place!

But what good was it to complain? There was no taking it back now. Anyway, I was in the middle of being a very calm, cooperative hostage. I relaxed as best as I could and dangled over the emperor’s back.

And the person I’d called for so desperately earlier showed up a step… no, ten steps, no, twenty steps late.

“Yereniiiikaaaa!”

Sergey was running my way, calling my name at the top of his lungs.

Sergey… My eyes welled with tears. I somehow managed to lift my head and yell with every bit of strength I had left.

“What took you so long?! You damn—ngh.”

I couldn’t even finish what I was shouting because the cruel emperor adjusted his grip on me.

As my body was shifted, I felt as though my organs were about to burst again. Terrible damn timing.

In the end, I spoke up in a voice no louder than a mosquito. “Um…”

The emperor of Bellecourt didn’t seem like he was listening to me. He just continued to walk, chasing off the knights like he was waving away flies.

There was no bloodshed on his path though, which I found a little fascinating. Maybe that’s why I got so brazen.

I shouted a little louder at him. “Hey, excuse me! Father!”

I didn’t even realize there was something weird about the way I addressed him.

The emperor froze for a moment. I took that opportunity to shout tearfully, “Won’t you please put me down?”

“Are you asking me to let you go?”

“I’m not. Just put me down, please. I’ll walk wherever we’re going myself… Ugh. Or, no, can you at least carry me properly…?”

It wasn’t intentional, but desperation dripped from my voice. Even speaking left me out of breath now. In the end, I begged in between sobs as fat tears rolled down my face. “It’s because… It really hurts. It hurts… ah, your armor is so… waaah.”

And then I flew through the air. The cold armor that felt like it would split me in two disappeared in an instant, and I found myself seated on a horse.

A horse. A real one. The kind that goes “neigh.”

Have you ever seen a horse in person? I mean, a gigantic horse where you have to tilt your head really far back to see. A warm-blooded beast with its hot breath huffing through its nostrils.

It felt as though it could crush me like a potato with all four of its hooves; each sheathed in a metal horseshoe. All four of its thighs quivered simultaneously.

“Waaah!”

I clung to the horse’s back, tears streaming down my face. It was pure instinct.

I was an average college student from twenty-first-century Korea. How could I have any experience riding a horse?!

Even though it’d been eight months since I fell into the novel, I’d never been anywhere near a horse!

I shouted through tears, “What the heck?! Let me down! I’m scared!”

“Hush, hush.” I heard him attempting to soothe me. You would never have expected such a calm voice from a kidnapper.

But before I could process the words, a heavy weight settled behind me. It seemed that the emperor had gotten on behind me.

The horse reared up once, and I slid back. A firm hand peeled me off the horse’s back. It was almost pathetic how easily it lifted me up.

I closed my eyes tightly because I felt as though I would fall, but then there was a solid wall of some sort against my back.

“Straighten up. You have to lean back.”

“L-like this…?”

“Yes, just like that.”

Arms draped in silver armor fenced me in on either side, encasing me. Grabbing hold of the reins, the emperor shouted, “Bellecourt troops, we withdraw here!”

I thought I heard the faint sound of someone shouting my name. Was it Sergey? Or Mother? Father? Theresia?

But I couldn’t continue thinking about it.

The horse was pure white and the size of a house. It raised its front hooves high, let out a cry, and then it shot forward like a bullet.

A firm arm grabbed hold of me before I could fall forward.

That was how I got kidnapped by the emperor of Bellecourt…

…in place of my sister, Theresia.

Damn it.