Flirting With the Villain’s Dad

Chapter 10

Yerenika’s body had been just fine for the first eight months I had possessed it, but it felt like it was falling apart now.

Was this what it felt like to be a sunfish?

Rolf looked like he was on the verge of tears in the distance. “I… only lit a fire…”

He was right. Rolf hadn’t done anything wrong. We had stopped to camp for the night, Rolf had lit the fire as the mage, and the minimal amount of mana that had been emitted in the process had turned me into this.

My head swam, the pain crashing through me like a tide. But my headache had melted away once again. My condition was forcibly improved, and I was back to normal.

The refreshing scent tickled my nose. I openly took a deep breath of that scent.

This was already the third time this had happened. It was only then that I realized it wasn’t Rolf who was weird; it was me.

Rolf cautiously spoke up. “It seems Her Highness suffers from mana bane…”

“‘Mana bane’?”

“Yes. It is uncommon, but occasionally some are born with the inability to accept mana, whether physically or mentally. However, it is a very slim probability.”

The emperor nodded his head slowly as he rhythmically patted my back with his large hand.

As I leaned bonelessly into his arms, I thought, No, no. There’s a more fundamental cause—I’m not the real Yerenika, and I don’t belong in this world.

Mana bane. There was nothing like that in the original novel. Of course, there wasn’t because there were no characters who had come from other worlds in it.

Rolf had said earlier that this condition could be the result of not being exposed to mana, but I knew the truth in my gut. One of the biggest differences between the world of Brigitte Wants to Be Happy and the twenty-first-century Earth was the existence of mana, a mysterious force that couldn’t be explained by modern science.

The only way to explain that I had grown up without mana exposure was that I wasn’t from this world. I was wearing Yerenika’s body, but my mind was still Eunsuh Suh. So where had Yerenika gone?

Of course, that wasn’t my main focus right then. How could it be when I could die at any moment?!

Magic wasn’t a miracle in this world. They were mining hundreds of thousands of mana ore in the western parts of the continent, and I had mana bane? What kind of anachronistic disease was this?

I heard the emperor’s voice calmly giving orders.

“First, Rolf, avoid using magic. Seeing as she can’t handle even the smallest spells, it would be best to be careful.”

“Yes, Sire.”

That was the most confusing thing of all. Why was it that I could feel so much pain that I thought I’d die, but it disappeared as soon as I touched this man?

The same thing happened earlier when we went through the magic circle, again when Rolf tried to use magic to treat the injured, and again when he tried to light the firewood. It had happened three times. At this point, I couldn’t dismiss it as a coincidence.

As soon as my breathing returned to normal, Euredian peeled me off of his chest. This man really picked me up, set me down, and carried me around like it was nothing.

I was nineteen years old, but I couldn’t tell if it was because Yerenika was a bit on the smaller and skinnier side or because this man was excessively strong.

Anyway, I blinked as he held me up like a paper doll. Those reddish amaranthine eyes were right in front of me again.

“Nothing like this happened in Livovny, Princess?”

No, not in the last eight months, but that was only natural. Livovny didn’t have a royal mage or a mage tower. Mana ore was only used to reinforce the borders, not for individuals to have access to. A kingdom that hired mages from another country to reinforce its borders wouldn’t be using mana ore in their daily lives.

The most obvious proof of this was that today was my first time seeing a mage since I first fell into this world. However, things were different past the Sezanne Mountains in Bellecourt. Since Bellecourt was to the east, they didn’t have mana ore, but they were famous for having the most organized and largest collective of mages.

There was a saying that the quality of magic lay in Azekian, and the quantity was in Bellecourt. There was even dark magic rampant in the shadows.

Anyway, the point was that Bellecourt was far more open to magic than Livovny. And me? I had mana bane.

This wasn’t a joke anymore. I really was a sunfish!

“Ugh.”

But I couldn’t keep delaying things any longer. We even had to leave four knights to follow behind who couldn’t be treated because I kept passing out whenever Rolf used even the slightest bit of magic.

They said the injuries weren’t life-threatening, but still. Still! They could get better with a flick of Rolf’s hand!

There was yet another thing being delayed because of me, too. Just one more magic circle, and we could end up right in front of Bellecourt’s imperial city.

Sob. What else was I supposed to do? I eventually spoke up.

“Um, can’t you just knock me out…?”

“What?”

“If you just smack the back of my head and knock me out, we could hurry to the imperial city.” I cautiously checked the emperor’s reaction as I spoke. He didn’t even bother hiding how ridiculous he found my suggestion.

“So, you want me to lay my hand on you?”

“I mean, it’ll only hurt for a moment. It would be nice if I was tucked in a bed when I open my eyes ag—”

“Dismissed.” The emperor rejected my suggestion immediately. His tone was firm, like there was no point in hearing more. “I cannot allow the laying of hands on royalty of another nation for frivolous reasons. Dismissed.”

“Hmm. You’re a literal kidnapper, so why are you being so nice?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Since I’d already started, I took the opportunity to keep rambling.

“You can’t light a fire, and that man over there, his arm got sliced open, and that gentleman over there’s leg… ugh… If you can’t light a fire, no one can eat, and it’s early spring so it’s still cold, and we can’t exactly sleep shivering, can we? And I can’t exactly keep clinging to you— I mean, Your Imperial Majesty—like this…”

The man before me was the emperor of Bellecourt. For the princess of a small kingdom like Livovny, just being close to the master of the empire was a great, great honor.

I was sure it would be less of a pain for him to head to the imperial city in one go than to have to keep holding me. I dredged up the last bits of strength I had and ardently made my appeal.

“If you’re uncomfortable hitting me, you can just go through the magic circle like you did earlier. I’ll pass out anyway.”

“And if something goes wrong in the process?”

“If it goes wrong…” I hesitated and checked the emperor’s reaction.

He had a stern face, as though he was saying he would listen to one last argument.

“If you hold me a bit like you did earlier…”

Silence.

“That… should work…”

This wasn’t because I had any personal interest in the matter. Not even a little.

The emperor, Euredian, let out a soft sigh. As he wrapped me tightly in a cape, he answered, “While that is not a difficult request, I’m afraid I have to dismiss that as well.”

My hopes were completely shattered. The emperor continued in a stiff, stern voice, “The fire can be lit by hand.”

“Hm…”

“And you should be protected, seeing as you can’t even hide properly, let alone lift a sword. My men are the most elite soldiers in Bellecourt. No one else compares.”

“That’s… true, but…”

“I asked for your cooperation, not your sacrifice. Did I not swear that you would be safe?”

I looked up, dumbfounded, and wrapped up in the purple cape. His expression was normal and calm, as though he was stating obvious facts.

The large, kind hand holding me provided me with a sense of security, but his manner was also very blunt. There was an ingrained etiquette to him, drawing a line exactly where it needed to be.

“If you don’t plan to make the master of Bellecourt into a man who goes back on his word, I suggest we end this conversation here.”

More than anything, those languid eyes—the amaranthine orbs shot through with crimson—looked as though they would be undaunted no matter what happened. Euredian de Bellecourt’s eyes softened as he relaxed, and the addition of his sparkling silver bangs made him look dazzlingly handsome.

“However, you should stay close by just in case. The borders of Bellecourt are reinforced with mana ore.”

That was the moment I made my decision.

Yes. It was a great loss to the world to lose this man, who could brighten the world with his presence alone. For him to die at such an early age, and to his son at that, was tragic.

I felt moved to the point of tears. A great ruler like this becoming a test subject for his son’s dark magic? Absolutely not

I dabbed at my eyes with the hem of the cape and mumbled to myself between sniffles. “Father… I’ll rescue you for sure.”

“Why in the world do you keep calling me Fa—?”

“You can count on me!”

It didn’t matter if he thought I was strange. I would save this man and make the world a better place!

Of course… I didn’t know at the time that this man, Euredian Bellecourt, had the most impenetrable of walls.

* * *

In any case, the trip progressed smoothly after that. I stuck right by the emperor in case there was any magic activated nearby, and the effects showed immediately.

No matter how I looked at it, Euredian de Bellecourt must have had some kind of mystical elixir-like energy to him or something.

The land of Bellecourt felt far heavier to me than Livovny had, but just being near him made it immediately easier to breathe. Even the air circling around him was different. He was someone who carried a clean, refreshing air about him.

And soon enough, I learned why.