Chapter 68: CH 67

Panicked, Reina soon ran away from the Liam family’s mansion, leaving with only a hasty goodbye.

Mulling over it the entire way back, when she finally arrived at the Chantra family’s townhouse, the first thing she did was practically tear her hair out as she shouted.

“How can that darn man’s heart be so unpredictable?!”

The push and pull she’s being subjected to was maddening.

First, he pushed and treated her coldly. Then, he pulled again and showed her such a smile at Mount Thurn.

And before she left for Cressen, he lent her his family heirloom of all things. But now! He’s suddenly angry at her again!

“Why is it so difficult to understand you! Why are you angry again!”

Did his mind change in the two weeks that she wasn’t here? Was that why he made such a face at her?

“But why all of a sudden?”

It didn’t make sense.

It was obvious that his demeanor towards her had softened ever since what happened at the Thurn village.

“Well, sure, I was a bit pushy when he gave me his pendant before I left for Cressen, but…”

Still, at the end of the day, it wasn’t just a pendant. It was an item that contained the power of his household.

“But then just a fourteen-day break is enough to turn everything upside down again? Even after everything, I know how fickle the human heart is, but still…”

It’s not supposed to be this fickle!

“Aaaaargh! To what kind of tune… am I even hecking supposed to dance to!”

As her complaints were close to screams by now, Reina kept wracking her brain, trying to figure out this situation that wasn’t making sense at all.

But even as the image of her dancing to the beat of that tune flashed vividly in her mind, she couldn’t deny the angry expression that she had received earlier.

“What is going on, seriously…”

As deflated as she could possibly be, Reina swept a hand over her face and sighed.

“Or wait, maybe while I was at Cressen, did he suddenly look back at how I was being too buddy-buddy with him? That’s why he’s angry…?”

Why? Well.

People tend not to think much about the current situation, but hindsight was a kicker—they’d belatedly get angry at the other person for what they said or how they acted.

“No, but… What exactly did I say so recklessly that he got mad at me…”

What she could remember at least were: (1) ‘my love’; (2) ‘my fiancé’; (3) ‘the criminal who stole my heart’; (4) ‘defendant who’s guilty of taking my heart away’; just things generally like that…

Huh?

“W-Wait a second…”

Chills suddenly ran down her spine. It was from sheer dread.

“Huh… Huuuh…? Wait, seriously, wait a sec…”

She didn’t know why she was having this realization now, or what exactly caused her to have this epiphany, but…

As the reason behind her anxiety popped up, there was no stopping it.

“But… What if—just what if—I never actually succeeded at seducing him…?”

When that assumption flashed through her mind, Reina immediately shook her head in denial.

“Eyyy. No way. If he didn’t get seduced, he would have started avoiding m…”

“Haa… Miss Reina, you really don’t stop showing up in front of me, even until the end.”

“……”

Sh*t. He was avoiding her. But she just kept pouncing on him regardless of his will.

The same moment this realization came to her, all his reactions to her behavior thus far flooded into her mind belatedly.

“I do hope that your seemingly lost rationality will return to you soon.”

“How long will you be keeping up this crazy girl concept?”

“Or maybe it’s not a concept and you’re actually just crazy?”

“Go find your love elsewhere.”

“This is absolutely…”

Now that she was looking back at what happened in the past objectively, she knew.

Anyone would be able to tell that she’s been utterly and totally rejected from the get-go.

“But why the heck was I so convinced that he’s reacting positively… Ah.”

“Milady, I am the maiden, Arene. Trust and follow me.”

“…Arene.”

Right. She absolutely believed Arene.

That Arene, who Reina trusted and followed unconditionally and without question, almost on the same level as a new priest who had decided to turn to religion.

The puzzle had been in such disarray until now, but now that she had fit everything together, only then did she finally see the big picture.

“Now that I think about it, Arene… is a total bombshell.”

To the point that it’s possible for even Reina herself, a fellow woman, would also fall in love with her.

“So, at the end of the day, this means…”

The reason Arene’s seduction strategy had been working until now… was not because of her innovative thinking.

As Reina belatedly discovered this life-changing fact, she had no choice but to think about it seriously.

“If the trick behind it is Arene’s face…”

With that kind of face, even pick-up lines from the by-gone era of their grandparents’ time—or maybe even the era of the empire’s founding fathers—would work.

“But compared to Arene, someone else who’d say those lines—a squid like me… no, a burnt piece of bread… no, a chewed-up gum thrown at some random ditch on the side of the road…”

This was the real, actual reality of it all. She’s not exaggerating.

“Hah… Why did I… realize this just now?”

T-Then, just what kind of ‘flirting’ had she been doing until now…?

“I don’t need water.”

“A human being cannot live without water.”

“Uh-uh. No, Ethan. I can live without it. Because my love’s eyes are like clear lakes.”

“……”

“And I am a little lark that survives upon those waters. You are the oasis of my soul.”

“Damn it… Then, that…!”

All this time she thought that he couldn’t answer because he was touched…

But was it only because he was cringing so hard that he’s speechless?!

“AAAAARGH!”

All of a sudden, waves upon waves of shame and humiliation hit her.

“If the seduction methods I’ve been throwing at him until now weren’t working at all… AAHH!!”

She might have been subconsciously filtering this knowledge out of her conscious mind thus far, but now that she realized the truth behind her actions, Reina buried her face into a pillow and kicked her bed frantically.

“Aaaaargh…! Cringe! So criiinge…! What the hell have I been doing!”

However, in spite of her desperate struggle against her own memories, her mind mercilessly flung one memory after another of all the pick-up lines she said until now.

“Water… I need water! My heart has gone up in flames because your burning gaze is too much, my love!”

“How greedy! Please, stop taking my heart with you—my heart!”

“Auuuuugh…! Just how crazy did I look…?”

Screwed.

She’s totally, one hundred percent screwed.

t/n: i made a mistake with the summary before LOL there aren’t usually any specified subjects in a typical korean sentence, so i thought the ‘my heart~!’ line was ethan’s reply to reina, but now that we got to see that line here in the story itself, it makes more sense that it’s yet another one of reina’s pick-up lines after all XD i’ve since corrected the mistake accordingly ahaha