Fish Don't Know About Water - Chapter 2

“You! Since when have you been here!”

“Um… Since before you ran out of the teahouse chasing that tall officer…?”

The woman chuckled and pointed towards the teahouse where Viett and his fiancée had come out from. Then she knocked on the closed bakery window with her fist.

“I heard that the cookies in this bakery are really delicious, so I wanted to buy some for the boss. I didn’t expect to meet you here…”

“Shut up! You should be resting in your quarters; why did you come out here!”

His fiancée stomped her foot as she shouted. Viett frowned at her reaction.

It would have been easily resolved by stopping her talking. Why is she overreacting so much?

“Oh, don’t worry! Cecilia!”

At that moment, the woman who had been observing the inside of the bakery lifted her head abruptly. Then she covered her mouth and whispered softly.

“I won’t tell anyone about your breakup with that officer.”

Her gesture of pretending to zip her lips was quite cute. Viett let out an unexpected chuckle.

“It’s not like keeping your mouth shut will change anything! You stupid snitch!”

His fiancée ran off crying loudly towards the street. Viett was taken aback, but the nurse seemed even more surprised. She shouted ‘Come on, Cecil!’ and quickly chased after his fiancée.

Viett watched the two women who quickly moved away with indifferent eyes for a moment before slowly turning around.

Viett Hartmann. The worst problem child in royal history and the stuttering prince.

Although Viett himself didn’t realize it, the worst trials and greatest blessings in his 24 years of life were just beginning.

* * *

Viett learned about the identity of the insane nurse the next morning.

As soon as day dawned, he informed the marquis of their annulment and sent a brief report explaining the circumstances of the breakup to the king.

He would soon receive an answer full of curses from his father, but until then, he could rest peacefully. He liked the fact that this was a war zone in a foreign country where journalists couldn’t reach.

On the way back to the officer’s quarters, new recruits marching in formation raised dust as they passed by him.

“Good morning, Commander!”

Confident greetings erupted from the marching formation. Viett nodded silently in response, then moved on, leaving behind the sweaty-smelling new recruits. At that moment, a booming voice came from the marching formation.

“Prince Lionel! Don’t worry! There are plenty of women in the world!”

Those rascals. Viett glared at the retreating marching formation with a grimace. It was clear that the young soldier boys, with whom he usually had little interaction, were up to some mischief.

The fact that the second prince of Westenia used the alias ‘Lionel’ was already widely known within the camp. But such reckless behavior was risky.

Looks like they’ve lost their military discipline.

Viett clicked his tongue and walked towards the mess hall. Just as he resolved to provide proper training during the afternoon drill, he unknowingly stopped in his tracks.

…Wait a minute, it’s only been a few minutes since I notified the court about the annulment. How do these guys know about my annulment?

The annulment they decided late last night wouldn’t have spread to the media already. Even today’s newspaper delivered to the officer’s quarters didn’t mention anything about his annulment.

Could it be that those two women went back to the nurses’ dormitory and spread rumors about what happened last night? If so, it wouldn’t be surprising that gossip quickly spread within the camp.

“Hey, Lionel!”

At that moment, he heard a voice calling out to him from afar. Two young officers were sitting on a stack of wooden crates behind the mess hall, smoking cigarettes.

Among them was Viscount Esca, who had graduated from the boys’ military academy with Viett.

“Our Commander decorated the climax of today’s novel, didn’t you?”

Esca chuckled as he shuffled through a bundle of newspapers he had in his hands.

“W-what novel?”

“‘Psycho Pepe.’ Don’t you know what it is?”

Viett nodded absentmindedly while cutting through the verse. Upon which Esca and the young officer exchanged awkward glances and muttered something to each other.

“‘Psycho Pepe’ is the title of a novel featuring a Little Lady, Your Highness.”

The young officer whispered softly. Viett’s brow furrowed slightly.

A Little Lady. It was a term used to refer to the protagonist of propaganda serialized novels. He had a vague idea of what it was about but never paid much attention to it. He had never read this novel called ⟨Psycho Pepe.⟩

“Have you heard rumors about a Little Lady being in this special forces camp?”

Esca asked as he spread out the newspaper. Viett quietly shook his head. As Esca flipped through the newspaper pages, his expression turned surprised.

“Do you remember when soldiers kept loitering around the officer’s quarters and field hospital trying to catch a glimpse of famous people?”

Viett grimaced uncomfortably and bit his lip.

“I-I’m not interested.”

“Start taking an interest in your surroundings. Maybe this mess is partly because of your indifference… Oh, here it is.”

Esca pushed the newspaper in front of Viett.

Viett skimmed through a long novel that occupied an entire page of the newspaper with an annoyed look.

“What… what’s all this about.”

“Here, read this part.”

Esca pointed to the latter part of the novel with his fingertip.

The title of the novel was not ⟨Psycho Pepe⟩ but ⟨Pepe,⟩ and the author was unknown.

「After barely managing to pull away from Captain XX, who was insisting on going to the bar to dance, I hurriedly made my way to the bakery that I had always been interested in.

And only upon arriving at the bakery did I realize.

I hadn’t returned Officer XX’s military jacket that I had borrowed!」

“By the way, the anonymous officer appearing in that scene is Phileas. Remember? The senior who was slightly inferior to us.”

Esca spat out the words with a sneer.

“That guy came back to the officer’s quarters yesterday without his military jacket.”

Viett continued reading the novel with a slight frown, chewing on his verse absentmindedly.

「Unfortunately, the bakery was already closed. I stood in front of the door for a while, hoping the owner would show up…

Oh? An officer walked out from the tea house across the street.

I recognized him at first sight. It was Prince XX who I often saw inside the camp.

It was the first time I had seen the prince so closely.

The moment, I thought, ‘XX’s fiancé is a huge hunk,’ a woman rushed out from the tea house where the prince was.

To my surprise, it was XX, who was not only my roommate but also Prince XX’s fiancée. XX ran towards the prince and raised her voice.

— Is that all you have to say? Where in this world is there a man who, when his fiancée asks to break their engagement, casually says ‘sure’ and quickly leaves?

Just now… she definitely said breakup… right? I looked at the bakery with eyes full of longing and sweat.

It’s not too late now! Quickly open the door! There’s nothing more painful than standing blankly in front of a lover who is about to fall apart!」

Viett let out an exasperated sigh and the cigar fell out of his mouth. The young officers hurriedly bent down saying ‘Excuse me!’ but Viett continued to read through the verse on the ground. He looked at Esca with trembling eyes.

“T-this protagonist’s r-roommate…”

“Your Highness’s fiancée, Miss Cecilia Rosti. Oh, is she still your fiancée now?” 

Esca shrugged his shoulders as he picked up the fallen cigar from the floor.

“Congratulations on appearing in Westenia’s most popular novel.”

Viett shifted his gaze from the clapping Esca to the novel.

「—Your Highness. Please respond, just say anything…

— The love you speak of, there would be nothing as trivial as that.

At the prince’s cold words, the pitiful XX’s face turned as pale as flour dough.

—Your Highness?

— Given the circumstances. Let’s proceed with the annulment, and make it quick.

—Your Highness, why…

— Don’t worry. I will publicly announce that it was the Lady who rejected me.

Are you really considering breaking the engagement? I unconsciously bit my nails. XX’s sorrow resonated deeply with me.」

The protagonist of the novel. In other words, Viett Hartmann, as seen through the eyes of the strange nurse he met yesterday, was truly a heartless man without blood or tears. A heartless man who coldly dismisses the fiancée who was begging for his love.

Even though his habit of stuttering severely didn’t show in the novel, only reading the dialogues made it seem like he was cold-bloodedly pushing away the fiancée he found annoying.

“I-I didn’t say it… like that!”

As Viett spat out his words while crumpling the newspaper, Esca took a deep drag of his cigarette with a mischievous expression.

“I get it. You were stuttering out of nervousness, right? Just like usual.”

“You crazy bastard! Th-that’s right!”

Viett yelled nervously and roughly threw the bundle of newspapers at Esca’s face.