I Became a Tyrant’s Maid - Chapter 43

I tried hard to suppress a yawn that was coming.

I didn’t sleep at all. Because of talking last night.

“May I ask why you are the one moving in His Highness’s carriage?”

Thud, my wrist was grabbed by Ruel.

I answered quite kindly.

“His Highness or-or-ordered it. Haha.”

“…Why.”

I gently removed Ruel’s hand from my wrist and said,

“How would I know that, my lord?”

Ruel looked at me with a dumbfounded face. I asked, just in case.

“Ah, it seems His Highness might be bored due to the long carriage ride, so instead of me, would you like to ride…”

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, something long sprang out from behind me and grabbed my shoulder, yanking me back.

“What terrible thing are you saying, Rose Estanya?”

“Ah, Your Highness.”

I slightly brushed off the male lead’s hand on my shoulder and stepped back.

“Your Highness mentioned feeling lonely last evening, so we were discussing whether it might be more comfortable for you to ride in the carriage with your old friend, Lord Ruel. Your Highness.”

At my words, the male lead frowned as if displeased and glanced at Ruel.

“Don’t say such nonsense and follow me.”

“Yes.”

The male lead ended up dragging me and shoving me into the carriage. In the end, I was stuffed into the carriage while hugging a bunch of heavy luggage.

“It seems the luggage has somehow increased.”

The male lead said, sitting across from me.

I glanced at my luggage bag.

“It’s all water, Your Highness.”

I took out sunscreen from the luggage and approached him, and he flinched and backed away.

I calmly said,

“You need to apply this. Even if you’re indoors, because of UV exposure, your skin…”

“UV?”

Oops, a mistake. They probably don’t know about UV here.

I covered my mouth with one hand and laughed softly, changing the subject.

“It’s nothing, Your Highness.”

“Give it here. If it must be applied, I’ll do it myself.”

The male lead snatched the sunscreen from my hand.

And then, straight away.

“Ack, Your Highness!”

I lost my composure for a moment and shouted.

That’s… the only one. It’s the most precious thing among my possessions right now.

I was dumbfounded looking at the sunscreen mercilessly squeezed onto the male lead’s hand.

“If you squeeze out that much…”

I looked at the male lead’s hand with a tearful expression.

Then the male lead spoke in a rather flustered voice.

“…You apply it.”

And he stretched out his hand towards me.

I regained my composure and transferred the cream from the male lead’s hand to mine.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

There was no choice.

I had to apply what was left myself.

Or give it to the Knight Commander waiting outside.

I moved close to the male lead and dabbed cream on his face to apply it.

The murmuring noise from outside was muffled by the carriage walls, sounding like a hum.

The atmosphere was somewhat strange.

As I dabbed and applied the cream on the male lead’s face, I became acutely aware of his gaze that had come very close.

It made me unnecessarily conscious.

It felt like I should say something in this atmosphere.

“Your Highness.”

“What.”

I said while spreading the cream on the male lead’s neck.

“About what Your Highness mentioned yesterday.”

“…”

“As Your Highness said that evening, someone came to find me. It wasn’t the old man we saw then, but a girl about my age.”

At my words, the male lead’s gaze slightly turned towards the outside.

I looked back to see if there was anything outside, but there was nothing.

“Your Highness?”

“…Continue.”

The male lead seemed embarrassed and brushed his bangs with his hand, and I continued speaking.

“I’ve heard that the Desart Empire worships different types of gods than the Posnia Empire.”

Unlike Posnia, Desart is a country with absolute imperial power.

Interestingly, there’s no pope, so the imperial power is strong, but they still believe in gods intensely.

The emperor is said to be the messenger chosen by the gods or something.

So, to explain it simply, it means the emperor is essentially the pope.

“And I read in the book Your Highness gave me that there’s an atmosphere of rejecting magicians as beings that go against the gods.”

The male lead’s red eyes narrowed into slits.

“So you’re saying they are magicians.”

“No.”

I moved away from the male lead, slightly opened the carriage window, and pointed outside.

“Can you see?”

“You mean that dog?”

Among the nearly collapsed tents, small dogs were lying down, each occupying a spot.

“Not dogs, but spirit beasts, Your Highness.”

Himes, who came to find me last night, said.

‘We are one of the few tribes who can handle spirit beasts. But we were falsely accused of treason and fell out of favor with the current emperor, most of us were massacred, and what’s left is barely…’

The circumstances seemed to add up roughly.

People wandered in the desert on the Posnia Empire’s side despite being citizens of the Desart Empire.

Surely this place must have frequent monster attacks, yet quite a few people have survived.

There was only one way for these groups to survive without any strong adult males in sight.

‘Spirit beasts.’

They must have some special power to beat monsters and somehow manage to survive in this harsh place, right?

“From what I’ve heard, it seems they are the remnants who barely survived while being massacred for treason within the Desart Empire, Your Highness.”

The male lead leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.

“Damn. This has become troublesome.”

While the male lead was organizing his thoughts, I quickly applied the remaining cream and moved back to my seat.

“What are you thinking of doing, Your Highness?”

At my question, the male lead slightly opened his eyes and looked at me.

“What else? Nothing good comes from accepting traitors.”

The male lead’s expression was deeply furrowed as if he was thinking about something complex.

“Let’s depart.”

As the male lead shouted loudly, the carriage began to roll with a jolt.

I kept my mouth shut and just stared at the floor.

Ever since learning that the nomad group we briefly encountered were traitors from Desart, the male lead’s mood had become very uncomfortable.

Because of this, I couldn’t utter a single word to him.

It’s absolutely not because I was sleepy.

“If you’re going to doze off like that, why don’t you just sleep?”

How many minutes had passed?

The male lead’s low voice pierced sharply into my ears.

“I wasn’t dozing off, Your Highness.”

“Your eyes are half-closed, aren’t they? Are you lying to me?”

The male lead spoke with gravity.

And he even got up and came towards me.

“Hm?”

“It’s not a lie, I wasn’t dozing off, Your Highness.”

I felt wronged.

I couldn’t even sleep properly at night because of you know who, and now he’s giving me a hard time.

And I’m telling you I didn’t sleep, you human! Although it’s true my eyes were half-closed.

“You can sleep. I permit it.”

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

What did he just say?

As I just stared blankly, the male lead slightly frowned and repeated.

“What, you don’t want to sleep?”

I hurriedly shook my head at the male lead’s words.

“But Your Highness, how can I while Your Highness is awake,”

“Someone might think you’re the most loyal subject of the century.”

The male lead came closer with a smirk and covered my eyes with the scarf I was wearing.

“Shut your mouth and sleep.”

“Your Highness,”

“The answer is yes.”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

No, how can a person sleep when the situation is set up like this…

My willpower was weaker than I thought.

Do you really sleep when told to sleep?

Moreover, I was the type who wouldn’t notice even if someone carried me away once I fell asleep.

To sleep so soundly in front of the male lead!

It’s truly shameful.

What woke me up was none other than the male lead’s deep voice hitting my ears several times.

“Rose Estanya, are you not coming to your senses!”

“Ugh… Just 10 more minutes…”

“Wake up, damn it!”

Suddenly, I felt my heart grow cold.

When I opened my eyes wide, what I saw was the male lead holding me and the dented carriage wall.

And through the torn wall, a dizzying view of the desert.

“…”

“Damn. You sure can sleep.”

“Y-Your Highness, right now…”

I roughly grasped the situation with my not-quite-functioning brain.

Right now, we were floating in the air, carriage and all.

To this, the male lead said with his characteristically irritated face, smiling broadly,

“It’s a flying monster. What a valuable experience. Damn it.”