"Whatever Your Highness the Third Prince is thinking right now, that is not it. Please go to sleep."
Arma narrowed his eyes and looked at Roselyn, who had managed to get up and cover his mouth despite his blind spot.
"Why are you... blocking me?"
"Don't be Emperor. You can leave the Empire. Don't be bound by the words you've spoken and regret them; just live freely."
Roselyn spoke calmly.
Arma, still with his mouth covered, looked at Roselyn silently.
The gaze, which had widened slightly and then contracted, remained heavy and subdued rather than gentle.
A displeased gaze fell upon Roselyn, but Roselyn could not feel it because she could not see.
She simply wanted to eliminate the dangers in this world.
Roselyn could not live a life for Arma. She had become too numb for that, and she already knew a different Arma than him.
"You don't need to hold back anything for me, Arma."
Arma grabbed Rose Lin's hand that was covering his mouth and pulled it down.
He looked silently into her unfocused red eyes.
"Sometimes it feels like Roselyn isn't looking at me. No, it feels like you
is looking at me but isn't seeing me."
"..."
Roselyn remained silent. What she saw was the Arma she had loved.
'Is that person regretting it in that world?'
If Roselyn doesn't go back, if she doesn't go back to the past and change the future...
Will they continue to live like that in the future?
Actually, she doesn't feel guilty.
'It's his own fault.'
It means he was toying with people from the very beginning.
However, she hopes he is happy nonetheless.
"You aren't denying it, Roselyn."
Roselyn actually doesn't like sacrifice very much.
The pain was terrible, and death was not what she wanted either.
However, if she could put a price on her life, she wanted to use it for others at least once.
And that is for herself, not for this man.
"Is it because I'm weak?"
He asked subtly.
Roselyn shook her head at him.
The person Roselyn knew and liked was weak and timid, but nevertheless, he was someone who never backed down.
Even if it was a fabricated, false mask...
What Roselyn loved was that mask. So now that it was broken, what she loved no longer existed.
"Is it because I'm a pathetic Prince who gets ignored by others?"
Roselyn shook her head again at Arma's question.
"...Then, should I become someone stronger than anyone else? If I trample on others, stand atop them, and even obtain the title of Crown Prince, will you then view me with restraint?"
At this point, Roselyn furrowed her brow. It was because she felt that they were not communicating at all.
"Whatever this feeling is, I don't want to lose Roselyn. But why are you driving me crazy, Roselyn?"
"Um... Your Highness, if you're just going to say whatever you want, why are you talking to me? You should go to your room and talk to your doll."
Arma clamped his mouth shut at Roselyn's dry words filled with dissatisfaction.
Roselyn also spoke after a brief silence.
"Arma."
"Yes, Roselyn."
"Some time ago, you asked me why I was breaking off the engagement."
"... Yes."
"The ideal type I mentioned last time was actually a lie."
Arma hesitated for a moment about whether or not to confess that he already knew.
In the meantime, Roselyn's lips parted.
"You're actually frail and timid, but I liked you because you were kind to me."
She put the words she couldn't say long ago on the tip of her tongue.
Perhaps because it was something she had regretted time and time again, once she actually opened her mouth, jer tongue moved effortlessly.
At Roselyn's words, Arma widened his eyes and paused.
"But actually, Arma isn't that kind of person, is you?"
If you don't clearly tell people that something isn't allowed, they end up expecting it. Just as she did in her childhood.
Just as she, having just left home to become a nun, believed in the unconditional kindness of people.
"I don't know what your real personality is like, but I can tell Arma isn't a weak person. You're wearing a mask, aren't you?"
"Roselyn, that's...!"
“I’m not arguing.”
She tried her best not to put any emotion into it.
It was because she did not want to unnecessarily make the other person uncomfortable by adding any emotion, and she intended to convey only the facts as much as possible.
"It is simply that I loved the mask, and I merely came to vaguely know the person behind it."
Arma clenched his fist at Roselyn's words.
"Don't you think it is harsh to expect us to love the actors behind the stage when we only loved the character on stage?"
Roselyn explained softly, hoping that Arma would understand the story.
"The dream Arma had is just a dream. Naturally, it cannot become the future."
"..."
"So there is no need to be scared prematurely. It won't become a reality."
Roselyn will make it so.
"Actually, six months was the time I needed to forget Arma's mask."
Arma looked at Roselyn with a shocked expression at her candid words. She was so honest that he was left speechless.
"Why..."
Roselyn turned her head with a faint smile.
"...I liked you a lot."
Arma's expression stiffened slightly at the single word that came out after a long silence.
And Roselyn did not open her mouth again.
***
"Brilliant and noble birth..."
"Enough, sit down. I'm indeed the Sun, but I've heard that more than twenty times today alone, so I'm sick of hearing it. I have no motivation at all. Isn't there a more original greeting? It's such a hassle, such a hassle."
The Emperor sat on the sofa and waved his hands dismissively as if annoyed and displeased.
'A novel greeting?'
Roselyn frowned and then opened her mouth.
"Then... I greet the extinguished sun."
"...Looks like you've lost your nerve.
"I really don't understand why nobles get so dissatisfied whenever you do whatever they ask..."
Roselyn muttered softly.
It’s the same with Ian Bellion, the Emperor, and her father; if you tell them to do something, they just get angry for no reason.
Roselyn sat faithfully opposite the Emperor as he had instructed, even while muttering that he was difficult to please.
"I heard you called."
"It is true that I called a week ago."
"..."
Roselyn, watching the thuggish Emperor who was picking on everything, spoke with an indifferent expression.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
"No, a half-hearted apology is fine. Still, it brought about pretty good results, so I liked it."
The Emperor answered honestly to Roselyn's calm voice.
“Yes. I know.”
Roselyn spoke honestly.
The Emperor looked at Roselyn with a look that seemed to say, "What kind of bastard is this?" and nodded a beat late.
He didn't know how she managed to sweet-talk that ignorant, shameless, and impossible-to-talk-to Kalutain, but it certainly helped.
"So, has Your Majesty's head been troubled a little less now?"
So the Emperor grinned as he looked at Roselyn.
“Very much.”
The Emperor, smiling with an innocent face like a naive boy, rubbed his chin.
"That is a relief."
Honestly, it was a great achievement. After all, in Roselyn's world, it was an achievement that the Emperor could not attain until his death.
"There is only one thing left now. Once I feel a little better, I plan to handle the missing person case. Once I take care of this, I ask that you break off the engagement as promised."
"Hmm..."
The Emperor rubbed his chin.
"What do you plan to do after the engagement is broken off?"
"I am thinking of going on a trip."
Even Roselyn could not tell the Emperor that she intended to seek asylum in another country, so she simply changed the subject.
"About that..."
The Emperor looked at Roselyn and smiled with a somewhat awkward expression.
As Roselyn paused in anxiety, he continued to speak.
“It got a little difficult.”
He whispered while leisurely rubbing his chin.
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