Chapter 19: Chapter 12 ─ Feelings

After leaving supplementary classes at the academy, Lucy sat on a park bench.

She was watching the children play.

Some girls were hanging out laughing.

And a couple kissing a few feet away from her.

She watched them intently, that was because she was jealous.

Lucy was recognized by the sapling, so she is undoubtedly Rudel's woman.

She was happy that the sapling qualified her as his woman.

But before that she heard that he had fiancées and there were two of them.

(If it had been only one fiancée... I don't think I'd be like this.)

Lucy always thought it was disgusting for a woman to be with a man who had several women.

She thought it was demeaning, but now she understands the reason why, maybe those women are with one man.

(If it wasn't for Rudel, I would probably be locked in a room with no light.)

(I would spend my days in that darkness without the possibility of escape.)

(But Rudel came and saved me, gave me protection, security and proved that he would protect me.)

(Under that concept of a real fairy-tale knight, what girl wouldn't fall in love with such a person?)

(That's right... that had to happen in his home. He met two girls, helped them and then they got engaged.)

(I can't say if they had concerns about each other, but if he has two girlfriends, they must get along splendidly.)

Lucy wants to be Rudel's wife.

But knowing that Rudel is a potential womanizer, her mouth stops asking him to hold her and never let go.

"Hey, Lucy, what are you doing here?"

Lucy lifted her face and saw an acquaintance.

"Erselica-chan, what are you doing around here?"

"I went to the market with Allen, but that brat got entertained by some kids. He really is still a kid."

"Hahaha, no doubt your life is fun."

"No. It's not, please take it back."

Erselica van Reinfield was a young woman of very short stature, almost like that of a child, her body was just like that of one, but her manner of speech and expression was that of a grown woman.

She was a reincarnate and also Rudel's cousin in her previous life.

When Lucy saw her, she remembered that she was very close to Rudel.

"Erselica-chan, do you have a free moment? I want to ask you something."

"Allen keeps stalling, of course I have time."

Erselica sat down next to Lucy and deposited her shopping bags to one side.

Without waiting long, Lucy said.

"You. Did you know about Rudel's fiancées?"

Erselica felt a stab in her throat.

"You found out about them then."

"He just recently told me."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. He told me, it was very honest of him. I'd say very, as I wouldn't have minded being in a secret relationship with him."

Erselica knew that Lucy was the main heroine of this sequel, her love affair with the capture targets was necessary to avoid the bad ending.

The problem was that the conquests were either failed or she wasn't interested in them.

"Hey, do you know their fiancées?"

"I know them."

"Can you tell me what they're like?"

Erselica didn't have a good image of them, after all, not only did she steal Alisa's fiancé, she also stole Airi's capture targets and her title of saint.

To make matters worse, she humiliated them in public and indirectly tried to kill Rudel.

If she said that, the kindness she showed her would vanish.

"W-Well, starting with the legal wife's concubine, or second bride. She's a nice girl who has a head full of flowers."

"She may look like an idiot herself, but she's got a lot of inner strength."

He proceeded to tell her an image of Airi that was from the game.

"Putting aside her scary eyes she makes, she's a nice girl."

"Regarding the legal wife, she is the daughter of a duke, her aptitude is very strong like her eyes. I really don't understand how she fell in love with onii─"

"Rudel-kun. And it happened..."

After telling her about Alisa, Lucy became more convinced.

"Thanks, I didn't imagine that his power of conquering women was that high. Are you sure you're not in love with him either?"

"Hah? What the hell are you talking about, I'd die first before I'd have anything to do with that guy! I'd only go after him to get money out of him since he's such a jerk!"

"For some reason, you sounded like a younger sister to me by calling him that."

"I-it's like this."

Erselica thought she was arousing suspicion, so she changed the subject.

But Lucy stood up and gathered her things.

"Thanks for the talk, it was very helpful, bye."

"Bye..."

Lucy walked off, leaving Erselica waiting for Allen.

As she walked to catch the tram to Rudel's house, she thought.

(That talk only made me worse. What's worse is that those girls are special to him. How can I compete with them?)

A girl's heart is very complicated, was what Rudel would surely say in this situation.

◇◇◇

The next morning, Lucy came downstairs to prepare breakfast.

"Master, the toast is burning."

"Don't say it and do something!"

"You wanted to do it yourself and told me to plead."

Entering the kitchen, Lucy saw Rudel preparing breakfast, it was very complicated it seemed.

Lucy had worked in a restaurant and knows how important food is, she went to help Rudel.

"Good morning."

"G-Good morning."

She acted normal, but deep down she didn't want to see his face due to the awkwardness of knowing he had fiancées.

When they finished preparing breakfast, they sat down to eat.

An even more awkward silence ensued as no one spoke.

When they finished breakfast, Lucy got up first and went to wash her dishes, then to get dressed and said goodbye to Rudel.

As he was left alone, she commented to Ixion.

"Trying to talk to her about this is too complicated."

"I think if you were firm with her and didn't give her a chance to escape, you could deal with her discomfort and not look like idiots looking in another direction."

"Shut up."

◇◇◇

The day flew by, Lucy thought as she closed her books and put them away.

Again she was pensive today.

Instead of going to the park again she sat on one of the benches in the academy garden, the sun was slowly setting.

She was watching the sunset.

"How beautiful it is."

"Lucy, at last I find you..."

She recognized that voice, turning around she found the cause of her traumas.

A boy with red hair and yellow eyes, a very attractive young man, or so he was before, because now his face is badly bruised.

Jude Gaia Banfield made his presence known after being able to go outside again.

Jude felt a dreadful sense of fear from the beating Rudel gave him, so much so that he would not eat or leave his room, but when he heard that the great nobles had given Lucy in her entirety to Rudel.

His desire to monopolise her was greater than the fear he felt.

When he left home he came straight to the academy day after day looking for Lucy, but she always left before he arrived.

After the incident, his father ordered all the servants to leave him alone and no one was to obey him, that was his punishment.

Jude had to take a boat paid for with his own money and walk straight to the academy.

He could not pay adventurers or knights to be his escorts as the Banfield Household officials told them they would provoke Cliff's departure if they did so.

Jude was still angry, so he looked at Lucy with those bloodshot eyes.

But his anger was at Rudel and not at her.

He calmed down after seeing her.

"Jude... what are you doing here?"

"I came looking for you Lucy. I want you to come home with me."

"That guy... the nobleman of the kingdom is not right for you. I am since I'm the heir of a great noble."

"That guy is a peasant, someone who achieved the status of becoming an upstart count for who knows what reasons."

"I have wealth, I have a promising future. That's why I've come to ask you to leave him and come back to me."

"I promise I will keep my distance from you, you will live like the princess you are and worry about nothing in life."

Lucy blurted out the answer Jude didn't expect.

"Jude. Are you an idiot?"

"You hurt me."

Lucy stood up and faced Jude.

"You didn't just threaten me, you physically and psychologically abused me. You treated me like your property, you put a bondage collar on me!"

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"What were you thinking? If you said you liked me and wanted to be with me. Putting a collar on me and treating me as your property along with your violent state was not the way to win me over!"

Now that he was calm, Jude understood that what he did was wrong.

But his response showed no change.

"I did it all because I loved you. Why don't you understand? I love you very much!"

Jude grabbed Lucy's wrist, unintentionally using a lot of force.

"Jude, you're hurting me."

"You wanted to be with me too. You said you liked me back then. Why can't you say it again?"

"Is it because of that nobleman in the kingdom? Have you slept with him already and you're clinging to that feeling running through your hips?"

Jude was returning to his wild and violent state, the students were gone, no one was around anymore.

Even if Lucy wanted to fight back, Jude was still physically stronger than her.

"We'll go home now. I'll make you forget about that noble stranger by force."

Jude began to tug on Lucy's arm, she tried to resist, but she couldn't resist his grip on her hand.

(No. Even facing him I can't get rid of him.)

At that moment, she saw a face in her memories.

(Rudel...)

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Jude."

A voice came from behind Lucy, they both turned to look and Rudel was there.

He walked up to Lucy and roughly removed Jude's hand.

He was shaking, his body reacting to the beating Rudel gave him weeks ago.

Rudel stood in front of Lucy to protect her, her cheeks turning red.

"Rudel, what are you doing here?"

"Just like yesterday you took so long to come, that's why I thought I'd come to walk you home, as I didn't see anyone around I walked around hoping to see if you were still here."

"And I inadvertently met this guy again."

Rudel's flaming glare at Jude was clearer than clear water.

Jude didn't want to fight him again, he didn't have the support of his house this time.

That's why he tried to use negotiation.

"Stay out of this, Count. This is between Lucy and me."

"We love each other, and we want to be together."

Lucy got angry and left her security behind Rudel to confront him.

"I don't love you and I never loved you! I may have felt an attraction to you in the past, but not now."

"I..."

Lucy looked at Rudel and accepted her feelings.

"I love Rudel and this is proof that he loves me too and I am his wife!"

Lucy without due thought showed the priestess emblem and the guardian to Jude.

He could not believe it.

That's why Lucy reached over and slapped him.

"Get it straight and leave me alone you stalker."

"I don't love you and I never did. I love this man and I will be happy with him."

Lucy finally told Jude her words she wanted to say so badly.

"Love Rudel."

That simple sentence made her heart beat like a locomotive.

She took his hand and they left the place, leaving Jude alone.

◇◇◇

Lucy and Rudel were on the trolley car.

She was with her head down, in a low voice she asked him.

"I have something to tell you, about the other time I'll tell you now. But when we get home."

"Huh? Is that OK?"

Rudel didn't understand what Lucy was talking about, but her cheeks were red.

◇◇◇

After a couple of hours, Jude returned home, and there in the armchair inside he saw his father sitting, smoking and with a cigarette in his hand.

"You don't learn, do you?"

Jude was angry with him.

"Don't bother father. In the first place, if you had let me take all the knights of the family, we would have got the sapling and thus made me the guardian."

"Don't be stupid, we couldn't get the sapling and you think, could you?"

"The nobleman of the kingdom did."

Cliff felt a stab at hearing how Rudel accomplished in one time what they hadn't done in years.

"Tch, don't bother that girl anymore and mind your own business."

Jude was about to accept his father's words, but remembered something.

"Father, if I told you that girl managed to become the priestess, would you believe me?"

"Only if it were real."

Jude smiled sinisterly.

"Lucy recently showed me the back of her right hand that was bandaged."

"She showed me the priestess emblem... I think it was, I never really saw it."

"Idiot brat."

His father became even more disgusted with him.

"If you're not sure it's possible it's even a burn. Your obsession with that girl has led you to be such an idiot."

"If you fail on this break to prove that she really is the priestess, then you will forget about her and go back to being the heir to Banfield Household. Did you hear that?!"

Jude clicked his tongue.

"All right, I'll find out everything before I jump to conclusions."

"Good. Now piss off and say hello to your mother and go and have a shower, you stink."

The night went on as normal.

◇◇◇

Arriving home, Lucy went upstairs, told Rudel to sit down and wait.

He went to get something to eat while he waited for her, who didn't know what was going on upstairs.

After waiting a while, she came downstairs, her twintails were untied, her smell was different.

Ixion was next to the Rudel, she looked at him and asked him for a favor.

"Please leave us alone."

Somehow, knowing what she meant, Ixion said to Rudel.

"I'll see you in the morning, I'm going to the port to make some arrangements."

"Huh? Why?"

Rudel didn't understand why Ixion left.

Lucy gently gripped the ends of her hair as she looked at Rudel.

She walked over to Rudel, he looked at her, smelled Lucy.

"You smell nice, did you even take a shower?"

"It was quick since I got a little sweaty. You see, I wanted to tell you this."

Lucy brought her hand to Rudel's and then placed it on her chest.

"Can you feel it? My heart beating fast when I look at you, when I think about you, when I dream about you."

"I can't stop thinking about you. I love you too much even if we've only known each other for weeks."

"Rudel, what do you think of me?"

Rudel spoke from the bottom of his heart to tell her the truth.

"In the time I've known you, I've found you to be a wonderful girl with a great personality."

"You're the kind of girl I would have liked to meet when I was in my first semester last year."

"I love my fiancées. But you Lucy, you make my heart feel the same way I feel about them."

Lucy smiled, she understood what he meant.

"I've been thinking about this. There is a tradition here in these cases, it's called a local wife."

"The local wife might be considered a mistress in other countries, but actually as the name says, it means that as long as I am here, I will be your wife. Although I think I was exiled too, so there's not much use for that information hahaha."

Rudel walked over to her and hugged her.

"I understand. I'm sorry for making you think about those things."

"Lucy, I love you. I'll take you home with me, we'll face my fiancées together to make them accept you, I promise I'll make you happy just like them."

Lucy hugged Rudel too, the happiness on her face was reflected by how blushing she was, her tears running down her rosy cheeks made her show even more joy at having heard that.

"Yes. I want to go home with you too."

Suddenly, she pushed Rudel away, looking nervous.

"W-Well, since we already agreed that I'm your woman... there's something important to do to prove it."

Rudel, despite being dense and slow with women, understood what she meant when he noticed the unbuttoned front buttons of her shirt.

He entwined his fingers with her.

"Shall we go to the bedroom?"

"...Yes."

Lucy said quietly as she nodded.

The two of them went up to his room, Lucy looked back, as if looking at someone.

After entering, she locked the door behind her.

The starry sky was so beautiful, but even more beautiful was the acceptance of a girl's love.

On that beautiful night, Lucy officially became Rudel's wife and he was officially a womanizer.

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