I Am Troubled That My Fiance Is A Villain Chapter 23 Part2

“Bernhardt!”

“Your Highness, please calm down.”

“As if I could calm down! You suddenly took out Lila. On top of that, you told me to come to the lounge at such a busy time because you had something to talk to me about? What the h.e.l.l are you thinking?! What did you do to her!?”

His Highness entered the lounge in great strides while rattling on and on, and t.i.tus, who we met in the clubroom the other day, was following behind and trying to pacify him with great embarra.s.sment. As expected, Alois also tried to enter the narrow lounge, but he was instructed to wait out in the corridor, unable to accompany them like a sucker fish.

And then, for some reason, Lucas came in last, accompanying His Highness and the rest.

He stood in the corner of the room, and as always, was smiling as if he found something interesting. Yeah, that's really creepy.

Those who were already inside the lounge were Bern, me, Ionius, Lila and Johann, so it was already considerably cramped.

While waiting for His Highness and the rest to come, I asked multiple times if I should wait in another room since I wasn't confident that I'd be useful, but since Bern said he wanted me here, I sat my useless self on a chair instead.

I mean, it's because he told me he wanted me by his side as he grasped my hand, you know?

The world would probably end before I could tell him no. Well, in the very least, I'm not one to say things like that.

As His Highness said, right now was a busy time, and he came in a hurry with beads of sweat on his face. Well, it's probably because summer started and the temperature rose.

One other thing was today was the day when the merchants came to discuss the setups of their stalls for Thanksgiving.

His Highness was busier this day moreso than anybody else — in other words, we cannot make a fuss today by being seen all together.

“Nothing. As you can see, Lila Carneille is here.”

Immediately upon seeing Lila, His Highness and Alois suddenly approached her and Johann, with Ionius sitting in between them, and were surprised.

“Johann, didn't you go back home?”

Johann glanced at His Highness, but the air quickly turned awkward and fell into silence.

Alois looked at Johann with a face as if he ate an extremely bitter bug.

As expected, the two of them didn't know, but a few days ago, Johann came back to school and was secured by the Hidden Student Council. He wanted to partic.i.p.ate today, because he wanted to settle something with them, so he came with us.

He said it's because he had something to settle with himself as well.

“Lila, are you okay? You look a little worn out.”

“Y-yes. I'm fine…”

He obviously looked hurt from how formal Lila was with him.

The atmosphere felt uncomfortable, what with these pair of lovers being awkward for some reason.

“I knew it, you did something, didn't you? Bernhardt, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d…”

“First off, I'd like to apologize for bringing Lila and calling you out here.”

Finally, Bern got up, and without breaking strides, apologized to the angry Prince.

He did that so elegantly that it wasn't obvious that he was making fun of His Highness instead. He's the kind of guy that's superficially polite but actually rude in intent.

“What did you say?”

Deep down, it seemed that His Highness believed that Bern did something to Lila and glared at him with hate in his green eyes.

Or perhaps I should say that his prejudice has gotten worse, as always. Or maybe Alois whispered strange things to him again.

Completely ignoring His Highness' words, Bern announced to everyone present today's purpose with a clear voice.

“I called all of you here today for one reason — His Highness' fiancée. In order to settle this stupid dispute.”

His Highness restrained himself from raising his voice when the words ‘stupid' came out, and Alois came forward with a grin.

But it looked as if he didn't have much composure with that grin of his. Moreover, he's been repeatedly glancing at Johann and Lila from the side since earlier, his anxiety and impatience leaking through.

“Just because your younger sister wasn't picked by His Highness, aren't you the extremely stupid one for being this rude to him?”

After that, he put on an unaffected air with all his might and pompously pretended to notice me.

You didn't have to be so forced. Since I'm keeping quiet over here, could you not take notice of me? d.a.m.n you.

“Oh my, I haven't seen you much, but it seems that you're doing okay, Rietberg-san.”

“…h.e.l.lo.”

Th-This b.a.s.t.a.r.d. It's your fault I've been scared, and in addition to that, I ended up having to take several days off from school, is what I wanted to say but I firmly endured it.

As if I won't forgive you with this light jab of yours. After all, I'm aiming to be a big-hearted woman.

“How dare you say such a shameless thing.”

Bern calmly talked back at Alois' light provocation. His purposeful restraint is considerably scarier than his apathy.

“What are you saying? My concern is heartfelt. Or are you falsely accusing me of having to do with the attack on Rietberg-san the other day? Did my former fiancée perhaps say something?”

His way of speaking seems as if Clarissa accused him of a crime as revenge for being thrown away. He had a rather obstinate att.i.tude, seeing as we had no evidence.

I felt like crying again, knowing that Clarissa was so pitiful to get engaged to this kind of person. But I didn't.

“Oh yeah. In addition to that, Alois, you'll be paying back for everything that you've done from here on out.”

“Huh?”

“You guys manipulated Lila Carneille and others and deceived His Highness.”

“Deceived me…?”

His Highness, named as the victim, scrunched his eyebrows and looked at Alois.

To relieve His Highness, Alois calmly addressed everybody.

“Such an unthinkable accusation. Do you think so low of me, enough to tell such a lie, Bernhardt?!”

“It's true though, right, Alois? You manipulated Lila to get close to His Highness. You were going to make her queen, all for the sake of becoming the Donitz' family head.”

“Enough is enough. Lila is a cute younger sister to me. She loves His Highness, so I just helped her out with that. Isn't that right, Lila?”

When Alois turned towards that cute younger sister of his, he looked with an unbelievably cold gaze, and Lila gave a small yelp.

“I–”

“Lila?”

“Ah…”

“You love His Highness and wanted to become his fiancée. That's because you're Lila, right?”

Somehow, he said that with such a weird expression. As if he was instructing her to keep to her role.

Lila's hands trembled and pleadingly looked at Alois.

“Alois onii-sama, I… don't want to disappear, I don't want to disappear…”

“Lila!”

Alois raised his voice, scolding Lila as if he was annoyed at her for not following his instructions.

With just that, the whole room's suspicions of Alois grew worse and descended into silence.

“Anyhow, why don't you guys take a seat?”

Bern was the only man that would ignore that kind of atmosphere, and it was only him who suggested to His Highness and the rest to sit down with a nonchalant expression.

Alois, who had received a parry with Bern's expressionless face, was bewildered for a moment but quickly waited for His Highness to sit with disappointment and slowly sat down in displeasure.

Confirming that both of them had calmed down, Bern started the conversation without a moment's delay.

“Does Your Highness and his company still believe that it was Lizzy who pushed down Lila from the stairs?”

“Why? Is there a need to talk about that?”

“Do you?”

Intimidated by Bern expressionlessly repeating his question, His Highness gave up asking why and reluctantly answered.

“…I don't know. But I can't say that you're wrong. Since Lila also said that she doesn't know who the perpetrator is.”

As always, he's honest, for better or for worse… Isn't it a little rude to still suspect them when they're right in front of you? Well, he's been a person of high status ever since he was born, so he's probably never thought of that.

The person in question told Lila to say something, but before that happened, there was somebody else who managed to quickly get a word in.

“The one…!”

Having been looking down quietly up til now, Johann's voice filled with some emotion as everyone's gazes fell on him.

“The one who pushed Lila down the stairs… was me.”

Someone gasped, having been taken aback.

At the very least, it's someone aside from me, Bern, and Ionius. The reason being that we already knew about this.

“I'm sorry, Lila.”

In the still lounge, Johann's faint apology seemingly dispersed and vanished.

What Johann said goes back to the night he was brought back to school while everyone was burdened with preparations for Thanksgiving.

I had successfully managed to score a face-to-face talk with Johann with Bern and the rest accompanying him, and I only had one thing to say to him.

And that was, ‘You did it because you love Lila, right?'

These were the exact words His Highness told Johann who had recklessly committed a crime in his bad ending.

If I were to describe the game Johann in a few words, you'd think he was like a puppy, but he was actually a yandere. He misunderstood Lila's words, and in the end, ran rampant enough to attempt murder. In the bad end, he was accused of the crime by His Highness, confessed, and in the end, atoned for the crime.

That itself had so much impact on me that it made me remember it, but because he transforms into a full-blown yandere only in the bad end, I didn't think he was dangerous.

In addition to his transformation into a yandere, there were also the scary rumors about Lila that Helena and Clarissa mentioned.

I could somehow see it when I remembered how people started complaining about Lila when Johann was gone.

Bern and the rest most likely noticed it as well.

Johann forcefully removed those who opposed Lila.

And then, when His Highness told him, ‘You did it because you love Lila, right?' to have him plead guilty to the crime, Johann easily turned around and started talking about his wrongdoings.

I understood, even if the things he did were horrible.

I knew that he would open up if I told him of my knowledge of the game. By no means did I draw that conclusion when I came face to face with the person called Johann in front of me though.

But he might have listened to me because my words completely summarized the ruined Johann's feelings.

Putting aside the fact that I denied that this world is a game, I did cheat using my game knowledge however.

On top of that, things went well, which left me a bad taste in my mouth. Anyhow, if someone had quickly noticed me cheating and stopped me… for some reason, it fills me with an unbearable feeling.

But I wonder why Johann rampaged enough to push the Lila he loved?

Johann calmly started telling the reason why.

“I've always loved Lila. And although Lila's not mine, I was expecting that to happen someday. Alois had a fiancée, and Lila understands my troubles the most and stays with me. Moreover, she'd always ask me, ‘Johann, you love me, right?' and confirm it…

So for her sake, I silenced all of those people who talked badly and hurt Lila. Even though I was protecting Lila…!”

The reason why there was barely anybody who talked bad or hara.s.sed Lila was because Johann was taking care of them behind the scenes.

That's why after he left, the whole school was openly filled with so much antagonism against her.

Because Johann, who covered it up by silencing these people, wasn't here.

“Despite that, Lila chose His Highness. There's no way I can compete with him. But I hate the idea of helping him out even more. That's why at the very least, I prayed for his ruin and for him to give up on Lila. If he didn't, even I was scared at what I would do.

And then that day, I told her on the staircase landing that I didn't want to see her ever again. You know what she did? She smiled, as if she was thinking deep down, ‘Johann has to love me, so he won't leave my side.' At that moment, I realized that I didn't fully know this Lila and got a bad feeling about her, so… I pushed her.”

Johann looked at his own hands as if to chide himself, and Lila, who had been quiet up til then, suddenly flared up.

“That's because you love Lila, right!? You had to, that's what Viola said!”

“…Lila. I really did love you. I did. But I don't get why you think that… Why? Why did things turn out this way?”

Sitting in between Johann, who was apologizing as he cried, and Lila, Ionius looked uncomfortable and made his large stature look smaller.

“Ionius, have Johann step out.”

In the end, Lila and Johann weren't able to talk things out, with Johann being forced to retire to his room earlier.

Though having said that, he did threaten a large amount of students and a.s.saulted Lila, so those will have to be investigated, and because of that, patrol will most likely be tightened.

Just before he left to go to his room, Johann looked at Lila with traces of regret in his eyes, but she didn't look back at him. For some reason, that scene looked really cruel and sad.

“Lila, why did you say that to Johann?”

“That's because I'm Lila, everyone has to love me… So when Johann told me he didn't want to see me anymore, I thought that I made a mistake. If I did, I'm scared I might disappear.”

“Why?”

Despite repeatedly opening and closing her mouth multiple times like a goldfish, the hesitant Lila squeezed out in a fragile voice,

“Because Lila has to be with Prince Edwin.”

“What are you saying, Lila?!”

His Highness stopped Alois who interrupted her and continued exchange looks with Bern. For once, I wanted to know about the things I wanted to.

“Who told you that?”

At Bern's already robotic way of questioning, Lila had already forgotten to keep up appearances and answered.

“Viola and… Alois onii-sama. They guaranteed me that if I successfully play my role and become the queen, that they'll promote him…”

“So it's not because you love me…?”

Unable to see His Highness looking like a lost child, Lila's voice quivered.

“That's…”

“Bernhardt, what did you tell Lila!? Your Highness, I'm sure that Lila was forced to say these.”

“But–”

“Onii-sama…! Alois onii-sama, you told me you'd help me not disappear, right? That day, Bernhardt-senpai told me that you deceived me with hallucinations about me disappearing and lied about saving me. He's wrong, right? Right?”

Alois could only make a grunting noise as if the words were stuck in his throat, not giving any answers.

It may be because if he confirmed Lila's words, that would mean that he admits to manipulating Lila and deceiving His Highness, but if he were to reject them, her brainwas.h.i.+ng may come undone. It was a situation where if he affirmed one, then he negated the other.

I wondered if this would be the end of Alois if Bern were to press for more answers.

“…Hehehe, hahaha! …I get it, Bernhardt. You planned on looking down on His Highness by defeating me, huh.”

What. Why? Did he finally snap?

It was only Alois who made noise in the lounge, laughing as if he found something amusing.

You're rapidly becoming a deplorable man, Alois.

If it was the me from my previous life, I also have had my heart beat fast just a tiny bit at some of Alois' scenes. But now, there was no traces of his s.e.x appeal, just an extremely deplorable man was left.

“Your Highness, this guy's actually your cousin. And it's for the sake of getting the crown that he's dragging you down by improperly ruining me.”

“Cousin, you say…?”

“This guy's the child of the unrecognized Third Princess who was born from one of the late King's maids.”

Wait, why do you know that? Was it Viola? It's Viola, huh? Dammit… I haven't done Bern's route so I don't know much about it!

“I've never heard of this before!”

“That's certainly true. I definitely didn't believe it at first, but it's the truth. Isn't that right, Rottger-sensei?”

“Yeah, well, I wonder.”

H-hey! Why are you admitting it so easily–!?

I don't quite understand but, I don't think you should admit it with just a light mood.

“Bernhardt, are you really…”

Ah, His Highness as well, he looks as if he was forced to swallow something…

Though speaking of Bern, he only sighed, as if he found this troublesome, and with furrowed brows, said,

“It's true that my mother was the unofficial Third Princess.”

“Wh–”

“However, what you said about wanting the crown is wrong and also too much. Even if I were to be recognized as royalty, what's the point of aiming for the crown? Even if you said such things, I'd like to refuse it.”

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, are you making a mockery of my father, the King?!”

“How did you even come to that conclusion? Haa… Your Highness, we've gone off topic, we should be talking about Lila.”

“That kind of thing doesn't matter. This is treason against the royal family.”

“That… kind of thing?”

I felt like I heard Lila murmur something in shock at Alois' words, but because their argument was so loud, no one was able to respond to it.

Bern responded calmly as His Highness slowly took in this new fact that has somehow agitated Alois, and the discussion turned into chaos with Alois trying to turn Bern into a villain.

Somehow, Alois wanted to get things back under his control by presenting himself as someone trying to be friends with Bern, but Bern turned out to be an outrageously insincere person that was friendly for the sake of stealing the crown, and that Katerina and I were both jealous and tempted by the position of Queen… Those were all of the false accusations of his excessively rude display.

With the way His Highness was, he would only see what he wanted to see, so it would be difficult for him to ignore the loyal Alois.

And although Bern also looked uncomfortable, he never said anything back…

I'd feel guilty though if I were to put a word in and become a hindrance. But even if I do feel guilty, my anger was already at its max.

Anyways, I'll wait for Alois to settle down, is what I thought as I firmly resisted my anger while staying silent. Until Alois said this.

“Your birth is a mistake itself.”

That definitely made something snap within me. And by snap, I mean really snap.

I don't care if I'm called a usurper or a traitor. I'll wring my neck later for such lies.

But to go so far as to deny Bern's life, just what does he plan on doing that for?

In the next instant, before I realized it, I had hit the table as hard as I could and imposingly stood where I was.

“Take back your words!”

“Wha…!”

Alois tried to verbally attack me who had impolitely shouted, but before he could get a word in, I rapidly spoke.

“I've let you say whatever you want, but isn't everything a result of His Highness's uselessness?! Going on and on about something that has absolutely no relations.h.i.+p with the topic… When did we even start talking about the inheritance for the throne?

And speaking of you, Your Highness! I was just going to quietly sit and watch, but have you ever properly faced Katerinsama? She's always loved you, but you're an extremely insincere person that chose Lila without even facing Katerinsama's feelings. What gives a person like you the right to call Bern insincere?!”

“I…!”

“But most of all!”

Don't think that my anger will settle with just this!

“To instigate and be jealous of the position of Queen — people are people, but the desire to be Queen is something you're completely wrong about! Rather, I'd like to decline it. Aren't you the only ones that think being surrounded by beautiful gems and dresses or being waited upon by everyone as the Queen is happiness for a woman? Don't you dare think that Katerinsama, Lila, and I are the same as other women!

That's not what happiness is for us… I mean, I wouldn't pa.s.s up on indulging myself. But in the very least, for me, as long as I can be beside my special someone, I don't really need that kind of happiness. Isn't that true for you gentlemen as well? Is the royal family that enticing?

And Alois! I dare you to say that Bern's birth was a mistake again. I'll beat up that beautiful face of yours and curse you with baldness! Got it?!!”

Even if I can't, I'm going to try! At worst, I'll have to pluck every single strand of that red hair of yours that you boast about!

I wondered if Alois and His Highness were angry. My face had become so red that I looked like a lobster.

I looked at their faces as I ran out of breath, and regardless of what was appropriate to say, the words I wanted to say burst out one by one.

Anyways, it couldn't be helped that I would regret them as I gritted my teeth when my tightly grasped hands were covered by something warm.

“You're right, Lizzy.”

What am I right about? Is it about cursing him to be bald? It's a really evil curse, even if I do say so myself.

When Bern covered my hands with his, unconsciously, the excess strength in my stiff body gradually began to disappear. In the end, I dejectedly sat down.

“Your Highness, I'm not looking down on you whatsoever. This may be rude of me to say, but what Lizzy said is true — not everyone thinks the throne is tempting. I just wanted you to open your eyes yourself… One way or another, it's cause we were friends.”

His Highness, who had lost his temper, was suddenly taken aback at Bern calling him a friend, and it seemed that he had calmed down.

With Bern's usual unreadable, downcast eyes, in addition to its sorrow — they were fully effective.

“For you to open your eyes, I first have to break the curse on her. Darius! Come in!”

I wasn't informed of everything that was to happen today, so with some nervousness, I saw Darius come in with an unknown man.

With his dull, blonde hair and gla.s.ses, he gave off a serene aura.

In other words, he was an extremely quiet man that could only give off a gentle impression.

Despite all of that, he slowly gave his greetings without any hesitation. Betraying his appearance, he was unexpectedly a bold person.

At one point, as he slowly bowed, he gave us a troubled smile.

Lila unsteadily got up, with Ionius accompanying her. As I wondered what his relations.h.i.+p with Lila was, she answered it with her small lips and a pale face.

“O-onii-sama…”

Lots of revelations, and also lots of translating for me. Alois, you're a f.u.c.king a.s.shole. Edwin, you're dumb. Lizia, you go girl, let them have it!

EN: And I absolutely agree.

Name's Erika. For some dumb reason, I decided to major in Physics. I'm stuck in this major now. I used to translate manga and light novels a few years back, left, then came back cause I found some good novels to read. I'm the only TLer on my site, so rip. I'm apparently also good at drawing, and I also like kpop (BTS, I mean, I have Hobi as my pic). I don't bite, so feel free to chat me up on here or on NU @adorkablehiko. If you see my translations on other sites, please do consider reading it on my Wordpress @ c.r.a.ppya.s.stranslations.