TMHLBQ_ARCHIVE_CHAPTER 59: The Coldhearted Princess Returns

59. The Coldhearted Princess Returns

c72 wn ver

“Gilbert! Gilbert! Are you here?!”

Suddenly, I heard a familiar booming voice. It was Father. Someone in the castle must have told him that Chancellor Gilbert had returned, and now he thought I was here as well. What should I do? I had braced myself for eventual detection, but how could I rationalize this situation?

“Pryde.”

I turned at the sound of Stayle’s voice, and in an instant, my surroundings shifted. Before I realized it, I was back in my familiar room.

“Sister!”

Tiara flew into my arms just as Arthur and Stayle appeared beside me.

“…I really thought you were going to leave me behind.”

Arthur, his eyes wide in realization that he had been teleported, muttered with a trace of exhaustion.

“If you want, I can teleport you back there right now.”

“I’ll apologize, just stop.”

Arthur collapsed onto the floor with a heavy sigh. Tiara, still nestled in my arms, waved happily at him and then turned her gaze to Stayle.

“Brother… are you really my brother?”

Her big, innocent eyes looking up at Stayle were adorable.

Are

It’s no wonder she was confused. Stayle still appeared as his seventeen-year-old self. He still looked like him, but in this form, he could easily be mistaken for someone else. In fact, when my maids, Lotte and Marie, and the guard Jack first saw Stayle like this, they were cautious.

“What happened to your height?” Arthur, still seated, looked up at Stayle, who was now towering over him. Style had always been taller, but now the difference was even more exaggerated.

“It’s Gilbert’s special ability.”

Stayle adjusted his glasses with a finger and smirked at Arthur. “It feels good to look down on you like this.” Was Stayle secretly self-conscious about their height difference all this time? Arthur grumbled in response but suddenly glanced around, realizing something.

“Wait a second… where are we?”

That’s right, this was Arthur’s first time in my room—or anywhere in the royal family’s living quarters, for that matter.

“This is my sister’s room,” Tiara said cheerfully, laughing as she looked up at me. Arthur’s face instantly turned red as he stood up in a panic.

“I-I’m so sorry, Princess Pryde! I was in the middle of training, so my clothes and shoes are dirty—”

He wasn’t wrong. Arthur was covered in dirt. I had pulled him away in the middle of a hand-to-hand combat session. But it didn’t matter; Lotte and the others would clean up later. Still, Arthur stood there, stiff and awkward, refusing to move despite my assurances that it was fine. Beside him, Stayle shook with silent laughter, his face turned away to hide it.

“Oh, right… is Marianne okay now?” I suddenly thought of Marianne’s condition. Arthur had been holding her hand the entire time, using his healing ability, but would she be alright now that he had let go?

“Ah… yeah, she should be fine. Somehow, I just… knew she was healed,” Arthur said, gazing at his hand as if even he didn’t fully understand his own abilities.

If she was healed, that was all that mattered. I felt a weight lift off my chest as Tiara tugged at my sleeve, her eyes pleading. “Please tell me everything!”

As I pondered how much to explain, Arthur spoke up. “It’s fine to tell Tiara.” His permission reassured me, though I understood that he meant Tiara alone—he wasn’t ready for everyone else, like Lotte, Marie, or Jack, to know yet. Tiara seemed to sense this and smiled. “You’ll explain everything to me later, right?” She really was a kind-hearted girl.

“Well, I should get going. I’ve still got some training to finish,” Arthur said, bowing his head to me and then turning to Stayle.

“Stayle, mind teleporting me back?”

“To the training grounds?” Stayle asked, scratching his head as Arthur nodded. Before they left, Arthur bowed again to me, Tiara, and even to the maids and guard.

“Arthur!”

I had to thank him properly. Just as Stayle reached out to touch Arthur, he paused and turned toward me. “Princess Pryde,” he said, his voice soft. I opened my mouth, rushing to say what I had wanted to.

“Thank you so much for—”

“Thank you. I’m truly grateful.”

His words stopped me. It wasn’t me who spoke, but Arthur. He smiled softly, genuinely, and in the next instant, he was gone, teleported by Stayle.

“Why… why did Arthur thank me?” I murmured to myself. It was me who should have been thanking him. Stayle, standing beside me, smiled.

“Because… I think it made him happy.”

His expression softened, the maturity in his features making him seem older than his years. This was the smile he used to reserve only for Tiara. Now, he was showing it to me, and to his friend Arthur. It filled me with warmth.

“…Oh.”

A small sound escaped Stayle as his body began to shrink. The age manipulation Gilbert had cast was being undone. Stayle’s form rapidly reverted to his usual twelve-year-old self, as if someone had pressed rewind on a video.

“If he could undo it remotely, he should’ve done it sooner,” Stayle muttered, a hint of disappointment in his voice. His voice had also returned to its youthful pitch.

“I’m glad you’re back to normal,” I said. Tiara clapped her hands joyfully. “You’re back to the brother I know!” Stayle looked a bit conflicted but smiled shyly as Tiara and I held out our arms to him. He ran toward us, and we pulled him in close. Tiara wrapped her small arms around both of us, her warmth comforting.

Stayle, who had always protected us despite his young age, seemed burdened by his return to childhood. I understood why he might have wanted to stay in his older form a little longer.

But there was no need to rush. Unlike Chancellor Gilbert, we would age naturally, no matter how much we resisted.

No matter what we do, time will always move forward.

My dear, beloved siblings.

“Let’s grow old together, the three of us.”

Since we can’t stop time, we should at least cherish these moments we have now.

As I held them close, I thought of Chancellor Gilbert.

A man who lives forever.

At least, in this fleeting moment, I hope he finds happiness with the woman he loves.

With my dear siblings in my arms, I quietly made that wish.

A little while later, after Stayle and I had changed, Father burst into my room, his face lit with joy. He hugged the three of us tightly and, for some reason, whispered something mysterious:

“I hope you all get to meet ‘that person’ someday.”

 

EUN: THANKS FOR READING!! 

This c72 of the wn. Now for anyone who might get confuse its because of the intermission chapters or side story chapters

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