At the End of Ruin, There You Are (56 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 36

Caella was what one might call an easy woman. To Pheon, she was easier than anyone else—so easy that ignoring her was just as effortless.

She never hid her thoughts from him, nor could she even if she tried. Sometimes, she was so honest it bordered on worrying. How absurd that honesty itself should be a cause for concern.

In the land ruled by Pheon, the honest should have been the freest of all—but he was a cowardly, foolish, and incompetent ruler, so they weren’t. Thus, Caella, who had been honest, was the first to suffocate and die.

“Come on.”

Unable to conceal her emotions, Caella eagerly took his hand the moment he reached out. To Pheon, this was only natural.

She would take it whenever he offered. Just as the Emperor was a lunatic, Pheon a filthy mongrel, the sun set in the west, and Lusenford winters were unbearably long—it was simply natural.

Yet now, Caella—who walked effortlessly toward the Grand Duchess’s bedchamber, a room where she herself had never once slept—Caella, whose father had not been murdered and who remained Princess of Ostein, did not immediately take his outstretched hand.

She clearly hesitated. Caella de Chasser was the sort of woman who never hesitated in taking his hand—she always did it instantly. Yet now, she hesitated.

“Your Highness?”

Somewhere, fear revealed itself with a mocking grin. Though his words called her the esteemed Princess of Ostein, he knew full well he’d held the emotional upper hand all along—so he stacked his arrogance layer by layer.

There was no guarantee anymore—no matter how hard he looked—that she would always immediately take his offered hand or unquestioningly obey his words.

Then what was he to do?

Instead of an answer, a purely irrational but certain thought struck him—perhaps he would lose his sanity right then and there, consumed by this endless, formless anxiety.

“Oh, I must have misunderstood.”

It was Caella’s voice that extinguished all those thoughts. She murmured softly and placed her hand over his. Pheon quickly clasped it back, forcibly suppressing the trembling in his own hand. She had definitely hesitated.

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