I Got Reincarnated as the Villain and Saved the World, but After the Ending I Was Betrayed and Exiled. I Just Wanted a Peaceful Life in the Frontier, but for Some Reason My Former Companions Started Chasing Me with Yandere Eyes… - 75

Chapter 75: The Melancholy of Ceres

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

In a certain room in the royal castle.

『She should be executed. After all, his first was supposed to be mine…』

『No, that won’t do. She is my friend.』

My inner self cried out without hiding its rage. Another part of me tried to soothe it. I desperately held those feelings down. Because it was without a doubt thanks to her that he was able to stand back up again. So, I thought, at the very least, I should allow that much.

“Master, the cake here was really delicious. Let’s go eat it together sometime.”

“Ah, yes, that sounds good. Let’s go during the next holiday.”

I saw Phantom-sama and Tia, who had been away on a journey for a while, talking warmly in front of me. My heart began to pound furiously. The distance between them looked the same as before… Yet something was decisively different. It was like…

“Hey, Phantom… You did it with Tia-chan, didn’t you?”

“Bffft!?”

“W-What are you saying, Cain-san!?”

When Cain voiced the very thing I wanted to say, and I saw the two of them fluster in response, I felt something inside my chest ignite into roaring flames. You idiot… I had been deliberately avoiding putting it into words, and yet you spelled it out…

“Oh my, I only meant it as a joke, but was it actually true? So, who confessed first? At this rate, why not make a move on Henrietta too? For a noble, it’s not strange at all to have multiple wives, you know.”

“You… Why do you sound like you’re enjoying this so much? And Henrietta has nothing to do with this!”

“That’s right, Cain. Can’t you see Phantom-sama is troubled?”

“”Hiii!””

When I smiled and stepped in to mediate between Phantom-sama and Tia, whose faces were both beet red, for some reason the two of them let out a small scream. Cain, the idiot, just looked at me and grinned mischievously, clearly enjoying himself.

“It’s about time for prayer, so please excuse me.”

Unable to endure it anymore, I left the room while keeping a smile on my face. My chest throbbed with pain, and something dark threatened to spill out.

“But… Phantom-sama worked so hard. So, of course, he deserves happiness. It is only regrettable that I was not the one who could make him happy…”

Desperately… Desperately… I whispered these words to myself as I walked toward the church, when someone called out to me. That someone was…

“Ceres, please wait a moment.”

“What is it, Tia? Rest assured, I do not resent you.”

Even if my heart said otherwise, I was skilled at keeping a smile on my face. The skills I had honed as a saintess ironically proved useful in times like this. I laughed at myself bitterly inside.

“That’s not it… Ceres, I have a proposal for you. Will you hear me out?”

“A proposal… You say?”

Unable to help but repeat her words, I saw Tia smile and nod.

★★★

“What the hell are you even thinking?”

When Ceres walked away wearing a forced smile with eyes cold as ice, Tia ran off after her. I knew about Ceres’s feelings, and I wanted to chase after her as well, but Cain stopped me.

“You do know Ceres likes you as a man, right? Then what exactly were you planning to say if you caught up with her? Something like: 『I broke off my engagement with Henrietta, but after that I started dating Tia and even slept with her. Sorry!!』 maybe? Don’t you think that’s just cruel?”

“That’s not it… I…”

I couldn’t argue with Cain’s words. Ah, he was right… What was I even planning to say? If I talked to her now, I would only end up hurting her more… In that case, maybe it was better to leave this to Tia.

“See? You understand, don’t you? Next, we’ll have to see how Elena and Henrietta react… Ah, being popular sure is tough, isn’t it?”

“You… What about you and Solomon, huh?”

I tried to counterattack Cain, who was teasing me mercilessly, but his response was unexpected. Wearing a smug smile, he said.

“Fufu, actually, the other day we stayed over together at the villa I built with my royal money. It even had a hot spring, and we bathed together.”

Cain was, well, popular. His disarming frankness and sweet looks made him hard to believe as a member of royalty. In fact, he had received way more attention than I did when we were travelling together. That said, I doubted Solomon really understood that sort of thing yet.

“Hey, what the hell did you do to clueless Solomon!? You’ll get killed by the demons!!”

“Hahaha, I knew you’d react like that… Of course, it wasn’t just the two of us. Amon was there too. And when I said ‘we bathed together,’ I mean it was me and Amon.”

“Ah… So that’s what you meant…”

“By the way, Amon’s Amon was incredible. Seems even that part of demons is strong.”

“That is, without exaggeration, the most useless piece of information I’ve ever heard…”

I sighed wearily, having been forced to hear something I absolutely hadn’t wanted to know. But leaving that aside, Cain was probably serious in his own way about pursuing Solomon. Love really was unpredictable. 

I myself had originally planned to marry Henrietta, and I hadn’t even realized Ceres thought of me as more than a friend. No one knew how things with Solomon and Cain would turn out either. All I could do now was watch over them.

“Oh my, are you actually worried about me? But you should be worrying about yourself.”

“Eh? What do you mean by that?”

“Fufu, love isn’t only sweet, you know.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Cain only grinned slyly without answering my question. I was about to press him for the truth when the door opened. There stood Tia, along with Ceres, who looked as if she had cast away her doubts.

“Phantom-sama… I have decided to go to Cain’s villa with Tia. Yes. Without his permission. Would you care to join us?”

“”Eh?””

Our dumbfounded voices overlapped in unison.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー