Heroine On Strike

‘What are you thinking, Cladis?’ Shocked by his own thoughts and actions, he loosened his grip on Ella.

Ella took this opportunity to free herself from his grip. She took a step back from Cladis. Xyle never looked at her romantically, and it was clear to her why he did what he did. This whole time, he was trying to aggravate Cladis. Then, she eyed Xyle to signal to him that she would deal with him at a later time. Looking at Cladis, she opened her mouth to say, “I’m not your woman anymore, your highness. And I will never be.”

“No. You are my woman. I won’t let you go.”

‘What the heck is wrong with you now? Didn’t you say you would let me try to escape? What is it? You don’t want me, but you also don’t want me with another man either?’ Brewing inside Ella was rage, but it quickly died down. Instead, she was curious how he felt about Clara currently.

“What about Lady Mellin? You’re not saying that you’ll take me in as empress and keep her as your concubine, right? She won’t like that,” said Ella.

Without any hesitation, Cladis responded, “she won’t mind.”

‘Look at Clara! I’m sure she’ll even give her life to become the Empress!’ Unfortunately, this man blinded by love wasn’t going to see the truth. Ella let out a sigh. Frustrated, she replied, “But no woman likes to share her lover, and I’m the same. I won’t stay chained to a palace for a man who doesn’t love me. I would rather leave everything behind and lock myself in this tower for my entire life.”

“Don’t drag me into this fight over petty romance, Ella. I respect you, but I’m too old for these kinds of things,” said Xyle as Ella dragged him back into the ring of fire. He was the one who pushed Ella into it, so she couldn’t let him stay as a bystander. He who was casually watching with his arms crossed, took a step back with an apparent annoyed look on his face. She was astonished by how this self-proclaimed 25-year-old Xyle was now acting his age. Using magic, he changed his face to look 39 years old. Now, he looked like the description of him from the novel.

‘Hey! I’m 38 years old, you b*stard! I’m too old for this too!’ She wondered how Xyle would react if she told him this. In fact, she also wanted to see how Cladis would react if she told him this, but this wasn’t the time to do it. Too many people were staring at them as if a sports championship match was going on.

“I thought you said you’re 25 years old?” asked Ella annoyingly.

“No. I’m 39 years old,” Xyle replied.

“I knew it. I’ll make you regret your words. Just you wait.”

Ignoring the onlookers and his first love, Cladis glared at Ella and Xyle. As soon as Ella turned to look at him, he blurted out what he wanted to say all this time. “It’s not something you can just choose to do, Ella. Even the Master of the tower can’t interfere with the royal marriage. You must accept this.”

“It’s Lady Constance, your highness. Don’t call me Ella. I hate when you call me that,” said Ella as she frowned. “The Master is like that right now because he’s lazy, but who knows? He might change his mind if I ask nicely.” 

She glanced over at Xyle, who continued to act like a bystander and turned around to give Cladis a stern look. Then she continued, “Besides, he’s not the only one who can help me. I still have a lot of options left. Maybe you’re the one who needs to look at reality, your highness. I don’t like you anymore. I’m not going to take on a burden for a man who I don’t even like.”

Seeing how confident Ella was with her claims, Cladis felt despair. She wasn’t saying these words out of anger. Instead, she was someone who was serious about trying to find someone to help her with her plan. Maybe she was going to succeed. Maybe she wasn’t going to be by his side anymore.

‘Why is she doing this?’ Ella said it was because he doesn’t love her anymore. Cladis couldn’t understand how that would be a problem or why she mentioned Clara so many times in their conversations. Ever since the Week of the Beginning began, it felt like he was thrown into a different world. There were situations where he couldn’t understand what was going on, and it felt like his intelligence had left him. All he could rely on was his common sense and tried to use it to persuade her. Unfortunately, Ella had heard those words many times before.

“There are people out there who will die to take on that role,” said Cladis.

“That doesn’t mean everyone wants it,” retorted Ella.

“No one can reject it.”

“You never know until you try.”

“ELLA!”

“Don’t call me by that name!”

The argument that seemed like it would never conclude abruptly ended when Clara, who was glaring at them, couldn’t take the situation anymore and fell to the ground.