I Became the Monster's Bride

Who is the Fake Bride? (17)

If he couldn’t hear the answer to where she was right now, he could just find it out for himself.

He was actually holding it in to watch a little longer, but he didn’t have to do that anymore right now.

He could no longer wait to see this woman masquerading as Erita while tarnishing that very name.

Was it due to the manifestation of his own determined attitude? Erita couldn’t contain her anger for that moment as she shouted sharply all of a sudden.

“What the hell did she say?”

Her cry shrilled in the air. Kergel also stopped trying to move in response.

Count McGree had also picked up the disturbance from somewhere and proceeded snooping around nearby when noticed the situation before she rushed over while still contemplating.

“Woah, my Princess!”

“The girl was just a fake of myself! She was an ominous existence from the moment she was born, but since she was still of Royal blood. She took my seat without knowing her own lowly place!”

Erita vented her anger as if she was being falsely accused. Then, she shook off Count McGree’s dissuasion and began to approach Kergel.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Your wife, the Empress of Seroif, is Erita—me. Not the fake one that you’re currently looking for.”

“……what are you talking about?”

Kergel’s golden pupils eventually grew narrower. Erita shuddered at the gaze before she raised her chin and deliberately continued to speak even more confidently, as if she had her pride hurt.

“I’m the one who was elected to marry Your Majesty. Erita, the Princess of the Kingdom of Rakain. However, a lowly woman who does not have any of the qualifications, dared to covet the throne of the Empire and impersonated me.”

“……”

“Even though we were born as the unlucky twins, she did not know the grace of the King and the whole Royal Family. The girl whom you are looking for, the one who came here on my behalf along with a dagger in my back, is the one whom everyone refers to as ominous.”

As Erita continued, everyone’s faces became distorted and their faces turned to face the earth.

“At the time, I was caught up in that girl’s evil scheme and couldn’t make my way to Seroif. My brother, the King, who knew nothing about it, eventually sent the girl to Seroif while having mistaken her for myself.”

“……”

“In other words, don’t you think we should get everything right in order? That’s precisely why I’m here to mend things, Your Majesty. However, even if she did commit a crime, she still came out from the same boat as myself, so we tried to solve it all quietly. Contrary to my own wish, everything was still revealed in the end.”

Erita smiled sadly as if she was the real victim here. But not a single one could actually relate to her feelings, no one except for Erita and Count McGree. On the contrary, everyone was just bewildered and angry instead.

“What, a person’s life with such nonsensical superstitions…….”

Then, someone muttered to himself before he hurriedly shut himself up. However, no one blamed him at all. Rather, everyone was busy controlling the rising anger as if they all agreed with him.

On the grounds, which indicated that twins had never been born within the Royal Family.

All because it was sinister for two bodies to be born in a single soul.

A life that had been trampled on just for such ridiculous reasons was utterly pathetic.

“Crazy…… those Rakain bastards who pretend to be so smart and so arrogant while blathering about us being savage.”

Once again, someone had murmured. This time, the voice was thrown loud enough as if to let it be heard on purpose. Erita noticed it and shot her gaze sharply towards the direction in which the voice was heard. But she fixed her expression immediately before she looked back at Kergel.

“…I see. So it was you and not her, who had mocked me and my country, Seroif, before this?”

“That, that!”

Erita added in an apologetic tone while expressing dismay at Kergel’s words.

“That was a mistake. All because I didn’t know anything about Seroif at that time……”

“And the name ‘Erita’ wasn’t even her own name.”

Kergel continued saying something else as if he didn’t care about Erita’s excuse at all.

He suddenly remembered that her expression hardened when he had called her Erita before.

At that time, he used to call her by that name whenever he felt like without realizing it.

‘……How did she even feel whenever I called her by someone else’s name instead?’

Kergel gritted his teeth and frowned. The memories of the past that he had inadvertently recalled were now coming back to him with new meanings.

And then, another memory came to mind.

<Ro, Roelin!>

On the day they went out of the Palace through the secret passage, she had used a different name to hide her identity. At that time, he thought of a name that suited her better, so he asked her what she wanted.

Roelin.

‘Maybe that is your real name.’

Kergel recalled her smiling brightly when he was called by that name. Then, his heart began to ache.

How lonely and afraid she must have been.

He wondered if she had felt the same way about her own family.

She must have been scared of everything since she came to a strange country as a mere substitute.

Besides, there was a lot of animosity towards the Rakain Princess, so they didn’t even treat her kindly at all.

It all came back with sheer regret.

Roelin.

“Where are you going, Your Majesty?”

“Your Majesty!”

Was that her name? As he left the voices that were calling him out from behind, Kergel began to stride in the direction of the Outer Palace. And not long afterwards, he was almost running already.

He had to find her.

He didn’t know exactly where she was, but he still had to find her. He should have been around so that she wouldn’t feel lonely anymore.

Why?

Why was that?

In Kergel’s heart, someone was asking a question. It was a question that he asked himself as well.

And the answer: he already knew about it.

Because he loved her!

All because he was truly in love with her!