Alois spoke like he was making an enticing offer. The Kingdom of Eseah, huh…
“The choice is yours, Your Holiness.”
While I was lost in brief thought, Alois spoke. His tone was so blatant that I paused for a second and curled my lips.
“Your Highness, Prince Alois of Eseah. The choice may be mine… but you’re the one taking me there, aren’t you?”
Alois smiled silently and handed me a glass of water. I accepted the glass, gazing at the beads of condensation that had formed on its surface.
“I am only escorting you. If you say you don’t want to go, I cannot force you, and if you do want to go, I cannot stop you from going.”
Liar. I tilted the cold glass. As I crunched the ice that flowed into my mouth, I tilted my head.
“Don’t try to deceive me. If I said I didn’t want to, you’d create a situation where I’d have no choice but to.”
I grinned, as if to say, ‘am I wrong?’ and Alois replied without skipping a beat.
“Of course not. If Your Holiness truly does not desire to go, what could I possibly do to urge you?”
Feeling the warmth behind me, I leaned my head back. Alois looked down at me with a languid smile.
When I waved him away as if to shake him off, Alois obediently stepped back and asked again.
“So, Lady Emilone, what will you do?”
“…”
“The Kingdom of Eseah is my homeland. I wish to show you my country.”
For him to say this much…I practically didn’t have a choice.
“I’m going to wash up.”
I set the two baby monkeys down from my arms and stood. I could feel Alois staring intently at me.
“You already know my answer, don’t you? I’ll go. To the Kingdom of Eseah.”
The moment I said that, I heard a faint laugh, but I pretended not to notice.
***
After washing, I threw on a robe and sat down on a chair.
I rubbed my dripping wet hair with my fingertips and lowered my gaze.
“Princess Ronella has safely arrived in the Empire.”
Alois, who was yet to return to his room, had brought a video orb and was showing it to me.
His gaze as he looked down at me with a hand on my shoulder felt odd. Resting my chin in my hand, I rolled the round video orb with my index finger.
“What did she say?”
“She just said she arrived safely, nothing more.”
His eyes looked as if they were trying to dig something out of me. His red pupils met mine.
Eyes that reflected nothing, those red eyes that looked just like mine. I wondered what Alois was thinking as I looked at them.
“Lady Emilone, although you never properly explained it to me…”
When I handed him the towel I was holding, he took it without pause.
“You said Princess Ronella is a demon.”
“Correct. She is a demon.”
As he wiped the moisture from my hair with the towel, he narrowed his eyes. That calculating gaze made my throat feel a little dry.
“A demon in human disguise…Frankly, I consider her extremely dangerous.”
“I agree…demons cause harm simply by existing.”
I flicked the video orb, and it tumbled across the surface.
“Alois, why do you think I let her go?”
“How could I possibly presume to know your intentions.”
“Presume, my foot. You’re funny.”
I chuckled softly and played the recording in the orb. A scene appeared, showing Princess Ronella in the Empire, presenting the landscape and saying she had arrived safely.
“Do you think I let Princess Ronella go just because she cried?”
“…Who knows.”
“Or because she can speak like a human and show emotions?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
I tilted my head at the sound of Alois’s voice. Droplets of water trailed down my neck.
“All of the above is correct. It’s because she cried and because she spoke like a human. That’s why I let her live. She looked so beautiful while crying that it made me pity her.”
“…What if she wasn’t beautiful then?”
I watched Alois through the mirror. His face remained unreadable as always, making it hard to grasp what he was thinking.
“By beautiful…I don’t mean her appearance. I mean her tears were beautiful.”
“…”
“She called herself a demon as she cried… and I’m not so clueless that I can’t tell whether those tears were real.”
I’m sure Alois knew that I was watching him through the mirror but his expression didn’t change. I turned my eyes toward Alois and furrowed my brows.
“Of course, if Princess Ronella does behave like a demon, I won’t waste a second to end it all with my own hands.”
“But it might already be too late by then.”
As he wiped the moisture from my hair, I reached out my hand.
Placing my hand on Alois’s neck, I pulled him down firmly.
“Then tell me, Alois. Do you think it’s right to kill Princess Ronella?”
I whispered into his ear. His face was partially hidden by his brown hair, so I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but I could hear his breathing loud and clear.
“I won’t answer that.”
“Even you know that is not the right call.”
He frowned slightly. Finding it amusing, I placed a soft kiss on his pale cheek, then gently pushed him away.
“There is no right answer. That’s why I made this choice.”
“…”
“She’s threatened me with a chandelier, summoned demons and nearly got people killed.”
That was her wrongdoing. But still, no one had actually been harmed yet. Furthermore, the one who prevented that from happening was me.
“But she apologized to me.”
“…Is that enough though?”
It wasn’t one of those hollow, meaningless apologies. I recalled the way she had stripped away the image I knew of her, as if each word was hard to say, and found myself letting out a soft laugh.
“It was enough.”
“Lady Emilone.”
A crack appeared in Alois’s expression. I couldn’t quite guess what he was thinking, but knowing his nature, he was probably filled with worries.
Not that I wasn’t. But still…
“She’s not like the other demons we’ve faced so far.”
Born of human greed, Princess Ronella was quite the existence.
“The tears she showed me were real. And the warmth in her hand when she caught me afterward was real too.”
When I first became the Saintess, I thought this role was utterly useless. Being tossed around, having to listen to everyone…
To save, to protect, to embrace others. This kind of position was something I once outright rejected… or so I had thought.
“I chose not to turn away from her.”
Alois looked down at me, let out a sigh, and shook his head.
“You’re right, Lady Emilone. I can’t claim to know everything about Princess Ronella just from a few encounters.”
He slowly stepped closer and gazed out the window, now cloaked in darkness, his eyes quietly lowered.
“Just because she isn’t human… I think I tried to turn away from her for that reason alone.”
“…”
“But as you said, there is no right answer.”
Alois closed the curtains. In this pure white space, only Alois and I remained.
“If she truly turns out to be a dangerous being, can you take full responsibility yourself?”
Alois, as arrogant as ever, was trying to test me. He always did that.
With those red eyes, he scanned me thoroughly, trying to read what was inside. Of course, I feigned ignorance and lowered my eyes, turning my head away.
“Of course. I spared Princess Ronella and took her hand, knowing fully well what she is…”
“…”
“But that doesn’t mean I trust her.”
I was suspicious even of Alois, who stood right in front of me so how could I possibly trust someone who once nearly killed me?
“Did you, perhaps… place some kind of restraint on her?”
I knew he would ask that. I remembered every word Ronella had said to me, and the way her hand had clutched my collar so tightly, unwilling to let go.
I rose and walked over to extinguish the small wall-mounted candle. With a soft blow, the flame went out easily.
“Something very small. I doubt Ronella can even notice it but yes, I put a restraint on her.”
Alois looked at me with doubt in his eyes. I smiled sweetly, recalling the image of Ronella boarding a ship with the crown prince.
“The temple in the Empire will place a divine-powered restraint on her.”
“A restraint…?”
He was probably imagining something crude, like the kind worn around the necks of slaves. But that wasn’t what I meant.
“It’s a ring-shaped restraint that I left for my people before I left the Empire.”
I extended my hand like I was stretching and pointed to my left ring finger.
“A restraint imbued with my divine power.”
They say the fourth finger on the left hand connects directly to the heart. The temple held many sacred relics, and the restraint was one of them.
“Once it’s on, it can never be taken off unless I remove it myself.”
“What does the ring do?”
“How do I put this…If I or the wearer wants it to, it kind of goes boom and explodes?”
I clenched my fist, then released it, mimicking an explosion, then I laughed when I caught Alois’s expression.
“Don’t worry. The divine power only explodes inside the person wearing the ring.”
Normally, this kind of holy relic was meant for high-ranking nobles. If someone was seriously injured, the ring alone could help them heal quickly.
Even I never thought I’d be using the ring like this.
“Ronella’s probably a bit bitter about it, though.”
I looked up at him as I opened the curtains that Alois had closed. I never liked sleeping with the curtains shut at night.
The night sky here was too beautiful to be hidden away.
“She’s a demon. A being that can harm humans… and you are the saintess who is supposed to destroy such demons. So then, why…”
As I threw open the opposite curtain too, I waited for his answer.
“Why do you care for her so much?”
I was about to brush off his words like I usually did, but froze and turned my head. He wore a faint smile, but his words felt different than usual.
“Oh my, Alois.”
I took one step toward him. Alois didn’t avoid me. As I moved closer, he leaned in, his face coming close enough to kiss at any moment.
From that dangerously close distance, I let out my words with a mocking smile.
“Are you jealous?”
“Of course. Princess Ronella has completely stolen the attention meant for me, hasn’t she?”
I lifted my shoulders, amused by what he said, and Alois lowered his lashes.
Now I understood what it meant for a lash to cast a shadow. As I was realizing that, his arm wrapped around my waist.
“So now, I’m seriously wondering what I need to do to win back your attention.”
I placed my hand on his chest and gently pushed him away.
With the curtains wide open, it felt like someone might be watching this scene.
“The fact that you’re worrying about things like that shows you’re still very young.”
“I am older than you, Lady Emilone.”
“Really now? Trying to get the attention of someone you like sounds like something a child would do.”
The moment I said it, both of us tensed slightly, then relaxed again.
It was so brief and fleeting that it was hard to catch but I could tell Alois had been shaken.
He released the arm wrapped around my waist. I felt a twinge of regret at the loss of warmth, but then saw a glint in his eyes.
“If it means I can get all of Lady Emilone’s attention to myself, I don’t mind being called a child.”
He began to walk slowly, turning his back to me. It was just past midnight.
Thanks to Alois, my hair was now completely dry.
Twisting a strand of hair around my index finger, I watched his retreating figure.
“Are you leaving?”
“It’s time for this child to go to bed.”
After confirming that he had left through the door, I trudged over and collapsed onto the bed.
My body was tired.
*.*.*
- Honey, I’m Going on Strike – Chapters 47 – 49 - November 22, 2025
- Honey, I’m Going on Strike – Chapter 44-46 - November 14, 2025
- Honey, I’m Going on Strike – Chapters 42-43 - November 8, 2025
Umm I think Ronella is on cloud nine and is 10000% going to taunt Alois with that ring soooo much. “She married meeeee first Alois”