Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 20
The chapters are split like this so that the TL can update more consistently over time (✿ ＞◡❛)
“You know, Nanny. That crossing downstream! I used that to cross! Everyone in the village uses it when things get urgent.”
“That’s for the villagers! Have you lost your mind?!”
Missus Babbin thumped her chest in frustration.
Iris averted her eyes, shrinking under the scolding, but when her gaze met Ezekiel’s, she glared at him.
It seemed crossing the river had been a secret from her nanny.
Then maybe you should’ve warned me beforehand. Ezekiel stared at her impassively. You’re the one who did something reckless—what do you expect me to do?
Étienne snickered and whispered,
“Looks like the daughter of Baron Quilluxia is quite the little rascal.”
“Brother, please keep your voice down.”
At any rate, thanks to Iris—if that could be called a good thing—Missus Babbin had forgotten all about checking their identification plaques and was focused entirely on scolding her charge.
“If something happens to you when the Baron isn’t even here, what do you expect Young Master Henri to do?!”
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, I said I’m sorry!”
“You say that every time, and still you go looking for trouble!”
The scolding didn’t end for quite a while.
By the end, the young lady looked thoroughly sulky, and Missus Babbin turned back to the boys.
“In any case, sirs, you’ll have to spend the night here! But first, you need a change of clothes. Now, Milady! Go fetch our young master’s clothes from the storeroom for these gentlemen!”
It was only after following her to the storeroom and changing into the clothes that the boys realized who ‘our young master’ was.
The old garments had belonged to Baron Quilluxia—tunics and surcoats that hadn’t been worn in decades.
Blushing, the girl offered an awkward explanation.
“Our family isn’t originally of noble blood… and we’re not wealthy either…”
“This is more than sufficient. We’re just grateful for dry clothes,” Étienne said with an easy smile as he adjusted his tunic.
He wasn’t the type to make a fuss over things like this, and Ezekiel nodded in agreement.
“We’ll repay you properly once our party arrives. Even if they don’t, we have enough funds…”
But the girl shook her head.
“There’s no need. I didn’t help you to get paid in return.”
“But—”
“I said no.”
She suddenly pushed her face close to Ezekiel’s, glaring at him with deep blue eyes.
“Just don’t go saying unnecessary things to Missus Babbin.”
“Unnecessary things?”
“Like what you said earlier.”
Ah—so she meant mentioning the fact that she crossed the river.
Ezekiel was dumbfounded. There was a limit to ignorance.
“I’m sorry, but if you’re referring to the fact that you crossed the river for our sake, even if you had asked me in advance not to say anything, I still would have told Missus Babbin. What you did was extremely dangerous.”
“…What?”
“I didn’t get a chance to say this earlier…”
Ezekiel was a prince, and especially sensitive when it came to matters involving personal risk.
Étienne, unfortunately, was the type of boy who sometimes enjoyed dangerous thrills. And whenever that happened, Ezekiel would scold him in place of the attendants who were too afraid to speak up.
This girl was no different.
“That path isn’t dangerous! Villagers use it all the time when the river rises! I’ve done it before too. And the two of you made it across just fine, didn’t you?”
“That’s only because there were three of us.”
Ezekiel was unyielding.
In fact, when they’d recrossed the river, they had tied themselves securely to the vine so they wouldn’t get swept away. The three of them had held each other’s hands tightly.
The current had been so strong that Ezekiel had nearly burst with the urge to lecture the girl again for having crossed alone.
“Anyway, it’s all over now, isn’t it?”
“It’s not over. If something like this happens again, you’d cross that way again—”
“Okay, okay, that’s enough.”
It was Étienne who stepped in between the two, cutting off their growing argument.
He winked at his younger brother and the girl.
“Ez, in any case, she helped us. And Your Ladyship, don’t be too hard on my younger brother. He’s just a bit stiff and conservative—he doesn’t mean any harm.”
At the very least, nineteen-year-old Étienne understood that someone had to step in when a fifteen-year-old girl and an eighteen-year-old boy were arguing.
