For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 85
Eugenie blinked once, and suddenly, the surrounding scenery changed.
“…What…what is this?!”
Until just moments ago, she had been with Cassius in the outdoor resting area, having just seen off the men who had gone into the hunting grounds. The outcome of the game was already decided, and they had been discussing how much effort her four husbands would need to put into deliberately losing to Tristan.
However, while they were talking, she felt a strange sensation as though her insides were being pulled, and before she knew it, she was in the middle of a forest.
— Lady. Lady, where are you right now?*
Cassius’s voice came through her earrings. His usually smooth, youthful voice was now urgent enough to send chills down her spine.
“This…this.”
Eugenie took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and looked around her surroundings. It looked like an ordinary forest, but in the distance, she could hear sounds mixed with the smell of gunpowder.
Bang… Bang!
Eugenie could feel the blood drain from her face.
“Cassius. I think I’m in the hunting grounds.”
—…!
Instead of asking “why” or “how,” Cassius muttered something in a terrifying voice that Eugenie had never heard before—curse words she had never imagined.
— Lady. Hide as much as you can so you’re not mistaken for prey. I’ll contact the others inside right away.
“Got it. I’ll try to figure out where I am too.”
Eugenie responded as she looked around.
First, she tried to gauge the position of the sun and the terrain…
“There’s a stream flowing to the west. I think I fell into a zone where they’ve deliberately planted a lot of conifers… there are yellow ribbons tied to the branches, too.”
She could hear the others talking among themselves, quickly discussing their location and making sure the nearest person could reach her as soon as possible…
But as Eugenie continued looking for a tree to hide behind, frustration began to well up, not with her husbands, but with herself.
‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I could use magic right now?’
If she had done that much, shouldn’t she be able to do something?
Even if she figured out who did this, it would be useless if she couldn’t do anything to protect herself. Her life would be in danger!
“What am I supposed to do—?”
Eugenie’s muttering was cut off mid-sentence.
Bang!
The sharp sound of wind seemed to tear her eardrums apart, and a bullet hole appeared in the tree right in front of her.
She was so startled that she thought she had suffered a heart attack and died on the spot. For a few seconds, her mind went completely blank.
“Haha!”
But the sound of laughter behind her made her body tremble uncontrollably.
“…Ugh.”
What… What’s going on? Who—
Who is shooting at her and laughing with such enjoyment?
The innocent voice she heard made her feel as though she had been transported back to the time of her debutante ball, at the age of seventeen.
The shock of the bullet whizzing by reminded her of the time she had seen her friend fall, hit by a bullet.
The boy, who was cheerfully laughing without knowing what he had done wrong, continued.
“Crown Prince….”
“Ah, my birthday wish came true a little early.”
Eugenie forced her stiff neck to turn, and as expected, Tristan was approaching casually, loading his hunting rifle.
Stay calm, Eugenie Norton.
“What the hell are you doing? You didn’t just shoot at me on purpose, did you?”
Even a madman should keep up appearances in society, right? Surely he wasn’t trying to commemorate his twentieth birthday by killing some woman whose face had been tarnished.
“Yes, I shot you on purpose.”
“You insane bastard.”
“Haha!”
“Is this funny? Someone almost died!”
Eugenie shouted, forcing her voice out, wanting to scream louder, but with the threat to her life, it wasn’t coming out as strongly as she’d hoped.
But even in this situation, she couldn’t afford to argue with him.
Tristan shrugged at Eugenie’s impudence and took another step closer.
“Come on, do you really think I will kill you? I’m bigger now than I was then.”
His dull green eyes lazily scanned Eugenie’s face to her feet.
Cats, kingfishers, and pretty girls. For young Tristan, they were all things he wanted to shoot and keep in his room. His mother had been so noisy about it that he pretended not to care.
But he had waited until he was twenty, and he had been patient.
