How to Tame That Gentle Male Lead - Chapter 2.11
But Eldis gave a quiet bow with a smile like a summer breeze.
‘The Crown Prince to me? Why on earth?’
Surprised, Resena unconsciously bowed back following etiquette, which made him chuckle.
“Thank you. You’re the first to give me such advice.”
“Your Highness…”
“You’re right. With such an indecisive attitude, I won’t be able to protect the person I should, and will only give false hope to the wrong people.”
With a lonely look in his eyes, he gazed up at the distant sky.
“But I don’t know how else to act. Everyone tells me I’m doing well, so I have no idea where or how to improve.”
“…”
“I’ll take your advice to heart. Thank you, Lady Arnasus.”
Resena could only watch blankly as the Crown Prince turned his back on her and left. Only when she saw him entering the hall alone did she snap back to her senses.
‘I hope I haven’t made him obsess over the female lead?’
But it didn’t seem like he had feelings for any specific person.
“Sis.”
While she was lost in thought, Renard came out to the garden. Judging by the few gifts in his hands, it seemed he had come looking for her because she was taking too long.
“Renard.”
“I came to find you because it was taking too long. Has your fatigue gone away now?”
Resena nodded. In fact, there hadn’t been time for her fatigue to dissipate, but for some reason, she wanted to go back into the hall and observe Crown Prince Eldis’s behavior.
“I’m fine now. How’s the atmosphere in the hall?”
“Still noisy. Plus, there are a lot of guests gathered to congratulate you. I excused myself saying I was coming to look for you and then slipped out.”
“I see…”
Renard handed over a few of the gifts he was holding to Resena. Receiving a small ruby with a light-emitting spell, a notebook that automatically writes neatly, and an elixir made directly by an alchemist, Resena felt a smile naturally forming on her lips.
“These are all useful things. I didn’t know what kind of gifts there were before because I didn’t receive them directly like this…”
“Huh? Sis, didn’t you open gifts like this on your last birthday?”
She suddenly came to her senses.
“No, well, I think I had the maids open them instead of doing it myself. If I had known I’d receive such nice things, I would have opened them myself.”
“Ah, I see. Well, since you usually only use top-quality items, you might not have been impressed with the gifts. It’s good that you’ve changed your mind now, you can enjoy the pleasure of opening gifts.”
Resena beamed at Renard’s kind words.
She wanted to reach out and pat Renard’s head, but unfortunately, her hands were full. Resena called a passing servant and instructed them to take the items in her hands to her room.
“Understood.”
“Yes, please do.”
Watching this, Renard’s eyes narrowed. But he soon gently tugged at Resena’s sleeve.
“Sis, has your treatment of the staff changed?”
“Hm? Has it changed a lot?”
“A bit. A little… You seem to have become kinder. I think you were quite overbearing until just a week ago.”
‘Well, that’s because I’ve transmigrated…’
Swallowing those words, Resena smiled brightly.
“I thought it was time for a change. I heard that the maids in charge of me always leave crying. So Luna is directly attending to me now, and I thought it might be better to change my behavior.”
“Hmm…”
Renard thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Sounds like a good idea. The fewer maids who resent you, the better it will be for your reputation. I thought it was unavoidable when you were overbearing, but I think this change is better.”
“Renard…”
“Well then, let’s go back to the hall now. You can go straight to your room if you’re tired. What do you want to do?”
Resena answered with a smile.
“I’ll go back to the hall. I want to see His Highness the Crown Prince’s face too.”
“…”
Renard’s expression was subtle at the mention of the Crown Prince, but he didn’t say anything more. Following behind him as he led the way to the hall, Resena recalled how the Crown Prince had thanked her.
‘He said he doesn’t know what to fix because everyone always says he’s doing well. That’s truly a male protagonist’s answer. Well, he’s praised as everyone’s love interest… He might not know what to do right now. Besides, he’s only in his early twenties.’
Compared to her life as Heejin, he’s more than ten years younger. Moreover, being highly regarded by most people, wouldn’t he also easily feel the fatigue of human relationships?
‘He’s just not showing it… He’s aware that there’s a problem.’
The lively music played by the orchestra rang in her ears. Passing by people coming out to the garden, Resena returned to the hall. Eldis’s face, buried in the crowd, showed no trace of the bitter smile she had seen earlier.
‘Maybe he’s a different person than I thought. The male lead.’
While responding with a smiling face to the people crowding around, exchanging words, Resena watched to see if the male lead would approach the female lead.
However, in this birthday ball where her scheme had disappeared, there was no particular reason for the male lead to take action, so the female lead and male lead were just surrounded by the crowd, far apart from each other.
***
“Phew…”
After the birthday ball ended, Resena threw herself onto the bed.
Except for when she went out to the garden in the middle, she had watched the ball almost from start to finish.
Fortunately, no poison had made its way into the ball until the very end.
“Haa…”
She was so sleepy that she yawned involuntarily. In fact, she was tired. Not only because of the poison, but she had to be on high alert to check if the cancellation with the assassination guild had been properly carried out.
As a result, she barely danced and even while receiving gifts from people, she kept glancing at Eldis and Lorona.
“If I have to be this on edge next time too, my body won’t last…”
I’ll have to take Renard with me to complain to the Tebas Guild Master about the parts that weren’t properly canceled. That way, the next one will be canceled accurately.
“But for now, I just want to rest… I’m so sleepy.”
Resena closed her eyes while lying face down. Soon, the sound of quiet breathing filled the bedroom.
“Sigh, already asleep. And here I brought a new gift.”
The closed window opened by itself, and someone quietly walked in from the terrace. The young man with light blonde hair and blue eyes looked at the sleeping Resena.
“Master. From what I’ve observed, it seems Resena no longer wants to be involved with the Crown Prince and the Saint. She seems to have changed 180 degrees from when we met her before.”
As the black cat meowed and spoke beside him, he smiled faintly. Then he sat on the edge of the bed where Resena was sleeping and reached out his hand.
Though he mainly deals with black magic, his hands are white and clean. The fingers of his spotless white skin stroked Resena’s hair, but Resena, drunk with sleep, couldn’t wake up.
“Resena. You truly are beautiful. Even your jealous appearance was lovely.”
Zergard let out a languid laugh as he held the ends of her hair in his hand. The way he smelled the fragrance from those thin strands was like a painting.
“In black magic, the emotions of someone as jealous as you become a special power. It’s a pity. That your heart has changed… So, I even feel like making you, so beautiful, into a sacrifice, but…”
He elegantly kissed the ends of the hair he was holding up.
“For now, I’d rather see you a bit longer, alive and able to converse with me, than as a puppet controlled by threads.”
He chuckled and let go of her hair.
“You’re lucky, Resena.”
Zergard slowly bent down. After kissing her black crown, he stood up. The robe he was wearing was that of a priest, but since he had already fallen to black magic, the gap rather evoked a strange charm.
He stood up and looked around Resena’s room. Although she should have been awake to keep her promise to converse with him, he didn’t feel like scolding her for breaking that promise.
