The Extra Saved the Terminally Ill Princess and Ran Away - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Tournament (3)

***

"I've been meaning to ask… Berry, are you of mixed heritage?"

Anna asked, just as I was about to leave her workshop with the potion.

…So that's why she kept glancing at my face.

"I don't think so… Are odd eyes a trait exclusive to mixed-race individuals?"

I touched the skin beneath my eyes. Anna gasped and clapped her hands together, her eyes wide.

She looked like a cute cat from a cartoon, trying to act adorable.

Of course, it was an unintentional gesture, but it only amplified her innocent charm.

"No, no! While odd eyes are common in mixed-race individuals, they can also appear in people with special talents! So I thought… maybe you have a talent for swordsmanship."

"Really?"

"Yes…! I've never seen someone with odd eyes who wasn't of mixed heritage!"

Anna answered, unusually assertive.

I looked at my reflection in a large flask, focusing on my odd eyes, the one trait the Trace Changer couldn't alter.

My left eye, which had turned gold not by birth, but by some unknown event.

As I focused on my left eye, my vision suddenly dimmed, and a forgotten memory surfaced.

-I've put in a prosthetic. It'll look and move normally, so don't worry about that.

The memory of sacrificing my left eye for Lili's elixir.

Why had I forgotten such an important detail? And why did my vision suddenly dim?

Before I could ponder these questions, Anna's voice snapped me back to reality.

"Berry…?"

"Ah, yes?"

"Are you alright? Are you feeling tired…?"

"No, no! I'm fine! See you later!"

Anna hurried to her desk drawer, rummaging through her flasks, probably looking for a fatigue-relieving potion.

But I wasn't tired, so I quickly excused myself and left the workshop.

I felt like a bully, extorting a child, having received a free potion and now being offered another.

…Why was I spacing out earlier?

I didn't have time to dwell on it. As I left the workshop, Anna's maid bowed her head respectfully.

"Safe travels, Master Berry."

"Yeah… thanks."

I had no time to waste, so I hurried towards the training grounds.

Lili had suggested we practice together until the day before the tournament.

***

As I stepped off the shuttle, I heard Lili's voice, carried by the wind. A sharp, annoyed tone.

And her conversation partner's mumbled, apologetic response.

I couldn't hear the details, but it was clear that something was wrong.

"Why are you even asking about that? Are we even close enough to discuss such personal matters?"

"I-I was just curious…"

The shuttle moved on, revealing Lili.

And next to her, Selina, fidgeting nervously, and Ian, looking flustered, trying to mediate.

"What's going on here?"

An unexpected problem, right in front of my training grounds. I hurried towards them.

Their voices became clearer as I approached.

"Curious? You're prying into the personal affairs of a royal? No, even between equals, that's incredibly rude."

"I-I apologize, Your Highness! I was just curious about your fiancé! Everyone's talking about him, but I've never seen him… I'm sorry…!"

Selina bowed repeatedly, apologizing profusely.

The other Knight Department students started gathering around, their attention drawn by the commotion.

Ian, realizing the situation was getting out of hand, looked back and forth between Selina and Lili, unsure of what to do.

He wasn't even trying to defuse the situation.

"…That indecisiveness of yours is truly remarkable, Ian."

They say people don't change. He must be destined for a long life. As long as a Galapagos tortoise, perhaps.

"What's going on here? In front of my training grounds?"

"Ah, Berry!"

All eyes turned to me as I stepped into the fray.

Like housewives watching a soap opera.

I hated being the center of attention, especially when I hadn't done anything wrong.

I needed to redirect their attention.

"Speaking of which, Ian, didn't I say I would give you the top scorer's dormitory room, and I would take the training grounds? Are you trying to take that away from me now?"

"W-What? No, that's not…"

"That's not very nice… I gave it to you because you begged me, saying you wanted to live with your maid."

"What?! I never said that…! You were the one who offered…!"

"…Is that true, Ian?"

"…?"

Selina, her eyes narrowed, glared at Ian.

I looked at her, puzzled.

I had planned to laugh it off as a joke, to defuse the situation and send them on their way.

I hadn't expected Selina to show jealousy.

In the original story, despite Ian's numerous admirers, Selina rarely showed any signs of jealousy.

The only instance I could recall was when Ian's maid was caught secretly kissing him every night.

I stroked my chin, listening to Selina's low, almost growling, voice, and Ian's mumbled, increasingly desperate, excuses.

"Ian, you didn't say anything when that maid told me she was living in the servants' quarters. You were right there."

"The atmosphere was a bit… tense…"

"So it's true? You're living with her. Right?"

"Look, Selina, she's been taking care of me since I was a child. I can't just kick her out now, can I? And the top scorer's dormitory has plenty of rooms…"

"Do you sleep…!"

Selina stopped mid-sentence, glancing at the onlookers, then continued,

"You don't… sleep together, do you?"

"Absolutely not! I swear! How could I ask Cindy to sleep with me?!"

Ian protested, insisting he wasn't that kind of person.

'Cindy would rip your clothes off if you even suggested it, you idiot.'

He probably imagined himself as a lecherous noble, using his power to take advantage of his maid.

A young, handsome nobleman, taking advantage of the older maid who had cared for him since childhood.

While Ian was actually a kind and gentle soul, protagonists in webnovels were often oblivious to such things.

"Okay, okay! Let's go to the training grounds and talk this over, Ian."

Selina, realizing they were attracting too much attention, grabbed Ian's arm and dragged him away.

The crowd, having lost their source of entertainment, quickly dispersed.

I waited until they were gone, then channeled magic into the training grounds' door and asked Lili,

"May I ask what happened before I arrived?"

She hesitated for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

"It's not a big secret… and you deserve to know."

She seemed to have decided that I, too, was a victim of Selina's inquisition.

***

"She… questioned Your Highness about your past?"

"Yeah."

Judging by Lili's account, Selina's questions were intrusive enough to warrant a magical assault.

She had asked about Lili's recovery from her supposedly terminal illness.

About the Emperor's Shadow, whether it was real, and if Lili knew its identity.

About why she was always with Berry, the joint top scorer of the Knight Department, and why she had chosen him as her tournament partner.

And finally, about her fiancé, whose identity remained a mystery, despite the rumors…

Lili had ignored her questions in class, claiming to be busy, but she couldn't avoid her when they ran into each other in front of my training grounds.

"If she were a man, I might have actually killed her."

"Ahaha…"

Lili clicked her tongue, a look of mock regret on her face.

I chuckled awkwardly, listening to her casually talk about murder.

It was strange for a secondary heroine, originally destined for an early exit, to show such open hostility towards the main heroine.

'But why were Ian and Selina at my training grounds? In the original story, they were supposed to be training together until sunset…'

Had my presence somehow altered their behavior?

I tilted my head, puzzled. Lili, her arms crossed, sighed, still replaying the encounter in her mind.

Well, there were two anomalies here. So, it was possible…

No.

I had vowed to never be caught off guard again.

While I couldn't have predicted this, I had to eliminate any potential problems caused by my own negligence.

Selina was a character I had barely interacted with. We hadn't even had a proper conversation.

And yet, she was acting differently from the original story?

Perhaps she was only acting differently around us, the anomalies.

It was a plausible theory, so the next day, I went to Ian's training grounds and said something, a specific word, in front of Ian and Selina.

A word that would reveal whether my suspicions were correct.

The possibility of another reincarnator. Specifically, Selina.

"Here's the vitamin supplement you asked for, Ian."

Vitamin.

A blatantly modern word. If Selina was a reincarnator, she would recognize it as a test.

A word familiar to any Korean, yet unheard of in this medieval world.

Even if she realized it didn't exist in this era, if she was Korean, she would understand what I meant.

And I would catch that fleeting change in her expression.

…But…

""Vitamin?""

Both Ian and Selina echoed the word, their pronunciation hesitant, as if testing the unfamiliar syllables.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she wasn't a fellow reincarnator.

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