About This World

It was really difficult for Lucien to make sense of it. Him and Clara, being romantically involved? He never imagined it. He carefully looked up at Giselle.

His face had a look that seemed to imply he was viewing her as a crazy woman, despite his best efforts to hide his thoughts.

He only realized that it was showing on his face when Giselle spoke up.

“You don’t believe me,” she said. The second time she ever said this to him.

Lucien opened his mouth, wanting to deny that just to be polite, but he couldn’t even voice it out.

“I wouldn’t, either,” Giselle said again, earning a surprised look from Lucien. She herself just looked nonchalant. “Sometimes I think I might have gone crazy. Why else would I have sudden bouts of memory that I don’t remember experiencing?”

“What do you…?” Lucien was about to question her, but she interrupted him.

“I only remember bits and pieces,” she said while fiddling with her fingers. “I have no idea what triggers it, but the memories of my past life only come to me little by little. Like…”

Giselle glanced at Lucien. He blinked for a moment before things finally started clicking in his mind. When she suddenly collapsed back then during their outing…

“Like that time with my sister’s case…?” he asked. Giselle nodded to that.

“That’s how my memories always come back to me. Even now, I still don’t completely remember how the novel goes,” Giselle looked at the outside of the windows, her gaze distant.

“All I know is that Lady Benois is the female lead, Siegfried is the male lead, you’re the second male lead, and I’m…” Giselle’s lips pursed in hesitation. “The villainess.”

Lucien was a bit taken aback that Giselle would say that about herself.

I mean, she does look the part, but still.

He would never say that out loud. If he did, his head would probably fly right off.

“So it would be useless for you to ask me what I know about Lady Benois’s current circumstances,” Giselle continued, causing Lucien to raise an eyebrow.

He did feel kind of curious about that, but having her say that to him outright pissed him off for some reason. He was feeling sort of defensive out of nowhere.

“I was not about to ask that,” he said.

Giselle raised an eyebrow up.

“No? You don’t want to know what happened to the House of Benois?” she questioned him with a look of doubt.

He did. He did want to know. But now he couldn’t take back what he already said. Curse his mouth for speaking faster than he could think. Lucien closed his eyes and sighed.

“Well, Your Highness, you did say you are not privy to that matter,” he said, maintaining his calm and dignified poise.

“I indeed am not,” Giselle said as she leaned to the back, still glaring at Lucien with her cat-like eyes. “It’s just strange that you aren’t interested. What are you planning?”

What are YOU planning? Lucien wanted to scream out, but he held it in because this was a princess he was dealing with.

“Nothing, Your Highness. I’m just more curious about why you’re letting me know about all this,” Lucien said, trying to shift the topic around.

“Oh,” Giselle muttered.

It seemed like Lucien succeeded in directing her attention somewhere else. He let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

“It’s because I want to tell you in advance that… it’s useless to get between Lady Benois and Siegfried,” she continued to say, surprising Lucien once again.

“That’s—Your Highness, I’ve been telling you that I don’t feel that way toward Clara,” Lucien said. It was getting on his nerves now the way she kept on insisting on something that simply wasn’t true. When Giselle didn’t say a word to that and just squinted her eyes at him, he continued, “Now, what even gave you the impression that I would do that?”

Giselle let out a Hmph, and turned her face away. “That’s what you said in the novel as well, yet you still managed to annoy me every time you appeared.”

Lucien was flabbergasted at Giselle’s sudden insult. Setting all this novels thing aside, he didn’t even do anything. He looked at her in disbelief.

Not only had she been treating him like a mere fictional character, now she was even complaining about his fictional self’s actions. Something that he had absolutely no control over. Lucien didn’t even know what to say in this absurd situation.

“Did you not say I was the second male lead? Is that not a mere supporting role?” he asked.

“Ha!” Giselle scoffed. This might be Lucien’s first time seeing Giselle’s face contort that much. She was huffing and puffing like she just heard the most offensive thing ever. “Supporting role? Hardly. All they ever do is be a nuisance to the main couple and act like a tragic hero.”

Lucien was confused whether he should be offended or not. At this point, he just wanted to go home—was what he thought as he glanced at the door ever so somberly.

“Setting that aside for a moment, I have another reason.” Giselle suddenly calmed down like she didn’t just have an outburst a moment ago. “I need your help in quelling the rumors that are going around.”

Giselle stood up and walked over to a cabinet near the door. She grabbed a stack of newspaper resting on top of it before making her way back to the sofa and tossing it onto the coffee table.

Lucien leaned forward to look at it and the first headline he saw immediately caught his attention.

The Black Rose strikes again! Does her cruelty know no bounds?

“...?” Lucien wasn’t sure what he was reading, so he continued to read the passage under it.

It is public knowledge that the Black Rose’s obsession with her cousin, the Winter Sword, goes beyond common sense. Last week, a lady was pushed down into a drain in the middle of the city all because she sent a longing gaze at the Winter Sword while the Black Rose was standing by his side. … It is widely believed that the reason the Winter Sword is taking such a long time to tie the knot with his fiancée is because he is trying to protect his beloved from the wicked Black Rose.

As it turned out, it wasn’t just any newspaper, but a tabloid.

Lucien warily glanced at Giselle, but she looked unfazed as she stood near him with her arms crossed, staring at those tabloids.

“Couldn’t they be sued for libel…?” he asked. Whether it was true or not, the tabloid really went out of line. This was the imperial family they were dealing with.

“Probably not. They didn’t mention any name directly,” Giselle nonchalantly said. Even though her voice sounded unbothered, there was quite a visible glare on her face.

Lucien looked at the tabloid again. He knew she had a bad reputation, but he had never seen the rumors themselves at play. He was quite surprised to find out just how bad it really was.

“This is where I need your help. I have to put an end to these malicious rumors somehow,” Giselle said as she pointed at the stack of tabloids. There were way more than the one Lucien read.

“So how can I be of help?” he asked.

“It’s simple, really. I just need to show everyone that I’m in love with someone else.” Giselle walked closer and stopped right in front of Lucien. “Namely, you.”

Lucien froze in place and blinked before pointing at himself. “Me?”

Giselle nodded, then made a gesture at him with her hand. “You.”

Lucien felt like his brain had been going overdrive today. When the gears in his brain finally clicked, he gasped.

“No, no, no, I don’t—!”

He couldn’t even finish his sentences because Giselle suddenly slammed her hand on the back of the sofa right next to Lucien’s head, trapping him under her.

“You will do it, won’t you?” she asked, her eyes fixed on him and her face inching closer.

“No, I—”

“You will,” Giselle said again, now with a glare. “Won’t you?”

Was it only Lucien or was it getting chilly and dark around here?

“...Yes,” he finally said in resignation.

Giselle looked satisfied as she pulled away and made her way back to her seat. Lucien sighed in relief when she finally got away from him.

“Just to be clear... Your Highness does not actually hold romantic feelings for Duke Karron, do you?”

Lucien took a cautious glance at Giselle. For a moment, she just stared at him in silence, not a single change in her expression.

“Lord Renand…” Giselle began to say to break the silence. “You do know he and I are first cousins?”

The look on her face then was a mix of contempt and disgust.

“His mother and my father are blood-related siblings?”

Her tone sounded like she was asking, but it was more like she was questioning his intelligence. Lucien could only hang his head down in shame.

“Yes, my sincere apologies for asking,” he said.

Giselle rolled her eyes and picked up a cup of tea.

“Besides, you’re more my type than Siegfried is,” she said while sipping her tea in a dignified way, with her little finger up.

…

…

“...What?” Lucien said.

“What?” and Giselle answered. It took some time, but when it finally dawned on her what she’d just said, her eyes grew wider.