The Executed Saint Reincarnates as a Princess and is Loved by Her Older Brothers - Episode 36

Angela blinked.

“……?”

Dressed in matching traditional costumes and holding lantern torches, people are marching in a line.

Not one or two, but nine. There are nine. The same number as the stakes driven into the center of the wooden tower erected in the square.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a festival, you see. That yagura will later become a bridge to the heavens.”

At the words of the responding maid, Angela’s heart skipped a beat.──A bridge to the heavens?

“How…?”

“Yes, that is──”

Behind the maid who was explaining in a cheerful tone, nine people simultaneously raised their lanterns high.

“Set it on fire and burn it.”

The fire held by the nine people touched the nine stakes simultaneously.

“Huh…!?”

The flames suddenly blaze up. Black smoke billows, and the wooden tower is quickly engulfed in a massive pillar of fire.

Angela froze, holding her breath.

The sky illuminated by the scorching heat distorts. The view turns crimson as if stained with bl00d.

My body stiffened as if paralyzed by the fear of the flames that had caused my death in a past life.

(I… no…!)

My hands are shaking. My legs are trembling. I know I should run, but I just can’t move.

What should I do… it’s so painful…!

Unfortunately, the wind changed direction, and the black smoke drifted towards Angela.

It’s no use…!

Even though I only inhaled a little of the smoke that was coming in, I can’t breathe. My chest feels tight, it’s painful, and I feel like I’m suffocating.

It was when Angela was about to lose consciousness.

Just before falling to the ground, my body floated lightly into the air. I was caught in someone’s arms and lifted effortlessly.

“Are you injured?”

What was whispered in my ear was a low, yet resonant voice, imbued with a sweet, almost intoxicating quality.

When I gently opened my stiff eyelids, I saw short dark gray hair swaying in the wind.

The man holding Angela in a side embrace is a tall figure with a rugged physique.

The hair, colored in a way that evokes nostalgia, swayed, and the sharp, elongated eyes looked down at Angela.

One eye is covered with a black eyepatch, but the other is an unforgettable ice blue, like a clear winter sky.

Lil!

Angela involuntarily called out in her heart.

In the robust young man standing before me, the image of the boy I met in my past life clearly overlaps.

Lil! It’s Lil!

The throat that inhaled the smoke wouldn’t move properly. Angela repeated this over and over in her mind.

Fifteen years have passed since I last met Lil. He was ten years old then, and now he should be twenty-five.

No matter how well you knew someone in the past, if a ten-year-old child grows into a twenty-five-year-old adult, you probably wouldn’t be able to recognize them right away.

But perhaps it was because he was the last person I spoke to in my previous life. Or maybe it was because I had often thought back on Lil. I could clearly see that the young man before me was an older version of Lil.

Lil… you’ve grown so much…!

Although my heart was trembling with emotion, my body remained paralyzed.

Did Lionel feel that Angela’s trembling wouldn’t stop? He turned to the maid.

“Could you please allow us to continue protecting you until we reach a safe place?”

“Y-yes. Then, to the carriage…”

The knights who went to mediate the fight have not yet returned.

The maid guided Lionel to the place where the carriage had just been stopped.

Lil, you’ve become really cool…

Riru’s tall and slender figure had long arms and legs. His well-trained physique was well-proportioned, with muscles that were clearly defined even through his clothes.

Even the maid is faintly blushing, and Angela, who should be used to her handsome brothers, is captivated.

It feels like you’re a grown man now. You’ve really become impressive…

When the waiting coachman opened the carriage door, Lionel gently helped Angela into her seat.

The gaze that fell on Angela’s neck trembled slightly, but her expression did not change.

“Um, your name…?”

“I’m not worthy of introducing myself.”

The maid asked for his name, but Lionel answered briefly and turned on his heel briskly.

“Excuse me.──Please take care.”

While watching the figure walking away, the maid let out a sigh.

“That person just now looked scary, but he was a gentleman, wasn’t he?”

“Does my appearance…… scare you?”

Angela tilted her head while squeezing out a faint voice.

Lil was so tall that I had to look up at him, and the eyepatch over one eye was a bit concerning, but I didn’t find him scary at all. More than that──.

I want to see you again…

I was so terrified of the flames that I couldn’t move, not even to make a sound.

Even though I finally got to meet Lil, I couldn’t say anything.

Feeling pathetic, Angela drooped in dismay.

“I want to go back to the palace now.”

My brothers told me to take my time, but I’m not in the mood to enjoy tea anymore, and I don’t have the energy to watch the festival.

“Yes, let’s return quickly. We have to prepare for the banquet, and it’s been a while since we’ve welcomed a state guest.”

“Huh?”

Angela involuntarily asked back.

I didn’t hear anything about a dinner party tonight.

“A state guest… who is that?”

“It is a person from the Kingdom of Koryu.”

Coral… Kingdom?

At the name of her homeland from a past life, Angela’s heart stirred.

To host as a state guest, it is either the head of state of another country or someone in a position just below that.

The words of the maid rain down on the heart that beats faster.

“Your Highness the Prince Consort──Lord Lionel of Rochelle.”