Answer Me, Please

Answer Me, Please – Chapter 16

Krell could not understand the meaning of what he was saying. Since I touched his woman, shouldn’t I apologize to him?

However, it was only after a little more time had passed that he fully understood Rashid’s meaning. Now he is telling me to apologize to that woman.

“……”

Krell’s fingernails scratched the ground. A heat rose in his head, and a deep sense of shame crept into him. It’s not a problem to beg and crawl to Riga, the chieftain, for his life. However, doing it for a Basque woman is another matter entirely. Usually, if you are caught stealing someone else’s livestock, you apologize to the owner, not to the livestock.

Under these circumstances, anyone would think it would be less shameful to slit their throats and die. However, since he was determined to live somehow, there was only one path he could choose now.

Krell began to crawl on the ground with his elbows. Because the ligament in his ankle was severed, there was no other way to reach Rosetta than this. As he touched the ground, a long stream of red blood ran behind his feet.

When he finally reached Rosetta, he was bleeding not only from his ankle but also from his arms.

“Rigaina…”

He struggled to open his mouth. It was clear that every last drop of energy in his body had been squeezed out. It wouldn’t be strange even if he died right now.

“I-I made a big mistake. Please forgive me…”

He barely managed to utter those words, and then dropped his head to the ground. And everything quieted down. Rosetta stared at the man as she stood still. Could it be that he died from too much blood loss?

Rashid ordered, “Take him and treat him.”

Another tribal man carried him on his back to the encampment. Shika ran straight to Rashid. And he chatted around Rashid’s side.

“Of course I was sure Riga would win easily! I didn’t worry about anything! There’s no way Riga can lose to a guy like Krell, right?”

Rashid frowned slightly before dropping the sword from his hand. From the way his fingers trembled, he knew that the paralysis had spread to his fingertips. He let out a small sigh and picked up his sword with his left hand. Shika held back a groan as he leaned over and saw blood flowing from the wound on his side stomach.

“Riga, go back quickly and treat your wounds first.”

At Shika’s words, Rashid nodded and put his sword into the scabbard. Then he turned his gaze straight to Rosetta.

“……”

The moment she met his cold eyes, Rosetta felt her body freeze. She was more scared now than when she heard the strange noise in the grass. At least at the time, she had a glimmer of hope that she could escape, but now there is nowhere left to run.

“Let’s go back for now.”

He gritted his teeth low and grabbed Rosetta’s arm. Rosetta sincerely wanted to disappear anywhere, whether in the sky or on the ground.

***

Upon returning to the encampment, Rashid put Rosetta inside the tent. Rosetta wanted him to go somewhere instead of entering the tent more than anything, but her hopes were in vain.

Rosetta hurriedly tried to run away from the entrance of the tent to the furthest place. But he immediately grabbed Rosetta by the shoulder.

“I told you not to leave the fire…”

The moment she was forced to turn, Rosetta shuddered and reflexively closed her eyes tightly. She still hasn’t forgotten how Krell hit her earlier.

She ran away ignoring his warnings and this all happened. On top of that, he was injured because of it. This time, he definitely wouldn’t leave her alone. Rosetta expected him to wield violence like that man earlier.

If you’re going to hit me, please finish it with just one punch.

But time passed and nothing happened. After a long time, Rosetta carefully opened her eyes and saw Rashid with a puzzled expression.

“I…”

Rashid let go of Rosetta’s shoulders. Then he rubbed his face and let out a deep sigh.

“I have no intention of hitting you. So don’t make that face.”

What kind of face do I have right now?

Rosetta, who was absent-mindedly thinking about it, soon felt like she would know without looking in the mirror. She knew that now she had the most servile and miserable expression in the world. Like Krell, who just crawled on the ground like a bug to save his life.

Not anyone else but me, the princess of the Kingdom of Lisa.

“Hic…”

Suddenly, Rosetta burst into tears. Rashid became more surprised to see Rosetta bursting into tears.

“Why are you crying…”

“This is all because of you!” Rosetta started punching him in the chest. “If only you hadn’t brought me! It all happened because you kidnapped me!”

Her eyes filled with tears were sparkling with a darker green than usual. The sadness, anger, and injustice that had been suppressed so far were intertwined and burst out with tears.

“I wanted to go back to my family, so I ran away!”

“I told you I will send you back when the time comes…”

“I don’t know you. Do you want me to believe you unconditionally? Do you believe what others say so easily?”

Rashid, who had a very troubled expression because of Rosetta’s non-stop crying, wiped away her tears with his hands like comforting a child. He had never soothed a crying woman, let alone a crying child, so he had no idea what to do. But it didn’t seem like a very good way to yell more here.

“All right, stop crying now.”

Rashid stopped Rosetta’s cotton candy-like fists that hadn’t done any damage since before. Rosetta’s body leaned toward him as he grabbed her swinging hands. The moment Rosetta’s head hit his chest, the entrance to the tent opened.

“Riga! I brought medicine and bandage needed to treat wounds…”

Shika stopped on the spot with his eyes wide open when he saw the scene. He then threw the things he was holding in his hands on the floor.

“I-I will leave it all here, so you do the treatment yourself!”

And the tent door was closed again. After a moment of silence, Rosetta came to her senses and struggled to release her hands. Rashid let go of her hands easily.

Rosetta stood far away from him and continued to sob. And just as her tears stopped to some extent, Rashid opened his mouth.

“…let me explain again from the beginning. As I said before, I have no intention of continuing marital relations with you.”

Rashid sighed, staring at the green eyes still glaring at him.

He continued, “The reason I made you my wife was to prevent the union between your tribe and the Croa tribe. So, until your marriage is completely annulled, I intend to let you go immediately.”

“If you wanted to prevent the marriage so badly, why didn’t you put a knife to the neck of both chieftains and threaten them? After seeing it myself, I think you’d do that much better.”

“If that happens, it will give the Lisa Kingdom a reason to intervene.”

Rosetta flinched as he mentioned the Lisa Kingdom all of sudden.

“Lisa Kingdom?”

“You mean you don’t know that the Lisa Kingdom does that by putting the Basque tribe in front and hiding behind to get the benefits they want?”

“I beg your pardon?” asked Rosetta in bewilderment.

Now his words sounded as if her motherland was doing something nasty behind it. The real villains are themselves, who kidnap and threaten a woman.

“What kind of—”

“However, on the matter of marriage, the Lisa Kingdom has no choice but to remain silent. Just like they did twenty years ago.”

Hearing the next words, Rosetta stopped arguing. She then asked, “What do you mean?”

“…when something like this happened in the past, we asked the Lisa Kingdom for mediation. At that time, they refused, saying that they could not intervene in the matter of personal marriage.”

Rosetta realized that it had to do with his parents, as Krell had said.

“Are you talking about what happened to your mother?”

At those words, his blue eyes quickly froze.

Rosetta, realizing that she had made a slip of the tongue, immediately shut her mouth. This man still thinks she is the daughter of the Basque chieftain. Therefore, the enemy’s daughter must not carelessly talk about it.

“I mean…”

“Did Krell tell you about the past?”

Rosetta nodded. Then she glanced up again. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any intention of venting his anger over things from the past. He seemed to choose his words for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“If you knew about it, the conversation would be a little easier. In the past, when my mother was kidnapped by your father, my father requested mediation from the Lisa Kingdom but was rejected, saying the culture and customs of the Ardennes must be respected. It was really funny considering they were always pointing fingers at us, saying we were savages.”

If it was twenty years ago, it was during the reign of the previous king. The days when my father, the current king, was still a crown prince and my grandfather was on the throne.

It was so long ago that Rosetta knew nothing about it. In fact, aside from that, she knew very little about her grandfather. She was very ill when she was about ten years old and partially lost her memories after surviving near death. Maybe that’s why she remembers very little about her grandfather. Except that he was a strict and very scary person.

Did my grandfather just say that because he didn’t want to get involved in complicated things?

“Actually, that was just an excuse. The Lisa Kingdom stirred up the Basque tribe and plot everything behind the scenes.”