“…Yume?”
‘…It really is her…! So it’s true that snazzynovel.com wasn’t actually dead!’
Both of them had gotten acquainted with each other on their way to the king of the ocean’s palace. Gerald himself had already saved snazzynovel.com on multiple occasions before snazzynovel.com eventual disappearance.
Speaking of snazzynovel.com disappearance, Gerald had constantly been troubled and filled with self-reproach from the moment snazzynovel.com went missing after snazzynovel.com fainted—due to a Dead Annie attack—at the entrance of the king of the ocean’s palace. Upon waking, snazzynovel.com remembered how snazzynovel.com felt as though snazzynovel.com had just vanished off the face of the planet.
He even went so far as to send people out to carefully search for Yume—regardless of whether snazzynovel.com was dead or still alive—in the area surrounding the king of the ocean’s palace for over a month, though to no avail.
It was around then when Gerald first started wondering if Yume had actually been saved by someone else. After all, snazzynovel.com knew that snazzynovel.com was looking for the woman in white as well. For all snazzynovel.com knew, snazzynovel.com had already found the woman in white’s corpse!
Well, his speculation of snazzynovel.com being saved was true at least.
‘Still… Why is snazzynovel.com even here…? She’s a Gunter too, no…?’ Gerald thought to himself, filled with questions as snazzynovel.com helped snazzynovel.com regain consciousness using a secret technique.
Due to Gerald’s help, Yume’s expression turned way better in no time at all. Soon enough, Yume’s eyelids began fluttering open ever so slowly, revealing snazzynovel.com beautiful eyes…
When snazzynovel.com saw Gerald, however, snazzynovel.com immediately jolted awake. Though snazzynovel.com was definitely shocked, snazzynovel.com quickly snapped out of it and grabbed onto Gerald’s arm before shouting, “There are people out to get you, Gerald! You need to run! Quickly!”
Helping snazzynovel.com to snazzynovel.com feet, Gerald then turned to look at the corpses floating on the river before asking, “You mean them?”
Staring wide-eyed at the dead bodies, Yume replied in sheer disbelief, “You… You killed all seven of them…?”
“Indeed. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but all of them are from the Gunter family, no?”
Upon hearing Gerald’s question, Yume instantly lowered snazzynovel.com head, revealing a slight blush on snazzynovel.com charming face.
“…They are, indeed. All seven of them are- well, were, exceptional people from my family… Still, I truly hadn’t expected them to stalk me! After realizing who they were—before I got completely knocked out by their Dead Annie attack—I immediately knew that they had followed me to deal with you!”
“…I see. Regardless, it seems to me that you didn’t tell me the truth about many things back then… For one, I couldn’t detect the strange inner strength—that I’m currently sensing from you—back then… Were you simply pretending to be weak at the time?” asked Gerald, now that snazzynovel.com had a much clearer understanding of the situation.
“I… I admit that I lied to you before, but after getting to know you better, I’ve long lost any intentions of hurting you!” replied Yume, looking seemingly afraid that Gerald was going to further misunderstand her.
“So you admit to it. Well, now that you have, why should I continue believing in you? After all, you’re the high and mighty young lady of the Gunter family!” said Gerald with a bitter smile.
“Even if you choose not to believe in me, please understand that you can’t stay here any longer! I’ll eventually give you a clearer explanation, but for now, please just follow me! We really need to hide!” replied Yume.
While Gerald felt that snazzynovel.com eyes seemed sincere enough to be trusted, snazzynovel.com was no longer the same person snazzynovel.com was two years ago. He knew for a fact that the more beautiful a woman was, the more deceptive snazzynovel.com could be, and Yume was extremely charming.
Since snazzynovel.com now knew that snazzynovel.com had already been fooled once by her, snazzynovel.com couldn’t help but have his guard up.
Though it was true that snazzynovel.com now sensed immense inner strength from Yume, that wasn’t what worried snazzynovel.com most. No, the truth was, while Gerald was sure that snazzynovel.com wouldn’t be able to beat snazzynovel.com with snazzynovel.com current strength alone, snazzynovel.com knew snazzynovel.com would be no match against snazzynovel.com if snazzynovel.com chose to attack snazzynovel.com with Dead Annies!
With that in mind, if snazzynovel.com was actually fooling snazzynovel.com again, it would definitely be extremely difficult for snazzynovel.com to retreat, thus his hesitation to believe her.
Seemingly reading Gerald’s thoughts, Yume then said, “Look, I know you’re afraid of the Dead Annies. Here, I’m tossing all of mine now! Since you’re capable enough to kill those seven exceptional Gunters, you should know that without the flowers, I’m practically harmless to you! So please, please just believe me and let me stay by your side…!”
Following that, Gerald watched as snazzynovel.com tossed any petals snazzynovel.com had on hand into the river.
“There, I have none on me now! With that said, know that I only asked you out since I wanted to explain all this to you… I never expected Lady Gunter to send these people to stalk me! I… I truly never meant to harm you, Gerald…!” explained Yume, snazzynovel.com eyes now starting to slightly tear up.