The Villainess Enjoys Her Seventh Life as a Free-Spirited Bride (hostage) in a Former Enemy Country

“I saw Harriet. Thanks for making my sister look so pretty.”

Rishe narrowed her eyes at him, and Raul smiled with satisfaction.

“Beautiful eyes. They’re just the way I like it.”

“…”

He finally released the hand that had been covering Rishe’s mouth, and she regained her speech.

“How could you behave like this in the person of His Highness Curtis?”

“I like your voice, too. I wish you would scold me more.”

“…We’re getting nowhere.”

Rishe deeply sighed at Raul’s attitude, joking to no end.

In her hunter life, he had been a very dependable companion in times of need. And yet, she was astonished at how difficult it was to handle him when he was not standing on her side.

“Hey, buddy.”

With Rishe pressed against the wall, Raul peered into her face.

“――Don’t show Harriet a new world.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Rishe retorted to the unpleasant words straight back.

But Raul continued in a lighter tone.

“I’m asking you not to be cruel. The reason she’s the way she is is a strategy to survive, you know? Pretend that it’s all her fault and shut out the outside world. As long as she does that well, like her mother taught her, she won’t even realize how terrible the environment she’s in.”

“…”

“Once she tastes the happiness of looking forward…She’ll find it excruciatingly hard to go back to her fiancé and go back to her life at his beck and call, don’t you think?”

Raul smiled as he spun in a bright tone.

“Or is that your plan?”

“…Plan?”

“Of course, to break Harriet’s heart.”

Rishe’s eyes widened at the unexpected accusation.

“You have really nice eyes, as I said earlier. You know what she’s proud of, what she’s ashamed of, what she uses as a last resort… You’re trying to figure those things out and get into her mind, aren’t you?

Raul’s face, which had been so close, drew closer to Rishe.

“For something important, for pride, for a bright future. ―― It seems that people who have been discovered by you are tempted to hope.”

Rishe frowned and pushed at the man’s shoulders, but the man’s body refused to budge.

He snorted as if to ridicule her resistance and stared at her in a good mood.

“That’s really good…You know what?”

His red eyes shot through Rishe, tinged with a dark streak.

“It would be so easy to break someone’s heart, wouldn’t it?”

“…”

It was the sound of the hunter himself, aiming for his prey.

“You know what, Raul?”

With the mental state as in her hunter life, Rishe chided her former chief.

“I think it’s best to stop doing that.”

“What’s that?”

“Lying to yourself even in places unrelated to work.”

Raul’s breath hitched in response.

“――What”

“It’s not a perfect lie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not genuinely true either. You keep mixing truth with lies and falsehood with real feelings, so sometimes you don’t even understand yourself anymore, do you?”

She told him the same words in her hunter life.

Raul was aloof to the world and seemingly had no core. His friends laughed at his frivolity, which was typical of him, but to Rishe, he sometimes looked different.

There were times when he put on an indifferent face and laughed, even though he was really in pain.

Rishe also perceived that he was pretending to be calm when all he really wanted was to blow up.

No doubt about it. He will fool me like he did before and say that he never does that…

Rishe felt tangled at the thought of Raul like that.

But the reaction she got this time was different from what he did in her fifth life.

“…True feelings.”

Raul’s eyes narrowed, and he muttered quietly.

“Don’t you think it would be the end of the world if you saw through me?”

“!”

Rishe blinked.

She expected that she wouldn’t get through Raul with such an exchange. But he sounded unexpectedly sincere, and he spoke very close to Rishe.

“I’d be much more afraid of other people knowing everything about me…For example, those who mess my true feelings up.”

“…!”

Was Raul’s response like this because Rishe was now a stranger to him in this life?

“Don’t you think so, too?”

Rishe reacted to the empty sounding question and replied, “No.”

Arnold’s profile on the beach that day popped up in her mind.

“I wish I could tell everything…There are some people whom you just want to let in on your secrets.”

“But you can’t tell them either.”

Rishe was rendered speechless at his retort.

“That’s the point. You understand that telling the truth can be detrimental, don’t you? And yet, you’re only scolding me. Isn’t that terrible?”

“Raul…”

Raul’s red eyes peered into Rishe, as if searching for something.

“What does marriage to the Crown Prince of Garkhain mean to you?”

“…”

Rishe blinked.