MNLWYPBP chapter 43: Muscle and bones, they’re direct opposites but are inseparable. The first one is desirable while the later is pitiful.

“I won’t help you.”

The Prince refused cold heartedly.

“Have you heard of any idiot who would help their man to pursue other men, huh, Bedivere?”,  his orange-coloured eyes, a feature of his crafted-by-spell body, looked at me in annoyance as if I’d ask him such a stupid question. “Another thing, you’re going for Haref? Where did this come from?”.

…From my dear lil’ sis.

“Salsal, I know you have a dream of building a harem which consists of the entire members of the Round Table, isn’t that right? I’m helping you here…”, I begged him once more and took a peek at the Prince’s temperament. Good thing, he hasn’t been telling me to stop calling him Salsal unlike when I first met him where he would kick me every time I called him that.

Coax him more Gilbert! Coax him! But, unfortunately, the Prince isn’t feeble-minded.

“I can do it if I want to, but not with methods as foolish as these”, his orange-coloured eyes looked at me. “Also, get rid of whatever stupid thoughts you have and throw it out of your head before I do it for you, violently…do you understand what I’m saying?”

I glanced at the vase behind the Prince: a vase that can float towards me at anytime…my childhood experiences had taught me well.

“Tell me what happened…”, the Prince raised his voice in annoyance, “…all of it and don’t lie.”.

I smiled…tilted my head and innocently asked, “What are you talking about, Salsal?”

“How many years do you think I’ve know you for, Gilbert Bedivere.”, he lowered his orange-coloured eyes, his iris became ruby-coloured. “Although, I wasn’t the first one to know you but I don’t think you’ll suddenly think of pursuing Haref Lancelot. Is it love at first sight? You suddenly fell in love? You just discovered your feelings?…

…Hmph, makes me want to puke.

If you seriously wanted to pursue Haref Lancelot, you would’ve done it ages ago and not beginning to formulate your plan now, Bedivere.”, the Prince rested his chin on his hand.

“You know, Salsaal, sometimes love can come knocking your door unexpectedly…”, I closed my eyes, “…at first…I hated him but now I love him. My heart skips a beat just by being near him…”

“Bullshit.”

“…”

“Now, tell me the truth and don’t make me more irritated than I am right now.”, the Prince lowered his eyelids. “You know how short-tempered I can be and also, since you’re asking me for help, shouldn’t you be telling me the truth? Hey, my darling, aren’t you sincere!”

Such great sarcasm coming out of your mouth.

“If I tell you the truth, you’ll help me?”

“Obviously not”, the Prince refused. “But at least, if you tell me the truth and it’s interesting…I might consider it.”

Well, that’s still better…I contemplated and finally decided that I’ll tell him the truth. “My memory was changed by him.”

“Hm? Isn’t that interesting. Tell me more.”

“In my last world, I had an important person and Haref…changed that person into himself by using Excalibur’s powers.”, I smiled when I saw that the Prince flinched a little when the Holy Sword was mentioned. “I don’t know why he did it but naturally, I’m absolutely livid. That’s why, I’d like him to pay for his crimes. I’ll make him fall in love with me…”

I was silent for a moment, looked at the Prince with a serious face and said, “I will make Haref my wife!”

“…Huh?”, The Prince’s face was empty.

“Press him down! Make him moan beneath me! Not stopping even if he begs me to!”

“…Huhhh?”, the Prince’s face was even more empty. My words were probably more cold-blooded than he could handle. Argh!! My head was hit by a vase. “Are you sane yet?”

But I wasn’t insane…all of you inexperienced folks are all like this!

“You can only think of this much? You despise him so much, you want to make him your wife? Hmph! Aren’t you a knob head!!”, the Prince shouted in annoyance.

“Well, at first I wasn’t thinking of this…”, I sighed and shook my head. “At first I was going to tell your father or one of your cousins about Excalibur.”

“Hm?”, the Prince’s brows, which were scrunched together, relaxed, “You plan to tell the royal family?…oh.”

He lowered his ruby-coloured eyes, “Isn’t it way more interesting to do this, why didn’t you?”

“Because I’m a good person.”

“…Hmph.”, the Prince did not say anything and turned the other way. “If it’s not this stupid plan of making that guy your wife then I might help you but still, I don’t think you should do this, Gilbert.”

“Why?”

“Instead of you eating him I think you’re the one who would be eaten.”, a scornful smile appeared on the Prince’s face. “What do you have that can rival him? Your body? Your power? Your abilities?”

“Well…yeah.”, everything can be overcome with a sleeping pill! But it’s best if I don’t tell him this since it seems like I’m already an immoral person in Salsal’s eyes. “Haref’s also packed with muscles…sigh.”

“Hm?”, the Prince raised his brow before asking as if he thought he’d misheard me, “Muscles…?”.

“Yeah, that’s right! There are even six of them on his abdomen!!”

“Six…”, the Prince’s face darkened even more. I even saw that when he glanced at his own abdomen, his face morphed into an ugly expression. Salsaal’s an extremely petty person so, I know that he’s being envious right now. “…that’s great. It truly is….”

I looked at him and thought: maybe I’m going about this the right way! I didn’t think that I would actually hit the nail on the spot just by teasing him for fun. “Apart from being good-looking and powerful, he’s also got muscles, oh, and don’t forget his unrivalled strength. Sigh…”

The Prince’s face started to twitch. I know, I understand that Salsaal is totally deprived in that department. That’s why, I’ve got to tease him even more. Him being persuaded or not depends on how envious of Haref I can make him become.

“Don’t you wonder…what would happen if someone who’s as prideful as him end up with the woman’s role in bed? Hm, it probably would be terrible for him, it truly would be.” I sighed and sighed. I’m only saying my opinions out loud, I’m totally not manipulating you, not at allllll.

“I…”, he lowered his eyelids as if he was deep in thought.

 

“I won’t help you.”

 

Huh?

It shouldn’t end up like this!

However, the Prince merely looked at me from the corner of his eyes and titled his chin up in angrily. “He’s got muscles, so what? Hmph! I don’t want muscles at all!”

Yeah, that’s totally believable when you’re clearly clenching your teeth while saying this.

“Gilbert Bedivere, I don’t care what you do. you can even sell Excalibur’s whereabouts to someone but…”, he face that was lifted looked straight at me, “…do not look down on me.”

…stress?

It seems the Prince became too stressed out from my words so much that I don’t know what to do next…did I overdo it? Would he forgive me if I apologised…

“There aren’t any idiots out there who would help their beloved to find a way to pursue someone else!”

…

Hm?

“I already told you I’ll take responsibility. Didn’t you believe me at all?!”

“Honestly…I didn’t really care.”, I didn’t know the Prince would be this concerned. As someone who’s older than him (only my soul is), I had to tell him I didn’t think too much into it. “So…you also don’t have to be that serious. You don’t have to take responsibility…it’s only a kiss after all and you were also helping me undo the blessing right?”

“Then you should take responsibility of me!”

…No way in hell.

You’re not my type.

It seemed like my expression was too revealing, making the Prince scrunch his brows together in annoyance. “I will not go back on my words. I told you I’ll take responsibility of you so, I will. Are there any Princes out there who don’t keep their words. huh?!”

Yeah, you…

…in several occasions.

However, the Prince is becoming angry so, I shouldn’t argue with him since he’ll only answer me with violence. He grabbed my arm and twisted it.

That’s a shame…my arm’s not moving at all. He probably doesn’t have enough strength.

“…”, the Prince became silent for a moment when he saw I didn’t budge, he squeezed my arm instead. It doesn’t hurt much but I’ll pretend it does for you, Prince.

“Please don’t use violence. Please…”, I smiled at him gently. “Another thing, since you can’t kiss me so, um…let’s just pretend nothing happened.”

The Prince clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and did something beyond everyone’s expectations. He lowered his head, his hot breath landed on my face and he lightly bit my lips. I could feel both my lips and my face heating up because of his hot breath. His actions held a sort of stubbornness I couldn’t quite comprehend.

He lingered for a moment before lifting his face. At first, I thought he would stop there but he didn’t. His lips slowly approached mine, devouring me hungrily, making me unable to breathe. All the thoughts I had in my head flew away one by one until I couldn’t think of anything anymore.

The only thing that was left were my instincts.

My instincts.

Bam!!!!!

“Cough!! What the hell are you doing huh?!! Stop there! Lower your hands and feet right now!!”

I looked at Salsaal who was crying out in protest and didn’t know what kind of expression should I have. I looked at both my hands and feet that were in action and felt even weirder. It was as if, for a split second, my body was beyond the control of my mind…

The next thing I knew, I’d already kicked Salsaal.

I looked at the Prince who was holding on to his stomach and lifted his hand to wipe away the fluid on his lips: there were both blood and saliva on his lips. His ruby-coloured eyes looked at me sharply. “What the hell were you thinking, Bedivere…It seems like you don’t want to die a peaceful death anymore, am I right, Bedivere?”

I was confused and couldn’t think of anything but my mouth moved before I could think of anything. “Why didn’t you puke?”

“Why should I? I was allergic to the light element in your body but it’s already been diluted and also, do you think I’m a fool who would kiss anyone just cause I felt like it without thinking of the consequences? I think you’re questioning the wrong thing here, Bedivere. Shouldn’t you be asking why I did it instead?”

“I…”, I scrunched my brows together and sighed, “…whatever.”

Salsaal’s ruby-coloured eyes darkened even more.

I wiped my mouth, “I think…I’m going back now. It won’t be good if people discover that I’m here and start to speculate why a Duke would come to a commoner’s dorm.”

The Prince didn’t say anything. I smiled and stood up. At first, I thought I would just walkout since I’ve already said farewell to him but I decided to say something to him before leaving. “I…don’t know about you but…”

“Don’t kiss me again…”

“…if you don’t have feelings for me.”

Even if it might not matter to me at all…

 

I shut the door close..

 

The room’s owner’s ruby-coloured eyes darkened even more than before. He swore angrily. Salsaal Secalno de Arthur is short-tempered, there are only a handful of things he can stand. He’s prideful and selfish. The Prince will abandon anything which makes him feel annoyed.

What he hates the most is everything that is related to ‘Light’ – whether it be personality, goodness or whatever the qualities that a hero must have and stories that ends with ‘happily ever after’.

Light’s happiness but, why aren’t there any stories which focuses on Darkness’ story.

Even though, he’s like that…

…the person he’s closest to ended up being the personification of everything he hates: golden hair, golden eyes and a warm atmosphere around him, concealing his true personality. It makes him feel disgusted, makes him get goosebumps, makes him feel nauseated.

“You’re always like this.”, he smiled in disdain and laughed quietly – a laugh which contained not even a trace of happiness. “…whatever.”

A word which made him think of that day.

When they went to find Excalibur. When he harmed Haref Lancelot and Nigel Gawain who were his ‘friends’. At that time, Gilbert also said this…

 

“…Whatever.”

 

The word doesn’t mean that he thinks nothing of it or is forgiving them…

…but it means, he ‘doesn’t care’.

 

“I…don’t know about you but…”

 

“Don’t kiss me again…”

 

“…if you don’t have feelings for me.”

 

“…and have you ever asked me if I had any feelings for you…”

It’s only you that doesn’t care about anything at all…

Gilbert Bedivere.

 

Next chapter

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[Tea time behind the curtains -Muscle and bones they’re direct opposites (the chapter’s name)-]

Salsaal: “It’s light and darkness and not muscle and bones!!”

Gilbert: “I know who the ‘muscles’ are referring to and for ‘bones’…”

Haref: “I don’t think I’m only made up of bones.”

Cass: “I’m still young.”

Nigel: “…I’ve got muscles since I train everyday.”

Calis: “…”

Salsaal: “Why are you silent?!”

Calis: “I-I-I-I-I’ve also got some muscles…bu-but they appeared out of nowhere. It’s not like I’ve laboured before. Cryyy!!”

Salsaal: “…”

 

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Translator’s note:

I feel like I’m not good enough at those kind of scenes. I’ll try to go read more novels with those kind of scenes, maybe I’ll improve. I’m sorry in advance for not being able to make it as steamy as the original.

Also, I’ve found a better way for the Prince’s most used word: huh and hmph. In the earlier chapters, I couldn’t come up with a word for the sound the Prince makes so I left it with ‘huh’ but now, since I’ve found a more accurate way and will be using ‘hmph’ from now on. (Just wanted to point this out cause it’s been bugging me for a while)