I Will Avoid The Death Flag [It's Published]
20. Sorena Krone

That crazy bastard!

I really wanted to poke Axel's golden eyes with my itchy fingers. I want to kill that crazy bastard before his faction kills me mentally first!

Uh! It sucks!

And look what he did after making me fall into the fog! He laughed with satisfaction!

"Calm down, Princess." Axel laughed in satisfaction for the umpteenth time. "You should be happy to have the full support of the future Marquis candidate."

I really want to grab Axel's hair right now! And grabbing her hair is now pretty safe from the public, because on the balcony there are only me, Axel, and Sir Derick.

I will not be prosecuted for having committed violence against the Marquis' son, unless Axel reports it himself.

I just exhaled heavily, then closed my eyes to enjoy the breeze of the roaring wind on the balcony. I did this to calm my hot heart.

The balcony is wide enough to hold twice our current number, making it easy for us to move around freely.

"Mr Princess," call Axel.

Although annoyed at Axel, I still turned my gaze to look at him with narrowed eyes, still annoyed.

"What's that?"

"You haven't lived in the Asher Kingdom for long, have you?"

I looked at Axel strangely. Why is he asking the sure thing? I just transmigrated a little over a month ago, then of course it wasn't a long time.

"Young Master Axel, if you say nonsense to the Princess, then I will bring the Princess from here" Sir Derick said firmly. He even took his place between me and Axel.

Axel simply shook his head slightly while grinning. He leaned his hands against the balcony railing, then stared straight at the clear afternoon sky. In the beautiful scenery of the Cyrill region.

"You're overprotective of the Princess, Sir Derick," Axel replied with a chuckle. "But if it's Sir Derick, you know it, right?"

I looked at Axel with a big question mark on my face. Know it? Then, I turned to look at Sir Derick whose expression still remained soft, but now slightly frowned.

"What's the matter, Young Master Axel?"

"Hmm, about what, yeah." I glanced at Axel's hardened hands encircling the balcony railing. "Sorena, Sorena Krone."

"Sorena Krone?" I cringe. That name is foreign to me. In the novel, the name is never mentioned. So, I don't know about it at all.

"I've only heard a lot of rumours" Sir Derick replied.

"Unfortunately, it's not just a rumor, Sir Derick," Axel replied with a poignant smile on his face.

I'm rattled. I wanted to ask Axel who Sorena Krone was, but I decided to shut up after seeing Axel's expression that was different from usual.

Axel then looked at me. "Mr Princess, did you know how my impression was when I first saw you at the bar?"

I nodded slowly. "I don't know."

Axel nodded small. His hand slowly rose, about to touch the tip of my hair, before Sir Derick held Axel down.

Axel ignored Sir Derick, but stopped to try to take my strand of hair.

"You have pink hair that is unfortunately very familiar in my eyes. I'm mad at you for this."

Getting angry? I blinked. I was curious about the continuation, but Axel instead paused on his sentence for a long time and instead took a look at my face.

"You are so synonymous with Sorena, my younger sister. I'm angry that you stole my sister's figure. My sister is really similar to you, Princess. With her pink hair, her violet eyes, her white skin, and how the Princess and Sorena both highlighted something, it was soft but at the same time extremely cold. That's exactly. It's similar. And I'm mad, you stole Sorena."

Strange statement from a son of the Marquis. How could that childish mindset be applied to his brain? Did he just think that there would be nothing similar to Sorena Krone?

And that explains something in the novel. On the reason why Axel persecuted Serethy when they first met in the palace garden. When a banquet party is held with Axel in a drunken state, he meets Serethy who got lost in the park, bumping into Axel's body accidentally.

Seeing the figure of Serethy who seems so similar to Sorena Krone makes Axel angry. Axel assumes that Serethy has stolen his sister's figure and ends up torturing Serethy to satisfy his vengeful desires. Didn't he? That's what I can deduce from Axel's short story.

"The Princess is the Princess. The Princess did not steal anyone's figure, Young Master Axel," Sir Derik replied with a frown on his forehead.

Axel shook his hand in the air. "I know that, Sir Derick."

"Then, what happened to your sister?" my question, curious. Even though I already know where the girl is. He must have died.

"Killed."

I gasped a little at Axel's answer I never imagined before.

"Young Master Axel, but I'm sure that it's just a rumor" said Sir Derick.

"You don't know the truth, Sir Derick."

Puk, pukkpuk.

Axel patted Sir Derick on the shoulder twice.

"What you do know is Sorena died of severe pain, but what I do know is Sorena died of being killed by Clare."

"Isn't that a baseless statement?"

"Mr Princess." Axel ignored Sir Derick. "It used to be that my Majesty and I were good friends. We are so close that others will not be astonished to see me continue to be by His Majesty's side."

Does Axel want to tell me about his past, which is still a mystery to me? As a reader of the novel [Luka Serethy], I was really curious as to why Axel and Viten could become former good friends. The author wrote many fun cliffhangers in the novel.

I stared at Axel to listen to his story further. The two golden beads seemed to hold something that I really wanted to achieve long ago. Before I became Serethy.

"Because my Highness and I are good friends, Your Majesty got to know Sorena. His Majesty's age is seventeen, while I am ten, and my sister is nine. My sister has great admiration for His Majesty and His Majesty has always given my sister attention and affection. It certainly invites Clare's jealousy so that Clare tortures my sister slowly and kills her in her own pavilion."

Pause. Longtime. It was as if Axel was looking for the strength to continue his sad story.

For some reason, the Axel I saw before me was not Axel who tortured Serethy in the novel, but Axel who lost his beloved sister.

I subconsciously advanced, then clasped his hand.

Axel looked shocked at my treatment, his golden eyes round. I'm no less surprised than Axel or Sir Derick who have been glaring. I myself do not know why I grasped his hand, squeezing it slowly to give it strength. The thing I did just now was just a reflex.

Maybe because we have emotional similarities. I lost my parents before my eyes, so I could tell what it was like to lose someone so precious in life.

"Not to be forced, Young Master Axel." My finger rubbed the back of his hand slowly. I then glanced at her face, which somehow turned red. This makes sense, we were on the balcony with the sunlight shining on us with high temperatures.

"Mr Princess, please hold my hand like this until I'm done telling you everything" Axel asked, he clasped my hand in return.

"All right, Young Master Axel. I'm not going anywhere."

Axel smiled gently. It was so gentle that he never seemed to be the son of a troublemaker and alcoholic Marquis.

"I can tell if it's Clare" Axel continued. "Clare already liked His Majesty even when he was a child. Clare loves Her Majesty. However, His Majesty is giving his affection to my sister. The age difference between His Majesty and my sister is too far away making the relationship between the two need to be postponed. So Clare took the opportunity. He started torturing Sorena slowly, humiliating Sorena in public, and hurting her pride.

"However, Her Majesty always defends Sorena. This made Clare jealous. Finally, that night, Sorena went to Cyrill's residence. I should have held Sorena back because she looked so scared just to see Clare. Then, Sorena disappeared the next day. One week later, he was still unaccounted for. Then right after one month, Sorena there—"

Axel's voice choked. I squeezed his hand. That must be heavy. I'm sure the ten-year-old has wounds and trauma in his tiny heart.

"A lake near the forest. The search group for Sorena found Sorena there. His body was floating with many incision wounds and lashes. Sadly, Sorena is dead. Estimated, her death was two days earlier.28 days in thirty days, Sorena was tortured. And I can't afford to do anything to prevent Sorena's death."

Axel looked at me after exhaling his heavy breath. "Mr Princess, maybe I'm presumptuous. But, can I hug you?"

Without a second thought, I immediately agreed. Of course because hugs are one way for a person to calm down. I can tell that.

And so, Axel then hid his face on my shoulder, his hands tightly wrapped around my waist. I could hear Axel's heart beating with his breathing getting heavier.

I was probably too close to Axel that I could hear the sound of a sword being ejected from its sheath, then put it back in, then pulled again, and so on until I goosebumps and look away not to look at the individual in question.

"Sorena died because of Clare. That's obvious. How could no one believe that? If anything, Duke Cyrill's influence was so strong that any rumors about Sorena would be killed. I'm angry, Princess. I'm upset. Then, for some reason, when I was legal to drink, I couldn't stop being addicted. After Sorena died, bad rumors attacked Krone instead. The unfounded rumors spread and I was angry. Then, I became a troublemaker to cover up those trashy rumors."

I heard her muffled laughter.

"Then you say that you don't like alcoholics. When you say it, I seem to see Sorena nagging at me if she is still alive right now. I know this is wrong, Princess. Think of you as Sorena. But I really miss my sister.

"I'm no longer angry at you because you look so much like my little sister. I was just angry at myself for not being able to be a good sister. I said that you and Sorena are very identical, but I was wrong. The more I know about you, the more I realize that Princess and Sorena are two different people. However, I can't help feeling this on my chest, Princess. Therefore, Princess, please allow me to love you."

Axel's words were so ambiguous that Sir Derick and I were both shocked.

However, Sir Derick's shock was so much greater that his body was sculpted with his right hand constricting at the handle of the sword.

"Young Master Axel?"

Axel aligned his face with me, he pulled my hand, and kissed the back of my hand.

"Allow me to love you, Princess."

I smiled stiffly. Really, huh? I avoid the other death flags?