While Others Became Female Leads In Romantic Fantasy Novels, I Became A Closet Monster
Chapter 45
Why is he saying such pretty things all of a sudden?
As I wondered, I was suddenly reminded of how Dedrick had looked even more pained than I was when he heard about my past.
‘…He was being considerate of me.’
He was worried that I might be hurt because of my past—because I had been abandoned in the middle of a war due to these horns that absorbed blood.
‘He wanted to make sure I didn’t hate myself, to let me know that my horns are more beautiful than anything else.’
That was why this boy had come to me with a rose, like a gift.
Moved, I called his name softly, and he met my eyes again with a gentle smile.
Feeling my cheeks suddenly flare up, I covered them with my hands and mumbled.
“……Didi, you really have a habit of saying pretty things.”
“I only do that with you.”
That makes it even more embarrassing!
As I shyly toyed with the rose for no reason, Dedrick let out a short gasp.
“Oh……!”
“Your horn sparked again.”
Why on earth?!
Just as flustered as I was, Dedrick reached out to touch my horn.
“And some glittering dust came out of the horn and was absorbed into the rose….”
“What? Is it going to wither?!”
No!
Just as I tried to carefully pull the rose away—
“Wh-what’s happening?”
The rose was stuck fast to my head and wouldn’t budge.
“Didi, help me take this off for a second!”
When I finally asked for help, he removed the flower with ease.
Quite literally, with no effort at all.
“……Are you kidding me?”
“……N-no.”
No, I wasn’t talking to you.
“It wouldn’t move at all when I tried to pull it….”
“Shall I put it back in?”
“Yeah. Try it.”
Dedrick tucked the rose back in and stepped back.
I tried to pull the rose out again, but it was simply beyond my strength.
“Wh-what is this… It’s stuck so tight it won’t come off!”
“Do you want to take it off…?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t like it.
“I’d like to keep wearing it since it’s already like this. But I’m worried other people might see it…. Let’s test it out!”
I grabbed Dedrick’s hand and stood in front of the mirror.
In the mirror, I saw a greyish girl wearing a red rose.
The moment I let go of his hand, my reflection vanished instantly. The rose in my hair disappeared along with it.
I cried out in surprise.
“I can’t see the rose!”
No matter how much I leaned and peeked from different angles, nothing was reflected in the mirror.
“Did the rose become a part of my body too?”
I didn’t know the principle behind it, but….
“It’s like a fairy.”
As I tilted my head, Dedrick brought up the fairy tale we had read the other day—the story of the fairy and the princess.
“In that story, the fairy sprinkles Fairy Dust on a flower and uses it as a hair ornament. To look better for the princess.”
Only then did the story come back to me. Flowers sprinkled with Fairy Dust like that neither withered nor fell off as time passed, maintaining their original state.
“The dust from your horn must be similar to Fairy Dust. Come to think of it, it healed me last time too, didn’t it?”
“Yeah. Honestly, maybe you really are a fairy?”
“But Didi, you said fairies are an extinct race.”
He had told me they disappeared long ago, leaving only fairy tales for people to stretch their imaginations and create various stories.
“And I have horns! Fairies don’t have those.”
“The illustrations in fairy tales are drawn from human imagination, so you never know.”
“Why? Do you want me to be a fairy?”
“I don’t care what you are.”
Dedrick answered seriously. I smiled and tugged at his hand.
My reflection reappeared in the mirror. But I needed more certainty than this.
I needed to know if I was just invisible to the mirror, or truly invisible to human eyes.
“I’m going outside for a bit! I have to check for sure.”
“I’ll go with you. The servants are moving around preparing for the party, so I’ll keep watch just in case.”
“Great, let’s go right now!”
I was about to head out while holding Dedrick’s hand but then paused.
Ah, I can’t do this. Then I’ll be visible.
As I tried to pull my hand away, Dedrick gripped it tighter.
“It’s fine until we reach the door.”
“Okay. Just until the door, then!”
We held hands for that short distance and stepped out into the hallway.
I could see the servants moving about busily. With a face full of determination, I said:
“I’ll be back!”
I walked straight past a maid.
The rose Dedrick gave me was a large, full-bodied, vivid red rose that couldn’t help but stand out.
However, no matter how much I hopped and skipped around in front of them, not a single servant screamed, ‘A rose is floating in the air!’
Just like in the mirror, nobody could see it.
“Didi, I don’t think anyone can see it!”
I jumped up and down in excitement. Dedrick stood still, staring at me.
His expression was a bit strange, but I was so happy that I just waved my hands at him vigorously.
“I can keep wearing the gift Didi gave me!”
The deep scent of the rose that bloomed in winter was incredibly fragrant.
It had already been two days since I started wearing the rose in my hair!
I stroked the rose with a silly grin on my face.
It seemed my horn really did have the same power as Fairy Dust.
Even though I hadn’t given it any water for two days, the flower hadn’t withered and looked just as beautiful as the day Dedrick gave it to me.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes! I feel like I smell like roses now too. Didn’t I just smell like an old wardrobe before?”
“Not at all. You’ve always smelled like roses to me. A deep, dizzyingly wonderful scent.”
Dedrick took my hand, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“I’m even happier because you like it.”
“Thank you so much!”
I couldn’t just keep receiving like this!
I wanted to give him the best thing I had….
Suddenly, the jewel on my horn came to mind.
It was small, but it was my most important treasure!
I had an intuition that I must keep this jewel, but I didn’t mind giving it to Dedrick.
‘But I don’t want to just give it to him like this….’
I wanted it to be processed into something pretty….
I gazed at him quietly, then started fiddling with his soft earlobe.
He’d look pretty with an earring.
I want to make it into an earring for him.
“……It, it tickles.”
“I’m going to do it even if it tickles!”
When I started messing with both earlobes this time, he burst into a fit of giggles.
We were playing happily like that when a knock at the door made our laughter stop abruptly.
As the smile vanished from Dedrick’s face, a voice was heard.
“Youngest Young Master, I have come with a message from the Madam.”
“Ugh. What kind of scheme is she cooking up now?”
Grumbling, I followed close behind Dedrick. When he opened the door, Miranda, another of Delaney’s loyal maids, was standing there.
She gave Dedrick a polite smile.
“The Madam has said that the Youngest Young Master is to specially attend this party as well.”
“……I am.”
“Then I shall take my leave to deliver the news that the Youngest Young Master was delighted.”
Without even waiting for an answer, Miranda turned on her heel.
The way she lacked manners was a spitting image of her mistress. Did she think just smiling was enough?
I glared at her, led Dedrick back inside, and locked the door.
Things were going according to the novel, after all.
“I… was sure they wouldn’t invite me…. So I had planned out everything I wanted to do with you while staying in the room….”
I grabbed the dejected Dedrick by his arms and set my face solemnly.
“That’s not the problem right now.”
“To me, this is the biggest problem.”
“No, it’s not!”
Oh? Look at this kid.
His voice is just as loud as mine.
When I looked surprised, Dedrick flinched and shook his head.
“S-sorry for shouting….”
“Hey, that wasn’t even shouting. Hearing Didi’s voice loud like that actually feels bett— No, that’s not it.”
I shook myself out of it and spoke.
“We’re in big trouble right now.”
“Because we can’t play together?”
Why is he so obsessed with that?
No!
“……Our Didi doesn’t have any party clothes.”
It’s a huge problem, right?
It’s terrifying, isn’t it?
But Dedrick replied indifferently.
“I got party clothes last time. Thanks to the 2nd Prince.”
“No! Those are way too small now! If you wear them, your ankles will definitely be showing!”
You’ve grown so much since then, how can you think of wearing that!
“You need different party clothes.”
“You don’t have any either, so do I really have to wear them?”
“Of course you do!”
I have to show off our wonderful Dedrick!
I’m going to dress him up so well that everyone falls for him.
But my ambitious plan crumbled.
“……You said so yourself. That I shouldn’t stand out.”
I was a total idiot.
We had decided not to stand out too much until he became an adult.
That way, I could survive too.
I had jokingly thought my brain was deteriorating after becoming a Closet Monster, but it seemed to be true.
I’m an idiot.
But….
“Still, if you don’t wear party clothes, you’ll be humiliated.”
That was the one thing I wanted to prevent.
I didn’t want to live at the cost of him being humiliated and hurt.
I had grown too fond of him to just stay by his side while only looking out for my own survival.
If even he, the only one who could see me, were to disappear, I probably wouldn’t feel alive even if I were living.
Because I had already come to know the joy of conversation and the happiness of meeting eyes through him.
Now, it was my turn to be obsessed with him.
