Chapter 254: Princess talk 2

The princess leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, leveling an intense, dissecting stare at him.

"So explain it to me, Eren Volsver. How does an arrogant, insufferable, unhinged stalker manage to make women of that level fall so hopelessly in love with him? Enough to share him between them?" She tilted her chin toward Aria with a dry smirk.

"I can write off Aria as having bad taste after that useless boy Reinhardt. But the other two? Are you slipping some forbidden aphrodisiac into their tea, or did you hit them with a high-tier mental spell?"

Eren let out a chuckle that vibrated gently through his chest, careful not to disturb the three sleeping weights.

"Spells and forbidden drugs, Your Highness?" Eren sighed, leaning his head back against the tufted leather with a long, self-deprecating breath. "I really wish my life were that conveniently engineered. Take a good, hard look at my tomboy over here."

He tipped his chin down toward Emma, her brows twitching faintly even in deep slumber.

"I don’t even know what cruel and unusual punishment she’s planning for me the second those beautiful grey eyes open," Eren whispered with a wry, lopsided smirk. "So answer me this, Princess: what lunatic with the god-tier ability to brainwash a Swordmaster and an arch-scholar would program them to beat the living hell out of him every time he takes a modest tactical detour?"

Seraphina’s elegant brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing as she absorbed the undeniable logic of his domestic peril.

A quiet, raspy giggle escaped Eren’s throat. "I never dreamt of captivating great women. I sure as hell never drafted a blueprint to collect a harem of terrifying, heavily armed geniuses. If you had asked me three months ago, my grand, overarching life ambition was to secure a quiet corner, sleep twelve hours a day, and survive the impending apocalyptic dumpster fire I knew was coming down the road."

His sapphire gaze softened, wandering to the window where the first evening stars were beginning to pierce the violet dusk.

"I just wanted to dodge the worst endings from the shadows. Keep people from getting the worst fate waiting for them. Especially you."

Seraphina went utterly still.

The regal mask stiffened, her blood-red eyes widening with genuine, guarded shock. "Why me?" she asked, her voice dropping to a fragile, guarded murmur that barely competed with the rattling wheels.

Eren looked straight into her gaze with an honesty so raw and stripped of swagger that it took the air out of her chest.

"Because you didn’t deserve a single speck of the misery being shoveled onto your plate just because of the sins of your bloodline," Eren said quietly. His voice carried a steady, profound weight. "I admire you, princess. I can’t give you the full metaphysical breakdown of how or why, but in a very real, very literal way... you’re one of the main reasons I still have not given up."

"I know what it feels like to wake up every single morning suffocating in a room full of people who want you ruined. But you? You never broke. You lifted your chin, squared your shoulders, and carved an impenetrable, icy armor out of pure sheer will to survive another day. Watching you do that... it inspired me to move forward, too."

The carriage suddenly felt violently warm.

Seraphina stared at him, her lips parted, the cold imperial facade shattering into a thousand blushing fragments. A deep, vivid crimson bloomed across her porcelain cheekbones, rushing straight to her ears.

She jerked her chin up defensively, crossing her arms so tightly.

"Are you... are you seriously hitting on me right now?!" she hissed, her voice cracking with mortified panic.

"Fuck no!" Eren retorted instantly, throwing an indignant whisper across the gap. "Can a man not express pure, unfiltered, platonic admiration for his royal commander without getting accused?! I have zero intentions of hitting on you, Princess!"

Seraphina paused.

Her eyes snapped wide with an entirely different brand of imperial outrage. She leaned forward, scowling with raw indignation.

"What the fuck?!" she snapped under her breath. "Why the hell not?! Am I not worth hitting on?!"

Eren blinked, staring at her in complete, deadpan disbelief. "Are you seriously asking me that right now?! Look at my lap! I am at maximum seating capacity!"

"You flirted with my mother!" Seraphina snarled in a frantic whisper, jabbing an accusing finger toward his chest. "You looked the Empress of Regulus in the eye and laid down smooth courtly banter, but I don’t meet the standards?!"

"I was kidding at the time!" Eren hissed back, his unhinged grin threatening to tear the fresh stitches on his cheek. "Gods above, what is your actual problem, princess? Do you want me to hit on you, or are you just offended that you’re not in the queue?!"

Seraphina’s mouth opened and closed like a koi fish. The blush on her cheeks burned hot enough to rival the sun.

She abruptly snapped her head toward the window, violently crossing her legs and burying her chin into her high collar.

"Go to hell, Volsver," she muttered into the glass, her voice trembling with furious embarrassment. "Just... go straight to hell."

She pressed her forehead against the glass, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

’He is an absolute, irredeemable, unhinged idiot,’ she cursed furiously in the quiet sanctuary of her own mind. ’Why would I ever want a playboy like him to look at me? A shameless rogue who collects dangerous women? I hate men. I despise their deceitful, power-hungry smiles.’

Yet, as the dark pines blurred past in the moonlight, a treacherous, confusing sting lingered in her chest. Why did it hurt when he said he wasn’t interested?

And worse were his words from moments ago, echoing relentlessly in her ears.

The absolute sincerity in his exhausted eyes had pierced clean through the steel armor she had spent years forging. A strange, suffocating heat fluttered deep in her chest, thumping with a rhythm that terrified her far more than an assassin’s blade.

"Hey. Princess."

"Eep—!"

Seraphina let out a thoroughly unroyal little yelp, jumping in her seat. The sleeping shadow cub beside her flicked an ear, but settled back down.

She snapped her head around, glaring at him with blazing red eyes, desperately willing the lingering heat on her cheeks to vanish. "What?! What do you want now?!"

"Nothing serious," Eren whispered mildly, blinking at her with wide, infuriatingly innocent blue eyes.

Now that her mind had traitorously decided to pay attention, Seraphina couldn’t help but notice the boyish charm lingering beneath his bloody scrapes. She scowled harder to compensate.

"I was just wondering," Eren continued, tilting his chin upward thoughtfully. "How did you guys manage to reach Rujgard so fast? When my resonance ring flared two nights ago, I figured you guys would reach late tonight or tomorrow morning."

Seraphina raised a brow. "Tomorrow? Volsver, if not for a storm, we would have kicked Rujgard’s gates yesterday afternoon."

Eren’s brow furrowed. "Yesterday? The ring only signaled two days ago. That means you guys were already on the way to Rujgard."