Kidnapped Princess C49

Chapter 49

“Hahaha.”

A cheerful burst of laughter rang in my ears.

Luminas covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed for quite a while. Then, as if short on breath, she took a small deep breath.

And then she met my eyes. Her eyes, long and narrow at the corners, curved slightly as her lips lifted faintly. For some reason, her blue eyes sparkled like glass. She looked… moved, somehow.

“Yes. I’ll eat well from now on.”

The inexplicable laughter and reaction furrowed my brow—just in time to notice that Luminas was barely covering her front.

I whipped my body around instantly.

“Ah—uh. Ahem. Sorry.”

To scold someone in the middle of changing clothes? I had to leave immediately!

I forcibly hid the heat rising in my cheeks.

I could understand wanting to get out of sweaty clothes right away, but wasn’t she being a bit too careless in front of a man? I mentally added “lecture about changing safely” to my to-do list.

“Tell me when you’re done changing.”

I turned and made to leave—when something tugged my coat. Luminas was holding it. I kept my eyes forward with effort.

“I’m already done. You don’t need to leave.”

Turning back, I saw Luminas in a white chiffon dress. I exhaled in relief.

“Luminas. It’s fine that you trust me, but you shouldn’t be so defenseless when changing. At least move to another room. It’s lucky it was me. If it wasn’t, things could have gone very wrong.”

I was clearly scolding her, yet Luminas just smiled in a relieved, happy way. From earlier, she had looked strangely pleased.

“I’m now certain the Demon King has no experience with women.”

“…What brought that up all of a sudden?”

“Hm? Who knows?”

“You’re getting cheeky.”

Her cryptic ways hadn’t changed, but at least she no longer looked as weak as yesterday. Still, her voice was rough—proof she’d truly been suffering these past days.

“Your voice is very hoarse. Here, drink some water first.”

I watched her intently as she drank the water I offered.

“You’ll suffer even more if you get that thin.”

It was natural that someone so thin, to the point her bones were visible, would be bedridden from illness. Didn’t she think she looked too skinny in the mirror?

“But—”

“Don’t tell me you thought you’d gotten fat? Absolutely not. You need to eat more.”

Luminas gave no reply. Instead, smiling, she hugged me tightly.

“Trying to act cute won’t make me—hm?”

It wasn’t unusual for her to cling to me. She often leaned on me and asked for head pats. But today, the height felt… different.

Normally, Luminas’ head would rest around my shoulder. But this time, her face was right at mine. I had to bend slightly to recreate the usual height difference.

So it really was growth pains.

Honestly, I thought she lied because she didn’t want me to worry. But she had truly grown.

“You grew so much overnight… If you eat and sleep well, you’ll grow even more. At this rate, you might even surpass me.”

I stroked her head. Whenever she worried about growing taller than me, I used to laugh and tell her it would never happen. Yet here we were.

Yes, children grew at different speeds, but this was extreme. A handspan taller in one day? Who would ever imagine that?

“You noticed I grew… and that’s it?”

Even after water soothed her throat, her voice was still low.

Did she want a bigger reaction? I tilted my head in confusion, and Luminas furrowed her brows and stepped closer. She pressed right against me.

“I prepared myself… yet now that you didn’t notice, I dislike that too.”

Luminas exuded a languid aura, like a predator approaching prey. I instinctively backed away until I hit the door. Her face drew near, her scent overwhelming—dangerous.

Perhaps because she had suffered for days, there was a fragile loneliness in her face that made her harder to refuse.

“What do you dislike?”

“My emotions. I don’t understand them.”

Luminas rested her forehead on my chest.

I don’t understand you either. One moment you seem happy, then suddenly uneasy. Your shifting emotions are almost visible to my eyes.

“When that happens, don’t overthink it. Follow your heart.”

“Then it will trouble you.”

“It already troubles me. When you’re anxious, I worry.”

She didn’t deny it.

“…That’s why I like you.”

“I know. Of course I know you like me.”

It was impossible not to.

“You said it, so take responsibility. Is nothing different about me?”

I told her to follow her heart, and she returned a question about what had changed in her. She wanted me to notice.

Some problems had no right answers.

Was this that thing? A woman wanting you to notice what changed? I learned long ago that praise was safest in such moments.

Probably… hopefully.

Luminas had hated growing bigger, so she might have looked in the mirror and felt disgusted.

“…If I tell you what changed, you’ll eat properly?”

“Yes. I’ll eat well.”

“You grew taller. But you’re just as beautiful as always.”

That was not the right answer. Luminas’ expression clearly said so. I awkwardly scratched my cheek. Understanding women was too hard. No wonder my past romances never worked. My chest hurt at the thought.

“I do like that about you, but…”

Luminas let out a soft laugh, shook her head sharply, and then her face hardened with resolve.

“I’ll show you myself. The truth is, I’ve been deceiving you this entire time.”

“You? Deceiving me?”

I blinked slowly. I couldn’t imagine it.

“Yes. A secret that would make you despise me.”

Luminas, who hated burdening me in the slightest?

“I’ll tell you.”

She brushed her fingers against my cheek and leaned in as if she would kiss me. Her expression was painfully sorrowful.

“You haven’t noticed anything strange?”

“What do you mean, strange?”

Luminas let out a hollow laugh.

“Today I chose a simple dress.”

A fluttering chiffon dress—light, thin, commonly worn for convenience or even as sleepwear.

“I worried you might find it odd at some point, but judging by your reaction, you truly didn’t notice. I don’t have what a woman should have. And… I have what a woman shouldn’t.”

My brows furrowed. Her meaning hadn’t clicked yet.

“What a woman should have…? What do you—”

Then my eyes widened. My jaw dropped.

There was a reason Luminas stood so close. A woman should naturally have certain curves. My gaze lowered instinctively—

—and indeed, she did not have them.

Beneath the chiffon dress, where shapely curves should be, her chest was flat. And she tilted her head to expose her slender neck—beautiful and graceful—but my gaze was caught by something else.

It felt like someone hit me in the head with a hammer.

‘N–no, some women just have small chests—’

But then there was that sensation against my leg. Solid. Unmistakable. I could not be ignorant of such a thing. A curse nearly escaped my lips.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

While I reeled in shock, Luminas smiled—light, relieved, almost radiant, as though a burden had been lifted.

“You… You’re a man?”

“Yes.”

Luminas answered plainly.

Memories flashed across my mind—countless moments, all the lovely images of Luminas in dresses, so cute and beautiful—

—all of them shattered.

But I first met Luminas in the royal castle. Everyone called her a princess! And a princess was, by definition, a girl!

“You’re a princess!”

I couldn’t help but shout.

“I am a princess. Everyone called me one. You did too.”

Come to think of it, Luminas never called herself a princess. She simply nodded because others called her that.

My skull throbbed as though struck by another hammer.

We raised a princess delicately… only to discover he was a man!

Only now did everything make sense.

Bathing alone in the Demon Castle since the beginning, following his mother’s instruction not to undress before others. Rarely letting Renya assist in bathing—always doing everything himself so he wouldn’t be seen as troublesome or get abandoned.

But it wasn’t that.

Even knowing he was a man, seeing him in a dress didn’t feel wrong at all. It suited him. As if he was born to wear it.

And that face.

That face… was a man’s?

Stop messing with me! You wore a dress the first time I saw you! Of course I thought you were a girl!

I could only open and close my mouth uselessly like a mute.