Too Lazy to be a Villainess novel Chapter 341

Chapter 341: The Captain Who Would Not Sleep

[Osric’s POV—Imperial Palace of Meren]

"...We have checked every street, my lord. The people are still scared. No one dares step outside their homes," Colonel Zerith reported, bowing slightly.

I nodded, fingers tightening behind my back. "Of course they are. Fear takes root faster than trust. No matter how cruel their prince was... they will hesitate to accept a new ruler."

Zerith hesitated. "What should we do, my lord?"

I opened my mouth. The answer should have been simple. Tactical. Practical. But the words that left my lips were—

"Trust... is gained slowly. Not instantly. So—"

I stopped.

Mid-sentence.

As if someone punched the breath out of my lungs. The realization slammed into me so fast I forgot how to breathe.

"My lord?" Zerith stepped closer. "Are you alright?"

I forced myself to inhale—slow, strained.

"...Continue inspections," I ordered quietly. "Every street, every alley. And assign knights for night duty. I want the city under control."

"Yes, my lord." Zerith bowed and left.

Leaving me alone. Alone with a truth I had been avoiding for months.

I moved toward the window slowly, almost unwillingly. Outside, beyond the pillars, I could faintly see her—the princess—my Lavi.

I leaned my forehead against the cool stone, closing my eyes.

"Is she not my Lavi anymore?" I whispered.

The words tasted like iron and loss. I swallowed hard. "Did I... not gain her trust?"

I had sworn myself to her. Protected her. Served her. Dedicating everything—my name, my house, my life—to her.

In both lives.

And in this life, I loved her. I chose her. I would have died for her. So why—why did her eyes not soften for me anymore? Why did she never look at me the way she used to look before—like I was the one she trusted to stand beside her without question?

My fists clenched.

"I did everything for her," I muttered under my breath. "Everything."

And then the echo of my own voice answered me with a cruel question:

Did you?

... Did you really?

I stiffened. Because deep, deep in the cracks of my chest—I knew the truth.

I protected her, but I never understood her.

I loved her, but I treated her like a duty, like a princess who needed guarding... not a girl who wanted to breathe.

I cared, but I never listened.

My breath trembled. My throat tightened.

"And... what else did I truly do for her?" I whispered.

The question gnawed into my ribs like a curse—slow, merciless, unrelenting.

What else? What else... besides chains disguised as love? Besides a promise she never asked for? Besides a future I assumed she wanted?

My jaw tightened.

"I... need to talk to my Lavi," I whispered. "Patch everything before—"

"Haldor!!!" Her voice cracked across the hallway like a whip.

I froze. Slowly—too slowly—I turned toward the source. There she stood.

My Lavinia.

Arms crossed. Brows raised. A glare on her face—but not a glare meant to wound.

Not dominance. Not anger.

It was soft.Playful.Teasing.

And Haldor—Haldor, the silent, stoic statue of a man—was blushing.

BLUSHING.

A muscle in my cheek twitched violently. My fist curled so tight my knuckles turned white.

She never looked at me like that. Never stared at me with warmth. Never teased me. Never softened her voice for me.

But for him?

A mere captain—someone with no house, no name, no lineage—she moved an entire hierarchy. She changed the power structure of a conquered kingdom.

For him.

Not for me.

Not even once for me.

A bitter laugh tore through my throat. Low. Broken. Humorless.

"She moved an entire hierarchy for him," I muttered, the words curdling into something sharp. "Even though she never did anything like that for me."

Something ugly coiled in my chest.

Anger. But not at her—at myself.

At him.

At the truth I had choked down for months.

I tore my gaze away from them—before my expression betrayed too much—and turned into the corridor, my boots hitting the floor harder than necessary.

"There’s nothing to regret," I muttered.

A lie.

A lie I needed to breathe.

"She is just the princess."

And then I realized something uglier.

"That’s right, she moved an entire hierarchy for a mere captain—what will she do when she becomes an empress? Reshape nations? Bend laws? Break bloodlines?"

My heartbeat thudded, slow and heavy, in my ears.

"Is she... truly good for Eloria as the next empress?"

That thought—that single, poisonous thought—slithered into the back of my mind.

And stayed.

I inhaled sharply, straightening my spine, forcing discipline back into my posture.

No more weakness. No more longing. No more memories of what could’ve been. If she had chosen him, then she had also chosen to step away from me.

Very well.

If the Crown Princess would reshape kingdoms for a man like Haldor, then I needed to decide what I would reshape.

***

[Lavinia’s POV—Hallway Outside her Chamber]

My hands slammed onto my hips. My foot tapped. And my glare—sharp enough to slice a man—locked on the stubborn idiot in front of me.

"Haldor."

He straightened like a soldier about to be executed. "Yes, Your Highness?"

"What," I said slowly, dangerously, "did I tell you yesterday?"

His eyes darted away.

Then lower.

Then slightly to the left.

Anywhere but my face.

"I... don’t recall, Your Highness," he muttered stiffly. "I am... uh... low on memory."

I stared.

Blink.

Blink.

"...Low on memory?"

He nodded as if it was a medical condition recognized across the continent. "Indeed, princess. A grave ailment."

I narrowed my eyes. He continued to avoid them—expression blank, face stiff, but his gaze kept sneaking upward in tiny, guilty glances.

"YOU," I pointed at his face, "ARE GOING TO YOUR CHAMBER."

"AND. YOU. ARE. GOING. TO. SLEEP!!!!"

"IT’S. MY. ORDER!"

He said it with fear.

Osric had stepped back. And Haldor—Haldor had taken his place without being asked. Without complaint. Without sleep.

I yelled so loudly the windows rattled. "HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY INSANE!?!?!?!?!?"

His eye twitched like he just lost 4% of his hearing. Then he had the audacity—the sheer boldness—to tilt his head and say, "I am not leaving you alone, Princess."

. . .

. . .

Did I...did I gain a stubborn captain?

SKREEEEEE—!!

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