48 Leo apologizes. (3/3)

(O3O)/ – Here is Ch-48.3!!!

(-.-) – Cliff ahead.

(O-O) – Read at your own discretion….

(OwO) – Enjoy the chapter∼♥

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After seeing Leo’s carriage off, Leena let out a long and tired sigh, then she returned to the attic to think about everything that happened today. However, upon reaching her destination, something shining under the faint light of the setting sun caught her attention, so she walked over to it.

Upon close inspection, Leena noticed that the thing shining under the sunlight was, without a doubt, the shard of the magic bracelet that Leo had brought with him, so she picked it up, albeit reluctantly, and stared at it with a grumpy look on her face.

(Hmph…! Stupid Leo… calling me cute over and over again… next time, I won’t forgive him if he treats me like one of his little sisters–!)

Being treated like a child was one of the things that Leena couldn’t stand. That’s why she got so angry with Leo when he called her cute, after all, he was clearly treating her like a little girl.

(–No, let’s stop things here. Being too angry will only bring harm to my health. Besides, blowing a fuse over something so minor is way more stupid…)

Lately, Leena was having some problems controlling her emotions, specially her anger, so when she realized that she was about to blow up again, she decided to stop thinking about what Leo said. Well, to tell the truth, Leena still had a lot to talk about with him. She wanted to talk about his engagement with Albert and what they were going to do from now on… but because she basically shooed Leo out of the orphanage, now they would have to do that some other time.

(Haaah∼, I shouldn’t have done that… I still wanted to ask him some other things about Bruno…)

Although Leo had already told Leena many things about his childhood friend, she was still curious about the big guy. The fact that he fled to the enemy country after the war, and his unwillingness to visit his birthplace, only added to her curiosity. Not to mention–

(–It was like he already knew this thing was inside Leo’s pocket…) – Thought Leena, as she stared at the small shard of the magical bracelet with a serious look on her face.

At the time, Leena just thought that Bruno was really good at seeing through his best friend’s lies, but now that she had time to think, him telling Leo to jump was really weird. In other words, Bruno shouldn’t have been able to tell that Leo had something dangerous inside his pocket, since he didn’t have any magic power.

(But… what if he’s like me? Maybe he also knows how to sense magic power…)

Based on their past interactions, that probably wasn’t the case, after all, it was nearly impossible for a normal person to learn how to sense magic power… however, there were some exceptions.

Most doctors also knew how to sense magic power because it helped them treat their patients. They generally underwent a really long and harsh training just to learn how to do that.

In Leena’s case though, she used to have magic power, so when she traded bodies with Leo, she just lost the ability to cast spells on her own.

(And the last exception is–)

*Bang!*

“–Leo Onii–no, Leonora-sama! We’re here to see you!”

“We really missed you, Leonora-sama!”

“Yeah, we really missed you!”

Before Leena could finish her line of thought, Emily, Anne and Marcel barged into the attic with all their might, which surprised her a bit; for some reason, they were also holding a newspaper each, with huge smiles plastered all over their faces.

“Here, look! We did our best for your sake, Leonora-sama!”

“We really did our best! Please, praise us!”

“Yeah, we did our-!”

After having a good look at the room, the three finally noticed that there was only one person inside, so they quickly turned towards Leena, and asked–

“””–Where is Leo Onii-chan!?”””

The three of them were so in synch, that Leena couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle, before answering them.

“If you’re looking for him, then he already left.”

“No way… y-you’re joking, right…?” (Emily)

“No, I’m quite serious. He left a couple of minutes ago.”

After hearing the shocking news, the three froze in place for a few seconds, then they started blaming each-other for not being able to meet with their beloved Onii-chan a moment later.

“That’s why I told you we had to go back quickly! This is all your fault, Emily!”

“My fault!? Marcel was the one who took such a long time to finish handing out his part of the newspapers, and you say it’s my fault!?”

“Excuse me!? I only finished my part last because I had to help Anne with hers! How is it my fault!?”

It was rare to see Emily, Anne and Marcel fighting with each-other, since they were close friends. Nevertheless, Leena still intervened in the fight, after all, the three were making quite a lot of noise.

Once she finally managed to make the three calm down, Leena then picked up one of the crumpled newspapers that they had dropped amidst the fight, and asked–

“–What is this thing?”

The three insisted that the contents of the newspaper was the end result of them working really hard for Leo’s sake, so Leena unfurled the newspaper to see what they were talking about… only for her to freeze in shock a moment later.

—The new Crown Princess used to be a Commoner!

“What the hell is this…?” – Asked Leena, in a weak tone, as she stared at the headline of the newspaper with a horrified look on her face.

“Fufufu, our plan is amazing, right? Once that damn prince catch wind of this, I’m sure he’ll break up with Leo Onii-chan! It’s only a matter of time!”

“But that’s not all! Even if that damn prince doesn’t want break up with Leo Onii-chan, the other nobles will probably hate the idea of a commoner becoming their new Empress, so he won’t be able to stand all that pressure!”

“And then Leo Onii-chan will finally be able to come back home!”

For a while, Emily, Anne and Marcel stopped caring about the fact that their beloved Onii-chan had traded bodies with Leena, after all, he became the cutest girl in the world… but after seeing Leo standing on the balcony of the palace with Albert by his side, something broke inside of them.

Everyone was treating Leo as a saint, so the three felt like they had to do something before their beloved Onii-chan was officially accepted as the next Empress, otherwise, he’d become an unreachable existence to them. But since kidnapping Leo was basically impossible because of the heavy security around him, their only option now was to make Albert lose interest in him, which is why they came up with the plan to expose Leonora’s origins.

“What do you think, Leena? Isn’t our plan perfect?” – Said Emily, with a smug look on her face.

According to Emily, they used the fact that Anne was working part-time for the newspaper company to spread that rumor about Leonora. And the result of their hard work was today’s headline.

“Spreading bad rumors about someone is the easiest thing in the world! You don’t even need money to do that!”

“Exactly! I never thought it’d be this easy to spread a rumor!”

“Right? Maybe Leo Onii-chan will even praise us the next time we meet him!”

Leena’s face went pale after hearing that, after all, slandering a candidate for the position of next Empress was a crime punishable by death. She couldn’t stop shivering just from imagining all the things that would happen to these three if the royal family ever found out that they were the ones who started the rumor. And to make things even worse, her grandparents were too overprotective. It was more than obvious that they’d hunt down the ones who spread those rumors about their beloved granddaughter.

“…*Whisper*…If they find us… we’re dead….”

After muttering those ominous words, Leena shook her head.

(No, they probably won’t find out who did this since it’s mainly the newspaper company’s fault for believing those rumors… but that doesn’t mean I can let these three do whatever they want!)

One of the most important things that Leena learned from Hannah, after living in the orphanage all this time, was that bad children had to be scolded when they did something wrong.

“You three idiots!!! Do you guys have any idea of what you just did!? Things will only get even more complicated for Leo, not the other way around!!! That’s not how you’re supposed to help someone!!!”

Leena was so fed up with everything that happened today, that she didn’t even think twice before she started yelling at the three of them–

“So… we didn’t help Leo Onii-chan…?”

“Does that mean we’ll never be able to see him again…?”

“Sorry… we didn’t know that spreading rumors would make things worse for him….”

–However, as her scolding went on, Emily, Anne and Marcel suddenly started crying after realizing what they did wrong, so Leena decided to stop scolding them for now.

“Well, if you guys understand what you did wrong, then don’t do that ever again, okay?”

Since there was nothing that Leena could do to stop the spread of the rumor, she decided to focus on what was more important right now.

The people close to Leo would certainly support him now that everyone knew his secret, so she wasn’t really that worried about his safety.

The real problem was the rumor.

Leena had no doubts it’d become the cornerstone of another huge misunderstanding about Leonora, the Altruistic Saintess.

Fortunately, it was almost impossible to track down the source of the rumors to the three kids, since they were just some poor orphans without any meaningful affiliation to the newspaper company.

Besides, if something really ended up happening, Leena could just erase the evidence, or overpower the officials with her army of thugs.

There was nothing to worry about.

Everything was under control… or at least, that’s what she thought.

Unbeknownst even to Leena, the chain of events that those rumors created would eventually reach a small fallen kingdom and cause a big disturbance there.

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(O-O) – Now I’m curious about Bruno….

(-.-) – A cliff in the middle of a chapter… never thought I’d live long enough to see that.

(O3O)/ – Anyway, don’t forget to join the Discord!!!

(OwO) – Link’s HERE.

(O-O) – See you all soon….

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