* * *
Knock-knock. Today, as usual, the Empress’s servant Albert arrived with a knock. Albert, after first showing his deference, quietly conveyed the Empress’s orders.
“Your Highness, the Empress is calling you.”
“Say I went hunting.”
“The Empress is well aware that Your Highness is not hunting, nor attending to state affairs, and nor practising sword fighting – so she has summoned your presence.”
The Empress had kept calling for him to find out what happened in the garden that day, but Adrian fended her off with excuses every time.
Adrian, who had now used up all three of his choice excuses, frowned.
When Adrian gestured with his eyes, Diano, who had been sitting still, suddenly stood up and drew his sword.
“How prude. Right now, His Highness is sparring with me in swordsmanship. He is only trying to protect military secrecy but will soon be heading out to the training ground. I apologize to Her Majesty, but His Highness must fulfill his duties as the Crown Prince.”
Adrian nodded his head, very satisfied.
Albert looked at Diano once, then at Adrian, then lowered his head. He had long since become accustomed to this pattern.
“If that is the case, I will notify the Empress.”
After Albert left, Adrian looked quietly at Diano. Diano looked at Adrian expectantly, like a puppy wanting to be praised.
“Good job.”
“Alright Your Highness, are you sparring with me?!”
“Nope.”
Diano stiffened as if shocked by the swift reply.
“Bu-, but you must, Your Highness! Did you not inform Her Majesty of doing the exact same thing?!”
“I did.”
“It seems it has already been a week since I last crossed swords with you. Did you not reject a session yesterday, even though it was a regular sparring day? Your Highness. Your Highnessss~.”
Anyone could skip for a week. Adrian looked at Diano in annoyance, but Diano started pestering him without answering.
Even though Adrian coldly held Diano with a contemptuous gaze, he, being gifted with thick skin, did not care at all.
At some point, after Adrian had sparred with and defeated Diano, once revered as the best knight in Apennine, Diano had become like this.
Adrian found Diano begging him to spar with him, frankly quite annoying and bothersome, but finding a knight as capable as he was was no easy task, so he just left things as they were.
“This one.”
Adrian flicked the document file he was holding at Diano. Diano easily snatched the document with his excellent reflexes.
“If you finish everything within 30 minutes, I’ll spar with you. Can you make it happen?”
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
Glancing at Diano, lying down and already struggling with the documents, Adrian had his doubts.
There’s no way that bastard would make it on time.
* * *
Diano, who always had a hard time completing paperwork, was somehow able to finish things at astonishing speed.
In the end, Adrian had to take hold of his sword. After finishing his morning training, holding the sword again felt different. Just the feeling of the handle made his stress go away.
This was especially the case with Diano because he didn’t have to hide his skills or use his sword carefully to avoid killing his partner.
After swirling his blade plentifully, Adrian felt two pairs of eyes on him.
One was Ternie and the other was, ……Atienne.
“You look free. Life seem easy for you?”
Atienne twitched her body and didn’t say anything. Adrian frowned slightly.
A completely different look from yesterday’s incident during tea. He could not help but feel strangely dissatisfied.
“Greetings, Your Highness.”
Adrian smiled kindly as he looked down at Atienne, who gave him a hesitant greeting.
“Well, you seem to know your manners at least.”
Atie’s body flinched at Adrian’s snide sarcasm.
Adrian stared candidly at Atie. It was a pitiful sight, seeing her simultaneously trying to avoid contact and keep an eye on the Crown Prince.
And to think, how had this woman been so adamantly angry at Gabrielle?
Suddenly, he remembered the conversation he had with Ternie yesterday.
“So she knows how to be angry.”
“Atie was also annoyed with me!”
He found Ternie’s somewhat boastful attitude to be rather annoying.
He turned his attention back to Atie. The sight of her so hunched and wary, was not to his liking at all.
Adrian impulsively opened his mouth.
“Get angry.”
“……Pardon?”
Of course, Atie was not getting angry over that sentence.
Am I going crazy? Adrian wrinkled his face, feeling annoyed at his own unusual behavior.
* * *
Today, too, I was held up by Ternie after class. After walking for a while, we arrived at the training ground.
“Look over there.”
Ternie pointed somewhere.
When I looked there, I saw two familiar men clashing swords and sparring fiercely.
They were so fast it was hard to follow the action with the naked eye.
They were the Crown Prince and his follower Diano.
His skill with the sword matched his looks – which is to say, very good. That sword would dice my neck with a single slash.
This increases my chance of death by 1 percent.
The sound of swords clashing filled the training hall.
Diano fiercely attacked the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince blocked all of the attacks with minimal movement. Eventually, the Crown Prince, who dodged a crushing blow from Diano, brought the sharp tip of his sword to Diano’s neck.
It was the Crown Prince’s victory.
“Oh, what a waste! “I could have won!”
Ternie cried out in sorrow.
You… … Aren’t you the Crown Prince’s aide?
“It was an opportunity to make fun of you for eternity!”
I couldn’t tell if he was a friend or foe.
Now done with sparring, Diano scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
“Ah, I really can’t hold a candle against you, Your Highness.”
“That’s because you were sparring while smiling.”
“But I feel good. To feel Your Highness up close……. I’m thrilled.”
Oh, no way, Diano too……?
The Crown Prince, who was arranging his sword, sensed me watching and slowly turned his head to me.
I made eye contact with him.
I looked away in shock, but the Crown Prince immediately looked annoyed. I mean, it’s not like I made eye contact because I liked it. Meanwhile, Ternie was beaming widely for some reason.
“She’s smarter than I thought. That’s why class ended early.”
Ternie said as if bragging.
At those words, the Crown Prince twisted the corner of his lips as if in mockery. Then he glanced at me and again at Ternie.
“Is that so? We can check on that later.”
That would be my upcoming time in hell.
“Hello, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Ternie intervened.
“My younger sister is very personable. I am very proud as her older brother.”
Only at times like this are you my older brother.
“I hope you continue to be a lady who is good at greeting people, my little sister.”
The Crown Prince, who had been quiet all this time, looked at me silently and gave an unexpected command.
“Get angry.”
I was a little taken aback by the prince’s unexpected words.
What do you mean, get angry all of a sudden? Then, seeing the Crown Prince suddenly frown and scratch his head, it became even harder to discern his true intentions.
There was an awkward silence.
After a moment of silence, the Crown Prince suddenly opened his mouth with a frown on his face.
“Is there anything making you uncomfortable?”
Everything! All of it! You’re uncomfortable!
“No, nothing…….”
After hearing my answer, the Crown Prince nodded expectantly.
“That’s good. I have no need for someone who’s dissatisfied.”
That saved my life once again. I couldn’t count how many times I had died and come back to life again today.
Suddenly, Ternie clung to Diano and started crying.
“Oh, I’ve had a really hard day today.”
“Same for me.”
“Right? His Highness is quite the difficult person.”
Had they turned insane all of a sudden? Talking openly like that in front of the Crown Prince…….
“Some people are rolling around all day at his command, while others are~ luckily~ just sparring with swords~.”
“Ah, sure, I liked it when His Majesty attacked me so persistently as if to try and kill me, but he was less focused than usual. Could it be that I’m just too good? ….”
“Isn’t it just because His Highness lacks training and his sword skills have become rusty?”
Unlike the time when Ternie was the only one acting up, the Crown Prince seemed very angry now.
For some reason, the air around the Crown Prince turned cold.
Saying all that for everyone to hear, right in front of him! How dare you disparage the Crown Prince to dust!
The Crown Prince drew his sword without a sound. It was the same sword that he had used for sparring earlier.
Is he going to swing it?
Would the two’s lives just dissipate like that?!
I watched with bated breath, watching how this explosive situation would unfold.
But what I had expected didn’t happen.
The moment the Crown Prince raised his sword, the two men suddenly joined hands and ran away happily, laughing all the while.
They were absolutely bonkers.
“Ha.”
The Crown Prince sheathed his sword again, as if he was used to it.
Only we remained.
When I thought about it, it seemed like the current situation was an even greater crisis. I suddenly wanted to run away too.
Crown Prince Adrian looked at me and asked quietly.
“Have you eaten?”
Judging by the dry tone, it seemed he was asking out of courtesy.
“Not yet.”
“Let’s go.”
Um? Pardon? That’s not what I was expecting.
I was embarrassed. Where do you want to go? Could it be the after world?
“Where, Your Highness?”
I ended up talking back to him without realizing it. The Crown Prince quietly turned around and looked at me.
He didn’t say much, but one could easily guess what state he was in just by his annoyed expression.
“I also hate ignorant people.”
……I guess so.
The Crown Prince dragged me as I was standing towards the restaurant. It was the largest dining room among the dining rooms in the Poinsettia Palace, or the Crown Prince’s personal Palace.
Fidget-fidget. I sat down, wary about the unfamiliar surroundings. Soon, as if they had been waiting, the palace servants began to place dishes in front of us one by one.
A clean and luxurious meal.
They were foods that I could never have dreamed of eating as a maid. Rare foods that I wouldn’t have been able to eat even before my family’s downfall.
“Why don’t you eat?”
“I will eat.”
“Doesn’t it taste good?”
How can you say that when you see the delicacies of the mountains and seas right in front of you?
“Not at all!”
“Then why do you eat so slowly?”
He had an annoyed expression.
“That is…….”
“Let it out without dragging your feet.”
“Because it’s my first time trying this food. It’s my first time eating something this delicious.”
I felt the Crown Prince’s gaze staring straight at me. A wave of belated embarrassment came over me.
