Shall We Sleep Together On The Sofa, Or Sleep Together In The Bed?

Two hours later, Lady Shitoen and I were standing facing each other in the bedroom.

“It may be awkward, but… please think of me as air or something.”

When I bowed my head, Lady Shitoen widened her eyes in surprise.

“No, not at all. I am the one intruding…”

When she bowed her head as well, I somehow found myself bowing again too.

Father and the Crown Prince had strictly ordered me, “Do not lay a hand on her until the wedding,” so at my own residence our bedroom and sitting room were separate, but… during this journey, what exactly were we supposed to do?

“Until the wedding, we keep separate bedrooms.”

I could explain it that way and ask for separate rooms, but if we did that, we might just end up with more strange rumors again.

Like, It seems things didn’t work out with that young lady this time either.

Should I be trying to project restraint, or should I be trying to look cherished? I had been agonizing over that thoroughly, and on top of that, another problem had now come up as well.

The problem that Lady Shitoen might be being targeted.

Just an hour ago, after a fierce debate among the knights—

“Commander, separate bedrooms are bad. Too many things could go wrong.”

Since everyone had said that, I had decided to follow that conclusion.

Even Raul, who at my residence usually kept constant watch to make sure I did not lay a hand on Lady Shitoen, agreed with that opinion.

So that if anything happened, I could deal with it first.

I suppose the idea was that if the Winter Bear of Tidros were by her side, she would be safe.

Well, the one most likely to attack her would be me, so in that sense this was dangerous too, but there was nothing for it except to force instinct down with iron self-control.

“So, I’ll sleep over there somewhere.”

Grabbing a pillow, I pointed to the sofa. As expected of a count’s household. The guest room was remarkably large. There was a sofa, a fireplace, a counter bar, and a canopy bed… apparently it even came with a balcony.

“You cannot make a prince sleep on the sofa! I will sleep on the sofa!”

Lady Shitoen shot up one hand crisply, and I burst out laughing.

“No, if I made a girl sleep in a place like that, I couldn’t call myself a prince.”

“A-a girl… I am not that young anymore…”

Lady Shitoen turned bright red and looked embarrassed.

But no, someone just over twenty still counts as a girl, doesn’t she?

“Um, then let us sleep together in this bed.”

Lady Shitoen looked at me with such serious eyes that I nearly reeled backward.

“Please think of me as air or something. I will stay very still over at the edge.”

No, the question was whether I could stay still.

“…No, I’ll take the sofa…”

“Then I will sleep on the sofa too. Together with you. Which do you prefer?”

“Huh?”

“I cannot let Your Highness sleep alone on the sofa. Then I shall sleep on the sofa as well.”

“I’m having trouble understanding this…”

“If you cannot understand, then choose. Will you sleep together with me on the sofa, or in the bed?”

I was being pressed.

“…………………Then the bed.”

No, I really had wanted to sleep on the sofa.

Because obviously, you could get closer together on the sofa than on the bed, right? No, even if we ended up pressed close, we could still say, “Well, it’s narrow, so it can’t be helped,” right? There’d be an excuse, right? We could sleep all snuggled up together. We could roll around together.

B u t.

Could my self-control actually survive that!? Could I really say I wouldn’t lay a hand on her!? Truly!?

No.

N o w a y!

I know myself better than anyone.

I would touch her.

Without question, I would touch her.

And rather than doing that and then falling into crushing despair afterward, it was far better to endure it all from the edge of the bed.

“Then I’ll stay quietly over around there.”

Lady Shitoen smiled in relief and climbed up onto the bed with a little heave.

Then, staying on all fours, she moved all the way across the bed to the far side.

At that moment, the hem of her nightclothes shifted, and a startlingly white bit of calf flashed into view. I instinctively turned my face away. Dangerous. I was about to stare.

More than that, every little movement she made was adorable, like a tiny animal.

It was just…

It was just, you know!! A little more!!

I need her to move a little more manfully!! Otherwise my self-control won’t survive!

“Is around here all right?”

Lady Shitoen sat down neatly at the very edge, ridiculously far over, and tilted her head at me.

…Yes. I believe that is an appropriate range, and at the same time a distance that avoids a crisis.

Wonderful.

“Don’t go too close to the edge and fall off.”

I gave a wry smile and sat down near the front of the bed with a little heave. The springs creaked under me.

Come to think of it, Lady Shitoen had moved around all over the bed earlier, but it hadn’t made a sound at all. Just as I was thinking how light she must be— the phrase Lady Shitoen moving around on the bed made my imagination run wild on its own, and I sank inwardly, thinking, Ah, honestly, what a hopeless man I am.

“What’s wrong?”

When she spoke to me and I looked up, Lady Shitoen was hugging a pillow to her chest and tilting her head. Honestly, what now. She’s like a little bird.

“No, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. Ah, right.”

I could not very well just keep hanging my head. I forcibly changed the subject.

“About that drink from earlier.”

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, I spoke to Lady Shitoen.

The matter of the peach mixed into it.

“It seems it was meant for a different young lady and was delivered by mistake… We received the most profuse apology.”

“I see. Um… please do not make too much of it.”

She said so apologetically, her brows lowered.

Well… it was a blatant lie.

In reality, the butler still had not been found.

The maid Eaton had seen the butler who handed the glass to Lady Shitoen, and using that appearance as a guide, Raul and several knights had searched for him, but he was nowhere to be found.

The head butler was consulted as well, but said there simply was no butler with those physical features to begin with.

At that point, both I and the knights began to feel not just wary, but a sense of danger.

She is being targeted.

Lady Shitoen.

I did not know why. She had only just come to this country as a bride. She had done nothing that would make anyone hate her, and she had not even had a proper formal debut yet.

“Exercise the utmost caution.”

In the end, that was the order I gave, and the only thing left was for me to protect her personally from the closest possible distance.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Lady Shitoen narrowed her violet eyes. Apparently my sudden silence had worried her.

“I’m fine. Lady Shitoen, though… Ah.”

At that, I shifted where I was sitting and turned to face her properly. She looked at me blankly.

“Right, right. I was thinking this earlier today, but when it’s just the two of us, why don’t we speak in Tania?”

When I addressed her in Tania, Lady Shitoen’s violet eyes grew perfectly round.

“I know I just said that, but I’m hopeless when it comes to your formal speech and polite forms. I can only manage slang-like stuff like this.”

I scratched my head.

The only time I ever use it is when interrogating bandits, so the way I learned the foreign language was not exactly proper.

“No… that is not a problem. But why would you suggest such a thing?”

And yet she answered back in beautiful Tidrosian.

“Well, you know. You’ve been speaking foreign languages all this time, haven’t you? Don’t you ever miss your mother tongue?”

For these past several years, she had scarcely returned to her homeland.

In Luminous, she had to stay on edge and was forced to deal in foreign languages under harsh treatment.

Even here, it was the same.

Even I could tell that she was living in constant tension, as though telling herself she could not afford to fail again.

“Of course, in public, you’ll still have to speak Tidrosian… but at least when it’s just the two of us, let’s use Tania.”

Well, I may be terrible at it, I added with a laugh.

But—

Lady Shitoen’s expression somehow remained stiff, and she tightened her arms around the pillow, which only confused me.

“…Shitoen?”

I tried softly saying her name.

Had I offended her?

That thought struck me at once.

Had my little idea not been any comfort to her at all?

Or— had she taken it as mockery?

The thought chilled me.

“Why are you being so kind to me?”

Lady Shitoen’s pink lips formed the words in Tania. Relief washed through me. It did not seem that she was angry after all.