You’ve Got Some Nerve Saying That

With a beaming fake smile plastered on my face, I went on greeting one guest after another.

At this rate, I felt like my facial muscles were about to collapse.

But I couldn’t stop. I was royalty, at least officially. The least I could do was entertain the guests. Besides, they had come all the way here for my wedding.

Pretending to take a sip of champagne, I glanced over at Shitoen to see if she was doing all right.

She was diagonally in front of me, talking with some distinguished guests, but she showed no sign of distress at all. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying herself.

I just hoped she wasn’t getting tired.

Even though the banquet would be ending soon, after this, we’d be sleeping together…

And the moment that thought slipped through my mind—

My face grew so hot I thought it might explode.

No, no, no, no, no!!!

Sure, it would be something tiring, but still!!

I’m definitely hoping for the kind of thing that makes you tired!!!

It’s not like I’m thinking she should rest up now just for that later, all right!?

This is official duty!!

What kind of idiot neglects official duty just to put all his energy into the wedding night afterward!?

I threw back the rest of the champagne in one gulp, then shook my head furiously from side to side. Begone, impure thoughts!

God, no, no, no, I thought, rolling the shoulder that wasn’t holding the glass.

At once, something brushed against the outside of my shoulder blade. Ah, right. I remembered then that I was wearing a protector under my military uniform. The vest kind.

Maybe because I’d let myself think something weird, I suddenly became painfully aware of the heat, even though it hadn’t bothered me at all until now.

Maybe I should go take it off, I thought.

The banquet was nearly over anyway. Probably about one more hour remained. So far, there wasn’t a single suspicious shadow in sight, and besides, since we’d returned to the royal capital, no one had targeted Shitoen.

“Ah, pardon me. Do you have a moment?”

Just then, someone called out to me.

The instant I turned to see who it was this time, a “geh” slipped out of me, like a toad croaking.

Standing there were Crown Prince Arios and that idiot woman.

To hide the grimace on my face, I handed my empty glass to a nearby butler and hurriedly put on a fake smile.

“Yes, of course. Crown Prince Arios, Lady Mail. You must be tired today.”

I switched to the Karaban common tongue, assuming they probably wouldn’t understand Tidrosian anyway.

The moment I did, Mail let out some bizarre noise, something like, “Hawawaaah!”

“So just hearing you speak the Karaban common tongue makes little bear look even more handsome! At last, we can talk properly!”

Apparently that strange shriek had been some sort of exclamation of admiration. I gave her a strained smile.

“I’m glad to hear it. Though I am a bear who understands human speech.”

I was beyond caring by now, so I answered in kind, and then that woman suddenly grabbed my hand.

“But you’re such a cute little bear.”

She said it with a smile, but—

That face of hers was one she used to ingratiate herself. It was disgusting.

I reflexively shook her off, and my expression hardened despite myself.

“Even so, a bear is still a bear. If you touch one so casually, I can’t be held responsible for what happens.”

“My, how frightening. Might I be devoured, like a maiden lost in the forest?”

She looked up at me with a smile, and a full-body shudder ran down my spine.

What!? How exactly did you interpret that!? You thought I meant I’d eat you in that sense!? I’d get food poisoning! I’m a gourmet, for one thing!! I don’t have much confidence in my face, but I’m very picky about women!

“My apologies. She is currently being educated as a future Crown Princess.”

While I stood there appalled and Mail aimed that sticky smile at me, Crown Prince Arios’s voice flowed smoothly between us.

Save me, pretty boy!!!

On the verge of tears, I looked at him. Do something!

“She’s just a little too friendly. Quite troublesome, really.”

As he said that, Crown Prince Arios wrapped an arm around Mail’s waist and pulled her toward him.

I barely held myself back from sternly telling him to put a collar and leash on her.

“Shitoen, Shitoen!”

Instead, I desperately beckoned to my wife.

Shitoen looked over at us with a puzzled expression, but it seemed her conversation with the distinguished guest had already been nearing its end. They exchanged bows and parted, and she came over to us.

“Shitoen. It seems Lady Mail is in the middle of Crown Princess education.”

As I said it, I slipped an arm around Shitoen’s waist.

“My, is that so? That must be difficult.”

Shitoen immediately switched to the Karaban common tongue and spoke to Mail in a sympathetic tone. At the same time, she wrapped an arm around my back and pressed herself even closer to me. That made me a little happy, and relieved me too.

“I’d be glad if we could speak a little… would you come outside to the garden?”

Crown Prince Arios glanced toward the double doors.

They were the glass kind. It was possible to go out into the garden through them, but honestly, it sounded like a bother. The banquet was at its height, and preparations for closing were already underway. The truth was, I wanted to stay inside the hall so I’d be available the moment a chamberlain or civil official needed to speak to me.

“Mail is still poor at foreign languages. If the royalty of the other countries were to notice such a thing…”

That was probably why I had hesitated to answer. Crown Prince Arios explained it with visible reluctance.

I exchanged a look with Shitoen.

…Well, yes, that was true.

If we kept talking like this in the hall, people might very well start saying, “What sort of education has she been receiving, exactly?”

“I don’t mind.”

Shitoen smiled and nodded. Before I could say thank you, Crown Prince Arios said it instead, which irritated me. She’d said that to me, not to him.

Still feeling displeased, I offered my left arm to Shitoen.

“Then let me show you the garden.”

I said that and turned my back. As we walked toward the double doors, Shitoen leaned her face closer to mine.

“I wonder what it is they want to talk about.”

At Shitoen’s dubious expression, I gave a wry smile too.

“I don’t imagine it’s going to be, ‘I’m sorry for everything up until now.’”

“I know that much from long acquaintance, even better than Prince Saryu does.”

The two of us looked at each other and chuckled softly.

“We’re going out into the garden.”

When I said that to the chamberlain standing near the double doors, he quietly opened them for us.

A breeze carrying the night air drifted over my face. It felt good.

During the day, it could be warm enough to make you sweat, but perhaps because of the moat surrounding the royal palace, the nights felt relatively cool even in summer.

I confirmed that the other two were following behind us, then began wondering how far out we ought to walk.

“Shall we go as far as the arbor?”

I spoke to Shitoen, but she had not been here long yet.

My residence was within the palace grounds, and she lived there with me, but she probably still didn’t know this court building very well.

“I’ll leave it to you.”

She nodded.

“It’s a bit of a walk, but there is an arbor with roses in bloom. Would that suit you?”

Turning back, I asked Crown Prince Arios, and he gave a magnanimous nod.

“Let us go.”

Saying so, he prompted Mail, who was clinging to his arm, and fell in beside us.

“You two are remarkably close, aren’t you?”

Crown Prince Arios said that suddenly, and it startled me.

I thought, since when are you acting so familiar?

But that wasn’t it at all.

He was speaking to Shitoen.

“Yes. Prince Saryu has treated me very well.”

Shitoen answered with her smile unbroken.

“Is that sarcasm?”

Crown Prince Arios twisted one side of his mouth.

“I hear that everything is completely different from how it was in Luminous. Why did you hide that from me?”

“The circumstances are different in Tidros.”

Shitoen answered without hesitation, and it was Crown Prince Arios, even more than I, who seemed surprised by how smoothly she spoke.

“And what exactly did I do?”

When Crown Prince Arios glared at Shitoen, I was about to cut in with a Hey, now, but—

“Your Highness the Crown Prince did nothing at all. You merely believed what you wished to believe.”

Shitoen replied coldly.

“Do you still have feelings for Shitoen or something?”

Somehow, I just felt dumbfounded.

After humiliating her that thoroughly in public, you’ve got some nerve saying something like that.