A Traffic Jam Of Cuteness

“…Excuse me, just a moment.”

I groaned, clutching the veil in one hand while covering my face with the other.

“Could I have everyone on the Tidros royal family’s side gather for a moment?”

I have been told that even wild beasts grow hesitant when they come face-to-face with me.

And yet from the mouth of the man called the Winter Bear of Tidros came an utterly pathetic voice.

The Crown Prince sprang to his feet in alarm, and Father the King had gone pale and frozen stiff, but no, I was just a little confused.

“W-What is the matter, Commander?”

Raul swiftly grabbed my arm and leaned his face close.

“What is it, Saryu?”

The Crown Prince thrust his head in as well and rebuked me in a low voice, but instead I seized both of them by the neck and turned my back on Lady White Cocoon. Then I lowered my voice even further and declared,

“Where exactly is the ugliness?”

“………She’s unimaginably beautiful.”

“Yes, she looks like a doll.”

The Crown Prince and Raul both nodded, so I tightened the arms I had slung around their necks.

“C-can’t breathe!”

“Stop, Commander!”

“What am I supposed to do?! What am I supposed to do with a girl that beautiful?!”

I glared at them while shaking the arms around their necks in short, violent jerks.

“This is me, remember!? What am I supposed to do?!”

“Isn’t it fine if she’s a beautiful girl? …More importantly, hey. Raul’s going to die.”

“G-ghffuuuuuh…”

Letting out a strange groan, Raul nearly collapsed to the floor from the knees down.

“Um. Did it… offend you?”

At that voice, clear as a little bell rolling across the floor, I reflexively turned around.

At the same time, the Crown Prince and Raul, each tucked under one of my arms, were forced to turn with me, and both of them groaned, “Guh.”

In front of the altar.

The young lady standing there alone beneath the stained-glass light directed her violet eyes straight at me and parted her pink lips.

“Did this appearance of mine offend you?”

Asked again, I stared blankly at her.

Because in that expression, in those eyes, in every strand of her hair, sorrow shimmered and trembled.

“No!”

Before I knew it, I had shouted.

I threw aside the Crown Prince and Raul, clenched my fists, and stood ramrod straight.

“I am flustered because you are too adorable and I do not know what to do! May I have a little time!?”

My voice echoed through the chapel again and again before finally fading.

And until it grew small and disappeared, no one said a word.

Then, snort.

The first to burst out laughing was Mother.

“Oh my, honestly, this child. Whatever is he saying?”

“No, Lord Balimore, my apologies. Our third son runs about in the frontier, you see. It seems he has absolutely no immunity to lovely women.”

Father was bowing to Lord Balimore, but the content of what he said was highly misleading.

He made it sound as though I were some fool who did nothing but run around.

I am carrying out missions, and this is how I am described.

“No, truly… I am relieved. I am overwhelmed.”

And yet Lord Balimore smiled so gently that he looked like a different man from the one I had seen three months ago. There were even faint tears standing in his eyes.

Yes, after all, it must have been painful to watch his daughter be rejected in front of so many people.

That Crown Prince Arios really was a deeply sinful man.

Even her father felt that way.

So how deeply had the person directly involved been hurt?

Thinking that, I looked at Lady White Cocoon.

No.

Now that her veil had been removed, she was no longer Lady White Cocoon.

She was Lady Shitoen.

As she looked at me, her smooth cheeks, like a peeled boiled egg, were flushed pink.

Her violet eyes were moist as though brimming with tears, and the earrings made of stones in the same color swayed faintly. Apparently, she was trembling.

As for the maid— well, she had already collapsed at Lady Shitoen’s feet and was weeping. She was saying things like, “Thank goodness, Princess,” but the whole situation had become utter chaos.

“Take a deep breath, Saryu.”

The Crown Prince, who had recovered before I noticed, ordered me.

“Go to the young lady, take a deep breath, and on one, two, three, give her a forehead kiss.”

He explained it as though he were teaching manners to my two-year-old nephew.

“And do not get carried away and headbutt her. You will need to crouch down, or the height will not match and it will become an air forehead kiss.”

Raul added that in rapid-fire speech. What did he think I was?

A mere forehead kiss? Please. That is child’s play. Leave it to me.

“Come now, come now. You must not keep your fiancée waiting. Besides, the ceremony is still not over after this.”

The Crown Prince gave my back a shove.

True, true.

After this, Lady Shitoen would change dresses and go to the presentation hall, where she would be introduced to all the relatives.

Then after that, there would be the dinner gathering.

And after that, dismissal.

From tonight onward, she would be living together with me in my residence.

Normally that would happen after the wedding, but because the last engagement was broken off in that manner, the King of Tania was apparently extremely cautious and had ordered, “After the engagement ceremony, have them live together at once.”

I suppose the idea was to create an established fact and make sure this time the marriage truly happened.

But I do feel a little sorry for her.

After all, she would suddenly be living with a man she had only met today…

Crown Prince Arios was entirely at fault for what happened before, and yet this decision treated it as though the full responsibility lay with Lady Shitoen.

Still, this time our royal house had repeatedly warned me, “Do not lay a hand on her before the wedding presentation.”

Well, even though I am a prince, I am only the third son, so I will not be having the sort of wedding that goes on for a full week like the Crown Prince’s.

There will be a parade in the royal capital for the public presentation, and apparently the churches around the country that Mother is close to will ring bells or hand out charity or something.

But if my wife’s belly were already swelling during that parade, or if her morning sickness were severe… well, there would be all sorts of talk among the people.

I suppose I do understand.

There would be a tremendous amount of rumor and mockery, no doubt.

I am a man, and I basically live among men in the knightly order, so people can say whatever they like about me, but Lady Shitoen, who is to become my wife, will be attending social gatherings, tea parties, and charity work surrounded mostly by women.

…Just imagining it is enough to make a sigh escape me.

So then.

According to the Crown Prince and my second brother, the next half year was to be a time of nothing but endurance.

As I walked over the red carpet and approached Lady Shitoen, I found myself troubled.

I had just gone and assumed she would not be my type.

Easy, easy. If we just got along, drank tea, and ate meals together, half a year would fly by in no time—or so I had thought.

This is bad.

She is exactly my type. She is absurdly adorable, damn it.

I stopped in front of Lady Shitoen and looked down at her.

Does she even have pores? Really. Her skin is so smooth.

And that hair—is that truly human hair? It looks like it might be made of silk or the sort of fibers heavenly maidens drape around themselves.

If I keep staring at it, I am going to want to touch it. This is bad, very bad.

I cleared my throat.

I turned around and looked at those in attendance.

The Crown Prince was properly seated again as well.

“Well then.”

I have no idea what I meant by well then, but I said it anyway.

In the meantime, Raul dragged out the maid, who had cried so much at Lady Shitoen’s feet that her legs had given out.

I faced Lady Shitoen once more.

“Excuse me.”

When I spoke, a small “Yes” came in reply.

Then, as though on cue, she tilted up her chin to look up at me and closed her eyes.

This is bad, damn it!

The destructive power of this is unbelievable!

Her defenselessness is adorable! Adorableness itself is defenseless! This is a crime!

My lips were drawn toward hers before I heard a deliberate clearing of the throat behind me. I shifted only my gaze toward those in attendance and saw the Crown Prince mouthing, “Forehead!” Tch.

Reluctantly, I placed both hands on Lady Shitoen’s shoulders.

Apparently I ended up grabbing them rather firmly.

The thinness and delicacy of them startled me, but it seemed Lady Shitoen was startled as well.

She trembled with a jolt, her eyes still shut…

…………….She is unbelievably adorable. What is this little creature? Good grief. She is like a rabbit you see in snowy mountains. No, perhaps a white marten.

No, cast away impure thoughts, me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As instructed, forehead kiss. Forehead kiss. Not the lips.

I bent quite a bit at the waist and kissed her on the forehead.

It was as smooth as porcelain.

The sweet perfume oil she wore was enough to make me dizzy.

“Congratulations.” “Congratulations to you both.”

Applause and blessings arose from all around us.

Apparently, the engagement ceremony had now come to its end.

Good grief.

From here until the wedding, am I really going to survive this…?