Where Is The Dragon Crest, Exactly?

That night.

I had just curled my hand into a fist, thinking I would knock on Lady Shitoen’s bedroom door.

“You understand, young master. Only a greeting. Nothing but a greeting.”

“Commander. Let me be clear, if you stay in there longer than fifteen minutes, I will not hesitate to storm the room.”

From behind me, the steward and Raul pressed down on me with their pressure.

“Quiet. I know. Why does no one trust me?”

I turned around sharply and glared at them.

But both of them remained utterly unfazed.

“Well, after seeing how you acted at the presentation gathering and the dinner… right, Sir Raul?”

“Yes. I thought, This is bad, he is already head over heels. Right, Mr. Steward?”

The two of them nodded to each other in agreement.

“No, it was not like that, was it? It is not as if we were flirting.”

All I did was walk around with Lady Shitoen on my arm and bow to every relative there was. Even at the dinner, we were both so busy dealing with the guests seated beside us that all I could think was, So the Crown Prince has to do this every day? This is rough.

“Every time you introduced Lady Shitoen to someone else, Commander, you had this look on your face that said, Isn’t my wife unbelievably cute?”

Raul said coldly.

Seriously?

Was it written all over my face?

“Anyway. I am only going to say good night and tell her about Vandel.”

I said that and turned my back on the two of them again.

I thought they were going to leave, but apparently they really meant to stand guard right here.

“Umm… Lady Shitoen. It’s me.”

Knock, knock, knock. I rapped three times and announced myself.

“Yes. Come in.”

A voice like a little bell rolling across the floor came from the other side of the door.

I gripped the doorknob.

“Maintain a proper distance.” “Fifteen minutes.”

The steward and Raul both spoke rapidly.

Quiet.

With the hand that was not holding the knob, I shooed them away and opened the door and stepped inside. After that, I quickly shut it. Still, perhaps it was my imagination, but my back prickled. Their stares had not changed.

Feeling vaguely uncomfortable, I hurried further into the room. At this rate, those two looked ready to see through the door.

That was what I was thinking, when I suddenly noticed that the atmosphere of the room had changed.

This was one of the rooms in my residence.

It had been used as a guest room, but I had heard that the head butler and the head maid were going to remake it into something suitable for the lady of the house.

The wallpaper and furnishings had all been changed, and the room had become remarkably feminine.

The curtains were in pale colors as well, and perhaps because they softened the light from the lamps, the room looked much more spacious.

The bed was a canopy bed, and the lace design on it was charming.

It suited Lady Shitoen very well.

“Thank you for your hard work earlier, Prince.”

She had apparently been sitting in the claw-footed chair in the center of the room, drinking tea.

Lady Shitoen rose to her feet and bowed politely to me, which made me feel awkward.

She had apparently already bathed.

She was wearing a glossy silk nightgown. It reached all the way down to cover her ankles, but her arms were bare, or rather… well, I suppose that was just the design.

Then I thought, Hm.

The Dragon Crest.

For some reason, because I had heard Crown Prince Arios loathed it, I had imagined she would have tattoos covering her body or arms.

But there was nothing at all on the surface of her arm, which was more slender and supple than I expected. Only the orange glow of the lamps spread across it.

“Ah… I came to say good night…”

That sheen of hers made my heart jump.

It was only her arm, and yet somehow it felt improper to look, so I hurriedly averted my eyes.

“Was I supposed to come to you instead?”

She asked that in a flustered tone, and I shook my head in surprise. No, if anything, I am the strange one for coming here. We already said good night to each other properly when we parted.

I had actually intended to go to sleep just like that, but then there was the matter of Vandel, which was why I had intruded like this…

“If there is anything inconvenient in the residence, please say so. We will deal with it each time.”

Ah, I should have bathed before coming.

Do I smell sweaty or something?

Once that thought occurred to me, I could not carelessly go near her.

“Everyone has been very kind to me. My maid Eaton is grateful as well.”

She narrowed her eyes and smiled as she said it.

But somehow it made my chest tighten.

That was because I had already received a report from the head butler.

“It seems that she endured great difficulties in her previous residence.”

He must have meant how she had been treated at Crown Prince Arios’s place.

According to the weepy Eaton, the same one who had cried so hard her legs gave out, when she confided in one of our maids, Lady Shitoen had not even been given proper meals, the clothes she sent out to be washed had been slashed apart, and her accessories had been destroyed as well. The head maid had frowned and told me, “One can tell the standing of a house from such things.”

Lady Shitoen herself said nothing, but Eaton had apparently wept and complained, “What in the world did my princess ever do to deserve this?”

At first, Lady Shitoen had apparently tried in her own way to somehow improve her relationship with Crown Prince Arios, but it came to nothing, and two years passed fruitlessly.

And then, in the end, came the broken engagement.

“Young master. This is where a man proves himself.”

Both the head butler and the head maid kept pressing me on.

But despite the horrible treatment she had endured, she showed not the slightest sign of it.

If she cried, complained, or grumbled like Eaton, I could comfort her or cheer her up, but when she said nothing at all, doing something from my side felt strange.

I am not hurt.

I do not like speaking to someone who behaves that way and saying, You must really be suffering inside.

“Um, Prince.”

Softly, she opened her mouth. “Yes.” I answered by reflex.

“Thank you very much for everything this time.”

Because she bowed deeply, I widened my eyes, wondering what this was about.

“At the engagement ceremony with Crown Prince Arios, you not only came to my rescue, but also invited me to become your own princess consort…”

“No, no, no, no. Um…”

I hurriedly interrupted her.

“If you start talking like that, then I ought to apologize to you instead. Well…”

I scratched vigorously at my head.

“I am sorry that I am such a bear-like man. Prince is only a title in my case.”

When I shrugged, Lady Shitoen widened her eyes just as I had done earlier.

And then she laughed softly.

Guh. She is adorable.

“You were exactly the prince I imagined. You truly have not changed.”

Have not changed…?

“Wait, have we…”

Met somewhere before? That was what I was about to ask, but Lady Shitoen spoke first.

“Prince, are you truly satisfied with me?”

“I mean, really, I am satisfied, or rather. Yes. Absolutely.”

I ended up nodding too eagerly. That will not do, that will not do. I was coming on too strong.

“I am glad to hear that.”

She smiled with her cheeks turning pink, and I could have looked at that forever. Pure bliss.

But then it hit me.

Right.

I had to talk about that man.

“Ah… well, actually…”

“Yes?”

Lady Shitoen looked up at me with a puzzled expression.

“A friend of mine is coming tomorrow. A man named Vandel… I am sorry to ask this when you are tired, but would you be willing to meet him?”

“It would be my honor.”

No, honor is not the word.

The truth is, I would rather not have the two of you meet, but he is already here in the royal capital. He acts too fast.

“Um…”

She called out to me again, reservedly.

“Yes?”

I answered while wondering if fifteen minutes had nearly passed already.

“Does the Dragon Crest trouble you?”

When she asked me that, I hesitated for a moment. I had been thinking about it just earlier.

“I would be lying if I said I was not curious… but it does not particularly trouble me either. Um. Do I need to see it or something? Should I take a look?”

Not knowing what the correct answer was, I asked that, and Lady Shitoen turned red all the way to her ears and seemed to shrink in on herself, drawing in her chin.

“No. It is not that you must see it… It is just… would you not find it unpleasant?”

“Find what unpleasant?”

“The Dragon Crest.”

“No, not really…”

I was curious about what it looked like, of course. After all, there would never normally be a chance to see such a thing.

But unpleasant…? What kind of nonsense was that?

“Well… I have heard that some men dislike even looking at it…”

Trying to think of the softest possible way to say it,

Lady Shitoen spoke with the utmost care.

It was probably him.

That man.

Crown Prince Arios.

That fool must have said something incomprehensible like it was disgusting.

“When speaking of the Kingdom of Tania, dragons are indispensable. So if someone bears the scale tattoo that symbolizes that dragon, I would think only that they are someone worthy of respect… and nothing more than that.”

So I, too, chose my words with the greatest possible care.

What I really wanted to say was, Just ignore fools like that. Forget anything a man like that ever said to you, but if she could forget it, or laugh it off, then she would never have asked something like this.

“If Lady Shitoen would permit it, would you show it to me?”

When I said that with the gentlest smile in the entire history of my life, she turned so red that it looked as if flames might burst from her body.

Huh? What is this reaction?

Did I say something strange?

“Well… I would like to show you, but I am not yet mentally prepared…”

“Mentally prepared?”

I asked before I could stop myself, and Lady Shitoen made her tiny body shrink even smaller and pointed at the middle of her chest. With her face still lowered, she spoke in a voice so faint it was almost gone.

“It is… here…”

Exactly.

In the valley of her breasts.

“My apologies!! Um!! If I were to see it now, that would, um!! Yes, that would be very bad!!”

I held both hands out to stop her.

Not that the actual Lady Shitoen in front of me had tried to show me anything, but…

the imaginary Lady Shitoen in my head had just said, Would you like to see it? and started taking off her clothes, so this was bad.

Retreat was the only option here.

I am done for.

“Then, Lady Shitoen! Until tomorrow!”

Saying that, I dashed out of the room.

And just as expected,

Raul and the steward were standing right outside the door.

“Why is your face bright red?”

“What exactly did you imagine?”

I just shouted, Uwaaaaaaaaah, as I ran down the corridor of my residence.

Pointlessly.