Love Talk

“So, you’re my escort this time…?”

“It’s been a while, Lord Arthur. I’ve heard from Gawain about your achievements in Dorf. As expected of you.”

The knight who spoke so casually was Tristan. With the factional disputes intensifying, Morgan had made the effort to assign someone she could trust—but of course, Arthur didn’t realize that.

After glancing briefly at Kei, who was preparing for departure, Tristan smirked and whispered in Arthur’s ear.

“So, after the Saintess, you’re going on a date with your maid? As they say, heroes do love the ladies.”

“No… Kei and I aren’t like that. Besides, Elaine herself said she hated me. She even writes things in her letters that sound like threats…”

Indeed, after putting the Saintess in her place—something that hadn’t happened in his previous life—he’d begun receiving regular letters from her. They contained stories about her daily life, the challenges of difficult treatments, and more recently, declarations like “I’ve been working hard at cooking lately, so I’ll let you try my specialty dish.”

Every time he read those letters, Arthur would recall the unbearably spicy dish she had forced on him at the banquet and grimace.

‘That woman must be frustrated that she lost to me in healing ability, so she’s trying to deal me psychological damage…’

“Heh, it seems that even you, Lord Arthur, are still inexperienced in matters of love. You don’t understand a maiden’s heart—it’s just a way of hiding her embarrassment.”

“I understand romance just fine. I’m popular, you know!! So, what about you—do you have a lover?”

Of course, Arthur didn’t actually think he was popular. But it was in his nature to bluff like that. After all, he was a teenager.

And while Tristan’s attitude was hardly one befitting a knight toward his lord, Arthur—who didn’t know what “normal” was—didn’t mind. More than that… there was something refreshing about having such pointless conversations with someone else.

For someone who had been a loner, chatting idly about love like this was actually a bit fun.

“Yes, I’m seeing a noble lady named Isolde. She’s very graceful and a lover I’m proud of.”

“Huh… you look happy.”

Seeing Tristan—usually wearing a smirk—smile blissfully made Arthur feel a twinge of envy. In both his current and past lives, he had never truly experienced love. Unlike this time, his relationship with Morgan had been completely cold, and he’d had no interest in other people. Naturally.

But meeting so many different people was changing him.

‘I wonder if I’ll ever fall in love someday?’

Well, some might say, “Aren’t you engaged to Morgan?!” But in his past life, he’d been endlessly tormented by her, and with Morgan’s “cool but affectionate” personality that made her reluctant to be honest, combined with Arthur’s own emotional maturity—which had only just progressed from elementary to middle school level—their compatibility was abysmal.

Their feelings kept missing each other entirely.

“Haha, so you are interested in love after all, Lord Arthur. Women are drawn to cool men, you know. You should try acting cool in front of the ladies. How about saying something that would make Lady Morgan’s heart skip a beat?”

“If I did that, she’d definitely make fun of me…”

Arthur frowned at the image of her snidely mocking him. Then, curious about this seemingly experienced man—just a little (self-proclaimed) interested in romance—Arthur asked:

“Do you get a lot of confessions, Tristan?”

“Haha, as a knight, I’m always cool, so I do receive invitations from various noble ladies. But right now, I’m devoted to Isolde… Incidentally, my ex-girlfriend was also named Isolde.”

“…Huh?”

Does this guy have some kind of weird fetish? Arthur, who had just started to take an interest in love talk, blurted out a flat, dumbfounded reply at this unexpected turn.

And then he thought:

‘Maybe I shouldn’t take advice from this guy…’

It was the moment a budding friendship died.

“Lord Arthur, what were you and Lord Tristan talking about so happily?”

Kei came over smiling, apparently ready for their trip to the orphanage. Maybe because they’d just been talking about love…

For some reason, Arthur suddenly felt a little embarrassed and mumbled evasively.

“Ah, just… stuff…”

“…?”

“Hehe, it was just man-to-man talk, wasn’t it, Lord Arthur?”

“Mmm—please don’t teach Lord Arthur any strange things, Lord Tristan. It’s bad for his education.”

When Kei tugged him away from Tristan as if to reclaim him, the movement pulled Arthur toward her chest in an almost embracing posture.

‘If I ever do fall in love, I’d want someone kind like Kei.’

Arthur’s heart pounded a little as he rested against her.