Chapter 7

At the table inside a small cabin filled with the fragrance of roses, I glared down at my hands.

Before me, the prince sat with a radiant, full-blown smile as he fluttered his very last card in a provocative manner.

I scowled and bit my lip.

“Bell. It’s over.”

“Ugh…”

With a trembling hand, I forced myself to move and drew the card remaining in the prince’s hand. All I held was the ludicrous joker.

“There. I win.”

“Why… why is this happening!”

Five matches, five losses.

This prince was way too good.

Several months had passed since I achieved an eighty-percent success rate on Operation Best Friend. We had played all sorts of games together, but I had yet to win a single time.

“Let’s play another round, one more round!”

“You’re surprisingly a sore loser, Bell.”

Even though I was the best at Old Maid among my siblings thanks to my poker face… I couldn’t even win against him here.

“Am I really that easy to read…?”

“Hmm, not particularly. But this… what was it called, a deck of cards? You made these by hand, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It’s a game I came up with myself.”

In truth, playing cards didn’t exist in this world. They had chess and things like that, but no playing cards.

Because of that, if I wanted to play a card game, I had no choice but to make them myself. I had thought they turned out quite well, too.

“I struggled a bit with them at first, but once we got into the second half, I ended up memorizing the cards.”

“You memorized the cards?”

“This one here, for instance—the seven of hearts has a slight scratch on it, and the eleven of spades is torn right here.”

“…Don’t tell me you memorized all of them?”

“I couldn’t help it, they just stuck in my head.”

The prince smiled brightly and shrugged his shoulders.

I see. I was the fool for thinking I could ever beat this person.

“Does that mean we can’t use these cards anymore…?”

“If it’s a game where numbers and suits matter, then no, we can’t.”

“No way… There were so many other games I wanted to play…”

I had been wanting to get fired up over a competitive game of Millionaire or Golf for the first time in forever!

Ignoring me as I puffed out my cheeks, the prince started talking. His treatment of me was pretty casual.

“Still, this place is remarkably nice.”

“I found it when I was exploring the garden as a child.”

A small space overflowing with blooming roses.

This was the one place I hadn’t shown the prince on the day I carried out that operation of mine. He had looked curious about it afterward anyway, so I showed it to him eventually.

I had known about this spot even before remembering my past life. Bathed in warm sunlight filtering through the trees, it had a roof that could barely be called a cabin, just enough to keep out the rain, along with a table and chairs, with roses blooming beautifully all around.

I had instructed the gardeners not to touch it, so it was completely left alone. I loved how the roses grew in wild, untamed clusters. Plus, it gave off a nice secret-base vibe.

“It’s my secret spot, you see.”

“Well, you’ve gone and shown it to me now, though.”

The prince smiled teasingly. I smiled right back.

“Indeed. Doesn’t it get your heart racing, feeling like a secret base?”

“A secret base?”

“It means a secret place. A place just for the two of us to play.”

“Just for the two of us…”

This time, I smiled mischievously.

I had always loved having my own private spaces like this since I was little. I used to bring manga and a futon into the hallway closet to make it my own room. Reading manga under the light of a desk lamp in the dark was so much fun. The feeling of having your own space completely cut off from the rest of the world was simply irresistible.

As I softened my cheeks with a smile, the prince chuckled happily as well. It was like a flower bursting into bloom all at once, and I couldn’t help but gaze at him in fascination. It was truly the expression of an innocent child.

“I see, a secret. A secret just between the two of us. Hehe, that sounds exciting.”

He smiled with such genuine delight that it made me happy too, and the two of us burst into soft giggles.

“Ah, that’s right. I managed to use a new spell the other day.”

“M-Magic!?”

Startled by the sudden announcement, I sprang straight to our feet.

That’s right. I had completely forgotten. The royal family of our country—the Vermelio family—was the sole lineage capable of using magic. If that was the case, it was hardly strange for the prince to be able to use magic.

Since the topic of magic hadn’t even come up once during the route of Ashwad, my beloved knight, it had completely slipped my mind.

“Can all royalty use magic?”

“Hmm, probably. Though the amount of magic power varies from person to person, I suppose.”

As the prince muttered that he had never really thought about it, flowers suddenly appeared suspended in mid-air. Tiny peach-colored blossoms. They looked quite similar to plum flowers.

“Eh, whoa!”

While I stood there dumbfounded and slack-jawed, flowers burst forth around me as well. I had no clue what kind of mechanism was behind it, but it felt utterly magical.

Feeling like it would be a waste to let them fall, I gathered as many of the flowers dancing through the air into my hands as I could. Those flowers born of magic sparkled brilliantly before fading away into nothingness.

“Bell, step outside for a moment.”

The prince pointed toward the lawn just outside the roofed area. Stepping outside as told, I narrowed my eyes slightly against the intense sunlight.

“My dearest fiancée.”

When I looked toward the source of the voice, I saw the prince kneeling on one knee and taking my left hand in his. My inner self shrieked at the absurdity of the situation. What kind of disrespect was this, making a prince kneel?

I panicked and tried to make the prince stand up, but he didn’t budge at all.

“Your Highness! Please stand up!”

“Eh—?”

My left hand, nestled within the prince’s grasp, was letting out silent screams. This felt less like having my hand taken and more like having it tightly clasped in a grip.

“Bell, just for now, I’d love it if you called me by my name.”

“Then Lord Dylan, please rise.”

When I said that, the grip on my hand tightened. I couldn’t help but wince.

My eyes were pleading with me not to say anything unnecessary, so I decided to obediently shut my mouth.

“Allow me to present you with a bouquet of flowers.”

Wearing a facial expression that was still far too gorgeous for his own good, the prince smiled gently. His shining golden hair and sapphire-like blue eyes were dazzling. Was the terrifying amount of sparkling aura visible around the prince an illusion, or simply the reflection of the sunlight…?

While I was dazedly pondering such trivial thoughts, the prince pressed his lips against the back of my hand.

Specifically, onto my ring finger.

A wave of embarrassment surged up, sending blood rushing to my head in an instant. My face was definitely bright red right now.

In my past life, wearing a ring on the ring finger was a sign that someone was married, but I wondered if it was the same in this world. Since it was an otome game created by Japanese developers, the chances of that element being present were quite high. If he knew that and kissed it anyway, this prince was truly something else.

Already overwhelmed on multiple fronts.

Seeing me flushed with a red face, the prince smiled with a look of deep satisfaction.

At that instant, a wind blew and flowers swirled into the air.

I blinked reflexively, and the next moment, those pink flowers were dancing around me in quantities that couldn’t even be compared to before.

Another strong gust of wind blew, making the flowers flutter around me in a swirling circle. A sweet fragrance drifted through the air.

“Whoa…”

I was glued to the spot by the beautiful, fantastical sight. The blue sky and the sunlight gleamed as if to accentuate the blossoms. The pink petals caught the wind, wavering as they drifted downward.

A sweet scent and a breathtaking view. The wind brushing against my cheeks and the soft sensation of the petals.

Everything about it was gorgeous.

“Did you like it?”

The prince’s words snapped me back to reality.

I had to say something, anything.

“It’s so very pretty… I was completely mesmerized. It’s truly beautiful.”

Disappointed in my utter lack of vocabulary, I nonetheless gestured with my hands and arms in an effort to convey just how deeply moved I was.

“To tell you the truth, it’s customary for royalty to give a gift to their fiancée. As proof of betrothal, you see. But… well, I have to apologize because I’m completely clueless about accessories, and I hadn’t taken any interest in the concept of a fiancée, so I hadn’t prepared anything. That’s why, please accept my magic as a token of my affection.”

The prince smiled somewhat shyly as he handed me the bouquet. The bundle of flowers featured a mix of roses and other blossoms I had never seen before. It had wonderful taste.

“Thank you very much. I’m very happy.”

“Someday, I’ll give you a proper gift.”

I noticed a little pink flower perched innocently atop the hair of the prince, who had said that with a happy expression. I thought about taking it off for him, but stopped and pulled out a pocket mirror instead.

“What’s wrong, suddenly pulling out a hand mirror like that?”

“Hehe, please take a look.”

The prince peered into the mirror and pouted with a disgruntled expression.

“You could have just told me.”

“You’re the Flower Prince, after all.”

When I shook my head and forcefully knocked the flower off, the prince broke into a mischievous, boyish grin this time.

“If I’m the Flower Prince, then Bell is the Flower Princess.”

Here, he turned the pocket mirror toward me. Reflected inside was a single young lady with her hair covered in pink flowers.

“You should have told me!”

“Consider it payback.”

I hurriedly tidied up my disheveled hair. The prince even helped me out a little bit.

“Bell, if you want to beat me, you should make a much more precise deck of cards.”

The prince laughed provocatively, pointing toward the scattered cards spread across the garden table, which was shaded beneath the arch of vines.

“Indeed. I’ll do just that.”

When I flashed a similarly belligerent grin, vowing to win next time, the prince smiled with amusement dancing in his eyes.