Uhh, don’t mind me, just a dead man’s ghost doing ghostly things.
“I’m so glad you like it! I bought this from the shopping district to the south of the school.”
“The south side…”
In a certain sense, the school grounds could be split up by region. The north was connected to the area nobles resided in, and so much of the stores in the north side were geared towards catering to nobles. In contrast the south side was connected to where commoners and lower class nobles lived. Naturally, the shops there were more oriented for the masses.
While going to buy it only posed a problem of face and pride for the Aldis family, it was still a problem that couldn’t just be ignored.
“I can bring some more next time if you’d like.”
Though it was unclear if she had seen through Lilia’s internal conflict, Tina said such. Lilia slightly lowered the corners of her eyes, and gratefully accepted her offer.
Leaving the snacks she received to Alisa, Lilia left the room with Tina. She left telling Alisa she and the three agents could try the remaining dorayaki. There were five left, so there might still be one remaining when she got back. Actually she hoped they would leave the last one, and was regretting that she didn’t tell Alisa so.
—If you wanted to eat more you could have just said so.
—And just who was it that told me to tell Alisa to share it with everyone?
—It was me. Sorry.
It was to capture people’s hearts, was what Sakura said, but what kind of cheap heart would it be if it was swayed by some dorayaki? When she was thinking that,
“Lilia’s actually really kind huh. To tell you the truth I’d thought you were a much more scarier person…”
That sentence seemed to come with freakishly on point timing. There was no way she could admit that it was by the instructions of the evil spirit possessing her, so Lilia just gave a vague smile.
—Tina’s a really good girl after all. By the way Lilia, wasn’t there something pretty rude that slid out of your thoughts just now? Something about an evil spirit.
—Oh my. Aren’t you one?
—I’ve said it clearly haven’t I! I’m an Angel! A dear Angel! I’m the dear angel that’s here to help you!
—Isn’t it depressing to say that on your own?
—You’re really not holding back where it hurts huh! I-it’s not like that actually hurts or …
Sakura’s words stopped midway. As Lilia made a confused expression, Sakura went ‘uwah’, and said with a disgusted voice.
—Lilia. It’s the Prince.
—Hah…?
Lilia’s face stiffened.
“What are you doing?”
And that voice was heard at the same time.
“Ah… Your Highness…”
Tina let out a dumbfounded voice. Towards the direction the voice came from, Lilia turned her around.
“My, your Highness. What might be the matter?”
“Don’t play dumb. Just where are you thinking of dragging Tina to?”
The Prince drew closer to Lilia. Lilia made an annoyed seeming sigh, and fixed a smile to her face. That was,
“……!”
The usual, smile.
“Your Highness. To say nothing of dragging around, did you know that Miss Tina is the one leading the way here? I am currently going with Miss Tina to head for some dinner together.”
“Hmph. As if I’d believe that. Aren’t you just instructing her to walk out in front? So that if someone… If for example myself were to see you would have an excuse.”
—Uwah, what’s with this guy. How annoying.
—I must currently wholeheartedly agreeing with you there.
Normally she would have openly cautioned her about such thoughts, but Lilia herself, seemed to have cooled down towards this man so she had no intention of finding fault with it. Together with Sakura, the two of them shared their feelings about what a troublesome guy this Prince was when,
“What’s wrong, why aren’t you saying anything? Cause I hit the bulls eye right?”
The Prince said with a triumphant smile on his face.
—So this is the so called doyagao! Doyaa!
—Doya… What?
—It’s nothing. If I had to describe it, then it’s basically the Prince’s face right now.
—Ahh. So a face that makes you want to crush in your hands huh.
—Scary! That’s way too much! But I agree!
While making some banter with Sakura as a form of escapism, Lilia breathed a small sigh. She looked away from the Prince and turned to Tina. The Prince, he probably hasn’t even noticed Tina’s expression that’s been driven to the brink of tears.
As she tried to reassure her with a soft smile, Tina, though still with the corners of her eyes drooping, returned a smile in kind.
“Despite your kind invitation, since there’s been a boorish interruption let us call it off here.”
“Yes… Sorry about that, Miss Lilia.”
“No need for apologies. A certain boorish, intruding, someone from somewhere is to blame after all.”
Firmly punctuating her words, she eyes didn’t spare a single glance away from the Prince as she said so. The Prince’s face was turning seething red, but whatever.
“Well then, I will take my leave.”
She turned around on the spot. Before heading back towards her room, she moved just her lips to mouth a farewell.
See you later.
She wasn’t sure if it was properly conveyed, but Tina gave a firm nod in return.
The Prince shouted something or other in an attempt to stop Lilia, but she completely ignored such a thing. It didn’t even register in her mind. No matter what the idiot is shouting, it was all ignored, and she headed back towards her room.
When she got back, she was greeted by a wide-eyed Alisa.
“This is quite an early return… I’m surprised.”
As Alisa said so, Lilia just shrugged.
“We bumped into his Highness. It was troublesome so I returned.”
“Those words may be too much, Miss Lilia.”
Even though she cautioned her, Alisa also had wry smile all the while. It seemed she wasn’t actually serious about it. Alisa probably had some of her own thoughts after seeing Lilia’s exchange with the Prince yesterday. Lilia simply accepted Alisa’s words, and shrugged her shoulders.
“It seems, we’ve missed out on dinner tonight…”
—Food…
Together with Sakura, she gave a heavy sigh. Since they were indeed quite looking forward to it, the shock was all the greater.
“Miss Lilia. There is one dorayaki still remaining, how about it?”
“I’ll take it. After I eat that, I’m going to sleep.”
She was totally just going to sulk in the bed, but this time neither Alisa nor Sakura said anything about it. Receiving the dorayaki from Alisa, she went into her bedroom just like that, half-halfheartedly got changed and laid down on the bed.
Author’s Note:
The Prince doesn’t have any good points at all huh… He wasn’t really supposed to be a bad guy though…
TL Note:
Doyagao is basically like a really smug looking face, maybe similar to the lenny face in the west. Apparently the term came about because ‘Douda'(‘How about that!’) is ‘Douya’ in Kansai dialect. Cue a bunch of funny people doing their thing(lots of comedians there) and thus the term ‘Doya(How’s that!)gao(face)’ was coined.
Sakura
Lilia