Happy Friday!
「Nee, you look kind of tired.」
「It's just your imagination.」
「You look like a panda bear.」
「Your Highness is still half asleep.」
Even though Dia had already gotten dressed, he hunched his back, looking thoroughly tired. What could've happened, as one would expect, I'm not an idiot, so I somewhat understood what happened.
Because he understood that I somewhat understood, Dia was probably looking at me reproachfully as well. Maa, maa. At the very least, I also understood that the ones who could tempt the desires of men were women.
「It seems that you've stopped treating me like a child for the most part.」
「Like I said, I…have never treated you like a child…」
Dia entered the carriage that Yurii-sama and I were on while hanging his head. The others have left before Yurii-sama woke up. Rather than saying that Yurii-sama slept in, there were a lot of people who woke up early so that they could see Yurii-sama's sleeping face.
Besides, the men had to go to work, and there was work for His Highness Prince Alan to do at the castle as well, among other things, so he left the Roderick mansion in tears.
「Ha?」
Yurii-sama made an extremely displeased face and was looking up at Dia.
He even tilted his head in confusion at me who was with Dia. Even though they were getting along so well yesterday, he was narrowing his eyes right now and looking at him as if he was the enemy of his parents.
「You're not allowed to ride together with us. Get off, Roderick.」
Ara, maa. My fiance looked like he was about to cry.
That was because he returned to calling him by his family name on top of suddenly being treated coldly.
Even though he was lacking in sleep, Dia, having received the final blow, silently got off the carriage while walking unsteadily. He might be kind of pitiful.
「In my dream, that guy took my cake.」
Afterwards, when he found out the reason why he was being treated coldly, he gifted Yurii-sama a whole cake the next day.
「Ara, it's already this big.」
When we looked into the flowerpot that was on the windowsill, Yurii-sama happily started to sketch it. For some reason, he was doing so while hiding it.
「You're not letting me see?」
「Even if it's a request from Mira, only this is I can not fulfill.」
He was stubbornly keeping it away from me, and every time he finished drawing one page, he would give the sketchbook to Dia to hold on to, so I was not able to take a look at it at all.
Dia was Dia, so he wouldn't let me look at it. Saying something like 「It's a secret between His Highness and I」and smiling proudly, that's why I said that you are intolerant.
On that note, Yurii-sama said 「I'll let you see it someday!」and even went as far as to pinky promise me. His treatment of women was good. Actually, that someday, I don't know how long it would be though.
「That's right. Won't you go into town to buy art supplies? There are also dried sweet potatoes.」
「What about school?」
「It will be fine even if you don't earnestly go every day. Secretly taking the day off, if it's something like doing it once a year, it would be just fine. I have also created a rule for myself to skip school for one day every year.」
It's important to properly to take a rest. Because there was a rest, you would also be able to do your best in your everyday studies.
「Mira is a delinquent!」
「Ara, you say that so happily.」
Even though he said that, Yurii-sama's eyes were sparkling. It's rather fun to do something kind of bad as long as it doesn't cause other people trouble. This was especially so for children.
That's right, thinking back on it, let's just say that the pranks that I pulled in my childhood, were part of a child's adventure.
Sprinkling salt on the sweets that Father loves, scribbling with Mother's lipstick (if this was exposed, something frightening would happen, so I was extremely careful in doing it so that Mother wouldn't find out. At that time, I was looking for that kind of thrill), and chasing after Dia with a cat (he has cat allergies).
Somehow or another, it might have been a happy childhood.
「I will have Yurii-sama all to myself today.」
Look at what you did, Judias Roderick. You have gotten too carried away recently. For you to completely regain Yurii-sama's trust with the whole cake that you gifted after the birthday party.
It's about time you realized. I'm the one in the same room as him. I'm the superior one.
For him to be pleased with just that much, there's no way you're on the same level as me.
Moreover, Yurii-sama has a lot of oniisamas, but he doesn't have any oneesamas.
Even if he doesn't call Dia 「oniisama」, aah…! For him to say something like 「Mirneesama」someday…maa, Yurii-sama probably won't say that….
「Saa, we're going to go out wearing casual clothes.」
「Nn–…shouldn't you buy a watering can as well?」
「Does Mira know the words 'waste of money'?」
There wasn't anyone (Dia) carrying our bags today, so I will carry the bags, but before long, my hands have become full.
「Of course. I'm good at saving money.」
When I’m by myself, there are times when I didn’t spend all the money and it would last me for a month. I won’t buy things that I don’t need, and I had the bare minimum in my room. Otherwise, it was something that I had received.
If I go somewhere else, the things that I can take with me, I will take back with me, and when I’m trying to save money, I can also gather wild grasses and cook them. I had a lot more ways to save money than ordinary commoners. I don’t have parents that put on airs and were loose with money. I had a good example of what not to do near me.
Nobody will understand, just how much of a shock it would be if I were to someday be told, without any ill intentions, 「Aneue is like a money-grubber」by Al.
「Even if we don’t have a watering can, we can use a chipped teacup. We still have a lot of fertilizer, so we don’t need to buy that. The same for flower pots as well. Also, so that I can listen to the plants, we don’t need a music box either. Not only that, I don’t need that many books on how to grow them eith…」
「That’s true…you don’t need this much…」
「That’s not what I meant! I need them all! Mira is so good at shopping!」
Jumping up and down like that so happily…mou! I’ll buy whatever you want!
「Even so, that's a lot of stuff. Do you want me to help you carry that to the dormitory?」
「No, I can’t have Ryan-sama do something like that.」
Araa?
「Excuse me, Yurii-sama. Is there a man standing next to me?」
「The eldest son of the Duke Macey House is standing there.」
That’s what I thought.
When I turned towards Ryan-sama who’s been next to me since who knows when, he curiously looked into the bags that I was carrying.
For some reason, Ryan-sama, who was supposed to be in school today, was in the middle of town wearing casual clothes. …those may not be casual clothes. They were clothes made of cheap material with a plain design that could not be said to be clothes worn by the son of a Duke.
「How do you do, Ryan-sama. I was in your care the other day.」
「Eeh, good afternoon, Lady Mirabell. It's been a long time, Your Highness Prince Yuriel.」
Yurii-sama answered with a nod. Macey House was a House that had around the same amount of power as the Roderick House. They were even called the two major Ducal Houses. It seems that he's acquaintances with Ryan-sama who could visit the castle frequently.
If we're talking about that, it wouldn't be strange for him to have met Dia before, but whenever that person goes to the castle, he would immediately be forced to do work by His Highness Prince Alan and the range of where he could go was limited.
Moreover, perhaps His Highness Prince Alan was also thinking that he didn't want Yurii-sama to meet Dia either. He was someone that my fiance-sama was completely disgusted with, so he was afraid that Yurii-sama would immediately become emotionally attached to Dia. In actuality, it seems that he had a lot of confidence nowadays.
「You, what about your classes? Me and Mira are skipping!」
「Yurii-sama, when you skip and then you meet an acquaintance somewhere, it's an ironclad rule to stick with the feigned illness that you used as an excuse with『I was feeling terrible up until this morning』.」
It was, by no means, something to be proud of.
Ryan-sama was cheerfully responding with a 「That sounds like fun」. If this was some unpleasant Duke's son who was too serious and had no shortcomings, it would probably turn into a lecture full of scoldings.
「I, had been escaping.」
「「Escaping?」」
「Yes, from an assassin.」
I felt like I just heard something disquieting from Ryan-sama who's still smiling.
「Are they going to kill you?」
The five year old child always got straight to the point.
「I had been escaping so that that doesn’t happen.」
「Maa, do your best.」
「Thank you very much.」
Why were they continuing this conversation so indifferently….
Having noticed that I couldn't keep up with the conversation, Ryan-sama kindly explained it to me.
「It's not unusual. When it comes to the Duke Houses as well as royalty. Judias too, he probably smoothly dealt with it so that you wouldn't notice and wouldn't worry. This is an embarrassing story, but my older brother who was more than ten year older than me has already been disinherited a long time ago. As you know, I'm currently considered the eldest son, but my older brother or his accomplice would often send assassins.」
That's, maa… The first son of Duke Macey being disinherited was a famous story. It seems that he got involved with drugs, and at the mercy of the Duke, the fourteen year old son was disinherited on top of having a house on the outskirts of town arranged for him.
For that oniisama to target Ryan-sama's life even now, doesn't that mean that he still believed that he can succeed the House in the future? Also, there's no way that someone who only received daily necessities would be able to send assassins and the like. He should have a considerable number of accomplices.
「That, for you to know who the culprit is and not deal with them…」
「You're truly clever. Older brother is not living in the house that he was given, he has disappeared. Additionally, Father has feelings for older brother, so he's perplexed and can not genuinely make a move.」
Ryan-sama was an important son, however, it was the same for the oniisama who was targeting his life.
Nevertheless, even though Duke Macey decided not to make a move, for him to be able to say that he knew of oniisama’s actions, this person probably personally investigated it. Even though he has a gentle air about him, he was, as expected, the eldest son of a Duke House.
Moreover, he was completely acting like the assassin had nothing to do with him. The assassin was wandering around within the school today, so he escaped into town, or something like that. He wasn’t being cornered, but no matter how I think looked at it, the one who was being manipulated was his oniisama.
As expected, the sons of The Duke Houses were all excellent and were good at making people annoyed.
「It’s quite the thrilling and fun lifestyle.」
「If you're dead, it wouldn’t be fun or anything else anymore. Are you an idiot?」
「If you put it so bluntly, it would be impolite, Yurii-sama…」
Perhaps Ryan-sama thought something was amusing and laughed.
「You’ve become quite the honest child, Your Highness. You do not need to worry. If it's not at the dormitory, then my life will be safe.」
「Do you have an excellent bodyguard or something?」
「No. My lover is, a someone who can throw a bear down with one hand.」
H…uh…?
「A lover?」
「Your bodyguard is a woman?」
「Haha…of course, there are other attendants that protect me, however, it's just that my lover is, in a sense, more frightening than an assassin, so I’m not worried about it.」
No, no, no. In this situation, what I couldn’t make sense of was that, you had a lover? There were a lot of people who were trying to curry favor with the son of Duke Macey, and there were a lot of female students within the school that were like that as well.
From what I can see, Ryan-sama, who was on the stairs right now, did not have enmity towards Yurii-sama. However, if Ryan-sama was Yurii-sama’s enemy, that lover, no matter who it was, would be a dangerous character. Which meant that I needed to get the information out of him.
‘Why are you not here when I need you!,’ I was unreasonably getting mad at Dia who was diligently going to class at this time.
「If they are Ryan-sama’s partner, then I’m sure that they’re a wonderful person.」
「I wonder. For me, she’s a lovable and adorable person, but according to society, it could not be said that she was an ideal woman.」
He was smiling as he said cruel things.
How unpleasant…. Did Dia do something like this behind my back, badmouthing me in a roundabout way? There’s no doubt that he’s doing it. Since I have a strong affinity with my Dia. He would straightforwardly say that I have a bad personality or something. For me, it's adorable, but shouldn't men know what they shouldn't say with no matter what?
「Nevertheless, from my point of view, she is a lover that I'm proud of.」
「Is that so…um, if you do not mind, your partner's…」
「Oops, no good. It's time to go meet my attendants. I apologize for not helping you, Lady Mirabell. Excuse me, Your Highness Prince Yuriel.」
Would it be fine to ask for their name?
For him to not let me finish what I was saying, that's not good.
As we watched Ryan-sama leisurely walking away, did Yurii-sama think of something?
「Mira was like a nosy middle-aged lady!」
Because he said something like that, I didn't recover until that evening.