Yune, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Debut Imminent! (2)

The banquet hall where the Founding Festival commemorative ball was about to begin.

As I was exchanging greetings with the nobles who approached me, my fiancée Kir came over.

She took one look at my attire and her mouth fell open with a blank expression. But she quickly collected herself and greeted me.

"Y-yune... Hello? Th-that outfit. It's really wonderful. You're so handsome, and incredibly cute."

"...Thanks. Your outfit is... ahem."

But I couldn't bring myself to receive her greeting gladly. The clothes Kir had arrived in kept drawing my gaze.

"Ah. This... my mother told me to wear it. D-does it suit me...?"

Kir asked, as if wondering what I thought of her attire. And honestly, the dress she wore suited her perfectly. A beautiful outfit that would satisfy both Yune and Ryu Si-u.

However...

A face so red it looked ready to burst. Hands trembling faintly. Pupils that shook violently, as if mortified, whenever our eyes met.

She was thrusting her chest out unnaturally far to look confident and even held a grown-up glass in her hand, but she couldn't hide the fact that she was currently suffering from immense embarrassment.

Seeing Kir so embarrassed, I realized it. She had been broken by reality.

'...Kir. You finally surrendered. To the Duchess's pressure.'

She'd been pursuing a "manly" image—wearing less revealing clothes, practicing dancing—but now she'd come to the ball in a "womanly" dress with the sides of her chest and waist clearly exposed?

There was no way to explain it other than that she had finally buckled under the pressure from her mother, Duchess Schmut.

She must have forcibly crushed her own convictions to put on that outfit.

How much humiliation must she have felt wearing it? How much self-loathing?

For a moment, I tried to put myself in her situation.

What if I'd been forced to come here in a codpiece-equipped outfit with a bulging crotch?

'Oh god. Kir, how could you...'

Just imagining it made me want to cry and sent shivers down my spine. And yet, here she was, actually wearing something equivalent and standing before countless people.

Others might not understand, but I alone could grasp the sheer misery she was feeling.

So I approached her without a word.

-Squeeze.

"...!!"

"It must have been hard... wearing something like that."

I immediately hugged her tight. I felt her flinch in shock and stiffen up, but I ignored it and whispered to her in a sympathetic voice.

"Hang in there..."

"Yune! No matter that she's your fiancée, what kind of behavior is that for a young nobleman in public!"

Just then, Charl hurried over and pulled Kir and me apart.

As I wound up cradled in my sister's arms—her speech had even reverted to how she talked when we were alone, a sign of how flustered she was—Kir's face, now an even deeper shade of red, filled my vision.

"I, I, I'll be going now!"

"Ah. Kir!"

Seeing my pitiful expression, Kir left in a hurry, maybe out of excessive shame. Still held in Charl's arms, I stretched my hand out toward her.

I still needed to comfort her more. Only I, her comrade, could console her.

-Already so lovey-dovey. -Ten-year-olds these days... back in my time, once you passed seven... -Lady Kirschblüte and Young Master Yunes are engaged, so it's permissible. ...Though it's not the best look, doing that in front of everyone.

The surroundings murmured as they watched us.

It was a little incident that happened right before the Founding Festival events began.

* * * * * *

Before the event started, Duchess Schmut, as head of the Noble Faction, had been chatting with her faction's nobles.

But she saw her daughter, Kir, suddenly get hugged by Yune. And when she saw Kir run over to her afterward as if fleeing, Schmut stopped her conversation and hurried toward her.

"M-mother..."

"What in the world happened that he suddenly hugged you? Did he fall for you at first sight?"

While others just thought, "The engaged children must be very close," and moved on, Schmut knew that Yune didn't want to marry Kir. So she frantically pressed for the full story.

Kir, who'd been gulping air and seemed several times more startled than her mother, calmed her breathing for a moment and explained what had just happened.

After ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kir finished explaining.

"So. When Yune saw your outfit, he looked like he was about to cry. And then he hugged you and told you to hang in there?"

"Yes... I have no idea what he meant by 'hang in there'..."

Schmut summarized the situation in a single line. A mischievous smile spread across her face as she guessed the situation.

But then she lowered the corners of her mouth and let out a deep sigh with a feigned serious expression.

"...Come to think of it, you'd only ever shown Yune your uniform before, hadn't you?"

"Th-that's true?"

"Maybe he was disappointed when he saw your chest for the first time."

"...!!!"

After that, Schmut began sharing her deductions with her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠daughter. Deductions slathered in her characteristic flippant views on sex.

"You see, boys—knowingly or not—are crazy about women's chests. Just look at the women around us. They all came in dresses with low necklines, right? That's all to look good for the men. To emphasize their feminine figures."

"B-but Yune is innocent, so he wouldn't have those kinds of..."

"Innocent or not, it's unavoidable for males to have their eyes drawn to women with big chests. Just like women go crazy for men's straight waists and flat chests. Men, too, are hardwired to favor women with ample chests who'd never let a baby go hungry when they marry and have children. It's biological instinct."

"Is that so...?"

"It is. Why else would Yune suddenly tell you to hang in there? He must have thought you didn't look womanly at all. He felt sorry for you."

Her reasoning was riddled with hasty generalizations and gaping holes in logic. But Kir was slowly being persuaded.

Certainly, the other day, when Yune had taught her to dance while nearly half-naked, she'd stared at Yune's body with the most sordid eyes. She'd always thought she lacked any feminine side herself, yet, following her female instincts...

Since she, a woman, had been like that, she figured it wouldn't be strange for Yune, a man, to have such instincts as well.

But if she accepted that deduction, the inevitable conclusion was "Yune had comforted Kir because her chest was small." And since she'd rather die than admit that...

Kir refuted it with the desperation of someone grasping at straws.

"W-well, it's on the larger side for girls my age, isn't it? My chest definitely isn't small."

Just as men in Ryu Si-u's world bragged about height, shoulder width, muscles, and penis size—so-called "pride"—she put on a front, insisting her chest was by no means small.

While it was true she was on the larger side for her age, Schmut shook her head.

"Aren't all the daughters of the Nordkirchen Grand Ducal House famous for having big chests? He's seen nothing but family members in full bloom, so when he looked at you, he felt the gap."

"That's ridiculous..."

"Really, though. A boy comforting a girl for having a small chest, telling her to hang in there. Oh, our Kir, how pitiful you must be... If I'd heard something like that, I might have been trembling with shame."

Though it was a cruelly harsh thing to say to her daughter, Schmut spoke without any filter, intending to use this chance to fix Kir's manly personality.

Just as she'd aimed for, frustration slowly spread across Kir's face.

"Our Kir is going to grow to be just like me, though. ...Well, if you keep wearing tight clothes like you did around the estate, your chest won't grow well in the future, of course."

"...I won't wear uniforms at home anymore."

"Hm? What was that?"

"I'll only wear loose clothes. I'll grow my chest a ton. And then I'll flaunt it right in front of Yune. I'll make sure he can never say 'hang in there' about my chest again."

"Pfft. That's the spirit. Kir."

Having been swayed by Schmut's vulgar theory that "men are crazy about women's breasts," Kir resolved to abandon her masculine pretenses and become womanly.

Schmut smirked secretly at how things had gone exactly as she'd envisioned.

'A pure kid like Yune couldn't have meant it that way. But if it lets me fix Kir's personality, a little lie is fine.'

In the days to come, Yune would see Kir's increasingly revealing outfits, think 'Kir, you've fallen...', and feel even more pity. And Kir, stung by that expression on Yune's face, would strive to become ever more womanly.

That was a future event soon to unfold.

* * * * * *

After Kir left, I chewed on a cookie with a troubled expression.

'Kir, I hope you don't change because of what happened. If only you could steadfastly maintain who you are... Ah. This cookie is delicious.'

"Is it that tasty, Yune?"

"Yeah. Cookies in the Imperial Capital really are different~ So good~."

But thanks to the sweet cookie that made me forget all my worries, my expression soon melted into a relaxed smile.

'Yeah, Kir will manage on her own. It'd be meddlesome for me to interfere.'

Just as I cleared the bitter aftertaste from my mouth with some milk, the time for the Founding Festival finally arrived.

"We shall now commence the Founding Festival, the event celebrating the founding of the Empire!"

-Clap clap clap clap.

A woman announced the start of the event in a loud voice.

As I applauded along with the people around me, she cleared her throat and took a breath.

"Now then. Before the main event, we shall have a speech from the one and only sun of the Empire, who watches over all citizens—the most noble personage of the Empire. Her Majesty, Kaiserin Eduard Leopold von Hohenstein!"

Her words signaled the Empress's appearance.

The reaction of the gathered nobles split in two. The Pro-Imperial Faction cheered and gave enthusiastic applause, while the Noble Faction merely went through the motions of clapping.

Watching that, I was struck once again by how clearly the Empire's political factions were divided in two.

But before I could even organize my thoughts, the Empress entered.

-Murmur murmur.

When the Empress appeared in the hall, everyone—Pro-Imperial and Noble Faction alike—began murmuring in surprise.

I hadn't known, but anyone with connections in the Imperial Capital would have known the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Empress had been ill recently.

Yet here she was, already appearing in good health. It was no wonder everyone was so shocked.

I also stared wide-eyed, utterly taken aback at the sight of the Empress.

But my reason for being surprised was quite different from the other nobles'.

The reason I was surprised was just one thing.

Between the cleft of the Empress's chest...

was the Magical Girl Wand I had given her. She had it wedged in there.

'Oh my god. Why are you toting that wand around stuck in such an inappropriate place? What do you think that does to children's innocence?'