The Princess's Arrival
Anyway... So, the princess ended up staying at the estate.
Kyle told me that the reason she had come was tied to the end of his coming-of-age ceremony.
Yeah, I figured she would come.
But I never expected her to show up today of all days.
The time I had planned to spend alone with Kyle was suddenly swallowed up by the endless snowfall and the princess’s arrival.
“Shit.”
After the duties ended in the evening, I let out a string of curses alone in my room.
The clothes I had been wearing when I left with Kyle were still lying neatly on the chair.
“Hah...”
I simply didn’t like it.
The sudden arrival of the princess was one thing, but why on earth was she bringing a gift now, when she could have given it on the coming-of-age day itself?
-Thud.
I dropped onto the bed.
It was a mattress with far less cushioning than Kyle’s, yet somehow it still felt both familiar and strangely foreign at the same time.
“The princess... she really was beautiful.”
Yeah, the princess was every inch the beauty one would expect from someone of her title and station.
Golden hair like Catherine’s, but with a different sheen and an aura of quiet mystery in her eyes.
She was too different from me in every way.
Her figure was perfectly proportioned—breasts that were just the right size, nothing more, nothing less.
Unlike some women who looked plump the moment they tried to dress themselves.
“...”
Of course, as a highborn princess who had received proper upbringing, that made perfect sense.
Still, something about it didn’t sit right with me.
If I voiced these thoughts aloud, my neck would be on the chopping block in an instant, but...
They still refused to leave my mind.
*
The next day, the princess spent time with Kyle.
With no other guests around, the two of them were alone together, and I couldn’t simply follow along.
It wasn’t a casual walk; they were having what they called a “conversation” in the reception room.
I wondered why she had to drag the word “conversation” into it, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I was nothing more than the tutor and personal attendant, after all.
And that role would end soon enough.
*****
“Hmm... By the way, that attendant still doesn’t seem to have any feelings for Kyle, does she?”
“...”
“Oh my, was it true?”
“Yes.”
I found myself having a conversation with Her Highness the Princess in the reception room.
To be honest, I hadn’t wanted to.
I simply wished she would return to the capital as quickly as possible.
“Hmm... Then it’s a shame. I won’t be able to use the method I had in mind.”
“The method you had in mind...?”
“Um... an aphrodisiac, a love potion, a magically treated room, various aphrodisiac spells?”
“...”
She claimed to be giving relationship advice, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
Last time we met at the debutante ball, I had thought she was just an ordinary girl... she seemed no different from my own father.
No, perhaps even more dangerous.
“For now, this only works if the attendant has some kind of emotion toward Kyle. If she simply sees him as an employer...”
I knew that much.
Sophia had never shown any romantic feelings toward me.
That was why she was acting like this.
“But if it’s Kyle, she could just confess once. They’ve been together for years. What exactly did you do during all that time?”
“That’s...”
I had nothing to say.
Even thinking about it, I still didn’t know what I had been doing.
“Hah...” “Hmm... What should I do...”
Standing in front of the princess who was lost in thought, I found myself pondering as well.
How could I make Sophia see me differently?
After all, how could one even see someone they had known as a little sister for years as anything more?
I could manage it because I had always seen her that way since childhood, but what about Sophia?
She was eighteen when she met me.
At the time, I had been a twelve-year-old child.
Now that twelve-year-old was nineteen, and the eighteen-year-old was twenty-five.
Throughout those years, she had continued to see me as her little brother, and she still did.
“Hah...”
It was hopeless.
Maybe talking to the princess had made me realize just how hopeless it was.
“Um! Then shall we try this method?”
“What?”
Her Highness the Princess suddenly held up one finger and said it.
The method... Honestly, I hadn’t been expecting much.
After all, the person who had suggested those strange methods earlier.
“Right away... by making her jealous!”
“Yes?”
“Jealousy!”
“...”
Yeah, I had honestly expected to hear something interesting from Her Highness the Princess.
But the moment I heard it, my expectations shattered.
Jealousy?
Jealousy was supposed to be done with someone who already had feelings, wasn’t it?
Jealousy directed at Sophia?
“...”
“Don’t look at me like that. Even if it’s not true, I can read Kyle’s heart better than the attendant’s.”
“What do you mean...” “Thinking about it, when we first met yesterday, your expression looked rather displeased. Were you preparing for a date?”
“... Yes.”
It was embarrassing to call it a date, but it had still been a date.
Of course, I hadn’t been able to enjoy it because of someone standing right in front of me.
“Ah ha... So that’s what it was?”
Her Highness the Princess wore an expression that suggested she knew something.
I had no idea what she knew.
“When I got off the carriage and glanced at the attendant’s face, it wasn’t a pleasant expression. Of course, she managed it in front of me, but in the eyes of Julia Dextrin—the most beautiful flower of the Dextrin Empire—everything was perfectly visible?”
“Yes...?”
“So the attendant didn’t like the fact that I came and ruined her date with Kyle, did she?!”
“...?”
There was no way.
There was no reason for Sophia to dislike not being able to have a date with me.
She had simply been inconvenienced by a sudden guest.
“Hey! Just believe what I say once! I’m older than you, so believe me!”
“Yes...”
“See, I’m sure the attendant still thinks of Kyle as nothing more than an employer and a slightly close younger brother. Kyle probably thinks the same. But then I suddenly appear and pretend to flirt with him!”
“...”
“The attendant who watches this will gradually grow more uncomfortable. Suddenly, a completely unfamiliar woman takes the seat beside the prince she was always beside. Then her heart grows even more uneasy...”
*****
“Young master, it’s morning.”
“... Yes.”
I entered Kyle’s room to wake him.
Kyle looked a bit tired, unlike his usual self.
“Young master, are you all right...? If you’re tired, you can sleep a little longer.”
“No... I’m fine.”
“Is that so...?”
It didn’t sound fine at all.
Could it be that the princess had been bothering him?
It was possible.
A woman suddenly appearing at the castle without any warning could certainly make anyone feel uneasy.
Anyway, the morning duties began as usual.
I buttoned Kyle’s shirt and tied his tie.
Then I followed them to the dining hall, where I watched Kyle and the princess having breakfast.
“...”
Of course, the duke and Adela were there as well, but it still didn’t sit well with me.
*
“By the way, Prince Kyle, you look quite healthy. Last time I saw you, you were wearing a coat on top, so I couldn’t tell.”
“... Yes.”
“...”
Kyle and the princess were watching the knights in training.
She had mentioned wanting to see how skilled the Eristirol knights were.
Although the succession ceremony was over, the duke was still working, so Kyle had plenty of free time.
That was why the two of them were touring the grounds together now.
I didn’t understand why she wanted to see the knights and was praising Kyle’s muscles at the same time.
Yeah, Kyle’s body was impressive, so it made sense.
But was it all right to say such things right in front of him?
She wasn’t just any ordinary woman.
She was the princess of the empire.
A woman who would become the first in line if something happened to the crown prince.
“By the way, Prince Kyle, I heard that the White Princess and the Aldenburk Princess came to visit. Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“They really are lovely young ladies. Of course, not as lovely as you.”
“...”
I had no idea why she suddenly brought that up.
She was much older than the other girls, yet she said such things?
Originally, she couldn’t claim to be definitely prettier than those two.
Of course, her face was beautiful, her hair a luxurious golden blonde, her eyes carrying a mysterious charm, her figure perfectly proportioned beneath her dress, her hips graceful, and she held a position among the empire’s four or five most powerful families, but...
Still, she was not suitable to be Kyle’s wife.
Starting with her personality.
Of course, if one looked at the current royal family’s evaluations, most would say she was kind, but suddenly comparing herself to a young lady from another house!
Anyway!
“Hehe... What do you think? Not bad, right?”
“Yes, it’s not bad.”
What was not bad?
Her face?
Or the princess’s appropriately full breasts that would sink between fingers if grabbed?
Or her hips that looked so graceful in the dress?
What was not bad?
What would Kyle say was not bad?
“...”
It would be nice if there were subject and object.
I remembered how important that had been when I taught it to him in his childhood, but had he forgotten?
“Well, Prince? Show me the next place too. Eristirol has many interesting things.”
“Yes, of course.”
Kyle and the princess moved on to the next location.
And as always, I followed quietly behind Kyle.