Rose-Colored Thorns
"My lord, on the way here I noticed the capital seems to be in a festive mood. Did something happen?"
Thanks to Lapis suggesting a small afternoon tea before evening arrived, Aria had ended up seated with us, and the three of us were drinking tea together.
"Looks like the news hasn't spread as far as the Free Trade City yet."
The Empire had slowly begun to seep into unease, and so my father had deliberately set about painting me as the heroic successor to the invited throne.
Ordinarily, a prince coming of age would hardly warrant pouring free wine and meat out to the people of the capital and whipping up a festival atmosphere — but this time was an exception for exactly that reason.
"They're calling it the Rose Festival, for now."
Since the customary congratulatory bouquet presented at a coming-of-age ceremony was roses, I thought the name fit well enough.
"The people have grown anxious over the Demonic Tree's growth, so they're planning to prop me up as their banner."
"So you're the face of it, huh?"
Aria laughed as if it were nothing, sipping her tea.
Meanwhile, I found this whole gathering rather uncomfortable.
No matter how hard I tried to scrub the memory from my mind, Aria's chest remained vividly etched there, dragging my gaze again and again toward her neckline.
"Ah... come to think of it, Lady Aria, didn't you say you were going to cut your hair short?"
"Who knows."
"You said it got in the way of your vision during combat, didn't you?"
At Lapis's words, I quietly studied Aria.
Had she actually wanted to cut it short from the start, and merely dangled Benzen in front of me as a way of probing my feelings?
"When your little brother who adores you begs you not to, I found I didn't have the heart for it."
Perhaps that answer was more unexpected than she'd anticipated — Lapis turned her gaze slowly toward me, and I picked up my pen.
"It'd be a waste."
It would be improper to reveal, in front of my fiancée, the true wish that I hoped Aria would stay exactly as she was — suited to my tastes.
This flimsy non-excuse was all I had to offer.
"And what about you? When I said I'd cut mine short, you said that wouldn't be bad either. Don't tell me you had thoughts of your own?"
"I did, but... since Lord Rohen loves my long hair, I'd rather not throw away something my husband cherishes with my own two hands."
"Anyone watching would think what you two have isn't an engagement but a marriage already."
"..."
Wasn't that answer just a touch too sharp?
I fidgeted with my teacup and stole a glance at Lapis.
But she seemed entirely unbothered, quietly letting Aria's last remark slide past.
At that, I sighed inwardly and looked at Aria instead.
Even if I steeled myself and accepted Aria, it wasn't as though Lapis would leave my side. Was there really any need for her to sharpen her guard like this and keep the older girl at arm's length?
From Lapis's position, she couldn't know Aria's true intentions either, so she must have found Aria's behavior both suffocating and irritating — and yet somehow, the two of them had managed not to break into a quarrel. I had to hand it to them.
Knock, knock.
Fortunately, as if to loosen the stiffened air, a knock sounded from beyond the door, and a moment later Mary entered.
"Pardon the intrusion, Your Highness. Sir Robert's son, Benzen, is waiting outside."
"Tell him to come in."
While it would have been fine to hear about the entrance procedures and exams later, I had gone out of my way to summon Benzen here — because I felt we needed a topic of conversation that could ease the atmosphere, at least a little.
"It is an honor to meet you, Prince Rohen."
His first impression was remarkably gentle.
Green hair and green eyes.
I'd heard that green was a color the human eye could accept with ease — perhaps that was why. Despite meeting him for the first time, he carried an air that made conversation flow comfortably, a presence that inspired quite a bit of goodwill.
At any rate, I gestured vaguely to Benzen, who stood stiffly in place, indicating he should sit.
But the only empty seat was beside Aria, and Benzen hesitated, clearly unsure whether he truly ought to take it.
...So this was the man she'd used to test my heart.
I sighed inwardly and, out of consideration, reached to pull the chair beside Aria toward my side of the table — no, the instant I moved to do so, Aria abruptly seized his wrist and planted him in the seat next to her.
"Flustering him like that is more of an insult to me than anything."
"Ah... then I'll beg your pardon for a moment."
"You weren't like this at the Academy. Rather jumpy here, aren't you?"
"The Academy operates under the rule that social rank is, at least officially, disregarded."
"So you're saying that back then, you saw me as just an ordinary woman?"
"Th-that's absurd!"
"My, what a big reaction to a joke I made to help you relax."
"A frog thrown a stone by a bored man dies all the same, my lady..."
Benzen hunched his shoulders, his posture rigid and his face drained of color.
"My apologies if you took it that way. Care for a cup of tea?"
"Thank you kindly."
As Aria poured black tea into the empty cup meant for Benzen, she shot a sidelong glance at me.
Yes, I know.
I know this is meant to provoke me.
But knowing it didn't stop the unpleasant feeling from rising, so despite having no real thirst, I forced the tea down my throat as if it were water.
Then Lapis quietly refilled my empty cup and smiled at me.
'...'
Letting my feelings toward Aria show on my face in front of her would be plainly wrong of me, so I reined my emotions in as best I could and absorbed the various pieces of information Benzen relayed to us.
After that came dinner with my mother and father, and receiving the schedule for my coming-of-age ceremony — that was all.
"Are you angry?"
On the way back to my room after the meal, Aria fell into step behind me and asked, and I stopped walking.
Since the conversation already carried the weight of my Lingual Magic, the only answer I could give her was a wordless affirmation — silence itself.
"Honestly, I don't think you're in any position to be angry."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I drew the paper and pen from inside my coat and scrawled the words in a hurried hand.
"What you're feeling right now — it's what I feel every single time I see you sitting there so happily with Lapis."
"..."
"You sneak a peek at my heart when you think I'm not looking, and then you keep putting off your own answer."
"..."
"Am I supposed to simply trust you like that, waiting endlessly for you to choose me, cradling whatever comfort I can find?"
"..."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Everything I ever wanted slipped out of my hands, every time. Of course, there's probably a slightly more graceful way to go about this. But I don't know any such way. Unless I can look at you burning with jealousy and see, right before my eyes, proof that you love me — I'm not confident I can endure this waiting that has no end in sight."
It was a confession far too raw and far too deep to be overheard in a hallway, and for a moment I found myself lowering my hand quietly, at a loss for how to answer.
"You could say my way of confirming love — the means I use to convey that feeling — is twisted."
"..."
"But where exactly is right and wrong in all this? I don't know the universal method that most people seem to speak of so easily."
Aria drew a slow breath and swept her platinum hair behind her ear.
"What I learned beneath a mother shackled by jealousy and power was despair at having been born a woman at all. What I learned from the wet nurse who poured her affection into me faded away entirely as I grew up, holding my head high among people who pointed fingers and called me the traitor's daughter. In the end, all I ever saw and felt and learned was the murky, clinging greed of human beings — and even the emotions I exchanged with others were nothing but that. So don't ask me to be Lapis."
"..."
"A way of loving that's clumsy somewhere, lacking somewhere, sharp-edged in places... that's all I have to give."
Having finished, Aria drew closer to me with a faintly wistful smile.
"They sinned, and in the end my mother and my wet nurse both left my side all the same. So I'll choose to believe you won't make that same cruel choice — that you won't abandon me too."
Leaning on a person's pity like this — it wasn't like the girl I knew.
But then again, perhaps this was the real Aria, beneath the shell armored in composure.
"Maybe it's because I've known you so long. Or maybe you're just bad at managing your expressions. Whatever's in your heart reads nakedly across your face. Yes — if I can make use of even your pity, I'll take it, as much as I can get. Call it ugly; I don't care. Even doing everything I'm capable of will leave me with regrets. But I refuse to regret the things I didn't do."
With so, tacked on at the end, Aria subtly widened the distance between us and took hold of her skirt hem.
"I'm beyond shameless — I won't hesitate to stoop to something this base, either."
Swish!
The hem climbed slowly upward along legs of sculpted, porcelain white, until at last it revealed the red panties nestled at her hips.
Perhaps my eyes were simply too keen — the moment I caught sight of the fabric sitting slightly folded where her thighs met, hugging the straight seam running down its center, I panicked without meaning to, and yet I could not tear my gaze away.
"Want to take them off?"
Without a trace of embarrassment — no, going further and offering an even more naked temptation — that was Aria.
Step.
But the instant I moved to take a single stride toward her, she let go of her skirt with the grin of a little imp.
"Just kidding."
"..."
"But the moment you finish steeling yourself, it won't be a joke anymore."
Click.
Aria turned and walked away, her figure gradually receding from my view.
And I, left alone in the hallway, looked down at my shamefully erect cock and gave a bitter laugh.
Aria's methods were, without question, infuriating at times.
...But I couldn't deny that she was every bit as dazzling, either.
And so, six days later, my coming-of-age ceremony began.
Under the name of the Rose Festival.