The Crown Prince's Fiancée Is Such a Tsundere (2)
The sacred voice echoed in Saintess Astoria’s ears.
—If you open your eyes now, go to the central courtyard of Grancia Academy, my child.
She had been sound asleep in the girls’ dormitory of Grancia Academy, but the moment that voice reached her, her eyes flew open.
“A revelation…? Why at this hour…?”
Astoria rubbed her eyes and let out a big yawn as she muttered to herself.
Lord God Atra, who had never interfered before, had essentially just given her direct advice to head to the courtyard.
But why now, of all times?
Ever since meeting Theodore, she had begun hearing the Lord God’s voice, yet she couldn’t understand why a revelation had come at this particular moment.
It was still the dim early dawn, when shapes were only just becoming visible. She thought no one would be in the courtyard at this hour.
“Still… if it is Lord Atra’s word, I must obey.”
For a brief moment, even the clothes she wore turned transparent. Astoria took a few deep breaths and prepared to leave.
It was her constitution—whenever her heart grew anxious or she fell into a panic, everything around her would become transparent as well.
She barely suppressed the old trauma rising within her and slipped her body into the shadows.
How long had she been walking?
‘As expected, there’s no one here… Why did the Lord God tell me to come?’
Astoria arrived at the courtyard, which was filled with all kinds of flowers, flowerbeds, and trees.
It was originally a place off-limits at this hour. She had barely managed to climb over the wall to get inside.
And there, she heard a familiar male voice.
“Eight hundred ninety-seven… eight hundred ninety-eight…”
A muttered count accompanied by ragged breathing.
The one making noise in the early dawn was Theodore Baskerville, his upper body completely bare.
“Kyaaaaaah…!”
Astoria let out a tiny scream.
She barely managed to clap a hand over her mouth before a louder sound could escape.
‘W-what in the world is this indecent sight! Does Brother Theodore have some kind of exhibitionist tendency…!’
Astoria immediately covered her eyes with her hands.
Thanks to the protection of the Lord God and the cardinal, she knew nothing about basic sexual knowledge or relationships between men and women. To her, this was an overwhelmingly stimulating sight.
‘No, there must be some meaning behind it. The Lord God is always right.’
With that thought, Astoria slowly peeked at Theodore’s body through the gaps in her fingers.
A well-trained warrior’s physique. Scars and muscles intertwined like a pattern across his skin, showing just how hard he had worked.
How much blood and sweat had he shed to reach such a level?
“Wow…”
Astoria’s mouth fell slightly open, and a pure exclamation slipped out before she could stop it.
Right then, Theodore turned his gaze in her direction.
Their eyes met. The instant the thought I’ve been caught flashed through her mind, a silver flash of light appeared in her vision and vanished.
“…What? It was you, Saintess. Please don’t startle people like that next time.”
Theodore had drawn his sword in an instant, only to sheathe it again just as quickly.
He let out a sigh of relief while gently touching the hilt of the blade that had nearly touched Astoria’s body.
“I came all the way to this inaccessible courtyard so I wouldn’t disturb anyone… How did you get in here…?”
“……”
If Theodore hadn’t realized it was the Saintess and stopped his sword, one of her arms would have been severed.
Since the courtyard at dawn was a place ordinary students couldn’t enter, he must have assumed she was someone tailing him.
The realization that she had nearly died made Astoria swallow the bitter saliva that had pooled in her mouth.
“Brother, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
“Personal training.”
“Ah, no… I mean, why are you doing it without any clothes on?”
Not knowing where to look, Astoria stared at the ground as she spoke.
Training at dawn was understandable.
But why was he doing it shirtless?
Of course, as someone from a family that protected the imperial family, his body was exceptionally well-trained. Other women might have called it attractive.
But for her, this was the very first time seeing such a stimulating sight.
“Could it be that you enjoy exposing yourself, Brother? Or is there a reason you must bathe in the cold night breeze? If not that, then…”
“Saintess, I’m running out of breath. It’s just that I sweat a lot, so I get hot. That’s all.”
“Even so, isn’t this far too indecent! In an academy full of people, how could you…!”
Astoria was scolding Theodore, words pouring out like a machine gun.
She had thought he was an upright and kind noble, yet here he was—secretly enjoying exhibitionism by stripping off his top in the middle of the night. What a perverted hobby.
“Besides, this courtyard is locked. No one can enter unless they climb over the wall, right?”
“W-well… yes?”
“Since no one comes here and no one can see, I simply followed my usual family habit.”
Theodore answered the misunderstanding Astoria with those words.
After all, he had just done about nine hundred push-ups, so he must have been drenched in sweat and exhausted.
Besides, in the Baskerville family he was the youngest of three brothers, so he had no need to worry about the eyes of the opposite sex.
…Though, strictly speaking, she herself had no right to criticize him after secretly climbing into a restricted area.
“No matter what, taking your clothes off outside is wrong! You never know who might see!”
Astoria’s face kept growing hotter. She pointed at Theodore with a gloved finger as she continued her lecture.
Of course, since she was a transparent person, no one could see her flushed cheeks anyway.
“By the way, Saintess, what brings you here?”
“Eh? Ah, um… W-well! I was taking a walk at dawn and suddenly felt like looking at flowers!”
“There were plenty of other places you could have gone.”
Astoria couldn’t possibly tell Theodore that the Lord God had given her a revelation.
It would sound as if Lord Atra had commanded, ‘Theodore is training shirtless—go spy on him.’
Besides, she doubted he would even believe her.
Theodore always seemed skeptical of the gods. If she told him about the revelation, he might instead suspect that she had been following him the whole time.
“To climb over the locked courtyard wall and walk all the way to where I was…”
“It was a coincidence! A complete coincidence! I saw a shadow flickering in the distance and came over!”
Astoria spouted an unbelievable excuse, insisting that she had absolutely not come to peek at Theodore’s bare upper body.
Thank goodness she was a transparent person right now.
Even if she secretly stole glances at his body, neither her gaze nor her expression could be seen.
…But was a man’s body always this lewd-looking?
Astoria unconsciously swallowed hard, hiding the wicked thoughts rising inside her.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I recalled what had happened with the Saintess at dawn.
I couldn’t skip my daily training, so I had gone all the way to the courtyard where no one would ever come.
Just how on earth had she managed to follow me in?
I felt a little embarrassed that I had exposed my skin to the symbol of the Holy Kingdom of Valentia and the representative of the gods.
“Oh, Theodore! Perfect timing!”
“…Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
When I returned to the dormitory room, my eyes were greeted by so many roses that they nearly filled the entire space.
What in the world had happened that he brought this many roses?
No, wait.
If he had any sense at all, he wouldn’t have brought roses of every color just to give them to his fiancée…
“I couldn’t decide which color of rose Isabella would like best!”
Ah, of course.
Watching Seint—who seemed to have no concept of moderation—I pressed a hand to my forehead.
Rumors said he had gotten deeply involved in helping other couples with their love lives, yet when it came to his own romance, he was completely hopeless.
“…In this case, I believe you should match it to Lady Isabella’s hair and eye color.”
“Then black and red?”
“Yes. While black roses can have negative meanings, they also symbolize ‘You are mine forever.’”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. How fascinating that flowers have meanings!”
In romance fantasy stories, hair color and eye color were usually treated as important elements.
Black hair often marked someone as an ominous child, and eye color was sometimes used to reveal hidden offspring.
Of course, I knew this from reading many other rofan webtoons and novels besides Royal Child, but I figured the same logic would apply here.
“Once you’re ready, let’s go meet Lady Isabella before the social class begins.”
“Right. I already made an appointment in advance.”
Crown Prince Seint spoke with a slight tremble in his fingertips, as if he were nervous for the first time.
It seemed that watching other people’s love stories was easy, but controlling his own emotions was difficult.
“It will be fine. Sincerity always gets through.”
I had never been in love before, nor did I plan to be in the future.
But I wanted to help someone who was trying this hard.
“So… you prepared this for me? Yourself, Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
“Actually, I agonized over it with Theodore. Now that I think about it, I’ve never given my fiancée even a single flower.”
“Then… I’ll gratefully accept them.”
Isabella Florence had just received a bouquet of mixed black and red roses from the Crown Prince.
She couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from rising.
Though she maintained her cold attitude out of fear that her true feelings would be exposed.
This was the first time the person she secretly loved had chosen roses just for her. Isabella was so happy that—
“…Hic.”
A sudden hiccup escaped her.