Don't Interrupt!
The chaos of day two behind them, the final day of the Spring Festival had arrived.
"...Damn it."
An entire day, gone. And I'd spent it running around helping other people with their romance. I wouldn't call it meaningless. One couple—one that, in the novel, was destined for tragedy—had finally recognized each other's feelings and come together.
"But still..."
"Orca. Aaah."
"...Chloe, people are looking. Maybe ease up a little..."
"What, you don't want me feeding you?"
"That's not what I—"
"You're adorable."
I had not asked for them to be this happy.
"Haa. Must be nice."
"...Yeah. Must be."
Nice? How was this nice? Some of us were out here carefully managing our distance while our hearts took a beating, and those two just... fell into place like that? I hated it. I hated the world. I hated the author who'd built this world and stuck Cecilia with a setting like mana rampage. Absolute trash of a writer.
"Huu..."
"By the way, Grand Duke—where's the young lady? It's almost lunch. Why haven't you gone to see her? Don't tell me your feelings have cooled off?"
"No."
"Then...?"
"I think yesterday's... display was a bit much for her."
"Display?"
Tongues, hands, the works. If we hadn't stepped in, a new life might have been conceived right there on the spot.
"Love without brakes is a terrifying thing."
"That's exactly why it's most dangerous when two people already know how they feel, keep their distance for ages, and then the dam finally breaks."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"..."
"What's that look for?"
"Oh, nothing in particular."
My mood soured a little, and I was just about to add another item to my plan for docking Ruche's allowance when—
"Grand Duke."
"Ran?"
Ran had somehow drawn up beside us. She cleared her throat a few times, then fixed me with a steady look.
"I have a letter for you, Grand Duke."
"A letter?"
"It's from Lady Cecilia."
"...Give it here. Now."
"Your eyes are kind of scary right now, you know."
I read the letter Ran handed me—and was on my feet and running before I'd even finished standing. Behind me, Ruche moved to follow, but I waved her off, making it clear she didn't need to come.
"Hah... hah..."
How long did I run? The academy's cherry-blossom walk, trees in full bloom, was packed shoulder to shoulder with people out to enjoy the festival's last day. But even in that crowd, only one person entered my eyes.
For a fraction of a second, my breath nearly stopped. Cecilia standing there, looking up at the blossoms above her—I had felt it before, but the thought rose again unbidden: if a cherry blossom could become a person, no—if a cherry-blossom fairy existed, this would be her. And unlike the blossoms that bloomed in spring only to fade, I couldn't imagine the flower flowering before me ever wilting. She would keep that beauty forever, and never wither.
"Have you been waiting long?"
As I stepped closer, Cecilia shook her head, the corners of her mouth lifting into a smile as fragrant as the blossoms at full bloom.
"No. I haven't been waiting long at all."
"I'm glad."
"Victor."
"Yes."
"Does this dress suit me?"
"Yes."
"That's..."
"For a moment I mistook you for a cherry-blossom fairy."
At my words, her eyes wavered ever so slightly, and her shoulders gave a little jolt.
"Y-you're too kind."
"And I couldn't see anyone else. Only you."
"Me too."
A flush of red excitement bloomed across her pale cheeks. She looked so unbearably lovely that I wanted to close the distance at once and pull her into my arms.
"Shall we go?"
Holding that impulse back took superhuman restraint. Whether she knew how I felt or not, Cecilia had already stepped up beside me and taken my hand firmly in hers. The warmth climbing from that small, small hand drove straight into my heart.
"Yes."
"Where shall we go today?"
"Anywhere is fine. I realized something yesterday, actually."
She looked up at me with a bright little smile.
"That no matter where you go, what really matters is the person beside you."
"That's true."
"But I don't want to just wander aimlessly and waste the time."
"Then?"
"Look at me every five steps. And when we've walked another five, look at me again."
I turned my eyes. There she was, her gaze fixed on my face.
"You should watch where you're going, though."
"I'm only going to look at you, Victor. If I look anywhere else, I won't be able to take you in."
"Hah..."
Romance novels were this dangerous, apparently.
"All right. But then I'll be a little..."
I decided to be just a little bit mischievous with her.
"Instead of holding hands."
"Yes?"
"Link arms with me."
"..."
"I was jok—"
"Gladly."
"..."
Cecilia hooked both arms through the one I offered, then started nuzzling her face against me a few times, the way a cat marks its scent on something.
"This scent... it's Ruche's and Ran's."
"You can tell that just from studying medicinal and poisonous herbs?"
"Well... something like that."
"Cecilia."
"Yes?"
"Did something happen yesterday?"
"..."
"You seem like you're pushing yourself a little today."
She stared at me for a long moment, then let out a quiet sigh and shook her head.
"Really... you know me far too well."
"Pardon?"
"Figure it out for yourself as we walk today."
"..."
"What kind of heart I brought with me."
"Haa..."
"..."
Chloe stood before the Cecilia who had summoned her, face scarlet, scratching at her cheek.
"So, um..."
"Mm."
"How much did you see?"
"Chloe's hand and Orca's hand, going into each other's most deep and private—"
"Aaaaaah!!!"
Cecilia had been about to describe, in raw detail, the clandestine meeting that had erupted after more than ten years of buried feeling. Chloe clamped both hands over her mouth in a panic, then covered her whole face and dropped her head.
"Uwaaa... but... but every emotion just exploded right there—what was I supposed to do? My hand went there on its own, and Orca also... h-he reacted, and then I... I'd learned that kind of thing, so I just..."
"..."
"Cecilia?"
"It's all right. Being honest with your own feelings is a good thing, Chloe."
"Ceci—"
"But... doing that outdoors is a bit of a... dangerous preference..."
"Uwaaang!!"
Chloe buried her flaming face in Cecilia's arms. Cecilia stroked her hair with the gentle smile of a saintly mother.
"There, there. Good girl."
"..."
"Our Chloe is such a good girl."
"So."
"Hm?"
"You spent all of day two glued to Victor's side, wandering around."
"..."
"Any progress?"
"...None."
"...Oh, dear God."
"H-hey—you're the one who finally got through after ten years!"
"Well... that's true, but still."
"Having it happen in a single day is what's weird!"
"O-Orca and I have years of history behind us!"
When Chloe finished, Cecilia nodded.
"You're right. You've known each other for over a decade. But that does not mean my love for Victor comes in second!"
"..."
"I... I've been watching over everything about Victor from afar, so..."
"Ceci. Take off the necklace."
"..."
"Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Eh... I have no idea what you're talking about?"
"Whenever you're bored, you clutch that necklace and sit there grinning like an idiot!!"
"Th-that's because Victor has the matching—"
"If you're not embarrassed, hand over the necklace."
"I'm sorry."
Cecilia bowed her head in a hurry and apologized.
"Please... don't make me."
"Hey... even between lovers, secretly peeping on someone like that is—"
"Want me to make you one?"
"...I'll take a ring, please."
This was why they were friends. On this particular wavelength, the two of them understood each other perfectly.
"Ahem. So. Tomorrow's the last day of the Spring Festival."
"Mm."
"Got a plan?"
"For starters, I'm going to wear the dress Victor bought me."
"Ooh? And then?"
"I'm going to make him keep looking at me."
"Mmm. Fair. If he has to keep staring at Cecilia's face, even that Grand Duke with his shield up will have to lower it eventually."
"And during the final fireworks, I'm going to confess."
"...Huh?"
At Cecilia's last line, Chloe's face went completely blank.
"I felt it yesterday. Those looks aimed at Victor."
"Ahh... now that you mention it."
"A woman with sticky, obsessive attachment. Another whose favor is buried under fear. And so on."
"Yeah. Looked that way."
"Even setting those aside—there are far too many thieving cats."
Her unfocused, sunken eyes held something faintly eerie.
"He's mine. No one else's. Tomorrow, I'm going to declare it."
"Then from the start, you should just—"
"Before that."
Cecilia smiled brightly and murmured to herself.
"I'll confess first, and make it so he can't endure it."
"..."
"I'll bind him so thoroughly he can't let me go. I don't care what stands in my way—I'll smash all of it and make him mine."
"...Yeah. Okay."
Chloe felt, just a little, a flicker of fear toward the friend sitting in front of her.
Seated on the bench, Cecilia radiated resolve. Her eyes burned as if hungering for something.
"Cecilia."
"Yes."
"What kind of relationship are we, exactly?"
I decided to raise the conversation that, perhaps, we should have had long ago—and to raise it in earnest.
"...At first, it was for my family."
"Yes."
"I thought you were cold and ruthless, and I told myself that if a political engagement to a man like that could protect my house, then I would endure it."
"..."
"But, Victor."
"Yes."
"You changed me."
"I did?"
She nodded, then tipped her face up toward the sky.
"You said I had entered your fence, and you protected me—you treasured me far too much. You were careful not to hurt me."
"That was..."
Actions taken because I feared she might suffer a mana rampage. But—
No. In a corner of my heart, I simply didn't want Cecilia to get hurt.
"I know. To anyone who stepped inside the walls you guard, you were kind. Watching that from afar, I felt it. Ah—I want to get closer. And then I fell ill."
"...Yes."
"A fever. A terrible fever. I've realized it now—that Shurian was being considerate, afraid this heart of mine might get wounded."
If Shurian had been honest with us, would we still be like this now—or would we have drifted apart?
Either way, it was a meaningless what-if. Right now, I was looking at Cecilia. That was enough.
"When I returned to the academy, I walked the same paths I had walked a year ago. I saw myself as I was that day—moving like a doll without a scrap of feeling, clinging desperately to the title of the Crown Prince's fiancée, and then collapsing under it."
"..."
"But... now I think it was fortunate. I know how lucky I am that I met you, Victor, before it was any later."
At some point she had laced her fingers through mine and was holding on as if she would never let go. She lifted her head and looked up at me.
"If I hadn't watched Chloe's love come true yesterday, I would have kept hiding this feeling and just clinging to you, Victor. Hiding behind your shield, understanding the way you look at me and hating it at the same time, throwing tantrums for you to notice this heart of mine."
"Cecilia... I—"
"But, Victor."
I flinched.
The eyes with which she called my name looked ready to spill over with tears at any second—fragile, and at the same time unbearably lovely. I looked into those eyes that saw only me. Holding my hand, her racing heartbeat reached me. In the whirl of intensifying emotion, I saw the shimmer of mana rising like heat haze. And at that same moment, the fireworks that marked the festival's end began to bloom across the sky.
"Victor."
"Yes, Cecilia."
"Not as your fiancée. As one woman, I... you..."
"..."
"I..."
Right then, something red burst out of the bushes.
"...Hahaha... Found you. I knew you'd be here...!!"
A man's voice cut across Cecilia's words. Victor and Cecilia turned as one toward the owner of that voice and shouted—
"Don't interrupt—!" / "Please don't interrupt!!!"