Third Arc: Forty-Fourth Chapter

"Your Highness the Crown Prince?! Why are you here...?"

"Huh? Your Highness, long time no see."

In contrast to my shock, Georg's reaction was perfectly breezy.

"...Georg, you're not surprised at all."

"Hm? Ah, I got a letter from my father."

"A let... I mean, a letter from His Excellency the Knight Commander?! How envi... no, it's nothing at all."

While Georg and I whispered back and forth, Leonhardt had come right up in front of me. His silver hair, vivid even in the dark, swayed softly, and a familiar scent tickled my nose, giving me a bittersweet little pang.

"Cosette. It's been a while. Are you hurt? I heard you were caught up in an incident..."

The prince put a hand on my shoulder and peered into my face, checking me over as if worried.

Cl-close! Too close!

Michael too, but the men in this world stand far too close to people. Small personal space, I suppose. Like foreigners who count you a friend the moment they meet you and a best friend the moment you speak.

Oh, but come to think of it, he is a foreigner. Blond and all.

"Y-Your Highness. It's been a while."

Sweating down my back, as I tried to push the prince away, I was yanked backward by a strong hand and stumbled despite myself.

"Cosette!"

"Kyah! What are you doing! Oh, it's Michael. Stop that, you startled me."

"Haha! Sorry, sorry! You looked like you were in trouble!"

Deftly, even carried on Georg's back, Michael had pulled my arm to him and was grinning without a shred of guilt. The prince, on the other hand, had had his hands knocked away by my sudden yanking, and his face grew harder by the second.

"Who are you. What are you doing."

"Your Highness, the limp one on my back is Lumelica's King Michael!"

Oi! Georg?! Is a spot of lese-majeste all right?!

And please! Read the room, please!

At Georg declaring it with a totally breezy, sunny smile, not minding the strained air in the least, the cold sweat down my back wouldn't stop. A vein popped at the prince's temple.

"...I imagined as much. This is our first meeting. I am Leonhardt Altria, crown prince of the Kingdom of Altria. Forgive my subordinate's rude tongue. Having heard King Michael of Lumelica had fallen to a sudden illness, I came as proxy for my father, the King of Altria, to inquire after his health. ...Though the bedroom appeared to be empty."

"Haha! Well, well, how kind of you! You seem to know already, but I'm Michael, King of Lumelica. Looking like this, the rudeness runs both ways! I got bored of the bedroom, you see."

"...Oh?"

And here, the can't-read-the-room child, number two, is born. Michael, grinning loosely, waved a hand from Georg's back. The prince's vein was swelling to a level where it could snap at any moment.

Yeah, at this point I almost want to bleed it for him.

"My subordinate's back must be very comfortable. ...By the way, would you let go of that hand."

"...Hm?"

Following the prince's gaze, there was my hand, still gripped by Michael. Michael traced the prince's gaze too and looked at his own hand, but seeing my hand still linked with his, he only kept grinning and didn't let go.

"Nope."

Throb, throb.

Your Highness! The vein! The vein is...!

"...Let go."

"Nope."

In that spot wrapped in a foul air, everyone but Georg and Michael was frozen, breaking a cold sweat.

"...I'd like to ask King Michael. Why are you holding Cosette's hand?"

"Hmm? Because Cosette is someone dear to me, maybe?"

"...Oh. What a coincidence. Cosette is to become my princess."

"Huh? That's odd. From what I looked into, that isn't decided yet, is it? Hattori?"

"Hah?! W-well! Th-the crown princess of Altria is not yet decided, so it is!"

The prince, smiling deftly with the vein still standing out, and Michael, grinning away. Both were smiling, and Hattori, dragged into a scene wrapped in a strange tension, answered with a look of utter reluctance. On his face, "don't drag me into this," was written in huge letters.

At Hattori's answer, the prince's white face seemed to twist with a black, black anger.

"...Oh."

The next instant, a hand-blade struck out faster than the eye could follow and split my hand from Michael's with a whack!

"Owww!"

"There, Cosette. You must be tired. Get into the carriage quickly."

"A karate chop?! Is that all right?!"

"Come."

Swept up by the prince, I was pushed into the carriage in no time, and it dashed off smartly. With Georg, who'd slipped in at some point, aboard.

"Georg?! What about Michael?!"

"Hm? I loaded him onto Hattori!"

"Whaaat?!"