24

 

When we returned to the Mansion Chris came out to greet us.
No well, this is my house, you know ..
You really have made yourself perfectly at home, haven’t you.

It seemed Brother hadn’t returned yet.
I’m sure his wild instinct must have been at work there, the one watching out for Mother’s fist of fury.

On that note I do have something I’m curious about, but as expected I can’t just talk alone with Chris-sama. ⁽¹⁾
For what it’s worth I am Leon-sama’s fiancee, after all .. well, for what it’s worth.
If Brother was here I could just ask him while drinking tea together.
I was curious about it but for now I returned to my room once.

When I returned to my room Sana prepared some tea for me.
As I drank the tea I calmed down.
At that Sana talked to me.

“Ririina-sama. Ano, how did the talk turn out?”

Sana made a very worried expression.
But true, she has been concerned for me all this time after all.

“Let’s see .. I did talk with Leon-sama but as always my words didn’t reach him at all. Also, Anjiu-sama was with him. Rather, talking things out with Anjiu-sama might be the faster option. Partway through Big Brother and Chris-sama barged in on us and in the end today ended with things being ambiguous.”

“That must .. have been quite an ordeal. But just what is Prince Leon thinking, I wonder.”

“You tell me~ I want to know the most. At this rate it might be easier to leave it to the King and my parents, but even if it was provisionally, we were engaged for several years. If possible, at least at the very end, I want to properly talk things out with him.”

“.. I suppose so. From his perspective this must be really quite the ironic result, for you to give it your all to make him talk to you at this point.”

Sana came to some sort of understanding by herself while nodding repeatedly.
Even I tried to become friendly with him in the past by making conversation with him, I’ll have you know.

“Which reminds me, Sana, could you please let me know when Big Brother returns home? I have something I want to ask him. If possible I would like to ask Chris-sama as well but that’s not going to happen without Big Brother present.”

“I understand. I will report to you immediately upon Ricardo-sama’s return. And if Chris-sama may have to talk with you it would be better to do that after he has returned. It may be in this house but it still wouldn’t be proper for you two to be alone with each other.”

“That’s how it is. Then I’ll leave it you. .. oh, right. After Mother has found him Brother will probably .. If that happens it would become impossible to talk to him, so in that case we should gently leave him be. In that case I will talk to him when the chance appears from tomorrow onward.”

Saying so Sana assented ‘In that case today would seem impossible, indeed’.
Yep, as I thought.
Since it shouldn’t be possible for him to escape from Mother.

— a few hours later

Screams echoed throughout the inside of the mansion.
.. It would seem that Mother’s education has begun.
Brother mine, there is nothing I can do for you.
Except for praying that you’ll be in a state to talk tomorrow.

Ultimately the day ended without me talking to Brother and Chris-sama.

— the following day

Sana came in the morning stating that Ricardo had asked me to come to his room.
Ara, that’s convenient.
I headed for his room right away.

Entering his room there was what was left of Brother after the education.

“Big Brother, good morning. And is your body alright?”

“Aah, Ririina, morning. As for my body .. it’s as you see. Say, how come our Mother can do this much to the active commanding officer of the chivalric order? It’s absolutely strange.”

It seems Brother had doubts about Mother’s strength.
No, it’s not strange at all, is it.
She’s the daughter of those Grandparents, you know. The only daugther of those people that would nearly crush me by accident while hugging me.

“By the way, Big Brother, you had some business with me?”

“Oh, yeah, right. It’s become the issue of breaking up your engagement but Ririina, can’t you reconsider that, after all? I think no one beside you would work out for Prince Leon.”

“Big Brother, you mean ..”

Just why is it that Brother wants to undo the cancellation of our engagement this much?
I’m troubled because I don’t know his reasons.
Since this is a rare chance let’s try asking.

“Big Brother, why is it that you want to undo the issue of the breaking off the engagement to this extend? In Anjiu-sama Leon-sama has found a person he is in truly in love with, you know. He is sure to become much happier with Anjiu-sama then with me who has been decided his fiancee by our families.”

Upon my words Brother made a grimace.
And with an unusually serious look he answered thus:

“Ririina you .. you don’t understand. Have you really been looking at Prince Leon properly? It’s true that it is an engagement that had been decided for you by our families but spending all this time together with Leon-sama so far, did you really not feel anything? I know you have been doing your best to keep up with the Queen training. But even still, wasn’t it also important to build your relationship with Prince Leon?”

Taking a short break the final thing he said:

“Ririina, you might not believe me, but this I will state clearly. The one Prince Leon likes, no, the one he loves is you, Ririina. That hasn’t changed a bit ever since you two got engaged. The fact that he brought up the matter of breaking off your engagement this time around was a complete failure on his part. On this matter I, too, had advised him against it. But, I earnestly want you to believe. That those are Prince Leon’s feelings.”

.. Leon-sama’s feeling?
Leon-sama likes .. me?
No, but then, what was all of this up until now about?
I fell into confusion upon Brother’s words.

Konkon
At that moment a knock resounded from the door of the room.

 

 

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Translator’s notes

 

(1) As in, it would be improper for a lady to be alone in a room with a man that is not related to her. Her awareness as a proper lady is quite good except when she’s being seduced by the prospect of hunting and similar.