“Y-Your Highness?”
At her visibly flustered reaction, Adrian pulled Artie into a tighter embrace.
The faint scent of hers that usually only brushed the tip of his nose bloomed thickly.
Unwilling to let her go, he asked, still holding her.
“Where did you go?”
“I went out for a moment to find a gift for Her Majesty the Empress. It was something I could only get by going out, so I had no choice. I’m truly sorry.”
Her voice, watching for his reaction, dwindled smaller and smaller.
He had only heard her voice, yet astonishingly, his mood improved.
In contrast, Artie, suddenly pulled into Adrian’s arms, had gone pale and began to plead earnestly.
“I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”
Artie’s voice trembled pitifully. The sudden embrace was bewildering, and no matter how hard she tried to think positively, she couldn’t.
Because the expression on his face when she had spotted him from afar had been murderous enough to kill someone at any moment.
“If you punish me, I will accept it gladly…….”
At last, Artie gave up. She had gone out without permission, so it was only right that she be punished.
“I have no intention of holding you responsible.”
“What?”
Adrian raised his head, still holding Artie.
Terni, who had been watching the entire situation, waved his hand with a cheerful laugh.
“There’s a separate bastard who’s going to die.”
The one who had dragged his timid fiancée outside the imperial palace was entirely Terni’s doing.
Adrian intended to make it so that he would never smile again.
* * *
Terni, thoroughly beaten by Adrian, sniffled and huddled in a corner of the office.
“What did I do that was so wrong…….”
At Terni’s remark, which showed not a shred of reflection, Adrian’s expression turned murderous again.
Terni flinched and watched Adrian’s reaction, then cautiously pulled something out.
“Hehe. My dish.”
It was one of the artisan Jürgen’s works he had finally managed to wheedle out of Artie.
“What’s that.”
Adrian asked in a low voice.
As if he had forgotten he had just been beaten soundly, Terni scurried up to Adrian holding the dish.
“This? Curious? What could it be? Aren’t you curious?”
“You must want to be hit again.”
“Artie gave it to me as a gift! Only to me! Specially!”
Adrian had already been growing angry at the fact that his first outing with Artie had been stolen by that Terni brat.
And now what? She gave him a gift?
Adrian had never received a gift from Artie.
To Adrian, Terni had not only poured oil but thrown in fire for good measure.
Adrian snatched the dish from the fidgeting Terni.
“Ah! Give me back my dish!”
Adrian was about to smash the dish on the spot. But Terni’s cry was faster.
“That! Artie gave it to me!”
“…….”
“If you break it, Artie will be sad, won’t she?!”
He couldn’t deny those words. Adrian agonized.
If she found out that the gift she had given had been shattered to pieces, Artie might come to hate him.
“Confiscated.”
“What? Hey! That’s not fair! Adrian!”
Adrian cleanly ignored Terni’s protests and put the dish into a drawer.
Terni, after making a fuss for quite a while, eventually yielded to fear and authority and fell silent.
Letting out an irritated sigh, Adrian closed the documents he had been reading and turned his gaze to his trusted aides.
“You lot. What on earth did you say to that girl?”
He intended to clarify that point.
At the time, he hadn’t understood his own feelings, but visiting Artie to see her had not been intended to frighten her.
Because he didn’t know the identity of this feeling—because he wanted to know.
And those bastards had ruined that lost, wandering moment.
Terni, sitting sullenly, answered bluntly.
“You were really strange back then, you know? Coming every day, not saying a word, staring blankly at our Artie, then suddenly shouting and running out. Is that the behavior of a sane person?”
“That’s―.”
Adrian tried to make excuses, then hurriedly shut his mouth.
If he confided in Terni, it would only interfere.
Adrian treated Terni as invisible and turned his gaze to Diano, who sat quietly.
“Diano. Did I really look like that?”
“Y-yes?!”
“Did I look like a madman.”
At the sudden question, Diano, flustered, rolled his eyes busily, then nodded.
“……Yeees.”
Adrian pressed a hand to his forehead.
Damn it. I’m doomed.
Before he had even started anything, the situation was smoothly ruined.
Thinking that Artie saw him as a madman made him want to eliminate Terni this instant.
The reason it was specifically Terni was simply because he was annoying.
But he could not give in like this. Adrian gestured to Diano with a serious face.
“Come here.”
Diano hesitantly approached and stood beside Adrian. Adrian hooked his arm around Diano’s neck and spoke covertly.
“I have something to ask.”
“Yes.”
“How do I make her not be afraid of me?”
“……?”
‘What’s really frightening right now is that you’re doing this.’
Diano hid his true feelings and racked his brain fiercely.
There was no subject, but he could understand.
How could Artie not be afraid of Adrian?
As he pondered this, his cute, lovable younger sister Acacia naturally came to mind.
“Wouldn’t giving her a gift make her happy?”
“A gift?”
“Yes. When I bring Acacia a gift, she sometimes even gives me a kiss on the cheek.”
Adrian nodded.
A kiss. Quite a decent reward for the effort, isn’t it.
“What should I give her?”
The one who answered that question was the sulking Terni.
“Jewels, dresses, and flowers are cliché and boring. Artie probably wouldn’t like them much either.”
“You be quiet.”
At Adrian’s cold remark, Terni pouted.
Diano, who had been thinking deeply, agreed with Terni’s opinion.
“Things like that are already plentiful without Your Highness giving them. So if you give her something practical and pretty, she would probably be pleased.”
Something practical and pretty?
Nothing came to mind immediately.
“……What is that?”
Diano stiffened his expression blankly and took a step back.
“Shouldn’t Your Highness think about that yourself?”
“…….”
And so Adrian’s list of worries grew by one more.
* * *
As the Empress’s birthday banquet came to an end, the delegations staying at the imperial palace began returning to their home countries one by one.
The delegation from the Sirius Empire was no exception.
Preparations that had begun early in the morning were finished before noon.
Adrian and Artie came out to see off the Sirius delegation on behalf of the Emperor and Empress.
“No! I said no! I’m not going!”
“Ronen!”
Empress Veronica reprimanded him sternly, but Ronen paid no heed and cried.
Ronen, who had initially clung on saying he hated Appennino, was now crying and throwing a tantrum, saying he didn’t want to leave Appennino.
Watching the scene, Adrian clicked his tongue.
‘That damn brat, I wish he’d disappear quickly.’
Adrian opened the magic circle within the imperial palace to send Ronen back to Sirius as quickly as possible.
It was a magic circle that required so much mana to activate that even members of the imperial family rarely used it, but that was how much Adrian couldn’t stand the sight of Ronen.
“I’m not going. I said I’m not going! I haven’t even married Artie yet!”
Ronen now began clinging to Artie and hanging off her.
Empress Veronica bowed her head deeply at the sight of her son.
“I’m sorry, Adrian. I’m ashamed that my son is like this.”
“Yes.”
The humble words “It’s all right” did not come out. Because it truly was not all right.
“To think you prepared even a magic circle for us—I’m truly touched. Thanks to you, we’ll be able to return comfortably.”
“I heard that Aunt suffers from carriage sickness, so I prepared this in haste. I’m glad you’re pleased.”
Empress Veronica, looking at Adrian as he answered so maturely as if he were admirable, turned her gaze back to her son.
“I—said—no! Artie! We didn’t even dance! How can you do this! Artie doesn’t want to be apart from me either, right? Right? Isn’t that right?”
Ronen’s tantrum was escalating by the moment. Artie, who had become the target, was struggling to soothe him.
“You can come visit again next time.”
“There won’t be a next time! I want to be with Artie right now!”
“Ronen…….”
Adrian let out a sigh and approached Artie and Ronen. Ronen was crying so hard he didn’t notice Adrian’s approach.
“Then! Let’s go together, Artie! And then you marry me. How about it? Good―!”
“Good, my foot.”
It was Adrian who answered instead. Without hesitation, he grabbed the scruff of Ronen’s neck and flung him toward the magic circle.
Hum.
With a short resonance, the magic circle activated and swallowed Ronen whole.
“…….”
“…….”
In the suffocating silence that followed, the only one smiling was Adrian.
How dare you try to take someone away?
The fact that the damn brat’s face was no longer visible was utterly refreshing.
The first to break the silence was Empress Veronica.
“Adrian……. How could you send the child off first?”
“Ah, I apologize. Please travel safely, Aunt.”
But his face showed no apology whatsoever. Empress Veronica immediately retracted her earlier thought that Adrian was admirable.
And she patted the shoulder of Artie, who was still in shock.
“You must have a hard time of it.”
“Ah, no.”
“When we return, it’ll be noisy with crying again. My head already aches.”
Clicking her tongue a few times, Empress Veronica elegantly stepped onto the magic circle.
