Chapter 6
Unexpectedly, the incident of the forced exposure of the unrequited love passed by quietly. It was thanks to the fact that Seion’s reaction, after hearing the whole story, was different from what I had expected.
“It is only natural that Dale did not know. I never told him.”
“I’m sorry. I revealed Your Highness’s secret on my own. I wasn’t trying to touch a wound.”
“It’s fine. It is not something worthy of being called a wound.”
Seion, having erased the murderous air around him, spoke calmly. Wasn’t it supposed to be a deeply heartbreaking unrequited love that had wounded him?
While I was puzzled, Seion grabbed my face. It seemed he had adjusted his strength in his own way, but it still felt as though my jawbone would pop out.
“Not only did you reveal another person’s secret, but you were late for class as well.”
“Ugh…….”
“Do not be late again.”
“Y-Yes, I’m sowwy…….”
When I apologized with slurred pronunciation, Seion released my face. If he had gripped any harder, my jaw might really have dislocated.
I opened and closed my mouth to check whether my jaw moved properly. If I was late one more time, wouldn’t my jawbone shatter? The thought suddenly worried me.
“Let us begin the lesson.”
Seion turned first and sat on the sofa, and after cautiously watching him, I sat across from him as well.
There was no trace of the pitiful fragility I had seen from him yesterday. It was certainly a relief, but that did not mean I had stopped worrying about his unrequited love.
He said it was not something that could wound him. Yet he had looked as though he would collapse at any moment.
I stared intently at Seion’s face. His composed expression did not look like someone desperately hiding pain.
For now, I concluded on my own that I would slowly figure this matter out later, then held out a sheet of paper toward Seion.
“Your Highness, shall we begin today with a simple test?”
After all, isn’t a level test the foundation of any class? Tests were practically the culmination of cramming education!
At my words, Seion lowered his gaze to the paper. He did not seem particularly pleased, but he had no choice in the matter to begin with.
“If you do well on the test, I will give you a present.”
Seion, who had been staring blankly at the paper, looked at me. At the word “present,” his eyes briefly sparkled with interest.
“I would like to hear what kind of present it is first.”
Holding the pen, Seion pulled the paper closer and quickly read through the questions. Then he lightly placed the test paper on the desk and asked about the identity of the present.
There were ten descriptive questions in total.
Seeing how he asked about the present first, it seemed he had already concluded the test would not be difficult before even solving it.
That triumphant appearance of his was somewhat amusing. Objectively, the questions were not difficult, but based on the Seion I had observed over the past two days, they were things he could not easily arrive at the correct answers to.
“It’s a secret. It will probably be a present Your Highness could never even imagine.”
Because it was rather trivial.
I smiled brightly while hiding my true thoughts.
I could not possibly tell him that the present for finally taking interest in the test was merely chocolate cookies. If he even learned that those cookies had been served as dessert yesterday evening, he might declare that he would not take the test at all.
That would not do. Just how many tests would he have to take from now on? As I lightly shook my head, Seion called my name.
“Annette.”
“Yes?”
“If I receive a perfect score on this test, instead of a present, I would like you to grant me a wish.”
Oh ho, look at that confidence.
I narrowed my eyes and stared at Seion. It was the face of someone who had never failed a test before.
“Alright.”
But just as confident as Seion was, I was confident as well. There was absolutely no way he could get a perfect score on this test.
At my agreement, Seion nodded and began solving the questions. Unexpectedly, his hand showed no hesitation as he wrote his answers.
Uh……. This might be a little dangerous?
☆☆☆
Haha, dangerous my foot.
Seion’s score was three points. Even that was only thanks to partial credit on the descriptive answers.
Seion calmly nodded at his score. Despite being the one who had asked me to grant a wish, there was not a hint of disappointment on his face. Perhaps he had expected this score from the start, or perhaps he had been too shocked to speak.
“Your Highness, you answered sincerely, right?”
“Does it look like I was joking?”
I shook my head at Seion’s question.
No. That’s exactly why it’s so hopeless.
I swallowed a sigh while staring at the test paper covered in red marks. Seion’s confidently written wrong answers, penned in elegant handwriting, densely filled the page.
[1. A young lady confesses that she fell in love at first sight! How should Your Highness respond?]
The first question had been written purely out of my own curiosity. There must have been quite a few noble ladies who confessed after being enchanted by Seion’s face, so I wanted to know how he had dealt with them until now.
He lacked social skills somewhat and his common sense was twisted, but he was still a high-ranking noble. I had expected him to behave with at least a certain level of dignity.
[I draw my sword and spar with her. If her skills are terrible, I will send a letter to her family.]
I said he received a confession, not an invitation to a duel! Did he not understand the question?
I stopped myself from imagining what kind of letter he would send to the other family. Whatever I imagined, it would probably be even worse than that.
[2. Your Highness has fallen for a woman! What is the very first thing you should do?]
Since Seion had experience with unrequited love, I thought at least this one would be easy for him…….
[Identify her weaknesses. Learn her vulnerabilities and isolate her…….]
I was mistaken. Completely mistaken. I think I understand now why your unrequited love failed, Seion.
[3. While on a date in the garden, your partner says, “Oh my, that flower is so pretty!” How should Your Highness respond?]
Question three was one of the few that had received partial credit. After rereading Seion’s answer, I lowered the test paper.
[I will pull it out by the roots and hand it to her.]
People’s tastes varied, and perhaps someone somewhere would be moved by his actions, so I gave partial credit for now, but…….
The more I read Seion’s answers, the more I questioned whether he could ever have a normal romance. The confidence I had at the beginning that things would somehow work out had already disappeared.
“Your Highness, if you were to define love, what would you call it?”
I raised my head and asked Seion. My gaze immediately collided with his, as he had already been looking at me.
“…….”
Despite answering the test questions without a shred of hesitation, he strangely pondered this one. Was the question too abstract? I regretted asking it, but I could not think of any way to elaborate further.
“It is difficult.”
Just as I was about to tell him that he did not have to answer if it was too difficult, Seion, who had remained silent for a moment, slowly continued speaking.
“When I was with her, breathing felt much easier, and somewhere inside my chest felt warm yet aching.”
His low voice was monotone. Even while speaking the most sorrowful words, he remained as calm as ever.
“Even the moments of longing felt happy, but eventually that time began to suffocate me. When I realized she had abandoned me, I wanted to kill her, and when I realized I was being completely ignored, I wanted to die. But in the end, I could not die.”
Seion’s red eyes gradually sank deeper and deeper until they were swallowed by darkness. Though he was facing me, it felt as though he were looking at something else entirely.
Perhaps it was the object of his unrequited love from a distant, or maybe not-so-distant, past.
“A conscience that says I should apologize even if I cannot be forgiven, and a greed that simply wants to whisper that I love her, being trapped by such things and slowly sinking.”
Even while describing a time that must have been unbearably painful, it sounded as though he were talking about someone else’s story. Just as I had set him up to be, Seion was excessively numb to emotions.
“That is what love is to me, Annette.”
Unfortunately.
☆☆☆
After finishing the lesson with Seion, I called for Dale once again. Although Dale knew nothing about Seion’s unrequited love, that did not change the fact that he knew Seion better than anyone else.
“Ha ha, this is the first time I’ve ever seen His Highness receive such a disastrous score.”
Dale looked at Seion’s test paper and admired it sincerely.
No, is this really something to laugh about? Didn’t you want Grand Duke Seion to get married? Why am I the only one taking this seriously?!
I barely swallowed back all the words that rose to my throat. Right now, there was something more important than awakening Dale’s sense of crisis.
I recalled Seion speaking about love. Beneath his indifferent face, his eyes sunken deep into the abyss had been complicated and dark.
It felt insufficient to simply describe it as having experienced a desperate love. There was something strangely peculiar about it. I could not easily shake off the sense of déjà vu it gave me.
“Dale, by any chance… could you tell me about His Highness’s childhood?”
“His childhood?”
“Yes. I feel like I’ll be able to help His Highness much more comfortably if I know about it.”
Dale widened his eyes and asked back. He could not hide his bewilderment at the unexpected question.
“If Lady Annette wishes to understand His Highness, then it would certainly be better for you to know.”
However, after pondering briefly, Dale soon nodded. His expression, as though he had made up his mind, looked oddly solemn.
Because of Dale’s expression, even I became tense along with him. Just how important was the story he was about to tell?
After carefully choosing his words for a moment, he finally began speaking about Seion’s past.
“Over a decade ago, His Highness was abandoned several times by the former Grand Duchess.”
It was not an ordinary beginning.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
