Smiling with an expression of complete innocence, I watched Axel’s face out of the corner of my eye. Exactly as I had anticipated, it was rapidly going rigid — as though the mere thought of it was enough to set his teeth on edge.
The reaction was so transparent I nearly pouted.
If this was going to be his response, why did he deny it so stubbornly?
If he had simply acknowledged it from the start, things wouldn’t have come to this.
Axel opened his mouth, clearly struggling.
“…Right now. To my face. You said you would call him by a nickname. Is that what you said, Lady Melberine?”
The sharpened gaze cut toward me, but I nodded with the most guileless expression I could manage.
“Yes, Your Highness. Is there a problem?”
“A problem? You’re asking if there’s a problem?”
Something that looked almost like wounded pride began to show on his face. I blinked a few times, and then let understanding dawn across my features in an exaggerated display.
“Your Highness — surely you’re not… upset right now? About my calling Noxie by a nickname?”
“Upset? Me? Absolutely not.”
The denial came fast, but delivering it with a face like an approaching winter storm did nothing to make it convincing.
At his response, I let the concern melt from my eyes and immediately pressed forward, speaking as though newly and deeply reassured.
“Oh, good. What a relief. I nearly thought you were upset over something so small. I almost made another strange assumption, Your Highness.”
“Because obviously — you have no feelings about whether I’m alone with Noxie, or what we call each other. Right?”
A long silence followed. I called to him again. Axel’s pupils continued to waver. He opened his mouth as though he had something to say.
“So what I mean is, I—”
“That is—”
At this rate, the conversation would never reach an end. I offered a small nudge in the right direction.
“Oh, I understand! You were trying to wish us a pleasant outing, weren’t you, Your Highness? Don’t worry at all. There won’t be any rumors — we’ll be perfectly discreet, just the two of us.”
“That’s not — no!”
The sudden outburst came with Axel’s hand catching my wrist. I hadn’t even said I was going anywhere.
Unmistakable urgency had surfaced on his face.
“No? What do you mean by that?”
I tilted my head and looked up at him with the most genuinely bewildered expression I could manage.
“Then what did you mean, Your Highness?”
At the precision of my question, the color drained from Axel’s face in an instant. He couldn’t find a single word. He could only exhale and drag a hand across his face.
Rather than pushing further, I fixed my gaze on him with predatory patience — the way a hunter waits for exactly the right moment.
Not yet. Just a little more… a little more…
Several minutes passed. And then, as though having finally reached a decision that had cost him everything, Axel opened his lips with glacial slowness.
I fixed my gaze on his mouth.
An almost inaudible sound pressed past his lips.
“…Don’t.”
“What was that, Your Highness? I didn’t catch it.”
Just a little more…
“…Don’t go.”
“Don’t go to him.”
In that instant, an electric current seemed to race through every vein in my body.
A rush of exhilaration beyond anything words could describe passed through me. My heart was hammering and the fist at my side was damp with sweat.
The catharsis was so tremendous I was nearly afraid a sound would escape me. I worked desperately to contain it, keeping my expression carefully neutral as I asked:
“When you say him… are you referring to Noxie, Your Highness?”
“Why? Why is it not all right for me to go to Noxie?”
At that question, Axel’s lips clamped shut.
“You said before — just as you did a moment ago — that you don’t concern yourself with who I meet. So naturally, it couldn’t be jealousy—”
And then Axel cut in.
“It is. Jealousy. I’m jealous of you right now.”
The words I had been so desperate to hear had finally, finally left his mouth.
I had, to some extent, anticipated this answer — and yet the moment it arrived, I went completely still, as though every signal in my body had gone out at once.
Finding no words, I stood there in silence. Axel’s expression turned anxious, and he urged me for a response.
“Is that enough? So tell me you won’t go. Come on.”
But instead of answering, I grabbed his arm and asked:
“Why? Why are you jealous? You said it didn’t bother you at all.”
I wanted to hear his feelings from his own mouth, in more detail.
At such a direct question, Axel’s lips twitched with evident flustered discomfort.
A short pause — and then he lifted his head.
“…Does it matter that much?”
“Of course it does! It matters enormously to me!”
When it became clear he wouldn’t give up the answer easily, I drew out the card I had been holding in reserve.
“If you don’t tell me now, I won’t give you a definitive answer either.”
The moment those words left my mouth, Axel’s eyes went sharp as a blade. Even I startled slightly at the change.
“T-that’s why you should just tell me now!”
Axel let out a deep exhale — the exhale of surrender — and spoke.
“What I said about not being bothered was a lie. You were going to be alone with that mage of all people. Of course I can’t be indifferent to that.”
“Which means—”
Axel looked down at me with an unsteady gaze. I stared back at him, eyes alive with brightness.
“You like me, don’t you? You have feelings for me.”
Axel didn’t give a direct answer to my question — but it was answer enough.
He was pressing his lips together and looking away, refusing to meet my gaze. The tip of his ear had gone red.
Something warm and rounded rose from deep within my chest. Now, every single thing he did felt endearing.
I folded my hands together neatly, eyes blinking with great care, and looked up at him.
“So, Your Highness — where exactly did the jealousy start? When I said we were going to the café together? Or when Noxie called me by a nickname? Which was it?”
“It’s—”
Axel had begun to answer without thinking, then caught himself a beat too late. He snapped his mouth shut.
He had apparently noticed the very obvious intent to tease in my expression, because he opted to change the subject.
Something seemed to come to mind, because he furrowed his brow.
“Setting that aside — what exactly is your relationship with that person, Lady Melberine?”
“My relationship? …You’re surely not asking about my relationship with Noxie?”
“I am.”
The slanted eyebrow turned toward me. At the sudden reversal, I blinked rapidly, caught off guard.
“What relationship? We’re obviously just friends—”
“Don’t bother answering ‘just friends.’ What person in the world calls a friend like that? He distinctly called you Yudi. Since when exactly did you become close enough to exchange nicknames?”
His words left me flustered.
I had explained this already — that Noxie had simply decided to call me that on his own.
But Axel clearly didn’t believe a word of it.
He was looking at me with the intense focus of someone who suspected their partner of infidelity. The force of feeling in his gaze was palpable.
It was true that I had briefly used Noxie to provoke his jealousy — but I swore there had been nothing improper between us. Not once.
I gathered myself and answered with measured calm.
“I think there might be a misunderstanding, Your Highness. As I mentioned before — Yudi was a name I heard for the very first time today. There was nothing like that between us before this.”
But even with the sincerity in my answer, Axel’s expression remained stubbornly suspicious.
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
