3
Night drew in on the Imperial capital.
The curtain of black lowered in the sky, and the lights in the business district blinked off one by one.
However…
From within the windowless building of the Lord’s office, the evening activity of the Imperial capital was imperceptible. Was it even night? The only indication of the evening hour was the clock on the living room wall, but who knew? Perhaps the sun hadn’t even set yet.
One couldn’t help but feel that way in the building.
“…”
Water sprayed from the showerhead, accompanied by steam. Alice allowed it to pour over her, even though she would normally find it too hot.
“I don’t know what to do…”
Her hair clung to her wet skin. She turned away from her foggy reflection in the mirror and pressed her wet forehead to the wall.
“I really shouldn’t even be doing this.”
As she showered, she thought back on everything that had happened the day before and on that day. She remembered the day she’d spent in the company of only Rin and Iska. She ordered food with him and had forced him to make dinner for her.
It was thrilling to do something so outside the confines of her usual life.
She was doing this even while in the enemy territory of the Empire. In fact, she was enjoying herself because she wasn’t in the Nebulis Sovereignty. It was as though she had been liberated from her stifling role as a princess…
That was why she was conflicted.
“I wonder how deeply Elletear considered those words before she said them to me…?”
The more she relished these unusual days, and the longer she spent them with Iska, the more keenly she felt her sister’s words.
“This is the difference between the two of us. I have a knight by my side.”
“Alice, do you have a knight who will fight beside you?”
“…”
This would likely be her first and last opportunity to feel this way.
Iska could only be at her side while she was in the Empire. She could simply talk to him out in the open. However, that wouldn’t last forever. But maybe, she could even ask him to become her knight…
……My sister has made an enemy of the Empire.
……So it wouldn’t be entirely inconceivable for me to ask him to be my knight.
But.
Was that what he wanted?
Everything would change the moment she asked Iska to be in a fully united front with her.
And in that moment…
I know we won’t be rivals any longer.
“I wonder what Iska thinks…?”
She kept ruminating over the same scenarios again and again.
If…Iska would answer her plea, was she really within her rights to want this?
“Ugh… I can’t! That’s enough of that for today. Overthinking this is as good as being stuck under my sister’s spell!”
She abruptly raised her head. Then she wrapped her wet golden hair in a towel and ran out of the bathroom. After wiping away the droplets clinging to her skin, she quickly donned a bathrobe and made her way to the living room.
“I’m sorry for the wait, Rin. You can go—”
The moment she entered the living room, her eyes met another person’s.
But they didn’t belong to Rin. There stood Iska, the boy who had been assigned to watch over her.
“…”
“…”
This felt like déjà vu.
Now that she thought about it, they had been in a similar situation before.
“Uh?! A-Alice?!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
She quickly tightened her bathrobe around herself. She had been planning to change in the bedroom right away, so she had left it loose. Her chest was as good as exposed.
“Um… Alice…” Iska was holding a small surveillance device. He must have been inspecting the cameras. “This place is under video surveillance… So you probably shouldn’t make a habit of walking around disrobed…”
“I don’t have any such habit!”
Now he had gotten the wrong idea.
Though Iska’s misunderstanding was reasonable in light of what had happened just now, Alice normally wasn’t one to walk around half-dressed.
Rather…
She had almost let out a shriek when she’d laid eyes on him.
She was still a young lady, after all. Of course she was embarrassed to be seen in the nude. If any other Imperial soldier had seen her, she would have been mortified.
……But.
……It was Iska who saw me.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, she found that tolerable. The embarrassment had lost out. She didn’t want him to think she was weak because she’d shrieked from showing a little skin.
That was why she ended up holding out.
“A-actually, if I must say anything, it’s that I’m not ashamed if people see my body! That’s right! It’s because I’m a whole year more mature than you!”
“I think you really should be ashamed, actually…”
He turned away.
But Alice found his discomfort delightful.
He had such a sharp glint in his eyes on the battlefield.
But now he seems so pure and young.
Just a little more… She wanted to tease him just a little more. She couldn’t help but think that.
“This seems like a great opportunity. I’ll show you just how mature I am!”
Alice glanced at the ceiling. Then she slowly sat down on the sofa in a spot where the cameras couldn’t reach.
“Y-yes, I think that I’d like to cross my legs.”
Alice made sure Iska was watching as she made a show of crossing her legs. A peek of her white thighs showed from her bathrobe, but it was all calculated, of course. Yes, this was what it meant to be calm, collected, and mature.
She was a full year older than he was. She could be a little daring.
“I—I—I—I feel completely a-a-a-at ease!”
“You definitely aren’t, though!”
“I am, too!”
The moment she blurted that out, Alice accidentally crossed a line she couldn’t come back from. Since Iska was completely correct, she had to deny it.
“No, this isn’t enough, Iska!” She got up off the sofa and grabbed the neckline of her robe that she had fixed earlier.
“Wh-when I’m really serious…” She started to pull open her bathrobe as though she was going to bare it all.
“Lady Alice, about tomorrow’s plans…” That very moment, Rin stepped into the living room from outside. She looked stunned. Her own lady was attempting to expose herself to the Imperial swordsman.
“…”
“…”
“Wait, Rin…” Alice barely managed to get the words out. She still was holding the lapels of her bathrobe. “It’s not what it looks like. This wasn’t what I was trying to—”
“Lady Alice.” In an entirely deadpan fashion, Rin picked up a bag from a corner of the room, then started to stuff it with their things. “Let’s return to the Sovereignty. You must be so stressed by life in the Empire that you’re even throwing open your bathrobe and exposing yourself because of your need for approval—”
“It’s not like that! It really isn’t, Rin. Please, listen to me!”
“I’m starting to suspect that you might have a penchant for disrobing, Lady Alice…”
“Even you?! But I don’t!”
Rin continued to pack. Alice latched on to her and pleaded for them to stay.
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