Excel gave her a wicked grin. I… had a bad feeling about that.
“Have no worries. I have this right here.”
When she said that, Excel unwrapped the white bundle. Inside were a number of white notebooks. Excel gave one of them to each of us.
The cover of mine said “Top Secret” and “Not to be Taken Outside.” This was beyond suspicious…
“Um, Duchess Walter, just what are these notebooks…?” I asked hesitantly.
Excel flipped through her own notebook and said, “Hee hee. About the white notebooks I just gave you, you see… Why, they have what His Majesty Souma thinks about each of you written in them!”
““““Wha?!”””” Everyone looked down at their notebooks in unison.
In this notebook?! No, but… How?
Excel explained it with a strangely glossy and gleaming smile. “These notebooks contain the things I heard from His Majesty during his ‘private lesson.’ When we finished with the classroom lecture, his majesty said he was feeling parched, so I gave him some juice mixed with tequeur. When I asked him all sorts of questions after that, he was very eloquent.”
So that was it! Juna and I looked at one another, despite ourselves.
Tequeur was a very strong alcohol. It had a light flavor, and would go completely unnoticed mixed in with a glass of juice. Souma must have drunk a lot without realizing it, then been thoroughly interrogated by Excel about his feelings for each of us. The embarrassment of it all must have caused him to suppress the memory of it.
While I was thinking about that, I looked at the notebook in front of me. If Excel was telling the truth, that meant this note contained the secret feelings Souma normally kept hidden away deep inside his heart.
Oh… When I think about it, my heart suddenly starts racing…
I wanted to know, but maybe also kind of didn’t… but I did want to know, after all. I mean, I cared enough about Souma that I’d want to know what he thought about us.
While I was thinking about that, Excel, unconcerned with our hesitation, opened her book and continued.
“Now, as I said earlier, the secret to a harmonious marital relationship is to know your partner, and to know how they see you. Let’s look at how His Majesty Souma looks at each of you. First… Roroa.”
“Meowhat?!” Roroa reacted like a startled cat.
“First we will begin with his appraisal of Roroa.”
“Wh-Why me?! Shouldn’t you be doin’ the head fiancée, Big Sister Liscia, first?”
“There isn’t any particular reason for it,” Excel said. “I simply thought we would start with the person who first met His Majesty the most recently.”
“Well, sure, I’m the newcomer here, but… Well, it beats goin’ last, I guess.” Roroa seemed to have reluctantly accepted it.
…Huh? I was going last, then? Urgh… That meant the tension would last longer or me, and I didn’t like that…
Excel pushed her spectacles up, then looked down at her notebook. “Now then, this is His Majesty Souma’s appraisal of Roroa.”
“Wh-What’s this? I’m gettin’ weirdly tense.”
“Ahem… According to His Majesty, ‘I like how Roroa’s so bright and friendly. It’s amazing how she manages to get in close with whoever she’s talking to. She can be a bit black-hearted, but that’s just one of her charms. It makes me happy seeing her treat Liscia like her big sister. Besides, Roroa’s financial sense is out of this world. To be completely honest, the kingdom’s economy couldn’t run like it does now without Roroa and Colbert. I’m grateful to have her with me, and to have her as my fiancée.’”
“O-Oh…” Roroa put her head down on the desk. She was covering her bright red cheeks with her hands. “This… This is pretty darned embarrassin’,” Roroa said, writhing a little.
Yeah, I was a little embarrassed just hearing it. Souma wasn’t the type to come out and say this stuff to us straight, so when he came out with his unvarnished feelings and said things like, “I love you,” or, “I’m grateful to have you at my side,” it really made an impact. Now that it had come to this, I was suddenly very interested in what he thought about me.
While we were agonizing over what was to come, Excel continued reading with an expression like it was no big deal. “Furthermore, when I asked His Majesty, ‘Do you have anything on your mind when it comes to Roroa?’ his answer was, ‘I know it was a war, but it still bothers me that I killed her father.’”
“Wha?!” Roroa stopped writing in embarrassment and immediately snapped back to her senses.
“‘It was a kill-or-be-killed situation, but I’m still her father’s killer. Roroa says they weren’t close, but what if that isn’t how she really feels, and she actually doesn’t want to marry me… There are times I worry about that,’ he said.”
“I–Is he stupid?!” Roroa shouted.
I felt like I’d had ice cold water dumped over my head, too. Oh, right… I realized. If these were Souma’s true feelings, it would include the insecurities he didn’t normally show us. To think he’d felt that way about Roroa… I’d never have noticed.
Roroa got up and stomped her feet in indignation. “Darlin’, you dummy! I’ve already considered all of that! I’m with ya because I wanted to be, so why’re you thinkin’ about that stuff?!”
“Roroa!” I stood up, and gave Roroa a hug. She ceased stamping her feet with tears in her eyes.
I could also understand why Souma would feel guilty when it came to Roroa. It was because Roroa was important to him. Still, even with that said, it was wrong for him not to take her affection for him at face value.
Roroa sobbed and rubbed her face against my chest. “Ohh… Big Sister Ciaaaa.”
“I know. We’ll have to tell Souma off later.”
Aisha and Juna nodded. It might have been something he’d done unconsciously, but he was going to have to pay for making our “little sister” cry.
After waiting for Roroa to settle down, Excel spoke to her. “The reason His Majesty thinks about that is because he loves you and you’re important to him. You understand that, right?”
“…Yeah,” Roroa said. “That’s why, though it’s frustratin’ that my feelin’s ain’t gettin’ through to him, I was a little happy that Darlin’ cares so much about li’l old me.”
“If you understand that, then you’ll be fine,” Excel said to Roroa with a smile.
It had been a bit tumultuous, but now Roroa’s turn was done. Next, Excel called her granddaughter’s name.
“Juna. His Majesty’s appraisal of you is, ‘She’s pretty, she’s beautiful, and that about sums it up. I don’t mean just her looks, or her voice— I mean her heart, too. I feel like, of all my companions, she’s the one who is always taking a step back to look at the larger picture. She’s truly the ideal woman. I wonder sometimes if it’s okay for me to have her as my fiancée, but I wouldn’t want to let anyone else have her. I’m trying to do my best to be a man who is good enough to be her husband, but it’s frustrating that I can’t quite manage it.’”
“So that’s how His Majesty feels…” Juna was wearing a slight, but happy, smile. Well, of course, any girl would after hearing “I wouldn’t want to let anyone else have her”… you know?
Excel kept on reading. “So, when I asked him, ‘Do you have anything on your mind when it comes to Juna?’ his response was, ‘Juna is too mature and not good at letting others indulge her, so when she occasionally lets me spoil her, as a younger guy, I feel really special.’”
“…Excuse me, but I was under the impression that His Majesty and I are the same age?” Juna broke in.