No, really… what was it?
Liscia chuckled. “But I’ll bet you didn’t mind their attempts to get your attention, huh?”
“Well… No, I didn’t,” I said. “I mean, they were both cute.”
When I honestly admitted it, Liscia brought a finger to her lips with a look on her face like she was pondering something. She murmured something under her breath that I couldn’t make out. “(They’ve got it easy, having actual hints to go on. I got told he had nothing particular on his mind for me. I was happy about that, but it makes it hard to decide how to get his attention.)”
“Hm? Did you say something?” I asked.
Liscia shook her head, saying, “It’s nothing, really,” then clapped her hands as if she had just thought of something. “I know. Hey, Souma. Is there anything you’d like me to do for you?”
“What’s this, all of a sudden?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Come on, give me a heart-racing scenario like the one you had with the other two.”
Hm, a scenario I want to play through with Liscia… I tried thinking of one… but it was harder to come up with than you’d think. Liscia was like a super-mainstream orthodox-style heroine, so adding any unnecessary bells and whistles to give her extra character felt redundant. That being the case, rather than do something to change Liscia herself, maybe we could do something with the relationship between us.
“Hey, Liscia, we got betrothed without knowing much of anything about each other, right?” I said. “On top of that, it wasn’t something we decided on for ourselves, it was something Sir Albert just decided on his own.”
“Well… Yeah, it was.”
“I’m not sore about it anymore, and I’m even grateful to him for bringing the two of us together, but… what do you think it’d have been like if we’d known each other all along? If we’d been childhood friends, like Hal and Kaede.”
Liscia got a look on her face like she was pondering the idea. “Hm… I wouldn’t have gotten confused and thought Souma was your first name, maybe? I might be calling you Kazuya.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I nodded. “We’d have a lot of shared memories from when we were kids, too.”
So we decided to try holding a conversation as if we were childhood friends.
“‘Come to think of it, Kazuya, you’ve always been hiding away in your room, sewing like a girl,’” Liscia roleplayed. “‘If you don’t get out in the sun more, your body’s going to start growing mold, you know?’”
“‘Well, you’re as tomboyish as ever, too,’” I told her. “‘Elisha’s worried she’ll never find a husband willing to take you.’”
“‘Well, that’s just fine with me. When the time comes, I was planning to have you take me as your wife anyway.’”
“‘Don’t make it sound like you’re marrying me because you have no other choice. When you were little, you were always saying, “When I grow up, I’m going to marry Kazuya,” weren’t you?’”
“‘Th-That was so long ago, I’ve forgotten it!’”
“‘You were more honest with yourself, and cute back then.’”
“‘What do you mean, “back then”?! Ugh, Kazuya, you dummy!’”
“‘…’”
“‘…’”
Wow, this is super embarrassing! we both thought.
Not even a minute into our little act, Liscia and I were both red in the face.
“Oh geez, my face is burning up,” I admitted. “Do you think childhood friends actually talk like this?”
“I’m so embarrassed I could die,” Liscia said. “I think our current relationship suits us better.”
While we were both fanning our burning cheeks…
“No, Master,” Carla interrupted. “I think I’m the one who was most embarrassed, being forced to watch that, you know?”
Carla, who turned out to have been watching this whole exchange, said that with an awkward look on her face, making us writhe in shame even more badly.
Then came that night.
When the broadcast ended for the nightly song program, Juna and I had our post-show meeting and then headed to the Ishizuka Cafeteria in the castle.
This place was open until late at night, so when we missed meals because of meetings, the two of us often came here to eat and get drinks together. We had our own private room here, so we could drink without worrying about the prying eyes of my retainers.
Of course, when it was earlier in the day, we sometimes came in a group with all my other fiancées, but on those occasions, there was no drinking. Roroa would want to drink if the rest of us did, after all. Though technically a 16-year-old with adult supervision (or an 18-year-old on their own) could drink in this world, no good came from starting to drink at an early age. That was why we’d decided, at a family meeting about the future, to not let Roroa drink, and to not drink in front of her. That being the case, about the only time I drank was on nights when work ran late like this.
“Well then, cheers,” I said.
“Cheers, sire,” Juna agreed.
In our private room, Juna and I toasted with wooden mugs filled with wine. When I poured wine into my body that was exhausted mentally and physically from work, I was finally able to get the sense that my day’s work was over. I know, I was thinking like a salaryman, but the work I was doing really was intensely difficult, so you could hardly blame me.
“Your singing voice was as lovely as it always is, Juna,” I said.
“Hee hee! I’m honored by the compliment, sire.”
While drinking our wine and snacking on a salad of spaghetti, vegetable, and fried octopus dressed with mayonnaise, we talked about our days. I was having such a good time.
However, when I mentioned how Roroa, Aisha, and Liscia had acted today, Juna narrowed her eyes slightly. It didn’t break her smile, but I felt like I saw a moment of panic there. While I looked at her, wondering what was up, Juna suddenly got up.
“Let me come sit beside you,” she said, and came over next to me.
This was just like with Roroa. Was Juna going to start calling me “Big Brother” now, too?
Juna knocked back her wine and chugged it all down, then leaned in and rested her head on my shoulder.
Huh? What was going on here?
“Um… are you drunk?” I ventured.
“Yes. A little,” she said. “I’m sorry, but could you let me stay like this a while?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
For a while, we both stayed silent. With neither of us saying a thing to the other, we just snuggled and drank. Even though that was all we were doing, it was strangely dizzying. With her face so close to mine, the smell of Juna’s hair tickled my nostrils, and I felt like I was getting intoxicated by something other than the alcohol.
Then, without looking at me, Juna said, “Am I… doing a good job of letting you indulge me?”
“Huh?”
“I know I’m bad at letting others indulge me,” she said. “I want to respond to the expectations placed on me the best that I can, and it makes me happy when that pleases everyone. But I want to have you indulge me, too, sire. Because I admire you, I want to accept it when you indulge me.”
Maybe she really was drunk, because Juna looked a little out of it. Juna was so capable at everything she did, but when it came to this sort of stuff, maybe she was a little clumsy.
“Please, let me indulge you,” I said. “I’ll do my best to make it easy for you to let me.”
Then I patted her head, and Juna gave me a satisfied smile.
And so, the day came to an end. There was a lot that happened, but on the whole it was a good day.