“Uh… Uh…”
It seemed she couldn’t even form words properly, and she was just opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish. Liscia was usually so dignified, but when I thought, Hey, she makes faces like this, too, it was kind of funny.
“D-Darlin’, does that mean you two’re gonna…”
Roroa came back to her senses and tried to get some answers out of me, but Juna laid a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.
“Roroa.”
Then she said something to Roroa and Aisha in a whisper before turning and giving me a deep bow.
“Now then, Princess, Your Majesty, we will be taking our leave of you now.”
With that said, Juna quietly departed.
“Erm… Good night, Your Majesty, Princess,” said Aisha.
“Murgh… Big Sister Cia! Tell me how he did later, ’kay?”
Aisha and Roroa followed Juna out of the room.
“Well, until tomorrow, then,” said Hakuya. “Rest well.”
“I–I will be standing guard outside the room… Please, take it easy, Master…”
With Hakuya and Carla being the last to leave, Liscia and I were left alone in the room.
I picked up Liscia, who was frozen stiff.
Hey, she was pretty light. She did have a bit of muscle on her, but on the whole, she had a slender figure, so the weight difference between us made it easy for me to lift her up. When I sat her down on the simple bed that was sitting in the corner of the room like always, Liscia finally came back to her senses.
In the candlelight, we sat side by side on the bed, staring into one another’s eyes.
“U-Um, Souma? This means… what I think it does, right?” she asked with her face beet red.
My cheeks started to feel hot, too. “Uh… Yep. That was… kind of the intention…”
“O-Oh, I see…”
“…Can’t we?”
“No! It’s not that we can’t! I mean, I’ve been waiting for this…” Liscia hurriedly shook her head. Her words were trailing off and getting weaker, though. “B-B-But why now, all of a sudden? You held out on me so long.”
“Oh… Yeah, well… I was thinking I should wait until the kingdom’s more stable, until I was able to take responsibility for it, until we had gone through all the steps, but…”
Aw, geez, this was really embarrassing! I scratched the back of my head.
“But… When I saw Mary, and thought about how I want to be a person… I just couldn’t hold back any longer. I wanted… to act on a human impulse, and to have you accept me for it.”
“I–I see…”
That, and Maria’s words, “I want to remain a person, and to be loved as a person,” probably had an effect on me, too.
I wanted to be a person, and I wanted to love Liscia and the others as a person.
I wanted Liscia and the others to love me as a person.
I felt that way strongly, and I couldn’t hold back any more.
…Well, at a time like this, I wasn’t about to tell her that another woman’s words had that deep an effect on me, though.
“Um, but… having our first time in the governmental affairs office, it sure isn’t very sexy,” Liscia said, tripping over her words, as she folded her top which she had stripped off and set it aside so that it wouldn’t wrinkle.
I took off my shirt, too, and pulled Liscia who was now in nothing but her white underwear close to me.
Was I the one trembling, or was it her…? It might have been both of us. Neither of us were used to this, and we embraced each other awkwardly. We kissed once, and then…
“Well, do you want to take this somewhere else?” I whispered in Liscia’s ear.
When I did, Liscia grinned and silently shook her head. “No. Here is good. I mean, this is…”
…the place where you and I first met, after all.
“Nngh… Hm?” I murmured.
When the light shone in through the window and woke me, Liscia’s face was right in front of mine.
We were sharing a single pillow, so it was pretty close. She was sleeping peacefully.
With each shallow breath Liscia took, her soft chest rose and fell under the covers. Just the sight of her like this left me with an indescribable mixture of glee, embarrassment, and love, and I reached out to touch her cheek.
When I did, “Murgh…” Liscia twisted as if something was tickling her and then slowly opened her eyes.
She was probably still half-dreaming. She didn’t seem to know where she was, and she started looking around restlessly. Then she noticed my face right next to her own.
“Oh… Souma. Morning…” she said with a grin. It was a smile as gentle as the morning light that was shining in.
Her reaction was unbearably cute, so I hugged her close and placed a kiss on her half-closed left eyelid. Still groggy from sleep, Liscia let out a ticklish laugh.
“Geez, Souma, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Hmm, I’d love to keeping looking at you like this, but… Sorry, Liscia, get up, please.”
“…Huh?” she asked.
As I gave her a gentle shake, this time Liscia’s eyes opened fully. The moment her eyes snapped open, Liscia’s face turned red so quickly, I could almost hear the comedic exploding sound effect as it did. Most likely, when she’d gotten a handle on the current situation, all of her embarrassment had flared up at once. Of course, that included enough for last night, too.
I softly patted Liscia on the head. “Good morning, Liscia.”
“M-Morning. Ohh… Don’t look at me so much.”
“Don’t look at you? I saw a whole lot last— Mmph!”
Liscia shoved a pillow in my face.
“That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing!” she cried.
Liscia hugged the blanket to herself and glared at me kind of resentfully.
Yep, she sure was cute. I almost wanted to jump her right there. But instead, I just pushed the pillow aside and stretched.
“Yeah… I don’t think I ever want to do it in the governmental affairs office again.”
“…Why not?” she asked.
“Because this is our workplace, so I’ll have to ask them to clean up after us right away. I want to flirt with you more, and it’s a pain having to get up.”
“I–I see…”
I got out of bed and slipped on the clothes I had been wearing yesterday. I hadn’t brought a change of clothes, so I would have to go back to my room to get one.
After quickly getting dressed, I asked Liscia, “So… are you feeling okay?”
“Y-Yeah… I do feel a little sluggish, though…”
“Okay. Let me be the one who asks the maids to clean up, then.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Could you do that for me?”
I planted a kiss on Liscia’s forehead and then left the governmental affairs office.
When I left through the door, I was met by a red-faced Carla, who was averting her eyes, and a gently-smiling Serina. I understood why Carla was there, since she had been standing guard, but why Serina?
Serina showed a slight, impassive smile and said, “You two had fun last night.”
Wow… That line, when someone actually says it to you in real life, it’s really frustrating.
“…You’re up early, Head Maid,” I said.
“I am the princess’ personal maid, after all.” With that answer, which I wasn’t sure qualified as one, Serina gave me an elegant bow.
I thought, Oh, yeah, she’s definitely having fun with this… but I knew if I said anything, there would be three times as many verbal daggers coming my way, so I stayed silent. It was better to let sleeping sadists lie. If you could turn a blind eye to her bad habit for bullying cute girls, she was extremely competent at her work.