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Translator: Nonon
Proofreader: Silavin
“You feel happy when you’re with her, huh… that’s a feeling I cannot understand.”
Hearing my words, His Highness muttered, an expression of reminiscing about a distant past on his face.
His Highness’ image of Lady Violet is so different from mine, that he cannot seem to reconcile the two.
“… I cannot fall in love with her.”
After a moment of silence, His Highness muttered, not as a sarcastic remark, but as if he was venting his feelings.
‘Cannot fall in love with her’. Perhaps this means that he was also aware of Lady Violet’s feelings towards him. Nevertheless, he still could not fall in love with her…
“Is it because she forced her ideals of how a royalty ought to be on you?”
“That’s right.”
“You wanted somebody equal to you.”
“That’s right.”
“… However, you have no intentions of running away from your life as royalty, right”
“… You’re right.”
In the finals of the first year division, His Highness received some heartfelt words from Ms. Mary. It was ‘I want to be equals with you’, words that were also important in Ring of Fire and changed His Highness’ feelings. Those words woke up His Highness, who had been tired of living a life as royalty, and had given up finding an equal somewhere deep in his heart.
“… Have you ever heard the saying ‘we lose three-quarters of who we are in order to become like others’?”
“… No, I am afraid I am not very knowledgeable about it.”
His Highness asked me while looking out of a nearby window and remembering something from the past. Unfortunately, I had never heard those words, so I honestly denied it.
“Mary told me. She said it was a quote from some philosopher. Strong people do not lament their fates, do not run away from ‘themselves’ and ‘the world’, and they do not abandon themselves.”
Ms. Mary’s words… or rather, the words of someone from her previous life. If those were the words of a philosopher from that world, His Highness would most likely be familiar with it.
In other words, that means—
“Your Highness, are you saying that you had been abandoning yourself in order to live as royalty, and Lady Violet was encouraging you to do it?”
I’ve heard that His Highness underwent a similarly strict… but a different kind of education than Lady Violet, to live as royalty.
There were times when he would sneak out to play with Chartreuse and Ash, but it became increasingly difficult, and the ‘way of living’ expected of him was not what he wanted.
In short, in order to satisfy the citizens he did not even know, he had no choice but to live as a symbol of royalty and kill his real self.
And he despised Lady Violet, who forced him to kill that part of himself.
“That’s right… but Mary said to me in the earlier match, that I was the one who refused to look at others. The citizens, my parents, teachers, friends… and, Violet… Heartfield, after listening to your words, I don’t know what to forgive anymore.”
… Come to think of it, even when Ecul confronted me, His Highness seemed vigilant, but he was not hostile. I was so angry at the time, I could not see him as anything but the enemy though. Maybe he already had some doubts at that time.
“If you feel guilty about having her expelled, it was not my intention to make you feel that way.”
“I know. I’m just saying that I may have closed off my own world, and lamented how boring it was in my little box garden.”
Wow, how very much like a fairy tale~
… This is no time to be making fun of him. If everything is going like Ring of Fire, she’s progressed on his route quite a lot, and if things are going according to Ms. Mary’s route expectations, His Highness’ views must have changed in his own way.
“I still can’t forgive what Violet did yet, but after hearing you out and seeing that Violet has an ally like you, I’ve decided that I should talk with her instead of being against her.”
… If he really started to feel that way even a little after hearing me out, that’s great.
If he’s looking for a dialogue rather than a confrontation, then-
“In other words, you want to…”
Maybe His Highness wants to–
“Yeah, first I’ll meet up with Mary. Then I’ll also wear a mask and talk with Violet, after which Mary, you guys and I will dance together with the moon as the backdrop, and I’ll confess to Mary in the venue!”
“Is that so? I see… I… see?”
Huh, that’s strange.
I was agreeing until halfway through, but I couldn’t understand the ending.
“Please wait, you jumped so far ahead that something seemed a bit odd.”
“I would rather Violet apologize to Mary, the biggest victim, instead of me. I won’t budge on this.”
“Fine, I guess I can understand that. But why wear a mask?”
“It looked like Mary was wearing that mask willingly. In that case, I want to share what she likes. By putting on masks, Mary and I will get to be of one mind, following which we will have a dialogue with you and Violet to get to know each other. After our conversation, a good time should have passed. After getting to know each other, we will dance together on the side of the party venue where the noise will become distant, and will get together with my confession… yeah, that’s a good scenario.”
“Sounds like a story from a crazy world.”
Yeah, I could understand him up to the point where he demanded an apology first.
That’s why I’m currently helping by setting up a place for Lady Violet and Ms. Mary to talk.
Even if he does confess, there are a lot of issues to consider, like how to deal with issues like the difference in social status, confessing at the party where his former fiancée has been invited, and what he’ll do about the aftermath in the noble circle later on.
And is Ms. Mary even capable of accepting a confession in her current state?
“Lady Violet might not have sorted out her feelings fully. There is a chance she could be mentally unstable in front of Your Highness, so I would appreciate it if you could avoid adding any worrying variables like the mask…”
Besides, that mask was simply something Ms. Mary made in a hurry, after coming up with an unreasonable decision like ’I’ll wear the mask that Kriemhild made before to hide my face!’ for some reason. It’s not like she did it because she liked masks.
“Don’t tell me… she still has feelings for me…!?”
“… Why would you jump to that conclusion?”
“When you said she hasn’t sorted out her feelings, it probably meant that Violet still hasn’t let go of her feelings for me. And you’re worried that those feelings might surpass the spousal love between you two, aren’t you?”
“Are you looking for a fight?”
Oops, I accidentally blurted out what I was actually thinking.
I’m certainly worried that she might still have feelings for His Highness, but that wasn’t what I meant when I said she had to sort out her feelings.
“I’m not picking a fight with you. But it’s true that she has made a lot of effort to be worthy of me.”
…This guy is annoying me. He’s full of himself, but I’m angry that he’s so good looking I’m almost convinced by what he’s saying.
“Love cannot be erased so easily. Four months can’t beat a decade… Sorry for that.”
“You are picking a fight with me, as expected.”
“Why would you think that?”
“I can’t hear your words as anything but provocation.”
…Could it be that the reason I was being hostile towards His Highness was simply because I was jealous of the fact that the beauty of Lady Violet, whom I cherish, was polished for His Highness’ sake?
“Unfortunately for you, we have already sworn to support each other forever. I gave her an engagement ring and Lady Violet accepted it while smiling.”
“What are you talking about, you guys have barely even touched each other.”
“I don’t want to hear those words from Your Highness, who’s attracted to a woman who’s constantly being hit on.”
“Are you mocking Mary? It’s only natural that a lot of people would be attracted to Mary, who’s like a saint. Even though I’ve preached about love we’d shared up until now, it didn’t reach the philanthropic Mary! So I’m going to confess to her and ask her to become my Queen!”
“Please don’t say something so pathetic so boldly! In other words, even though you came onto her hard, she evaded you skillfully and you haven’t become romantically involved!”
“Uuu… guh… you’re right but…! But you don’t have any development after becoming a married couple, do you? You sure have guts talking to me about romance when you can’t even kiss your wife!”
“Guh… uuu… I can’t deny it, but physical contact isn’t everything! The time we spend together as Family is also important!”
“You wimp! — Ha, no way, Heartfield! Are you saying that you fell in love with Mary?!”
“You’ve jumped over too many conclusions. How could you even think that up!?”
“”You were held in Mary’s arms! You even spent time alone with her during the match and in the infirmary! There’s no way a wimp like you wouldn’t be attracted to Mary after interacting with her!”
“Too bad for you! I’m very happy to be married to Lady Violet! I’m so happy, so there’s no way I would be attracted to her! It’s too late for you even if you ask for your engagement to be reinstated!”
“I won’t ask for it, so do as you please! I want to be with Mary! Because Mary is incomparably better and a wonderful person than Violet!
“Lady Violet is more attractive!”
“Are you picking a fight with me!?”
“You’re the one picking a fight, Your Highness!”
“Alright, come outside!”
“Yeah, let’s go outside!”
We yelled at each other and grabbed each other by the collar.
This would normally get me executed for lèse majesté, but rather than worry about that, I was more annoyed by His Highness.
Unlike that jerk Carmine, I had no killing intent, but I was so angry that I wanted to punch him.
—–
Author’s note:
※His Highness is like this in this chapter, but he’s usually quite composed.
Silavin: I press X to doubt Author, X to doubt…
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