Chapter 151

The Princess (2)

“……So, Your Highness Milene.”

Noel spoke while releasing a chilling aura.

In front of her, Milene was kneeling, deliberately avoiding eye contact as she feigned ignorance.

As always, she was fully clad in heavy armor, making it difficult to read her expression. But from the way she was outright whistling on purpose, it was obvious she had no intention of properly engaging in the conversation……

“……Please focus over here.”

“…….”

“Are all the princesses in the Holy Crown Kingdom talented at making people’s lives difficult……?”

At Noel’s heartfelt question, which slipped out as she watched Milene persistently pretend not to hear, I broke into a cold sweat and responded with a sympathetic nod.

Well, she was still better than when Katya first came to visit, but it was undeniable that she was reckless enough to firmly cement that image Noel had just described.

“Well, I told Alester oppa everything properly before coming.”

“……Aren’t you someone with considerable standing within the Holy Crown Kingdom? Is it really acceptable for you to move about like this—”

“The ones who supported me were just people who banded together of their own accord because they disliked Alester oppa or Julius oppa. Now that it’s already been decided who the Pontiff is, no one pays any attention to me anymore.”

“…….”

“So if you’re worried about some kind of political backlash, there’s absolutely no need.”

As if she had prepared in advance, her sentences fell neatly into place one after another, leaving Noel momentarily speechless as she stared at Milene.

……It was true that there was nothing to refute.

If Alester, the current Pontiff, had permitted it, and there was no particular harm being caused, the Empire had no justification to refuse her entry.

They could fabricate one if they really tried, but with a new Pontiff having just taken office, there was no way they would want to create conflict over something this trivial.

Though to Noel, it was far from trivial.

“Let’s at least hear the reason. Why in the world did you do something like this?”

When Noel asked in a voice that sounded as though her will to live had plummeted straight down, Milene tilted her head.

Her expression seemed to ask why she was even being questioned about something so obvious.

“Why? Because there’s still something I have to finish, so I came.”

“……Excuse me?”

“That man.”

Her fingertip clearly pointed toward me.

With that single gesture, the uncomfortable pressure that had been lingering throughout the cabin since earlier seemed to intensify even further……

“He once told me he wanted to form a close relationship with me, but he slipped away without wrapping that up.”

“…….”

At the same moment a fierce flame ignited in Noel’s eyes, the air around the back of my neck rapidly turned icy.

“……So, you came barging in like this to advance that kind of relationship?”

“For now?”

As someone who had, just minutes ago, wondered why Noel tended to turn violent later on, I felt like beating myself up for ever having such a thought.

Why on earth had I been curious about something like that? Just witnessing a similar phenomenon unfolding right in front of me already made me want to die…….

“Honestly, could you maybe…….”

Grinding her teeth audibly, Noel shot me a glare.

“Stop seducing people so much……!”

“…….”

Hmm.

At this point, I honestly felt that making excuses would be even more shameless.

The ferocity blazing in her eyes was easily twice what it had been when Morrigan showed up before; it genuinely felt like my life was in imminent danger.

“-No, wait. Just a moment. Dame Noel. Her Highness Milene did say ‘for now.’ Let’s at least hear the rest.”

When I hurriedly threw those words out, Noel, fortunately, managed to seize the last fragment of her reason and took a deep breath, successfully calming herself.

As the atmosphere shifted to one where it seemed certain she wouldn’t immediately pull something out and smash it over my skull, Milene shrugged and continued.

“That man. From what I’ve seen, if someone’s nearby, he helps them without caring about the consequences.”

“……Mr. Aiden is kind of like that.”

“I’ve got something I want from him too. Princess Katya had such a troublesome issue, and he resolved it for her, didn’t he?”

By the time she finished that sentence, Noel’s expression began to soften slightly.

In other words.

Milene’s approach carried more of a calculated benefit than an emotional trigger toward me, and that nuance must have eased Noel’s mind…….

Still, unacceptable was unacceptable. Clearing her throat, Noel responded.

“……No. Even so, approaching like this is, in terms of propriety, a bit much—”

“I’m confident I can be of help.”

“…….”

“Even among royalty, I was treated as high-tier talent. No matter what happens, I’ll earn my keep.”

Well.

She would be helpful.

In terms of pure combat power, Noel or Katya far surpassed Milene, but Milene handled one of the most unusual forms of Holy Flame.

If I hadn’t copied her skill, there were sections during Act II where I would have struggled considerably.

‘……There are still more skills I can obtain.’

Like Alester and Julius, Milene was someone whose skills were highly valuable to copy, especially because she wielded a completely aberrant form of Holy Flame.

Considering how quickly the Main Story was progressing, the fact that she was approaching me of her own accord to raise Affection Level was, in any case, quite the favorable development…….

“……?”

Something felt off.

Originally, wasn’t Skill Copy something I obtained by raising other people’s Affection Level and extracting it from them?

Not the other way around, where someone approached me to raise my Affection Level.

“Hmm, well, it doesn’t look like he has much of a psychological resistance line anyway.”

“Excuse me?”

“Isn’t that man the type who doesn’t really have a limit when it comes to accepting women? Adding just one more like me wouldn’t cause any real prob—”

“……That’s seriously a misunderstanding.”

I had copied plenty of skills while mingling with men too. I would rather not be treated like some lunatic obsessed with women.

It just so happened that many of the ones I had to work on ended up being women…….

‘……This is completely backwards……?’

Since when had things started getting this twisted?

While I was staring off with distant eyes, lost in that thought, Milene showed no sign of stopping and kept pressing the accelerator all the way down.

“Misunderstanding or not, I’m saying I can do anything if it’s to get close to him.”

“……Excuse me?”

“Yeah, seriously. If it’s something that man wants, I’m willing to do anything.”

“…….”

As Noel’s expression darkened far more severely than before, the back of my neck also grew far more damp than before.

“……Anything, you say?”

Noel spoke with her crimson eyes gleaming as if she were about to devour someone, but Milene nodded coolly.

“Anything.”

“…….”

“I’m actually pretty open-minded.”

“…….”

“Why, I know the Empire is basically monogamous. But if you go through certain legal procedures properly, polygamy is entirely possible, from what I’ve hea—”

“……That’s not something I think we should be hearing from a princess.”

Noel cut in sharply, practically shooting lasers from her eyes, but Milene only looked at her as though she genuinely didn’t understand.

“……Your reaction’s kind of strange. What’s the problem?”

“What do you mean?”

At this point, it wasn’t just the back of my neck that was soaked—my entire spine felt like it was standing on end.

As thick beads of sweat now rolled down my forehead as well, Milene spoke again.

“It’s not just me. There aren’t only one or two other candidates aiming for him, you know?”

“…….”

“I mean, come on. He made a name for himself in the Empire, and he was that active in the Holy Crown Kingdom too. It would be stranger if he didn’t attract any attention.”

“Lionhearted, you know. I get that you’re engaged and think of yourself as his fiancée, but there are plenty of open-minded people in the world. There are women who don’t mind being the second or third of a truly outstanding man. Actually, there are quite a lot, right?”

“…….”

“If you look hard enough, you could probably find four or five. For a man like him, that is.”

“……No, Your Highness—”

“Everyone has the same eye for people.”

With an expression that seemed to question why something so obvious hadn’t been considered until now, Milene continued speaking matter-of-factly.

Even I hadn’t known she was capable of speaking this fluently.

“It’s obvious it’ll get harder and harder to protect him as time goes on. You still haven’t given up?”

“…….”

“You’d better stop thinking you’ll be the only wife. You’ll realize it the moment you return to the Empire.”

……Somehow.

The way this situation was unfolding didn’t feel normal.

▣

I had heard that it was customary to catch up when meeting a friend after a long time.

Meyer, who resided within the Mental World, was someone far above the level of a mere friend, but still, catching up was necessary.

“……That’s what happened.”

“…….”

Meyer looked at me with a sullen expression.

“No, things were an absolute mess over here, and you’re giving me that look?”

“If the first thing you say after showing up for the first time in a while is basically bragging about how you’re struggling because you’re so popular, who’s going to sincerely sympathize with that?”

“…….”

It wasn’t that I was popular. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it romantic misfortune?

At the very least, the fact that Noel had been sitting there seriously contemplating something afterward wasn’t a good sign for me. And considering how Milene had practically warned me that I’d be swept up in romantic trouble, it was even worse.

‘……Well, Katya can’t really be helped.’

On that point, I had no intention of backing down.

Two, I could somehow manage.

Yes, somehow.

At the very least, in the sense of taking responsibility for those within my fence, I believed that those two were beyond mere romance or affection—I had to take responsibility for them.

I considered them family, in the sense of maintaining a relationship to the end, person to person.

If I put in superhuman effort, maybe I could manage.

But three?

Four? Five?

“…….”

Just kill me instead.

I was human too. I was fully aware that it would be impossible to return equal feelings to that many people.

‘……Honestly.’

Everyone kept saying something close to prophecy—that I would end up with multiple wives.

But at the very least, I had no intention of doing that. Not now.

“Right. It’s good to have constructive concerns about your family environment.”

As Meyer said that, he glanced sideways.

“……But shouldn’t you deal with that first?”

Following his gaze, I let out a dry laugh.

Anyone would probably have the same reaction upon seeing a man repeatedly slamming his forehead against the floor of the Mental World with deathly determination.

It was a space where one revived no matter how many times one died, so it wasn’t exactly achieving any meaningful result.

“Who’s that, and why is he doing that over there?”

“He’s the strongest wielder of Holy Flame in nearly a hundred years.”

“……Why is he acting like that?”

“He died while acting all cool, and now he’s too embarrassed to face the person he said those lines to.”

This was quite a rare experience.

After all, it wasn’t often that you got to witness someone who genuinely ‘wanted to die from embarrassment.’

“……Your Holiness. Please come over and sit.”

With a sigh, I called out to him.

“We have a lot to discuss about Katya.”

And that wasn’t a lie. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

At least, based on what I had observed.

“……There’s something strange about you.”

Abigail III, who had been smashing his head against the floor, finally turned toward us.