...Maybe I'll do this for her again sometime, I thought.
By the way, Aisha's voice had been heard outside while we were doing that, so
one of the maids who passed by at the time started a rumor that, "His Majesty and
Madam Aisha were [censored] in his room." When he heard, Chamberlain Marx
declared, "At last, we'll have an heir," and danced for joy.
On the other hand, when Liscia, Juna, and Roroa heard the rumor, they told me
off, saying, "Hey, that's not the right order!" (If I was going to start laying my hands
on them, Liscia, as candidate to be my first primary queen, should have been first.)
Thankfully, Aisha had explained the situation, so I was spared their wrath, but it
was an incident that showed me if I neglected any of my future queens, the others
would get angry, too.
Naturally, I had no intention of mistreating any of them, but... it was something to
keep firmly in mind.
Evening.
Having done paperwork in the morning and afternoon, I invited Liscia who had
been helping me to finally come take a break with me, and we were enjoying
afternoon tea.
Every day was a battle with my heavy responsibilities as king, so just being able
to relax with Liscia and have aimless conversations like this was fun.
During our conversation, something weird came up, just like with my earlier
encounters with Roroa and Aisha today. After we finished talking about everything
that came to mind, Liscia nodded as if she was satisfied about something.
"I see... Those two are putting it to use right away, huh."
"Putting what to use?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself." Liscia played it off with a vague smile.
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 postshow 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.