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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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When given a little space, Miragen seemed to have recovered from her earlier flush.
She rubbed her face, then formed a triangle with her hands and peeked at me through the gap.
It was something she used to do often in the past, but was it really that embarrassing?
Miragen might not remember, but she tended to be quite forward with the person she loved.
Of course, that was when they were officially a couple.
Now that they were nothing to each other, she was probably just feeling shy.
Anyway, seeing Miragen like this was a somewhat novel experience for me.
Even though I had seen this scene more than ten times, Miragen always showed new reactions.
When I smiled, Miragen frowned and glared at me.
Her rolling eyes paused for a moment, and then her mouth opened hesitantly.
“This might be an impertinent question, but have you had many relationships with women?”
“I didn’t expect that to be your first question, but I’ve only been with one person in my life.”
“…I know you had a fiancée. Hah, I’m just surprised.”
I quickly understood what she was surprised about, so I just smiled without saying anything.
What I had just done was slightly crossing the line.
Maybe it was because I was remembering the past a little.
Getting angry but then calming down when I saw her face.
I wondered if I was a bit foolish too.
“I was just teasing a bit. Because I was a little angry.”
“I don’t usually talk about this much, but I am a princess. You remember that, right?”
“I remember, but do you want me to treat you like a princess?”
At that question, Miragen hesitated for a moment and then shook her head slightly.
She probably thought this kind of relationship wasn’t bad.
I felt the same way.
I could treat Miragen with the formality due to a princess, but if I really did that, I thought it would just make me feel uncomfortable.
Anyway, it was time to hear her reasons.
What relic had she come to find, why had she secretly left the imperial palace?
Thinking she wouldn’t have come without any precautions, I asked, and fortunately, Miragen explained the various measures she had put in place.
“First, I created a doppelganger of myself.”
“A doppelganger…?”
“As you know, I have many friends in the Magic Tower. If I ask the magicians, creating my doppelganger is simple. Since I’m supposed to stay in my room during the house arrest period anyway. There’s no need to make it move around much.”
“What do you think His Majesty the Emperor would do if he heard about this?”
“The others will handle that well. He doesn’t come to see me that often anyway, and he’s been quite busy lately.”
Come to think of it, it was a busy time for the imperial palace.
Was it when the Emperor and the Crown Prince were seriously discussing territorial expansion?
Taking advantage of such a gap to personally come to the south, I couldn’t understand where Miragen’s courage came from.
“You won’t tell me about the relic if I ask, will you?”
“No, I can tell you, but the problem is that I haven’t fully grasped it yet.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“It’s one of the candidate locations. I originally planned to keep moving with magicians, but… I guess it would be difficult for me to move alone now.”
I silently watched Miragen as she glanced at me.
It was an obvious point.
I was already shocked that Miragen had come here, did she think I would let her move around alone?
The magicians could be used when she returned, but at least while she was in the south, I felt I needed to keep an eye on her, if only for my peace of mind.
When I stared at her, Miragen flinched slightly and then spoke while rubbing her arm.
“You’re not thinking of watching over me the whole time, are you?”
“It seems like everyone’s learned mind-reading lately.”
“Everyone? Well, Adriana has always been good at reading people’s hearts.”
“I was talking about Adele. We’ll meet her soon anyway.”
Miragen nodded at the mention of Adele, then paused and stared at me blankly.
I wondered if there had been any problem in our conversation just now.
As I pondered this, I realized the issue with Miragen’s next words and let out a small laugh.
“You’re calling the Grand Duchess by her name?”
“…Ah, it just happened that way.”
“I’m envious that you’ve made so many friends while I wasn’t aware. Adriana, and now Adele too. They came here with you, right?”
It was the same when I thought about it in my head, but now I was calling them by name even when we were alone, so it seemed to have slipped out.
I didn’t think I needed to make excuses.
It wasn’t something that needed to be hidden, and what was the big deal about calling someone by their name?
It was just evidence that we had become closer.
However, Miragen seemed to think it was somewhat special, as she stared at me intently for a moment and said,
“Will you call me by my name once?”
“Your Highness.”
“…You won’t call me by my name?”
“As you said earlier, you are a princess, aren’t you?”
Strictly speaking, Adriana was also a saint and Adele was even a Grand Duchess, but neither they nor I cared much about such positions.
However, it was certainly a contradictory feeling.
Trying to distance myself, yet feeling satisfied with getting closer to each other.
Even though I knew it had to stop someday, I couldn’t decide when that would be.
“Well, I think it’s uncomfortable to keep calling you ‘Lord’ forever.”
When I raised my head at the sudden voice, Miragen was saying that while trembling slightly as if embarrassed.
Was she bothered by the fact that I was calling others by their names?
Well, she had always been the type to make a big deal out of small things, but it seemed she was now starting to want to call me by my name too.
“From now on, it’s okay to call me by my name. It might be different in the imperial palace, but isn’t it uncomfortable for both of us to address each other as ‘Lord’ and ‘Princess’ when we’re outside like this?”
“I don’t find it particularly uncomfortable.”
“…Oh, I thought it was uncomfortable.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her fumbling when she was at a loss for words.
Calling Miragen by her name might be quite difficult for me.
While calling someone by their name wasn’t a difficult thing, Miragen was… a special person in many ways.
The problem was that I had often called her by name in the past.
If I hadn’t had much experience with that, I would have called her without hesitation, but the name ‘Miragen’ was a name that made me recall too many things.
For example, memories I didn’t want to remember.
Anyway, I didn’t want to call Miragen by her name right now.
After a little more time passed, when my mind had calmed down somewhat.
Then it might be okay to call her by her name.
What was certain was that it wasn’t now.
When I kept calling her ‘Your Highness’ until the end, Miragen pouted her lips as if displeased.
I was a bit curious about how she would react if I called her by name later.
Would she be embarrassed, or would she accept it naturally, saying it was about time I called her that?
Of course, knowing Miragen, she would probably pretend to be fine on the outside while being extremely embarrassed on the inside.
I think that was what I liked about her when we were together.
Well, that was just how it was when she and I were lovers.
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When Adriana saw Miragen, she started pouring out her anger just as I had intended to do.
As she asked if Miragen was in her right mind and why she had come to this dangerous place, Adele looked slightly interested.
“It seems she gets angry sometimes too.”
“They’re friends. She seems to be more comfortable with friends.”
“Has she ever gotten angry at you?”
“Well, I haven’t done anything to make her angry.”
Adriana tended to be particularly comfortable with Miragen.
I thought it was probably because they were friends from childhood, but seeing her angry was very unexpected even for me.
I smiled slightly as I watched Miragen cowering before Adriana.
The sight of a princess being scolded by a saint, where else could you see such a scene but here?
“So you really came for the relic? You knew it was dangerous, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry. But there were records, so I couldn’t not try. Right?”
“Knowing I was here, you could have just asked me.”
“Would the church just sit by and watch? If the imperial family did it, they couldn’t say much.”
It was amusing to hear her say such things to the saint, who represented the church, but Adriana valued Miragen more than the church.
It was admirable that she worried more about Miragen even after hearing such words.
I thought that kind of heart was a big reason why she was the saint.
Usually, when becoming friends with Miragen, one would think about using her.
In the past, when I was in a relationship with Miragen, I had asked her to introduce me to Adriana.
I thought meeting the saint might provide another solution, and I remember Miragen agonized quite a bit over that request.
I learned later that the main reason was that Adriana didn’t want to, but I think Miragen and Adriana became friends like that because they were similar to each other.
Adele just quietly watched the two of them.
She didn’t have friends in that kind of relationship.
Although she had subordinates like Bunta and Lothos, those were relationships of colleagues and subordinates, not equal relationships like this.
She might be envious deep down.
Since Adele’s inner thoughts were always difficult to grasp accurately, there was no way to know unless I asked her directly.
“So, do we have to stay here?”
Adele turned her gaze towards the surrounding paladins.
It was correct to set up a base here, but there was some free time while the other priests and paladins investigated the magicians.
In other words, it meant we could move around this area a bit.
I was also interested in the relic Miragen had mentioned.
Although it wasn’t the relic I needed to secure, I thought it was natural to be interested since I had used relics myself.
“I plan to ride around in the carriage. There are various places in the deep south besides this tower, aren’t there?”
“Then I should go too. This is troublesome.”
“If you really feel that way, you don’t have to come. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
When I said that, Adele laughed as if exasperated for a moment, then shook her head and moved her lips.
“I told you earlier. I feel uneasy if I don’t keep you in sight.”
As she said that, her gaze still rested on Miragen and Adriana, who were together.
Miragen, who had been one-sidedly scolded until just now, was now just smiling, probably talking about something else.
Her gaze as she looked at them was a bit cold, so Adele blinked for a moment and muttered softly.
“…But I can’t let you go alone either.”
“Then I guess we’ll all go together.”
Adriana was with us from the start since I had followed her.
Of course, I had no intention of leaving Miragen alone, and since Adele had said she would come too, the four of us would have to move together.
As we walked towards the carriage like that, Adele suddenly opened her mouth looking at me.
“By the way, how will we sit in the carriage?”
I thought it was a trivial question and was about to open my mouth, but I felt my words getting stuck in my throat at the gazes pouring on me.
Miragen, who had been talking with Adriana, looked at me.
Clearly Adriana, who couldn’t see, and Adele too.
They were all just staring at me blankly, as if waiting for my answer.
In that subtle silence, as I blinked my eyes for a moment, Adele smiled gently and asked again.
“I’m curious about your thoughts. How do you think we should sit?”
Through many regressions, I thought I had found answers to many questions.
I had figured out solutions to what were called difficult problems, and I thought I had reached a certain level of wisdom in my own way.
But it seemed that might have been my misunderstanding.
I couldn’t easily open my mouth to this difficult problem in front of me.
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