“Ca-can I hug you?!”

“I-I don’t know, but I think now is the right time! I’m with you on that!”

After that incident, we were walking through the courtyard in silence, and I felt that our steps were getting faster and faster.

As we strode with familiar steps through the courtyard of the royal castle, which seemed to be a fusion of various types of gardens, we unconsciously found ourselves heading toward a place where we felt at ease.

Faster and faster, I’m not sure if this can still be called fast walking. The next thing I knew, I was collapsing into the ivy-tangled secret base as if I were diving in.

We were both panting and gasping, breathing out roughly and feeling the sweat pouring out of us.

Perhaps his breathing has calmed down, Mika suddenly said something like that, and I agreed to it.

Even though it was midsummer, Mika’s hand went around my spine where a chill ran down it, and then he hugged me tightly. I would have been nervous normally, but now I was simply relieved to feel Mika’s warmth spreading around me.

I was scared.

It was an unbelievable sight. I still don’t even know if that’s true yet. Still, the purple wind that Vivienne mentioned… I saw with my own eyes how it suddenly enveloped Brother Vincent, although the real thing was more light-purple-ish and soft than I had expected.

Mika said.

“What was that…?! That wind was a color I’d never seen before.”

“I thought that it was beautiful, but eh? It will increase this sensation even further?”

“No, we were so far away, there’s no way we got affected by it… Damn, seriously?

I can feel Mika’s back going up and down in my hand, and then I wrapped my hand around it as quickly as I could.

I can feel Mika’s heart beating rapidly. But surely it wasn’t just because we were walking at a fast pace. I think Mika must have been feeling scared too.

Although I had not yet confirmed that it was really the kind of magic that could manipulate others at will, I could no longer doubt Vivienne’s words.

As I was being tormented by a sense of frustration that led nowhere, I heard Mika’s voice whisper in my ear.

“No, obviously I felt suspicious of that. His Highness Vincent was clearly behaving strangely, and I thought that she was a dangerous woman…but still!

“Y-you! Weren’t you skeptical about Baroness Tessier and Vivienne’s story?”

“Well, of course! Who would believe a story like that? But!”

“……T-then Brother Vincent was…really being manipulated…?”

Mika’s hands become tighter as he hugs me. I heard Mika mutter quietly, “I thought she was just taking advantage of his weakness,” and the serious tone of his voice seemed to speak directly to the graveness of the situation, sending shivers down my spine.

My internal organs seem to have frozen, and I feel that my breathing is becoming strange. I breathe in too much and my normal breathing becomes disturbed. As I rested my head against Mika to cling to him, his hand slowly stroked my back.

“Hold on, Nagi. Calm down and think about it for a moment. Breathe out for now.”

“Haa, haa…haa.”

As my body felt like it was about to have a spasm, I tried to slowly exhale for now. A warm hand gently crawled up my back as if to tell me it’ll be okay.

It was certainly fortunate that we happened to see a sight like that.

I have to stay calm, yes, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, it’s okay. It will be okay…I try to think that way.

But— as one would expect, I was panicking!

“N-no way! How can I calm down?!”

“I get it. I know how you’re feeling. That’s why we ended up hugging each other in this old secret base. That was scary.”

“Y-yeah! T-th-that was really scary, right?! Did you see Brother Vincent’s face? I’ve never seen him make such a soft expression on his face.”

“Ughh… It becomes even scarier if I think of that. That was creepy…”

The look on Brother Vincent’s face when he said that Baroness Tessier was “adorable” seemed like he was truly feeling happy. Certainly, he made a strange pause for a moment, as if he was about to remember something.

While still feeling my shoulders going up and down, I still try to think a little bit.

He had no intention of executing Vivienne. He wasn’t even going to swap out his fiancée. But he seemed a little troubled that Baroness Tessier cried and asked him for it. But just when he was about to remember something, Baroness Tessier appeared from the bushes.

I heard Mika mutter in a small voice, “Is that her unique magic too?” in an exasperated tone.

That’s right— I remember what Vivienne told me.

“There is no magic without blind spots. Even if it’s unique magic.”

Mika nodded his head at my words, and after a pause, perhaps thinking about something, he spoke up.

“……Well. She showed up with that timing, and she cast a spell as soon as she couldn’t see us. Maybe there’s a limit to its effectiveness.”

“Should we try to get rid of her physically…? I’m sure there are a lot of people who don’t think well of Baroness Tessier, even those in the second prince faction.”

“No, Nagi. Think about it. Our enemy is not Baroness Tessier. We have to think about what’s in the best interest of our future and act accordingly.”

As Mika told me so, I returned to my senses.

It couldn’t be a good thing to get rid of Baroness Tessier. My goal is to prevent the execution of Brother Seth. Then, to protect the country after my execution.

I have to think calmly.

(The fact that Brother Vincent is leaning towards a Baroness isn’t so bad from the first prince faction’s point of view. We need to make sure we don’t misjudge when to cut Baroness Tessier away…)

Mika seemed to be pondering something as well, and he remained motionless with his chin on my shoulder for a while.

For example, if we were to let go of Baroness Tessier now, it’s not as if Brother Vincent would be thanking us, and the conflict would remain the same.

Besides, depending on how we let go of Baroness Tessier, we could be letting her off the hook. Also, if Rubrum is behind her, she will just unleash a different move.

(Then I’d rather be dealing with Baroness Tessier, who has a little more information.)

We were silent to each other for a while. Maybe Mika was also thinking about something.

Then, after a while, Mika gave me a final hug and his warmth quickly left me. Hm? Mika looked into my face, his hand gently placed on my left cheek. Being stared at by those jade eyes, after all this time I suddenly remembered what position I was in. Heat quickly gathered in my face.

“You were dancing.”

“What?”

“……Well, you seemed like you had a lot of fun dancing.”

“………….What?”

No, what is he talking about? That’s what I thought.

I looked at Mika questioningly, wondering why he was suddenly talking about the time I danced, when all this time he had been shaking with fear after the frightening experience. However, with his hand on my left cheek, Mika’s hard thumb touches my puckered lower lip and pushes it down softly.

I remembered that he also had done this to me before.

Just like that, he slowly traced my lips, and I couldn’t help but—

“Ngh-”

Mika’s thumb, which had twitched suddenly stopped moving. Blinking his eyes, he asked in a surprised voice, “Does this mean you’re feeling it with only that just now?” What position I am in, who did what to me, and what have I done to myself? The information flows through my mind one by one.

I was so embarrassed that I pushed back Mika’s chest with a thud while blushing bright red.

“W-what are you doing!”

“Huh… Well, it just kind of bothers me when you’re close to me.”

“W-wh-what is?”

“Because when I touched it the other day, it was soft.”

The strange logic that I couldn’t even begin to understand made my shoulders shake while I’m still turning red. Don’t play with me! As I screamed like that, suddenly there was something behind Mika. I thought I saw something in this hollow, ivy-twined, space between the thin trees.

Huh? And then I stopped moving.

It was then that our gazes and eyes intertwined.

“Uwaaa!”

“Eh, whoa! What?!”

Perhaps because he was too at ease in a secret base that no one knew about, or maybe he was too upset to sense the presence of others, but Mika also screamed along with me.

Large crimson eyes are peeking through the ivy.

(……Hm? Crimson…? …Wait.)

I saw her blinking crimson eyes narrow like a crescent moon, and I shouted.

“Hey, Vivienne! What the hell are you doing here?!”

“What, you ask? Listen to me, Your Highness Nagi. I just realized something amazing. Could it be that Your Highness Nagi and Mika are a prince and a knight, on top of the different statuses, you’re also childhood friends, and then perhaps this place is your secret base??!!! In modern Japan, it would be inside a playground in a park or an abandoned house, this place is like a sanctuary for just the two of you!! A place where only you two know and meet in secret! A place full of memories! In this place where your feelings become mutual! In this place! It must have happened! Your bodies eventually tie together and-”

“—Excuse me. My sister has lost her self-control.”

I thought I saw a pair of red-colored eyes, a little paler than Vivienne’s, peeking out from behind me. Then I heard Tillois’ low voice that sounded as if a deceased person had risen from hell. I can hear Vivienne’s muffled voice as if her mouth is being held down. Wait, even Tillois is here!　What is he doing in a place like this?! I turned even redder.

(D-do-do-don’t tell me… they saw us earlier…?!?)

I was so flustered that I ended up opening and closing my mouth, I didn’t know what to do. However, as if ignoring me, Vivienne quickly found a hard-to-see, foliage-laden entrance from above, and peeked her head inside.

Then she wound up talking terribly fast.

“You mustn’t know. You probably don’t know about this! There are many cases where the receiving one is slow after all! But I’ll explain it to you. Listen. Your Highness Nagi. Anyway, take a big breath of air for now. Don’t exhale. Let all that air soak into your body and fill you up. Do you understand? Just inhale a lot of air! Yes! Inhale with me!!”

“In-inhale? W-what are you inhaling? This is…”

Vivienne took a deep breath and puffed out her chest. Her eyes lit up, with a dreamy look on her face as if she were about to ascend to heaven. Then she stretched out her hands wide below, and said.

“The jealousy…of a handsome guy.”

“What?” “What?” “What?”

“Especially the one directed towards me.”

The three men had no idea what Vivienne wanted or what she was trying to do, but only recognized that she was doing something crazy that they would never understand.

Vivienne stretched out her hands and slowly collapsed back onto the grass behind her, then she softly closed her eyes.

“……This is…the best…”