"...Sirius-sama, where were you?"

When I came back to my room, Cecil asked me with a slightly sullen look.

Well, we\'ve been spending a lot of time together lately.

"I had a little thing to do. Cecil, why don\'t we go out for a bit?"

"... Understood. I\'ll call Shalltear."

"No, just the two of us this time."

Even though Cecil was surprised by those words, she nodded happily.

So now.

Cecil and I were walking together in the royal capital.

"Cecil, what do you want to eat?"

"... I\'ll leave it to Sirius-sama."

"Well, then, I know a delicious stall, let\'s go there." 

The two of us naturally hold hands and walk together.

"... Sirius-sama is bold today."

"Do you hate it like this?"

"... If I didn\'t like it, I would have shaken you off."

Even if we walk hand in hand like this, don\'t we still look like brothers and sisters?

That might be the case with Cecil and Shalltear.

Even with Philia, there is a high possibility that we can be seen as good brothers and sisters.

In our territory, they treat us as fiancés and married couples, but it\'s hard to say that it will be the case elsewhere.

Well, eventually I\'ll become a nice handsome man......It will be difficult, but I will eventually become a bitter adult man.

...... Huh? That\'s not it?

No, I don\'t know what the future holds.

Yeah, anything can happen.

But I will not give up hope.

"Hey, Cecil. Can I ask you something?"

"…… What?"

“You said that you wanted to be by my side…… it wasn\'t a lie, right?”

"...? Of course, that\'s why I\'m here now."

"I see……"

I gently touch Cecil\'s eyepatch and take it off to look at her beautiful gold.

Even though she was surprised by my actions, Cecil turned her golden eyes toward me.

Looking into Cecil\'s eyes, I conveyed my thoughts in simple words.

"I like you"

"..."

"I want you to be my fiancé."

"……Really?"

"I don\'t tell lies"

I took it out of my pocket.

Cecil\'s is a yellow ring made by processing a thunder magic stone, the magic stone of the previous Thunder Tiger.

It is perfect to convey my sincerity.

"This engagement ring, Can you accept it?"

"...Sirius-sama, my eyes."

"It\'s beautiful, isn\'t it? So?"

"... You see, I have the same eyes as my mother."

"I see"

I see, the eye is inherited from her mother.

I think it\'s a good gift.

While I was thinking that, Cecil slowly told me about her eye.

She went through many things because of that one eye.

When she first used dark magic, her father hated it and burned her eye.

She wanted her eye injury to be healed because it is the only thing she got from her beloved mother and that injury always reminds her of what happened to her father.

After I finished listening to everything, she asked, "...are you okay even with that...?", with a slightly uneasy expression.

I don\'t care...

"That\'s right, I like Cecil."

I wish I could say many things, but unfortunately, I have only customer service experience, and I don\'t know how to console women.

That\'s why it\'s best to tell straight without hiding what I think.

Thereupon, Cecil had tears in her eyes for a brief second, and then she smiled and said.

"... I\'m a little dull, but... I am looking forward to being with you forever..."

"Yeah, I will be in your care."

I put the engagement ring on her left ring finger.

――At that point, applause erupted from around us.

It seems that we were attracting a lot of attention.

For the time being, no one should know that I am the third prince because I am wearing a ring of dazzle.

However, such a public proposal... to think, I did something this bold on my own.

As for Cecil who semmed to have just figured it out, she is a little embarrassed, but she is still smiling happily.

"...Sirius-sama."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"... right now, I have nothing to give back. So... forgive me with this."

After saying that, Cecil kissed my cheek.

“… For the lips, Philia-sama needs to be the first… so, it will do with this.”

Come to think of it, Cecil is older than me.

Maybe that is why she can give a quick response like this. 

And probably because of my zero experience with women, just this kiss on the cheek makes my heart pound.

Besides, I wonder if thinking of Philia first is her idea and how things will go from now on?

In any case, I am relieved that she accepted the marriage proposal even if it is from a child like me.

If the other person says, "I would like  to wait for when you ate a little older," or something like that, it would not have been that surprising.

In the first place, there is a high chance of not even being taken seriously by the other party and being brushed off with  a sentence like ""I\'m sorry, I have a crush on someone."

...Did I experience it?

I didn\'t even had the chance to do it because social slaves aren\'t allowed to freely fall in love.

In my second life, I was traumatized by the princess, and my heart was broken on our first night.

You can say it was just a torture.

And I want to praise myself for being able to overcome the trauma from that one time.

That\'s how I am, but the kiss on my cheek just now was amazing, and I realized again that my affection for Cecil was genuine.