“You would never understand; you don’t love anyone.” His words immediately invaded my brain.
Over my dead body!
“Well, good afternoon.” I smiled, elegantly walking away.
I’m gonna find a decent man if it kills me! I vowed firmly in my heart.
Luckily, I’d said they would meet him “soon.” Just vague enough that I still had time.
I had a few days…and if I avoided my brother like the plague, I could probably buy myself a whole month.
A man… A man! I know a place where I can come and go freely and that’s also full of men!
I wandered quite a bit away from the hallway where my brother and Sil were. I turned and looked behind me.
“We’re going to the training grounds.”
“Yes, Princess,” my bodyguard answered with a bow.
He had been in my shadow all this time, even when I’d had that interaction with my brother and his boyfriend. He always masked his presence, so it really was like he wasn’t even there. Sometimes I even forgot I was being guarded!
Since I was a princess, it was regulation for me to always have a bodyguard in my company, even inside the castle walls. And the bodyguards of royalty were always handsome and intelligent. But I cycled through them rather quickly.
And why was that, you may ask? Because these bodyguards would always fall in love with some guy and move away! And a princess’s bodyguard was particularly vulnerable to this, since his work hours were long.
As Octavia…my first love was one of my bodyguards. His name was Gray. I still remember him, even after all this time. He was kind, strong, handsome—I mean, could you blame me for falling for him?
But my first love tragically withered away. I guess you could call that my true initiation into the BL world.
And where was my first love now, you may ask?
Gray hooked up with his childhood friend, the son of a baron! He was adopted into their family by marriage, and he now lives in that baron’s domain as its lord! The end.
In this world—mostly in my own kingdom of Esfia—same-sex love and same-sex marriage (usually an adoption by marriage, except for royals, who have actual marriages) were not at all unusual among the upper class. It was, in fact, quite common among most families in the aristocracy. If anything, commoners were more likely to do the opposite. Among the commonfolk, heterosexual marriages were the norm, whereas homosexual marriages were not so common.
And as you might have guessed, everyone in my circle is of the aristocracy! Therefore, man-on-man romances are the golden standard.
As a princess, my main romantic targets were my bodyguards, since they were closest to me, but ever since Gray, every bodyguard assigned to me would always fall for another man, then either quit or transfer away and live happily ever after…
But did I learn my lesson? Nope. Time after time, I fell for my guards. It’s happened to me five times now, with Gray at the top of the list…so it’s definitely been a learning experience.
Bodyguards? Those heartbreakers are a no go! A lady must never consider them romantic targets!
Ohhh, I want you by my side forever, brave knight, uwu—nope, you won’t see a dash of that from this girl!
Now I see bodyguards as entities who are assigned to me, then after a short while, they’re replaced. I don’t even bother to learn their names.
Then again…hasn’t this one been with me for a while now?
I glanced over at my current bodyguard. He was glancing back at me, which meant our eyes wound up locking.
Short black hair hung softly down to the top of his collar. His eyes were a deep indigo. His nose was handsome. His face was chiseled and nicely proportioned. He was tall, and given that he was a knight, the muscles under his armor were surely toned.
Yeah…he’s a hottie, all right. God dammit. But I’m sure this guy is destined to wind up with some hot ikemen or pretty-boy bishounen.
I was sure of it…but…
Huh?
I was secretly perplexed. On second glance, I couldn’t help but find him confusing.
This knight… I thought he was the son of a baron or something. And since the eldest son of a noble always took over as head of house, he had no business becoming a knight without a good reason. Which meant he was either the second- or third-born son. And he was in his early twenties.
But most of all, just look at him. He’s a fine specimen. An excellent specimen, even. So I’d just assumed that he would fall in love with some other guy and leave right away, but he’s been with me how long now…three months? I’ve lost bodyguards in as little as one week… Wait, no, it was three days! I set a new record for the changing of the guard at the beginning of this year…
Up until now, it seemed like there was a direct correlation between hotness and the length of a bodyguard’s employment. The hotter the bodyguard, the faster he’d hook up with another guy and quit…which begged the question…
“Hey, you…”
Maybe I might as well ask his name?
“Yes, Your Highness? Is something the matter?” His clear, deep voice resounded.
Aha. That’s a no.
I shook my head. Yep. Called it. This guy’s a no-no. Hot face, hot voice—he’s the whole package! Any day now, he’s bound to hook up with a suitable guy and move far away! Asking for his name is a waste of breath.
“No… Never mind.”
“……”
“……”
Urgh. Great. After months of barely talking to the guy, you had to make it awkward by being like, “Hey, you…” out of nowhere! I’d better say something…
“Be sure to keep me guarded at all times,” I commanded blandly, using my position as princess to cover my ass.
“As you command, Your Highness,” he answered with a little bow.
“Yes, very good.”
Very good! Now we’re back to normal princess-bodyguard dynamics! I regained my composure and resumed walking toward the training grounds.
✦ ✦ ✦
There, I’ll find a wide variety of men! Soldiers will be there! And…lots of them will be paired off with each other, but still!
Geez, isn’t there a gentleman I can convince to play my boyfriend lying around somewhere? I don’t care if he’s highborn or lowborn—so long as I can use my princess privilege to exploit him!