“Charles. What does it feel like to be in love?”
“Uhhh. Look in a mirror? Although I suppose you can think of it like this. You’re happy when you’re together; just seeing her smile is enough; you want to hold her in your arms, and you definitely don’t want to hand her over to another man. Something along those lines.” Charles spoke without pause, then took a sip of his black tea.
“So that means she’s ‘special’ and I ‘love’ her, huh?”
Linus folded his arms and mulled it over. He enjoyed spending time with Fiona, and whenever he saw her smile, it made him smile, too. He felt fulfilled the moment he realized she saw only him in that brief window of time. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her since the instant he saw her, so the fact that he’d given her a name symbolizing the color of his hair must mean “she’s mine.”
“I see… It looks like I’m in love with Fiona.”
“Which is exactly what I’ve been saying all this time… Um, Your Highness?”
Charles panicked a bit when he noticed Linus’ aura transform. It was too late to do anything about the boy now. The black-haired girl who’d been an object of interest to him had now become the object of his affection.
“It’s just like you said, Charles. I want to be with her, I want to see her smile, I want to hold her… And I sure as hell don’t want to hand her over to another man.”
“About that… Those were just easy-to-understand examples, and if you would be so kind as to not stare at me with murder in your eyes, I’d appreciate it.”
Linus hadn’t intended to scare his best friend and was dismayed by his own behavior. Charles was the only person he trusted to care for Fiona, so he would never direct any bloodlust toward him. He was simply jealous.
“You get to live with Fiona and have her make your favorite cookies anytime you want. The least you can do is put up with a few aggravated stares from me. And obviously, it’s out of the question to give her up to another man, but I also don’t want any of them getting near her.”
“You only just realized and accepted your feelings, so don’t you think you’re going a tad overboard with the possessiveness?!”
Again, Charles was right, and Linus couldn’t do anything about it. The truth was the truth.
“Oh. Is this why you keep asking me over and over about our promise to tell her the truth when she’s grown and let her choose her own path?”
Once Fiona knew the truth about herself and accepted she was a saint, only then would she become the crown prince’s bride of her own volition. Had Charles feared Linus would keep the truth from her and take her choices away from her?
“I don’t believe you’d do anything to bind her. However, I was concerned because I’m a firsthand witness to your fascination with her. I thought you might try to keep her as my adopted daughter instead of handing her over to the crown prince.”
“I wouldn’t do that to her. Fiona’s life is her own, and the choice is hers, too. It’s not my place to force her.”
Precisely because he loved Fiona, Linus didn’t want to crush her will or take away her choices.
“Which is why—I’ll become the crown prince instead.”
“…What?” Charles froze, his jaw hanging practically to the floor.
“Once Fiona finds out she’s a saint, she’ll be betrothed to the crown prince by our country’s custom. So, if I become the crown prince, everything will turn out fine. And if she wants to hide the fact that she’s a saint even after she learns the truth, she can still be my future queen.”
Linus’ feelings wouldn’t change whether or not she was a saint, so all he had to do was make the necessary preparations. Regardless of what she chose, things would fall in his favor.
“H-Have you forgotten we already have a crown prince?!”
“Actually, I sort of did. My scum of an elder brother well into his twenties who can’t do a single thing properly and is only capable of causing trouble.”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of forcing him out of the position?” Charles gulped audibly.
“Stop exaggerating. It’s not that serious. You know I don’t like fighting… However, if our father deems him unfit to be the heir, then I will naturally become the successor, right?”
“You just said you don’t like fighting! But you have every intention of crushing him with all your might, don’t you?!”
Linus grinned at Charles, whose expression was a mixture of fear and exasperation.
“I can’t help it. I love Fiona, so I don’t want to hand her over to anyone else.”
She belonged to him. No matter who his opponent was, he refused to give her up. Fiona was a saint, and if a saint was destined to become the crown prince’s bride, all Linus had to do was become the crown prince. Logically, it was very simple.
“Then promise me this.”
“What, you’re not going to stop me?”
“Like you would stop even if I asked.”
Charles let out an aggrieved sigh from the depths of his soul, then fixed his gaze on Linus.
“You will become the crown prince, and you must wait until Fiona is twenty years old, the age she considers to be adult. Until both of those conditions are met, you must promise me you won’t make any serious advances on her.”
“Why?”
Charles was the one who said that being in love meant wanting to embrace the one you loved, so why was he trying to make him wait ten years?
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? Fiona’s life is her own, and her choices are her own, too. She is still a child. As her savior, if you approach her seriously, she will not be able to deny you. So please refrain from excessive contact until she adapts to this world and can make her own decisions.”
While Linus understood what his friend meant, he was still unhappy about it. However, Fiona could sometimes be a little distant, and there was no denying that she likely remained anxious about her inability to remember her past. He didn’t want her to hate him if he forced her, and he also hated the thought of Fiona losing herself.
“Fine. I promise. But…can I at least touch her hair?”
Truth be told, he wanted nothing more than to give free rein to the overwhelming love he felt and wrap her up in his arms. For her sake, though, he could control himself. And yet, he would at least like some kind of reward or comfort.
“In moderation, yes. Only in moderation.”
“Then does that include her hands?”
“Same answer. Moderation.”
In short, as long as he practiced moderation, touching was fine.
“Excellent. Time to find a comb that’ll suit her hair. I’ll need perfumed oils, too.”
Is this what exhilaration felt like? To feel like his heart practically flew? Ever since meeting Fiona, he kept making new discoveries. Every day was exciting.
“At the risk of being rude…you do understand the meaning of the word ‘moderation,’ don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
When Linus smiled cheerfully at him, Charles sighed and shook his head.
He would start by eliminating his worthless older brother. It would be quicker to confront him directly, and frankly, the odds were heavily in Linus’ favor. However, Fiona would be ill at ease after open war, and, in the unlikely event something happened to her, he would never forgive himself. At any rate, he still had a good ten years until she turned twenty, so taking his time to secure the position of crown prince didn’t sound bad either.
Everything he’d do from this moment forward was to claim Fiona as his own. For her, he would wait as long as he needed and do whatever must be done. Because from the moment he saw the black-haired girl enveloped in light—Linus’ world began revolving around Fiona as its axis.
THE END