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“I heard you caught a cold,” Dino spoke as he entered Edmund’s room for a visit and set a small, vivid blue bottle with gold lines across it on Edmund’s bedside table.
“I’m sorry for always causing you trouble like this,” Edmund replied meekly. He tried to sit up, but the room spun around him when he did. He gave up and slumped back into bed.
It was rude to remain in bed with a prince visiting him, but Dino was his friend and used to this sort of thing.
The small blue bottle glittering in the sun was a unique item Dino commissioned specially for Edmund. It contained medicine sourced from far-off lands packed with useful nutrients for Edmund, whose body decided to give out whenever it had a spare moment. The colors of the bottle were chosen to match Edmund’s eyes.
Edmund found that whole thing quite embarrassing, but he was grateful for his friend’s kindness, and the medicine inside was valuable since it was made to last for a long time without losing potency.
He felt nothing but gratitude to Dino for going out of his way to prepare something like this for him.
“And you were doing so well for a while there,” voiced Dino.
He was right. Edmund was very aware that his body was becoming sturdier with each passing day since Nina had become the heroine, but this time, it obviously couldn’t take anymore. Even if his body was stronger than before, he had spent time next to someone with a fever who clearly had a cold—there was no reason to think he wouldn’t catch it too.
“My fever isn’t as high as it used to get with these sorts of things, though,” protested Edmund weakly. “I believe it will settle down with some rest.”
Dino made a noncommittal “humph” sound and sat in the chair beside the bed. “I met Nina, the heroine,” he relayed. The name sent a jolt through Edmund’s body. “She was off with a cold, but she seems much better today.”
“Really?” That meant the medicine he gave her worked. He’d worried when he’d seen her shivering and face pale. He was glad she recovered.
“You met Nina, right?” asked Dino. “In your cat form?”
Edmund nodded. Dino put a hand to his chin in thought. He had beautiful ultramarine blue hair, yellow ochre eyes, and handsome features. Even Edmund, who wasn’t attracted to boys, could tell he was undoubtedly good-looking.
“You’re putting me in a spot, staring at me like that,” said Dino. “Is there something you want to say?”
“No, it’s nothing. I was only thinking…you really are like a prince incarnate,” answered Edmund, thinking back to something Nina had told him: “He has a pretty face and is generally a good guy. He’s exactly like a prince who stepped out of a picture book.”
That basically meant she considered Dino attractive. She said they were essentially partners working together, but her feelings might change as they continued collaborating.
But Nina was the to-be-fallen heroine, and Dino was the main love interest who would end up with the villainess. Any feelings she had could never be allowed to blossom, and Edmund didn’t want to see her get hurt.
“Well, yes, I am literally a prince if we’re talking status,” quipped Dino. “And if you mean appearance-wise, sure, I know I’m not exactly an eyesore, but it’s really something to be hearing that from you.”
“How so?”
Dino sighed, then pointed at Edmund’s face. “Just having mismatched blue and gold eyes is enough to draw everyone’s attention. Then you have that glittering white hair and features perfect enough to match… You really need to come to grips with the fact that no one in the world comes close to being as attractive as you.”
Edmund wasn’t getting it, even with an inarguably attractive person like Dino telling him. Maybe he was trying to flatter him? “I suppose the god did tell me to use my ridiculously good-looking face as bait to draw in a heroine,” admitted Edmund.
“Are you certain that thing is a god? He seems sketchy.”
Edmund had assumed Clarissa’s absurd reaction to him was partly due to the god’s power, but if he accepted what Dino said, maybe he really was not that hard on the eyes.
“Hm, you’re not going to get anywhere as a cat, though,” Dino pondered.
“Where would I be trying to get?”
Dino lifted a cup of tea from the bedside table, took a sip, and then let out a small sigh. “You’re in cat form when you see Nina, right?”
“Yes. That form is well received. She’s obsessed with cats.”
“Well received” was an understatement. She stroked, cuddled, and even picked him up to look between his legs; she even invited him to share her bed. Obviously, she thought she was just interacting with a cat, but there were many moments that made Edmund’s heart race.
It was odd, how not unpleasant that was.
“That said, you don’t have any future with her as a cat,” Dino continued.
“Future with her?” Edmund looked at him in confusion.
Dino gently set the teacup back on the table. “Edmund. You like Nina, don’t you?” he pronounced with a grin that matched his teasing tone perfectly.
Edmund froze for a moment, blinking. “…Uh, what? Nina’s the heroine; it’s a vital role.”
“Would you give this bottle to someone you saw as only a coworker?” Dino pointed at the small bottle on the table. “This is an item of utmost value, made on personal order from me, a prince. And it’s in your colors, Edmund. Things could go bad if the wrong person got their hands on something like this.”
He was right. Someone could get quite the sum for selling it, but they could also use it to try and falsely claim some connection to the royal family. And considering its colors, it wouldn’t be hard to convince people Edmund gave it to them, allowing it to act as proof of a close relationship with the son of Duke Zelati.
“But Nina is a commoner, and she would never use it with ill intent,” Edmund declared.
“I don’t doubt that,” agreed Dino.
Edmund didn’t need to hear what Dino said to know he trusted Nina. He also felt confident in assuming Dino saw Nina positively, especially considering Dino brought her up as a topic of conversation when he rarely showed interest in anything but farming.