“—Alto, pass me a sword. I’d like to limber up a tad.” Claudio unexpectedly held out his hand and requested a sword, possibly riled up by spectating the dueling unfolding before him.
Rosemarie stood confounded by the look on Claudio’s face, at once war-hungry and youthfully mischievous. He tried to argue down Alto, who was hesitant to let him take up a sword out of concern for his health, resulting in the prince suddenly walking to the center of the training grounds.
“Anyone will do! So come at me, anyone!” Claudio shouted, prompting burly-sounding clamor to arise from all over the training grounds without a moment’s delay. Within the blink of an eye, the knights had formed a circle around Claudio.
Rosemarie stood in awe at the training session that had then commenced. The knights were charging one at a time from the circle, but they were still coming in a constant wave—all of which Claudio was sidestepping with graceful movements.
Her mind and eyes were captivated by his lively appearance, and by the smile on his lips that made it clear he could hardly contain how much fun he was having.
(He looks like he’s really enjoying this...)
She wasn’t sure if she was taken in by Claudio’s excitement, but as she clasped a hand over her furiously-beating heart, Alto broke the ice from next to her with a question.
“Do you think that His Highness is strong?”
“Y-Yes, I may not know about anything technique-wise, but... I do think that he looks quite strong,” she answered timidly. Alto then smiled triumphantly, his gaze still on Claudio and the others.
“He is strong indeed. He needs to be that way more than anyone else.”
Before she could ask what he meant, Claudio summoned Alto with, “You can come at me, too.” Alto obliged, bowing before jumping into the fray.
Peering at Claudio and Alto’s one-on-one duel, Rosemarie repeated the knight’s words.
(Stronger than anyone else? Why? A crown prince should have other people protecting him, so I don’t think that he needs to be that strong, but...)
This vague frustration was starting to unsettle her heart. As that feeling ran through her, Claudio finished dealing with the line of knights and returned with a delighted smile.
“—I will be watching you all for a little while longer, so go ahead and carry on, men.” Alto bowed, with a short, “Yes, sir!” before going back to the other knights. As Claudio watched him travel back, Rosemarie noticed the sweat trickling down his cheek, and pulled a handkerchief out from her breast pocket. She reached out to apply it to his face, but was interrupted when Claudio tightly grabbed her wrist.
“And what are you doing?” The immediate threat made Rosemarie drop her shoulders. Not an iota of his once cheerful expression remained. Although she understood why he was scowling at her, it still hurt her nonetheless.
“You were sweating, so I thought I would wipe it off...”
“Wipe it off?” Claudio seemed to be baffled by the explanation, but he quickly smirked.
“Oh, I see. I almost forgot that you see my face as a human. So, what? Is your plan to earn my favor? A naive plan, if it is.” After chucking her hand away with a cruel smile, Claudio took a seat on the stairs leading away from the training grounds. Crestfallen, Rosemarie tried to sit on the step behind him.
“Sit here. I can’t reach you if you sit there.”
She picked herself up and sat once again, but this time next to Claudio as instructed. He then proceeded to wrap his arm around her waist and draw her in just like he did back in the office, allowing the faint smell of sweat to grace her nose. She didn’t hate doing this, but not only were they outdoors as opposed to indoors, as well as in front of so many people—albeit none of them paying close attention—this kind of conduct was so embarrassing that she wanted to just run away. Overwhelmed, she looked toward the ground.
“Um, it would seem that your headache has subsided, so I don’t believe I need to be this close for you to...”
“This lets me breathe easier.”
Noticing his tone was devoid of ill-will, Rosemarie stopped mid-sentence. Hearing him say that had made her lose her nerve.
Regardless of how embarrassing she found all this, Claudio probably only saw her as a mana vessel that doubled as a restorative medicine.
(That must be why he is fine with other people’s perceptions on the matter.)
As resentful as he was, Claudio was basically apathetic. It was dubious whether he even knew that Rosemarie was willing to help him.
Did he really plan on carting her around starting tomorrow? At least here at the training grounds she didn’t have to be afraid of possibly seeing that many beast heads, but she knew well that she wasn’t getting off the hook this easily. Since Claudio seemed awfully like the type to never back down once he’d made up his mind, it would likely be impossible to get him to give up on the idea.
(Is there nothing that I can do about this...?)
She looked down vacantly at the stairs while racking her brain—and that was when she felt something lightly tap her shoulder.
“...Huh?” A familiar sight of sleek black hair flew toward Rosemarie’s eyes as she turned them in the direction of the disturbance. On her shoulder, she felt the somber warmth of another. For a moment, she had no idea what had just happened.
What had happened was that Claudio had slumped over onto her shoulder. Rosemarie jolted in surprise, which sent the arm that was wrapped around her waist to drop with a flop.
It seemed, as she had feared, that Claudio’s condition hadn’t improved at all.
(Huh? What? Wait a second.)
Rosemarie tensed up as she heard the prince begin to snore soundly.