“Yes, I cannot seem to spot any issues with it. And, well... Mage Edeltraud left their familiar in the driver’s seat. Also, they rode off with your horse as well, Your Highness...” Alto, who had apparently followed along, replied in a hesitant manner.
“God, my teacher can never mind their business...” Claudio grumbled under his breath, but he closed the door to the carriage and tapped on the wall to the driver’s seat twice with the handle of his sword, signaling them to drive.
When she felt the carriage start to move, Rosemarie hurried to take her seat again. An exhausted Claudio slouched in the seat across from her, a single hand on his forehead. Seeing him like this was stimulating a sense of guilt and panic that told her she needed to do something, so she impulsively opened her mouth.
“Um, Prince?”
“—What?”
“Would you like to rest your head on my lap?”
“...” He silently scowled at her.
“I mean, um, if you dislike resting your head on my lap, then shall we hold hands? From what I understand, it’s my fault that you’re as tired as you are...” she said, her speech escalated by her tension. Claudio furrowed his brow, baffled.
“Weren’t you being angry at me?”
“I thought that you were being angry at me, Prince. Weren’t you?”
Silence descended. As she stared intently at him, Claudio sighed deeply and moved himself over to Rosemarie’s side. Then, not a word traveled from his mouth.
“Um...”
“—Give me your hand.”
“Right away!” Just as she was ordered in a low tone by Claudio, who was feeling the fatigue run through him, she put both of her hands onto the palm he held out in front of her. Claudio then gave her a side-eyed glare.
“Why did you give me both hands? What are you, a dog? What am I thinking? If you were a dog, you waltzing away from your owner would be—”
Rosemarie quickly jerked one of her hands away as she meekly accepted Claudio’s scolding. The sudden pause in his sentence was enough to make her suspicious, and she stared at his side profile intently. She could see it wrenching in distress.
“...I swear, I’m starting to hate this. Every time I see your face, the harsh language spills from my mouth. And I was in such a panic over you just a second ago, too.” Claudio gently clasped Rosemarie’s remaining hand in his own. His felt cold to the touch, probably because of the rain, which startled her. She once again held his hand with both of hers, but, this time, he didn’t try to brush them aside.
“—I will admit that I was angry. But what I felt in the moment I heard that you hadn’t returned to the castle wasn’t anger—it was panic.” Claudio’s expression took a sad turn as he faced away from Rosemarie. Maybe that was why he was sitting next to her right now: he didn’t want her to see his face from the front.
“I tried to convince myself that I was in such a panic because I wouldn’t be able to get my mana back if you were gone, but as soon as I saw your face a moment ago, I knew that I was wrong. —In that moment, I didn’t give a damn about my mana. You were safe. That alone was enough to sincerely put my mind at ease.” Claudio gripped his hand tighter around Rosemarie’s. It almost felt like he was condensing his feelings into the hand he had a painful hold upon. Rosemarie hung her head, feeling bewilderment in her mind and a warmth in her chest at the same time.
“So, yes... If I’m wrong, then tell me that I am. Were you angry because I said that I was envious of your ability to see animosity?”
Rosemarie gasped and lifted her head to find Claudio with an expression that showed how difficult this was for him to ask. She then clutched at her chest with her free hand.
“May I ask you, Prince... are you happy when someone tells you that they are envious of your head being a lion?”
“There’s no way that I would be. There are more shortcomings than advantages. It puts me through unnecessary hell.”
“Yes, I would assume. ...Your lion head is the same as my eyes. Which is why you telling me you envied them made me sad,” she said, coming to a new realization herself. As to why it made her so mad, as to why it made her so sad. It was because she felt selfishly betrayed by Claudio, whom she had believed was going through a similar kind of hell.
“So, I was right. I see... Well, I’m... well, sorry.” In the window on the opposite side of Claudio, Rosemarie could see his lion head reflected in the glass. His fine pelt was wet with rainwater, and just like the human face that only she saw, it looked somewhat dispirited.
“Please, don’t apologize. You really don’t have to. I don’t believe I have the right to be angry at you, seeing as how you have been working so hard to make up for my faults despite me not doing anything in return.” Drops of water fell from the tips of Claudio’s soaking hair.
“Plus, I apparently ran into you when I was a child. But since I cannot remember what happened back then, it should be me who apologizes to you.”
Claudio’s eyes widened in surprise as she took a handkerchief out of her breast pocket and pressed it against his wet cheeks. While he would have made her stop any other day in the past, this time around, he clasped her hand around hers.