“R-Really?! That’s great!” Prince Alex exclaimed, brightening considerably.
It had to be true, then. No one had stopped by the booth before us.
The two stood shoulder to shoulder amicably as a photographer priest moved to stand before them. With two strikingly handsome men standing side by side, people began to pay attention.
“It truly is an honor to take a photo with you like this, Your Highness,” Lord Theodore said serenely.
Prince Alex chuckled. “I know, right? I... Ow! Ow, ow, hey! Your nails are digging into my shoulder! Yeowch!”
“My only regret is that I won’t have another chance to cause you this much pain.”
The two seemed to be chatting cheerfully. Men were so quick to become friends! I was a little jealous of how easy it was for them.
After they were done talking, the photograph was taken without issue. Lord Theodore smiled, tore up the photo the priest gave him, and tossed it in the trash.
“Could it be you still...” he muttered as he made his way back to me.
“Huh?” I mumbled.
“Oh, nothing.”
I still what? I wondered. I’d heard him clearly! What had that been about? But...he didn’t seem inclined to tell me.
The haggard-looking Prince Alex saw fit to interrupt my thoughts with some nonsense. “Hey, Evelyn? Mary’s ‘hangnail-healing squad’ is over there...”
It must be a booth for healing hangnails, I realized, though I couldn’t be certain.
So, to confirm, I looked in the direction Prince Alex was pointing at and saw a familiar girl facing Mary at a stall some distance away.
My eyes widened. Karin!
Around Karin—who was cross-dressing today as usual—there were other children her age. Her friends, maybe? But...they were keeping some distance from her.
“This is unbelievable!” Karin snapped. “Why... Why are you...?!”
And that was the reason. She was trembling with rage, her face bright red. I’d never seen her like this! She was usually so quiet and shy.
I wanted to run to her, but Lord Theodore placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’s all right.”
“But, Lord Theodore, Mary might’ve done something awful to Karin!” I protested.
“No, I think it’s quite the opposite, actually.”
It is? What did he mean?
“Ms. Liar, you’re terrible at handling hangnails!”
Oh.
Surprised, I looked back to see Karin glaring daggers at Mary.
“Waaah!” Mary cried out.
“Do not ‘waaah’ me,” Karin reprimanded her. “You should take this subtle pain more seriously!”
“Waaah!!!”
“Ms. Saint was very thorough when healing my hangnail!”
“W-Waaah... Urk... R-Rejuvenate!”
“Don’t heal so sloppily! Do you not understand how serious hangnails are?!”
“Eyaaagh!”
Karin glared coldly at Mary, who was now wailing like she’d regressed to infancy. The children who had come with Karin seemed very frightened by both her fury and Mary’s loud cries.
I mean, even I’m a little spooked...
Though I’d gotten a vague sense of Karin’s feelings about hangnails before, I hadn’t known they ran so deep. Had I done an even remotely inadequate job when we first met, she might’ve directed that towering rage at me. I was glad to have taken it seriously!
One of the priests flanking Mary’s booth noticed me and walked over, smiling. “Ah, Saint Evelyn! Good day! Are you enjoying the Summer of Evelyn Festival?”
“Y-Yes, largely,” I stammered with a nod.
“Mary Safka is a terrible criminal, convicted of impersonating a saint,” the priest explained solemnly. “She has been sentenced to community service through healing magic for the next several years.”
I nodded again. “Oh, so that’s why...”
Even through Karin’s reprimands, Mary genuinely seemed to be trying very hard to practice healing magic. Hangnails were all she could heal right now, but with enough training, perhaps she’d someday be able to do more.
Though we were never really close. I don’t think it’s my place to encourage her...
Mary and I had different mothers and were quite far apart in age. When a girl had appeared at the Grand Basilica one day claiming to be my sister, I’d been truly happy—even if all she’d wanted was to mock me for being forgotten by our family, who were treating me as their personal cash cow. I’d nevertheless been so happy that my sister had come to see me.
Because our parents never once stopped by!
“By the way, what are my parents up to?” I asked the priest.
He smiled broadly. “They are now in a faraway country.”
“A faraway country? Really?”
“Indeed,” he confirmed vaguely, his expression ambiguous. “Far, far away.”
I tilted my head. “Um, which country, exactly...?”
The priest smiled and, as if to emphasize the point, said, “A faraway country you wouldn’t know the name of, Saint Evelyn.”
Even my not particularly sharp intuition was screaming at me, Okay, don’t probe any more than that!
“L-Lord Theodore,” I stammered, grabbing his arm, “let’s go check out the next event!”
“Huh?! Oh! Yes, of course!” he replied, flustered.
I didn’t have the composure to worry about his reaction as we started walking.
“Oh, that’s quite a crowd over there!” I remarked.
“Y-Yes, indeed. Shall we go see?” he asked.
“I wonder where Kira and Lord Jackson went. It’ll be hard to find them in this crowd...”
Granted, Kira was quiet, but Lord Jackson, despite his age, would indubitably be making a scene. Perhaps it wouldn’t be that difficult to spot them.
As we headed toward the crowd, Lord Theodore said, “L-Lady Evelyn? Um...”
“Yes?”
“My arm...”
I froze, looked at his arm, and jerked away vigorously. “Gah!”
Indeed, in the position I was at, it looked like I was pressing my chest to Lord Theodore’s arm. My desperation to leave had made me careless! How indecent I’d been!
I frantically shook my head and waved my hands to deny any suspicions of impropriety. “N-No, no! I’m not a pervert, I swear!”
“Pervert...!”
“I didn’t intend to engage in anything untoward! Honest!”
“Untoward...!”
Every time Lord Theodore echoed my words and groaned, more bystanders turned to look at us.
“Pervert!”
“Untoward!”
“Oh dear, she said ‘pervert’!”
“There’s an untoward pervert here?!”
“Wait, the pervert is untoward?!”
I shrank smaller and smaller. Everyone’s repeating it!
Lord Theodore gently took my hands and lifted them to eye level, entwining our fingers.
I looked up at him in confusion. What was he trying to do?
“Ah, my apologies,” he said. “I was so happy that you’d taken my arm like that...”
“Wha...?”
“If you wouldn’t mind, um, doing so a bit longer... I would be even more elated.”
Wh-What the heck?!
He was blushing! Smiling sweetly! How could any woman in this world refuse him? They couldn’t!
I couldn’t.
Actually, I...want to be the only one he ever says things like that to, my foolish brain realized. I shook my head to dispel the thought.
“Um,” I said, “maybe we could just hold hands for now?”
Lord Theodore seemed disappointed for a moment, then beamed brilliantly. “I would be elated to hold hands with you.”
It took me a while, but then it hit me—he had tricked me! Masterfully.
But...maybe it was okay to let him do that. Just a little.