Kira gave him a surprised look. “You can speak sheep, Oz? To me this is just a chorus of baaa-baaas.”
“Nope. I don’t understand it at all, but I got the gist of the situation from what Lady Europa said.”
“Ohhh.”
“The sheep are so cute, Kira! Should we capture a few?”
“Do not randomly capture sheep, Karin.”
“Europa!” Prince Igna called out. “I’ve dug a decent-sized hole! What’s the plan? Are we going to fill it with blood from my nose?!”
“Stop talking, Igna. You’re making it so much worse.”
Amid the noisy peanut gallery, I bleated at Lord Theodore, “(So the reason you seemed so busy lately...)”
“(...Was that I was going to the Grand Temple every day to persuade the high priest. They gave me various tests to get the engagement approved. Cleaning, music, cooking, agriculture, and...I failed them all.)”
Lord Theodore was gazing blankly into the distance. The priest-sheep of various colors began to apologize one after another.
“(I’m sorry for harassing you and saying there were still heaps of dust left!)”
“(I’m sorry for plugging up the high priest’s ears when he judged your music!)”
“(I’m sorry for giving the high priest laxatives when he judged your cooking!)”
“(I’m sorry for failing you for not hearing the voice of the soil!)”
“(I’m sorry for lashing out due to my love for you!)”
According to the confessions of the priest-sheep, they had deliberately failed Lord Theodore for arbitrary reasons. How awful. No wonder he was haggard after enduring a month of that.
But what I was mad at was something else. I glared at Lord Theodore.
“(Lord Theodore, why didn’t you tell me about it?)”
I’d thought he was busy working on managing his territory! Never had I imagined that the marriage petition hadn’t been accepted.
“(Well, I...)”
“(An engagement takes two people, right? If you’d told me about this, I’d have gone to the Grand Basilica with you!)”
I wanted to help shoulder his burdens! If we’d gone together, I could’ve flicked the high priest’s forehead over and over, yelling at him to hurry up and accept it.
Lord Theodore’s round eyes drooped. “(I didn’t want you to hate me.)”
My eyes widened. He was worried I’d hate him?
“(I don’t have any skills I can really be proud of. Honestly, Evelyn, I’m not worthy of you.)”
Where had I heard something like that before?
“(I couldn’t even get our marriage petition accepted,)” he continued. “(It was too pathetic. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you.)”
How absurd! I kicked Lord Theodore’s woolly chest with my foreleg.
“(You’re the definition of bumbling, Lord Theodore!)”
“(Huh? Bumb—)”
“(You’re gentle and handsome and wonderful but completely unaware of your own charm! Honestly, you couldn’t be more bumbling if you tried!)”
“(—ling...?)”
“(But I bumbled too. I’m one to talk.)”
Somewhere in my heart, I might’ve been holding back with him.
He’s just so wonderful...
I wanted to be someone who was worthy of standing next to him. But...I knew I couldn’t be perfect. I would continue to mess up, to be immature, to fail at a lot of things. But even then, Lord Theodore would still love me. It was the most important thing. Such a simple thing, and yet I’d forgotten about it at some point.
“(Hey, Lord Theodore? I want us to be able to tell each other everything from now on. Bumbler to bumbler.)”
I brought my foreleg to Lord Theodore’s squishy cheek.
“(Difficult things, anxiety-inducing things, unpleasant things. Let’s talk about every mundane thing that comes up, together. We’ll be a family, right? We should stick together.)”
“(Evelyn...)”
He didn’t have to kiss me right now. I was still far from ladylike, lacked composure, and...was currently a sheep. So I didn’t need to wait for him. I could put in the work and lean in first!
“(Evely—)”
Before he could finish, I boldly gave him a little kiss. My first-ever kiss. It smelled of grass.
White smoke engulfed our bodies.
“L-L-L-Lady Evelyn’s innocence has been st-st-st-stolennn!” Lady Europa screamed.
Her eyes rolled back, and she fell headfirst into the lake.
A breeze cleared the smoke, and before me sat a brown-haired young man. I blinked, gasped, and touched my head, cheeks, and body all over. While I was at it, I touched the dazed Lord Theodore on his blemish-free cheeks, surprisingly solid shoulders, chest, and here and there and everywhere.
I was very focused on checking that he was indeed him, so I didn’t notice his face growing redder and redder.
“E-Evelyn, um...”
“W-W-We’re back!”
Whatever the mechanism behind the transformation was, it had preserved our modesty. Our clothes, shoes, and accessories were all in place, and neither our clothes nor bodies were wet.
Relieved, I threw myself at Lord Theodore. “Oh, thank goodness! We’re human again!”
“Y-Yeah. We’re...”
“I was so worried for a moment there! I’m so glad we’re back together as ourselves!”
“Y-Yeah...”
Lord Theodore was awkward for a while longer, but eventually let out a slow breath and wrapped his hands around my back. They felt warm and reassuring. I brought my face to his neck, fighting back tears.
“Wait, Evelyn. Look behind you.”
“Huh?”
My face stiffened as I turned around, still clinging to Lord Theodore. A flock of panting sheep-priests had lined up behind me, and at the front stood a light-purple sheep with strangely glossy wool. Judging by the coloring, it was clearly Lady Europa. Her red tongue lolled out excitedly.
“Baaa! Baaa baaa, baaaaaaa!”
“Eek!”
Having stopped being a sheep, I could no longer understand the bleating—but from experience, I knew it wasn’t anything good. She kicked the ground with her hooves and launched herself at me, but Lord Theodore swatted her down with a chop. A magnificent lamb chop.
“Stop it, Europa. You’re scaring her.”
“Bwaaaa!”
Lady Europa (sheep), angry enough that her wool stood on end, thrashed with her four legs. But they were so stubby that she couldn’t kick Lord Theodore into the lake.
“What should we do, Lord Theodore?” I asked. “Now even Lady Europa is a sheep!”
“Right,” he said. “Let’s see... Someone who loves Europa...”
Lord Theodore and I turned around and beckoned to someone. The man who should break Europa’s curse was, of course, her fiancé.
Prince Igna, who’d already been strolling over before being beckoned, was covered in dirt from having dug a large hole. He’d seen everything.
“I’ll kiss Europa,” he declared gallantly.
“But she’ll hate it if you force it,” I said.
“It’s fine. It won’t be a problem,” he said, his tone casual.
Prince Igna said all kinds of ridiculous things, but he had to be very worried about Lady Europa. He was willing to become the villain and put his body on the line to help his sheep-fiancée. How moving! Or so I would’ve thought, but...
“She’ll hate me. Resent me. Just thinking about it makes me shiver with pleasure. Oh, I can’t help myself,” he said.
It wasn’t for her sake at all!
Prince Igna wanted only to satisfy his own selfish desires, as per usual. I was amazed that anyone could be so far from being a gentleman. He firmly grabbed Lady Europa’s nape as she tried to flee, then held her with both hands as if she were precious before nuzzling his cheek against her.
Lady Europa let out a silent scream.
“Ah, Europa. You’re adorable in any form,” he murmured.
His face sank into the light-purple wool, promptly dyeing it bright red as a torrent of blood began to drip down.
“Oh no!”
Worried, I looked closely. His nose was just bleeding, as per usual. Ridiculously misleading.
“Now then, Europa, let us exchange a smooch hotter than a tropical night. Worry not. This won’t be quick.”
“Nbaaa!”
“It must be terrible agony for you. But this humiliation will lead to growth. And then you’ll give me even greater pleasure.”
“Gwbaaah!”
Europa let out a frantic scream unbecoming of a sheep, shaking her short neck violently in intense rejection as tears scattered from her round eyes.