The two of us walked down the quiet hallway, with my arm still firmly held in Phil’s tight grip.
“Phil, please let go of me.”
“No. If I do, you’ll run away.”
It felt like the first time since I reciprocated Phil’s feelings that he talked to me in such a cold way. He power walked without looking back at me, and all I could do was try to keep up with him. For the first time, I realized that he always slowed down his pace to match mine.
We eventually entered one of the sitting rooms. I tried to escape while Phil was closing the door, but he pushed me up against a wall.
“P-Please let go of me,” I tried again.
“Never.”
I felt trapped under his bright golden gaze, and I couldn’t look away.
“Are you angry with me?” I asked after a few moments to work up the nerve.
“Yes. With myself, for making you look as if you’re about to cry.” After he said that, Phil stroked my cheek and leaned in so close that our noses were almost touching. “Truthfully, I’m angry with you as well.”
“Huh?”
In the next second, he pressed his lips against mine in a biting kiss. All of the kisses that we’d exchanged to this point were gentle, as if we were just brushing our lips together. But this kiss felt almost like a stranger’s, and I could feel his anger in how aggressive it was. He pulled away and he stared at me, his eyes burning like molten gold.
“I love you so much, yet you really think that I would fall for another woman?”
“Ah...”
He truly was angry at me. I could feel it with my whole body. Now that I thought about it, I’d been with Phil for the past nineteen years, and this was the first time that he was directing anger born from something other than jealousy at me. Multiple emotions waged war in my chest, and my field of vision began to blur.
“But...”
“No matter what happens, I will love you and only you. For as long as I live, that will never change.”
His straightforward words and earnest voice sank into my heart. I could feel, to a painful degree, how much Phil loved me, and I wanted to cry even more.
“I-I love you as well, Phil. That’s why I’m in so much pain...”
After I said that, Phil’s entire body relaxed.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he murmured. “In any case, let’s both calm down and talk things out. I assure you, I’m not cheating on you.”
“All right...”
After I nodded, Phil gently led me by the hand to the sofa in the middle of the room. We sat down next to each other. I even felt a sense of nostalgia at the feeling of him by my side.
“For starters, who did you think I was cheating on you with?”
“With the princess. I heard that you invited her to your room as well.”
As soon as I said that, his serious expression instantly turned into one of confusion. In retrospect, Rex had the exact same reaction.
After a few moments, Phil said loud and clear, “I’m not interested in little girls.”
Rex had said this earlier as well. I found it strange that we still didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength and I tilted my head to the side.
“Er, what do you mean by ‘little girls’?”
“Do you not consider a five-year-old to be a little girl?”
“Five years old?”
Yes, a five-year-old would definitely count as a little girl. However, that wasn’t the problem here.
“The princess I saw at the soiree the other night looked every inch like someone our age...”
“Soiree?” Phil murmured. But then his eyes widened and he stared at me. “Don’t tell me, you’ve mistaken Princess Adele with Princess Luna?”
Rex also mentioned a Princess Adele earlier.
“Who’s Princess Adele?”
“The princess I’m always spending time with is the third princess, Princess Adele. She’s five years old.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me...”
“The day I met you at the soiree, I was with Princess Luna. However, that was the first and only night I spent with her alone, and she’s not interested in me at all. Of course, I have no interest in her either.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t expect things to turn out this way.
So in other words, I was jealous of a five-year-old girl, and I accused Phil of infidelity when all he was doing was spending time with a child?
Relief filled me at the same time my face grew hot from embarrassment and shame.
“I-I’m so sorry. I... I can’t believe what a misunderstanding I...”
“I apologize. I thought I was being clear when I told you about my work. It’s not your fault.”
Unlike Princess Luna, who was the ambassador, Princess Adele came in an unofficial capacity. Considering her youth, she wouldn’t show up in high society gatherings either. Those two reasons were why most people didn’t know that Princess Adele was visiting the country.
“However, you must have read my letter about her if you replied to it.”
“The letter got rained on and there were parts of it I couldn’t read because of that. But I thought I could grasp the general idea of what you were trying to say, so I didn’t ask you about the details...”
We stared at each other in awkward silence. I felt like an idiot for stressing out so much about this misunderstanding. I felt so much sadness and emptiness that I ended up feeling nothing at all.
After a moment, Phil covered his mouth with his hand and once again murmured, “I’m sorry. It’s true that if I had done to Princess Luna what I did to Princess Adele, it would count as infidelity.”
“Oh, but that’s not what really happened. It was all because I didn’t do my due research.”
“No, it would be irrational to expect you to confirm the contents of my letters when they were filled with nothing but idle chatter.”
It wasn’t out of the ordinary to take a five-year-old to the menagerie, nor was it strange to invite them to one’s room. Now that I thought about it, I told him the other day that children should let adults spoil them. That was undoubtedly part of the reason Phil was so lenient with Princess Adele. If I’d only paid more attention to what he was saying, or asked him for more details, then this misunderstanding would’ve never happened.
“I’m truly sorry,” Phil said. “I’m sorry I made you feel insecure.”
“I’m sorry as well.”
“If I heard that you were going out with another man or inviting him to your room, I don’t have confidence that I’d be able to stay sane.”
After he said that, Phil gently pulled me into an embrace. It’d been much too long since I felt my beloved’s warmth or scent that tears welled up in my eyes.
“I learned that I love you far more than I thought I did. You’re so important to me. I wouldn’t be able to continue living without you.”
He was such a large part of my life now that it was unthinkable how I’d wanted to break off our engagement only a few months ago.
“Really?” Phil asked after a minute.
“Yes,” I replied.
As soon as I said that, Phil buried his head against my shoulder, clinging onto me like a child would. His soft dark blue hair brushed against my neck, tickling me.
“I love you, and only you, as well. When you told me that you wanted some time apart, I thought I’d been swallowed up by darkness.”
I felt bad thinking about how painful these past two weeks must have been for him. Phil told me that he didn’t want me to apologize and he strengthened his hold on me.
“I don’t think I’d be able to survive if you hate me again in the future. I’ll die.”
“Ha ha, I’d never hate you.”
I didn’t think that I would be able to dislike Phil ever again. Besides, I learned from this experience that he would never do something I didn’t like.
“Thank you. Also, if possible, I’d like to see you at least once a week. I’ll have withdrawal symptoms otherwise,” Phil said.
“Sheesh, what are you talking about?”
We promised that we would make time for each other after the ceremony ended. Phil held out his pinky at the word “promise” and he looked so cute that I started to giggle. I wrapped my pinky around his and as I stared at our linked fingers with a happy feeling in my heart, I heard him call for me.
“Viola.”
And as soon as I looked up at him, he once again pressed his mouth against mine. Unlike the kiss from earlier, it wasn’t anything more than our lips brushing against each other, but my heart started to pound faster.
“U-Um...”
“I won’t hold myself back anymore.”
It seemed that this misunderstanding and the earlier kiss changed something inside of him. My heartbeat was roaring in my ears and I stared up at him, unsure of what to do. Then, his too-beautiful face drew closer to mine again.
“Please, let me be the only man in your sights for as long as we live.”
Upon hearing his words, I nodded and closed my eyes.
“Of course.”