“A... confession......?” Sharlo seemed to be incredulous at the words that came out of his own mouth.
Hanna, who had been standing by in a corner of the room, went “Oh, Princess......” and then fainted.
Shouzou carried her over to the guest room, but even when he got back, it seemed like Sharlo had been merely making bizarre movements, still unable to manage a reply.
Unable to bear it any longer, Lorelei said in an exasperated tone, “I don’t quite get what’s going on either, but she’s gathered up all her courage to confess her love to you, right? How long are you going to make a woman wait?”
“Conf—love...... wait, that’s, but......” He was so thoroughly confused that he ended up shouting, “What is there about me to like?!” He was indeed a rather lacking man in many ways.
However, Yuliana refuted him straight on. “It is true that your mouth and your attitude are both terrible. You torture yourself too much, and have a very lazy personality.”
“Oi.”
“However, you also hold unshakable conviction. The sight of you standing up even in the face of danger struck my heart. To put it simply, you... were cool......”
As Shouzou looked at the princess with blushing cheeks, the thought: Is this the suspension bridge effect? rose up in his mind, but he kept his mouth shut.
“I myself am also lacking in many areas. I will work hard to improve on them, so please tell me anything that comes to your mind.”
“Anything, you say......”
“I have already discarded my femininity once. Is my appearance not to your liking?”
“Eh, no, I kinda prefer more chubby girls, I guess—”
“Very well. Then I shall eat. My appetite is on the smaller side, but I’ll try my best to eat a lot and gain weight!”
“Calm down a bit, would you!” Her abrupt change only added to Sharlo’s confusion.
“So then, Sharlo-kun. What is your answer going to be? Naturally, if the end goal is marriage, then eventually you’ll have to say ‘yes.’ However, it is true that you two only met each other recently. If you prefer, you could start by going out first, taking time to talk and get to know each other better.”
“Well...... that’s......” Now that Sharlo was properly aware of Yuliana as a girl, he finally realized that she was incredibly cute. She did have a rather blunt personality, but apparently deep inside, she was the devoted type.
In the first place, the reason why he liked chubby girls was because they gave him a sense of security just by being on the other side of the spectrum from all the pretty girls that he could not trust. Honestly speaking, the reason why he was still hesitant to give his reply was because doubts like “Am I really good enough?” and “Will she get rid of me soon?” were still strong in his heart. But even so.
(Me receiving a confession is nothing short of a miracle. I can bet this is the one and only time this would ever happen to me in my entire life......) It was clear to him that if he let this opportunity slip through his fingers, he was going to remain single the rest of his life. Up to now, he would have been fine even with such a life, but after having been confessed to once, the thought of it had become irreversibly colored with regret in his mind.
“Then, um, let’s start by going out......”
“Really?! Oh thank you... thank you so much......” The sight of Yuliana being so happy that she was shedding tears sent Sharlo’s heart aflutter.
“Well then, it seems things have been settled. This is a truly auspicious resolution indeed.”
“......And what are you planning by trying to matchmake us together?”
“I have no intention of using you two youngsters’ honest feelings. However, you two being tied together, in light of your respective positions, is something that would greatly affect your surroundings. In both good and bad ways. Naturally, that also includes the emperor of the Bardimian Empire.”
The second condition was now cleared as well. With this, now he had everything he needed to have an upper hand in the coming “negotiations.”
Shouzou himself truly had no intention of using the budding romance between these two. However, the same could not be said of the emperor, so as long as the emperor uses it in the right way, then Shouzou would have nothing to complain about. In fact, these conditions were necessary in order to guide the emperor toward that direction.
“My father also......? However, he’s only just tried to assassinate me. Isn’t he only filled with hatred toward me?”
“Oh yes, I am quite angry about this incident as well. I won’t rest easy until I give him a piece of my mind about the consequences of trying to put a hand on my precious children.” However, there was a time and place to display and to swallow down emotions. Therefore, Shouzou declared nonchalantly, “Let’s go pay the emperor a visit right now.”
““““...... Hah?””””
Even the Ketora siblings dropped their jaws.
“Wh-What do you mean we’re going to meet my father now?!” Yuliana was thoroughly confused.
“Now that you two have decided to start going out, you have to properly report to him, right? Isn’t it common sense that you have to introduce your boyfriend to your father?”
“But even so, why now?” asked Sharlo, also in a great fluster.
“Since we might as well negotiate with him to stop the war while we’re at it.” Shouzou was pretty sure that the emperor did not have a way to instantaneously know about the failure of the assassination attempt. However, he explained that it was better to let him know earlier than later.
“The war is the ‘while we’re at it’......?” In contrast to Sharlo sitting back drained of strength, Yuliana drew her eyebrows together in puzzlement. “However, what do you mean by ‘negotiate’? Shouldn’t we first do something about the magic beast unit?”
“I prefer to avoid getting rough if possible. If there’s really no other option, then naturally I won’t hold back. However, if there’s even the slightest probability of success, then I would like to settle things by talking. However,” Shouzou grinned ferociously. “I have no intention of letting him go with mere words. Since he is trying to intimidate us with might, I will teach him how frightening true might really is.”