Am I feeling...possessive? he thought.
Westalia suddenly took five poison needles out of her breast pocket. She held them out to Leonardo, looking embarrassed, as if asking him to take them, but he didn’t really want to. She seemed to offer poison needles in response to flattery. She was certainly unique.
Westalia spotted a rabbit behind some bushes along their route and dismounted her horse. As she dismounted, her foot caught in the stirrups and she stumbled. Leonardo caught her quickly, and they both went tumbling to the ground.
Leonardo fell on his back and Westalia landed on top of him. His face was just a few inches away from hers, and he reached out to touch her soft skin. Just before he touched her face, he came to his senses and pulled his hand back.
“Are you hurt?” Leonardo asked.
“N-No, I’m okay. What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
The two awkwardly looked away from each other quickly and stood up.
Westalia stated she was going to finish off the rabbit she had found and she readied her bow, but just before she released her arrow, she shifted her target and deliberately missed. The arrow tip grazed the rabbit’s ear and pierced a tree trunk. Startled, the rabbit ran off.
“I can’t do it. I just feel too bad for the poor little thing,” Westalia said. She kept missing her targets on purpose each time she found her prey. Leonardo thought it was kind of cute how she kept sulking about it, saying she had no guts.
When Westalia confided in Leonardo that she had been practicing in order to show him how good she was, he was moved by her previous high spirits and, at the same time, charmed by her.
Westalia aimed her bow toward a flying hawk, but she still couldn’t release it and lowered her arm.
“Don’t be so down. You don’t have to try to show off for me. I like...”
“You like...?” Westalia asked.
“Nothing.” Leonardo had almost confessed that he liked her. It would have been fine if he’d said it, but he was embarrassed when it came time to express his feelings. Westalia raised an eyebrow as if she had seen right through Leonardo and laughed teasingly.
At that moment, they heard a shout from behind the bushes. Westalia was about to run through the bushes when Leonardo stopped her and told her to stay where she was. It could be dangerous, he said, so he was going to check it out first.
Behind the bushes was a man who’d come face-to-face with a large boar. He was cowering in fear. Leonardo swiftly unsheathed and raised his sword. He stabbed the boar in a vital spot and killed it, but then another boar appeared.
Another?!
The boar rushed toward him, its fur bristling. Boars were docile unless provoked, but these seemed to have been worked up by the sudden encounter with humans. Leonardo knew it would be extremely bad to be wounded by its tusks.
Before Leonardo’s sword could reach it, the boar fell to the ground in pain, then fell into a stupor. Its pain looked different from animals that were wounded by ordinary arrows.
Leonardo looked to the side and saw Westalia, bow in hand, observing the boar from a steady archer’s stance. She lowered her bow and walked over.
“A poisoned arrow, huh? Is it dead?” Leonardo asked.
“It will be soon,” Westalia replied. The poison she’d applied to her arrows was said to have been used as arrow poison by people in colder regions when hunting. Westalia, who’d hesitated to kill earlier, had no hesitation when it came to helping others.
She took one sad glance at the boar and extended her hand to the hunched man. “Are you hurt?”
“N-No, I’m fine,” the man said.
“That’s good,” Westalia replied.
When the man saw Westalia’s courage, his cheeks flushed and he tried to grab her hand. Leonardo pulled her back by the waist to prevent his reach. The man glared in frustration.
“I’ll help you up,” Leonardo said, holding out his own hand with an intimidating glare.
The man refused and stood up on his own.
“You take care of the boars. Let’s go, Westalia.”
“Don’t pull so hard, Leo!”
Leonardo walked through the forest, pulling Westalia by the hand. He didn’t like the idea of her being touched by another man.
Sheesh. What a troublesome emotion, Leonardo thought. He’d always thought of himself as having few emotional ups and downs, but ever since he’d met Westalia, he’d been going off the rails.
Westalia, oblivious to his feelings of possessiveness, suddenly spoke up. “That day you wandered into the royal villa... Why did you say you were going to get me out? You’re the crown prince of an enemy country.”
“I genuinely wanted to help you. I wanted to help you so much that even my own position disappeared from my mind. Looking back, I was just a child. But I meant it,” Leonardo replied.
“It was a very emotional statement, which is hard to imagine from the calm and collected man you are now,” Westalia said.
“Aren’t you the one who’s changed more? You used to be more ladylike and serious,” Leonardo shot back.
“Oh, no, this is the real me. I’ve just stopped hiding it. Did you like me better before?”
Leonardo shook his head. “It’s best when you can be yourself.”
“Anyway, I’m glad you tried to reach out to me then. And thank you for helping me the night I entered the country illegally. If you hadn’t caught me back then, I might not be here now. You’ve been encouraging me ever since too. Thank you so much. I’m glad I came to the Archaites Empire and met you,” Westalia said, standing in front of Leonardo and looking up into his eyes. “I love you, Leo.” Her eyes were as serious as they’d been the night she’d told him she was going to become empress.
Her brilliant smile made his heart skip a beat. She was hesitant to shoot an animal, but she seemed to be very skilled at shooting the heart of the crown prince.
“I...didn’t want to be born to be emperor. It’s a life without freedom, always bound to the country. But now I think it might not be so bad. Because of you,” Leonardo said. Looking up at the sky, he saw small birds flying between the dense foliage. He had wished many times that he could fly freely like that, but now he wished he could stay here on the ground.
Westalia was Leonardo’s complete opposite. She wanted to jump into that inconvenient world willingly. She desired power, status, and honor, all of which Leonardo considered unnecessary. Although they were polar opposites, Westalia always dazzled him with her earnest pursuit of her dreams.
It had been the same when they’d met the first time, back in the royal villa in Lhumzia. Westalia had dreamed of being queen with a sparkle in her eye. Since then, every time he’d looked at her, she’d shown him a new expression and taught him a new emotion.
“You were the one encouraging me,” Leonardo whispered. Westalia was like a ray of light that had burst through his dark world.
I guess it really was a goddess that fell from the sky that night, Leonardo thought. He must’ve become addicted to Westalia’s sweet poison the night she landed in his arms.
“I love you too.”