It is a tiny room with a table and four chairs—truly empty. At last, Alicia and I are alone. I decided I would no longer hold back around her. Alicia probably thinks my personality suddenly changed, but I was merely holding myself back all this time.
She is so adorable whenever I tease her, and I always crave more. I love the way she struggles so hard to hide her emotions.
I fold my arms and lean against the door so she can’t escape.
“So what do you want?” Alicia demands. Her cheeks are a little pink, and there is a hint of contempt in her eyes.
“Didn’t you have something you wanted to tell me?”
“Huh?”
“You were going to ask me something yesterday. What was it?”
“Uhhh…I actually have a lot of questions.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
When I see her hesitation and confusion, I can’t help but tease her a little. And Alicia just sighs softly in resignation. I have a general sense of what she wants to ask. It probably has something to do with how I silenced the people who were slandering her.
“So, um…”
I answer her question before she can ask. “I just put a little pressure on them. That’s all.”
Alicia’s eye widens in surprise. She doesn’t say “How did you know?!” but I can see the question on her face.
The past two years have turned her into quite a mature, beautiful young lady, but she is still the same on the inside.
“I suspect the ones on the receiving end of the pressure were more affected by it than you, Your Highness.”
The way she speaks makes a sour look fill my face. Why does she keep using such formal language with me? I feel like there’s a wall between us.
“Language.”
“……Do you really detest it so?”
“Yeah. I hate it,” I answer honestly. She looks at me in surprise, perhaps because prior to her cottage confinement, I had given her the impression I was a man of few words.
“Is that all you wanted to ask me?”
“No, I have other questions…,” she says. “Why did you—a prince—lower yourself to put pressure on schoolchildren?”
My lips form a smile.
What a stupid question. Sometimes I can’t tell whether Alicia is perceptive or dense. She shrinks back a little when she sees my smile. With the sunlight shining on her through the window, her eye glitters blindingly bright.
“Well…it was my way of protecting you, Alicia.”
When I see the bewilderment on her face, the beast within threatens to fly out of its cage. I stare at her so earnestly that even I am shocked by it. Never have I yearned to protect someone as badly as I do now. Alicia is the one person who pulls the strings of my heart unconditionally. I sense Liz has feelings for me, but I could never love her the way I do Alicia.
Alicia is the light in my heart.
“I just assumed, Prince Duke, that you were a weirdo.”
“A strange choice of words, coming from you.” I didn’t expect Alicia to call me a weirdo. I smirk without meaning to. “I only make people think I’m strange—in reality, I’m exceedingly normal. What you said back in the dining hall? It’s the same principle. People judge others by the most trivial words and actions. By merely putting a little pressure on the students who slandered you, I am now perceived as a quirky prince. If I keep it up, everyone will deem me a disappointment as a prince, and I’ll be a free man.”
“You’ll be free?” Alicia looks at me dubiously.
“That’s right, I’ll be free—I’ve been wanting to travel to Roana Village, too, Alicia. Long before you.”
When I say this, Alicia seems to understand everything. When you’re born a prince in this kingdom, you have few freedoms throughout your life. You can never go on a solo survey of a place—from birth, you’re closely followed. It is a terribly constrictive world to live in.
“Even at level one hundred, it doesn’t matter how intelligent everyone used to think you were. If they think you’re a foolish weirdo, nobody will expect anything from you, right?”
“I feel like it’s not that simple…,” Alicia says skeptically.
“Well, anyway, life’s a lot easier as a weirdo than as a perfect prince.”
“But that’s…true, I suppose. Prince Duke, you are quite the schemer, aren’t you?” she murmurs in awe.
A man in my position has to scheme to some extent; otherwise, he’d be dead. The world of the nobility is quite ruthless; she just doesn’t know it yet. I want to keep Alicia sheltered from that world for as long as possible. But at the same time, I want her to learn as much as she wants and broaden her horizons. If she wishes for something, she will have my full support.
“The one error in my calculations was that I assumed that if I did something a little extreme, you would come out of your cottage…but I guess that didn’t work.”
Alicia’s pupil dilates. With hesitation, she asks, “Prince Duke…are you in love with me?”
She’s asking this now?
I freeze up in a daze. I’m being so obvious, yet she still hasn’t realized how I feel. Maybe I should have been more direct all this time…
“Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
She frantically backtracks—but it is too late. I am already slowly approaching her.
“Do you want to hear me say it?”
“No thank you…”
She shoots me down, but I continue closing in on her. Alicia’s back hits the window. Now there is nowhere for her to escape. As I watch her get more flustered by the second, I wish that she would let her emotions run wild around me. I want her heart to be mine—only mine.
With great effort, Alicia tries to look confident, but she fails miserably. And it is incredibly adorable.
I press Alicia against the window, trapping her with my arms.
“Ka—kabedon.”
She looks at the floor and murmurs something quietly, but I don’t understand it.
Alicia manages to regain her composure. She stands up tall and looks up at me with poise. My face has received its fair share of scrutiny over the years, but when the woman you love stares at you up close, it is confusingly different. Why do I feel so nervous…? I can feel a slight warmth on my face. Even though I rarely let my emotions show, I am having a difficult time controlling my feelings at the moment.
“Don’t stare at me like that.”
“If you don’t like it, why don’t you cover my eye with your hand?” she teases with a smirk. She is overjoyed that she has turned the tables on me. “Your hair really is pretty.”
Her bell-like voice resonates in my ears as her hand gently slides through my locks. Perhaps because I am crouching, our faces are shockingly close. Her thin fingers gently caress my hair.
……My heart won’t survive this. And it’s terrifying that she’s completely unaware of what she’s doing to me. It irritates me to no end that she has this power over me. I squeeze her hand in mine.