💕 💕 💕
AFTER worriedly peeking inside my room, I confirmed that the only likenesses I had of Elizabeth were a few small pieces on the shelf above the mantle. My worries were clearly unfounded. Even if she was the sweetest, most beautiful woman in the world, having a massive portrait of her in my room struck me as overkill.
Checkmate, Father. At least I don’t have a painting of my partner in my room.
Elizabeth and I sat down on the loveseat. I wrapped my arm around the back of it so I could hug her lithe body closer to me. The faint yet distinct smell of something sweet curled into my nostrils.
“Y-Your Highness?!” she started in shock.
Across the room, Lars hissed in fury, but Harold held him back from leaping at me.
What? What did I do?
“Is something wrong?” I asked her.
“Well, n-no, but… What are you doing?”
“Am I doing it wrong?” I asked, peering more closely into her eyes. She instantly went beet red. “I thought I was acting as lovers should.”
“H-How can I relax with you so close to me?” She seemed to be telling the truth as she shrunk away in my arms.
Isn’t she overreacting? Even though we’re nobles, I assumed we’d do at least this much all the time.
“We’re lovers, aren’t we?” I asked for confirmation.
“Y-Yes.”
“The lovey-dovey kind?”
“L-Lovey…” Her gaze drifted away from me.
“What do we normally do when we’re alone?”
“Well, when we have total privacy, you call me Liza, and I call you Prince Vince sometimes…”
“Hm?!”
My heart thudded with dull pain, and I had to clamp my hands over my chest as I tried frantically to breathe normally.
So lovey-dovey! My gods, I really made the most of my youth!
“Y-Your Highness?!” she panicked. “Are you all right?!”
“I’m fine. Why don’t we try that out now…Liza?”
“Wha…”
She stilled. Lars let out a bloodcurdling howl across the room and flailed even harder against Harold’s grasp. The manservant himself was standing with his back to us, meaning I was the only one to witness the sweet confusion on Elizabeth’s face. Harold was the ideal servant.
“You don’t want to?” I asked.
“The thought of addressing you as such, especially on request, is a little embarrassing…”
“Perhaps, but what if that helps me remember something?” I gave her a pitiful look, resting my hand on her forearm. “Please, I beg of you…whisper it in my ear, if you don’t mind.”
Her mouth opened and shut soundlessly, as though she couldn’t make up her mind until finally, she drew her shapely lips closer to my ear. “Prince Vince,” she breathed.
“Gh?!” My cheeks burned up.
Such is the destructive power of a lover… How terrifying.
“S-So?” I hurriedly changed the topic. “What else would we do?”
“Well…hm.” She thought for a moment. “I would often visit the palace on weekends, and we’d wander through the garden before enjoying some sweets.”
“And then?”
“That’s it.”
“That’s… What?”
There has to be more. The pet names, all the delicate mood-building… I can’t have wasted it all, can I?!
“If you don’t want to say it out loud, I can have Harold and Lars wait outside,” I offered.
Her brow furrowed. “That’s all there was, honestly.”
“Did we go on any undercover dates?”
“Only one.”
“Did we whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ears as we watched the sunset?”
“Once we debated the course the country should take at sunset, pulling up historical examples to support our points.”
“No lap pillows? Pillow talk, perhaps?”
“Lap…what? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
I rubbed my temples. “What did we do, exactly, over the past ten years? Weren’t we lovers?”
“We’ve only been lovers as of last year.”
Last what?!
“What in blazes was I doing for the past nine years, then?” I asked, horrified.
“You threw yourself into your studies, mastering the arts so you could be the best king possible.”
“Did we do anything together, I mean?”
“Of course, at banquets and other formal functions.”
“But the pet names!”
“That started before we became lovers.”
I sighed heavily. “Did I have any proper sense of intimacy at all?!”
“I don’t understand what’s so unusual.”
From the confusion in her eyes, her question was genuine. Her smooth, golden locks framed her face and made her eyes gleam like jewels. She was terribly beautiful and, apparently, terribly dense.
“So that’s it!” I wailed, putting my head in my hands.
“Are you feeling ill, Prince Vincent? Perhaps you should lie down?”
Her voice was soft and sweet. I clasped the hand she offered me readily, feeling the smoothness of her skin against mine as I sunk into the cushions. From my slumped position, I looked at Harold.
“Was I really a useless, lovestruck fool?” I asked him pleadingly.
“Regrettably, it is not my place to list your many inadequacies,” he said drolly.
That’s a yes, then.
In other words, I spent nine years nursing a one-sided love for this girl, and when I finally started a relationship with her, I was so clumsy about it that I couldn’t invite her to my chambers even once. I could understand his feelings—Elizabeth was a true angel by any measure, and former Vincent was hellbent on remaining in her good graces. He played the act of saintly partner too well, however, and Elizabeth was far too innocent.
From the sheer wealth of memories that I could no longer access, I could tell she meant the world to me. He strove to obey her will, to be worthy of her, and to that end, he smothered any part of his true self out of fear she would disapprove. That meant that Elizabeth was meeting the true me for the first time, in a sense.
“Ugh!” I relaxed utterly as a new wave of exhaustion rolled over me. I’d wasted ten years with virtually nothing to show for it, after all.
“Your Highness…” Elizabeth peered at me worriedly from where I lay among the cushioned leather seats. Even now, there was nothing but pure, heartfelt love in her gaze.
You overthought it, Vincent, you idiot. Showing weakness won’t make her despise you. She knows how hard you’ve worked to get where you are today. He was still the luckiest man alive, regardless of how he enjoyed his gifts. I struggled to understand how the pair had failed to meet eye-to-eye so completely. Wait a second… There’s no need to grow so despondent. She said she accepts me even as I am now, so if we couldn’t act as proper lovers in the past, we simply have to do it now.
I propped my head up on the back of the couch with my elbow, gingerly brushing her hair out of her eyes with my other hand.
“Do you love me?” I asked.
She blinked in surprise, and despite her cheeks flushing, she nodded. “Yes… I do.”
“I love you, too. I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you, and I’m sure that past Vincent was the same.” She started in surprise, but I continued. “Therefore…” I gave her a pleading look, and my lips curled into an impish grin. “Should you kiss me, I’ll feel a lot better.”
I watched for her response, but none came. She maintained her gaze, staring blankly ahead. After a long moment, I could practically hear the blood rushing into her head.
I knew it. I think I’ve gotten a proper grasp of their relationship’s limits now.
“Y-Y-Your Highness!” she stammered frantically, her fingers idly scratching the sofa at an alarming rate. “W-We can’t… A few rather p-pressing issues need to be, um…”
Let me guess—the old Vincent was too inept to ask for such a thing.
She continued fretfully, “W-We have been practicing, but, um…”
Practicing?!
“I-I suggested it, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to produce any results…”
In other words, these two lovebirds were so pure-minded that they thought the wedding kiss was a major hurdle and needed to prepare for it? To think they haven’t even kissed, though… What a clumsy courtship. How do you mess up this badly? That I’m even capable of such ineptitude is frightening.
I sat up properly, turning to face her. I took her unoccupied hand in mine and brought it to my face, letting her fingers brush my jawline. Upon realizing my intent, even the tips of her ears turned strawberry pink. Her large, limpid eyes seemed to draw me into their depths.
“Elizabeth…No, Liza.”
“P-Prince Vince…”
The distance between us shortened to the point where I could feel the tickle of her breath on my lips. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before my eyes closed. Then, at the last moment, Elizabeth moved.
“I-I’m so sorry!”
She pulled herself free of my embrace, pointedly facing away from me. I’d expected as much, however, and caught her wrist before she could stand and flee.
“I won’t let you go.”
I enveloped her and her sweet, floral-smelling green frills alike in an embrace. If neither of us could kiss the other, that meant both of us were running. If I truly felt like it, however—
“V-V-Vin—”
I put a finger to her lips to silence her. “Hush.”