Hunger and His Highness
By the time Sheila and Wilfrecht descended the mountain, the sky had begun to turn an azure hue.
While His Royal Highness squinted at the beautiful scenery at dusk, Sheila was more concerned with her hunger than with her emotional state. She had been working reasonably hard, and her stomach was about to growl.
The only way to get through this was to not let the silence pass. Sheila opened her mouth without thinking.
“―― Your Highness is really beautiful, isn’t he?”
“Eh.”
“The sight of you standing in the sunset is a picture in itself. The setting sun dyed your beauty and made your golden hair shine like a flame. I grew up in the mountains, so I only heard about it, but the setting sun on the sea must be as beautiful as Your Highness’s eyes right now.”
The feeling that Wilfrecht was beautiful was genuine, so the compliments flowed smoothly. The person she was talking to was shaken by the sudden turn of events and turned bright red like the setting sun.
“W-w-what are you talking about?!”
“I just said the words that came into my mind.”
“What on earth are you doing to me?! At this rate, I’ll die of shame!”
“Your Highness’s death would be tantamount to the disappearance of beauty from the country.”
“Sheila-san!!”
Wilfrecht, who couldn’t stand it anymore, turned his back to Sheila and crouched down.
Even that figure was so adorable that Sheila tried to resume her praise, but she was interrupted by a giggling sound.
“Well, well. This is getting kind of fun, isn’t it?”
“Wah! Jorwerner-sensei….”
Jornwerner, who appeared at some point, was watching Sheila and Wilfrecht from inside the school building. Sheila frowned for a moment, thinking that she had been discovered by the wrong person, but it didn’t matter because most of the students had already found out earlier that she was close to Wilfrecht.
Jornwerner, resting his cheek on the window sill, tilted his head, and his blue-gray hair swayed. His enchanting azure eyes were fixed on Sheila, as if he wouldn’t let her go.
“As expected, you are interesting. I wonder what method you used to bring down His Highness Wilfrecht?”
“I can’t possibly understand why His Highness suddenly sat down. His Highness is a thoughtful and intelligent man, so there must be some profound reason.”
“Sheila-kun, your adoration for His Highness has been well expressed.”
Jornwerner glanced at Wilfrecht, who muttered, “A-adore…,” and smiled at Sheila again.
“And so? What is your reason for praising His Highness?”
“Um….”
Sheila’s gaze wandered around. However, she seemed unable to withstand the pressure of Jornwerner’s gaze.
Looking down, Sheila confessed in a whisper.
“――To disguise the sound of my stomach.”
“………. What?”
“It’s embarrassing, even for me, to have my stomach rumbling in front of His Highness… Someone laughed at me a lot before.”
In order to cover up the sound of her stomach, silence was forbidden. Sheila managed to squeeze out a topic that would allow her to continue talking for a long time, and then it happened.
Jornwerner, who finally understood Sheila’s thoughts, burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha!”
He bent forward in pain and sank down behind the window sill. His stomach must have ached from laughing so much, but he was still laughing at her. Sheila pouted her lips and huffed.
After a few moments, Jornwerner managed to climb up the window sill and reappeared. Wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, he looked alternately at Wilfrecht and Sheila.
Thinking it strange, Sheila followed his gaze and saw His Royal Highness the Prince, who was still crouching, plucking at the grass. He was looking just as dejected as he had been earlier in the herb garden.
“Your Highness?”
“… Please… don’t mind me….”
Jornwerner looked increasingly amused at the intensely depressed Wilfrecht.
“――To cause this situation just to cover up the sound of your stomach, your train of thought is truly unfathomable.”
“I definitely don’t want Jornwerner-sensei to tell me that.”
Because his words and actions were incomprehensible to ordinary people, Jornwerner was kept at a distance by people. For Sheila, who acted as a bulwark, his evaluation of her being “unfathomable” couldn’t be trusted as he was also eccentric.
“My eccentric fellow Sheila-kun, why don’t you come to my laboratory today? Let’s do something fun together.”
“…. Could you please stop saying that in such a suggestive way?”
Sheila had previously confessed to him about the spirit arts during a supplementary class. She knew that he just wanted to do research on it, but he had a pretty bad reputation, so Wilfrecht would definitely misunderstand. Just as she had a bad feeling, Wilfrecht stared at her with a pale face.
“N-no!”
Shaking his head, Wilfrecht stood up boldly.
“Sheila-sa…. Sheila, I can’t leave you alone with him. If you’re going with him, please take me with you.”
“Your Highness…..”
He was doing his best to protect Sheila from Jornwerner, when anyone else would have used her as a barricade against him. Sheila was impressed by his chivalrous appearance, which was quite different from his usual fragile impression.
However, since Jornwerner wanted to study the spirit arts, the presence of a third party wasn’t convenient for Sheila either. Above all, the thought that Villefrecht might really be noticed by this man made Sheila feel a sense of duty to protect the lovely prince.
Sheila jumped in front of Wilfrecht.
“――I understand. It’s already time to eat today, so tomorrow. I will be there tomorrow, I promise.”
“Sheila…”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I have never been treated badly by Jornwerner-sensei, even though he is always a bit weird to me. I’m confident in my ability to defend myself even if he did something unusual.”
After saying this with a smile, Wilfrecht dropped his gaze powerlessly.
Jornwerner smiled with satisfaction when she had finished.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be able to sit down and talk with you properly tomorrow.”
He reached out and gently stroked Sheila’s cheek. The touch seemed so seductive that Wilfrecht, for some reason, blushed.
Jornwerner smiled more and more and sent him a flirtatious glance.
“I’m sorry. The offer itself was tempting because I don’t get many opportunities to look at royalty, but I’m obsessed with him now. So much so that I want to think only about him as much as time allows me to, you know?”
Wilfrecht bit his lip and looked down. Sheila shook her head in frustration.
“Jornwerner-sensei. I’m not really sure, but aren’t you playing with His Highness?”
“Fufu, very perceptive of you.”
“It’s a wild guess.”
Sheila shook off Jornwerner’s hand while thinking bitterly that it was still the case. She didn’t want Wilfrecht, whom she had decided to protect, to have a hard time. To protect him meant to protect everything, including his mind.
“Jornwerner-sensei, please choose who you want to play with. ――If you say I’m interesting, don’t look away.”
His eyes widened unusually at the words with the intention of making herself the target. His charming smile was gone, and his face showed a puzzled expression that seemed almost childish. The smile he then showed while covering his mouth was somewhat innocent.
“――I didn’t expect you to hit on me back. I’m sorry, but my heart is pounding from the unexpectedness, like you usually do.”
“….”
Of course, Sheila’s remark was intended to redirect Jornwerner’s attention to her. However, she thought that he would make another unique super-interpretation, so she felt complicated when he took it in stride and seemed happy about it.
“…. What do you mean? I’ve never been like that by you, though, have I?”
“Not even once? Even though we’ve been through all of this and that?”
Jornwerner’s smile quickly turned into his usual mocking smile. Sheila forgot the turmoil in her heart for a moment, and she retorted.
“Please stop with the obscene remarks. Even when I’m with you, I feel nothing but fear, as if a wild predator were nearby.”
“Don’t you feel it? It’s okay, I’ll do something about it.”
“What are you talking about? Can I go home now? It’s really time for the cafeteria to open, and my stomach is at its limit.”
“Don’t be so dull, let’s try to seduce me again. My heart is now filled with excitement like never before.”
“I don’t care if you’re excited or not.”
Sheila couldn’t help but think that his very nice smile was shady. It must be because of his usual behavior.
Sheila didn’t realize that Wilfrecht was getting more and more depressed due to the familiar exchanges where he couldn’t even interject.
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