Chapter 15
“What?! Why?”
“Why, you ask? We’re not even dating, so why would we kiss?”
Even though she knew he was the Crown Prince, her voice naturally sharpened. Kasselard spoke while concealing his bewilderment.
“Because we have to guide. At least a kiss is needed for it to count as guiding, right.”
“Kissing is deep contact guiding too. Her Majesty the Empress said it doesn’t have to be done, so I’m trying to find another method.”
At Ephinia’s deliberate, almost brazen response, Kasselard was momentarily left speechless. He collected himself and spoke again.
“I don’t want to kiss you either. But…”
“If you don’t want to, then don’t.”
Ephinia’s quick retort left Kasselard aghast. Did she just cut me off? A mere Baroness? But the surprises weren’t over yet.
“So while I was waiting here, I thought about something. Your Highness doesn’t want to receive guiding from me… and I think there’s a way to make sure the fact that I’m guiding you doesn’t get out.”
“Say it.”
Kasselard was displeased, but he spoke with the thought that he might as well hear her out. His mood was bad, but since Ephinia also didn’t want to be his Guide, it was worth listening.
“If we’re not going to do deep contact guiding, I think we need close contact equivalent to that for guiding to be possible. Guiding is based on skinship, after all, right?”
“That’s… true?”
But they weren’t planning to kiss or have s*x. At least for now.
“So I would, um, attend to Your Highness’s…”
“My what?”
Perhaps sensing something suspicious, Ephinia’s face flushed slightly.
“H-How about I attend to you during your baths?”
“……”
“Y-You can’t do it with just holding hands, so there’s no choice! I know that in the imperial palace, even the children of baronial or viscount families sometimes attend to members of the imperial family…”
The chief steward or head maid of the main palace sometimes even held baronial or viscount titles themselves. Managing the interior of the imperial palace was an important duty.
“Hah. So that’s where you were going with this.”
Kasselard scoffed in disbelief and brushed his hair back. The gesture looked strangely seductive, so Ephinia almost had her gaze stolen, but she barely managed to regain her composure. Kasselard snapped at her.
“Are you a pervert?! Stop spouting nonsense and get out!”
“B-But if we’re going to guide, there’s no choice!”
“And while you’re at it, you’ll get to grope my body to your heart’s content? Just be honest. You want my body, don’t you. You’re trying to seduce me like this and become the Crown Princess, aren’t you?”
At that, Ephinia couldn’t stay silent. Who was trying to ruin whose life here!
“I don’t want that either! But because of your awful match rates with other Guides, if Your Highness’s condition gets worse, they’ll force me to do deep contact guiding anyway!! You don’t want that either, do you?! Do you really want to marry me?!”
The timid young lady who had fled the ballroom with tears in her eyes was nowhere to be found. With an intensity that seemed ready to burst into flames, Ephinia shouted, and Kasselard felt himself shrink back slightly.
“A-Are you crazy?! Of course I don’t! Why would I marry you?!”
“Exactly! So just receive guiding! Don’t wait until you’re on the brink of rampage and make me do something disgusting! Let’s just finish it in advance!!”
D-Disgusting? Doing it with me is disgusting?
Kasselard felt deeply wronged, but he couldn’t refute her logically. It was true that he needed guiding, and it was also true that he didn’t want to be entangled with Ephinia.
When he fell silent with a scowl, Ephinia went on to explain something she had additionally confirmed by asking the Empress.
“Her Majesty said that if I guide you and stabilize your waves at least five times by the day you turn twenty-seven, she’ll release me immediately. It’s a newly developed magic tool from the Mage Tower. Apparently, when you wear it, it shows your wave levels as numbers.”
Speaking in an unusually lively tone, Ephinia took out the magic tool. It was a bracelet-type magic device, and she said numbers appeared on the crystal set in the center.
When Kasselard accepted the bracelet with a reluctant expression and put it on his arm, it let out a beep. In the center of the crystal, now glowing red, an ominous number appeared. 12980.
“I heard that it’s considered stabilized only when the waves are at 300 or below.”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.