Chapter 35

Percival Galette desperately tried to calm himself down.

Even now, Monette was still face down asleep on his arm. After embracing his emotions to her, in the end, even the sense of touch and the weight on his arm was enough to make his heart speed up and to turn his vision opaque.

He doesn’t think she’s cute. He’s thinking that she’s really cute.

“Calm down Percival Galette………..She’s wrapped up in a suit of armor………”

I tell myself this over and over again.

Monette’s whole body is covered in armor. I don’t know the color of her hair nor the color of her eyes. I’m not even positive that there is a woman in there.

If there was a stranger in this room right now, there is no way they would assume that there was a woman in there. Rather, they would be wondering why there is a suit of armor on the bed in the first place. If they were the clerk, they’d be yelling right now to have the suit of armor moved off the bed and tossed to the corner of the room.

Besides, since I’m giving the suit of armor an arm pillow right now, that stranger might actually decide to call a doctor, and said doctor would then run a thorough diagnosis of me because there is clearly something wrong with my head. This entire scene would be absurd.

The point is, Monette’s appearance is much to quirky.

If she were to stand quietly in the hallway, you would think she was part of the furnishings.

For some reason such an armor is appearing cute.

No, of course it is Monette inside the armor who is cute, so a feeling of romance isn’t too weird, but Monette is sleeping in a full body suit of armor.

Yes, it is a suit of armor!

Telling myself once again, I took a deep breath.

To calm down my heart which is ringing like a dinner bell, I close my eyes–dropping the room into complete darkness–and try to regain my calm.

“Calm down, I……the other person is armor, a full body suit of armor. What is so cute about it?”

I remind myself of the facts before taking a deep breath in, then breathing out.

Each word is sucked into my consciousness, and the raging ocean of emotions that disturbed me until now smoothed out.

At the same time that my thoughts regained order, a bitter smile began to leak out across my face as all the stupid thoughts that had been plaguing me until now culminated into one clear revelation.

That’s right, I’m in love with Miss Monette ……. So I conclude with myself.

I have never seen what kind of women Monette is underneath that armor, and I have no idea what she looks like without a wall of iron masking her. Even Alexis doesn’t remember what she looks like, and he was the one who called her ugly.

I do not know what kind of woman Monette is, her time in that armor is all that I know. I do not want to judge a woman by her appearance, but a full body suit of armor is obviously an exception. Far from how she talks or how she looks, I can’t even say I’m positive on what her gender is, and a person would be hard-pressed to distinguish her from a hallway ornament.

I cannot think of such a Monette as ‘cute.’ I’m sure that this is all just an overreaction to a feeling of comradery I have with her as two people working to dispel the prince’s curse. To mistake friendship for love, isn’t that too ridiculous for a royal guardsman such as myself?

Reaching my answer, I nodded my head inside my room of darkness.

Although Monette’s helmet was still resting on my arm, it no longer bothers me now that I have recomposed myself……although my arm is feeling a little numb.

“What in the world was I thinking? …….I wonder if I’m still a little sleepy.”

Denying my past actions with a bitter smile, I opened my eyes and looked at Monette who was still sleeping in my arms…….Before hurriedly turning my face away.

“What!? Too cute!”

And, that’s it.

Despite all my conclusions and denials, after all MonetteFull body armor still looks cute.

Once again the heat in my chest flares up as I look at her. The heart that should have already calmed down was once again ringing like a dinner bell, and all of my concentration was diverted to my numb arm where the helmet was resting. As for the numbness, I even started to consider the feeling pleasant and no longer wanted it to go away. The weight –

“What’s wrong with me!?” I am!!”

I was about to scream at the top of my lungs. I covered my face with my empty hand and muffled it back into my throat.

However, possibly noticing the noise, Monette moved, “nn……” and made a small grunt. The armor creaked against itself, and the helmet on top of my arm shook slightly.

*Badump* I thought my heart would bust out of my chest, and in a panic I shook the suit of armor while calling Miss Monette’s name.

“Mo- Miss Monette, sorry to wake you up.”

“Percival, are you sleepy again…..?”

“No, now I’m……”

“Then quit shaking me around, and go to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow……”

Monette was complaining while still half-asleep.

On the other hand, I wasn’t sure what to say and responded with an, “Yes, um, ah……” Miss Monette still hadn’t left my arms, and she has gone back to sleep even though she would be so clearly against the current situation.

It was a cheap reaction, but also cute. That’s why my heart was beating away like a drum even though my mind was yelling, “Calm down.”

Monette is seeing the current situation as, “Percival is just sleepy again,” so she is just doing her best to ignore the situation and go to sleep. So all I need to do right now is regain my sanity, release her, and stuff away these emotions…….

And I was going to do just that, but when I was about to call out her name to let her know I was moving, Miss Monette spoke up in a sleepy voice, “Good night.”

*Badump*

And I pulled the iron armor closer to my chest.

The heart that had until now been erratically beating like a thrashing bull had slowed down to a slow, steady pulse as if it were a lullaby hum.

In that moment I blinked my blue eyes a couple times……..

“………That’s unfair.”

I muttered noiselessly while once again covering my face with my free hand.

I looked at the silver hand resting on the bed. I have no idea what kind of hand is inside. I have no idea what Monette looks like or what kind of woman she really is. All I know about her is what I have experienced from this trip.

But even so, the Monette sleeping in my arms right now is unbearable, and I can’t help but to treasure her.

“Aah dang it, it’s perfectly……”

I have fallen in love perfectly.

Finally recognizing and accepting the emotions springing forth within myself, I slowly removed the hand from my face and released a deep sigh………,

“Aah what are you doing Percival? What are you doing…….?”

From the depths of my heart, I darkly muttered, “This is bad,” from within myself.

“So he acts strange whenever he’s sleepy?”

Gina sounded so surprised by this information that I ended up cocking my helmet to the side while eating breakfast.

Percival has the curious disposition that whenever he is sleepy, he will embrace and fawn over other people. It is something that is beyond his control, but after fifteen minutes goes by, his senses return to him and all the memories of that time remain with him.

After hearing the explanation, Gina looked at the three of us with a strange expression on her face, but still replied, “I see,” before continuing to graciously eat her croissant.

“I hugged Monette last night as well, but is there any connection to that person’s actions and his intentions?”

“Hmm, what do you mean?”

I’m not too sure what Gina means, and I tilted my helmet to the side once again while buttering up my warm yet firm toast. It is unpleasant that the crumbs would fall into my armor no matter how careful I was, but it was tasty, so I didn’t mind.

Gina seemed oddly satisfied with my reaction as she released a relieved sigh while forking up some of the tossed salad in front of her. She then picked out some of the sasami¹ and called Concetta’s name.

Currently sitting on Alexis’s knee, Concetta had been swiping the sasami off of his salad up until now, but after being called, relocated to Gina’s knee.

Alexis stared down at his own salad all the while muttering, “I like sasami,” after realizing that over half of it had already been stolen from him.

This was just another part of his bad luck.

Although, the most unfortunate person in this current situation would have to be…….

While thinking about him, I took a quick glance outside.

“So, that’s why I will not Percival into the room.”

Finishing off our conversation like that, Gina smiled elegantly while stroking Concetta’s head who was vigorously eating the sasami…….I did not agree nor disagree, instead opting to just laugh instead.

When I saw her smile, I knew there was nothing else to say. Turning my eyes to Alexis, I saw that he was wearing a conflicted expression, but as he turned his eyes to look over his shoulder, I could tell that he wasn’t going to say anything.

The veranda from which the morning sun was pouring through.

There, Percival swung about unconscious while being rolled up in a futon hanging from the ceiling.

It’s not that sad of a scene. Gina said that his punishment will end when the chord inevitable snaps, and he falls from the ceiling……

Well, he’s not that high up, and it seems like he is asleep right now. Well, I am impressed that he is able to sleep in that type of situation, but I should say as expected of someone capable of sleeping while embracing a full body suit of armor. If we leave him like that, he should be fine. Deciding so, I refocused my attention back to the toast and ignored any noise ongoing outside noise.

Bonus

Armored Girl Monette ∼ An extra story that didn’t fit earlier Pt. 2∼

“This is serious. Hot water is coming out!”

It was only Gina who had no idea what Alexis was talking about.

I completely skipped the shock stage and jumped to the stage where I looked down on him with pity while Percival patted him on the back saying, “That’s great.”

“…..Hey Monette, what’s the big deal?”

“Because he’s only taking cold showers for the past year, his brain has cooled down a lot.”

Gina tilted her head, clearly not understanding what I meant, but I wasn’t sure how best to explain it to her.

Still, after awhile she did start to understand what we were talking about as she sighed, “bad luck.” The tone she took while stroking Concetta who was resting on her knee shows that she clearly considered this someone else’s problem. Although it was probably because of her that we had hot water right now in the first place.

Thinking that way, I made sure that Alexis thanked Gina for her help. He did eventually after thoroughly enjoying his hot water bath.

Then the time came when everyone had finished bathing and gotten ready for bed.

Alexis was tirelessly fanning himself while asking if he could open the room’s window a little bit.

Is it that hot? Everyone’s expression was clearly asking this question. It was only Alexis who was stretching out his shirt’s neckline, fanning himself while standing next to the open window in order to cool himself down. He kept taking large breaths and mumbling to no one in particular about how nice the night breeze felt.

“Prince Alexis, have you come down with a fever?”

“No, I think it’s something else.”

“Different? But you’re hot.”

“Yeah, ever since I got out of that hot water……”

As soon as Alexis said the words, I wanted to jump on them.

You’re hot because of the hot water? I had also taken a bath, but the hot water that came out of the faucet was an ordinary temperature without too much heat. Rather, if you were to try and enjoy the night breeze while your hair was still wet with that water, you would most likely end up with a cold.

Although Alexis is enjoying the night breeze right now……..

“After a long time, your body became adjusted to the temperature.”

I had to hold myself back from laughing as I told him the answer.

“His high adaptive ability is actually working against him……..”

“This is also part of your misfortune,” I said underneath my breath, but Alexis ignored me. “It’s just hot in here,” he said, but as Alexis made his way back towards the bathroom, the fact that neither Percival nor Gina would look him in the eye did not go unnoticed.

1. The raws have it as sasami. When I looked it up, I mostly got results for sashimi, but I did get one place that defined sasami as fish fillet. I’m not a chef, and I can’t tell you what the difference is between sasami and sashimi, but the point is they’re both fish.