CH 542.2

I hate it!

“… I accept your apology, but please don’t bring these kinds of things to me in the future.”

“A, alright!… Ah, lizards…”

“I hate lizards too, okay!?”

“No, I mean, on your shoulder…”

Looking at Alicia-sama’s shoulder after Adry-sama pointed it out, I saw a little lizard.

“… N, nooooo!?”

Alicia-sama also noticed the lizard on her shoulder and clung to Adry-sama.

“Ta, take it off, please! Quickly!”

“Ah~ maybe that snake from earlier was chasing after this fella…?”

Adry-sama quickly caught the lizard and released it into the bushes, away from the direction of the snake, and it quickly ran away into the bushes.

“Look, Alie. It’s gone.”

Alicia-sama seemed to realize what was going on, and she quickly moved away from Adry-sama.

“I, I, I just lost my mind for a little because of fear, do, don’t misunderstand!”

Her face turned bright red, and she excused herself to me.

…… No, yes, that was exactly it, yeah?

“Yes, I understand.”

“… You don’t understand, do you!?”

“Eh? You are talking about your fear of snakes and lizards, aren’t you?”

“Ugh… t, that’s right! I haven’t said anything else!”

Alicia-sama turned away and resumed collecting herbs, so we also resumed with a strange atmosphere.

“… Hey you, there is a limit to being dense, okay?”

As I was collecting plants nearby with Mariel-chan, Ruby came up to me and spoke to me in a whisper while lightly bumping into me.

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“Don’t ‘what do you mean’ me. So you have no clue, after all.”

“Cristea-san… it’s about Alicia-sama.”

Mariel-chan pointed out to me, also showing an astonished expression.

“Alicia-sama? Everyone is poor with anything, so I’m not really judging her or anything…”

“That’s not it! Oh sheesh, this child is seriously dense!?”

Isn’t that too rude, Ruby!?

“Cristea-san… I agree with Ruby.”

Even Mariel-chan!?

“You see, Mariel told me that this girl has been hostile to you for some time now. And the reason for it.”

“Ahh…”

Being the prospective fiancée of His Highness Raymond.

I didn’t want to get entangled like that with her, but it was a complete misunderstanding… ah.

“Are you saying that maybe she thinks I have an advantage over her now that I know her weakness?”

“… Are you really saying that?”

“Eh? I’m not thinking of using it against her, though? As I said before, everyone has something they are poor with, so I’m not going to use it against her…”

Ruby was so irritated that he stomped on the ground.

“Ah… ahh, I see! So it’s like that.”

I’m not that close to His Highness Raymond, and I’m not aiming to be his potential fiancée or anything like that, so I didn’t even think of telling on her or anything like that.

I had heard that Alicia-sama and Adry-sama had known each other since childhood, so I just thought they were very close.

When I told this to Ruby and Mariel-chan, they both let out sighs… in defeat.

“I didn’t expect her to be this… to think she would be so desperately fighting a girl this dense, I’m starting to feel sorry for her…”

“W, well, this is how Cristea-san is, so…”

“Aren’t you two too heartless!?”

I was more hurt by Mariel-chan’s follow-up than Ruby’s words.