Volume 3 - CH 6

I dropped Fol’s hands in surprise and turned around. Standing behind me was Alicia, who looked bewildered, and Prince Lancelot with a grim expression on his face.

“Ah, um… His Highness Prince Lancelot was looking for you, Cyril, so I showed him the way, but… perhaps I picked a bad time…?” 

That was Alicia’s baffled voice. 

However, as Prince Lancelot was glaring at me, I wasn’t able to answer. While my silence was out of courtesy towards the Royal family, a large part of it was me unconsciously knowing that my answer would just irritate him. 

“Miss Alicia, thank you for showing me the way,” Prince Lancelot said flatly. 

It clearly carried the meaning of ‘I have something to discuss with Cyril, so leave.’

Although Alicia looked as if she wanted to say something, the moment our eyes met, I shook my head. She might have wanted to stick up for me, but there was no way that I would get her involved. Whether my intentions got across to her or not, Alicia did a curtsy and said, “It was my pleasure.” 

Then, she turned to face me and mouthed, “I’ll see you afterwards” before leaving the room.

And so, Fol, Prince Lancelot and I were the only ones remaining in the room. The servants left as well, as they were ordered to by Fol and Prince Lancelot. To tell the truth, I wanted to leave with them as well.

“Cyril, you refuted my concerns the other day, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then why were you two gazing into each other’s eyes just now?”

“Hang on a second, Lancelot.” 

Fol wedged her way between us protectively. That alone made Lancelot’s face contort in displeasure.

“Fol, why are you shielding Cyril?”

“Stop it. I don’t know what you thought you saw earlier, but Cyril was just absorbing my powers for my sake. So you’d best stop with your unjust suspicions.”

“….your powers?”

“Yes. You know about my illness, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, but…”  

‘But didn’t you get cured?’ His mouth curled into a sad frown. 

As I saw his expression turn into one of worry, it was apparent that he hadn’t been told any details. It would be disrespectful of me to interject, but I could painfully relate to his anxiety. Thus, I made up my mind for that exact reason. I didn’t want him to have these doubts for even a second, so I opened my mouth.

“Please rest assured, Your Highness.”

Not just Prince Lancelot, but even Fol turned around to look at me in surprise. They definitely reacted this way because they had never experienced someone else cutting into a conversation between members of the Royal family. I pretended like I wasn’t aware of that and reassured him, ”It will be alright. This doesn’t mean that her Magical Overcharge Illness is cured, but we’ve established a method to deal with it. However, Her Highness has to refine her skills for releasing her own powers.”

“So, doesn’t that mean that nothing has changed from before?”

""

“No. The efficiency with which she releases her powers now is on a completely different level than before. Therefore, in her current condition, she’s not experiencing any trouble. But we still have to improve her skills a little bit more as preparation for any unexpected events.”

With her current efficiency, she had to devote a lot of time and energy to release her powers, and as she grew older, her magical powers would replenish faster. Consequently, the burden on her would become larger as well. In order to prepare for this scenario, she had to improve her technique. Of course, she also had the option of letting me absorb her powers, but I felt like it would rub Prince Lancelot the wrong way if I were to mention it so I chose to remain quiet.

“It is as Cyril says. What you saw was him teaching me. I am usually taught by Sophia, so I’ve gotten considerably better, but I still can’t release them as well as Cyril does.”

“So that’s how it is…?”

I watched reason return to Prince Lancelot’s eyes and let out a sigh of relief. But my breath caught the very next moment, because Prince Lancelot said, “I’m sorry” and bowed his head.

“Your Highness, you mustn’t lower your head carelessly.”

“It’s just the three of us present, so there’s no problem. Moreover, in no way did I lower my head carelessly. You’ve been of great help to Fol. It’s only natural that I would apologize since I’ve suspected the very person who helped her twice already.”

“…I understand. I shall accept your apology, then.”

“Alright. I truly appreciate your generosity, Cyril.”

I came to the conclusion that, rather than rejecting his apology, it would be better to accept it and conclude this conversation. It seemed that, whenever we talked about things concerning Fol, he would lose his composure. But when we didn’t talk about her, he seemed perfectly rational. Somehow, he was very similar to Lady Sophia in that sense. Prince Lancelot’s personality might be more agreeable than I had previously thought.

Even though the conversation was supposed to conclude beautifully with that, Prince Lancelot’s eyes turned to the figurines of Fol and I, displayed on the top of the office desk.

“What are those? Could it be that you were just like this when you performed during the Festi—owowow!”

Prince Lancelot yelped as Fol began to pull at his ear all of sudden.

“Cyril and I performed on different days. Geez, you’re always jumping to hasty conclusions!”

“B-but, isn’t this the first time that you’ve praised someone like this, Fol? That’s why I thought that, as long as it is what you wish for, I would sound Cyril out…”

“You’re the one in the wrong for trying to get rid of people, geez. You’ve always been like that, driving anyone who would come near me to ruin, haven’t you?”

“That’s because none of them are suitable for you, Fol.”

Somehow, this felt extremely dangerous. I just wished they would at least have this kind of conversation in private, without me present.

However… While I believed that Prince Lancelot held romantic feelings for Fol, from this conversation alone, it sounded like he wanted Fol to get married to someone suitable for her.

Did this wish stem from familial love…? No, even if someone had romantic feelings for another person, it wouldn’t be strange at all to wish for that person’s happiness the most.

“At any rate, there’s nothing going on between you and Cyril, right, Fol?”

“Cyril was of great help to me and is my cherished underclassman. Nothing more, nothing less. Although, as someone who has helped me greatly, if he were to tell me, ‘If you feel indebted to me then go out with me’ or something of the sort, I might do it.”

“…Cyril?”

“I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t dare voice such a despicable request,” I replied with a sigh as Prince Lancelot glared at me.

While this was a quite rude response to a Prince, I wished for them to allow me this much,  as I was absolutely fed up with giving him responsible answers. 

In any case, the misunderstanding had now been resolved. However, during the whole process of teaching Fol how to release her powers, Prince Lancelot kept watching me from the side, his gaze filled with unsaid words. 

…Really, just give me a break.

And so, I managed to survive this scene of possible carnage unharmed and walk out of the Student Council meeting room. Then, as I was walking down the halway, I stumbled upon Alicia who had been lying in wait for me. As soon as she spotted me, she quickly rushed over to me in a jog.

“Cyril!”

She clung to my sleeve without warning. Apparently, I had caused her quite the concern.

“I have worried you.”

“Rather than giving me an apology, please explain to me why you and Fol were gazing into each other’s eyes!”

Et tu, Alicia…? 

When she mouthed ‘I’ll see you afterwards,’ she wasn’t actually worried about me.

“Lady Alicia, what you saw there was a healthcare procedure.”

“I don’t want to hear such excuses. I’ll tell Miss Sophia. I’ll tell Miss Sophia that you’re using healthcare procedures as an excuse to gaze into Fol’s eyes.”

“I beg you, please stop.”

Alicia was simply too formidable.

“To be precise, we weren’t actually looking into each other’s eyes… did it look that way?”

“Cyril, I think that you should at least be a little self-aware of the destructive power your sweet smile holds. How many young Ladies do you think you caused to die of cuteness during our School Festival performance?”

“Um, I have no clue…”

“It’s because you’re unaware of these things that the number of your victims rises! Victims like me…”

“……………” 

I wasn’t able to say anything to these words that were uttered with a smile. What she said was basically saying that her heart was misled by my perfunctory kindness. Even though it wouldn’t have been surprising if she criticized me and told me to take responsibility, Alicia smiled before thrusting her index finger1 in my direction before saying:

“There–fore, restrain yourself a little, okay?”

“…Yes, certainly.”

As someone who had ended up taking Prince Alforth’s role after crushing Alicia’s first encounter event with him, refusing her was not an option. This wasn’t something that I could tell Alicia, but… I was truly sorry.

Nonetheless… she didn’t reprimand me but instead warned me so that I wouldn’t get into trouble? She might have also wanted to keep the number of her rivals from growing, but still… She was truly, really strong-willed.

It was so strange. How did she become like this when the original’s work Alicia was just an ordinary girl?

“By the way, Cyril, what were you two actually doing?”

“I was checking up on Fol’s health.”

“So you really have done something, Cyril…?”

Normally, I wouldn’t openly declare even the fact that Her Highness Folcenia was sick. While Alicia was present when Fol collapsed, she was only told that Fol had an incurable illness. Therefore, even though she knew that Fol had been saved, she couldn’t have known how. Nevertheless, she probably suspected something due to the fact that Lady Sophia and I were often together with Fol. Alicia asked me, her eyes searching, but I shook my head silently.

“I can only say that Fol is on her way to recovery.”

“I see…”

Alicia gazed into my eyes. Knowing her, she probably had a lot of thoughts regarding today’s incident.

“I don’t know any details but I am very happy that Fol got better. So, please deliver my gratitude to the person who saved her. Thank you very much!”

Yep, the cat’s out of the bag, I thought as I looked at Alicia, who grasped both of my hands and smiled broadly.

But–

“…Cyril, what are you doing?”

Suddenly, a penetratingly cold voice echoed. 

An impulse to cry out ‘Why me again?!’ hit me like a truck at the sound of my Lady’s cold voice, which I somehow seemed to have gotten used to hearing lately.