The Princess’s Love? (5)

Just as I was talking about Tanathia, a voice that should never have been heard came from behind me.

My body stiffened in response to that eerie voice, and I cautiously turned only the tip of my wooden sword to face the owner of the voice.

“I believe I just heard Tanathia’s name from your mouths. I’d like to ask if the Tanathia you were speaking of is the same woman I know.”

“……”

‘Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.’

Dozens of danger alarms blared simultaneously in my head, setting off warning bells for my life.

One thing was certain-Harold must never find out about the conversation I just had with Princess Mezlen.

If it were discovered that we’d been making baseless, insulting speculations about his deceased wife possibly having perverse sexual tendencies and enjoying such acts with Harold himself, there would only be two possible endings for me.

One: Getting a brutal “education” from Harold, who’d be furious about the insult to his wife.

Two: Harold taking out his rage on Mezlen, resulting in me getting dragged into the mess as an accomplice to the crime of assaulting royalty, implicating the entire Blackwood family.

Faced with this lose-lose scenario, I was desperately trying to figure out what to say when the shamelessly lewd princess-completely fearless-opened her mouth first.

“Ah, ah, H-Harold-nim…! H-Have you been well…?”

She spread her skirt wide as if this were some golden opportunity, greeting him with exaggerated formality.

Putting aside the question of why she was spreading her short uniform skirt like that (it wasn’t even a noble dress), the sheer audacity to casually call him “Harold-nim” in this situation was impressive in its own twisted way.

“Ah, it’s you again. I distinctly recall asking you last time to address me as ‘Professor.’ This is the academy, and regardless of your royal status, you’re just another student to me.”

“O-Oh, did you…? S-Sorry, Professor Harold…!”

“Well, it’s fine. Just don’t make the same mistake next time.”

…He really does mellow out when family isn’t involved. He’d be such a great guy if not for that one trigger.

Though even with that flaw, he’s still one of the more decent dukes out there.

If I could steer the conversation toward Mezlen and smoothly gloss over our earlier topic, that’d be ideal. Unfortunately, Harold didn’t seem willing to let go of Tanathia’s name once he’d heard it.

“Now then, I’d like to hear the rest of what you were discussing.”

“……”

“I’m fairly certain I heard ‘Tanathia’ from your lips. Was that in reference to my wife, Tanathia?”

“Ah, well, you see…”

“Y-Yes, Professor Harold… We were talking about Duchess Tanathia, your late wife…”

“……?!?!?!”

This crazy bitch, I swear.

How long had it been since I warned her not to bring up Tanathia’s name carelessly? And here she was, flapping her mouth without a shred of fear.

Just as the words “If you want to die, do it alone” were about to burst from my throat, Harold’s hands clamped down hard on Princess Mezlen’s shoulders.

-Thud!

“Eeek?!”

“‘Wife.’ Not ‘late wife.'”

“……Huh?”

-Crrrack.

“Tanathia. She will never be my ‘late wife.'”

“Ah, s-sorry, my bad…!”

Harold, openly radiating murderous intent toward the princess, and Mezlen, shrinking under his pressure as she stammered out an apology.

Amid this suffocating tension, the most intense emotion I felt was the desperate desire to escape this disaster as soon as possible.

‘I literally didn’t say anything, though.’

Why was I the one caught in this mess, suspected of having inappropriate conversations about Tanathia with Mezlen?

I really should have shaken her off when she grabbed me earlier. As regret flooded my mind, Harold’s killing intent finally subsided, and his grip on Mezlen’s shoulders loosened.

“…My apologies. I lose my composure whenever my wife is mentioned.”

“I-It’s okay… Sh-She must have been very dear to you…? Your wife, I mean…”

“Not ‘was.’ She still is dear to me.”

“S-Sorry… I-I misspoke again…”

“At any rate, would you mind telling me what you were discussing? I’m rather curious.”

“……”

Given the current mood, if we repeated our earlier conversation verbatim, both Mezlen and I would be dead. I had to carefully pick words that wouldn’t piss Harold off while still concealing the truth.

“W-We were discussing… what it was about Duchess Tanathia that made Professor Harold fall for her.”

“…Hmm, why?”

“W-Well, because Professor Harold still loves her so deeply. Even after her passing, you’ve kept her as your one and only wife in your heart for over twenty years.

We were wondering what kind of special charm Duchess Tanathia must have had to captivate Professor Harold’s heart so completely that he’s never been with another woman since.”

“Haha, so that’s what it was. Well, Tanathia was certainly a remarkable woman. She had a unique charm no other woman possessed.”

…Phew.

This level of conversation should be safe enough.

Thinking I’d narrowly avoided disaster, I cautiously observed the situation-only for Harold to immediately launch into his infamous wife-bragging.

“The first time I took notice of her was during the student council president election in our first year at the academy. Back then, she was just a viscount’s daughter from the borderlands, but her decision to run for president was the beginning of it all.

Before that, I’d only thought of Tanathia as the top female student in the magic department-someone unrelated to me, so I didn’t pay much attention. But when she, a first-year, ran for president, the campaign promises she brought up caught my eye. Do you know what they were…?”

Ah, fuck.

This is that pattern. The one where he suddenly starts rambling about his past in excruciating detail, making it impossible to interrupt until he’s said everything he wants to say.

Having fallen victim to this before, I could already feel the dread rising in my chest-but there was no stopping Harold once he’d started.

‘And since I’m the one who brought it up, I can’t even pretend not to listen…’

Honestly, every time I get involved with this princess, things just get exhausting.

To make matters worse, Mezlen-never having experienced Harold’s infamous verbal diarrhea-was listening with rapt attention, making it even harder to disrupt the mood.

“After being elected student council president, the first thing Tanathia did was strengthen internal unity. Back then, the natural next step after the election was…”

‘At least I didn’t get charged with assaulting royalty or something.’

With that thought, I resigned myself to being an unwilling audience to Harold’s Tanathia praise session. His relentless mouth finally stopped running-about two hours later.

“…And that’s how I ended up confessing to Tanathia that day. Even amid countless dangers on the battlefield, her noble heart… Ah, has it gotten this late already?”

“……Huh?”

“I completely forgot-there’s a dinner banquet for the faculty tonight. I was actually on my way to meet the magic department professor for it, but I got too caught up in our conversation.”

“…Two hours doesn’t seem like ‘a little,’ Professor Harold.”

“Well, no matter. The banquet shouldn’t be over yet, so I’ll drop by to show my face. You two should head back carefully.”

“Y-Yes… Ah, goodbye, Professor Harold…!”

“…Take care on your way back, Professor Harold.”

Only when the evening sun had nearly set did Harold finally release me and Princess Mezlen.

I was deeply grateful-and relieved-that the demon’s mouth had finally stopped running, at least for today.

Now that Mezlen had seen Harold’s true nature, I figured she’d finally lose interest in him.

“Do you understand now, Princess Mezlen?”

“……”

“I avoided saying this earlier because it would’ve sounded like I was badmouthing my master, but Professor Harold has always been like this. His love for his wife is so overwhelming that there’s no room for another woman in his heart.”

“……”

“So if you’re looking for love, Princess, you’d be better off finding someone who can truly cherish you-someone other than Professor Harold…”

“…No. It has to be Harold-nim.”

“……What?”

“Even after more than twenty years since his wife’s passing, he still carries such passionate love in his heart… If this isn’t love, then what is…?!

I-If I can make Harold-nim love me, that means I could receive that immense love…! I-I can’t give up…! I’ll make his heart turn toward me, no matter what…!”

“……”

…Sigh. I give up.

Do whatever you want. Love him, leave him-I don’t care anymore.