26. The Shepherd Girl

26. The Shepherd Girl

“Princess, how many times have I told you to stop causing trouble?”

“It wasn’t me!”

Claire shouted as she was carried away, dangling by her armpits, by the maid.

However, Claire’s shouts echoed emptily in the air, and the maid impassively carried the princess towards the dormitory.

Claire felt truly wronged. She knew she caused trouble often, and she knew the maid didn’t believe her words because of it, but this time, it really wasn’t her fault. If anything, she was the one who was sexually harassed, not the perpetrator.

… Or rather, Claire didn’t even consider that she was the one who had proposed marriage first.

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

“It’s true!”

Regardless of the truth, her sense of injustice remained, and Claire struggled, twisting her small body in the maid’s grasp, trying to escape.

However, the small strength that matched her small body made escape seem futile, no matter how hard she tried.

“Let me down!”

“No.”

The maid replied impassively. Her expression was devoid of any humanity. If the stoic expression of the Northern Grand Duchess was a flower on a cliff unreachable by anyone, this maid’s expression was like a statue made of steel.

But the maid’s inner thoughts were different.

‘Cute.’

Cute.

So cute. The princess wriggling in her arms, like a cat caught by a person, was incredibly cute. The soft skin touching her body was cute.

If I had children, would they be this cute?

The maid looked at the princess, who was wriggling her arms and legs with a grimace. Due to her posture, the princess didn’t notice, but if one looked closely, the corners of the maid’s mouth were subtly twitching.

Suppressing a smile that threatened to form unconsciously, the maid silently carried the princess to the dormitory.

Upon arriving at the dormitory, Claire looked at the maid with her cheeks puffed out.

Ever since she was little, whenever she made this expression, the attendants would always come and ask if she was okay. Now, it had become her way of expressing her displeasure.

Of course, the maid paid no mind to the princess’s displeasure and led her into the dormitory room. The maid quietly sat Claire on the bed and brushed her disheveled hair, which had become messy from the commotion on the way.

As her hair was being brushed, Claire began to doze off from the warmth. The thought of just falling asleep like this, forgetting all about her grievances, filled her mind.

A warm room, hair being brushed softly, the touch of hands tidying her hair….

… But just before falling asleep, Claire suddenly woke up and shouted at the maid.

“You tried to brush this off like this before, didn’t you!”

“That never happened.”

“Liar!”

She had tried to get away with it like this in the past, and now she was trying the same method twice! Claire expressed her indignation to the maid again.

“Really, I didn’t do anything this time!”

“I understand.”

“I swear! She groped my chest!”

Pause. Hearing Claire’s words, the maid stopped her hand mid-brush. Her expression was still calm, but she clearly looked flustered.

‘Well, it would be strange to just let it go if someone touched the Princess’s chest!’

Claire, thinking the maid was finally starting to listen to her, continued triumphantly.

“She was poking and groping my chest! This time, I really didn’t do anything strange!”

Thinking about it now, it was quite an astonishing thing. Who in the world would dare to grope a princess’s chest? What audacity! Was it a message like, ‘Get angry if you want, if you’re annoyed, I’ll secede to the Grand Duchy’?

Claire continued to explain the events in detail, imagining various intentions of Skadi in her mind. Of course, she conveniently omitted the fact that she had been the one to propose marriage first, which was disadvantageous to her.

The maid, who had been listening quietly to Claire, looked at Claire when she finished speaking. Their eyes met.

‘Good! She must have realized the seriousness of the situation by now.’

Claire inwardly prayed that the maid would get angry at the Grand Duchess. She hoped that the maid would be enraged by the treatment of the princess, send a telegram to the Imperial family, and thus the Emperor, her father, would resolve the incident swiftly.

In that process, she might even be able to claim her magic sword as a reward for her innocence. After all, wasn’t the reason she impulsively proposed marriage to Skadi because if they married, the magic sword would become shared property between them, rather than Skadi’s alone?

And if that happened, she could freely touch that beautiful and magnificent magic sword. Since she would be the owner, she could openly lick or suck the sword without any problem!

Claire looked at the maid with sparkling eyes. She looked at the maid’s face, which was difficult to read, as she had been strict about controlling her expressions since childhood.

Although her inner thoughts were still hard to discern, Claire was at least certain that the maid was on her side. After a moment of thought, the maid finally opened her mouth.

“That’s impossible.”

“What?!”

Her tone suggested she didn’t believe it at all. Claire, taken aback by the maid’s unexpected response, continued.

“It’s true! She touched my chest….”

“You are exaggerating a slight accidental touch during your playfulness, Princess. It’s similar to what happened before.”

“That…! I apologized! I didn’t know it would become such a big deal back then!”

“Still, Princess. Who in the world would dare touch a princess so carelessly? The Northern Grand Duchess isn’t some lesbian succubus, is she?”

“I swear it’s true!”

Claire shouted with a voice filled with moisture. However, the princess’s words, which had been too often false due to her past misdeeds, reached no one, much like the words of the boy who cried wolf.

The princess could only weep alone on the bed, in solitude.

——

“Priscilla.”

“Yes?”

After parting ways with Golden Sun, I asked Priscilla, stroking her hair as we walked together.

Her soft red hair flowed through my fingers, and Priscilla’s pleasant scent, unique to women… unique to Priscilla, spread around.

Priscilla no longer resisted my touch. The fact that she no longer felt shy around me meant we had grown closer, so how wonderful was that.

Anyway.

“Is it possible for the Empire to allow same-sex marriage?”

“Same-sex marriage?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing my question, Priscilla answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“No.”

“… No?”

“Yes. The law states that marriage is between a ‘man and a woman.’ While cohabitation is not an issue, marriage cannot be officially recognized. Unless the law changes.”

“But….”

Didn’t the princess just shout to everyone that she wanted to marry me? When I asked that, Priscilla pondered for a moment, resting her chin on her hand.

“That… I’m not sure either. Perhaps she was just saying it?”

“You think so?”

Considering that she made absurd threats about throwing me in jail for touching her chest, it’s possible that her proposal of marriage was also just an unreasonable demand.

Well, the princess was taken away by her maid, so it doesn’t matter which it was now.

I stopped wagging my tail and instead wrapped it around Priscilla’s waist. Priscilla then naturally clung to my side.

Priscilla took a deep breath.

Her face slightly flushed, I felt a sudden urge to tease her and reached out a finger to poke her chest.

“Hiyat!”

Cute.

Excited by Priscilla’s lively reaction, I poked her a few more times, and soon Priscilla looked at me and shouted.

“W-why are you doing this all of a sudden!”

“Did you not like it?”

I tilted my head and asked Priscilla.

Did she dislike this kind of teasing?

In my past life, such things happened often. A prank that was actually something the other person disliked, leading to a strained relationship because I continued to tease them thoughtlessly.

Even without my own experience, I had heard plenty of warnings in school bullying prevention classes to be careful not to let such things happen.

If the other person dislikes it, you should stop. If you continue to tease someone after they tell you to stop, it’s not teasing, it’s bullying.

With that in mind, I asked, but Priscilla hesitated, blushed, and finally managed to speak.

“Of c-course I didn’t like it….”

After saying that in a voice barely above a whisper, Priscilla quietly hugged my tail. Her face bright red, Priscilla took a deep breath.

Hmm.

Strangely, in this world, ‘if you don’t firmly deny it, it’s considered an affirmation’ is common sense. Since she didn’t strongly deny it, it seemed Priscilla was okay with this kind of teasing.

It might be dangerous common sense, but that’s how this world works, so I can’t help it. I’m just glad I didn’t do anything Priscilla disliked.

Relieved, I continued walking, poking Priscilla’s body more as we went.