WAACD 04

Chapter – 04

I… Fainted

“Hmm?”

“!?”

Our eyes met—Prince Leon, the third prince, and me. I froze completely, my face a mask of shock.

“Excuse me.”

With a polite tone that didn’t seem befitting of a five-year-old, he skillfully wove his way through the young ladies and walked right up to me.

*(Crap, crap crap crap, what do I do…!)*

I could feel my face turning paler by the second.

I was even starting to feel dizzy. And it definitely wasn’t my imagination!

“What’s wrong?”

“!”

Crap, he’s actually talking to me! What the hell do I do?!

*(Aria-chan, help me— wait, she’s totally staring at him!)*

“Are you alright?”

He was looking at me with an incredibly worried expression.

I could tell my complexion must have been terrible, but the real cause was my own confusion at being so captivated by him, and well, that—

“Eh?! Hikari-chan!”

Aria-chan’s loud voice was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot.

The third prince’s fifth birthday celebration, and I dropped out at the very, very beginning.

＊

When I woke up, it was the next morning.

I still didn’t have my own room, so I’d been put to sleep in my mother’s bed. The moment I opened my eyes—

“Ah… Lady Filia! Lady Hikari has woken up!”

“Huh…? Eh?! Hikari!?”

“Mommy!”

Charlotte forgot to use proper address and shouted at the top of her lungs. My mother, who had been sleeping beside me, jolted upright, and my father came running all the way from his office.

“Hikari! Are you alright? Does anything hurt?”

“Daddy, Hikari’s fine!”

I forgot all about sleepiness and everything else, simply wrapped in the warmth of both my parents’ embrace.

Well, I really messed up this time, didn’t I?

Fainting just from making eye contact with the prince at his own birthday celebration—that’s got to be the worst news ever.

Then again, is there any more ridiculous sight than a former high school boy passing out in front of a five-year-old prince?

Not that I’m a four-year-old girl now, though?

Ha ha ha… *sigh*…

“Mommy, what about Leon-sama?”

“It’s alright. He was a bit surprised, but the celebration didn’t get cancelled. The Duke of Serelite who was nearby—oh, Aria-chan—called out to the people around her, and it didn’t turn into a big issue.”

“Aria-chan!”

I’d been worried I’d ruined the birthday celebration, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

Wait, Duke? That girl is a Duke’s daughter?

I haven’t read many noble lady stories, so I’m not well-versed in this stuff, but I do at least remember that there’s Duke and Marquis, and Duke is the highest rank.

So I’d been spoken to by the daughter of the highest-ranking noble outside the royal family.

“Mommy, I need to tell Aria-chan I’m sorry for making her worry.”

She is a Duke’s daughter. It never hurts to curry favor.

That’s about ten percent of my reasoning. The other ninety percent is that, apparently, the first friend I made in this world is a huge deal to Hikari-chan, and honestly, right now I really, really want to see her and talk to her.

“Oswald, can you arrange that?”

“I’ll make it happen no matter what.”

*(Whoa… his eyes are dead serious…)*

So this is my father in work mode, huh. He looks super sharp.

Once the decision was made, he moved fast. Without giving anyone a chance to object, he left the room.

“Honestly, my lord has no mercy when it comes to my lady and Lady Hikari…”

“Hehe, is that so? That’s what makes him wonderful, you know?”

“I am well aware.”

Charlotte smiled with a mix of exasperation and respect, looking almost like a mother to Oswald.

*(What a heartwarming scene.)*

That warm atmosphere was shattered by the door slamming open—

“Madam, this is urgent!”

“Head butler, have you never heard of knocking?”

“Gah, Charlotte’s here too?!”

An unfamiliar handsome man entered, immediately cowed by Charlotte’s authority.

“No, more importantly, Madam! From His Majesty the King! It’s from His Majesty the King!”

*(Stop stammering and spit it out already!)*

“Calm down, Muze. Take a deep breath first.”

My mother soothed the head butler and made him take a deep breath.

*(So this is the head butler…)*

His first impression was completely at odds with the title.

“My apologies. It seems His Majesty the King has said that tomorrow, Leon-sama would like to visit here…”

“Oh my, I wonder why?”

“Apparently, because Lady Hikari was the only guest he barely got to interact with yesterday, he would like to speak with her, even if just for a little while…”

“…”

What should I do, Hikari-chan?

I feel like I’ve just set up another fainting flag?!