Chapter 63

Thump-thump-

The sound of a heartbeat began to echo in the room that had been filled with silence.

Whose heartbeat it was… there was no need to figure it out, no reason to find out.

Because the distance between me and Rebecca had already become so close that distinguishing whose heartbeat it was had become impossible.

“……Were you worried?”

Sending Estelle out of the room seemed like a very wise decision.

Even though I was the one doing it, even I thought that the actions I was taking and the actions I was about to take were scenes too embarrassing to show to anyone other than Rebecca.

……Or not, would the Saint also run away in disgust like our poor original protagonist Mikhail?

Well, actually, that’s not important.

“……”

What’s important is the fiancée with her face flushed red, trapped in my arms.

It felt like it had been a long time since I had seen Rebecca from such a close distance.

The last time I saw the Princess was a week ago, and even then, she was on my back, so I couldn’t get a good look at her face.

“……Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Huh?”

“About your cold… why didn’t you tell me?”

Rebecca skipped over my question about whether she was worried and threw her own question at me.

Was it a timid rebellion against the current situation of being held in my arms, unable to do anything? Or had that question been filling her mind even before she arrived here?

Only the Princess, the owner of these thoughts, would know the answer to that.

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“……”

“I was afraid my fiancée might be troubled by the news that her fiancé had caught a terrible cold. So I didn’t tell you.”

At least for now, since I was in the wrong, I decided to back down.

Admitting one’s mistakes and accepting solutions is also one of the virtues of being a good fiancé.

“……Do you think I would be troubled by just that news?”

The Princess pouted, as if offended that I thought so little of her.

Her slightly protruding pink lips showed that she was upset.

“Yes. I think you would be very troubled.”

“……”

“Didn’t you find out about my illness this time and come looking for me like this?”

The fact that this situation had occurred in the first place meant that Rebecca’s words were a lie.

After all, I had never officially informed the Princess that I was sick.

I had considered writing about my cold in the letter I sent saying I wouldn’t be able to visit for a while, but I decided against it.

At the very least, I had never told Rebecca that I was sick.

“That’s…”

Rebecca trailed off, as if she had nothing to say in response.

Now was the perfect opportunity to press the attack while the Princess was avoiding my gaze, trying to think of another excuse.

“A fiancée who finds out something her fiancé didn’t even tell her and comes directly to his mansion… and you say you’re not troubled? Has the meaning of the word ‘troubled’ changed in this world?”

“……”

“Isn’t that right? My fiancée, who rushed over because she was troubled by the news that her fiancé was sick.”

“……Ugh.”

Rebecca’s face turned even redder than before as she listened to my words, which hit her right at the core.

It was clear that the cause of the redness all over her face wasn’t just the heat from being close to another person.

It was the same one-sided pattern as usual.

I would say something embarrassing, and Rebecca would blush upon hearing it. That kind of one-sided pattern.

Honestly, I didn’t dislike this one-sided situation.

Watching Rebecca’s face turn redder with each sentence awakened a sense of curiosity in me about how a person’s face could turn so red.

But, as the saying goes, there’s a reason for the carrot and the stick.

Sometimes, a different pattern was needed, not the usual one-sided one.

“I was worried.”

“……Huh?”

“I was afraid my precious fiancée might catch a cold if she came to visit me for no reason.”

“……”

“That’s why I didn’t write about my cold in the letter.”

In my opinion, the timing for this couldn’t have been better.

This situation, different from the usual peaceful ones.

The first time Rebecca had directly expressed her genuine anger, or perhaps jealousy.

The situation where Rebecca, who had been shy and asked to be let down when I carried her after the hunting competition, was now quietly in my arms.

There couldn’t have been a better timing than now.

Unlike the previous pattern where I would never admit my mistakes and tried to win against Rebecca no matter how ugly it got.

Admitting my mistakes and clearly explaining why I acted the way I did—the complete opposite pattern.

This was the different pattern I had been thinking about.

“Of course, I know my fiancée is much healthier than me, and even if she caught my cold, she wouldn’t suffer as much as I did.”

“……”

“But sometimes, even such a cool fiancée is still human. Please think of it as the constant worry of a fiancé.”

The effect was almost immediate.

Rebecca was at a loss for words in response to my direct, heartfelt words.

She must have been flustered.

When she skipped over my question and asked her own, she probably expected me to be flustered or shameless.

But when her predictions or expectations are wrong, it’s natural for a person to be flustered.

And it’s also natural for the Princess trapped in my arms to look cuter than usual.

“Now it’s your turn to answer, Princess.”

“……”

“Were you worried?”

Now it was Rebecca’s turn to answer my question.

“……I don’t have to answer that…”

Rebecca shook her head, clearly not wanting to answer, but…

“I answered your question diligently, didn’t I?”

“……”

“Surely the sole heir of the Valencia Duchy wouldn’t just give orders and then run away…”

“……I’ll answer.”

Provoked by my words, Rebecca immediately declared that she would answer.

“……I was.”

“Huh? I didn’t quite catch that.”

“I was… worried.”

“Still didn’t hear you.”

“……”

It was a lie.

I had actually heard her answer clearly.

But I pretended not to hear, suddenly acting like I had bad hearing.

“……”

Seeing Rebecca’s trembling hands, I expected her to explode soon.

If I pushed her a little more, I might witness the cutest fiancée in the world.

So, I teased her while pretending to have bad hearing.

“……I was.”

“Huh?”

“I was worried!”

My prediction soon proved to be accurate.

“The person who didn’t write a single word about a cold in the letter to me! When I heard from your mother that you were seriously ill with a cold!”

“……”

“That’s why I was worried! That’s why I came here myself!”

Of course, the level of her outburst was much bigger than I had anticipated.

“……Pfft.”

In the end, I succeeded in witnessing Rebecca’s world-class cuteness, so I had achieved my goal.

“……Is it funny?”

When I couldn’t hold back my laughter, Rebecca’s expression turned cold, and she glared at me with icy eyes.

That probably wasn’t her true feelings either.

Embarrassed by her earlier behavior, she wanted to escape this awkward situation by making the atmosphere cold again.

As her fiancé, I could say it was a wise and excellent decision befitting an overpowered Princess.

“My fiancée was worried about me. How could that be funny?”

“……”

It’s just that, as always, her opponent wasn’t the best.

“Everyone in this mansion, even the Saint waiting outside, heard how loudly you expressed your worry for me.”

What kind of fiancé would laugh in such a situation?

“……”

After hearing my words, Rebecca’s face, which had returned to its original color, turned red again.

I watched her for a while, holding her in my arms.

“……Princess, do you like me?”

I said it in a way that sounded casual, almost cold.

“……I don’t like you.”

I had expected it, but after a while, Rebecca answered that she didn’t like me.

It hurt a little.

Of course, I hadn’t expected to succeed from the beginning.

But experiencing it firsthand was a bit different from just imagining it.

“My fiancée, who rushed over in a panic upon hearing that her fiancé had caught a cold, says she doesn’t like her fiancé… I find that hard to understand.”

“……”

“It’s fine.”

“……What do you mean it’s fine?”

I said I don’t like you, so what do you mean it’s fine?

The actual sentence was short, but it contained that meaning.

“Eventually, I’ll make my beloved fiancée say she likes me. So it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“……That will never happen…”

“I wonder. I’m not so sure it will never happen.”

“……”

Rebecca couldn’t continue her rebuttal, as if she couldn’t definitively say that it would never happen.

Just looking at Rebecca’s expression, it was clear who the winner and loser of this battle would be.

“……What is it?”

“I still have a bit of a cold, so my body is shivering.”

I held the future loser a little tighter.

“……Just because you look really sick, don’t think I’m doing this out of pity.”

“If being sick means I can be treated like this, I want to be sick forever.”

“……”

Rebecca looked at me with a “you’re hopeless” expression, but she didn’t refuse being held in my arms.

I held her like that for quite a while, until the thought of Estelle waiting outside came back to mind.

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