Chapter 13

“······Did you like it? When I… did that… for you.”

Rebecca, unable to look me straight in the face as if she felt guilty about something.

Her tone, unlike the usual confident and strong way she spoke as a princess, was trembling for some reason.

As if she really wanted to know what I thought, as if my answer was quite important to her.

“······Are you asking about my feelings?”

I wondered if the princess had misspoken in the process of thinking, so I asked again.

“······Yes.”

Rebecca still couldn’t meet my eyes and only gave an affirmative answer.

Looking at Rebecca like that.

“Well, what do you think?”

The desire to tease the princess began to creep up inside me again.

It’s not that I wanted to tease her from the beginning.

Rather, at first, I was flustered. I couldn’t understand why Rebecca suddenly said such a thing.

But after thinking about it for a while, the flustered feeling turned into understanding.

‘It’s my first time, right?’

Even though Princess Rebecca has an overpowered setting, she’s still just a girl who hasn’t even had her debutante yet.

Even if her opponent is me, her sworn enemy fiancé who has been beating and teasing her for three years.

It must be her first time having this level of physical contact with someone of the opposite sex.

So it’s natural for her to react like this.

“······Huh?”

“What do you think I felt, Princess?”

So I wanted to tease her even more.

Princess Rebecca, who shows perfect abilities in almost every aspect, has such an immature side.

People call this gap moe, don’t they? Whoever came up with it, it’s a really well-made term.

“······How would I know?”

“That’s a shame. I thought the genius Princess Rebecca, who has been praised since childhood, would know this much easily.”

“···.”

Zing-

A sharp gaze filled with killing intent stared at me.

But I pretended not to see it. In times like this, pretending not to see or hear is the best way.

It’s a lesson I learned from dealing with Rebecca for three years.

“···.”

Just a moment ago, the princess couldn’t meet my gaze, but now I’m deliberately avoiding her gaze. It’s a situation you can’t help but laugh at.

The first to speak was Rebecca.

“Stop talking nonsense. How did you feel?”

“Are you that curious about my feelings?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“May I ask why you’re so curious?”

“······Huh?”

Rebecca seemed flustered by my sudden question.

She must have been embarrassed to be suddenly questioned in a situation where she thought she was the one interrogating.

She probably didn’t expect me to suddenly ask her the reason.

And attacking at this timing is the basic skill of a teaser.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t feel very good? So I don’t understand why you’re curious about my feelings.”

“That’s… because you might have felt differently from me…”

“If you’re really curious about my feelings, why don’t you try receiving a kiss from me?”

“······What did you say?”

Rebecca, asking me as if she had misheard.

But as I said before, Rebecca’s hearing is in very good condition.

“If you’re curious about my feelings, why don’t you try receiving a kiss from me? Then you’ll know how I felt.”

“···.”

“Of course, since you’re embarrassed by this level of physical contact, you naturally wouldn’t receive it······.”

“······Do it.”

“······Huh?”

What. Did I mishear just now?

It seems the problem wasn’t Rebecca’s hearing but mine.

Otherwise, there’s no way Rebecca would tell me to kiss her······.

“Do it. A kiss.”

“···.”

“I’m curious about that feeling too.”

Rebecca’s pretty and clean red eyes, which had been avoiding my gaze until now.

Were looking straight at me.

This isn’t it.

***

“Do it. A kiss.”

Rebecca, who outwardly spoke with some confidence.

‘······How did it come to this?’

Inwardly, she was deeply regretting what she had just said.

It was something she would never have said if she were her usual self.

What’s so good about Albert, her sworn enemy who always teases her, that she would ask him to kiss her?

She would have rather asked for a chance to punch him hard, but she wouldn’t have requested such an embarrassing physical contact.

Yet, she blurted out those words because.

‘······He’s so annoying.’

Her fiancé, who received her kiss and acted like it was nothing, was too annoying.

She was ashamed of the fact that she ended up doing it and that Dorothy caught her, and she wanted to hide in a mouse hole right away.

Her fiancé, who teases her as usual as if nothing happened, was extremely annoying.

“I’m curious about that feeling too.”

She blurted it out.

“······Huh?”

Albert, who heard her bombshell declaration, seemed very flustered.

The annoying smirk he always had was gone, and his cheeks were slightly red, as if he was really surprised.

Thinking that she had finally gotten back at her fiancé, who always got beaten up.

“Why are you like this? Do you not have the guts to kiss me?”

Her mood also improved.

It was a sense of victory she hadn’t felt against Albert in a long time.

She had always been perfect.

Whether it was swordsmanship, magic, or even studying and asset management, she excelled at everything.

Moreover, since she was already set to be the next Duchess of Valencia.

She had lived thinking that no one in the empire could surpass her.

– What did you say?

– Shall we make a bet?

Until she met her fiancé, Albert Zernias, three years ago.

At fifteen, the first time she met her fiancé, he was a person who could be defined in one word.

– I’m disappointed that the princess is only at this level.

The most annoying guy in the world.

He always proposed games or bets to her. Every time, he cleverly won and flicked her forehead.

He never used his swordsmanship or physical abilities, which she could never beat.

He was the most irritating person in the world.

At first, her pride was deeply hurt.

She had lived believing she was perfect.

But her fiancé, who didn’t seem to have anything special, kept beating her.

She wondered if she was only this much and felt depressed.

But if you ask her now if she still feels bad every time she loses, she wouldn’t be able to answer confidently.

Of course, since she has a strong competitive spirit, it’s true that she doesn’t feel good.

But if you ask if she feels as bad as the first time she lost, that’s not the case.

Maybe she’s grown fond of him from all the fights. Or maybe she’s resigned to the fact that she can’t win.

It could also be because the penalty is just a flick on the forehead or a slap on the wrist.

– From now on, let’s change it so that the loser grants the winner’s wish.

So she tried even harder at chess this time.

Thinking that she would somehow get back at that annoying guy.

She didn’t think about what she would ask for if she won.

She had never beaten Albert at chess even once, and she had never thought specifically about what she wanted from her fiancé.

In the end, she didn’t need to think, and she granted Albert’s wish of a kiss on the cheek.

She couldn’t understand why he would ask for such a thing when he didn’t even like her.

But since she had no other choice as the loser, she had to do it despite the shame.

The first kiss on the cheek, though forced, wasn’t bad.

She told Albert it wasn’t good when he asked if she felt good, embarrassed.

But inwardly, she thought it was better than expected.

Although being caught by Dorothy afterward was an unexpected event.

– ······Did you like it? When I… did that… for you.

Asking that was quite impulsive.

She thought it was okay, so she was curious about how Albert, who directly received it, felt.

She asked out of pure curiosity.

– Well, what do you think?

But her fiancé, instead of saying what he thought, asked her back and watched her reaction.

As if he wanted to tease her even more.

It was so annoying and irritating that she couldn’t hold back, and as a result, she ended up in this situation.

“······Huh?”

Her fiancé, looking at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“Do it.”

Outwardly acting confident, but inwardly regretting why she said that… she was.

From afar, it was a comedy, but up close, it was a tragedy.

“······If you talk like that, I’ll really do it.”

Albert, who had been making a dumbfounded expression for a while, declared as if telling her to stop if it was a joke.

As if he would really do it if she crossed this line.

“Yes, I said do it, didn’t I?”

“···.”

And she crossed that line spectacularly.

Thinking that she was finally winning against Albert for the first time in a long time and really curious about how Albert felt when he received her kiss.

She declared without backing down. If you’re going to do it, then do it.

“······I’ll do it.”

As soon as her declaration ended, Albert strode towards her.

At a distance where their faces were about a hand’s breadth apart, he said as if it were the last time.

“I’ll really do it.”

“···.”

Here, Rebecca hesitated slightly.

She vaguely sensed that there would be no next question after this one.

She knew that what her fiancé was talking about would really happen after this.

“······Yes.”

“···.”

But her answer didn’t change.

As she expected, Albert no longer asked for her opinion.

Chu-

Along with the soft sensation on her cheek, the unique friction sound she had heard once before on her fiancé’s cheek was also heard on hers.

Thud-

At the same time, the same sound came from the door.

“Rebecca! Is it true? Did you kiss Prince Albert······.”

Although the protagonist was not her maid Dorothy but her mother, the Duchess of Valencia.

“······Ah.”

The fact that her cheeks turned red as if they would burst this time too.

Again, it’s a fact that would only make your mouth hurt to say.

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