novelBertia (14 years old) [2]
| ← Ch.07 | Ch.09 → |
Maybe its because of Silica-jyou's guidance, after that Bertia's rampage had been contained somewhat. Although it didn't completely dissapear.
One time, she dragged Cynthia-jyou to the student council room and suddenly requested Bard to teach them horse-riding.
As Bard is usually like the kind older brother who didn't really mind things, he didn't think further and accepted her request. Although I fear everything is an [Event] to help bard to take Cynthia-jyou to his arms.
In the end, for some reason I got dragged into all of these and ended up taking his guidance. At that time, I noticed that Cynthia-jyou had already mastered horse riding and there is nothing more to teach her.
"Eh? Wasn't Cynthia-sama supposed to be frail because of the disease that's spread throughout the capital? Because of that you didn't exercise much and shut yourself inside your mansion, living your life reading books everyday? That's the setting... I mean rumor that I've heard about you."
Bertia was tilting her head Cynthia-jyou who, instead of using the side saddle used by girls to ride a horse, gallantly rode on the back of the horse while having fun.
"Ara?I didn't know where you hear such a thing but as far as I've lived I had never gotten ill to such a state. Even though I liked reading books, I loved horse riding just as much. I even rode around my territory with my horse sometimes."
To Cynthia-jyou's answer, Bertia is confusingly tilting her head.
Why did she even overlook such a basic things, I thought. I approached her and whispered to her ears.
"Bertia, did you forgot that the plague that hit the capital few years ago was contained in no time and there's almost no causalities?"(Cecil)
"Ahhhhh.... I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THAT!"
Finally understanding the situation, Bertia screamed suddenly and started holding her head.
In the end, instead of practicing horse riding, we went and traveled horseback.
Recognizing each other's skill, Bard and Cynthia-jyou started to have a race in no time. It's a speed where Bertia who only learned how to ride a horse in a side saddle couldn't catch up. So it ended up as Bertia riding together with me in order to catch up to them.
To the unusual speed, Bertia was scared and starting to had tears on the end of her eyes and hold me tightly. It was interesting so I made a little prank like rising the speed even more and held her in an unstable way.
Then, one time, to get over Shaun's?bad feelings with Joanna-jyou, she created a plan to make a hand make cookies executed it.
In regards to that matter, In addition to the fact that Joanna-jyou is Shaun's political marriage partner, since she liked Shaun, she went along Bertia's plan.
To be exact, I think half of her reason was because of her maiden like heart who wishes to gift Shaun something, the other half is because Bertia's plan seemed interesting.
With this and that, they went to execute the self made cake plan.
Let's talk about the result first.
Joanna-jyou who's basically good in everything, is just clueless on making cookies.
Being a sore loser, she tried to challenge a lot of things but in the end, all of them failed.
Either it's burned like a charcoal, having good looking cookies but hard as stone, or places that needed to be hard is soft somehow.
The taste also varies from being too sweet, salty, or sour. no matter what you just couldn't think of the thing as delicious.
The cookies that Joanna-jyou made, made everyone noblewoman guiding her, including the great cook Silica-jyou, tilt their head in confusion on the mysterious object created by her.
Even if it's on the not very tasty but still edible, upon giving it to Shaun, of course his response would be quite lacking.
Looking at his figure, Joanna-jyou looked a little bit downhearted.... but I think that's good in a sense.
She who's confident and is perfect at everything, made Shaun a little uneasy with her. Looking her like this, he started to think that in the end she is just a normal girl.
The miss perfect Joanna-jyou, felt really downhearted because she [can't do it]. Trying to console her, Shaun started to loosen up to her and even his feeling to protect her starts to bud.
At the end when she regained her spirits, [Ah, so Your highness, Shaun wanted to feel being depended on sometimes] and she started to understand the trick to handle him. At times she would periodically depend on him, or act depressed in front of him. By doing that, Shaun started to gain confidence as a man and started to recognize her as [someone to protect and support].
Even if it's initially an act by Joanna-jyou to make Shaun care for her, without noticing it, Joanna-jyou who's comforted because of Shaun started to exude a calmed down, dignified feeling.
That's why even if the plan is a failure, the result is alright.
By the way Bertia's reaction to that is [ It's just as I intended it to be!]. Although she sounded haughty, she didn't really do anything and she said that while averting her eyes.
_______________________________________________________________
The year passed by with all of those happenings, and we the third years graduated the middle school in spring without any trouble.
Then in exchange for us who went into first year of high school, the student council is succeeded by the former second year, Kulder and Anne-jyou.
Being a second years, the days passed normally since Bertia's lifestyle doesn't change that much.
That is fine. That is fine but.... coming here personally, I'm unsatisfied with something.
[Unsatisfied]
Yeah. I think this feeling is called [unsatisfied] or [irritated].
Usually, I don't get swayed much by my own feeling. So rarely having this much negative feeling on me, I think I certainly are feeling something akin to [anger] at the moment.
because......
"Hey, Bertia? Ever since we entered high school, although I always heard about your stuff from my friends, I have a feeling that I rarely see you despite of that. Why is it?"
Taking the second serving of the tea into my mouth, I smiled when asking Bertia who's trying to take the snacks into her mouth while tilting her head.
Then, acting as she's thinking, she exclaimed [I just realised now that you say it] and nodded energetically as if she just realized it now
"Since your highness' conquering event mainly occurs on the first year of middle school, after you went to high school there is rarely such an event. That's the reason why your conquering difficulty is at max, and was even said to be un-breachable. In contrast, the conquering event for Kulgan-sama is at its most now that he had became the student council president. In comparison prince Shaun's conquering event is less this year but will become more starting next year. Then excluding your highness, the conquerable 3rd year group.... I mean the ex 3rd year group, Charles-sama, Bard-sama and Nert-sama has a little bit of event here and there since the rival noblewoman is still in the middle school division. I was busy preventing those event and i ended up unable to meet your highness."(Bertia)
To Bertia who's smiling from ear to ear with a prideful feeling, I didn't break my smile and answered with a [hnnn]
In the first place she just wouldn't interfere with [my event]
Rather than that it seems she's trying to push me to baroness Heronia
...... Even though my fiancee is supposed Bertia, you.......
Argh, why is it? Her actions are usually interesting, but this doesn't feel interesting at all.
On too if that, recently I'm even more irritated because 2 of the things that my friend told me.
Because of that, I asked her out for a food today.
"Come to think of it, Bertia it seems that you're getting along with Kulgan recently." (Cecil)
Kulgan who does his shadow training cum work, often come to my place to meet up.
He recently would ask on my opinion as he's troubled with Bertia while having an embarrassed face.
Everyday.....
"Bertia... you requested to call kulgan as [Ku-aniki] didnt you?"(Cecil)
Almost everyday, she would come to the student council room and requested [Please let me call you ku-anisama ] to Kulgan with glittering eyes to Kulgan.
Recently, Kulgan would hold his head everytime he refused her and she started sulking like a small critter or when he see the illusion of a fox ear and tail on Bertia's back.
I'm pretty sure the fox ear and tails are not an illusion but Kuro standing behind Bertia. Since she stood right behind Bertia, she must have casted a spell to let people see her own tails and tails superimposed on Bertia as a prank.
I remembered the scenery as that pseudo girl like fox spirit made a prank on me without any expression.
"Yeah that is right. I mean instead of having a rival noblewoman interfering event, most of his event is his troubled event because of his sense of justice and my interfering event. But since now I'm only a distant relatives of his at this moment, it's hard to interfere with the heroine. Which is why, I figured I would just have to be in a good sibling relationship with him, interfering with his event as a doted little sister!!! Besides even in my past life I have no elder brother or sister so I kind of like admire that kind of existence."(Bertia)
"..... I see"(Cecil)
I'm pretty sure the last part is her real intention though.
Her cheeks started to turn red as she speaks happily. She's cute..
Now with this I finally understand why that serious kulgan would recently say [Erm, as a compromise can she please call me {Ku-anisama} instead?] with a slight expectation in it, while sending me an apologizing gaze.
But..... as I thought this is not interesting.
"hey, Bertia. As my fiancée what do you think people will think when you started to call Kulgan who's not even a close relative to you with such a familiar nickname?"(Cecil)
"Eh?"(Bertia)
"The people around would surely think that [even though Bertia. Evil. Nochesse-jyou is the crown prince's fiancée, she's also close with other man] or even [She's a loose woman who's thinking of cheating]"(Cecil)
"I, I have no intention to do such!!"(Bertia)
"Even if you might think so, the surrounding people wouldn't necessarily interpret as that you know? As they exaggerate it further at the end it'll become a really interesting thing. Even you who has finished your social debut would know how nasty the rumor in the social world is"(Cecil)
"No, I mean....... I know"(Bertia)
I purposely show her a worrying expression and asked for her agreement while tilting my head. Bertia easily agreed to it.
Actually there are a lot of ways to go around this, and even if she started to call Kulgan as [Ku-anisama] I'm pretty sure her brilliant friends would brilliantly do their follow ups.
But that is [not interesting] thus I think that this is the best solution(for me).
Ahh but at this rate, Bertia would feel really down and it's kind of sad..
"Hey, Bertia. If you want an elder brother so bad, you could even call me cecil-anisama if you want"(Cecil)
For a second her expression started to brighten up after having heard my words. Although she seems to have realized something and she started to shake her head.
"Your highness Cecil is your highness Cecil. You're my fi-fi-fiancé. You are not my brother."(Bertia)
She seems very embarrassed when mentioning [fiancé], and clearly stated that we're not of siblings relationship.
As soon as I hear those words, I feel that the irritating feeling inside me started to subsidize.
Such a weird feelings.
"Then in exchange you can just call me [Ceci]
"Eh why did it become like that?"
"Because you looked so lonely. Besides you wanted to call kulgan as [ku-ani sama] right? Now let's try saying it"
"No, I-I mean for me [Your highness Cecil] is enough"
"hmm? is it better to call me [Ciel] rather than [Ceci]?"
"Nobody said anything about that!!"(Bertia)
"hnn?"(Cecil)
"No, I mean..."
"hnn?"(Cecil)
"I've been saying.."
"hnn?"
"........"
"hnn?"
"........... iel-sama"
Continuing to tilt my head as I smiled, Bertia finally gave in and called me[Ciel-sama]
I could hear the slight [Ci] tone in it though. But in the end since no matter if she call me [Cecil] or [Ciel] it's still way more friendly sounding than your highness.
If I can be greedy I wanted to her to call me without [sama] but that can wait until we're married.
I need to leave some interesting things for later.
"Great job"(Cecil)
To the beet red Bertia I stretched my hand over the table and patted her head.
She was startled and leaked out a [mya] when I pat her head. Behind her, kuro moved her fox tail so it looked like Bertia has grown a tail and is wagging it.
.... Kuro I don't need that kind of service
As if saying [Is this good enough?], Kuro the small fox eared maid peeked out from behind Bertia with an expressionless face. I can only reply with a wry smile to that.
"Now then, lets get into the main topic"(Cecil)
I smiled while retrieving the hand I used to pat her head.
"Main topic...? I thought today is just me reporting for the preceding event while we have lunch?"
To the confused her, the thought of [ ah so she think it was because of that] popped in my mind and I shake my head slowly.
"Bertia, you have something that you haven't gave to me right?"(Cecil)
"Something I haven't gave to you? I wonder what that is"(Bertia)
Feigning ignorance is useless you know?
You do have something in mind don't you
Now, you're averting your eyes unnaturally.
Ah just now, she retracted her chest a bit.
So that's where it is. Since the slightly long chain with the necklace that i gave to her is dropping down, i think that's where it is.
"Although you gave it to the others, I as your fiance didn't get anything. Aren't you a bit cold? When I heard about this from Charles and the others, I was sad."(Cecil)
"T-Thats not it. It's just that I don't think that you need it.... besides I was too full of myself and the design is...."
hnn so its not needed by me huh....
Furthermore is there anything with the design?
I see
"Since i need it, can i have it?"
"Eh? your highness wait a se.."
Turning turning my depressed expression to the usual smile, I stretched my body and quickly pull out the chain hung at her neck.
Of course I do that carefully so that she wont feel any discomfort.
"It's inside here right? my... no our share"
I pulled out the pendant that's hidden in her cleavage that has grown into quite a sight.
It's setup like a watch with a lid, as I pressed the upper part of it, the lid opened immediately with a gachin sound. I took out 2 earrings from inside.
" Yo, Your highnessss!!"
"Ah I apologize, keeping this posture must be hard on you."
Getting my objective, I closed the now empty pendant, and tried to return it back to her cleavage using my hands...... I do think of doing that, but Zeno and the maids standing behind started coughing at the same time so I gave up and just let go of the necklace.
I do with they let me do such a little thing... Oh well it's already far out of the gentleman's code so I can't really complain about it.
"Yeah this looks beautiful"
The two earrings hung up in respectively.
In front of me there's Bertia, beet-red as if steam is coming out from her, sulking and taking small sips on the tea.
Leaving that aside.
Both of the piercings are identical in shape but totally different in colors.
One of them is a bigger red colored stone surrounded by small navy colored stone.
Another one is a bigger milk-tea colored stone surrounded by amber colored stone
And below each of those 2 stones, it is connected with a red chain as if binding those two stones together.
Hmm so it's each of our eye color and hair color with a red chain(red strings of fate).
She does think of a very cute thing sometimes.
"If I recalled it correctly, the other guys only have a simple design with a single stone filled with [dark element protective power] right? The color is the same as this one though as they represent their own partner's color."
"I mean..... since your highness will be together with the heroine, there is no need for a protection for her light power. Besides, we're only engaged temporarily that's why I thought there is no need to give it to you........ Since I can't really give it to you, I thought i might as well make the design to look a little bit hurt..... elaborate.
Bertia tried to make an excuse as she sulkingly put her fingers inside the teacup and swirl the insides.
....... I've been saying this but Kuro, there is no need for you to portray her feelings and superimpose a set back ear on her head.
I have to admit that it's cute but it's a needless option.
"So Bertia feels fine even if my behavior became something like a drug addict?"
"That is absolutely unallowed!! Because your highness is your highness that you're lovely."(Bertia)
"Then, you should protect me so i can keep being me. So i could by my own will find the girl that i liked"(Cecil)
"Of course!! I will stake my pride as a first rate villainess and protect you so that you can decide it on your own!"(Bertia)
"Okay then, I'll be having this" (Cecil)
"Yes please feel free to take it. It's just that the design is a bit...." (Bertia)
"Ah... Certainly, if worn by a single person this looked like a little heavy as an unrequited love. That's why Bertia should wear half of this earing. That way this won't feel like unrequited love anymore."
"I see! I understand, leave it to me!"(Bertia)
"Alright, come here I'll put it on your ear"?(Cecil)
"Okay"(Bertia)
With a fast paced tempo of conversation, I didn't gave her the time to think and proceeded to talk. I put the milk tea with amber colored earings on her.
As soon as I did that, I muttered [Zeno] with my usual smile. His expression is reluctant as he cast a magic to do as I intended to.
Feeling the signal, Kuro's hair stood up. She must have noticed the magic and stared at me.
"Kuro? What happened?" (Bertia)
Noticing how unusual Kuro behaves, Bertia with her perplexed expression looked back and forth between Kuro and me.
As she did that, I quickly put the red and navy stoned earings and asked Zeno to finish the task by casting the same magic.
"Don't worry, She just reacted because I asked zeno to cast some magic"?(Cecil)
"Magic? What kind of magic is it?"(Bertia)
"hmm? It's a magic with an earth element to?fix the position of the earings, making it unable unequip, so that we won't lose such an important earings and water magic so that the earings will always be clean."
"Eh?Huh? Unable to unequip you say...?.. Ehhhh?!"(Bertia)
"By this, it looks like we're mutually loving each other, and I don't get to be branded as a sad man with un required love."(Cecil)
"That is great..... wait just a minute!! Looking like mutually loving? this makes us like an idiot-couple!! If it's worn by a single person, we still can make an excuse of being [coincidence]. But wearing a same pattern like this, there is no way that excuse will work."(Bertia)
With a time lag, her mind finally starts working and she finally noticed it. I laughed sheepishly while looking at her.
Yeah, this is fun.
"It's appealing that we're both a couple tied by fate. Isn't it interesting and good?"?(Cecil)
"That is not good at all! The heroine will become angry!! She'll end up going for another route instead"(Bertia)
"You don't have to worry, after all baronness heronia has a (persistent until the level of annoying) strong will."(Cecil)
"Still, there is still the chance of it happening!! Kuro take it off... eh? You can't take it off? Zeno is way stronger?"(Bertia)
Without any expression from kuro, she silently pointed at Zeno making Bertia even more flustered.
"Then Zeno-sama, please take it off!"(Bertia)
"I deeply apologize Bertia sama. If I disobey my master he'll be very scary later..... I mean a servant couldn't go against their master's wishes."(Zeno)
Pulling his back straight, Zeno apologized with all of his heart as he bowed. His gaze is totally averted from Bertia though.
"Yo, your highness!!"(Bertia)
"It's Ciel right, tia?"(Cecil)
"Saying such a thing at this timing, such an incredible destructive power..... That's not it!! There's something wrong with this."(Bertia)
"Ah, it's about time for the afternoon class. My adorable tia, we'll meet again tommorow at lunch here okay?"(Cecil)
"Alright!.... wait a second, this is really wrong! Why would our atmosphere be something of a sweet loving couple?! Your highne.... Ciel-sama, are you teasing me?"(Bertia)
I squinted my eyes when she called me[your highness], as I do she corrected her speech immediately. Bertia is really honest.
nn? It's not like I'm threatening her with my gaze you know?
"You think too much...... well then, I got to go."(Cecil)
I overtalked a little since being with Bertia is so much fun.
Actually if I didn't hurry it up, I might be late to the meeting.
"Bertia don't be late alright?"(Cecil)
"Your hi.... Ciel sama, Listen to me! Please take off this earrings"(Bertia)
Behind me, it seems like Bertia is saying something, I don't really heed to it and left the place.
As a crown prince of a kingdom, unless there is a special reason there is no way I am going to be late.
"Ciel-sama!!!!"(Bertia)
It feels good to hear Bertia calling my name from behind.
As I expect, talking with her directly is a lot more fun rather than hearing it from other.
Without noticing it, the feeling of [Irritated] and [Unsatisfied] was gone without me noticing.
| ← Ch. 07 | Ch. 09 → |