In one of the salon shared between high school and middle school division.

Called as the special room, it's a place where a small amount of people are able to gather and socialize together. There, Bertia and I had our lunch 3 months after my graduation from middle school division.

"So, your highness, how is your relationship with the heroine? I haven't hear any information on both of you [getting along] together."

While chatting and drinking our tea after we had our dessert, Bertia suddenly stared at me.

"Hmm? Heroine? Aah, the bird girl. How do I describe it, our relationship haven't even reached the level of introducing our names to each other. I don't even know her name. If I have to describe our relationship, she would be a suspicious person that I usually met."

The bird girl — the daughter of baron Inderon, Heronia.Inderon

Since Bertia would keep yapping about Heroine, and someone who I would seldom meet, I did some investigation on her.

That's why, honestly I knew more than just her name.

I also know that Bertia who would usually interact with me and my close aides, would sometimes unintentionally called the over familiar suspicious girl who always came and talk to us – baroness Heronia, [heroine] in a public place. And since then her hidden second name had become [heroine].

Different from the meaning that Bertia had when she called her [heroine], the people around called her [heroine] just to shorten her name. because her name is [hero]-nia.[in]deron.

To Bertia, it must be a silver lining to a dark cloud.

Well because of that although I do know about, Barronness Heronia commonly known as [heroine], there are a lot of social rules preventing me from saying so.

Even if I do know about her, if we haven't been introduced by someone, or haven't made our greetings, we have to act as if we're [Strangers].

Talking about her with other people may be fine but, no matter how often we met each other, or how often did we have small chat, it's the manners to not interact with her as if we're [acquaintance] or not calling each other with names.

That's why even now, [heroine] and I are still [strangers]

...... Although I don't know whether she understand this.

"H-How could this be?! Even after I had guided you to all those event spots.After meeting for year, why are you still on the level of unacquainted?!"

"Hmm? [guided] you say? As expected all of that is not a coincidence huh?"

During the time between Bertia's enrollments to the middle school division, until I have graduated from the middle school, there are a lot of time where I'm called by Bertia and met baroness Heronia there.

Since its Bertia, I thought that she would ask me out to a place where I'm more likely meet baroness heronia, the [heroine]. In truth, it's a favor from my cute fiancée so I don't really mind to actually be [acquainted] with her.

After we're [acquainted] I just need to ignore her as I see fit while keeping our distance and it shouldn't be a problem.

But, I do feel that situation won't be so interesting. Thus in the end, everytime I heard baroness heronia's voice or see her figure, I would smile and leave the place immediately.

"That- that's because I wanted your highness to be happy! That's also for the sake of the citizens in this world!! But because I'm a villainess, I can't directly meditate between your highness and the heroine. That's why I thought, at least I would help you by making the event start normally."

Noticing my smile has a certain pressure at it, she tried her best to make an excuse.

Although, as her fiancée, that's nothing but meddlesome matters.

The only merit, would be that seeing her figure of doing (futile) effort is sometimes (interesting) cute.

While baroness Heronia is quite a stalwart and interesting person, she's not as interesting as Bertia so I don't really admire her...... Recently there's even a part of me thought of her as a little bit troublesome.

In the first place, it troubles me when I didn't give her any roses she told [Your highness, thank you for the beautiful roses that you sent me earlier. I was so happy that I display it nearby my windows]. Furthermore, although we didn't have any interaction before, she would tell me about her bird—the light spirit and say [Pi-chan isn't easily attracted to people, but your highness seems different. She must like me being together with your highness]
......... At the time, hearing her story the bird-like spirit hurriedly wanted to make it a fait accompli and rushes to me in a great momentum, I was perplexed and I almost reflexively smashed that bird.

I immediately calmed down and dodged half a step to avoid it, in the end the bird-like thing couldn't stop in time and crashed into the wall. After that it couldn't fly straight for a while but that wasn't really my fault.

I only dodged it by half a step.

It's that baroness Heronia and bird like thing that asked for it.

That's why when she screamed behind me [No, don't mind it and you also don't need to apologize. Ah, but I have some problem with my studies, and I would be happy if you could teach me later], I just ignored her and leave the place.

In the first place, if that thing really crashed into me, there is a chance that I might get hurt, thus dodging it as self-defense would be a given.

Our not interaction like interaction usually has that kind of feeling.

I think that her speech actually does match Bertia's past life story and it might be interesting to observe her for a while but at the moment I don't have a speck of interest on her.

In the first place, most of the time her speech pattern is following a script and it's not really interesting that way.

It's like an ad-libing show that has a lot of interesting actor on it, and there's this new guy who act following the script and couldn't follow the flow of the stage.

Well if she's just forcibly following the [scenario] in the [otome game] that bertia always talked about. That's exactly what she's doing isn't it?

But I don't really care about that and I don't have any interest in it.

"Ac-actually I did ask Joanna-sama and the others to introduce Heronia-sama to your highness. But they would always refuse me by saying [Bertia-sama, that kind of kindness can hurt people you know?] or [There's nothing worst than getting helped by the partner of your illicit loves.]"

I'm sure because they don't know what's Bertia true motive, they thought that she was pitying baroness Heronia for having illicit love on me and would like for her to have a little bit of sweet memories in doing so and misunderstand her favor as an act of kindness.

Then, I'm sure Bertia who's downhearted and tilting her head right now as she tried to mimic lady Joanna's speech, didn't understand anything that they're trying to tell her.

"Bertia, I have my own reasons for keeping my distance with baroness Heronia. That's why, you don't need to try so hard and just look over me okay?"

"Your highness, did you did that because there's some complex reason in it? Of course it is, your highness wouldn't just let an adorable princess leave just like that. I'm sure there's some kind of strategy in it.]"

"Of course. I won't just (overlook) leave a (stupidly) cute princess just like that. I'm trying my best everyday you know?"

I half-heartedly told that to the troubled bertia. She seemed to leak out a she get it aura, so I think that she splendidly misunderstand it.

I don't even need to say that I just left the misunderstanding as it is here.

Taking my distance is mainly because [ It seems troublesome, and I don't want to be close to a suspicious person. Besides, I don't want to shorten my time on observing Bertia] and it's a valid [reason]. Besides, in my case, [(stupidly) cute princess] refers to Bertia and I actually don't want to (overlook) leave (any interesting thing that she does) alone.

See, even if I didn't clear the misunderstanding, I didn't tell any lies on her right?

Ah come to think of it, I remembered that [I won't overlook any of Bertia's interesting action]

I have something I need to tell her.

"Come to think of it Bertia, recently my friend always talked about you."

"Hmm? About me? What kind of thing did they talk about? I have no recollection of doing anything."

"......ummm, I think it's because there are a lot of things happening recently. Even last year there's a lot of happenings too."

I smile wryly when I looked at Bertia tilting her head having no idea what had happened.

"You, starting from last year, started to put some effort on interacting with my friends right?"

"Ah, about that. I did my best to prevent the reverse harem and their conquering routes."

Finally noticing what I was talking about, her expression brighten and held her chest up as if I'm complimenting her.

...... Didn't you know how much my close aides complained because of you?

On last year's summer.

Charles was having a red face with tears on his eyes while complaining about it to me about Bertia, who god knows where got ahold of the information that Charles was having a hidden crush on his brother's first fiancée candidate lady Anne, and had told her about it.

"It's not a laughing matter to have an admiration for my elder brother's fiancée! It shouldn't be known to anyone! I tried my best to quickly forget about my feelings and this is the outcome?! Your highness, miss Bertia is your fiancée right? Do something about her!! Before the feelings that I held deep down in my heart burst out!"

Looking at the usually cool Charles opening the door in great momentum and desperately pleaded to me in a hurry, I unintentionally smiled wryly.

By the way, Charles himself didn't notice it but in the opposite of the opened door, Bertia and the red faced lady Anne who are chasing after him is standing there.

Probably, since his love got exposed, Charles who started to panic ran away immediately without saying anything and feeling concerned about him, the two followed him here.

Trying to see when will he notice the presence of both of them, without noticing, Charles who started to get excited while pleading, started to talk about her love with lady Anne while crying. Having lost the timing to stop him, we could only listen to his heated confession.

"I fell in love at the first sight I met her."

"Just by listening to her voice, my heart... and my body started to heat up. But given her standing I can't do anything about her. I mean isn't it a given? She is the fiancée candidate for my elder brother. From her perspective, It's better to marry my elder brother than me, the second son of a duke that can't inherit its position. And after having that thought, it's even harder for me to act."

"It's started to become unbearably hard when I think about her, thus to forget her even a single day earlier, I started to go out with various women but to no avail. For some reason her figure just keep popping out in my mind. I painfully know that there is no replacement for her and even so, I repeating that thinking that one day I will forget about her."

"I loved her deeply, But as my loves grow deeper, my hate also grows. I mean think about it! Having stolen my heart until this degree, she was destined to be wed with my elder brother. Thinking that from now on, I need to look at the figure of her that had become my brother's make me feel that my heart is ripping apart."

The over-heated confession to her loved one who's not here (at least he himself think so).

About charles's love, I do have a slight inkling from how Charles looked at lady Anne, his reaction when meeting her, his blinking speed that increases to about 1.2 times, his slightly rising body temperature, his 0.01 second reaction to stop himself from being excited. But I didn't know that it was to this degree.

I think no one noticed that, the womanizer Charles would be so devoted to a single person until this degree.

Until hearing the word directly from Charles now, even lady Anne herself didn't notice it at all

I think noticing it would be harder since Charles is usually good at hiding his own emotion.

In the end, receiving Charles's heated emotion, I don't know if it's because of lady Anne's face that flushed until the explosion point, or just wanting to hear it directly from Charles' but at this moment, bertia suddenly shouted and closed the curtain of charles' love confession.

"What an unsightly figure, Sir Charles!! If you're so obsessed with her, why didn't you try to steal her from your brother?! Can you call yourself as a conquerable target with that!?"

"It's because I can't give her happiness more than my brother!! Even if my home has a few more titles other than a duke and you could somehow live as a noble with it, that in the end is an inferior version of being a [duchess] and the value in that is.................. mi-mi- mi- miss Anne?!!"

Charles who keep looking at me turned back to retort when hearing bertia's voice. Finally he noticed lady Anne's presence there.

With eyes that looked like he has seen ghost, Charles started to open his mouth like a goldfish...... Even I feel sorry for him.

"There you should tell her that [Even with that I will make you happy! Please choose me as your partner]!! Certainly, to live a life you would need to have a certain amount of wealth. But just with that, she wouldn't be happy! In a world where political marriage is a given it's even more so that she seeks for love. When a person who sincerely loves us trying our hearts from other gentleman, there is nothing more fabulous than that. To ladies that kind of this is a kind of moe...... I mean Admiration!! If we're able to live our life with someone who think about us this much, I think we would still be happy even if we were to lose our position!"

Holding his both hand, Bertia tried to convince him.

But, haven't recovered from the lethal damage, Charles didn't have any reaction to it.

"From then on, whether we could be happy depends on the value of the man! From then on it depends on you on how much are you willing to commit and how much love are you going to give to make us happy. I admit that trying to steal your elder brother's fiancée is no simple matters. But Since its still a [Candidate] fiancée the chances is not that slim you know?! From the rumors, Sir Charles's elder brother is quite a womanizer unlike the fake womanizer you. And miss Anne is quite troubled with it. Won't you feel regret if your beloved miss Anne got stolen by that kind of person? I don't want you to feel regret and become even more of a womanizer than you are now. When miss Anne finally became your elder brother's fiancée and couldn't feel happiness because of the political meeting, I also don't want to you heave a sigh murmuring [I don't have any right to console her when I didn't even fight for her happiness] while biting your lips and with eyes that looked at a distant photo... scene."

Bertia did you say [photo] earlier?

That is undoubtedly something from your past life right?

"If you want to act, now is the time! Even miss Anne prefers to be married to someone who truly loves herself rather than marrying a gentleman who doesn't love her even if that means becoming a duchess."

"Huh?....umm? Yeah?"

Lady Anne nodded when the talk suddenly pushed to her.

Ah..Charles eye's that has become hollow like a bottomless abyss had light returning to them.

"Is that true miss Anne?"

"Eh?I mean..."

Receiving both of Charles and Bertia's gazes that are full of expectation, the beet red lady Anne started wander her eyes around.

Even though she is troubled, she couldn't outright deny it since Charles is looking at her with a pleading eyes. Furthermore, what Bertia said is not totally off the mark too. While thinking about that and enjoying the scene in front of me, my eye unintentionally met with lady Anne's.

I could only smile wryly to her eyes that are looking for help.

After all this absurd situation is brought by my fiancée Bertia.

Maybe I should do a little follow up.
"Both of you, stop asking a maiden with such an attitude. Look, miss Anne looked like a ripe apple because of that."

To my words, Bertia seemed unsatisfied but Charles seemed to have noticed it and apologized to lady Anne.

"Ah, by the way charles, it's true that social standings are important but being my, the future king's close aides you should get a social standing close to it."

"Oh, that's true! Just as what your highness said, Even if you cant succeed the duke position and became an earl, by being the king's close aides, you will gain a suitable social standing. I'm pretty sure that miss Anne's family won't have any complain."

"No, but I don't even know if I would be able to become the king's close aides.."

"What are you even saying?! Isn't that depends on how hard you work for it? Isn't that right your highness?"

"That is right. Since I liked talented people, in that point, Charles is already a suitable candidate. What's left how hard you work for it. Both on being my close aides, and the right to marry miss Anne."

When I show them my smile, Charles' eyes went wide open.

"Hm but first you would need to confess your love to miss Anne and start doing your best so that you can be useful to me. If I saw potential in you, I might even lend you my help."

Charles nodded while staring at me.

From now on, it's up to his resolve and hard work.

Noticing my intention, the usual frivolous Charles changed. His eyes now bring a strong resolve in it now.

"Miss Anne, I have always admired you. You're like a high class flower and I gave up knowing that there is no way I could possess you. But if there is a slight possibility of doing so then i will bet on it. I want to be someone that could possess you. No I will become it. That is why, could you look over me?"

Charles who knelt in front of lady Anne has not a single doubt on his eyes.

Realizing that Charles is sincere about it, even though she is troubled, making her resolve, she put her hands on top of Charles' hand.

"I am a daughter of a noble, I'm not as ignorant as not to understand the meaning of political marriage. But If it is possible, then I would like to live happily by marrying someone whom I love and loved back in return like what misa Bertia said. Although I still don't understand what's like and love, I'm very happy about Sir Charles's feelings toward me. That's why, if you would like to work hard for my sake, then I will carefully think about my future from now on. Is this kind on answer acceptable...?"

Lady Anne looked uneasy.

In contrast to that, like seeing a glimpse of light in the world without hope, Charles smiled happily even more so than before.

"Of course, just by hearing that answer, I think I can even became a subordinate of a demon king."

...[demon king] isn't referring to me right, Charles?

Looking over both of them with a smile on my face, I noticed Charles suddenly shivered for a while. He must be too happy that his body started to shake.

Well thanks to such a thing happening, Charles are able to confess his love to his beloved princess, and I made a best friend (close aides candidate) that are hardworking more than ever. It's a result that made everyone happy.

After that Charles