“For now… the two of thee should talk. Boy. Princess.”
“P, Prince…”
The prince, who seemed calm, clapped his hands and announced so, smiling bitterly, as if he pitied the princess a little under the circumstances.
“It would be awkward and confusing with the goddess and Little man’s friends here, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, ah… yes, but…”
“Such is your duty as well, boy. Please face it diligently.”
Kron, Shinobu and Sadiz were especially worried that it would get complicated.
To be honest, I’m also confused about various things, so I nodded, thinking that it would be better to calmly unpack the difference in perception between the princess and me.
“…… Princess…”
“Fah? What?”
“…………”
“What is it, Earth? Do you have something to say to me? Hmm, Phianse and Earth have something to talk about, do they?”
No good. Her mind is all over the place…
” Let’s go outside for now.”
“Aha. We’re holding hands.”
“…………”
Pulling on the princess’ hand, we step outside.
Maybe she’s not mentally present, or maybe she’s running away from reality, or maybe she’s gone crazy from an overdose of embarrassment when she realized that she had misunderstood that I always liked her.
And…..
「Hey, Tre’ainar…」
『Hmm?’』
「Um… hey…… I don’t think so, but… I understand that the princess misunderstood a lot of things about me, but…」
To be honest, it was shocking, but if it was just a simple misunderstanding, it might not have gone this far.
So, when I looked at the situation of the princess now, I had a thought.
「Maybe… the princess… it can’t be… about me…」
『Tis something that should be heard from the mouth of the person herself, not something I can answer for you.』
「…… yes, but…」
『Rather, just get on with it. We have much do, how long will this nonsense last…』
Tre’ainar let out a sigh of exasperation. With a look that said “Don’t keep messing around” in this situation.
I mean, Tre’ainar didn’t seem surprised by the situation at all, but did he know it?
“…… Princess…”
“Fuih?”
“…… Phianse!”
“…… Hah! Ah… ah… eh? …… Earth.”
We got out of the dungeon and faced each other on the endless sky.
When I called her name, the princess finally seemed to realize the situation while looking around with a huff.
“…………… Oh.”
“Oh… erm…”
“Oh, it’s you…”
“No, no, no, your manners…”
Awkward.
“”………………””
Even though we were facing each other alone, the atmosphere was extremely awkward.
But we can’t keep dragging this on…
“Everything…”
“Huh?”
“Everything… from the beginning…… has been my misunderstanding… wasn’t it?”
My heart ached when the princess weakly asked me that.
“I’ve always thought that I would marry Earth in the future, and even though Earth’s first love was Sadiz, I thought he intended to marry me in the future, and I thought he liked me during our time at the Academy… but all of it, from the beginning…”
And by looking at this face, I knew the answer to the question I asked Tre’ainar earlier.
I mean, that’s what it was.
Anyway…
“I’ve always… liked Sadiz.”
“…… is that…… so… that’s…”
“Erm, ever since I was a kid…… up to the way things ended in the Imperial Match and hit my father…… and ran away from the Imperial City…”
“Eh, I, see…”
“I… the thing with you… and Rebal… so…”
“A… about that~…”
“…… Oh…”
“…… I’m happy and proud of Rebal’s feelings, but… I didn’t consider the option in the first place. I’m really sorry for Rebal, but I’ve always thought only about marrying you.”
This thorn on my side.
This rigid princess, who always felt like she stood apart from all the heaven, I’ve never seen this woman with such a weak expression, not since we were kids.
“Fu… fu… ha, I don’t know… what to say…”
“Phianse?”
“I was thinking at the time… that… if I won, I would declare to the whole empire that I would marry you… and if by any chance you should win, you would propose to me… I thought Rebal and Fu would be the challenge, but in any case, once that tournament was over, we would… and then…”
“…… why?”
During my academy days, I grit my teeth to beat her again and again… endure the humiliation… make my own efforts… but I never won… it was like an absolute wall that always stood in front of my path.
“So?”
“?”
“You ran away from the Imperial City… in the last few months, you met that Shinobu and… you met that demon called Kron … no….. that woman, right?”
“…… yeah.”
“After you were kidnapped by Jamdi’el, I spent time with Shinobu, but she rarely told me about you …… saying that it was just a memory between the two of you, but… anyway, she said she was in love with you. I thought Earth was in love with me, and that Shinobu was just a crazy delusional woman.”
“Ah~… that’s…”
“It’s funny. The delusional woman was me… you think so, don’t you?”
This genius… child prodigy… monster like this… had a smile on her lips, but she’s totally powerless.
So feeble.
“So… do you like either of those two…… or both of them?”
“…… I still don’t know.”
Shinobu and Kron.
Ah, damn. I never thought I’d be having this kind of cozy banter with the princess… on top of that…… with that kind of look on her face…
“But I’m sure I don’t not like them…”
“So… what you mean is…… you are conscious of them, as women?”
“…… well…… wh”
“So, what about me… other than as a childhood friend… have you ever been conscious of me as a woman?”
But I can’t afford to mess around here.
“I’m not going to lie to you here, Phianse. I never …… thought of you as an object of interest in any way.”
“Huh?”
Misunderstanding upon misunderstanding, completely made things messed up and bothersome for both of us.
I think it’s time to make everything clear.
“Haha… why couldn’t I say… just one word… I couldn’t say that I loved you… if so…… why did I take it for granted that we were in love…”
“Phianse…”
“I didn’t know anything about your feelings… I mean… how ridiculous…”
Even if I hurt the princess… Phianse… I mean, I can’t hurt her anymore, and there’s nothing I can do to mend things or fake it now.
“You weren’t conscious of me because… you only had eyes on Sadiz?”
“…… yeah…”
“And were you attracted to those two women just because you cooled off to Sadiz?”
“…… that’s not true.”
“…… What?”
“I’m sorry, Phianse, but when I was in the Imperial City, I was only looking at Sadiz. But the reason I wanted to face the two of them… wasn’t because my feelings for Sadiz had cooled down or anything like that.”
In fact, it’s not even that I don’t like Sadiz anymore.
“What? Then… what attracted you to those two!? Their faces!? Is it because they’re wearing white panties!? Is it because you’re now interested in more than just busty women?! Is it because they let you do e, e, erotic things?!”
The Princess enthusiastically said “I don’t understand” to my words, but… somehow, what does this person think of me.
“No. I mean, it’s just that, those two… they didn’t know who I was… maybe that’s why… it was new to me, so…”
“What does… that mean?”
“You heard what Paripi said. When I was in the Imperial City… what was bothering me…”
“…… ah…”
And it seemed that Phianse finally figured it out.
She stiffened with a look of surprise.
Yes, those two…
“Because they saw me… not as the Son of the Hero… but as Earth Lagann… they acknowledged Earth Lagann… and said they liked me.”
It wasn’t just those two, but also the kind-hearted Ogre best friend, the meddlesome Yankee, and the people of that secluded nation.
But my words made the princess furious――――
“No way, even I didn’t see you―――――”
“You didn’t even look at me!”
“Wh… at?”
“Are you still the Son of the Hero? You’re the Son of the Hero, but all you’ve ever done is disappoint your hero parents… that was it, wasn’t it? Ever since I was a kid, ever since I was in the academy! All the time! That’s why I…”
I found myself yelling in anger.
“Y, you’re one to talk, until I say otherwise its always princess princess princess princess, I had to tell you to call me by name… but you find faults in people other than yourself!”
“…… ha… haaa~~~?”
“It’s been that way since we entered the Academy! You don’t refer to me by my name even though we’ve always been good friends… you called me princess, didn’t you? How much do you think that hurt me!”
“B, because, you’re the princess! Unlike when I was a little kid, I can’t do that kind of thing anymore…”
“Don’t be ridiculous! You can go on and on about being called the Son of the hero yet you call me a princess, and have the gall to say all that?!”
Before I knew it, the princess, with an angry face, almost headlong to me, stuck out her face and shouted.
“Don’t be ridiculous… is this reality? Paripi said as much as he wanted to say… even Coman… and now this? What the hell! What has my life been about so far! Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Phianse…”
And the princess also vented her pent-up anger.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You’ve done nothing but insinuate to me! In the end, you just want a convenient woman who can pamper you!”
“Who the hell are you to say that! I mean, when have I ever made you think I was interested in you! Besides, I don’t think those two are convenient!”
“I was intentionally tough on you! I suppressed my desire to be flirtatious with you and wanted you to mature, and become a better man, a man who is more worthy of me!”
“Who asked for that and when? A man worthy of you? Who do you think you are? Don’t flatter yourself!”
Oh, and somehow before we knew it, we were shamefully arguing with each other, cursing at each other, so aggressively that it seemed like we would brawl with each other.
“It can’t be helped! Even if you weren’t the hero’s child, you were weaker than me! You couldn’t win even once!”
“D, do say that!”
“And from there, you were always frustrated because of your inferiority complex with me, Rebal, and Fu, and you started to whine, twist and demean yourself… something had changed since we were kids and it felt pathetic! I just wanted you to remember the old days when you used to pull us!”
“This… what…”
“That’s right! That’s why I thought that the world would not easily acknowledge a man who was weaker than me, who was both a princess and a woman, as my fiancé… that’s why I was so strict with you! If you had been as strong as you were in the Graduation Match from the beginning, I wouldn’t have been so hard on you and I wouldn’t have nagged you so much! I would have let you do whatever you wanted in the costume from the ‘Sexy NyanNyan Collection: Naughty Master Scratch Me’ book you had hidden! I would let you do it! I rubbed tits as much as you wanted without asking Sadiz for a reward!”
“Why did you have that book!? Th, that book was disposed of by Sadiz … I mean, I didn’t want it!”
“Yeah, I know you didn’t! You didn’t seem to be looking at me!”
“Yeah?”
“What was it, what the hell was I to you?!”
In a way, it was the first time we had ever quarreled so badly with each other.
“Yes, I didn’t notice anything about your feelings… just pushing only my own feelings onto you… I misunderstood… spun around in place… unconsciously hurting you… made you suffer…… I already know that! I get it… but…… but…… let me say a few words…”
“…… Phianse…”
“My whole life… from the moment I met you… I’ve only thought about you… I’m not even allowed …… to say that… a little bit… you hate me… I’m that sinful… right?”
And gradually, we couldn’t even understand what we were saying to each other, but me and Phianse both started breathing on each other’s shoulders…
“Ha, ha, ha… come on…… already…… what are we doing… we…”
“It’s true… even though we’re exhausted from the battle with the Six Supremacy…”
“Yeah… I’m tired too… even though I was of no use in the battle…”
Before I knew it, we were both sitting on the clouds, heads hung down in disappointment.
But……
“It’s just, Earth… I was sure you… wanted to be the Son of a Hero… but…… I didn’t fall in love with you because you were the Son of a Hero…”
“…… Phian… se…”
“It would be a meaningless excuse if it didn’t get across… but…… still…”
“Phi,eh!? Oh…”
“Hig… Gusu… Earth…… I… until Paripi said all that… and now…… I didn’t think I was such an ugly woman…… when I first cursed so much with you…”
Finally, large tears fell from the princess’ eyes, and the princess sat down and put her hands on her lap…
“Earth… higg… I’m sorry…”
“Huh?”
“I was only thinking of what was…. most convenient for me…”
Aah…… already…… really today… what a day.
I feel so pathetic and guilty.