妻子的秘密

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. Due to half the contestants being assassins, the tournament was canceled,” Prince Rythilin explained, causing me to frown. I mean, I really wanted to fight the others….

“Anyway, I should take my leave. It seems both Princess Runa and your friend will pretend to be asleep until I leave. I will be in contact about our date.” My mind suddenly went blank as I watched the smirking Prince walk out of the room.

I think I might have been hearing things, but did he just say date? I do not remember agreeing to anything like a date! “Oh? So Faith likes the overly cute ones.” I turned towards the voice to see Runa giving me a teasing smile.

“Adel will be sad.”  Sophie’s voice entered my ear from the other side._-.

I was starting to become flustered. “Hold on! I never said anything about a date. He only asked if we could talk more!”

“In the Kingdom of Lodinia, the way a man asks a girl on a date is by asking if they wish to talk more,” Runa explained, causing my expression to turn black.

“How was I supposed to know !?” I yelled. “Forget it. Runa, you go.”

“No, thank you! I do not wish to be hissed at by the Prince of the beast kingdom. His attendant and guard are very powerful. That rabbit girl only used three attacks to break all those barriers.” Runa’s words surprised me. Even I have a hard time breaking a barrier. This just goes to show how strong that rabbit girl is.

“I will send a message to Adel later… If she finds out about this from other sources, I think all hell will break loose.” Sophie mumbled under her breath, but I heard every word of it.,

“Why would it cause hell to break out!? Sophie, you are over exaggerating things. Anyway, since I said I will go, I will go, but I am not going alone. I never intended for this to be some kind of date, so even if he doesn’t like it, I will bring both of you with me.” The last thing I wanted to do was get involved romantically with any kind of royalty from another kingdom. I would not and can not betray the kingdom I live in by doing so.

I will also not allow myself to become some kind of tool to be used to make ties with another kingdom. I won’t change my current goals for anything. I was born in this kingdom, and I plan to at least do what I can for it.

However, what happened today really does still bother me. I mean those eyes…. Fanmari’s eyes were still burning vividly in my mind, but it was not making me feel anything anymore. I guess my skills have taken over or something. Although, I am not sure if they are or not. But I am glad that it did not erase that image. While it will always haunt me, it will be a good reminder that this is what it means to live in this world full of bloodshed.

Sophie looked at me with a strange look before shaking her head and mumbling something else. I couldn’t hear her this time because she spoke in such a low voice. “Anyway, you two are coming with me. Maybe Thurul and Sei as well…. And Gesel and Fred.”

I really did not wish to be alone with Prince Rythilin now that he went and called our meeting a date. I would never have agreed if that was the case. I got too much going on to care about such things or time to deal with such headaches either.

“Haha! I can’t wait to see how sour his face will be when he realizes that he will not be with you alone.” Runa said while laughing.

“I guess you know Prince Rythilin?” I asked. As royalty, I would think she would know most of the other princes and princesses of other kingdoms.

“Mmm… Well, more like we got into a fight once. But that was when we were little. My father and mother took me over to their kingdom for a meeting between our nations to form a trade pact. It could have been left up to their subordinates, but my father was very curious about what a beast kingdom looked like at the time.

“Well, during the meeting, I was stuck with the Prince with nothing better to do. So I made him show me around the castle. We were in an area near a small man made pond, and the Prince decided to try to touch my ears. And well, I don’t like it when people touch them as only your future spouse is allowed to touch them. So I kinda raised my foot and stuffed it in his face sending him flying into the pond behind him. Luckily it was not too deep, but as he was a catkin and well, he kind of got very angry and hissed at me before attacking me.

“Long story short, we both ended up with two black eyes and fat lips. We got a serious scolding that day.” Listening to Runa’s story made me laugh. I mean, just picturing the two fighting made for a funny image.

But something curious came to mind. “How old is Prince Rythilin?”

“I think he turned fourteen this year? His race ages very slowly physically. Which is why he looks so young. He is kinda like you. While he is a catkin, he is from the two tailed race, which is a long lived race while normal catkin has the same lifespan as humans.” Runa’s explanation explained it all. I thought it was strange how he seemed to have the demeanor of someone older. I guess this is why he seemed older when speaking to him just now.

“Well…. I give you permission to push him into a pond when we go with me to meet with him. He deserves it after tricking me into this date. Sly cat!”