Your Highness, The Lady You’ve Abandoned IS the Saintess!

‘….Your highness.’

After a long moment of silence, I heaved a deep sigh.

It has been four days since Firman declared our relationship to Maynard, and because he never once visited since, I was convinced that he had truly given up this time around and is on his way to the capital.

Then comes the fifth day. 

Firman was, as per usual, out on church’s business, leaving me to pacify Selma who was unnerved by his frequency to the church despite being my personal guard. With nothing else to do, I was thinking of doing a little groundskeeping with the resident uncle gardener within our estate.

I wore a hat to protect myself from sunburns, donned a nimble one-piece dress so I could easily move around, and marched to the entranceway with vigor while thinking of all the weeding and flower planting that awaits me—that is until I stumbled upon his highness who had just made his arrival.

Maynard who seems to not have expected to meet me in the entranceway seemed quite surprised, but a smile conquered his face instantly and he presented something to my arms.

A bouquet of roses, all vibrantly red, and a total of fifty of them; I can roughly guess.

I heaved a sigh in the face of the bouquet of red.

I have never once received a bouquet from him when we were still engaged. The only flowers I got from him are the roses plastered on his chest during dance parties, which makes me wonder what kind of thought prompted him to offer them to me now.

‘Aileen, let’s talk.’

He says that again!

The flowers are blameless, so I’ll take them, though!

I believe this person should be considerably busy given his position as a prince, so just how long does he intend to stay here?

‘Your highness, as we have said before, Firman and I are—’

Maynard’s face turned sullen the moment I raised Firman’s name.

‘Firman, Firman, you say, but what’s so good about Adler?’

‘Huh?’

So he provokes me into thinking, but this bouquet of his is awfully heavy! Have the judgment to reduce it by half at least, will you!?

‘Well, Firman is… very kind,’

-‘I am too.’

‘He is very dreamy,’

-‘I shouldn’t lose to anyone when it comes to appearance.’

‘and broadminded too,’

-‘Well, I should mature soon enough to attain the same level-headedness… I think.’

‘Also, his bulky pectoral muscles are wonderful,’

-‘I can put up some muscles with training too.’

‘And more than anything, he is good with kissing.’

-‘I can do well with ki—What!?’

Maynard, who has been interrupting my narrations at intervals, suddenly perked up to the mention of ‘kiss.’

‘Kiss!? What do you mean about a kiss!? Don’t tell me you ever dared to kiss someone else while you have someone like me…’

As I said, we are now no more than strangers to one another, sir.

Slightly embarrassed, I hid my flushed face behind the bouquet of roses.

‘We are a couple, your highness. A kiss is nothing to us…’

—Is what I said, but Firman and I had never kissed since that night, though! For some reason, we couldn’t quite find the same sweet ambiance since. I wonder if it’s the mood. Was it lacking? Ugh, I have no idea how to create that kind of mood. How should I do it?

As I was entertaining the immodest thoughts of wanting to kiss him again, Maynard, in front of me, was trembling with anger.

‘A kiss? Haven’t you done the same with me during our engagement ceremony!?’

Oh, determined as it were, we still could not have done the engagement ceremony while I was still in infancy, so he must mean that time when I was ten. A distant memory, then. How did that kiss feel again? Non, I can’t remember at all.

Well, since our formal engagement at ten, there has never been any slightest ‘sweet’ ambiance shared between us. Even during the times when we spent time alone in his room, we were too preoccupied with playing board games. Not to mention, there were also times when Sir Berland and Brother Orpheus joins us to play too. Anyhow, as for bittersweet ambiances of couples—is that what they call it?—there was nothing like that at all.

Maynard looked quite shocked and has started muttering things to himself.

Was a kiss that shocking? Wait, don’t tell me Maynard is some sort of kiss maniac. He should feel free to do it with Lina then.

Oh right, about Lina!

I have received letters about her from my precious friend right after my first day in the duchy. According to them, Lina had hysteric fits about Maynard for never even visiting her once to console her while she was still bedridden.

They are yet to be formally engaged because my engagement’s annulment to the prince was rushed, but I heard that her father, the count, had formally protested to his majesty to hasten the ceremony.

What? Why am I so well-informed, you ask, readers?

Well, the source of my information is Caroline, a lady of one of the three great ducal houses, the daughter of Duke Jenner. She is Sir Berland’s younger sister of nineteen years of age, and my bestest of friends.

Getting back on topic, Lina is making a huge uproar about him so this prince ought to consider a swift return.

‘That’s unfair.’

‘Huh?’

Maynard who has been muttering to himself for some time now, suddenly raised his face and asserted that.

‘You didn’t even kiss me once in our eighteen years of engagement. It’s unfair for any other man to have tasted your matured lips!’

What kind of absurd logic is he on about?

‘I want to kiss you too, Aileen!’

Ugh, he really is a kiss maniac!

I blockaded my lips with the bouquet of roses and turned my back on him.

One step—two steps—three steps!

After gaining a three steps of distance from Maynard, I turned around and pointed my finger his way.

‘If you dare to come any closer than three steps from me, I will clobber your head, sir.’

Maynard looked so shocked that I could almost hear his soul cracking.