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“Mrrrrr…”
“Is something the matter, Karua?” the king of Mephilad called out to his daughter, who seemed to be sulking.
“No… uhm, tomorrow will be the night of the meteor shower, but…”
“Oh, because of Alim? There probably was no other way, she is a busy person.”
“Erm, I can also sufficiently grasp that, Father. I was worrying about the training Alim promised us, which will be held soon.”
“Hrm.”

The king sat down on an ottoman. Karua also took a seat next to him.

“What is your concern? Is it that you might be attacked by magic beasts during the training? You probably needn’t worry about that. You could say there is no safer place than on Alim and Mika’s side.”
“T-That was not what I meant, Father! Uhm… we will leave the city for our training with Alim, will we not? I feel a bit nervous. I understand that it is somewhat late to think so, but…”

I see, the king thought. Now that she mentioned it, Karua had almost never left the city.

The only ones outside of her family, whom Karua could easily talk to, were Alim and Mika… and the friend called Rose she made recently. At this point, Karua could likely say that she had sufficient people she considered friends, but up till a few months ago, she merely had superficial relationships with noble girls trying to probe each other’s intentions.

Therefore, her experiences with Alim and the others were fresh to Karua, even now. It would indeed be rather amazing for the somewhat unsociable¹ Karua to go outside and partake in training together with her friends.

“What, there’s no cause for concern. I said so before, you will be with Alim and Mika. Moreover, Ruin and I have prior experience as adventurers, don’t we?”
“…Yes! You are correct, Father!”  Karua’s expression cleared up and she showed a smile.

While the king was relieved, he suddenly noticed his own son and the son of the knight commander outside the room, who acted as if they were doing something in secret. He thought it suspicious at first, but then immediately understood the reason for their strange behavior and decided to regard their budding love warmly.

“Alright? Orgo… tomorrow finally is the day.”
“Yep, it sure is.”

The two youths had entered a room of the castle that wasn’t used often, to have their talk there. On one side was Ruin, second prince of Mephilad. On the other side was Orgo, son of Mephilad’s knight commander.

“…We’re beginners… when it comes to confessing, aren’t we?”
“Well, we read enough romance novels, so we oughta be fine.”

Indeed, they were planning to confess to the ones close to their heart during the night of the meteor shower. Ruin to Lilo, daughter of the minister. And Orgo to Myuri, daughter of the archbishop.

The four of them, born at the same time and having grown up as childhood friends, were already 18 years old. As they went on excursions, created their party based on the one of their fathers in the past, and experienced adventures, romantic feeling developed, which they finally planned to bring into the open.

“I’ll go… to the western roof…” Ruin decided.
“Then I’ll pick the eastern.”

They discussed it while having a map of the castle spread out in front of them.

“…What are you goin’ to tell Lilo, Ruin?
“Uhm… Well, I’ll frankly tell her that I had feelings for her for a long time… What about you, Orgo?”
“T-The same, I guess.”

After reading so many romance novels, they simply arrived at that answer. In truth, both Lilo and Myuri had romantic feelings for Ruin and Orgo, so any kind of confession would’ve been fine with them, but the two boys didn’t know that.

“W-What do we do after that? Give them a ring?”
“N-No way, that’d be too early,” Orgo shot him down. “The books said you only give a ring once you want to marry, y’know.”
“That’s true. Gah… I’m so nervous. I wonder if Father felt this way when he confessed to Mother.”

As a matter of fact, the king, a former SSS-Rank adventurer, had been allowed to marry into the royal family due to his contributions to the country, so his confession did not take place when they started a relationship, but when he proposed to the future queen. However, the two youths had no way of knowing that.

On the other side, the girls, to whom they youths were planning to propose, were fretting.

“…What do you think we should do? Watch the starfall with everyone, or… I’ll call Ruin… and you Orgo, and we each watch it just with them?”
“I-I-I-I am… uhm… fine with both options…”

Surprisingly, the girls were having their talk in the room right next to where Orgo and Ruin discussed their plan, but none of them were aware of that fact.

“Hah… In the end, I’m not worthy… of Ruin.”
“W-Why would you think so? This is not true! You are cute, and your body is also…”
“That’s not what I mean. Leaving aside my looks, it’s a question of social standing. I’m worried whether mine is high enough.”
“Eh… In the end, you are Uncle Oraful’s… the minister’s daughter, are you not? I do not think there is much of a difference in status.”

After hearing that, Lilo fell silent for some time.

“Is that so…”
“It absolutely is.”
“Still, Ruin is so handsome, isn’t he? Various noble girls have been wooing him…”
“T-Then, why not woo him too, Lilo?”
“Hm~… This is going nowhere. Why we are even assuming that we will watch it with them in pairs? Oh, well, let’s go train magic, Myuri.”
“…A-Alright.”

The girls left the room. And, at exactly the same time, the boys also left the room next to it.

“”””Huh?””””

The four of them cried out in astonishment. They all froze for a moment, but… Orgo was the first to make his move.

“That’s… that’s perfect. There’s somethin’ I wanna talk about, Myuri. Do you have some time?”
“Eh… huh? Ah, y-yes, I do.”
“L-Let’s talk over there for the time bein’.”

Orgo and Myuri left for some other room to have their conversation.
Ruin and Lilo, who’d been left behind, looked at each other. The prince was the first to find his voice.

“J-Just like Orgo, there is something I’d like to talk about with you, Lilo. Could you join me for a bit?”
“S-Sure.”

Lilo followed Ruin, taking the opposite direction of where Orgo and Myuri had gone.

1. The original is 外交の少ない (“little of diplomacy”). This might be an error and supposed to be 外向の少ない (“little of extroversion”).

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