After school.

I got up and headed for the salon. Twice a week, on a certain day of the week, Elizabeth holds a study session with her friends’, the noble daughters.

Sure enough, just as I reach the salon, I see Leohardt and Miss Lisha already present there.

I manage to support my body quickly in case they see me and lean from behind the wall. I know I’m acting like a suspicious person but I can’t help it. I have to see and learn what that bas-Leohardt is up to.

As I look at Leohardt with eyes as sharp as eagle and ears as strained as a rabbit, I heard him speak, “Lady Elizabeth, will you please include Miss Lisha in this gathering of ladies?”

“Yes, please...I mean, yes, yes!”

“Of course, only if it’s alright with you, Miss Lisha. ....”

Leohart and Elizabeth are talking in front of the door of the salon, watched by the escorts of Elizabeth and her friends. Miss Lisha, flanked by the two, is surprised and can’t speak properly.

I can’t stand it anymore, Leohardt is trying to steal my Elizabeth!

I quickly come out behind the wall and tidy up my appearance before striding towards them.

As soon as the people around Elizabeth saw me, they turned around in surprise.

I’m a little nervous but...get it together Vincent!

“What the hell is going on?”

No one speaks up, but with the expression on their faces, I can understand everything what they are trying to say. I wonder if I have finally mastered mind-reading.

I shake my head to throw the unwanted thoughts away. I have to focus on the situation at hand.

“Greetings Your Highness, Vincent.”

“Hello, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth’s greeting is quickly met with a fake smile and a bow from the other girls. However, their gazes are still intense.

A prince from a neighboring country who had suddenly appeared – and who was also looking for a potential queen – called Elizabeth by her name and showed a friendly expression on his face. It is tempting to wonder what is going on.

If it is revealed that they had actually met at the palace in the morning and are now talking with each other, I will be blamed more than Leohardt. ....

Ah, it’s been a long day. ....

“I’m not sure if that’s okay with you?”

“Yes, I would like to absorb as much knowledge as possible.”

Elizabeth asks gently and nods at her answer, but Miss Lisha seems to be on the verge of tears.

The way she hugs her pen and notebook looks motivated, but the thing she only did was to just chase after Leohardt.

Elizsbeth knows accepting Lisha means she has to meet Leohardt frequently, who just proposed to her this morning. But she can’t refuse him either, since he is a prince of the neighboring country, and the both countries have a friendly relationship. That’s why Elizabeth is also being very cautious.

Leohardt’s plan is to have Miss Lisha join the study group so that he can have a connection with Elizabeth in the school.. He truly is a cunning bas-fox, calmly analyzing the situation. While I am also calmly analyzing the situation, and watching Leohardt with his sparkling royal smile on his face, trying to woo Elizabeth.

It’s not working on Elizabeth at all, though.

“I wish you had accepted my offer in the morning. I would really like you to take you with me to my country.”

This could mean either way; ‘take her with him as the Crown Princess for the sake of diplomatic relations’ or ‘as a candidate for Leohardt’s wife’.

Leohart’s words made the ladies of Elizabeth’s escort look at him sharply.

“Yes, you are right. We can go there as our honeymoon.”(Vincent)

In other words, ‘I won’t let you take Elizabeth with you! She will only go to your country as the Queen of my country’. Although these are the thoughts of my heart, I smile amiably on the outside.

Ah, Elizabeth is turning red. She seems to have lost her composure due to the thought of marriage. Cute.

In front of Elizabeth, Miss Lisha is standing there with her usual pale face. I feel like my eyes are going to be burned with this expression, considering it’s the only expression she showed after coming here.

She, too, seems like a hard worker. She is involved with Leohardt in his studying abroad, seeing the Prince falling in love with the fiancée of the Crown Prince, she can’t even admonish him, since she is only the daughter of a Baron.

What in the world was she brought here for? What is Leohardt’s purpose?

I sighed for the umpteenth time and shook my head.

It was time to play my trump card.

“Leohard, don’t be so reckless. What Marius wants is you, his dear brother, to improve yourself.”

I used euphemisms, but the point of my speech is ‘you should study and not mingle with other people’s fiancee’. This is not the time to be pushing Miss Lisha into the salon of the ladies’ flower garden.

To increase the effect, I named the person who is his weak point.

This is an unspoken threat that you can report to your brother if you want.

Leohardt cannot go against his older brother, Sir Marius. More so, if they are fighting among factions, it would be troublesome to have ugly news reach the country.

Like a powerful magic charm, the name would bind Leohardt.

But Leohardt chuckles.

I turn around at the sound of something falling, and see Miss Lisha next to me has dropped her books that were in her arms. She looks at Leohardt with wide eyes, her breath caught in her throat and her hand on her chest.

Her face becomes so red that it looks as if steam would be coming out of it.

“I want to learn as much as I can ....!　Please!!!!”

Miss Lisha said with a desperate look on her face as she exclaimed.

Elizabeth tries to soothe Miss Lisha, while bowing her head repeatedly.

— Is that what you’re saying?

Their reactions were in contrast to what I have imagined, and I realised the part of the “backstory.