TVS 10

Chapter 10…

I knew it, I can’t escape after all

On my way to the restroom, I suddenly felt like getting some fresh air, so I went out into the large garden.
Colorful flowers were blooming everywhere.
“They must have a really good gardener,” I thought, as I admired the scenery—until I noticed someone familiar among the flowers.

— Prince Noble…? What’s he doing here?

Looking closer, he seemed to be admiring the flowers.
I was curious, but it wasn’t wise to approach a main character of the story myself.
I decided to pretend I hadn’t noticed him and quietly leave, but—

“Hey,”

— …I knew it, I can’t escape after all.

Only main characters ever get saved when they think “somebody help me!”
And since I’ve already been confirmed as a main character, there’s no escaping it.
The path of a background extra is far, far away.

“Thank you for earlier, Lord Noble.”
“Don’t just start talking like nothing happened…”

He didn’t sound angry, and that eased my nerves a little.

“It’s fine. What he did was my brother’s responsibility. Of course I stopped him.”
“Even though he’s your brother?”
“He calls himself that, but we’re actually the same age. The only difference is that I was born a little earlier. It’s not that deep.”

As expected of the (presumably) Ice Prince.
Such a responsible and composed person.
A true-blue type character, through and through.

— Blue-type characters are much easier to deal with than golden-type ones.

Of course, by “golden-type,” I mean that person.
I’ll refrain from saying his name, though.

“Anyway, standing around here isn’t ideal. Shall we talk somewhere else?”
— We’re already talking though?

I kept that thought to myself.

“Can’t we just talk here?”
“If someone who snuck out of the party sees us, it’ll be troublesome.”
— Ah, true.

I really didn’t need any rumors spreading.

“If you don’t want people calling you ‘the sly fox who managed to capture both the first and second princes at her first party,’ we can stay here though…”
“Let’s move somewhere else.”
“Quick decision. I appreciate that.”

Well, obviously.
A rumor like that would be disastrous—
it might even disrupt my precious reading time.

We moved deeper into the garden and sat on a bench made for two.
Prince Noble had said, “We’ve been standing at the party all night. I’d like to rest a bit. Keep me company.”

“For a seven-year-old, you really stood up to Bright impressively. That was a rare sight.”
— A rare sight…?

Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Refusing the First Prince’s indirect offer to join the royal palace was an odd thing to do.
But calling it a “rare phenomenon” made it sound like I was some kind of exotic creature (which, to be fair, might not be wrong).
Looks like I’ll need to study how to handle conversations with main characters from now on.

“Do you dislike parties?”
“…Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

That was quite the topic shift.

“When you were talking with Bright, it was most obvious—your eyes were completely lifeless. You were radiating an aura of ‘I want to go home’ the whole time.”
“Eh!? Ah, I’m so sorry…”

I accidentally raised my voice in surprise. My bad.

“You thought you were acting? You looked dead inside. Honestly, it was obvious, but Bright just pretended not to notice and kept talking.”
— …Wait. Pretended not to notice?

That line caught my attention.

“That’s right. He’s persistent like that. Once he decides on something, he’ll pursue it relentlessly.”
— No way…!
“So he was using his royal authority to pressure me into joining the palace, even though I clearly didn’t want to?!”
“Exactly.”
“You’ve got to be kidding…”
“Unfortunately, I’m not.”

Which means… the one who saved me from that mess—Prince Noble—was…

— A literal god.

(※ purely my internal image, of course.)