Chapter 12

(Standing before the royal family, I must pull myself together...)

Cordelia steeled herself, but then noticed something odd.

It was too quiet. Since a while ago, the only voices heard were hers and Leonhardt’s. While it was understandable that the young lady who had fainted on the boat had not regained consciousness, it was strange that there was no sign of the people who seemed to be Leonhardt’s attendants.

“Your Highness, where are your attendants? If you are considering my safety and have them wait in the shadows, I think it’s time to call them now.”

“...There are no attendants. I came here alone.”

“Your Highness, alone?”

“I rushed here, so I left them behind.”

Such nonsense, Cordelia swallowed the words that almost escaped her throat.

Indeed, she had heard that Leonhardt was skilled in swordsmanship and blessed with physical abilities. However, his attendants and guards, being a prince, should also have superior physical abilities.

It was hard to believe that such excellent guards would be left behind.

Even if Leonhardt’s speed was exceptional, he had not moved from this spot since a while ago. It was unlikely that a guard had not caught up yet.

A seed of doubt sprouted, and many questions blossomed in Cordelia’s mind.

“Does this mean, Your Highness, that you ran at full speed from a considerable distance to get here?”

“Yes, something like that.”

Leonhardt smiled.

It was suspicious. Though his face was smiling, it was a different, hollow smile from the one he had directed at her earlier.

“...If you were so far away, how did you find me? If the distance was that great, you wouldn’t be able to see or hear me, right?”

Without taking her eyes off Leonhardt, Cordelia pressed on with her questions. She could feel her suspicions growing as he continued to smile ambiguously.

(Why did Your Highness find and save me? Could it be...?)

Earlier, his brother Zayed had also rushed to Cordelia, who was being attacked by bandits. However, that was because Zayed had planned it and conspired with the bandits.

Just like Zayed.

Leonhardt, like a prince on a white horse in a play, had saved Cordelia from her crisis.

(Does this mean that Your Highness knew in advance that I would be attacked by bandits or Zayed here...?)

This made sense.

She didn’t want to doubt the warmth of his hand that had held hers earlier, but there were too many suspicious points.

“...Your Highness, please answer. What do you intend to do with me?”

Stepping back from him, Cordelia asked.

“Even if I say I just wanted to protect you, I doubt you would believe me...”

With a troubled smile, Leonhardt replied,

“...It’s the smell.”

“? What do you mean by that?”

“I followed your scent to get here.”

It was hard to believe.

Tilting her head, Cordelia listened intently to Leonhardt’s confession.

“I received word today that you were invited to Katharina’s tea party. You were unjustly hated by her, so I gathered information and found out that even my brother was acting suspiciously.”

“So, you came to this forest?”

“Yes. I came to the forest with my attendants and, while getting off the carriage, I sensed a scent... something like yours, coming from an uninhabited forest. Worried that something might happen to you, I rushed here.”

There was no sense of lying in Leonhardt’s words.

If this were all a lie, it would be hard to believe anything he said.

(But if what Your Highness says is true...)

Am I that smelly from such a distance...?

She didn’t want to believe it, but she had heard that one’s own body odor is often unnoticed.

Could it be that she had been living, unknowingly, with a strong odor?

(That’s depressing...)

In a way, this was the biggest letdown in years.

It might have been more damaging than when Toppac broke off their engagement.

As a young lady, she had always been careful about her appearance.

She brought her fingers to her nose and couldn’t help but check the smell.

At first, there was no smell.

But upon closer inspection, a faint, sweet scent lingered.

It was the residual scent of the apple pie she had eaten earlier.

“...Cordelia, don’t worry about it. It’s just that you notice small things about someone you care about...”

“I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to notice such things normally.”

“Yes, well, I’m not normal...”

To the awkward Leonhardt,

“So, Your Highness, you’re not a glove fetishist but a smell fetishist...”

Cordelia muttered, learning a sexual preference she didn’t want to know.

“Why did you think I was a glove fetishist...?”

“Because you were so persistent about my gloves, I thought you were excited by them...”

“No!! Absolutely not!!”

Leonhardt shouted his innocence, and Cordelia gave him a lukewarm look.

“I understand. You wanted to take the smell on the gloves, not the gloves themselves, right?”

Leonhardt groaned and rolled his eyes.

...When put into words, it’s a truly terrible story.

Just stating the facts, but is it really okay for such a man to be a prince? It made her unnecessarily worried about the future of the country.

“While there’s no hierarchy in sexual preferences... I don’t think a smell fetishist has the right to look down on a glove fetishist.”

“Guh... I’ve never been looked at with such disdain...”

“...So, Your Highness has been hiding your sexual preferences from everyone?”

“Why is it like that?!”

Leonhardt clutched his head.

“I’m neither a glove fetishist nor a smell fetishist... The smell is more like a metaphor. I’m not excited by body odor itself.”

“Then what are you fixated on, and what excites you?”

“It’s hard to describe in one word... If I must, it’s something the soul emits. Something invisible, inaudible, neither hot nor cold, and untouchable... But it definitely exists.”

“The soul...”

Even when said like that, it was hard to accept.

Hearing about the soul just made it sound suspicious.

As Cordelia was pulled back in various ways, Leonhardt suddenly sharpened his gaze.

“...Ah...”

She turned her gaze to the groan.

The young lady who had fainted seemed to have regained consciousness.

“Are you okay? Do you know where you are?”

“Ugh... I...”

The young lady’s eyes slowly focused.

When Cordelia knelt down to check her, the young lady’s eyes widened.

“Cordelia?! Why am I... Ah?!”

The young lady’s confused gaze fixed on Leonhardt.

“Why is Your Highness here?!”

“I understand your shock. Take your time and calm down...”

Cordelia was pushed away and fell on her bottom.

The young lady stood up and ran towards the lake, away from Cordelia and Leonhardt.

“It’s not my fault!! Why is Your Highness here too?!”

“It’s dangerous that way...”

“You’re going to have Your Highness condemn me?! No!! I don’t want it!!”

Shouting, the young lady got into the boat and, in a state of confusion, started rowing towards the lake.

“Kyaaah...”

Her scream cut off, followed by a loud splash.

The boat was slowly taking on water.

It seemed the boat couldn’t support the weight with the added water.

“Don’t struggle!! You’ll sink faster!!”

The water was unexpectedly deep, even close to the shore.

Hesitating to jump in for fear of being dragged down by the young lady—

“I’ll go!!”

Without caring about getting wet, Leonhardt dove into the lake.

He swam powerfully and quickly reached the capsized boat.

Diving to pull the young lady out, he didn’t resurface for a while.

“Your Highness?!”

“Don’t come!! Part of my dress is caught on the boat and won’t come off!!”

Leonhardt’s face emerged as he responded to Cordelia’s shout.

He seemed to be struggling, moving his hands underwater while shouting.

(If this continues, Your Highness will be pulled in too...)

The worst-case scenario flashed through her mind.

No matter what, she couldn’t let Leonhardt die here.

Cordelia looked down at her dress.

After a brief hesitation, she ripped the hem.

Rolling up her sleeves to move more freely, she was about to jump in when—

“Ah?! It’s blinding?!”

A bright golden light shot up from the lake.

She closed her eyes and shouted, then opened them—

“A lion...?”

A dazzling golden lion, as if the sun had descended, reigned over the lake.

Thank you for reading.

The next chapter will be updated tonight.