[Episode 63] - The First Friend I Made (4)
Just how much had I drunk?
Thanks to Lady Serina, who kept refilling the wine glass in my hand, it was a struggle to keep my wits about me. The dark red wine that filled to the brim the moment I showed even a little of the bottom.
Though I was gulping it down thinking it would be rude not to empty a glass that had been poured for me, I truly had to restrain myself because it felt like I would black out if I drank even a little more.
While talking about such scattered things that I didn't even know what stories were spilling from my mouth as I drank like that, a cold night air flowing in from somewhere cooled my burning face.
I cracked my eyes open and surveyed the room with a bleary gaze. A room where only bluish moonlight flowed. A gentle night breeze drifted through the gap of a slightly open window, making the curtains flutter.
Feeling the heat in my cheeks cool slightly thanks to that, I turned my head and blankly looked at the two people sitting before me. Lady Serina, and Viscountess Serina, who had yet to shed her youthful air.
The two seemed quite drunk as well, continuing their conversation with faces flushed. Though they were simply talking to each other, for some reason that sight was bewitching, and I swallowed dryly without realizing.
‘Is it because of the alcohol? The heat in my head won't go away.’
Because the lady and the viscountess were wriggling about on the bed, their negligees had ridden up above their thighs, and a negligee slipped off one shoulder, precariously covering dangerous areas.
It was a state that made me wonder if they weren't seducing each other no matter how I looked at it. Telling myself it was simply the heat brought on by alcohol, I was busy shaking my always half-filled wine glass to avert my gaze.
‘What seduction toward another woman... They're just drunk and loosened up.’
While I was lost in thought, intoxicated by the alcohol—
“Your Majesty? Are you alright?”
Lady Serina, who had crawled up before me at some point, glanced up at me. Surprised by that sight, the wine glass I was holding sloshed, and red wine spilled out of the glass.
Plip, plop. The wine scattered across the white negligee I was wearing with a sound. A small sigh escaped me along with the thought that it was truly fortunate I wasn't wearing a dress.
I gently pushed away the shoulder of Lady Serina, who was looking up at me with eyes soaked in intoxication right before me, putting some distance between us, then licked up the wine that had begun flowing down my hand with my tongue.
...For a moment, Lady Serina's eyes had looked strangely sharp.
“It's fine. Sorry for dirtying the borrowed clothes.”
“...No, it's alright. It's clothing I wore to be dirtied anyway.”
Smiling brightly, Lady Serina returned to her original spot. She rested her head lightly on the viscountess's shoulder and began to steal and drink the wine held in the viscountess's hand.
The viscountess puffed her cheeks, whining about why she was stealing her drink instead of drinking her own. And Lady Serina giggled, rubbing her face against the viscountess's shoulder as if to say she didn't care.
Though I learned this while drinking, the relationship between the lady and the viscountess seemed infinitely good. I thought it a bit peculiar how close they looked, almost as if they were sisters.
According to what I had investigated, the Count, who had been the lady's husband, had 'died,' and I knew that the lady had inherited all of the Count's assets. Every last bit, without exception.
However, the lady didn't squander the fortune, and when 'Yvette Serina,' the Count's younger sister, inherited the position of Viscountess, she began to 'share' the inherited fortune with the Count's household, or so I heard.
Bangsyo, the Minister of Finance who heard this story, opened his mouth, saying it was quite a peculiar case. 'In such cases, usually eight out of ten wives take the assets and return to their birth families, so there are almost no cases where they remain in the husband's household,' Bangsyo said, shaking his head.
Having heard the story of Lady Serina, who 'shared' the inherited fortune with her husband's younger sister and still maintained her position as 'Countess Serina,' standing in that place, Bangsyo shed tears of emotion as he spoke thus.
‘Surely, Madam must have truly loved the Count, her husband. If this is not pure love, what is? Such pure love is something rarely seen in noble society...’
Back then, I too nodded along to Bangsyo's words. I had even discussed the theory of pure love in earnest with Bangsyo, saying that the love between the Count and Madam was what ultimately allowed the household to continue.
When Bangsyo praised her without reserve, saying she was the lady he had invited to the Princess's tea party, hearing that story, I had once thought that if she was truly such a person, she must be someone good enough that I would want to befriend her.
I once again engraved in my eyes the sight of Lady Serina and the viscountess getting along. It was a pleasant sight to see them looking so close, clasping hands and meeting eyes with smiling eyes.
Though they do look too close...
I took a sip from my wine glass and looked at the two with a slight smile in my eyes. Feeling my gaze, the lady curved her eyes coquettishly and smiled, then suddenly crawled across the bed and took positions on either side of me. On my left was Lady Serina, and on my right was the viscountess, shyly blushing.
Huh? What's with this all of a sudden?
“It seemed like we were talking too much among ourselves, so we wanted to include Your Majesty too. Right, Yvette?”
“...Yes, it's just as Hailey unni said. I want to hear Your Majesty's stories too...”
Saying so, the lady filled my glass with wine once more.
Suddenly finding myself sandwiched between them with the three of us lying in a line, I furrowed my brows without realizing in bewilderment. My brain felt paralyzed by strange information—skin pressing against me from both sides, heat, scent, and so on.
I straightened my posture and gently pushed their shoulders away, telling them to move back a little. Then I cooled the heat that seemed to boil in my head by sipping only the cold wine, cooling my body's heat.
“...I understand, so move away a little.”
“Hehe, come to think of it, I was a bit surprised when I first received the invitation. The Princess's tea party hosted by Your Majesty... that sounded a bit awkward. Because of the rumors circulating in society...”
At the word rumors, I smiled bitterly.
No matter how hard I tried in the royal palace, the rumors in society remained unchanged. Well, there was nowhere for the stories to flow, and since I hadn't shown my face in society, it was inevitable, but...
Perhaps due to the intoxication, I felt a strange surge of emotion and turned my head, grasping the chin of Lady Serina who was looking at me. Then, telling her to look straight at my face, I asked if the person she had heard of in rumors was the same as me, meeting eyes with the lady and curving my eyes in a smile.
“So, how do I look to you? Am I exactly as you heard in the rumors?”
“Ah, th-that is...”
The pupils of Lady Serina began to tremble.
Though they trembled finely, Lady Serina's gaze did not fall from my pupils. I had definitely thought that if I threatened her like this, the frightened lady would pull away from me and return to her place, but—
‘...Why does she look pleased...?’
Lady Serina smiled even more than before.
Seeing her smile even while I held her chin, she somehow looked as if she were excited, and I furrowed my eyes without realizing. The lady, exhaling heated breath while her chin was captured by me, answered in a trembling voice.
“The rumors spread in society were certainly... all rumors speaking ill of Your Majesty. That you were violent, that you regarded people like stones on the roadside, no different from the 'villainess' that appears in novels. Because such rumors circulated, I was quite worried when I received the invitation, but...”
“......”
“Now that I've met you in person, the rumors of society truly cannot be trusted.”
Lady Serina broke into a bright smile. Quite satisfied with the answer, I slowly released the chin I had been grasping. Then, overcome with shame at what I had just done, I gulped down the wine and held out the empty glass to the lady.
“Hehe, Your Majesty truly has such force. For a moment, I thought my heart had stopped.”
“I-I was surprised too...”
“...Enough of that, pour me a drink.”
Though they seemed to be saying anything from both sides to keep me from being embarrassed, that only made it more embarrassing. I kept drinking only the wine she poured, trying hard to quickly forget the embarrassing action I had just committed. What on earth was I thinking, grabbing the lady's chin like that...
As I gulped down the wine, Lady Serina, who had wrapped her arms around mine, looked at me with a coquettish smile. The heated breath drifting from her slightly parted lips seeped into my skin, feeling hot, and the soft skin touching my forearm stimulated my nerves.
Why have you been clinging to me like this since earlier...!
At the thought that I should change my seat now, the moment I tried to rise—
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Someone knocked urgently on the firmly closed door.
*
Titania, who had finished reading all the books Viola had recommended, lay on the bed busy talking about the books she had read with Viola. Though she had read all the books, she asked Viola about scenes or words she didn't understand. Then Viola would excitedly narrate about that scene.
“So this scene is—”
Lying together on the spacious bed, Titania pointed to a paragraph in the book with her finger and asked Viola. By feel, she could tell it was a stimulating sentence, but she had no idea what it meant.
[“Are you saying you'll take the chastity of my lips here and wipe your mouth clean afterwards?” The young master spoke thus, pressuring the young lady. Due to the young master's large frame, the young lady could not escape and was cornered against the wall. It was merely an accidental meeting of lips, yet to speak of chastity at this age.]
“Viola, what does it mean here when it says the chastity of the lips was taken?”
“Um— so—”
Viola flapped her hands, trying hard to explain something, but it wasn't easy. Though she had read such books diligently, Viola was also ten years old, the same as Titania.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she had absolutely no knowledge of such sexual matters. Just as it had appeared in the book, Viola flapped her hands hard and continued her explanation to Titania.
“I saw it in a book too... There were many scenes where the young master gave or took chastity while meeting lips with the young lady. So surely...”
With an expression full of confidence that said 'This is it!', Viola shouted.
“Surely, having lips meet for the first time is called 'giving chastity'! If lips are forced together, it's called 'having chastity taken'! There's such a thing as chastity for a first lip kiss!”
“I see!”
Titania opened her eyes wide as if she finally understood. Come to think of it, Mother had never given her a lip kiss either. Only occasionally on the cheek or forehead; she had never tried a lip kiss like in novels with Mother.
‘I see! Mom knew this, that's why she doesn't give me lip kisses!’
Smiling brightly as if she had finally realized, Titania turned the page again and pointed to a paragraph she didn't understand for Viola. Then Viola excitedly told Titania various stimulating stories she knew.
Though she had initially argued about what was so fun about a book filled with such strange contents, Titania, who had fallen completely for it before she knew it, was asking Viola to recommend other books as well. When Titania asked Viola to recommend books, Viola said she absolutely had to read these and rummaged through the bookshelf, pulling out hidden books.
“This is one that was hidden in um... no, in Mother's room. I haven't read it yet either, but... since Mother hid it on the bookshelf, it must be a really fun book! And—”
Viola pointed to the book's cover. A book with a bright red cover. As Titania looked at it curiously, Viola began telling a story she had heard from the young lady who had introduced her to such books.
“The young lady who introduced me to novels said the redder these books are, the more fun they are! She said they're really hard to find, and that she couldn't even take them out of her mansion. So the young lady recommended rummaging through your parents' bookshelves.”
“I see... red books...”
“Princess, wouldn't it be good to look for them when you return to the royal palace? Surely, in the royal palace library where all the nation's books are gathered, wouldn't there be many such books hidden as well?”
“Yes, I'll definitely look when I go back.”
Thus, with a pounding heart, the moment she was about to open the cover of the red book—
-Princess! Princess!! Now is not the time!! Vivian!! Viviaaan!!!
“Eh?!”
Titania's eyes snapped open wide at Ainsel's voice screaming from the necklace that it was an emergency. As Titania lowered her head to look at the necklace, Ainsel, flapping her hands in panic, called out to Titania in an urgent voice.
-Please go to Lady Serina's room quickly and call Vivian! That human is drunk right now...! Not knowing what might be done to her...!
At Ainsel's urging telling her to hurry, Titania bolted up from her seat and jumped down from the bed, flinging the door open and beginning to run. Though Viola chased after Titania at the lightning-fast movement—
“P-Princess?!”
“Viola! We'll talk later!”
Watching the back of Titania, who had sprinted down the hallway and disappeared in an instant, Viola made a blank expression. ‘That way is surely the path toward Mother's room...’ Viola tilted her head, then had no choice but to return to the room and begin tidying up the books.
Following Ainsel's directions, Titania arrived at Lady Serina's room in an instant, and without even taking time to catch her breath, knocked on the door—thud, thud, thud! And again, thud, thud, thud! Looking at the firmly closed door that wouldn't open no matter how much she knocked, Titania finally screamed.
“Mom!!!!!!!”