Chapter 18: Capture Target Prince Leon

The ball was about to begin and we walked together to the hall, with my hand on Kaiser’s arm.

When I arrived at the door to the hall, the King and Queen and Prince Leon were already waiting for me.

I immediately greeted them by picking up my skirt and folding my knees, to which they returned my greeting with a smile.

Then Prince Leon moved away from the King and Queen and came closer to me.

“Hey Sister Cecilia! I want you to enter with me!”

With these words, Prince Leon shook my hand while giving me a devilish smile.

I smiled awkwardly at Prince Leon’s calculated smile and wondered what I should say to him in front of the King and Queen.

But Kaiser softly grabbed Prince Leon’s hand and pulled it out of mine.

He spoke to Prince Leon with his usual pseudo-smile, clearly not smiling in his eyes.

“Leon…even though Cecilia will marry me in the future and become your older sister, you are indeed too familiar with her.”

“But brother…”

“Cecilia is my fiancée, after all.”

“…”

Prince Leon’s cheeks puffed out with an obviously unhappy face at Kaiser’s words.

I was looking at them with a troubled expression when the king and his wife approached me.

“As expected of Miss Cecilia, you’ve made Leon miss you so much.”

“What?”

“Really. It’s true that he’s always affectionately smiling at everyone, but this is the first time he’s missed a particular person so much.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Hmm, Cecilia-sama, I hope you and Kaiser take care of Leon as well.”

“I ask you as well.”

“What? Oh, um, yes…”

The king and his wife’s smiles were so strong that I replied with a grimace.

As I was talking with the king and his wife, I was informed that all the non-royal guests had entered the hall.

Prince Leon and the King and Queen were the first to enter the hall, and we arrived a little later.

When we moved to the parlor, the king first greeted his son and daughter in the hall, and then Prince Leon addressed everyone.

“I am Leon Ron Beizelm. Nice to meet you all!”

Prince Leon greeted them in a friendly manner, and then gave them his signature devilish smile.

Then the sons and daughters were all mesmerized by his smile and looked at him with fawning expressions.

Oh, it’s great~! But…once again, as I thought, the smile that attracts is perfected at his age!

I watched in admiration as Prince Leon smiled and waved to everyone.

Then it was Kaiser and my turn, and I greeted with Kaiser in front of everyone.

And Kaiser, with his usual pseudo-smile plastered on his face, smiled and wore a smile, but as expected of the Crown Prince, Kaiser’s greeting obviously made the young daughters, who were attracted to Prince Leon, completely change their interest to Kaiser.

I was inwardly dismayed at the situation as usual, but then I glanced at Prince Leon, wondering how he was doing.

Then I saw that Prince Leon was biting his lip and squeezing the hem of his jacket with both hands, as if he were enduring his frustration.

Ahhhh, as the game goes, he doesn’t like the fact that everyone goes to Kaiser rather than himself!

I could see from Prince Leon’s behavior that he was feeling that way, but that didn’t mean I could do anything about it, so I looked away from Prince Leon with mixed feelings.

After our greetings were over, the traditional line of greetings by the daughters stood in front of us and Prince Leon.

Then, Prince Leon, who had seemed dissatisfied until a few minutes ago, smiled again and listened to the sons’ and daughters’ greetings with a smile on his face.

I was relieved to see him, but I rode out the wave of greetings with a pseudo-smile on my face, along with Kaiser.

After passing through that wave of greetings, Kaiser invited me to dance for a while, and then, feeling hungry, I moved with him to the table where the food was lined up.

As expected, the stars of the show this time are the daughters near Prince Leon who made their debut in society, so I can eat without hesitation.

“Wow! I expected it, but today’s food is even more opulent than usual and it all looks delicious!”

“The chefs were working hard on it. Besides, they were eager for Cecilia to eat.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I’ll come back later to thank them.”

“I’m sure our chefs will be very pleased to see you doing so.”

“Even so…it’s a pity that Ghislan and Lady Lateia didn’t join us this time. As I recall, they each had some family business to attend to and were depressed that they couldn’t participate.”

“…Well, I’m not entirely sorry about that.”

“Kaiser…I mean, you and Ghislan fight a lot, so I can understand that, but why don’t you think well of even Lady Lateia?”

”… Miss Lateia has become a Cecilia supremacist after that encounter two years ago, you know. Apparently, she’s not on my side.”

“But Lady Lateia is a good girl, isn’t she? Because of all the things Lateia-sama has done for me, I haven’t had anyone mean to me before.”

“I’m grateful for that, though…”

He smiled bitterly at me.

I was wondering what was going on with Kaiser when I suddenly realized something.

“Speaking of which, what’s going on with Viktor today? Normally, he’d call me his escort and pick me up, but today it was someone else.”

“Oh, Viktor’s squad is not in this country right now as they are on an expedition to the south for training.”

“Oh, I see. That’s why I haven’t seen him lately…Oh, so that’s why Viktor was visiting our house a few days ago?”

“Viktor did?”

‘I will train for the princess!’ he had said with a serious expression.

I remembered Viktor’s condition a few days ago and explained to a point where Kaiser had a complicated look on his face when he heard the story.

“What’s wrong with you, Kaiser?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

While saying this, the complicated expression on his face did not change.

Just when I was looking at Kaiser in wonderment, someone suddenly came hugging me from behind, as if to bump into me.

“Sister Cecilia! There you are!”

“Prince Leon! As expected, could you please stop hugging me in this place?”

I cautioned as I looked back at Prince Leon, who was squeezing me from behind.

No, no, as expected, think of the time and place! No matter how you look at it, I’m getting a lot of attention, and besides…it hurts to look at the ladies who are trying to get the second prince, Prince Leon, because they can’t get Kaiser!

As they looked at us from afar, the ladies’ piercing glances stung me and made my cheeks twitch.

“I don’t mind! Because I want to be with my Sister Cecilia!”

“Hey! Leon, get away from her!”

“No! Because, brother, you were dancing with Sister Cecilia all the time just now, so give her to me a little bit!”

“It’s only natural that I should be with my fiancée, Cecilia.”

“…Hey, Cecilia, do you mind if I…”

So Prince Leon stared at me with moist eyes.

Seeing that expression, I, too, choked up and froze.

Damn, I know that this is well calculated, but…a pretty boy’s begging face is not fair!

I gulped at the thought and slumped my shoulders and spoke to Prince Leon with a look that said I had no choice after seeing his hand around my stomach.

“Prince Leon, I don’t hate you, but I’m going to really hate it if you don’t let me go?”

“…okay. I’ll let you go…but stay with me.”

“I…I understand.”

“Cecilia, I’m sorry about my brother.”

“No, I hope you don’t mind.”

I was relieved to see Prince Leon finally leave me, but as I was told, Prince Leon was still standing beside me perfectly with the intention of being with me.

“Hey hey Sister Cecilia! Have you been eating something by any chance?”

“I was thinking of eating now. If you would be so inclined, will Prince Leon also eat?

“Yes! I’ll eat!”

“Just tell me what you’d like to eat.”

“Oh, Cecilia, I can do that—”

“Sister Cecilia! I want that hamburger! And it has that yellow sauce on it!”

“Oh, yes, yes. That one.”

Faster than Kaiser reaching out to take the plate I was holding, Prince Leon took my arm and specified the food he wanted to eat, so I smiled bitterly and took the food from my plate for him.

I…I…I had one sister in my previous life but no brother, so it’s kind of fun to feel like I really have a brother~

For now, he decided to put aside the possibility of being poisoned in the future and enjoy the feeling of having a cute little brother for now.

And so, after putting the desired food on the plate, I went to hand the plate to Prince Leon.

But for some reason Prince Leon didn’t accept the plate, smiling and laughing.

“Prince Leon?”

“Sister Cecilia, let me eat it.”

“What?”

“I need my sister Cecilia to feed me!”

“Leon! As expected, that’s no good, because I haven’t done that either!”

“Yeah, well…so brother’s not there yet…”

Hearing Kaiser’s words, for a moment Prince Leon’s corners of his mouth seemed to rise up in a grin.

As I froze in place at the sight of his dark expression, Prince Leon once again opened his mouth wide to give me his usual devilish smile.

“Ahhhh!”

“Cecilia, you don’t have to force it!”

“Ahhhh!!”

“No, Prince Leon…”

“Ahhhh!!!”

“…Haa~ It’s just this one time. Yes, ahh~”

I cut the hamburger on my plate into bite-sized pieces and put it in Prince Leon’s mouth, thinking that I had no choice but to give in to Prince Leon’s patient “ahhhhh.”

Immediately, Prince Leon closed his mouth and began to munch on the hamburger.

Then he swallowed it and smiled happily.

“Yes! It’s so good!”

“That’s good to hear. Then you can eat the rest yourself, right?”

“Well, I’ll be the next one to feed Sister Cecilia!”

“What? No, I’m not…”

I tried to refuse, saying that I couldn’t do that, but sooner than that, the plate I was holding was taken away from me, and the rest of the hamburger that had been cut off was stabbed into a fork and presented to me.

“Yes, Sister Cecilia! Ahhhh!”

“Cecilia! You’re right, you don’t have to do that! I’d rather do it myself!”

“…”

I couldn’t hear Kaiser’s incomprehensible words at this time as I was more worried about what to do with the hamburger that was being presented in front of me with Prince Leon’s excited expression.

To be honest, the delicious smell of the hamburger I could smell from earlier was trying to overpower my desire to eat it with shame.

So I took a small deep breath and put the hamburger in my mouth.

At that moment, the combination of the exquisite juices and sauce in my mouth made me feel like I was going to be in heaven.

I put my hands on my cheeks and tasted the hamburger in my mouth with a look of bliss.

I swallowed it in one gulp and let out a breath of relief, when I suddenly felt something in my eyes and looked at Prince Leon.

Then, for some reason, Prince Leon was looking at me intently with a smitten expression.

“Prince Leon?”

“Sister Cecilia, cute.”

“Huh?”

I was puzzled by Prince Leon’s words, and then he smiled happily, as if he had found a toy he liked, and tried to get me to eat more food on my plate.

“Wait a minute! Prince Leon! Please! I’m so embarrassed that I’ll eat more of it myself!”

“Mmm…I would have liked to feed you more…Oh, I see, so long as it wasn’t an embarrassing place. Damn, why didn’t I make a place where you can be alone with me…”

When I struggled to resist my embarrassment, Prince Leon finally gave up, though he looked disappointed.

But after that, I thought he was mumbling something inaudible to himself, but then suddenly he started smiling and I don’t know why, but it sent a chill down my back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Listen to your instincts Cecilia! Stay awayyyyy!!

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