Mochiron, Isharyōseikyū Itashimasu!

32.

After the tea party ended, I decided to follow Jufua-sama and His Highness to the port.
According to His Highness, there were some matter concerning of Jufua-sama's ship.
I never boarded a ship from another country, so I was quite eager and asked for a permission to follow them.
And when I expressed my intention to join them, once again, Jufua-sama looked at me with an irritated expression.

"Is Yulias having some interest in regard to ship?"

His Highness looked at me strangely.

"I am always curious about those neighboring country's ship's cargo capacity."
"It is all about cargo shipment, huh..."

His Highness looked at me in amazement.

Isn't that rude of him?

But since he willing to let me tag along, for the time being, I am not going to complain about it.

"Eh? Yuri-chan?"

Once I boarded the ship, I recognized most of the face on board the ship.
In some other times, I had pretended to become a downtown merchant and sell some souvenir to foreign ship's crews as a hobby, and now that I see it, most of the people on this ship seemed to be my regular customers.

Should I make a dash for now?

"Yuri-chan! What's with that beautiful clothes! It really suits you! You look like a noble lady!"

This friendly boy who was grinning was one of my regular customers that always talked about the neighboring country to me.

"Yulias."

His Highness looked at me with a shocked expression.

"E, oh, well........."

While I was wondering how I should explained the situation, Jufua-sama who had his brow all scrunched up suddenly interjected

"Are you a spy?"
"Jifu, Yulias is not a spy but a merchant."

Jufua-sama titled his head upon hearing His Highness' explanation.
He was looking at me as if he was looking at a strange creature.

"Yuri-chan?"
"A, mmm, about this Riche-kun.... It has been a long time... I will come back later with the goods, okay!"

As if sensing my agitation, His Highness gently looped his hand over me as he embraced my shoulder.

"I am sorry, this person is with me now. So please talk about work, later on, okay."
"......."
"Stop making that unwilling face."

I felt kind of annoyed since his words appeared as if I belong to him.

"Isn't this Yuri-chan~?! What are you doing boarding this ship?"
"Captain, do you also know about this woman?"
"Isn't it because His Highness does not like woman that you did not know about it? Yuri-chan is a famous merchant girl among the sailor since the products sold by Yuri-chan were high in quality and it will not be wrong even for some sailor to choose it as a souvenir for their intended lovers.

I was moved by the captains' word.

"Even so, if my younger crews were to know that Yuri-chan already had a man with her, I bet many of them will jump into the sea."
"Why is that?"
"Oi oi~ Are you that dense? Many of my younger crew member bought those souvenirs because they wanted to give it to you, okay!"
"Is- Is that so? Are- are they okay with that?"

When I titled my head, the captain laughed out loud.

What's with that?

"Riche, there is no chance for you anymore."
"Shut up! Yuri-chan are you dating him?"

When I looked up towards His Highness, he was still holding my shoulder with his hand.

"I am not in that kind of relationship with this person!"
"Then, did you have another person in your heart?"
".............."

I kept silence for a while before giving him a bitter smile.

"About me, you know. Recently, my engagement got annulled. That's why, for the time being, I don't think that I could put any favor for any other person, or something?"

I know that my words, except for His Highness, had made the people around me unable to swallow.
When I looked up once again, I found that His Highness was looking at me in shocked.

"It's true."
"It is true, but still."

You might want to say that I do not even experience any kind of a heartbreak, but any of your complaints are not accepted now.

"Rudnick, is that the truth?"
"A~, was it last week? She just had her engagement annulled."

Jufua-sama looked at me in an awkward manner.

Ma~ It is understandable for him to have such expression considering how hard it will be for a woman to have their engagement annulled.

"I- I see. It seemed that it had been hard on you."

Since Jufua-sama's looked uncomfortably at me, I smiled at him as I tried to show him that I was hanging in there bravely.

"Please don't mind about it."

Hearing my word, His Highness lightly poked my head.

"Jifu. For this girl, the heartbreak is nothing. So don't mind about it."
"No, Rudnick. I heard before that woman's heart is delicate like a piece of glass."
"This girl's heart is made of Orichalcum ore, so she will be alright."
"How rude. Even so it got scratched, okay."
"The scratch in your heart will be healed once the money comes in, right?
".......... I guess so."

His Highness let a deep sigh when I was convinced by his words.

"You should not be convinced by that, right?"
"Then, in order for my heart to be healed, shouldn't you agree to participate in another event for me?"
"I did not say anything about that."
"You said that, in order to make the pitiful me smile, you are willing to use your body for it."
"I did not say that. I am sorry but I am not going to do that event ever again."

The me who unconsciously clicked my tongue earned another big sigh from His Highness.

I felt that, my tongue clicking and His Highness' deep sigh are becoming [one set].

"Yulias, please stop with that tongue clicking."
"Since you are being a selfish person and refused to do the event, I unintentionally did that."
"No matter what you say, I won't."
"Then, please forgive my tongue clicking."
"......At least, please do it in a place where there were no people around."

His Highness was muttering softly.

Why is this person so gentle?
Even though it was okay for him to be angry with me after being treated as such.

I could not help but smiled bitterly.

"I will be careful after this."

His Highness showed a bitter smile upon hearing my statement.
His face appeared as if he did not believe my word.
But still, it seemed that my relation with His Highness has been getting a little bit closer since then.