Mochiron, Isharyōseikyū Itashimasu!

33.

Jufua-sama took me to see around the ship.
.......... How should I put it; since before, Jufua-sama had been staring at me quite intensely.
It appeared that in the neighboring country, it will be extremely hard for a woman to get married once her engagement got annulled.
Therefore, engagement annulment was considered as a major blemish among the woman there.
I wonder if that was the reason why Jufua-sama had been looking with pitiful eyes.

"Th- That, why did you decided to annul the engagement?"

Jufua-sama's face looked discomfited as soon as he asked me the question before he uncomfortably continued.

"It's okay if you did not wish to answer though."

Even though he wanted to know about it, but it seemed that he also felt that it was a bad idea for him to ask such question.

"I was told by that guy that he had no intention of marrying me, so he cheated on me which lead to the annulment of the engagement."

Jufua-sama who got paler upon my reply looked even more pitiful to me.

"Please do not mind about it, for me, this situation is much better than finding him cheating on me after the marriage."
"No, but still."
"Jifu, it's okay not to mind about it. Yulias, stop amusing yourself with all of this."
"Is that how Your Highness thought about me? I have no slightest intention of making fun of anyone, okay."

I was glared by His Highness.

"What is it? You think that I thought nothing over the annulment of my engagement? I mean, no matter how stupid my ex-fiance was, I have always considered it in my mind that I am going to try my best to love him, you know."
"Eh?"

Why are you looking so surprised at me?

"Didn't you get engaged with Lamore initially for the sake of profit?"
"Even so, I was determined to be with him for the rest of my life, so of course I need to love him, and that is the [idea] that I had carefully considered about."
"....... Idea?...... So you mean to say that you need to love him rather than you could not love him?"
"So you noticed? That person is too stupid anyway to know about it......."

His Highness sighed deeply.

"Why should His Highness even care about such things?"
"I have been lending my help with the annulment of your engagement because you asked me, but I wonder if you will think it is wrong if I were to say that it did it because I care about you?"
"Didn't you cooperate with me because you wanted me to save you?"
"That is also true, but, is it wrong for me to have the desire to help my best friend?"

His Highness' honesty really gave me a good feeling.
I could not help but laughed in spite of myself.

"Because of His Highness cooperation, I was able to smoothly annul my engagement, so, you truly saved me there."
"....... Then, good for you......"

While His Highness released a sigh of relief, I could awkwardly feel that Jufua-Sama continuously stared at me in an intense manner before he suddenly turned and entered a room as if he was just remembering about something.
After he while, Jufua-sama came out with a big, blue, jewelled necklace in his hand.

"Take this."
"E~? Why?"
".......... I have said something rude to you."

I could not help but smiled bitterly.

"I do not have any need for this."
"Aren't you a greedy person?"
"Yes. Although I am a greedy person, I will not be able to sell it even if I receive this kind of a good thing from you."

His Highness sighed once again, but I decidedly ignore it.

".............."

Once he heard that, Jufua-sama froze up as if not knowing how he should proceed from that point up.

"Yulias, how about you just take it?"
"Even though I did not expect him to be shaken up to this extent, but if I were to receive it now, won't it be like we are admitting that he had been shocked by my action? That is an offense, you know."

Jufua-sama looked troubled at the current situation.
And now that I looked at it, he was quite cute being like that.

"Jufua-sama, please do not mind about me, I am already pleased enough to be able to have that pebble stone's contract with you."
"But still."
"Even though Jufua-sama is not good with a woman you are still so gentlemanly to them."

While I was giggling about it, Jufua-sama's face turned slightly red.

A~ did I get him angry or something?

"That, what.... What kind of thing would you like to see from my country?"
"Well...... there are lots of things that I am interested in. I would like to see the kind of clothes that Jufua-sama wore, as well as the lovely clothes worn by Lanfua-sama and Moulan-sama, I guess?"
"Clothes, you say? Okay, follow me."

Even though he was trying to contain his impatient, Jufua-sama still showed me the clothes that came from the neighboring country.

Jufua-sama is truly a good person.

"Don't you have any self-awareness of your action?"
"Your Highness? What are you talking about?"
"I said that it appeared that you are getting worse by day."
"It is not like it all started just recently."
"......I guess so."

His Highness nodded his head slightly with a little resounding expression.