Feeling embarrassed, I couldn't help but look away.
Anyway, Ray didn't have a mischievous personality, so he wouldn't start calling me by some weird name. I nodded.
“Okay. What do you want to call me?”
“Since I’m Ray… how about Sei?”
His own face turned slightly red, showing he was embarrassed too. Heat rose to my face in response.
‘Matching nicknames.’
It felt incredibly mushy. I couldn't answer right away, and Ray looked closely at me and asked.
“No?”
Whine~ I heard a phantom sound of a puppy whimpering somewhere. It was because of Ray in front of me. I had intended to allow it anyway, but…
‘How could I say no to that face?’
When I nodded, Ray beamed even brighter than before, overjoyed.
“…Sei.”
“…Yes.”
“Sei.”
“Yes. Ray.”
As I replied to his call and said his name, Ray gave a smile that seemed to melt.
We chatted amiably for a long while after that. By the time we started feeling sleepy and went back inside to sleep again, the uncomfortable feeling caused by the male lead discussion had completely vanished, and I was able to sleep soundly.
* * *
“Yawn, good morning, Seiana.”
The next morning. I smiled watching Ari wake up, patting her face, swollen from sleep. It was a very undignified sight, but coming from her, it was just cute.
“Yeah. Good morning. Oh, and Ari. You can call me Lovie from now on.”
“Okay. …Huh?”
Ari, who had nodded in understanding, registered my words belatedly and her eyes flew wide open. Just moments ago, they were too swollen to open properly, but they could get that big, huh.
As I watched in admiration, her mouth dropped open. Soon, her surprised face blossomed into delight.
“Wow!”
She threw her arms around me in a hug, and as I hugged her back, she even exclaimed, “I love it!” Honestly, a nickname is really no big deal… but seeing both Ray and Ari so happy about it made me feel awkward.
‘Maybe I should have allowed it earlier.’
Why did I drag my feet over something like this? We roughly tidied our dishevelled appearances from sleeping and went outside.
Ari’s back, as she strode majestically out of the carriage, looked like that of a triumphant general.
Glancing around as if searching for something, Ari’s eyes lit up when she spotted Ray.
The way she glanced back at me seemed to ask, 'He hasn’t gotten permission yet, right?'
‘Uh, that’s not quite right…’
I tried to stop her, but before I could grab her, Ari zipped away.
Appearing instantly before Ray, he scowled as if displeased. Partly because the first face he saw in the morning was Ari's, but her supremely confident expression seemed to have thoroughly soured his mood.
“Hmph.”
When she even scoffed at him, his eyebrows seemed to furrow automatically, but they quickly smoothed out. Ray had spotted me.
“Sei.”
“…Sei?”
Smiling softly, he called me by the special nickname we decided on last night. Hearing that, Ari looked bewildered, wondering why he stopped halfway through saying my name, then gasped in horror as she realized it was a nickname.
“How come!”
Ari seemed to notice from my lack of surprise that I had given permission. Her trembling eyes shifted between us, and she seemed to realize that the nickname 'Sei' was somehow more special.
“Me, me too! I want to call you that too!”
“No.”
“Why!”
“Because it’s mine.”
Ari puffed out her cheeks, about to throw a tantrum, but at Ray’s firm refusal, her lips jutted out in a pout. Fuming, she whipped around to face me and declared:
“Then I’ll call you Ana!”
“Having too many names might get confusing… Can’t it just be Lovie?”
“But… But…!”
Feeling wronged by my refusal, Ari stomped her feet and pointed accusingly at Ray. It seemed like a protest asking why only he got special treatment.
Right. Why am I only lenient with Ray? I smiled awkwardly. Could the sense of debt I once felt towards Pedro have transferred to him? Or is there another reason? I thought about it but couldn't figure it out.
To soothe Ari, I approached her and took her hand.
“Lovie is my first nickname. And it comes from the most meaningful name.”
“…”
“But if you really don’t like it, we can do as you wish, Ari.”
“…No, I like Lovie too. I just felt like I lost to him.”
Seeing Ari apologize for grumbling hesitantly, I smiled at her.
“There’s no winning or losing between friends.”
At that, she seemed to feel better and leaned against me softly.
Thus, the morning’s little happening passed, and after a simple breakfast and getting ready, we set off again.
Now, it was finally time to go see the fairies.
‘…What if the kids are disappointed?’
There’s no way things like fairies exist in the world. I saw they had packed heaps of things fairies might like, supposedly as gifts.
Imagining their disappointed faces made my head ache. I didn’t want to see such looks, even in my imagination.
I thought I needed to prepare a good excuse that would hurt them the least. But that issue wasn't immediate.
Although the location was adjacent on the map, a mountain stood in the way, forcing a detour that took time. Well, even if we hadn't gone via the coast, we would have had to go around the mountain anyway, so no time was wasted.
After two days like that, we arrived at the place where Miskit supposedly met and befriended a fairy, but…
“…There are a lot.”
“Yeah. Looks like it.”
There were so many people.
Was this place such a famous tourist spot? While I was bewildered, my brother, who had scouted the surroundings, explained why there were so many people.
“Seems like word is spreading among the young ladies?”
“Huh? What word…?”
“Well, you know. Something about needing to become true friends with a fairy to go to the fairy kingdom. Apparently, some tried to just barge into the kingdom, but doing so invites a fairy’s curse or something?”
“A fairy’s curse…?”
“Yeah. For example, nobody would be happy if a stranger barged into their home saying, ‘I came to see you, so we must become friends.’ They figure fairies are probably similar. So, an angry fairy would curse them?”
Hearing that, I pressed my hand to my forehead. It sounded familiar; it seemed my words from the gathering had been distorted through retelling.
‘Unlike me, the other young ladies probably had friends.’
The story passed to them, then they told other friends, who told others… After repeated retellings, a fairy's curse, something I never even mentioned, had materialized.
‘Well… is it okay? At least they’ll be scared, so they probably won’t do anything bad.’
Like poisoning the lake to force startled fairies out, or things like that.
That part was fortunate, but… I looked back at Ari and Ray. The two were staring blankly outside, their heads deeply covered by dark cloaks. Seeing their desolate-looking faces, I almost teared up.
‘They must have been looking forward to coming here so much… but now they can’t even go out because there are too many people…’
Something I learned while traveling with them was that Ari and Ray seemed averse to people.
They avoided meeting anyone other than the knights and servants currently traveling with us. If forced to encounter someone due to unavoidable circumstances, they would stay far away like this, hidden under cloaks, mostly hiding inside this carriage.
I didn't know why, but that's how they were… As long as there were young ladies and their entourages visible everywhere, they wouldn't come out of this carriage.
Considering Ray was royalty, it was even more understandable. No royals, except the Emperor and Empress, ever appeared in public. Even the Crown Prince, an adult, didn't engage in public activities…
‘If I hadn't worked as a merchant in my past life, I probably wouldn't have even seen his face until he inherited the throne.’
Though he would be even younger now than back then. Anyway, if the Crown Prince was like that, Ray, the fourth prince, would be even more restricted.
“I guess going out will be difficult, right?”
I said it with a smile, trying my best not to sound sarcastic. At my words, both of them lowered their heads. Were they feeling sorry, or disappointed…?
Assuming the latter, I carefully suggested.
“Even if not here… we still have one more place to go, right? Shall we go there?”
“But… Lovie, you wanted to come here.”
“That’s right. We’ll just stay here, so Sei, you go out alone.”
“What’s the point of me going alone… It’s only fun and interesting with you guys.”
When I refused their suggestion to go enjoy myself alone, both looked touched. It's not like I actually believe in fairies, what would I even do out there…
I definitely didn’t want to be out there shaking a rattle fairies might like and calling out, ‘Ms. Fairy, please come here.’ Absolutely not.
Still seeing lingering signs of apology, I spoke firmly.
“What I wanted was to come here with you guys and have fun. If we happened to meet a fairy while playing, that would be nice. The fairies aren't what's important; being together with you is what’s important.”
“Lovie…”
The eyes of the two looking at me sparkled brightly.
'Yes. Please, just don't send me into that crowd of young ladies.'
And so, we left the lakeside.
* * *
Fortunately, the next destination wasn't far. It was about an hour away from the lake.
Since it wasn't far, I thought there might be people here too, but contrary to my expectations, there was no one there.
“That’s strange.”
It made sense why there were no people; the inside was completely invisible from the outside. It was surprising that such a wide flower field could exist without anyone knowing.
Wondering if the place was hidden by some magical power, I asked my brother, but he said no.
“It seems to be hidden by a naturally occurring optical illusion, purely by chance.”
My brother, being a knight, carried a magic tool to guard against illusion magic, but since it didn't activate, he said it likely wasn't magic.
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