Apparently, Her Highness Princess wants to keep her relationship with me a secret (what does she even mean by 'her relationship with me'?)

2-8

One Week Lover

Fourth day of Princess Emma’s school attendance—

On the third that, I was somehow able to clear Princess Emma’s SOS calls with the help I got from Harold.

As I was told by Princess Emma to help her more indirectly, so I used him instead. Harold, unaware of the situation, grumbled about why he was being dragged in all this mess, yet he followed my instructions to the bone. Really thanks, Harold.

Which brings us to today—

During the very first class of the morning, Princess Emma sat primarily next to me.

(Why are you sitting right next to me? Did you plan this all beforehand?)

With her usual sullen, expressionless face, Princess Emma scribbled something on a torn scrap of paper and showed it to me.

Although she often wore that neutral expression, but right now, she was slightly on the edge of displeasure.

Probably it was because I openly broke her request to help her from the shadows. But I also have my reasons.

(Nope. It’s just a coincidence.)

I quickly scrawled my response in the very same torn paper passed by Princess Emma, and placed the paper back in front of her.

Seating arrangements are decided by each teacher specifically—while some give out fixed seats from the very first class, there were others who allowed seating as per the student’s wish. Just that, today’s class used a lottery system to decide each one’s seat.

Without a doubt, I rigged it.

And obviously, Princess Emma doesn’t have a clue about that as well. Later if she asked on why I did it, let’s just say that as a necessary measure.

(Itose kun, today I’m finally able to go outside the Academy this evening. Finally, I will be able to get a change of pace.)
(That’s good to hear.)

As I was sitting next to her, across the room, I could feel angry stares piercing me—silent outrage at why I, of all people, was sitting next to the princess. But I guess, I can’t blame them. After all, Princess Emma was that much of a stunning beauty, even if you take out her status of being a royalty, that is.

Her perfectly balanced profile, soft cheeks, and slender limbs. She gave off an ephemeral beauty—like she might disappear if you looked away even for a second.

However…

Based on what I’d gathered from informants, Princess Emma is quite an unfortunate girl in many ways.

(Are you troubled by something, Princess Emma?)
(Twelve times.)
(What does that number mean?)
(The number of confessions I’ve received. After all, no one at this school knows that I have a fiancé.)

Right.

It was unfortunate for the boys who confessed, but Princess Emma already had a fiancé—one step away from an official engagement. If everything proceeded smoothly, the announcement would be made to the entire kingdom in a month.

(Aren’t you surprised that I have a fiancé?)
(Since this is a class time for me.)
(You’re so serious, despite working at a place like that.)

However, the fiancé wasn’t honestly thrilled about the engagement he has with Princess Emma.

Even though the fiancé is a third-year at the Westminster Academy, but hadn’t even once come to check on Princess Emma. Despite her beauty, youth, and royal lineage—qualities anyone would envy—such is Princess Emma.

However she had one fatal flaw.

Princess Emma, doesn’t possess a magical quirk of her own.

(Tonight, my fiancé called me to Mimosa.)
(He’s rich, huh? Mimosa, I’ve heard rumors about that place. They say that just stepping inside makes banknotes fly.)
(Yeah, he’s far more wonderful than any boy at this Academy.)

However, even Princess Emma, though, didn’t seem entirely supportive of the engagement either.

During this one week of her Academy life, —if she finds a boy she is interested in, then the engagement talks would be reconsidered, or such talks have been going among the Royalties.

Yet with or without a reason, Princess Emma would twirl her hair. Showing zero interest in the swarm of boys around her. With which, as a result, the engagement talks going ahead felt inevitable—until her reluctant fiancé decided to finally take action.

—He planned an incident to annul the engagement.

Collecting enough funds to stage an “unfortunate accident.”

With which, Princess Emma would be kidnapped tonight on her way home from Mimosa and sold abroad, never to return.

(Even though you are from a Baron’s family, why are you, Itose kun, at this academy? There’s no way you’ll ever be able to graduate, you know.)
(It’s a secret.)

Princess Emma pinched my thigh, from beneath the desk.

(Meanie.)

While I pretended not to notice that, and focused on class —another scrap of paper slid my way.

(Does that have any relation with why you’re working at that place?)
(…)

I returned the paper blank.

I wasn’t working there just to pay Westminster Academy’s tuition. Like one being, out of respect to Her Excellence for the many incidents she saved me from, well there are others as well—but there was no point telling those to Princess Emma.

(Say, do you have someone you like, Itose-kun?)

Guess the class was unbearably dull for her, that Princess Emma’s note attacks went on relentlessly.

(No.)
(Even though you are so popular.)
(I’m not popular at all.)

Princess Emma had an ideal lover in mind—that is, someone who would rescue her from a predicament, someone like a hero.

The one-week lover role she hired me for—

But what she truly wanted to request out of me, was something different. It was not something like saving her from troublesome situations in the Academy, but rather to destroy the talks on her engagement from the very base of it.

Of course, the person in question wouldn’t put that out loud.

(Maybe I should end the lover role. After all, I’m already used to my academy life.)
(Understood. I’ll follow as per the wishes of my client.)

Honestly… lacking magical quirk was already a cruel fate.

A magical quirk that has been handed down from generation to generation. If it would have been a commoner with a thin blood, that’s still fine. But if that were a royalty and had no magical quirk, it was catastrophic.

(Itose-kun, your stories sounded like something from another world. They were so much fun.)
(Thank you for your praise. Also, is the masked lady doing well?)
(She’s well. She was missing you.)
(Tell her I’ve come up with a really special story recently.)
(I’ll let her know.)

After that, Princess Emma continued the class with a clouded gaze towards the front.

When the lesson ended, she was quickly swallowed by her entourage and was hard to see.

Tonight, Princess Emma would dine with her fiancé at Mimosa—then be kidnapped on the way home. Then be sold in some foreign country, and never be able to make her way back.

That was what the script laid out for her reads.

“So, Please help me out here, Aya. Let’s go with the friendly sibling setting, okay?”

Walking down the road, I held hands with Aya, who was dressed up for the occasion.

Our destination—Mimosa, an ultra-luxurious establishment where just the entrance fee cost more than a commoner’s months-long wages.

“Itose-sama! Aya is not at all happy about being your little sister as a setting! But I’m happy about the date, so it’s ok… but isn’t Mimosa a place for royalty? Isn’t my outfit out of place?”
“You don’t look out of place at all. It look rather, very perfect.”
“Then alright! Well then, let’s go!”

Mimosa is a shop controlled by the Roman Republic’s wealthiest families—just putting one step inside brings onto an extraterritorial zone. It wouldn’t be a surprise no matter what takes place in here.

I took a deep breath, glancing at the girl walking beside me.

“Aya… Sorry for dragging you into this.”

The children working at that place weren’t just ordinary commoners.

She, Aya is an employee of the establishment run by Her Excellence Westminster. Meeting outside like this required a hefty price to be paid—Till now I had no rights to even ask for that, but once I rose to being a single-digit rank. I was able to ask something like this as well.

“If I can be a help to you, Itose-sama, it’s already an honor.”

Like me, people who have special unique magical quirks—such boys and girls.

Gathered from around the world by Her Excellency Westminster herself. Become helpers for Westminster’s single-digit rankers.