The Invincible Aloof Yandere Princess Falls in Love with Her Younger Court Mage's Fatherly Warmth! ~She Clung to Him So Much That the King Fired Him. When He Made Marriage His Official Reason for Resigning Under Royal Order, the Light Vanished from the Princess's Eyes~

Chapter 32: Not Invited

The one who showed up after smashing through the barrier made from the divine sword… was Leo, for some reason wrapped up in star trial. He pulled his cheeks up into this mocking grin and stared at me all provocatively.

“…Yeah, this power’s seriously insane. I can’t handle it as smoothly as you do, but just sloppily throwing stolen star trial around like this already gives this much of a boost…”

He was saying something, but right now that wasn’t the priority. What mattered was the princess… wait.

—She’s over there with Leo and them again, like it’s the most normal thing…!

“Princess, over here! We can talk about the rest of that stuff as much as you want once we get outta here!”

“!”

“Princess, come on!”

She glared at me with teary eyes for a second, then whipped her face away. Ah, she just activated that magic tool necklace thing…

“That’s why I keep saying no…”

Since I’m against her whole plan right now, she’s probably limiting it to just footage, but this whole situation is getting broadcast outside anyway. So beating Leo and them normally isn’t gonna cut it—I gotta handle this as low-key as possible.

Things are getting complicated…

“You’ve been ignoring me this whole time and acting way too chill, huh? Hey, kid—”

“—I’m not gonna let you get your way, princess. All I gotta do is take them down in a way that doesn’t make sense to anyone watching.”

“No way I’m letting that happen…! I’m gonna mess everything up!”

“Princess… you don’t have to go that far…”

Her resolve looked rock-solid.

But even so. There’s no way I can just move the way she wants. That’s my job as her guide, her assistant… no—as Papa. That’s my responsibility.

The princess wrapped herself in silver light again. She’s seriously planning to get in the way. Fine, then I’ll—

“—No holding back anymore. I’m ending this before you even realize what’s happening.”

Our eyes met and clashed. All our feelings slammed into each other, sparking like crazy.

And just like that, the fight kicked off again—

“…What the hell happened while we were locked up in here? We’re completely out of the loop…”

“Hey, don’t ignore Mel—! This feels bad, bad, bad…!”

—the fight… got started for real.

“—Anti-Demon Exorcism Sword, Severance Sword.”

Just by chanting it, the swords flew out on their own without me having to think too hard. They sliced through and purified threats coming from all directions, and on top of that, they tried to cut off the attackers’ stream of consciousness.

But.

“Hm… looks like the Severance Sword part isn’t working?”

“—If that ridiculous ability is a gift from star trial, then obviously having the same power means I can at least resist it!”

“I see. But since I could still purify the attacks you fired with star trial, it’s not like it blocks everything. Going straight for a person’s body or mind probably takes a bigger toll and is easier to push back against, huh.”

“Tch… you’re so damn calm it’s pissing me off…!”

Leo came slashing right at me, so I tried to purify the sword itself, but no dice.

No choice—I had to control the flying swords manually and automatically to deal with him.

That guy’s got magic, ki, and now star trial piled on top, so his physical stats are completely off the charts.

Way above my diamond reinforcement, for sure. If I hadn’t boosted my senses with star trial too, one hit probably would’ve taken me out.

But even in a spot like this… I still didn’t take my eyes off the princess.

“If you’re gonna cry that much… just stop already…!”

“I’m not stopping! I’m not holding back either! Papa’s way too strong, so messing with you full-force is just right!”

Compared to before the fight restarted, the princess’s firepower was clearly way higher. She was almost out of star trial earlier, but now she’s ramping up even more.

“Ugh… what if he hates me what do I do what do I do what do I do…”

She finally started letting tears roll down her cheeks while she kept firing off star trial blasts.

What am I supposed to do here…?

“—We’re completely invisible to them, huh. If you wanna have a lovers’ quarrel, do it somewhere else… And getting all our attacks perfectly handled in this state—should I just laugh or what?”

“Stop laughing and get serious!! If you’re Mel’s knight, then what Mel says is absolute! Onii-san belongs to Mel!”

“Can I even… do something like that?”

“It’s not ‘can I’—it’s ‘do it’—!!”

The peanut gallery’s being super loud. This really isn’t the time.

How do I even convince the princess? I couldn’t come up with any good ideas, and part of me was starting to think maybe I should just swing the swords full power like I’d given up or something.

But then—

“—Al-kun’s right about almost everything. But when it comes to a girl’s heart… you might not get it at all…”

“Huh?”

Suu-san, all beat up and looking kinda pitiful gripping her sword, called out to me.

“I’m obviously on your side, Al-kun, but the princess right now? She’s not stopping. Probably… no matter what she has to sacrifice, she won’t stop moving forward for your sake.”

“…”

I didn’t have any info to argue against that. I wondered why she felt so strongly, but Suu-san definitely understood that side of things way better than I did.

While I kept deflecting the incoming blasts and slashes, I focused on what she said next.

“So what do we do? Obviously making you king is way too much, right? Then… how about a compromise that gets close to the same effect without going all the way to king?”

“I did think about that… Like, just getting some mid-level title or something would probably get a bit closer to what the princess wants. But there’s no way the princess right now would be satisfied with—”

Just as I was about to say it didn’t look like she’d settle for that at all, judging from how she was crying and scattering star trial everywhere—

Suu-san grinned wide and said,

“Then we make a situation where she has no choice but to compromise. —How good are you at playing the charming playboy, Al-kun?”