There was a break in the evening party, and Fiiru was resting in one of the rooms she had been given.
She was a little tired.
During the party, she couldn’t help being curious about the relationship between Prince Tomas and Lady Reneeza.
She tried not to let anyone know about it, but Lynette seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with Fiiru.
“What’s wrong, Princess Fiiru?”
It had been about four years since Lynette had first entered her service. Lynette had become as dependable to Fiiru as she was to Lynette.
When Fiiru explained the situation, Lynette looked surprised, but then nodded with a serious look on her face.
“I understand. I’ll take care of it.”
Twenty minutes later, Lynette led Fiiru to a room.
She knocked discreetly and they heard a man’s voice saying “Yes” from inside.
It was Prince Tomas’ voice.
Fiiru’s heart skipped a beat. She had heard from Lynette that this was Prince Tomas’ resting room, but now that she heard his voice, she felt nervous.
“Umm. It’s Fiiru. ……” She said.
“Hi, Fiiru. It’s been a while.” The door opened easily, and Prince Tomas’ face peeked out. There was no attendant, and he had opened the door himself.
Fiiru almost jumped at coming face to face with him so suddenly.
People around her claimed that she was capable of anything, but only she knew that this was not true. She was especially bad at sports. She sometimes felt like she was going to fall just from walking too fast. Whenever she ran, she got dizzy.
She thought it was because she had been raised in a gilded cage.
This time, her extremely poor motor skills prevented her from even making the mental move to jump up and avoid exposing her suspicious behavior in front of Prince Tomas.
Fiiru breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she realized that this was no time to be breathing a sigh of relief. She was now in the middle of a conversation with Prince Tomas.
“Um… …… Um… ……”
In the end, Fiiru was distraught.
“Do you want to come inside for now? We can’t just stand around talking.” Prince Tomas looked at the flustered Fiiru and said with a smile that strangely calmed her.
Then Fiiru found herself sitting on the sofa in the room alone with Prince Tomas.
Prince Tomas poured them both a cup of tea.
Fiiru fidgeted as she sat on the sofa.
“What’s brought you here today?” On the other side of the room, smiling as usual, Prince Tomas asked Fiiru what she had come for.
“Um… You know lady Reneeza….” Said Fiiru, and then panicked.
(What the hell am I talking about? It’s too suspicious to ask such a thing out of the blue! What should I do? What should I do?)
Normally, she had no problem greeting the nobles and carrying out minimal conversations at parties, but for some reason today she couldn’t speak well at all.
But Prince Tomas, looking extremely relaxed, replied in a mild tone while enjoying his cup of tea.
“Oh, Reneeza, is it. I heard that she’s in trouble. It seems that when she rejected a prince who made a pass at her, bad rumors were spread about her. People have been giving her strange looks, and she can’t find anyone to talk to at parties. That’s why I try to talk to her when I see her at these events. It’s true that she’s a little hard on people, but she’s a very nice girl.”
As soon as she heard those words, Fiiru received a big shock.
(I’m …… the worst ……! Judging someone based on made-up rumors…. What a disgusting person I am. ……)
She felt fiercely unhappy. She thought Prince Tomas was truly a kind and honorable person. It was embarrassing for a person like herself to be standing in front of him.
“Um, ……I ……I ……I’ll head back now……” Blushing and teary-eyed, Fiiru announced that she was leaving.
She wanted to disappear from Prince Tomas’ sight as soon as possible. Although she was also sad to be forced to leave just like that.
In the first place, she knew how odd she must appear to just suddenly show up and then immediately say she was leaving.
She was sure Prince Tomas would remember her as a very strange girl.
Even so, all she wanted was to disappear as soon as possible.
Fiiru stood to rush towards the door, but her hand was grabbed by Prince Tomas. She looked at him. He had a gentle but serious expression on his face, and their eyes met.
Prince Tomas’ voice was soft and gentle as he spoke to Fiiru.
“You seem to have a habit of swallowing what you really want to say. Don’t do that. If you don’t say it properly, it won’t be understood.”
Fiiru gulped at the words.
He smiled kindly at her and said, “It’s all right, it’s all right. You can say it. If you say it, it will be all right.”
As if caught up in his smile, Fiiru’s mouth stuttered, but she managed to get her voice out.
“Ummm…I…”
The words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. Her heart was throbbing. It felt like it was going to burst, like it was going to break.
“I ………….” Even when Fiiru stopped speaking, Tomas waited for her with a gentle smile.
Fiiru squeezed her eyes shut, and with her mind blank let the words spill.
“I want to be your ………… friend ……!” Fiiru blushed, but she managed to say it.
After speaking, she waited for a response in trepidation.
Tomás immediately took Fiiru’s hand in his and shook it as he spoke.
“I see. Let’s be friends from now on, Fiiru.”
Snow Day Translations 