LIGHT NOVEL
LIGHT NOVEL
— Rahful’s perspective —
As captain of the Princess’s Guard, I was meant to introduce my subordinate Cruse, who had been taken by force by Alde Rama, to the eldest son of a central noble house in order to heal her wounded heart—or rather.
Of the same age as Cruse…
Exceedingly gentle…
Kind to everyone…
A love of flowers and song…
A man straight out of a wandering bard’s tale—there was no way such a person existed!
If such a man existed, I’d want him introduced to me!!
But!
The one who had told that lie was none other than myself—!
And so I had been driven into a corner with not a single excuse to my name.
Already exhausted from the search for Her Highness, unable to sleep at night—and now this on top of it…
What in the world had I ever done…?
No—of course, I had been thoroughly unfaithful to Her Highness, so if it were Her Highness reproaching me, that I could accept.
But to be tormented over something entirely unrelated to Her Highness—please, spare me…
No… at the very root of it.
If I had not lied to Cruse when I faced her, none of this would have happened. To say more: even toward Her Highness I had penned that false letter, so if I were banished—or, plainly put, fired—from the Princess’s Guard, I would have no grounds to complain…
“Heh… I have only myself to blame, then…”
I gave a wan laugh in a back alley of the royal capital.
Today, too, snatching time from grueling duty, I had been making rounds of the central noble houses; but not only the man matching the conditions I had myself stated—there were almost no unmarried men of our generation left, full stop.
Of the few who remained, most were good-for-nothings like Rigor—speaking of whom, that man had fallen from grace and was now imprisoned.
But I could hardly introduce Cruse to a man cut from the same cloth as Rigor; and that sort of man, in any case, wouldn’t deign to deal with provincial nobility like us. As if I’d want them, anyway!
“Haa… what am I supposed to do…”
From the alley, I looked up at the royal castle towering on its hill.
The royal castle was currently in the middle of repairs. Owing to Her Highness’s magic, it had been collapsed in great swathes from the Sky Palace all the way down to the midsection.
So ‘repair’ was almost a misnomer—it was no exaggeration to say they were building it anew. When it would be complete, I—an amateur at architecture—could not begin to guess.
And there, suddenly, a thought struck me.
“Building anew, hm.”
If the ideal noble did not exist—could one not, perhaps, simply build one?
It was an absurd idea, and yet I could feel myself being drawn to it.
Of course, one could not actually create a person. There were strange tales about taking some small child and raising them into the ideal man—no, was that the one where the man raised a small girl? Well, whatever the case, we had no such time.
In which case… what was left was…
Lately, dramatizations of the tales sung by wandering bards had become a fad, they say.
Within a play, you could prepare any kind of beautiful man.
In other words—even an ideal beautiful man who didn’t exist in reality could be created for the stage…
“If… I could play that part myself…”
Half-collapsing from sleep deprivation and exhaustion, I somehow held myself up—and began turning that thought over in my head.
* * *
— Cruse’s perspective —
At one of the royal capital’s most distinguished restaurants—today, I shall have my meeting!
And with the eldest son of a central noble house, no less!
What is more, that gentleman is—
Of the same age as me…
Exceedingly gentle…
Kind to everyone…
A love of flowers and song…
—a gentleman straight out of a wandering bard’s tale, they tell me!
That a gentleman of that caliber, of central noble birth, was still unmarried!
My expectations were, like it or not, soaring!
And so I had arrived at the restaurant’s private room a full hour early.
This morning I had had my makeup done with care, my hair styled in the latest fashion, and I was wearing a dress newly commissioned for the day. Even the maids had given me a stamp of “Perfect!”—there was no chance of being slighted on appearance alone.
No—there could not possibly be any ‘slighting’ to begin with.
After all, the gentleman is apparently extremely kind.
That said… it was not entirely without a source of unease.
For Rahful, who had made the introduction, had had urgent business and could not attend today…
But Rahful had lately been in chaos over the search for Her Highness, so there was no help for it.
I shall do my best, even alone…!
While I was steeling myself, there came a knock at the door of the private room.
H-here at last… the gentleman of my dreams had arrived!
My heart leapt.
* * *
— Rahful’s perspective —
I was in a cold sweat over whether my male disguise would hold, but Cruse, on first sight, apparently did not recognize me. Possibly because I was also using an illusion spell, however weak.
Cruse, for her part, was magnificently dressed up and looked truly beautiful. Even I, another woman, could be transfixed—why she had no fiancé was beyond me.
No… that, too, was probably down to her being of provincial noble birth. Here in the royal capital, provincial nobles got short shrift.
While I was thinking such things, Cruse pinched her skirt and curtsied gracefully.
“It is an honor to meet you, Lord Rahland. My name is Cruse Bruge.”
“A-ah… I am Rahland. A pleasure.”
When I answered in the unfamiliar alias, Cruse tilted her head and said:
“Is something the matter? You seem somewhat flustered.”
“A-ah, no… I was just struck by how very beautiful you are, Miss Cruse.”
“Oh, my! Lord Rahland is such a smooth talker ♪”
Exchanging banter like this, we took our seats. The server brought our drinks at once.
Incidentally, I had used magic to alter the timbre of my voice to a man’s. Both the illusion spell and the voice spell would last three hours, so I had to settle this within that time.
By ‘settle,’ I mean—in short, break off this meeting.
Because—I could not keep up the male disguise forever.
I had noticed that obvious fact only several days after the meeting had been arranged in Rahland’s name. By that time it was already too late to cancel… and now here we sat, face to face.
So today, without a single misstep, I had to break off this meeting smoothly.
Of course, breaking it off from my side was out of the question. I had to make Cruse come to dislike me.
But how exactly to make Cruse dislike me—that, I had no clue about, all the way up to the day itself.
Truly, what am I to do…
While I was wavering, Cruse smiled and said:
“Heh heh… just as Rahful had told me.”
“Eh… told you what?”
“That Lord Rahland was a quiet sort, I had heard—and so you are.”
“A-ah, yes… in fact, I’m rather shy with strangers…”
“I see. But today, please do not concern yourself over me.”
“I’m… grateful… to hear that.”
“That said, Lord Rahland is rather like a woman, isn’t he?”
“Eh?!”
Hit with that out of nowhere, I felt my heart jump in my chest.
“I-I-I-I’m a perfectly respectable man, you know?!”
“Heh heh, of course I know that. I meant a man who is as beautiful as a woman, but that is a rather awkward compliment for a man, isn’t it? My apologies.”
“No… no, it’s fine…”
“So, Lord Rahland—I heard that you have a love of song. What kind of songs do you prefer?”
“S-song…?”
Now that she mentioned it, that was one of the settings…
Never having heard a song, I faltered for an instant—but wait, this might… might be a chance, no?
So I broached it.
“Actually… that’s a lie.”
“A lie, you say?”
“I have no love of song, nor of flowers…”
“Oh, is that so.”
“On top of that!”
And I sprang upright.
“In truth, I don’t work at all, and shut myself up in the manor all day—I’m a shut-in!”
“Oh, my…”
Cruse’s eyes went round.
Yes—this direction might just work!
Rahland is a freeloader who doesn’t even work! Let’s go with this!
The idea, which had popped into my head out of nowhere, felt like divine revelation, and I rattled on in one breath!
“And so—even though I’m of central noble birth, no one will deal with me, and even my family looks at me coldly. But I figure ‘the moment I work, I’ve lost,’ so I’m living off the ancestral fortune, eating and sleeping the days away.”
“Is that so…”
“Furthermore, my real hobby is gambling—every night I’m at illegal gambling dens, throwing in cash. So within a few years our family fortune will be gone, and we’re set to be destitute.”
“How impressive…”
“Yes, isn’t it? And I’m a violent drunk. The moment I drink I become unmanageable, they say, and now I no longer even get invited to parties. So banquets and balls are out of the question, and I spend every day moping.”
“That’s why I’d never seen you at public events…”
“Just so. And my dream for the future is to become my house’s security guard. I’ll have eliminated the family fortune through my own doing, but my parents are still working—so I plan to sponge off them until they can work no longer.”
“Oh, my, what a dream…”
“Yes. So, Miss Cruse—would you really marry someone like me?”
And so.
Silence fell upon the private room.
It was a story bad enough to twist the mouth of the server in the corner of the room—and yet Cruse’s smile did not crack.
What in the world was she thinking? Sure enough, being nobility, she would not let me see what was in her heart at once.
So I delivered the final blow.
“Miss Cruse, what I would really like is for you to take over our house.”
“Eh?”
“That is to say—I would like you to become the lady of the house. And to keep me for the rest of my days!”
“I see…”
“What say you, Miss Cruse?!”
When I leaned forward, Cruse smiled brightly and said:
“Lord Rahland…”
“Yes.”
“Wonder—”
“Wonder?”
“Wonderful!”
“…………Pardon?”
Not following at all, I tilted my head, and Cruse came around to my side and took my hand.
And with eyes shining brilliantly, she said:
“In a place like this—to so plainly admit your own flaws without trying to hide them—that conviction, that spirit—deeply moved me!”
“Huh?”
“Have no fear, Lord Rahland! I shall not come to dislike you over flaws of that order!”
“What?”
“Lord Rahland, just as you said—I shall keep you! Lord Rahland may continue to live in your manor as you have until now!!”
“H-hold on, Cruse—I mean, Miss Cruse!”
Wh-what on earth…!
Cruse, this is too desperate—no, your standards have collapsed entirely?!
I started to worry that she would, going forward, be deceived by some truly terrible deadbeat, but for now I had to focus on the problem in front of me!
But if she would be all right even with a man this awful, I was out of moves!
What other kind of awful man could possibly get her to reject me… hm?
R-right!
It’s because I was a bad ‘man’ that it didn’t work!
I leapt at the idea, which had suddenly struck me.
“Miss Cruse! There is still one thing I have not told you!”
“Oh, my! What is it?!”
“In truth… in truth, I… am a woman!”
“Eh?!”
“Just earlier, you said it yourself, Miss Cruse?! That I was like a woman! That guess was correct! Look—like this—”
I yanked open the front of my shirt.
There were breasts bound with cloth bands. Even through the bands, it had to be obvious they were a woman’s chest…!
“—I—no, I—am a woman!”
And once more, the private room of the restaurant was ruled by silence.
In the back of my mind, the question “what in the world am I doing…” flickered, but I powered through it.
How long was that silence?
Several seconds, perhaps; perhaps an hour.
The silence ended when Cruse’s right hand moved softly.
And the fingertips touched my chest.
“…?!”
To have my chest touched by another woman—no, to have anyone else touch my chest at all—this first-time experience sent gooseflesh racing across my whole body, but I bit it back.
And then Cruse said:
“Heh heh… it’s all right, Lord Rahland…”
The chill running down my spine had taken my voice.
It’s-all-right—what’s all right…?!
When I slowly looked into Cruse’s face, the eyes turned on me looked, despite her having drunk no wine, like the eyes of a thoroughly drunk woman.
“At this point… gender doesn’t matter either!”
“It absolutely does matter, gender-wise?!”
I instinctively replied in my real voice, but Cruse did not even notice. Furthermore, the fingertips that had been on my chest crept—slowly, deliberately—from my chest to my collarbone, then up my neck to my cheek.
A shudder ran through my body!
With a face of utter intoxication, Cruse said:
“It’s quiiite all riiight ♪ I don’t care about gender.”
“I care!”
“Oh? The moment you confessed to being a woman—you turned more manly, didn’t you?”
“Gh—n-no good!”
I leapt backward and at once dropped into a deep apology bow on the spot.
“Cruse! I’m sorry! It’s Rahful!!”
Too afraid to see Cruse’s reaction, I poured everything out from the bowing position.
“I couldn’t find an unmarried central noble man! But thinking of how Cruse had been looking forward to the meeting, I couldn’t bring myself to say so! So I dressed as a man and came to the meeting myself!”
“Oh, my…”
“I understand perfectly well that this solves nothing! But—”
“It’s all right, Rahful.”
At a voice gentler than I could have imagined, I looked up in spite of myself.
Cruse held out her hand with an expression as full of mercy as a goddess.
It was a hand that looked, truly, like one of salvation.
So I took it without thinking and stood.
“Rahful. I knew.”
“Eh…”
“After all, no matter how you dressed as a man, no matter what magic you used, would I really fail to recognize Rahful’s face after all these years together?”
“S… so that was it…”
“I wanted to test what kind of handsome man Rahful would make, and ended up teasing you a little. I’m sorry.”
“No… I was the one who was in the wrong to begin with…”
“That isn’t true. Rahful, you went to such lengths for me when I had been hurt. You couldn’t possibly be in the wrong.”
“R-right… thank you… Cruse.”
And so we gazed at each other for a while…
Gazed at each other…
Kept gazing at each other…
…………suddenly sensing that something was off, I said:
“Um… Cruse? Could you let go of my hand now?”
“Why?”
“No, ‘why’ or otherwise…”
“But—if I let go of your hand, Rahful, you would run away, wouldn’t you?”
“Run away, no, not necessarily…”
“I may have teased you, but what I said earlier—that was no lie, you know?”
“What you said earlier…? You mean……………..?”
To my question, however, Cruse only beamed.
So I asked again.
“H-hey… Cruse? You’re starting to act a little—”
But I could not finish the question.
“—?!”
Suddenly yanked by the hand by Cruse, caught off guard, I lost my balance and toppled forward into Cruse—and the moment I did,
Cruse’s lips met mine.
“?!?!”
When I leapt back with eyes wide, Cruse’s hot gaze was on me.
“Rahful… only you…”
“Wh-wh-what?!”
“Only you cared this much for my sake…”
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
“And so… I’m done with good-for-nothing men…”
“Done with them?!”
“And so—Rahful! Marry me!!”
“As if I could?!”
I just barely dodged Cruse as she came lunging at me, threw open the door of the private room, and bolted out at top speed.
“Ah! Rahful! Wait! I won’t let you escape!!”
“I don’t swing that way!”
“That—I shall change with my charms!!”
“That’s impossible, all right?!”
And so—
—from this point on, I was to be subjected to relentless courtship from Cruse around the clock, but that, I’d rather leave as a story for another time. No—I’d rather not speak of it at all.
Am I… cursed somehow… (sob)
(And that’s that.)
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