The Aloof Tsundere Princess Is Smitten with Me?!
I’m Just a Commoner Banished from the Royal Castle—So Why Are We on the Run Together, Just the Two of Us?!
Vol.3

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Chapter 1: It’s a Promise, All Right? Please Be Sure to Keep in Touch

— Tisli’s perspective —

The day after the Martial Arts Tournament had somehow drawn to a close, and its victory celebration had ended as well.

Alde and I had decided to set out from the Fergana domain capital.

In truth we’d meant to stay a while longer, but since my face—the princess’s—had become widely known, I could no longer go sightseeing so casually, and pursuers from the royal palace had surely already been set on our trail, so we decided to move our departure up.

And so, with a sigh threaded through my words, I said,

“Honestly… that former lord brings me nothing but trouble.”

This inn had an entrance reserved for royalty, and that was where we stood now. Besides Alde, there were also Miss Fottes and Berat, the siblings I’d grown close to over the course of the tournament.

“Well, it can’t be helped. Not after he pulled something that flashy.”

Alde gave a wry smile, but my irritation refused to settle.

“To begin with, I hadn’t intended to reveal my station, you know? And yet, because that former lord had to go sticking his nose in—”

“Well, leaving a fellow like that to his own devices would’ve been bad too. So if anything, isn’t it a good thing we managed to arrest him right here?”

“That may be so, but…”

For no particular reason, I let my gaze drift toward the Grenada siblings. The two of them looked puzzled at the look I gave them—and then Alde clapped his hands together.

“Ah, I get it. You’re grumbling because you’re sad about saying goodbye to the siblings, aren’t you.”

“Wha…?!”

Struck speechless at being told something so unexpected, I froze—and Alde rattled on with things no one had asked him to say…!

“The whole tournament you were buried in training, so you never got to go round the sights with the siblings. By rights, the four of us were supposed to tour the place once the tournament was over—”

“Th-th-that’s not it?!”

I shook my head in a fluster and cut Alde off.

“There is no way that I, of all people, would be lonely!”

At that, Alde broke into a smirk and said,

“What’s that supposed to mean? We’ve eaten from the same pot, and you’re this cold-hearted? For the record, I’m sad about it, myself.”

“Y-you…?!”

“Feeling sad about parting from someone is only human, isn’t it? And yet you, Tisli—you’ve got no warmth to you, or however I should put it…”

“……………!”

Alde struck a theatrical, hands-thrown-up pose, so without a word I smacked him across the back, again and again. Rather seriously, at that.

And so Alde went, “Ow, that hurts?!” and backed away to put some distance between us, so—determined not to let him escape—I lowered my stance in earnest, and beside us, Miss Fottes was giggling.

“Truly, the two of you get along so well.”

“We do not!”

Whenever I quarrel with Alde, Miss Fottes always says that sort of thing, for some reason. As I was genuinely fretting—”Ought she perhaps to have an eye doctor or someone take a look at her…?”—Berat spoke up as well.

“It’s certainly a shame we couldn’t see the sights together with everyone, but there’s no help for it. We could hardly cart Her Highness the Princess about with no security at all.”

Miss Fottes nodded as she added,

“Besides, if Your Highness so much as walked through town, that alone would throw it into chaos. The streets around this inn are apparently packed with throngs of your subjects, you know?”

Hearing of such a state of affairs, I sighed all the more.

“Haa… this is precisely why I didn’t want to stir things up.”

At that mutter of mine, Alde butted in yet again.

“For all that, you were having a grand time, weren’t you. Like when you were talking the former lord into a corner—”

When I shot Alde a sharp glare, he put on an innocent face and gazed off into the middle distance.

Then I turned my eyes to the Grenada siblings once more.

“I will make this up to you someday, without fail. We’ve plenty of time on our hands, so once things have quieted down, do send word. We’ll come flying—and I mean that quite literally.”

At those words of mine, the Grenada siblings broke into carefree smiles and nodded, and then Miss Fottes timidly held out her right hand.

“Of course, Your Highn—no, Miss Tisli.”

Her fingertips were trembling, ever so slightly. Ordinarily, no noble—whoever they might be—could possibly trade a handshake with royalty, so for a commoner like Miss Fottes, it had to be an act far too daunting to even attempt.

And yet, that she would reach out her hand to me like this—it filled me with a joy unlike any I had felt before.

And so I, too, gave a small smile and clasped Miss Fottes’s hand in return.

“It’s a promise, all right? Please be sure to keep in touch.”

And so, there in the entrance hall, we bid the Grenada siblings farewell—

—and set our Magic Vehicle racing, straight for Alde’s hometown.

Chapter 2: I’ll Go There Myself, Along with a Few of the Princess’s Guard!

— Rahful’s perspective —

Having badly missed the mark on where Her Highness had vanished to, I was prepared to be relieved of my post as captain of the Princess’s Guard—but Lady Lily did no such thing.

“I cannot have you dropping out now. Redeem your own blunder through merit.”

Or so she said. I, who’d been certain she would fly into hysterics, was even a little moved by such unexpected magnanimity—and so I came to throw myself into the search for Her Highness the Princess with all the more zeal.

And the chance to redeem myself came sooner than I’d expected.

Her Highness the Princess had been discovered in a provincial city.

“Her Highness has shown herself in the Fergana domain capital?!”

When I heard that first report—a place I’d not anticipated in the slightest—I was thrown into great confusion. Knowing Her Highness, I assumed there had to be some reason she’d gone to the Fergana domain—yet that reason did not readily come to mind.

But I could hardly sit on my hands in the face of such precious eyewitness intelligence. Besides, no matter how I racked my brains, outwitting Her Highness was beyond me anyway.

Driving a Magic Vehicle day and night, we could reach the Fergana domain capital in a few days—but whether Her Highness would still be lingering in the capital by the time we arrived… that likelihood was vanishingly slim.

Still, if I went there in person, I might be able to predict Her Highness’s movements thereafter. And so I rose to my feet at once.

“All right, understood. Ready a Magic Vehicle this instant. I’ll go there myself, along with a few of the Princess’s Guard!”

When I told the messenger as much, he replied, looking abashed,

“Lady Rahful, about the members going there… Lady Lily says that she, too, will accompany you.”

“What did you say?”

Though Lady Lily is not of the direct royal line, she is a daughter of a great noble house and its heir besides. To bring her along, we’d have to mobilize a sizable escort of troops—but there was no time now to assemble such a formation.

So I said to the messenger,

“In that case, we’ll set out ahead, and Lady Lily can follow after—”

“No, the thing is… she says she will travel with the advance party.”

“How unreasonable of her…”

“That being the situation, might I ask you to petition Lady Lily directly?”

“…Understood.”

Bandying words with the messenger here would plainly get us nowhere. With no other recourse, I made my way to Lady Lily.

Lady Lily was still a student and had been living in the student dormitory, but ever since Her Highness fled and her official duties mounted, she now resided within the royal castle. Today she was said to be in her private chambers, so when I reached the door, I knocked, then lowered myself to one knee and assumed the posture of deepest reverence.

For a little while there seemed to be some hurried bustling inside, but presently one of the lady’s maids opened the door.

“It’s fine. Raise your head and come in.”

And when Lady Lily’s voice came from within the chamber and I lifted my head, there stood Lady Lily, planted firmly in the room, her travel preparations entirely complete.

I stepped inside and, reluctantly, opened my mouth.

“Erm… Lady Lily. Is it true that you mean to go to the Fergana domain in person?”

To my hesitant question, Lady Lily nodded without a shred of doubt.

“Of course. Now that my dear Sister has been found, it is only natural that I, who hold the right of succession, should be the one to receive her, is it not?”

“Even so… if you are the one to go, Lady Lily, then a military formation will be needed…”

“No such thing is necessary. We can simply manage it incognito. Assemble the bare minimum of personnel—at once!”

“But your official duties here at the castle…”

“It is high time someone roused that useless king, is it not?! Uncle is in perfectly fine health by now!”

“W-well, true enough… I do hear that the injuries you dealt him, Lady Lily, have completely healed, but…”

“Then it’s decided! Or is there something? Have you some objection to my going?”

“No, it isn’t that, but…”

True enough, if His Majesty returned to his duties, there would no longer be any need to keep Lady Lily within the royal castle. That said, to take Lady Lily—a quasi-royal—beyond the royal capital with no proper guard was, under normal circumstances, something I would oppose without question, and yet…

And besides, for some reason, I had a very bad feeling about all this…

But I was indebted to Lady Lily for overlooking my blunder, and more than that, when it came to persuading Her Highness, my own station was, admittedly, far too lowly by comparison.

So there was no doubt that having Lady Lily, who holds the right of succession, come along was the sensible course.

Besides, this time we had Magic Vehicles that not even cavalry could overtake, so there’d be no fear of being set upon by bandits or the like.

“Understood… Then I shall make ready with all haste, so please wait about an hour.”

Originally I’d meant to depart at once with four of us, myself included, in a single Magic Vehicle—but Magic Vehicle or not, with Lady Lily accompanying us, we’d need an escort of at least a dozen or more.

And so, in a frantic rush, I selected members of the Princess’s Guard, had the chamberlain pick out some three lady’s maids to attend to Lady Lily, and in the end set out from the royal castle in a column of five Magic Vehicles.

Chapter 3: Why Is It That I’m the One Slated to Stay at Alde’s Childhood Home?!

— Alde’s perspective —

Having left the domain capital, Tisli and I drove the Magic Vehicle for a full day before deciding to camp at a lakeside out in the forest.

There were post towns nearby, but to throw off our pursuers we’d decided against using them. Though even if they did catch up to us, it didn’t seem to be much of a problem for Tisli.

Another reason was that we still had a fair bit of the preserved food we’d stocked up on left over. After all, we’d only gone camping once so far.

Roughing it in the middle of a forest would normally be the height of folly, what with the risk of wild animals attacking—but with Tisli’s magic, apparently it was no issue at all. She’d already thrown up a defensive barrier over the whole lakeside—nothing left to chance.

Tisli, for her part, climbed out of the Magic Vehicle and stretched hugely, like a cat.

“It’s gotten quite hot during the day, but the nights are still cool, aren’t they.”

“Yeah. Maybe it’s ’cause we’re in the forest, but it’s almost a little chilly.”

I climbed out of the Magic Vehicle too and gazed at the lakeside, faintly aglow in the moonlight.

“What a gorgeous spot, though. I only ever set foot in forests when I’m hunting, so I had no idea a place like this existed.”

We’d supposedly already reached my home domain, but so far I had no real sense of having come home. If anything, being shown a dreamlike landscape like this made it feel even less like my own stomping grounds.

The sky looked as though a great hole had been scooped out of the forest canopy, with a silver moon hanging in it. That moonlight reflected off the lakeside, so even at night there was a fair amount of light.

As I was admiring the lake like that, Tisli spoke up.

“There’s a boat over there. It seems people come and go in this forest.”

“The footpath up to here was well-kept too, so maybe folks fish in this lake or something.”

“Indeed. Shall we borrow that boat for a bit and row out a little way?”

Having no particular reason to object, we made our way over to the rowboat.

The rowboat was tied to a thoroughly homemade-looking little pier, but it seemed properly looked after. People really did frequent this forest, it appeared.

We sat facing each other in the boat, and I started to row.

As we glided across the rippling water, Tisli let out a cry of delight.

“How wonderful… it’s as though this whole area is shining.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Same sort of waterside, but it’s got a different charm from the domain capital.”

I’d grown up in a rural village, and even so I’d never seen scenery this dreamlike. Then again, the very notion of touring around various places isn’t one commoners tend to have—the domain capital included.

Being with Tisli really did always give me fresh experiences. Thinking that, I looked over at Tisli.

Lit by the moonlight, Tisli looked as though she herself were faintly glowing.

“Alde? Is something the matter?”

“Eh…?! Ah, no… it’s nothing.”

“It’s clearly not nothing, is it? Staring at me so rudely, with that vacant, idiotic look on your face.”

“You didn’t have to add the ‘idiotic look’ part.”

If only she didn’t have such a sharp tongue, this girl would be beautiful enough to pass for a goddess or an angel… well, I’m used to it by now.

Thinking such things—and to drag myself back to reality—I brought up the matter of the domain capital.

“By the way, was it really fine not to deal with the cleanup back in the domain capital?”

A lord being arrested struck me as a major incident, but after giving the Security Corps a few very simple instructions, Tisli had acted as if it were no concern of hers. If the top figure of a region suddenly vanished, then even if he’d been rotten to the core, surely it’d cause problems—even a political ignoramus like me could reckon that much. Especially since it was the very domain my village belonged to.

But Tisli, looking utterly unbothered, said,

“Yes, it’s fine. I made sure to appoint a stand-in. Give it a few months and that person should manage things well enough.”

“Huh, so that’s how it was. Then it won’t cause too much chaos.”

“Quite. Though the one appointed acting domain lord will be in an utter panic, I’d imagine.”

“My condolences to them.”

Tisli wore the smile of a child who’d pulled off a successful prank, so I gave a shrug, sparing a thought for the acting domain lord. They’d surely been saddled with an impossible job.

“In any case, your hometown won’t come to any harm, so set your mind at ease. After all, I’ll be staying there from now on. Even if something were to happen, I could deal with it on the spot.”

“That’s reassuring. But if that’s the plan, how should I introduce you, Tisli?”

When I muttered this almost to myself, Tisli tilted her head a little.

“Introduce me? You mean to the people of the village?”

“Not the whole village so much as to my family.”

“…Come again?”

Tisli’s eyes went round and she let out a flustered, off-key squawk.

“Introduce me to your family…? Wh-why…?”

She was asking something odd, so this time it was my turn to tilt my head as I said to her,

“Why? It’s my hometown, and it’s a tiny village. Besides, you’re my employer, so it’d be unnatural not to introduce you, wouldn’t it?”

“N-now that you put it that way… true enough…”

“What’s up? You’ve gone all jittery all of a sudden.”

“Nothing of the sort!”

“…Haven’t you, though?”

She’d plainly turned shifty, her eyes darting about in a way unlike her… well, whatever. Tisli’s manner abruptly going strange was nothing new.

“So what’ll we do? Should I introduce you as the princess?”

“N-no… that’s best kept under wraps as much as possible.”

“Yeah, figures. But word of the Martial Arts Tournament might’ve reached the village too, and if so—”

After talking it over with Tisli, we decided to get our stories straight: the princess who’d competed in the Martial Arts Tournament and Tisli were two different people.

Tisli had revealed her identity at the tournament for only a very short while, and abruptly at that, so I doubted anyone could’ve drawn up a likeness of her in that window. Besides, handing out a portrait of the princess without her leave would be straight-up lèse-majesté.

So we’d say the princess had returned to the royal capital once the tournament ended. And as for where I stood, we’d say I’d been granted the post of guard to Tisli—the daughter of a political merchant on close terms with the princess. We also added that Tisli was touring the region to study the merchant’s trade.

With that, the story seemed like it’d just about hold together. I muttered with a nod,

“Well, that’s about reasonable. If the princess lodged at our place, my parents might keel over from the strain. My little sister and the pup’d be fine, though.”

“……………Huh?”

At that mutter of mine, Tisli’s eyes went round once again.

“Um… Alde? What did you just say…?”

“Huh? That my parents might keel over from the strain…”

“No, a little before that.”

“A little before? Uh… the bit about ‘if the princess lodged at our place’?”

“Yes! That line!”

Tisli jabbed a finger straight at me and leaned forward as she spoke. The rowboat lurched without warning.

“Why is it that I’m the one slated to stay at Alde’s childhood home?!”

“Why? Well… because it’s my family home?”

“That makes no sense! At the very least, I could stay at an inn of some sort, couldn’t I?!”

“Look, my hometown’s just a farming village, you know? It’s not like there’s an inn, the way there is in a post town.”

“Eh…?!”

Tisli’s eyes flew wide, and she muttered with a dumbstruck look,

“There’s… no inn…?!”

“That’s right. I mean, you’re the one who said you wanted to go to my hometown—you hadn’t realized until now?”

“How was I supposed to realize there’d be no inn?! And more to the point, I hadn’t even thought about paying my respects to your parents!”

When I heard her out properly, it seemed that while Tisli hadn’t pictured a scale on par with the royal capital or the domain capital, she had imagined a fairly sizable town.

Well, true, in sheer area it was far larger than a post town—but that was on account of the farmland; in terms of population, it was much smaller. Then again, apart from traveling peddlers, no one ever visited a farming village anyway.

But Tisli, a resident of the royal capital, had had no way of knowing such things, and even after reaching the farming village she’d apparently meant to lodge at an inn as before, inspect the farm work whenever the mood struck her, and, if possible, try her hand at farming.

True, my family lived in a farming village yet didn’t farm for a living, and I’d mentioned as much in passing chatter. So all the more, she apparently hadn’t counted on meeting my family face to face, let alone lodging with them.

Having heard out the whole situation, I folded my arms and said,

“Hmm… but you can’t very well rough it outdoors the entire time, right? That’d really earn you funny looks from everyone in the village.”

“True… it would be a most peculiar situation…”

A girl, all alone on the outskirts of the village, pitching a strange tent and camping out. Precisely because the population was small, she’d stand out for all the wrong reasons, no question.

And if word got out that she was an acquaintance of mine, the whole village would be up in arms: “Why won’t you put her up at your house?!”

And even if she leaned on a neighboring village, I’d never heard of a household that would take in and lodge someone who wasn’t even a relative.

As I was racking my brains, Tisli, wearing the face of someone who’d braced herself with grim, tragic resolve, spoke up.

“F-fine. If there’s no inn, then there’s no help for it…”

“Meaning?”

“I shall accept the hospitality of Alde’s childhood home…”

“…Do you hate the idea that much?”

Tisli’s state of mind, all steeled as it was, was completely beyond me, and as I tilted my head, Tisli went on,

“It isn’t that I hate it, but… being introduced to someone else’s family is… well, how should I put it…”

“How should you put it?”

“I-I mean… properly speaking, all sorts of arrangements are called for…”

“Arrangements?”

“Honestly! You truly are a man sorely lacking in imagination!”

For some reason I was the one getting scolded. Tisli pressed her case with gestures of hand and arm.

The rowboat rocked when she did, so I’d have appreciated it if she’d move around less, but…

“Just imagine it! How would you feel if I suddenly announced that I was going to introduce you to my Father?!”

“Your Father… you mean His Majesty Ajinos?”

“Who else would I possibly mean?!”

“Well… I might feel like I was getting an ulcer, sure…”

“There, you see?! Being introduced to someone else’s family is just that momentous an affair!”

“No… I’d say there’s way too big a gap in standing between my parents and His Majesty, though…”

After all, His Majesty was the sort who, at the slightest discourtesy, might literally have your head sent flying. Telling a person not to be nervous about that would be the strange thing.

But Tisli, with no regard whatsoever for such matters of rank, said,

“It’s much the same thing! Family—one’s parents above all—are presences of just that great a weight!”

“I-is that… so…?”

“It is so! In any case, now that it’s come to this, starting today you’re going to give me a thorough account of your parents’ characters, their belief systems, and the rest!”

“N-no… belief systems or whatever—they’re just a bit frail in health, perfectly ordinary—”

“Frail in health—frail to what degree?! Are they bedridden?! Surely they don’t have some incurable disease?!”

Here we were at a forest lakeside brimming with stillness, and yet Tisli’s interrogation went on ruining the mood, little by little…

(Continued in the Kindle edition)

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