Breaking Off the Engagement… Just as Intended Chapter 23

We could hear voices.

‘Why .. following me this far! …’

‘.. to deal a finis.h.i.+ng .. is what I planned to ..’

That voice sounds like Brother.
The other one is .. Chris-sama?
Why is he here?

At last their figures became visible.
It was Brother and Chris-sama after all.
Brother is, well, let’s not worry about him, but Chris-sama is the prince of another country.
Is it really alright for him to suddenly appear in a place like this?

“Ririina! How did the talk .. er, what happened to Prince Leon!?”

Brother looked at Prince Leon with surprise.
Well, he would, wouldn’t he. He’s frozen stiff and doesn’t give off any response, after all.
Brother drew closer to Prince Leon and started shaking his body.
Ah, isn’t it bad to shake him so hard.
See, now it somewhat looks like he is really going to collapse.
At that point Leon-sama finally regained his consciousness.

“M-mh? Are? Why is Ricardo here? It seems like I was seeing a dream. Right, that must have been it! There’s no mistake about it.”

Looks like he regained his spirit after seeing Brother.
Well then, shall we continue our discussion where left off then?
As I was trying to once more talk to Leon-sama, before I could do so Chris-sama stood himself in front of him.

“Hey, Prince Leon. It’s been a while, huh. Do you remember me?” (1)

Brother frantically attempted to drag Chris-sama who had called out to Leon-sama away from him.
But without minding that Chris-sama threw more words at Leon-sama.

“Perhaps you don’t remember anymore, after all? Well, that’s true, it’s been 14 years since this and that happened, and we only spend a few days with each other back then, so maybe you really don’t.”

14 years ago would mean when they were both around 6 years old, right?
So they had met that long ago, huh~
Having given up on dragging Chris-sama away, this time Brother tried to take Leon-sama away from here.
Why would he be doing such a thing?
But Leon-sama wouldn’t move, or more like, for some reason he was staring fixedly at Chris-sama. (2)

“Yo-you are .. when you mean 14 years ago .. i-it couldn’t be!”

Leon-sama had remembered something, it appeared.
However, Brother had pinned his arms behind his back and started to forcibly drag him off.

“Ricardo, let me go! The fact that you’re forcibly trying to tow me away means that that guy is just like I thought ..!”

“Prince Leon! Please calm down! Let us get a fresh start here for once.”

In the end, not being able to free himself from Brother’s grip, they disappeared from the Garden.

“Are you the new fiance of Prince Leon, huh? But as for you, it’s impossible to marry Prince Leon, wouldn’t you agree?”

Is the question Chris-sama directed at Anjiu-sama.
I was thinking that Anjiu-sama made a slightly uncomfortable face looking at Chris-sama, when she bowed to us once and left us behind hurrying away.

Eh?
Anjiu-sama can’t marry Leon-sama?
And how come Chris-sama knows such a thing?
While I was considering these things Chris-sama lightly hit my head ‘ponpon’. [1]

“Ririina, good work. Hasn’t it been exhausting to play along with Prince Leon? For now it seems that everyone has left so shall we return
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to the mansion?”

“No, it hasn’t really been that exhausting. But before I return to the mansion I need to report to Father and the others, but .. one way or the other we still haven’t reached a conclusion, it seems.”

As I said this looking troubled Chris-sama responded with a smile.

“Ririina, it’s fine. Why, because you most certainly have dealt damage to him. Still, since it doesn’t seem like continuing any more than this today will be possible, let’s do that again another day. Because it would cause an uproar if I was discovered here I’m going to return to the mansion first. Well then, see you again back there.”

After ponponing my head a second time he went and left.

And thus no one was left.
Just what was the matter with these past few minutes?
It’s been like a storm especially since Brother appeared.
As for me let’s go report this for now.
But just how am I supposed to explain what happened here?

“.. and with that there hasn’t been much progress on the matter of the engagement. I am truly very sorry.”

I simply reported things as they were.
The reactions upon hearing my report differed individually.
The King was groaning while holding his head.
Rachel-sama continously tapped her favourite fan against her hand.
Father was cackling ‘fufufu’ while looking at the King with an evil smile.
By his side Mother was making sure of the condition of her fist.

First of all Mother must be thinking of educating Brother, is what I think.
Brother mine, today won’t be over with 5 times.
And there may possibly even kicks involved.
Do your best!

“Ano, it doesn’t look like we can continue this talk today any more, so would it be alright to leave the rest for another day?”

Towards my words the first to react was Rachel-sama.

“Ririina, it must have been tough .. I really am sorry. We really should have just forcibly brought him here from the beginning. Next time let us clear things up in a single go with everyone a.s.sembled.”

We really should.
Since it seems that my words don’t reach Leon-sama it would be better for someone else to be present as well.

“Now then, we will be returning now. Ririina, let us go. And let us expectantly await Ricardo’s return to the mansion, shall we.”

Mother mine, what’s up with that smile?
Despite being a smile it’s scary. Even though I’m not the one you’re angry at what is with this amount of pressure.
Is Brother going to be alright?
He’s st.u.r.dy, after all, so I’m sure he’ll be alright. Right?

[1] 私の頭を軽くポンポンとした。 : I read and hear about this kind of gesture often in j.a.panese pop culture (mostly from males to smaller females of similar ages) but I still can’t figure out what they think to try to express with it. With my cultural background I can’t help but see it as a somewhat demeaning (as in, to kind of emphasize their respective positions of above and beneath in a relations.h.i.+p) gesture, but is that actually intended? I sure don’t hope it is. I’m generally good with social cues that appear in stories but yeah, this one still eludes me.

(1) More apparent in the raws, but it appears Chris talks .. even worse with Leon than Ririina. Like an overly familiar tone that results in a strange feeling of dissonance. Imagine how someone walks up to you, puts their arm around your shoulder, asks you for money in a superficially friendly manner while obviously looking down on you. It kind of resembles that feeling in a way. Mentioning this now because this is the first line he’s actually directed at Leon. It holds true for pretty much all of their interactions to some degree.
(2) It is much later (as in, some 25 chapters later) mentioned that Ricardo doesn’t use force with Leon because he’s a Prince, and I reckon it might be the same with Chris who is a Prince as well. Would explain why the head of the chivalric order (and Son of that family) could not move them away from each other. Otherwise I imagine he could have dragged them off with but a single finger, really.