I was so embarrassed that I had no choice but to look away.
Anyway, Ray isn’t the type to be mean or call me by a strange nickname.
So I nodded my head.
“Alright. What do you want to call me?”
“Since I’m Ray… how about Sei?”
He seemed embarrassed too; I could see his face flush slightly.
I felt heat rise to my own face as well.
‘Matching nicknames feels kind of ticklish.’
It was awkward, so I couldn’t answer.
Ray looked at me and asked, “No?”
I heard a faint whimpering sound like a puppy somewhere.
It was because of Ray in front of me.
I was going to agree anyway, but…
‘How could I say no to that face?’
When I nodded, Ray smiled even more brightly than before, clearly happy.
“Sei.”
“Yeah.”
“Sei.”
“Yeah. Ray.”
When I called his name in response to his, Ray gave me a smile as if he was melting.
We chatted quietly for a long time after that.
And when we started to get sleepy and were about to go back to sleep, the discomfort I felt because of the male lead had completely disappeared, so I was able to sleep deeply.
***
“Huahm, good morning, Seiana.”
The next morning.
I laughed watching Ari, who was waking up and patting her swollen sleeping face.
It was quite undignified, but since it was her, she was just cute.
“Yeah. Good morning. Ah, and Ari. From now on, you can call me Lovey.”
“Okay… huh?”
Ari, who had been nodding in agreement, suddenly widened her eyes as she understood what I said.
Her eyes had been barely open because of swelling, but now they were huge.
I watched, amazed, and she opened her mouth wide.
Soon a surprised expression fully bloomed on her face.
“Wow!”
She hugged me tightly, and when I hugged her back, she shouted how happy she was!
Honestly, nicknames were nothing special… but since Ray and Ari liked it so much, I felt a little embarrassed.
‘I should’ve allowed it sooner.’
What was I delaying for?
We tidied up our messy appearances from sleeping and went outside.
Ari’s proud back walking out of the carriage looked like a triumphant general returning from victory.
Looking around as if searching for something, Ari spotted Ray and her eyes sparkled.
She glanced back slightly as if to ask, “He hasn’t been allowed yet, right?”
‘Uh, that’s not really…’
I tried to stop her, but Ari dashed off before I could catch her.
She stood right in front of Ray, who frowned like he was annoyed.
Maybe it was because of seeing Ari first thing in the morning, but her very confident expression seemed to annoy him greatly.
“Hmph.”
And she even sneered, which made his eyebrows knit together, but then they relaxed.
Ray spotted me.
“Sei.”
“Sei?”
He smiled softly and called the nickname we decided on last night.
Ari heard that and looked confused, wondering why he stopped calling the name halfway, but then she realized it was a nickname and was shocked.
“Why!?”
Ari seemed to realize from the fact that I wasn’t questioning it that I had given permission.
Looking at us with trembling eyes, she seemed to understand that the nickname Sei was more special.
“I-I want to call you that too!”
“No.”
“Why!”
“Because it’s mine.”
Ari puffed up her cheeks, trying to protest, but Ray’s firm words made her pout.
After huffing, she turned to me and said, “Then I want to call you Ana!”
“If we have too many names, it’ll be confusing. Can’t you just call me Lovey?”
“But… but…”
Ari stomped her feet, looking unfair and pointed at Ray, as if complaining why only he got to be special.
Exactly.
Why only Ray?
I smiled awkwardly.
Was the guilt I once had for Pedro transferred to him?
Or was it something else?
I thought about it but didn’t know.
I approached Ari to calm her down and held her hand.
“Lovey is my first nickname. And it comes from the most meaningful name.”
“But if you really hate it, we can do whatever you want.”
“No, I like Lovey too. I just felt like I lost to him.”
I smiled as Ari muttered a shy apology.
“Friends don’t keep score.”
Her mood lightened and she leaned into me gently.
That morning’s little incident passed, and after a simple breakfast and getting ready, we set off again.
Now it was really time to go see the fairies.
“What if the kids get disappointed?”
There’s no way fairies really exist.
But they packed a bunch of things they liked to give to the fairies.
Thinking of their disappointed faces made my head hurt.
I didn’t even want to imagine that.
I thought we should prepare a good excuse so they wouldn’t get hurt the most.
But that didn’t happen immediately.
Although they were nearby, because there was a mountain in the way, we had to go around, so it took some time.
Even if we didn’t go by the sea, going around the mountain was the same and wasn’t a waste of time.
Two days later, we arrived at the place where Miskit met the fairy and became friends… but “There are a lot of people.”
“Yeah, there really are.”
There were really a lot of people.
Was this place really such a famous tourist spot?
I was flustered, but my older brother who had been looking around explained why there were so many people.
“Apparently, there’s a rumor spreading among the young ladies.”
“Huh? What rumor…?”
“Well, something like you can only go to the fairy kingdom if you become true friends with the fairies. Some just tried to barge in, but then the fairies curse them or something.”
“The fairy’s curse?”
“Yeah. Like, if a stranger barges into someone’s house and says, ‘I came to see you, so you have to be friends with me,’ no one would be happy, right? Fairies would be similar. So angry fairies would curse them.”
I touched my head at that.
It sounded familiar, maybe something I said at a meeting was misunderstood.
‘Unlike me, the other young ladies probably had friends.’
The rumor was passed on to them, they passed it on to others, and so on, until the curse of the fairies that I never even mentioned was created.
“Well… is that okay? At least they’d be scared and not do bad things.”
Like trying to summon fairies by poisoning the lake to scare them into coming out.
That’s a relief, but… I looked at Ari and Ray.
They were staring blankly outside, wearing black cloaks pulled tightly over their heads.
Seeing their empty faces almost made me cry.
‘They must have been really looking forward to coming here… but there are too many people and they can’t even get out.’
I learned while traveling with them that Ari and Ray seemed to avoid people.
Except for the knights and servants traveling with us, they wouldn’t try to meet others.
If unavoidable, they would keep a distance, wrapped in cloaks like this.
Mostly, they hid their bodies inside the carriage.
I don’t know why, but since they were like that… they wouldn’t come out of the carriage with all these young ladies and their groups around.
Especially considering Ray is royalty.
Royals, except the emperor and empress, never go outside.
Even the crown prince, who is an adult, does not engage in public activities…
‘If he hadn’t been a merchant in his past life, he probably wouldn’t have seen him until he ascended the throne.’
He’s probably even younger now than then.
Anyway, since the crown prince was like that, the fourth prince Ray would be even more so.
“Do you think it’ll be hard to go out anyway?”
I smiled, trying not to sound sarcastic.
At those words, the two lowered their heads.
Were they feeling sorry, or discouraged…?
Thinking it was the latter, I cautiously suggested,
“Even if not here… we have one more place to go. Shall we go there?”
“But… Rubi wanted to come here.”
“That’s true. We’ll just stay here, so Sei, you go out by yourself.”
“What would I do going alone… It’s only fun and enjoyable when I’m with you guys.”
When I refused their suggestion to enjoy it alone, both seemed touched.
I’m not really someone who believes in fairies, so what would I do going there alone…?
I didn’t want to shake a rattle that the fairy might like and say, ‘Fairy, come here.’
Absolutely not.
Still, since they looked apologetic, I spoke firmly,
“What I wanted was to come here with you and have fun. If we meet the fairy while playing, that’s good. The fairy isn’t important — being with you is what matters.”
“Rubi…”
Their eyes shone brightly as they looked at me.
Yes.
Please, don’t send me off to that young lady’s group.
So, we left the lakeside like that.
***
Fortunately, the next destination wasn’t far.
It was about an hour from the lakeside.
Because it wasn’t far, I thought maybe there might be people there too, but contrary to expectations, there was no one.
“It’s amazing.”
It seemed unlikely for no one to be here since the outside didn’t show this inside at all.
There was such a wide flower field, yet no one could know about it.
I asked my brother if the place was hidden by some magical power, but it wasn’t.
“It seems to be naturally hidden by an optical illusion of the eye.”
Since my brother was a knight, he carried magical tools to prepare against illusion magic, but since it didn’t work, he said it wasn’t magic.