Chapter 3

After I drowned in the pool, I took a week’s leave of absence from my job as Prince Alfred’s friend, and then I was dragged back to the royal palace.

From Alfred’s perspective, the pushover Fania might just be his perfect toy to vent his emotion. Alas, that shy and withdrawn Fania no longer exists. I have no plans to blindly serve that tyrant of a prince like the old Fania had done so far.

“So you’ve finally come, Fania. How cheeky of you to take a week leave.”

Alfred pointed his finger at me while acting cocky. See, I just arrived and he has already started to act like this. I heave a sigh. Of course, I wouldn’t bother to hide my dissatisfaction and just showed it to his face.

“So annoying~

After pushing someone into the pond, not to mention that there’s no apology, just what are you grunting about?”

I plugged an ear with my finger, blatantly showing how pesky he was to me.

“Urk, I didn’t mean to push you. That was because you nearly fell and..”

“Ah~~, yes, yes, let’s just assume it was something like that.”

“What’s that with ‘something like that’! What’s with the abrupt change of attitude?? Isn’t your attitude completely different than usual?”

“Nah, this is my true self.”

Not just Alfred, even all the chamberlains were staring at me, flabbergasted by my attitude. Well, the words that the usual Fania knew were only ‘yes’ or ‘sorry’.

“How audacious! You dare to speak in such manner towards me? Just see how I’ll punish you!”

Now, Prince Alfred was infuriated. He raised his voice louder as his face turned red.

I looked around me. There were several chamberlains serving Alfred. However, no one came forward to reproach him, now that he was throwing tantrums.

Ah, How could this be. Alfred was still a young child. He has no common sense; he also doesn’t know what it means to have authority nor does he know how to use it.

Even then, there was no one here to teach him how to differentiate between what’s right and what’s wrong. Not even a single person. Precisely because of this, he would become someone who would make a false charge against his fiancé just because he was being a bother, and forced him into a labour camp.

I became irritated the more I thought about it, and thus I proposed.

“Alfred-sama, how about we have a duel1?”

“Eh, a duel?”

“Yup. If it’s the impeccable and honourable second Prince, Alfred-sama, even if you have a duel with me, there’s no way that you would lose.

Let’s do it, yeah let’s do it, we really should. Or, are you afraid of duels?”

Just now, due to my proposal, Alfred forgot about his tantrum in puzzlement. I snickered at him.

Alfred was surrounded by those who were of lower status than him. Certainly there were the King and the Queen, but at most he’s only able to meet them a few times in a month. Of course that’s not a good thing. Even if there’s no one of higher status than him, he must at least have someone of equal standing.

“What nonsense? No way, will I be afraid of anything like that. You think I’ll lose to someone like you?”

“Ok, Ok. Then, if I win, since it’s too long for me to call you Alfred-sama, I’ll just call you Al. When Alfred-sama wins, you can call me as you like.”

“A, Al… is, is that so…”

I managed to deceive him into accepting the duel, but then he became red and stuttered.

I wonder why.

“Then, let’s play a game of tag. Alfred-sama will be ‘it’. Before I return home, if you catch me, it’s your win. But if you cannot catch me, it means I won, so I’ll call you Al, okay?

“Alright, let’s sta-”

“Ah! Hey! You’re cheating!”

I just ran off without warning. Alfred rushed to catch me, but it’s already too late.

On the timeline when the BL game started, ‘Fania’ hasn’t grown much, so the difference in ‘his’ body build to Alfred’s was noticeable, but now when we’re both 7, our heights and builds were about the same.

I made a quick dash and sprinted away towards the garden where there’s a big tree in the centre, and I climbed onto it.

“Hey! Until, how long do you intend to stay there? Come down now!”

Hn? For a long while, I was lost in thoughts on the branch of the tree and snapped back with that shout. I moved aside for a bit to look down, and there wasAlfred glaring at me with frustration.

There were leaves on his head, his eyes were popping out, currently in wrath.

Alfred really had done his best. Continuously, he has tried to climb the tree. His optimism and guts were really admirable.

Sadly, his effort was to no avail. In short, he’s unable to climb the tree.

“Just wait! I’ll climb up this time.”

Once more, Alfred grasped on the tree and tried to climb. He still hasn’t mastered the trick, so while he could properly hold the branches, his footings were poor.

“Uwah!”

Just as expected, his foot slipped, made him lose his balance, and he fell just like that. He didn’t climb that high, but maybe he had a bad fall, he ended up curling up down there.

“Alfred-sama, are you okay?”

“Your Highness, Ah! Just look what happened here.”

Several chamberlains gather around Alfred.

“Oi, are you okay?”

I then smoothly climbed down the tree and got closer to Alfred.

“Nothing worth to be so worked up for. I only hurt my leg.”

“Wow, well done. So you know now how to endure. However, there could be injuries even if the person himself doesn’t realize it. Let’s have the doctor check it.”

I softly stroke Alfred’s head. With a shocked face, Alfred looked up at me.

“That’s right, Your Highness. Let’s return to the room.”

“I’ll call the doctor.”

The chamberlains were scurrying around. The grand chamberlain said, ‘Pardon me’ to Alfred, and carried him up.

“Fania, why are you being nice to me? You…You don’t hate me?”

“Hmm, it should be an accident that I fell into the pond. If it’s regarding that, then I don’t hate you, Alfred-sama.”

Alfred turned silent at my answer, and he’s carried towards the direction of the chamber by the grand chamberlain.

“Fania! Al, you can call me Al, okay!”

Once he was already a distance away from me, I could hear Alfred’s loud voice.

Bwahaha. That made me chuckle.

It’s okay, it’s still okay.

We’re now 7. There’s still a lot of time.

I tried to make my heart believe in those words.

chocolala: So here we have the template bully-someone-I-like boy! lol

Ali: Alfred is cute– Poor Lamb Prince. Cunning Fania- What a wolf!