Emilia did the opposite of what she was told despite the impudent Elf's harsh tone.
Drawing closer to me until her chest touched mine, and her lips were close to my ear, the Elf Princess uttered words to me.
"Looks like we were interrupted. Another time, then."
I gulped, feeling awfully excited and fearful at the same time.
With a sigh, Emilia began to pull away. She turned in the direction of the seething midget.
"You should stop this, Emilia! Someone like him dares to..." The newcomer eyed me with disgust.
I didn't even do anything wrong, yet I was the one being discriminated against.
"Please, Aurora. Your attitude is not befitting of Royalty, you know? You should comport yourself more."
"And you should stop talking to him!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now that you're here, I might as well introduce the both of you."
"I already heard his introduction before."
"So you know his name?"
"Why would I remember the name of an insignificant human? He doesn't even have any Mana, so he's basically worse than the average one. Doesn't make him less than an insect?"
Yes, the girl was very mean—enough to break a grown man like me.
"Be nice, Aurora. Now, just introduce yourself. Come on..."
Grudgingly, the white-haired Elf stood a distance from me, folded her hands, and spoke with childish authority.
"My name is Aurora Vindiel, Second Princess of this Kingdom. The spirits have nothing to do with this, but you better remember my name!"
She had an extremely cute appearance. It was a shame that her imposing attitude ruined her child-like allure.
"M-my name is Lewis Griffith, and—"
"Ah, I remember now. You were that guy who was shaking and groveling when mother first granted you audience."
'Shiiiiiiiiiiit!'
"Hahahaha! What a funny sight that was. I thought you were going to soil yourself. At least you were aware of our superiority, so I had no real problem with you then."
Her words were so hurtful, but I kept my shattered pride to myself.
I had lived a life of shamelessness, so this much had to be tolerated
"A-ah, that's a relief then—"
"But, you're overstepping your boundaries now, human! You better stay away from my sister! Hmph!"
With that, she dragged—or, more like she tried to—dragged Emilia away.
Her small stature made her efforts to pull her sister away meaningless.
"Well, I have to go now, Lewis. We'll meet later, right?" The only silver lining in the thick dark clouds looming over me gave a brilliant smile.
It was enough to mend my broken heart and crushed spirit.
"Y-yeah..."
"Well, bye then."
"Bye, Emilia. B-bye, Auro—"
One deadly look from the Elf Princess told me never to attempt that. Even though she was small, I could tell...
'She can easily kill me without batting an eye.'
... Princess Aurora was dangerous.
*************************
Afterward, Aurora and I kept hanging out. We grew closer and closer.
Our relationship evolved beyond the topic of Magic, and we truly enjoyed one another's comedy.
It was as though the genre of my life had completely switched. I was in a new world entirely, much like the storybooks I used to read when I was younger.
I, the Male Lead, and Emilia, the Female Lead, were bound by fate.
Of course, there was also the Villain—or rather the Villainess—of the story.
It was none other than Princess Aurora.
Ultimately, I deduced two things from the girl.
The first was that she didn't like me.
The second was that she didn't like the fact that Emilia liked me.
I struggled to understand why she was so annoyed at me. I tried everything I could to convince her I meant well.
It wasn't until a fateful day when I grew tired of her incessant bullying and verbal assault that I finally asked.
"I know you don't despise all humans. You just don't like me! Why?! What have I ever done to you?"
My tone was rude, but I didn't care any longer. My desire to be with Emilia without getting interrupted by Aurora was too much.
It was enough to cloud my common sense.
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
Her pressure alone forced me to kneel before her, cowering like a shivering dog.
I could sense a cold gaze in her eyes. She truly despised me.
"It's all your fault..."
"I-I don't understand... what did I do...?"
"Silence!"
My lips were instantly shut out of fear.
"You... don't you know it's because of her that your Alliance proposal was accepted?"
"Y-yeah... of course, I know that..."
Even though Emilia had been coy about it, she eventually revealed that she had a part to play in the whole thing.
"Did you even bother asking how she was able to do it? You think it's so simple to change my mother's mind? Don't be ridiculous!"
'E-eh...?'
I didn't fully understand politics, so it was difficult to grasp what Aurora was talking about.
Apparently, the situation wasn't as easy as a child begging her mother to change her mind.
"That idiot didn't tell you, did she?"
At this moment, I was confounded with various thoughts.
Doubts and a hint of fear.
"W-what did she do...? How was she able to...?"
"You think I'd tell you? Why don't you ask her since you're so close!"
With those words ringing in my ears, Aurora left me and stormed off.
"W-what did you do... Emilia...?" I muttered to myself, still kneeling on the grass.
*********************
I never found out what she had to pay in exchange for the Alliance.
"Don't worry about it, Lewis. It's all in the past."
Even when I tried to press her on the issue.
"Stop it, Lewis. I said you should let it go."
No matter how hard I tried to let her divulge the details, she never did.
And so, I only wondered and wondered.
For Emilia's sake, I stopped asking about it, and so our relationship progressed as usual.
However, from that moment on, I decided to give more consideration to Emilia.
Slowly, our relationship progressed from that of mere friends... to something a little bit more.
Then, we eventually shared our first kiss.
