“…Indeed, I did talk about you once. But I didn’t mention your name back then. I didn’t think it was something fun to listen to anyway.”

“Hey, why is the story about me not fun! You didn’t tell Christina onee-sama anything weird, did you?!”

“You’ve always been weird! It’s harder to say something that is not weird about you!”

“Oh my! What did you say to Christina onee-sama?!”

Ferio found himself being strongly questioned for some reason and thought that they got away from the main topic again, but he couldn’t help but answer the question of the girl in front of him.

“She… just insisted on listening to a love story, so I just told the story about you.”

“Love story?”

“Christina often asked me about my first love. I’m not that much of a fool to tell such a story to my own fiancée. I always told her I had none… but one day, I just happened to be so tired…”

His fiancée, who visited him once a week, was always asking about his love story for some reason. She said she wouldn’t mind even if it was a fictional story but she wanted to hear his story, and due to him being so busy that he had to cancel their once-a-week tea party and her insistence, he ended up telling her the story about his bitter first love.

“Even though I didn’t say any names, she somehow learned about the period where I stayed at the Talis resort, and she quickly linked things together. It was careless of me. I’m sorry.”

“…I don’t understand.”

“About what?”

“How is your love story related to me? Christina onee-sama requested the story of your first love, right? How did it end up becoming a story about me?”

When Sophie said that with an expression saying that she didn’t understand whatsoever, Ferio had a suspicious expression.

“I told a story about Sophie when she asked for the story about my first love, why don’t you understand that part?”

“Did you have someone you loved back then?”

“Of course it’s you!”

As Ferio involuntarily screamed, Sophie also raised her voice “Hah?!” which sounded very unlike an aristocratic young lady.

“What’s with that reaction…?”

“You mean I was the person you loved?!”

“…Oi, I confessed to you back then.”

“Confessed?”

“I asked you to be my bride, right!”

“…Eh, didn’t you just say that because you didn’t want to be apart from me?”

“And I didn’t want to be apart from you because I loved you!”

Sophie looked far away as if she was worried about something. Her expression seemed to say, “It was that kind of thing?” Such a question clearly evident on her face.

She really didn’t understand… Once Ferio noticed that, he looked at the girl in front of him with an expression that made it seem like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“No way… is the maiden within you already dead?!”

“That’s rude!”

Ferio understood that he got rejected back then. But to think she didn’t even understand that he confessed to her, was something he didn’t expect.

The girl who lost her maiden heart suddenly began to calculate. She moved her fingers as if she were writing something on her palm and when it was over, she suddenly raised her face.

“Hey, wait a minute. Your engagement with Christina onee-sama should have already been decided back then. In other words, even though you already had Christina onee-sama as a proper fiancée, you asked a random girl to be your bride?!”

“A random girl…”

Is that a proper word to describe yourself? thought Ferio as his eyebrows wrinkled. It really made him think how weird the woman in front of him was, as usual.

“What a thing to do, that’s a crime worthy of death!”

Sophie slammed the table with both hands, screaming as if denouncing a criminal.

“Aah, that’s right. I knew you would refuse anyway, so I just asked you if you want to be my bride!”

Ferio also got mad and told the truth.

Although it pained his heart to admit how miserable he was to only confess to her because he knew she would refuse him, the terrible girl didn’t notice that and was worried about a completely different issue.

“…Maybe Christina onee-sama was suspicious about my relationship with you?!”

Seeing how she was getting pale as her body quivered, Ferio asked what he thought.

“Why do you adore Christina that much?”

“There’s no human in this world who doesn’t adore Christina onee-sama!”

She declared that with all her might.

Ferio began to feel sorry for his younger self who fell for the girl in front of him. He began to understand less why he even fell for her to begin with.

“Don’t worry, Christina is educated to be a queen, the difference of grace between you two is the difference between heaven and earth. She wouldn’t have such narrow thoughts… Well, she is indeed a weird woman in a different sense, though.”

“What a thing to do, you don’t understand a woman’s heart! It’s natural for a woman to be curious about the past of the person she loves. And if their actions went beyond curiosity, that means she had doubts about her relationship with the person in question! Christina onee-sama asked you about your love story over and over, and that is undeniable proof of the doubts she had about you!”

Even though she couldn’t notice the love directed at her, she sure is confident about other people’s romance.

To be honest, Ferio wanted to proceed to the main topic immediately, but Sophie’s devotion to Christina was too great to change the topic.

I should have asked Christina to brew some tea before I asked her to leave. This girl could talk for a long time…

Sophie would likely be furious if she heard his thoughts, but it was a normal thing for Ferio because of his royal temperament. On the contrary, Ferio’s attitude was considered decent among the royal family.

His half-brother couldn’t even tell the difference between the fiancée of his elder brother and a maid. Although his half-brother was smart, he had no interest in remembering things he didn’t care about.

With the girl who was his first love shaking her fist and preaching about how the love of a woman should be to him, Ferio put his hand on his chin and waited for her speech to end.

All the while, Ferio pondered whether she was an idiot or a genius…