I was troubled about how to deal with animals that were obviously young. It bothered me to just leave them, but there wasn’t really anything I could do to take care of them. Moreover, the one with golden fur kept curling up its body as if afraid of me, making it awkward to approach.
“Don’t you have any other family?”
I was about to get up and look around to see if there were any family members nearby. That’s when the silver fur ball that had been quietly watching me suddenly came running over and bit my pant leg, not letting go. It was a clear sign telling me not to go anywhere. Perhaps because it looked so young, I felt only tenderness at that sight. Unless one was quite heartless, they wouldn’t be able to shake off this young beast.
“I won’t go anywhere.”
I slowly settled down in the flower garden so as not to startle the other one. The one that had been biting my pants as if to tear them only then seemed satisfied and quickly climbed onto my lap. Unlike its appearance, it seemed to weigh a bit—it was quite heavy. I slowly observed the animals.
‘They look like lions, don’t they?’
Their paws were too large and their claws too thick to be cats. The one that climbed on my lap, far from being wary even as I touched it here and there, purred pleasantly and rolled around.
‘Is it okay for a beast to be this docile? It definitely seems to have been raised by humans, right?’
While I was silently pondering, the golden lion hiding behind cautiously approached. When I stayed still so as not to startle it, perhaps gaining courage, it gradually closed the distance. When I watched quietly to see what it wanted to do, the creature pressed its rear against my lap and curled up into a ball and lay down.
‘How cute.’
Seeing them let down their guard in an instant made me laugh without realizing it. I worried they might get startled by the sound and run away, but the beasts made purring sounds and seemed happy. It was as if they were laughing along.
“Will there come a day when I raise you guys?”
If this was a prophetic dream, that might happen. Though I didn’t know how such cute and precious things would come to my side.
‘Could they be brought as tribute from another country?’
I pleasantly patted the ones in my arms. The tension released, and I felt peace for the first time in a very long while. At that moment, lightning suddenly struck from the clear sky.
“But there wasn’t a single cloud?”
At the same time I looked up at the sky, the heavy weight on my lap disappeared. Before I could look around in confusion, pitch-black darkness descended. It was a signal telling me it was time to wake from the dream.
* * *
“Huh.”
When I opened my eyes while breathing roughly, red eyes greeted me. My irregularly beating heart slowly found stability.
“Did you have a bad dream?”
His Highness seemed to have been watching me from the side.
“N-no. I was just startled waking up suddenly.”
“Getting startled while sleeping is like a little child.”
While already treating me like a child, he had to point out things like this. Strangely, I didn’t particularly dislike it, so I blinked obediently.
“It’s a bit early to get up.”
As if to prove those words, it was still dark outside as the sun hadn’t risen yet. It was a very dark sky, like what I’d seen just before waking from the dream.
‘Right. I definitely had a prophetic dream.’
It seemed I’d met something in the rose garden, but I couldn’t recall it precisely. Since I often had prophetic dreams, I’d developed the habit of remembering dreams well, but this time it was somehow hazy. It was vague, as if thick fog was blocking the memory.
‘What was it? It seemed like an important prophetic dream.’
As I groaned and traced my memory, a flash crossed my eyes. But it wasn’t the dream memory surfacing—it was a brief foresight. This time it wasn’t a life-threatening situation, but a scene of walking around a lake with His Highness in casual clothes unfolded. Judging by the red stain on His Highness’s collar area, it looked like he’d been hit with a tomato.
‘There are days when I see such mundane foresights.’
I usually didn’t bother remembering them, thinking them useless, but this foresight somehow made my fingertips tingle. It felt like I’d previewed a pleasant event that would happen today.
‘I was so full of worry until yesterday, but I’m really simple.’
I was still worried about the imprint, but the bed was too comfortable to fill my head with only that. Once I became aware of that, my eyelids grew heavy again.
“What are you thinking so hard about? If you’re still sleepy, get more sleep.”
Perhaps finding my continuous other thoughts strange, His Highness asked. I was about to answer ‘I’ll sleep a bit more,’ when I suddenly recalled that when I abruptly woke earlier, His Highness had also been looking at me.
“Your Highness, did you have trouble sleeping? Or can you not fall asleep again?”
“No.”
“But weren’t you awake just now?”
“It seems you don’t believe me.”
If I’d seen His Highness fall asleep, I wouldn’t be like this, but lately I always succumbed to overwhelming drowsiness and fell asleep before him. I worried whether he might not have slept a wink.
“I woke from sleep, and since you were sleeping soundly beside me, I just ended up looking at you continuously. It seemed to relieve fatigue more than sleeping.”
“Th-that can’t be.”
My voice trembled and my face flushed at words I didn’t know were joking or sincere. Not wanting to show that, I buried my face in the blanket, and I felt His Highness pull me into a tight embrace.
“It would be better to sleep a bit more. You need to conserve energy if we’re going outside.”
“Yes.”
I thought there was no way I could fall back asleep with my heart pounding so much. But when I briefly closed my eyes and opened them, the sun had already risen. It felt like I’d caught some disease.
‘Is this really a symptom of imprinting?’
My body that only slept like a sick person was strange, but His Highness didn’t seem to think it was a particular problem.
“Take your medicine and let’s go out.”
He simply took out potions in crystal bottles. The two potions were different colors, and His Highness opened the glass stopper of the darker colored potion bottle, tasted a drop, then held it out to me.
“You can drink it all at once.”
“Yes.”
The slippery feeling going down my throat was unfamiliar. The taste itself was strangely similar to the medicine I’d taken last time.
“Ah.”
When I obediently opened my mouth, a sour lemon candy entered. After confirming I’d swallowed it well, His Highness also threw medicine into his own mouth and stood up.
“Shall we get ready to go out now?”
* * *
After changing into the clothes I’d seen in the foresight, all preparations to go out were complete. His Highness in disguise like when going down to the village looked obviously like a noble pretending to be a commoner, but not to the extent of recognizing his identity.
“Silver hair really stands out, so tie up your hair and wear a hat.”
I wore a hat that covered my face to a somewhat ridiculous degree. There were magic potions that changed hair color for about a day, so I wondered if I really needed to cover it with a hat, but I’d already overslept and didn’t want to take up His Highness’s time by requesting something more.
After preparing that way, the streets outside the imperial palace we arrived at around ten o’clock were full of vitality. I’d never been to a festival held outside the imperial palace and had only heard about it, but I understood why everyone enjoyed it so much.
“Come here and try some. Our skewers are the best, I tell you?”
“You two look good together. How about buying your lover a gift?”
Merchants called out trying to catch even one more customer. My worry about what to do if an assassin came taking advantage of the chaos was pointless.
‘At this level, even an assassin probably couldn’t find their target.’
The knights who had been a step away also pressed close, worried they might lose sight of their charge.
“It’s crowded, so it would be better to hold hands.”
“Ah, understood.”
When I was Tienas, I had quite large hands, but His Highness’s hands were even larger. I’d felt that occasionally during training when he’d overlap hands to teach me how to properly hold a sword. But perhaps because Aila’s hands were average or slightly smaller, they were held as if enveloped by His Highness’s hands.
‘Warm.’
The hands that looked cold from being so exceptionally white were surprisingly warm. I turned my gaze to the people to avoid being conscious of that warmth. That’s when we were pushing through the crowd trying to find a less crowded place.
“Hey, wait a moment.”
Someone suddenly popped out and grabbed my other hand. My staggering body only regained its center after His Highness caught me.
“What’s this?”
His Highness asked while glaring at the one who had grabbed me. The passerby with a slightly sloppy face only then seemed to notice His Highness’s existence and made a regretful expression.
“Aw, what. You already have a partner? What a shame, your build was my type.”
And he grumbled in a manner as rough as he looked, then let go of my hand.
