[V13C12] My Rose Prince

A young girl named Roza had gotten lost.

Her father had even told her, “Don’t let go of my hand. If you get lost, the bad adults will take you away, and you’ll never make it home again.”

It all happened so suddenly. Her grip on the lantern felt a bit sweaty, so she took out a handkerchief to wipe it. In doing so, she had let go of her father’s hand for a few seconds. That was all it took for her to get pushed by the crowd, and lose track of her father.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

Her faint voice was drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the streets, unable to reach anyone.

The anxiety caused tears to well up in her eyes, but Roza tightened her grip on the lantern and shook away her tears. Her twintails swayed along with her head.

(No, I won’t cry. I’m already seven.)

Roza sniffled as she walked through the streets.

It was her father who got lost, not her, so she had to go searching for him——this was what she kept telling herself.

However, no matter how much she searched, her father was nowhere to be found. The fear began to overtake Roza. What if she really never got back home?

Roza’s internal distress ate away at her attention, so she accidentally bumped into someone and stumbled.

“Kyah!”

Roza fell on her bottom, and the force of the impact knocked off the ribbon tied to her bag. The cute pink ribbon had been her favorite.

“Ugh… Hng…”

Her anxiety, the pain from falling, the undone ribbon, and her tired legs… Roza wanted to cry and let it all out. But at that moment, a man knelt down in front of her.

He had red hair and wore a mage’s robes over casual clothing.

What really surprised Roza was the man’s face. Despite being a man, he had the prettiest face Roza had ever seen before.

His eyes illuminated in the lantern light were a mysterious green, like a deep forest.

“Are you lost?” asked the man.

“N-No! Daddy got lost!”

“But you’re crying…”

How could he be so rude as to treat a lady like some lost child!

Roza sniffled and held up her broken ribbon.

“Because the pink ribbon on my bag came off. It was my favorite.”

Roza could admit that she was just a tiny bit sad, but hastily made excuses against being lost.

“So you like the color pink?” The man asked.

Roza nodded, and the young man fumbled around in the pocket of his robe.

“Okay, hold on a second. Um, this should be the seed for a pink one…”

The young man took a seed from his pocket and performed a brief incantation. Then, it turned into green sprouts and a light pink flower bud, right on his palm.

A large rose blossomed right before Roza’s eyes. All the petals were a soft pink, Roza’s favorite color.

Roze knew about the existence of magic, but this was her first time seeing it in person.

The young man took out a small pair of shears from his pocket and snapped off the rose’s thorns. Then, he handed the flower to the speechless Roza.

“Here you go.”

“T-Thank you.”

The scent gently tickled her nostrils.

Roza spun the rose in front of her face, savoring its fragrance.

“Feeling better?”

“…Yeah.”

“Alright! Then let’s go find your lost dad!”

The young man grabbed Roza’s hand. In contrast to the delicate beauty of his face, his hand was rough and masculine.

Roza suddenly realized something. He might be a kidnapper! How could she trust a stranger just because of a single rose!

“Hey! Anyone seen this girl’s dad? She’s looking for her lost dad!”

“…”

His energetic shouts pretty much ruined everything. His mysterious beauty, the miraculously blooming rose, the suspicions of being a kidnapper… everything.

Even the young Roza was convinced. There’s no way he could be a kidnapper.

Many of the nearby people were staring at the man.

Roza initially thought this was due to his loud voice, but it seemed different from simple curiosity. It’s as if they were looking at a celebrity.

After the man repeated “Anyone seen her lost dad!” more than ten times, Roza heard someone calling her name from the other side of the crowd.

She turned to see her father running towards them.

“Daddy!”

She wanted to run over and cry in her father’s arms, but that would be too embarrassing.

After all, she was already seven years old.

Meanwhile, the man gave her a light push forward.

“Good thing we found your lost dad!”

His face bore a wide grin, showing all of his teeth. Despite his unnatural beauty, he did not feel overbearing in the slightest.

With the pink rose in hand, Roza stood on her tip-toes and whispered into the man’s ear.

“Hey, um…”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, Rose Prince.”

His ears turned a bit red after that.

＊　＊　＊

After sending off the girl walking hand in hand with her father, Raul Roseberg awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

“I might have made a bit of a scene… But I didn’t bring any carrots for divination.”

About half of all the people in the streets were staring at Raul from a distance.

He could hear them whispering about the Thorn Witch. This was something he always tuned out.

However, after listening more closely, Raul realized the voices were not as hostile as he assumed.

(Man, I guess I really have been missing a lot…)

Of course, it’s not that no one feared the Thorn Witch. In particular, the elderly were likely to hold more awe for the Man-Eating Rose Fortress.

…But that wasn’t everything.

Curiosity. Raul could hear the voices of people interested in talking to him.

And also, gratitude. Many were thanking him for repelling the darkness from Sazandol.

(Ugh…)

His friend told him that he should be proud of himself for doing the right thing. However, that did not mitigate how embarrassing it was to be stared at.

Raul pulled the hood of his robe over his head, and moved to the edge of the road.

Suddenly, he felt a thud against his back, though it wasn’t enough to knock him over.

Raul turned around to find the annoyed face of his sister.

“Oh, Sis.”

“Don’t you ‘oh sis’ me. The mana purification is starting soon, so get into position already.”

Melissa gave one last scowl to Raul before stomping off.

She usually wore a robe during her work with the Mage Association, but today, she wore a flashy dress with rose patterns.

While Melissa was ostensibly here for security, she probably didn’t want to wear her work robe on a night when the city was so lively.

In other words, she intended to escape from work when given the opportunity, and head out to enjoy the festivities.

“Ugh,” Melissa grumbled. “We’re already short-handed… I wanted to assign that damn mutt the most annoying guard post, but he snuck off somewhere…”

Melissa suddenly turned back to Raul with an additional complaint.

“By the way, why did you leave your staff behind? It was a pain to find you in the crowd.”

“Huh? But you don’t have your staff either.”

“Your Sage staff is literally your identity, you know?”

Raul attempted to offer an excuse, before realizing the true sentiment driving him.

───Because if he carried that staff, everyone would recognize him as the Thorn Witch.

That’s why he “accidentally” forgot to bring his staff all the time.

Raul could not help but laugh at the realization that he had been running away all this time.

“…Sorry, I’ll make sure to bring my staff next time.”

“Huh? You’re actually listening to someone for once? What happened to you?”

“Eh!? I thought I’ve always been a pretty good listener!?”

Melissa scoffed and shrugged her shoulders, disbelief written on her freckled face.

“Yeah right, idiot. You don’t know the first thing about yourself.”

＊　＊　＊

Isaac and Cyril were seated on the roof of a building, gazing in the direction of the lighthouse while discussing the artifact to be used in tonight’s event.

“The power of Star-Weaving Mira is influenced by the movement of the stars,” Isaac explained. “But doesn’t that seem a bit strange considering how it was created in the Old Era? Especially since the star charts have changed over the years. For the sake of research, I wanted to observe Monica using the artifact up close… However, it seems Lady Melissa was opposed to my request.”

“Opposed?” Cyril asked.

“Yeah, I asked her for permission to stay close to Monica, as her disciple. She replied by sending a bunch of vines at me.”

Isaac said this so casually that Cyril could not tell if this was a joke or not. He hesitated with his response.

Meanwhile, two weasels could be seen tumbling up and down the slope of the roof. Thule and Pikeh had initially transformed into humans to lift Cyril up, but it seems they preferred weasel form when playing around.

“Isaac, you seem really excited about the event,” said the white weasel, Thule.

Isaac returned a vigorous nod of agreement.

“Of course! Do you have any idea how much I regret not being able to see her magical dedication in Rainfield? Honestly, when I saw Elliott asking Monica for that favor, I thought he was trying to provoke me.”

“About that…” Cyril muttered. “I was blessed with the opportunity to see the magical dedication in Rainfield. Monica summoned the Spirit King of Wind to deliver flower petals and songs throughout the entire town…”

After Cyril recounted his memories of the event, Isaac let out a poignant sigh and muttered, “I wish I could have been there too.”

Even such a trivial remark felt like a huge impact to Cyril.

To think that Isaac would ever express this kind of envy.

“To tell the truth, I wanted to request the Silent Witch for a magical dedication in my domain of Erin. However, I’ve previously delegated my authority in that area to the temple, so it’s difficult for me to intervene. And they already have connections with mages specialized in magical dedications… I’ll make sure to get the Silent Witch at least once during my tenure…”

To Cyril, it was refreshing to hear Isaac speak so extensively on any topic.

Isaac was usually the type to gauge the reactions of others, only speaking when it was necessary to manipulate the situation to his advantage. For a man of his charisma, a few sentences was enough to accomplish that.

But right now, he seemed to be enjoying the conversation so much that he was unable to contain himself. In particular, he became especially talkative when the subject turned to magic.

Isaac’s knowledge of magic possessed both depth and breadth, and his focus on practical applications exceeded that of the average researcher.

Considering how he had been living as a prince, Cyril wondered how difficult it was to acquire such knowledge.

“Ike, do you…” Cyril muttered out his question a bit awkwardly.

“Hmm?”

“Do you like magic?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Isaac put on a smile and nodded. It was a simple and unadorned expression.

(Oh, I see now…)

Seeing him speak with such honesty delighted Cyril. Now, he could finally come to understand the man named Isaac Walker.

All the pieces had fallen into place. Cyril realized the true meaning of his request from the other day.

“So Ike, you…”

“Hmm?”

“You wanted me to be your rival in magic, not chess!”

Isaac smiled and pinched Cyril on the cheek. Then the other one too, for good measure.

“Ow! P-Please stop, it’s dangerous to do that on the roof!”

Isaac ignored Cyril’s scream with a beautiful, princely smile. The smile seemed to reflect the distance between their hearts.

“Don’t worry,” Isaac said reassuringly. “Even if I fall, I’m confident in my ability to avoid injury. And for you, I’m sure your two friends will save you.”

“No bullying,” Pikeh said.

“That’s dangerous,” Thule followed.

The two weasels jumped onto Cyril’s lap and glared at Isaac.

Meanwhile, Wildianu also pleaded with Isaac from the top of his head.

“Master, Master… Please refrain from such dangerous antics…”

Isaac clicked his tongue. The handsome face of the prince was completely ruined.

“You have Wildianu to thank for this,” Isaac growled, finally releasing Cyril’s cheeks.

While rubbing his sore cheeks, Cyril voiced the biggest discovery of the night.

“D-Did you do that for no real reason…?”

“What a coincidence. I’ve found many of your actions to be without reason as well… Oh?”

Isaac turned his gaze toward the lighthouse again.

The displeasure instantly vanished from his beautiful face, and his azure eyes sparkled like stars.

“Looks like it’s about to start.”

The “Rose Prince” was a miracle only possible because Raul forgot to bring carrots. Whenever he brings out the carrots, he transforms into the “Carrot Prince” instead.

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