I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 61: Date in Eloreal (2)

I wonder how long ago it was that I asked Ariana on a date.

As I waited for her to emerge from the bathroom after washing her face, I tried to recall if I had ever asked her on a date in the past.

It would have been a strange thing to call it a date, since our days together had been spent traveling in a carriage for days at a time.

The brief date I enjoyed with her in a swimsuit on the shores of Canbina had been her initiative, not mine.

The first two years or so of the Academy were…not a good memory, so I quickly put it away.

…Huh? Wait.

You mean…it never happened?

It doesn’t seem to have happened since I entered the Academy, so what was it like before I entered?

Before I joined the Academy, most of the places Ariana and I met were either royal or Anastasia’s mansion.

Usually these meetings are called fiancé meetings, not necessarily dates.

Other than that, the only other places I’ve seen Ariana are at most of the official events that I’m supposed to attend as a fiancé.

To be honest, it wasn’t without excuses.

A few years before I entered the Academy, Eamon had abruptly renounced his claim to the throne.

I don’t know what was going through his mind at the time, but I heard later that his fiancée, Charlotte, was the main reason.

It was a very simple and immature reason: if he ascended to the throne, he would have less time to spend with his fiancée, Charlotte.

In any case, I had to spend a lot of time organizing it.

I’ve been busy organizing some of the factions that were lined up on the Second Prince’s side, and wooing others to my side.

I hadn’t had much time to see Ariana outside of formal events.

Going back even further, there was a time when she didn’t see me as the opposite sex.

At the very least, I’m sure she would have turned me down with disgust if I asked her on a date.

…which, in retrospect, were all just excuses.

I’d had plenty of other chances if I was going to enjoy a proper date with Ariana.

Even if I hadn’t wasted half of my time at the Academy in vain in the first place, there was still plenty of time.

A date on the shores of Canbina could have been arranged at any time, before she proposed, and I could have made the first move.

The fact that I hadn’t even thought of making such a proposal, let alone put it on the table, was the biggest reason I couldn’t forgive myself.

I have a newfound respect for Eamon.

At least his attitude of wanting the best for his fiancée is something I should emulate.

Luckily, starting tomorrow, my schedule will be freer, so I’ll have the afternoon to myself.

As soon as Ariana comes out of the bathroom, we’ll talk.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have a date where we can spend some quality time together as fiancés.

“Alex~ the bathroom’s empty.”

Soon after, I heard her voice.

“Yes, Ariana, and I was wondering if you’d like….”

I was about to tell Ariana what I had in mind, but the sight of her emerging from the bathroom left me speechless.

She was completely unbuttoned down the middle of her top, and it felt more than defenseless, it felt indecent.

With her neck to navel bare, it was impossible for me to bring up the date proposal that I’d been trying to make casually.

The ends of the shawl just barely covered the crucial parts, enough to make me uncomfortable and uneasy.

“Oh, Ariana, why don’t you close the front a little bit?”

After barely suppressing my emotions with reason, I gave her a piece of advice that wasn’t really advice at all.

It took a great deal of concentration just to open my mouth to speak against the pounding in my chest, the first time I’d seen her in a bathing suit since the day I’d seen her on the shores of Canbina.

They’ve somehow gotten a little bigger since then…Oh, no, what am I thinking?

I realized I had memorized a few verses of the Leavrov anthem yesterday.

“Oh, my mistake, thanks for letting me know, Alex.”

With a gentle smile, Ariana casually adjusts her loose indoor clothes.

That smile that seems more amused than embarrassed by my reaction.

It wasn’t an accidental slip of the tongue from the start, but rather, it was meant to make me look embarrassed.

This wasn’t exactly the first time Ariana had done this.

A week earlier, she’d thrown off her own bedclothes in the middle of the night, then nonchalantly pretended to oversleep until I woke her up.

About three days ago, she claimed to have forgotten to take a towel to the bathroom and took it from me with the door halfway open.

Each one was a prank designed to embarrass me.

If this is how she relieves her stress, then that’s all well and good.

I’m happy for her to get away with her shenanigans…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“How about that, Alex, is it tied up properly now?”

“Yeah, I’m good to go.”

“Are you sure you’re looking at the right thing?”

“…I’m sure I’m looking at it right.”

She was deliberately bending over to emphasize his sternum until the very end, so I hurriedly looked away, satisfied that the front knot of the gown was tied properly.

My fiancé really knew how to test my will in more ways than one.

In the end, I couldn’t get Ariana’s image out of my head until I was in bed that night, and of course I couldn’t bring myself to ask her out on the date I’d initially planned.

To put it bluntly, it was force majeure.

* * *

I fell asleep that night without saying anything, but fortunately, the next morning I had the opportunity to tell her about the date.

Ariana had been asking me to button her dress at the back since the morning, so it was not a bad opportunity to tell her.

As I buttoned the last of Ariana’s dresses, I casually suggested that she spend the afternoon with me.

“Sounds good, Alex.”

The answer was firm, with no hint of hesitation.

In fact, it was almost as if she was asking why I hadn’t suggested it sooner.

After we parted ways in the morning, it was around lunchtime that Ariana and I made plans to meet.

As Dale and I were waiting for her to arrive, I saw Ariana walking up with Elise, waving.

The sun was shining brightly, and to say that Ariana was “dazzling” would be an understatement.

“I’m sorry, Alex. You’ve been waiting, haven’t you?”

I could have told her a white lie, like I hadn’t been waiting at all, or that I’d just arrived.

Lately, it seemed like I was the only one who always seemed to be embarrassed by her, so I took a deep breath and brought up the conversation I’d been preparing for her.

“Yeah. I wanted to meet Ariana as soon as possible, I thought I was going to turn into a grandfather if I waited.”

“…….”

Ariana paused when she heard me.

Just when I was getting a little nervous that I might have said something wrong, she responded with a bright smile.

“You’re waiting until you’re a grandfather, Alex, thank you so much.”

“…….”

I’d been preparing myself.

It was something I’d said with a certain amount of embarrassment, but she was very good at paraphrasing it into something even more embarrassing.

“Well, say something….”

“Uh, yeah….”

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one embarrassed.

Seeing her face as red as her eyes, I realized that maybe she wasn’t so different.

As I held out my hand to her to walk hand-in-hand, I felt a warm, almost hot, sensation pass through my hand.

It was a winter day in January, but there was not even a hint of cold.

* * *

~A plain, neat dining hall inside the Academy of the Eloreal Empire~

I sat down with Ariana at a table, the first time I had eaten alone with her in a long time.

Unlike the academies of the kingdom, which offer a wide variety of dining options, Imperial students eat most of their meals in the common dining hall within the academy.

Since we were spending so much time at the Imperial Academy, it seemed only natural that we should take advantage of the atmosphere.

We’d shed our usual royalty and nobility and dress like common Imperial students.

It was all Eamon’s idea.

When I asked Eamon for advice on how to go on a date, he suggested that I dress like a commoner, preferably a student at the Imperial Academy.

Unlike the kingdom, where only the nobility could use magic, the Imperial Academy allowed both nobles and commoners to use magic.

Of course, Dale and Elise are always within our sight, just in case something happens.

The atmosphere itself was kind of cool.

For one thing, there was no one to recognize us, so there was no interruption to our date.

It was especially nice to see a fresh side of Ariana that we don’t usually see.

“You sure have a good hanger, Alex, you look like a foreign model no matter what you wear.”

“Foreigner…? Oh, right, this is a foreign country, so I guess I can look like that.”

“…That’s right.”

Ariana seemed to like the idea of this date I suggested, and as soon as we started, she was excited and we walked around together.

This meant that we had to start lunch a little later than our usual time, but since we have time to spare today anyway, there’s no need to rush.

“At the last lecture, there was an old man sitting there who was over seventy years old, and someone said, “Oh my God, it’s the famous Archmage Hammond!”

“Wow, someone like that is taking Ariana’s class.”

“Even though he’s been retired for over a decade, he can’t seem to contain his curiosity about dark magic.”

So Ariana and I talked at the table, giving our hearts to each other in a happy time that doesn’t come around often.

With only one day left to live, it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend it.

So for the rest of the day, I would think only of Arianna and soak in the atmosphere, forgetting the real world for a while….If it weren’t for the sudden, unnerving sensation of magic coming from the research wing of the Imperial Academy.