6 Years Old – Q of Hearts (Part 1)
“Look, look~!”
Seeing me throw off my outerwear in a good mood, Achille startledly averted his eyes.
“Hey, what the heck is a lady doing!”
He flusteredly picked up my outerwear, and draped it over my shoulders. Achille’s face is kinda red.
“Geez, it’s not like I was naked. You sure like to exaggerate, huh~”
Even though I was properly wearing a pseudo sleeveless maxi dress under my outerwear, too.
“I’m begging you, don’t show me something like your naked body.”
He looks super unhappy about it.
Stop looking at me like you’re seeing something filthy, okay? To be treating me like some sexual deviant, how rude!
“It’s not like I’m being an exhibitionist or anything. I got matching magic tattoos with my father[/otousama] so I just wanted to show it off, that’s all.”
On my left shoulder was a blue ivy pattern. It was a tattoo for automatic mana restoration, and after my father taught me, I drew it on with my own mana.
Magic tattoos are the inscription of a pattern that holds a certain magical function onto human skin. Through these patterns, you can strengthen your mana and recover your mana. In the end they just act as support, though.
You can apply these magic tattoos yourself, but to draw them requires a certain magic technique. Depending on whether you can draw it well or not, the effectiveness varies too. Right now I can only do ivy magic tattoos. I want to hurry up and be able to do flower magic tattos already. They’re cute, after all. By the way, the flower tattoos have the effect of mana amplification. And also, unlike real tattoos, magic tattoos are an extraordinary thing that can be easily drawn and erased with just magic, and they’re gentle on the skin too.
“Come on, looook.”
“Stay away! Pervert!”
We began a pointless game of tag.
“Camille, Achille, what are you doing?”
Just when it seemed like I would almost be able to catch him, the one who called out to us, Royce-sama, showed up at the door. Right now, Achille and I are at the castle to play, at Royce-sama’s invitation. The two of us come to visit him quite often.
“Ah, Royce-sama! Look, look… ugu-”
When I was about to show off my magic tattoo to Royce-sama, Achille pinned my arms behind my back from behind.
“What on earth are you planning to show His Highness!”
“The magic tattoo that I drew myself…”
“I told you, don’t strip!”
Damn you, Achille… Don’t get in my way. Isn’t Royce-sama laughing at me now?
“Camille, you got a magic tattoo?”
“Yes!”
“Isn’t it bad for a girl to get a magic tattoo?”
Hauuun~ Royce-sama is such a gentleman.
Certainly, even if they’re magicians, not many women get magic tattoos. Women with patterns on their skin are avoided by men, after all. If you have a magic tattoo, you’d be at an overwhelming disadvantage when it came to marriage prospects. As for the Rhodolite Marquis family, since father is like that, I can get as many magic tattoos as I want, but normally a family wouldn’t allow it. Even more so if you were a noble.
“I don’t mind. I’m not aiming to be popular with men, and I don’t mind sacrificing my springtime of youth to protect you, Royce-sama!”
If magic tattoos are necessary to master magic, then I’ll draw as many as it takes. And during times when I can’t have magic tattoos no matter what, isn’t there no problem if I just erase them in a flash with magic? Hmm?[Are?] It looks like Royce-sama is backing away a little, but that’s just my imagination, right?
※
“…And so, I want to have a look at the castle town. Of course there’ll be bodyguards, and I have permission from my dad as well.”
It seems that the reason we were called out today was to accompany Royce-sama on his incognito visit to the castle town. Achille looked at at Royce-sama in disbelief. He was probably worried about the kind of dangers that could befall Royce-sama if he left the castle.
“It’s already decided, huh. Then the two of us have no choice but to follow you.”
A date in the castle town with Royce-sama! Yahooo!
“Please allow me to show you around. I’ve snuck out into town countless times in secret from my dad or the servants, so I’ve already checked all of the famous stores!”
When I declared this with pride, Royce-sama looked at me with eyes tinged with misgivings.
“Ummm… I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, okay?”
“When I go out, I aim for when my father is away, and I leave an ‘afternoon nap’ version of a body double doll in my room, so even now, the servants still don’t know, you know?”
The castle town during the day was very lively. We headed down into town, incognito. Me, Achille, Royce-sama, as well as two of Royce-sama’s bodyguards were travelling together. The remaining guards were watching over us from in hiding.
“Is there anywhere that you’d like to go, Royce-sama?”
I spread open a map of the castle town that I obtained beforehand.
“This is a pseudo-pancake shop with lines of customers.” This is a pseudo-popcorn shop with lines of customers. This is my favourite shop for magic books. This is my favourite shop for dried lizards.”
“Hang on, the second half is clearly weird, you know.”
Achille made fun of me.
“Your Highness, where do you want to go? It’s dangerous to leave things to Camille.”
“Mmmn… I guess I just want to look around the marketplace normally.”
“That’s an excellent idea!”
One of the guards immediately cut into the conversation.
“There are a lot of shops gathered in the marketplace, and it’d probably be easy to understand each person’s livelihood… Please be wary of pickpockets and purse snatchers.”
With that one splendid introduction by the first guard who had suddenly become enthusiastic, we ended up heading towards the marketplace.
The marketplace was quite prosperous. Because it was still midday, it wasn’t that crowded, but once the night fell, more people would gather. Royce-sama was curiously turning this way and that. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.
“This is?”
“Ahh, the Gerugero nut? It has use in digestive medicine.”
“Then what’s this?”
“It is Gangrou meat. It’s hard and not very delicious… Ahh, there seems to be interesting things further down.”
The first guard who had completely taken the initiative continued to guide us through the town at his own discretion and bias. Well, whatever. Royce-sama seems to be having fun too, after all. Achille and I quietly followed after them.
“I wonder if this is far enough…”
Suddenly, the first guard stopped still.
“What’s wrong?”
Called out Royce-sama, in wonder.
We had come to a street a little distance away from the marketplace. There was nobody here. Normally there should have been stores selling weapons or magical items, but it seems it was empty today.
“Oi, oi… There’s nothing here, you know? Should we go back the way we came?”
The second guard was about to lead Royce-sama back the way we came, when it happened.
Something that shone silver came flying, and pierced into the second guard’s back.
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