Warming Up [Part 1]

“What a curious smell… Emma-chan, what are you making?”

The king, who had arrived after the briefing session ended, was attracted by the aroma of curry Emma and Melsa were making and came to their camp to take a look.

“Ah, Your Majesty!”

Unlike other students, the Stuart family did everything from setting up the tent to preparing dinner on their own, so they didn’t notice the king’s arrival. They hurriedly put their hands on their chests and bowed.

“Emma, are you feeling alright?”

Prince Edward asked Emma about her health worriedly.

The last time the prince saw Emma was during the Minato doppelganger incident, so it was understandable that he was this concerned.

“I apologize for letting you see such an unsightly appearance of me at that time, Your Highness. I am doing great, so please do not worry.”

Emma admired how the prince was so kind to remember what had happened weeks ago and showed his concern for her. Because she felt guilty for skipping school for so long for no good reason, she wanted to show how healthy she was. So she started rolling her left sleeve up to her upper arm and tried to flex the bulge of her biceps.

“! D-Don’t exert yourself.”

After a seemingly strenuous effort, a tiny bulge of muscle finally appeared on Emma’s upper arm, but unfortunately, the prince immediately averted his eyes. His heart leaped upon seeing the pale skin of her slender upper arm, which looked like it could break easily.

—”Hey, hey, Your Highness. Do you know that the upper arm has the same softness as the chest?”

He shouldn’t have recalled such an unnecessary memory, but the information Arthur gleefully shared with him several years ago was now echoing in his head.

‘…theupperarmhasthesamesoftnessasthechest…’

It was a seemingly truthful rumor often spread among adolescent boys with second-year syndrome.

Emma mistook the prince’s expression as disdain for her muscle. ‘I know that it’s nothing impressive compared to Your Highness and Your Majesty, who train every day, but mine’s also pretty firm, y’know,’ Emma protested in her mind with a very displeased face.

“Hmm? Let’s see, let’s see. Should I check it for you?”

“You can’t!!!”

The king saw Emma’s pouty face and reached his hand out for her upper arm, but the prince hurriedly stopped him.

“Eh? No, it’s completely alright, you know? Please go ahead and touch it.”

Emma was very eager, thinking, ‘even my biceps will be delighted to be touched by a muscular, wild-type, cool old man.’

“You can’t! Emma. Anything more than this is not allowed. Quickly pull your sleeve down!”

The brightly blushing prince shouted while grabbing the king’s hand and blocking him with his body.

“*Gasp*!! You are right! My sincere apologies, Your Highness. Without much thought, I…”

Seeing the panicked prince reminded Emma of something. ‘That’s right. Hadn’t I just been warned by Joshua a few months ago? He said I couldn’t give lap pillows because that could be considered lese-majesty.

Showing and making other people touch my arms are also a form of sexual harassment. Even more, the other party is the king… I almost got arrested for lese-majesty for real there! I-I’m safe, right? I-I’m just barely safe because he hasn’t touched it yet, right?’ Emma hurriedly pulled her sleeve down and wiped her non-existent cold sweat.

“It’s youth, eh…”

The king rubbed his beard while grinning at his son’s bittersweet expression.

“…Your Majesty. It doesn’t matter whether you are this country’s king or not. I also don’t know if I can hold myself back if you ever touch Emma’s upper arm.”

Looming behind the king, Leonard warned him with a low voice. In his hand was his favorite custom-made giant hammer he used for hunting.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

The Royal Family shouldn’t apologize easily, but the king apologized reflexively in seconds upon seeing Leonard’s face. As a fellow daughter-doting dad, he fully understood Leonard’s feelings to a painful extent.

“Arban, calm down!”

The king was caught off guard by Melsa’s shout and turned around to see Arban pointing an arrow at his head with the string of the bow fully stretched.

“I didn’t expect the Kingdom to be a country where sexual harassment goes unpunished… Don’t think I will let you lay a finger on my cute niece, understand?”

“Ah, Uncle!”

Right before Arban committed lese-majesty for real, Emma shouted while pointing at the sky.

“That’s!”

“Ah!”

“Ah!!”

Arban changed his aim from the king’s head to the sky and fired the arrow.

William and George, who had been looking at the sky after hearing Emma’s shout, suddenly broke into a run.

“Eh? Eh? What? What is it?”