Luca sighed and quickly went back to his mother's side. Queen Shaula returned to her seat to let the two siblings communicate with ease. Once Luca is within her reach, Leti grabbed Luca's sleeves.

"There, there, Leti. If you wait and be a good girl, Nii-san will play with you after this, okay?"

"Nii-niiiii, uuuuu..."

Luca then patted the bawling Leti.

"Okay?"

"Leti, it's Luca-nii's important day," Queen Shaula added.

"Mmmmkaayy," Leti reluctantly let Luca go away.

"Good girl," Luca smiled and then he looked at me again.

"Let's go."

I nodded.

Along the way, we picked up Kiri who was just tailing around his stepfather, confused on what he should be doing in the party.

-

"Lucius-sama, congratulations on turning six years old!"

"Prince Lucius, thank you for allowing me and the other who will have their sixth birthday this year to be here!"

"Lucius-sama!!"

In the end, Luca has to keep his cool smile while facing the nobles who quickly gathered near him—both boys and girls are there, but most are girls.

Meanwhile, Kiri and I are watching from his sidelines, sighing at the sight in front of us.

"Luca has it hard, eh...," Kiri symphatized.

"There are some people who will certainly enjoy this kind of attention, though," I replied.

"But Luca is definitely not included in that type of people, right?"

"How do you know?" I asked indifferently—out of curiosity, not because I was doubting his judgment. Even I can tell that Luca would feel like this kind of setting is tiring. After all, he's that kind of brat at our first meeting. However, Kiri didn't know of Luca's antics before...

"Uhm, that smile, that expression he has... how do I say it... it's different from his usual one. Not that he'd smile often, though," Kiri tried to explain.

I just nodded.

"Un, un, I can understand what you mean."

Right at that time, I think my eyes met Luca's. No, it's not just my hunch. After all, he quickly said—

"Lyra, Kiri, come over here, too! You two should get to know the others, as well."

So Kiri and I have no choice but to come over to Luca's side—to the crowd of noble children who are looking at us with curious eyes.

"Hello, how do you do. I'm Alrescha Lyra Hartmann. I will turn six on Month 7, so I hope you would come to my sixth birthday celebration, too," I pulled the hem of my dress and curtseyed.

"H-how do you do. I'm Kiri Elsworth. I'll turn six on Month 11...," Kiri slightly bowed down.

Before long, the children also introduced themselves one by one. Their age varies from six until around ten. There are even some siblings here.

In the end, we chimed in their conversation—damn, could it be that Luca didn't want to chatter around with them alone and brought us along to suffer together?

In the middle of our shallow conversation, I eyed Luca and narrowed my eyes sharply once his eyes locked mine. To my response, he sneered back at me!

...Luca, why you little...!!

-

"Ah, excuse me, I'd like to go to the restroom...," Kiri timidly announced that he'd go to the restroom.

"Speaking of which, please excuse me as I'd like to take some drinks," Luca also announced that he'd go to take some drinks—oh well, that's understandable as he's the one who spoke a lot. Everyone kept talking to him, the star of this party, naturally.

"Ah..."

Since I don't feel like going to the restroom or even drinking, I decided to just stay. I bet they would just ignore me and continue to chatter among their own.

-

"Hey, hey, Lyra-sama, you're that rumored Duke Hartmann's only daughter, friends to Prince Lucius, right?" One of the nobles suddenly opened the conversation with me.

I think I have introduced myself properly earlier...?

"Yes," I shortly replied.

"Hee... So, it's true that you are the rumored queen candidate?"

"W-wha? N, no... I'm Luca's good friend. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Eeh? But I heard that the palace's tutors praised you and that you did well when you were tested for the queen's qualities?"

From where did they learn that?!

"Ah, well, that's... right, but that's just that, and it's by no means anything special," I started to lose my composure.

"Doesn't that mean you were trained especially for becoming the future queen?"

"Yeah yeah, there's no way you'd score great and even be praised if you didn't train at all!!"

"You think that you'd get Prince Luca by playing the role of a shy and humble girl?"

...Why did things turn out like this.

I tried to take a little step backward when the group of dominant (and scary) noble girls approached me. Meanwhile, the timid girls and the scared boys went backwards, too.

I mean, there are even older girls among the ones who walked to me—they look scary in the eyes of this small me!!

"Uhm..."

Oh my... if I act like this, then this act is deemed wrong. If I act cocky, it will be all the more reason they'd attack me...

For some reason, I could feel that the atmosphere around me is getting weird—but I wonder if it's just my feeling...

As they continued to ramble on until my head developed some sort of selective filtering to them—I can only timidly response...

"N, no, I didn't mean all that... This is just the way I am..."

Please, just believe me already!

In the past, I was weak against these kinds of nobles. Of course there were occasions when they also attacked me, but since I wasn't close to the crown prince at that time and since (I think) I was very unfriendly and constantly had this natural cold-looking face, they would eventually leave me alone... and continued to talk behind my back afterwards.

Yes, perhaps that was why I was at loss of words—I don't know how should I break free from this situation.

My face in this life looks friendly enough—no, overly friendly with natural childish characteristics! Not to mention that this time, I'm determined to change my unfriendly attitude, so...

How can I fend them off nicely...