“While it is an honor to meet the high and noble Highness, the Crown Prince, this girl has a sudden manner to attend, so please excuse me.”

He appeared to want to engage in deeper conversation with me, so I took the initiative to stop the conversation.

‘I couldn’t care less and it’s tedious, so stop talking to me.’

I ignored him and moved away. In any case, this wasn’t the only place where I could take a nap.

Just then, the Crown Prince abruptly burst into laughter. What the hell? Has he gone mad?

I looked at him with a skeptical gaze.

“Haha, you’re far more interesting than I thought. This is the first time I’ve met someone like you.”

I responded.

“I already know that I am rather charming. Even so, please do not fall in love with me.”

The Crown Prince continued smiling.

“Why? Am I not allowed to fall in love?”

…What was this all of the sudden?

The Crown Prince Friedhelm lifted his blue eyes that were reminiscent of the sea and looked into mine.

Then he spoke in a voice with an unusual reverberation.

“Just as you’ve said, my lady is so charming that I think I might fall in love with you. No, it’s possible that I’ve already fallen in love to some extent?”

I frowned.

“You have no aptitude for humor. It’s not funny.”

“But I’m not joking?”

I crossed my arms. Just what is he asking for?

I wondered if he was joking, but that couldn’t be it. Unlike his light tone, the Crown Prince’s gaze had quietly mellowed.

“In any case, I should get going. I do suppose I’ve made this visit a little too suddenly.”

“……”

Before I could say anything, the Crown Prince shrugged and turned around.

And before he disappeared, his finger flicked out as if a thought had come to mind.

“I shall present you with a gift before I leave. It has been a long time since a princess has caught my interest in recent times.”

“……?”

“It’s nothing big. Since your dress seems to have been dirtied, I’ll help you clean.”

At the Crown Prince’s words, I looked about myself.

Clearly, after having napped in the garden, the dress was littered with dust, grass, and dirt.

“I can just brush them off. By what method could you possibly clean…….”

It was at that moment.

At the familiar movements of the Crown Prince’s hands, my eyes widened.

The repositioning of mana was the trigger of magic.

‘Suction?’

I could instinctively read the flow of mana.

I, who had identified the pattern drawn by the Crown Prince’s flow of mana, caught onto what magic he was about to trigger.

Suction.

The power of a vacuum was invoked to the Crown Prince’s hands by the magic.

However, could one truly call that suction magic?

Normally, suction magic wasn’t selective about what it sucked in.

However, the suction magic triggered by the Crown Prince excluded everything but the grass, dirt, and dust, and more that had stained the dress.

Even then, the magic didn’t affect me in the least. In fact, the folds of my dress didn’t quiver the slightest bit in the duration of the spell.

I can’t even begin to explain how difficult this feat was. It was because he had to target each little piece of dust individually in order to achieve such a result.

Not to mention even more power was required to ensure that I would not be negatively affected by the magic.

It was a trick that most magicians couldn’t even dream of imitating.

‘So this is the High Magician of the Tower of Magic, the Magical Expert of the Black Group.’

I recalled the nicknames of Crown Prince Friedhelm.

“It seems it’s been cleaned up for the most part. I suppose this much will be of help?”

The Crown Prince who had just used immense magic simply to clean my dress smiled brightly.

“Then, I shall see you later.”

As I watched the Crown Prince disappear with light footsteps, I felt a strand of chill pass through my spine.

It wasn’t because of the immense skill in magic that he showed off. After all, his magical abilities were rather famous.

Friedhelm was not only the West Empire’s Crown Prince, he was the ninth ranked High Master at the Magic Tower that brought in magicians from the entire continent.