What do you want to ask?
Accepting Alicia-sama’s apology and settling the matter by saying further apologies are unnecessary, Alicia-sama looked at me with a serious expression.
“Um… Cristea-sama, there’s something I would like to ask about your Sacred Beasts.”
“Yes? What is it?”
Is it about Kurogane and Mashiro?
“The other day, you mentioned at the training grounds that if one aspires to be the Crown Prince’s fiancée, it might be advisable to avoid forming a Sacred Beast contract. Is it true that forming a contract might be in opposition to the country’s Guardian Sacred Beast?”
Ah~ it’s about that. Kurogane and Mashiro have been disliking Leon-sama since I interacted with him at the Royal Palace.
“Yes. As I mentioned the other day, Sacred Beasts generally have a strong possessiveness and prefer their masters not to become close with other Sacred Beasts. My contracted Sacred Beasts have clearly conveyed this to His Majesty and Her Highness.”
“B-but, Cristea-sama, you have multiple contracts, with Fenrir-sama and Holy Bear-sama at that, right? Also, Shikishima-sama… despite that?”
“Umm, in my case, the encounter was a bit unusual, you could say… Both of them explicitly stated they were contracting with me no matter what, so I had no choice but to contract with both of them at the same time. But normally, the two of them had always been competing to claim they were my primary Contracted Beast.”
“They… compete for that?”
Yes, that’s for sure.
Although things have calmed down considerably recently, in the early days of our contract, there was a lot of intense rivalry.
“So Shikishima-sama’s Sacred Beasts…”
When Alicia-sama looked at Suzaku-sama, Suzaku-sama gently tilted her head, placing her hand on her cheek.
“That’s true. Normally, Sacred Beasts have a strong possessiveness towards those they protect. Byakko and I are guarding Sei-sama for certain reasons. In that sense, you could say we are also quite unique.”
In Sei’s case, he is being protected by the Four Divine Beasts–Byakko-sama, Suzaku-sama, Seiryu-sama, and Genbu-sama–as part of the Divine Dragon’s mandate to protect the next Emperor, the next successor to the throne. Those are even more unique circumstances than mine. It’s a secret, though.
Now, if the existence of Seiryu-sama and Genbu-sama, who are secretly guarding in the background, were to be revealed, it would likely cause quite a commotion.
The fact that what seemed to be a rare case of a multiple contract actually involves four beings would probably shock the nobles of the Doristan Kingdom, who hold Sacred Beasts in high regard.
It might even make it difficult for Sei to return to Yahatul.
When you think about it, my multiple contracts seem quite adorable in comparison.
… Although it all started with Byakko-sama going wild.
Oh, I have to keep that a secret too.
I wouldn’t want people to mistakenly think that Sacred Beast contracts are easy to come by.
“Unique… is that so?”
“What about me? I will not allow Mariel to contract with other Sacred Beasts, you know?”
“I-I see…!”
Even though Ruby said it with a playful gesture, his voice was lower than usual… Scary, it’s like a declaration of control.
Alicia-sama seemed a bit frightened too.