Why Won’t You Let Me Dote on You?! – The Arrogant Supporting Prince Falls for the Reincarnated Villainess and Loses His Mind - Chapter 1.4

“Bwahaha! That makes it ten wins in a row for me!”
“Grr… One more round! I demand a rematch!”

After exploring the castle, Eliza and I decided to play board games in my room.
Lying on the bed together, casually scattering toys around, was surprisingly fun.
Ever since we’d talked about my brother, she’d been oddly grumpy—but now, fully immersed in the game, her mood had completely improved.
Maybe, just maybe, I could sweep that earlier mess under the rug.

“Clow-sama, you’re so good at board games. Why is that?”

“Well, this game’s based on dueling, right? So I use real duel tactics and adapt them to the game.”

“My, how knowledgeable you are.”

“And that game over there’s like a battle for territory. Turns out, battlefield strategies work surprisingly well in it.”

I pointed at the board we’d just finished playing on.
My pieces still lay triumphantly on the board, having thoroughly crushed Eliza’s forces.
No matter how many times we played, she hadn’t managed to win even once.

“Take a look at the board from above. In that last match, the walls were here, the high ground here—see? Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Hmm… Not at all.”

“No way! It’s exactly like the western half of this castle.”

“Oh! Now that you mention it, it does feel similar!”

“We were just running around there earlier—how could you already forget?”

Feeling smug from my winning streak, I exaggeratedly shook my head.
Taking my hint, Eliza leaned in close, staring intently at the board, trying to match it with the castle’s layout.
But really, it wasn’t that complicated.

“But the view you get while walking and the view from above are completely different. It’s hard to notice things like that.”

“That’s because you’re always spacing out, Eliza!”

“Why, how rude!”

The important things are your position, the enemy’s position, and where obstacles are.
No one forgets where they are.
You can figure out the enemy’s position if you think like them.
Sure, it’s a pain to keep track of obstacles, but every fortress is designed with intention—read that, and it’s easy.
Simple as that.

“And besides, you clearly held back on me. I may be bad at this, but that still hurts, you know.”

“Held back?”

“During that charge opportunity, you told your piece to wait. You could’ve won faster if you’d gone for it.
Not that I didn’t lose anyway…”

“Oh, that.”

Her words jogged my memory.
Sure enough, if I’d sacrificed my assault piece then, I could’ve won much quicker.
She thought I held back to be nice.
But that wasn’t it.

“It couldn’t be helped. If you charge in recklessly just to win faster, even soldiers might ignore orders to save their own lives.”

“But it’s just a game. Soldiers might have hearts, but pieces don’t.”

“Y-Yeah, true… But I just can’t help thinking about it.”

The castle’s books on tactics are filled with historical battle records.
No matter how skilled the commander, you always find some odd decision in there.
But I think I understand why.
There were probably unrecorded stories between the commander and their soldiers—stuff that didn’t make it into the books.
And that’s what really matters in leading people.

“Hm.”

Eliza rolled onto her back with a soft sigh.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to answer her question either, so I was relieved when she dropped the topic.
I followed her lead, flopping onto my back.
Sunlight poured in from the window, warm and peaceful, as if the chaos of the royal castle didn’t exist.

“…Clow-sama, have you thought about what I asked earlier?”

“Earlier? About what?”

“While we were looking at the Knight King’s portrait—you promised to figure out why you made me cry.”

“Whaaat? I said I’d think about it by tomorrow, didn’t I?”

So much for letting that slide—Eliza had remembered everything.
If she hadn’t brought it up, I’d have happily forgotten the whole thing.
Clearly, she was holding a serious grudge.

“How am I supposed to know? You just started crying out of nowhere.”

“Oh dear. At this rate, you won’t keep your promise by tomorrow—or even next year. Maybe not for three years!”

“You’re mocking me! But I’ve already figured you out, Eliza! You can’t fool me! Grrr!”

Her smug tone pissed me off, so I flailed my arms and legs wildly in protest.
The soft bed bounced under us, sending game pieces and dice flying across the board.
Eliza, bouncing along with it, giggled happily at the sight of me throwing a tantrum.

“Clow-sama, if you can’t figure it out by tomorrow… shall we have a penalty game?”
“A penalty game?”
“Yes. Clow-sama will have to challenge Leon-sama to a board game.”

“With my brother? Me?”

At Eliza’s unexpected suggestion, I let out a stupid-sounding voice.
There’s no way I’ll fail to keep my promise—but why on earth would I have to play a board game with my brother?
We haven’t even had a proper conversation in years.
Suddenly walking up to him and asking to play? That’s way too awkward.

“I mean, even if I wanted to, my brother’s too busy. It’s impossible.”
“Well, figuring that out is part of the penalty, Clow-sama.”
“Easy for you to say. Ugh, I shouldn’t have caved when I saw you crying and made that dumb promise.”

I couldn’t tell if she saw through my excuse, but Eliza wasn’t budging an inch.
She didn’t look at all like the girl who’d been bawling her eyes out just minutes ago—now, she was calm and confident.

As I sulked, she leaned in and peered down at me from above.
Her silvery hair slipped past her ears and brushed my cheek as it fell onto the bed.

“Clow-sama, I’m counting on you.”

With that, Eliza gave me a gentle smile.

I didn’t understand why she was so fixated on this promise.
Maybe she had another reason for saying what she did.
But in the end, none of that really mattered.
Somehow, her simple words fit perfectly into a gap in my heart I didn’t even know was there.

…Or at least, that’s how it felt.

“Y-Yeah…”

What was happening inside me?
I wouldn’t realize it until much later.
But there was one thing I already understood.

Something about today had changed the way I looked at Eliza—
Just a little.

“S-So of course I’ll do it! Just you wait!”