“Hooray! I won! I really won!”
Amid the crowd’s thunderous shock, the young man jumped with joy, shouting freely.
He immediately ran past the boundary line, grabbed the jade bracelet from the stall owner’s sour-faced hand, then turned and rushed toward his girl.
Ignoring the stares of the people around them, he slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, pulled her into a tight embrace, and spun her around in the air with pure victory.
“Wow, how romantic…”
Shinobu smiled widely as she watched the heartwarming scene before her.
She took another bite of her sweet dango, savoring the infectious atmosphere of victory around them.
“Mm.” Rin replied softly.
Behind the Inari mask hiding her pale face, a faint, sincere smile finally formed at the corner of her lips.
“Why did you suddenly decide to help him, Rin?” Shinobu asked in a playfully inquisitive tone.
“Because I don’t like stories that end in regret,” Rin answered honestly.
*Because my own life… is already too full of things that came too late to fix.*
Though the unspoken continuation only echoed in Rin’s heart, Shinobu seemed to catch the hidden meaning.
The corners of Shinobu’s eyes suddenly dimmed, and her cheerful expression slowly faded, replaced by a brief, heavy silence.
Just as the atmosphere between them began shifting toward melancholy, the sound of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the crowd.
Seeing the guards’ arrival, Rin suddenly realized something she had overlooked.
Those guards were her subordinates who were supposed to be patrolling the market area.
Rin had never expected her secret could stay hidden if the guards saw Shinobu here.
She could already imagine how chaotic the castle servants would be tomorrow morning when rumors spread that the regional princess had been secretly kidnapped from her room by a female doctor using a woven basket—just to watch the fireworks festival.
The story would spread like wildfire throughout the entire castle.
Setting aside her authority as clan head, the real problem was how she would explain this madness to the loyal elders later.
However, when Rin glanced at Shinobu, the butterfly-haired girl didn’t seem to care at all.
Shinobu even chuckled carefree while waving her hand in another direction, treating the guards’ panic as part of the festival entertainment.
Seeing that indifferent response, Rin finally let out a long breath.
She decided to stop worrying about the consequences.
*Forget it.
My time is running out anyway.
*As long as the guards don’t do anything stupid like trying to attack Shinobu, let them gossip all they want tomorrow morning.*
“`entertainment
Strangely, once that thought crossed her mind, the heavy burden that had been clogging her chest suddenly vanished without a trace.
Rin felt much lighter, as if the rigid pile of responsibilities that had shackled her shoulders had been shattered all at once in a single night.
“Now, Princess Rin, stop thinking about what will happen in the future,” Shinobu whispered as she slowly walked away from the crowd, ignoring the guards still busy behind them.
“We can worry about tomorrow’s matters tomorrow. Tonight, my job is to let you play as much as you want.”
“You’re right.”
Rin nodded in agreement, letting all her worries crumble.
She reached her right hand through the gap in the basket’s covering cloth and gently tapped Shinobu’s shoulder.
“In that case, give me some of your coins.”
“Eh? What for?”
“I want to try the ring toss game too.” Rin chuckled softly.
Her eyes behind the fox mask’s openings were now locked tightly on a beautiful butterfly-shaped hairpin displayed in the corner of the prize stall.