[3rd Person POV]

A month has passed since Alterisa invited her fiance, her siblings, and her best friends to a photoshoot and recruited him to be a model for her new product line "Spring of Love".

During this month, she had been busy preparing the dresses and costumes for the photoshoot, the theme around it, as well as getting permission from her best friends' parents for them to be featured as a model in her product line.

Fortunately, all of them agreed to it. In fact, they're super supportive and were even looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, Vincent and Laura had also been busy with production and preparing for the launching event of the product line. The venue for the photoshoot itself had already been handled by Alterisa, who had already gotten her mother's permission to use their household's garden, while Alexus had hired the royal photographer for this, so they can focus their attention on the actual product launching itself.

And now, gathered in the garden of the Lorya household early in the morning, the crown prince, the prime minister's son, and the daughters of extremely prominent members of high society had gathered.

Royal guards and knights escorting the futures of the kingdom stood guard at the entrance to the garden and around the perimeter of the estate along with the guards of the Lorya household.

While such a thing would have been alarming normally, having this amount of guards guarding the Lorya Estate was quite a regular occurrence, given that the flowers of high nobility frequented this place to visit the famous Lady Alterisa.

Within the garden itself, the crown prince and heir to the Lorya household stood side by side, watching the royal photographer set up the large piece of equipment called Three Color Camera and staff from "Eden" set up the set for the photoshoot along with the maids from Lorya Household.

After a while, Alexus let out a sigh and glanced towards the center of the garden, the center pavilion, where his beloved Alterisa was chatting and having fun with her "best friends", all of them already in their dresses.

He couldn't help but remember the moment when he found out that he wasn't the only one she invited to take a picture with her...

He was extremely ecstatic when Alterisa displayed her desire to take a picture with him. He was happy to help her with her business. But... he can't believe she's also asking them, including his little sister.

The giggling and laughing sounds coming from the center pavilion couldn't help but bother him, especially when he heard its content.

"Hehehe~ I have to say, it's a really wonderful idea, Risa~ It's the best~!!! I've been extremely excited for this~!"

"It is as her highness said~! Risa-sama, thank you so much for inviting us~ I'm really looking forward to having a picture with you~!!!"

"I'm extremely happy as well~ Ufufufu~ I'm sure brother will be super jealous of me when I show him the result~"

"Ehehehe~ A picture with Risa-chan~ I'll definitely frame it and have it in my room~! Mom will be soooo jealous~!!!"

"M-Me too! For me to be able to take a picture with Alterisa-sama... What a dream come true~"

"W-Well, I guess I didn't have any choice since you asked for it!"

Alexus looked at the girls around his beloved one by one. They're not even trying to hide their affection for her, even though he's there. No, Evelyn seemed to be even more aggressive!!!

And when his gaze fell upon his little sister, he saw her smirking at him, causing his lips to twitch.

Noticing Alexus's gaze and Hana egging her brother on, Lucas couldn't help but smile helplessly.

"Ahahaha... Don't mind it, Alex. Having her ask you first is good enough, right...? Doesn't that mean you're the first one who came into her mind?"

Alexus turned towards Lucas with dead eyes.

"...Lucas. You have no idea... how I felt.... when she asked me about it first... and then revealed the fact that she'll also be asking others for this..."

Hearing his deadpan voice and words, Lucas couldn't help but sigh and turned towards the center pavilion.

"...Alright, you have a point. But at least she didn't invite any guys other than you and me. Isn't that good?"

He shook his head and rested his forehead on the palm of his hand.

"No, you don't understand... Risa doesn't seem to be that close with Keith, Luke, or that mage boy under Lady Lawliela. And they also can't get close to her that easily, given it's common knowledge that I am her fiance. However..."

Alexus looked at the girls around Alterisa and especially focused his gaze on Evelyn.

"Those girls are different. They could be intimate with her and shrug it off as "skinship" between best friends... you don't know how many times that Evelyn had hugged and buried her head into her chest using that excuse... And not only is Risa not bothered by it, she's loving it instead! They're the most dangerous ones!"

"..."

Lucas couldn't refute his words, but he also couldn't help but look at his best friend in slight surprise.

In truth, all this time he thought Alexus would be the most on guard against the guys, who are clearly in love with Alterisa. Not the girls who would seem to just be especially close to her. But to think he's the most on guard against the girls...

Same-sex marriage wasn't particularly banned in the kingdom. However, it was still a relatively new norm for people of the same gender to get married.

The idea of same-sex marriage and the idea of love beyond gender was popularised and romanticised in fictional novels that appeared around a decade ago, and its popularity encourages many people to come out and be true to their feelings.

Lucas didn't recall such a thing existing in the otome game "Lovely Happenings". After all, it was an otome game, not a Yuri or BL game. That means, either someone awakened to their Yuri side after seeing her little sister - which is completely reasonable - or someone with knowledge of Yuri and BL made them and published it. And as far as he knows, neither he or Risa did it...

But nevertheless it quickly spread amongst the commoners and became fairly popular. Even though they wouldn't be able to produce any children, the idea of being able to be true to themselves and love who they wish to love far outweighed their desire to have children. After all, if they wanted to have children, they could simply adopt orphans from government-run orphanages throughout the kingdom and still be with the person they love.

However, this was not the case for members of nobility who placed great importance on maintaining their bloodline and producing an heir/heiress to continue their family's legacy.

Same-sex marriage almost never happened for this very reason, and some even looked down upon such a thing, saying how it goes against human nature itself.

There were only a handful of outliers and even then, these outliers were usually second or third children of their family and weren't in line for becoming the heir/heiress of their household.

And instead of being married to someone they can't love, some choose to run away from their household to pursue their true love or compromise with the head of their household. While some still tried their hardest and worked in the background to make sure they could have a happy life with their beloved.

Given how same-sex marraige was seen by nobility, for the crown prince, the heir of the entire kingdom, to be open minded enough to become extremely wary of other girls stealing his beloved fiance was nothing less but surprising to him.

He was truly impressed.

"I see... well good luck, is all I can say. But don't worry too much and just enjoy today."

"...You're right. I'll let them see how in love Risa and I are with each other through our photoshoot!"

"Hah... This guy always becomes an idiot when it comes to Risa..."

[Alterisa's POV]

As I was waiting for the set up to be finished, a girl from "Eden" came to me.

"My lady, the preparation has been completed. We can start the photoshoot anytime."

"Ah, thank you very much for your help, Mary."

"!!! Y-You're very welcome, my lady!"

I stared at her confusedly as she walked away with a wide simple. Hm? Why does she seem super happy? I just thanked her for letting me know...

"Wow... Alterisa-sama, do you remember all the names of your staff? That's amazing..."

I turned to Illya and saw everyone looking at me in awe.

"Well, of course. I might not remember every staff in other branches, but I've memorized the faces and names of Eden staff in the royal capital."

"That's amazing, Risa-sama. I don't think even my father remembers the name of every servant in our household."

"Well, it depends from person to person. Your father must be too busy to remember. I just have some extra time to take note of their names."

Also, I frequent the Eden's royal capital branch so much. So of course I remember everyone's name naturally.

"Alright then~! Let's start our photoshoot!"

""Yes~""

The girls, already dressed super beautifully in the dresses I've prepared, made their way to the set.

Fufufufu~ With them helping me advertise this product line, I'm sure it'll be our most successful product line in Eden's history! And I also get the added bonus of having a picture with all of them~

Vincent is such a genius~

"Everyone, I would like to thank everyone here for coming and helping me with this event once again. I can not express how grateful I am to everyone for accepting my invitation. I will definitely repay this debt in the future."

"Fufufu~ You don't need to go that far, Risa-chan~ Just give us a copy of the photo and we'll call it even~"

Lily said with an adorable giggle.

Eh? Is that really okay?

I looked at everyone and saw them all nodding excitedly, especially the girls. T-They're so kind~

"Thank you, everyone! I'll make sure you get as many copies as you want and also a special luxurious gift box consisting of our newest product line "Spring of Love" for your core family!!!"

The girls cheered excitedly, though for some reason, they're cheering for the pictures instead of the gift box...

Well, as long as they're happy...

"Alright! Let's start!"

Since I'm already in a bright yellow dress, the first one I'll be taking a photo with is Valerie-chan and the theme will be "My Sunshine" for the shampoo and conditioner set with a citrusy fragrance.

Valerie-chan and I took a lot of pictures together in different poses. But in the end, the best one we both choose is the one where we're hugging and pressing our cheeks together while winking at the camera.

"I'll frame this up and put it everywhere in my estate and mom's office!!!"

"A-Ahahaha, please get Lawliela-sama's permission first before you do that..."

S-She's not listening... Oh well. I don't think Lawliela-sama would be bothered by one picture...

Next up is Illya with "Spring Breeze" as the theme. Ufufufu~ No one but Illya is fit for this theme~ She's always a breath of fresh air and is always comforting to be with.

I changed into my light lavender dress and took a picture with Illya in her light cerulean blue dress. With Lu-nii's magic, we took a whole body picture where we're holding hands and looking at the camera with a wide smile while being blown by a breeze.

I then changed into a golden dress for the picture with Celine with the theme "Golden Grace". She's wearing a pure white party dress to match my hair, while my golden dress is meant to match her hair.

Then, after taking a few pictures, I got the idea to dance around with her in a field of Marigolds. In the end, the best picture was when we're both smiling at each other in the middle of the dance, surrounded in a field of golden flowers.

After Celine was Evelyn, and I changed my dress into a bright green one. Evelyn is wearing a bright blue dress which matches her hair as well as her theme, "Spring's Embrace".

For this, Evelyn suggested the two of us pose a little bit more intimately since it's an "embrace". So, with Evelyn in the lead, we ended up taking a lot of photos of us hugging, holding hands, kissing each other's cheeks, and many more things I feel too embarrassed to say...

In the end, she wanted to pick the one where we raised our right hand up near our lips and intertwined our fingers, and kiss each other's ring fingers. But, after seeing it, it was... too embarrassing to be something spread around the entire kingdom. So I compromised and chose the one where we're touching foreheads, holding each other's hands, and glancing at the camera.

In truth, this is also very embarrassing, but since Evelyn won't compromise anymore, I chose that...

I-I had to say, the photoshoot with Evelyn is the most embarrassing one... I can even hear Alexus and the girls gasping and shouting something from the distance, but I was too embarrassed and too into my head to hear them.

Fortunately, the one with Noir was more... wholesome and matches with her theme "Nature's Blessings". I was dressed in a white dress with golden embroideries, while she was in the same dress but with green embroideries. We took a lot of pictures like sitting in a garden of flowers, holding hands, and resting our heads on each other, and the usual hugging and intertwining fingers that everyone weirdly insisted on for some reason.

In the end, we chose the one where we're kneeling before a bush of Lilacs and smiled at the flowers.

Umu, her expression here is so soft, wholesome, and beautiful. As expected of Noir!

Then, it was time for a photoshoot with my little angel, Kiara!!! Kiara's theme is "Flower Blossoms", so I changed into a lavender dress while Kiara is dressed in a light pink one. We took a couple of pictures like the usual hugging and intertwining fingers, but we also played around since I wanted this theme to be lively and full of vitality. In the end, we chose the picture of us chasing each other while being full of smiles.

After Kiara's photoshoot was done, I changed into a pure white dress just like the one Lily's wearing since her theme is "First Light".

With her... I feel like we're back in high school. We used to go to a purikura (a photo booth) and we'll take fun, cute pictures with each other, and sometimes with Kazu too. Of course, we didn't take that kind of picture right now, but it still reminds us of that time. We did a lot of fun poses, like dancing, running around, and hugging.

But in the end, the one we chose was the one that represented the friendship we have that goes beyond a lifetime. The one where we're holding hands, intertwining fingers, and simply smiling happily at one another.

Then, after we're done with Lily, it was Alexus's time.

At first, I wanted to leave Alexus for last since the picture of me and him will be the one for the flagship product of the product line. I mean, the name of the product itself is the name of the product line, the "Spring of Love", so this might take a while.

But, Lu-nii's theme is "Evening Banquet", and I'd like to take a picture of it in the ballroom of our estate. But then, we'd have to move the camera equipment, which isn't a simple stand and a digital camera, but an entire contraption that would need several people to move. So, we went with Alexus's first and I changed into a pure white dress gown to match his white suit with golden embroideries.

And... my heart is racing as fast as when I was doing the photoshoot with Evelyn. We took a lot of romantic pictures... Like seriously. It's like I'm doing wedding photos...

We walked around hand in hand around the garden while smiling at each other, played around together, danced, and looked at flowers. We didn't hug or kiss each other on the cheeks since that would be going too far even though we're engaged to each other.

But, after seeing the results, I'm still not satisfied with them... I mean, they're all super nice pictures, but they just didn't feel right. It didn't have the "romance" I wanted to feel from these pictures.

"Hm... I'm sorry, Mr. Photographer, but can we continue to take some more?"

"Of course, my lady. I shall do my best to capture the best moment between you and his highness."

"Thank you."

I let out a sigh and returned to where Alexus was standing. But maybe because I was tired from an entire day of photoshoot, I felt a bit dizzy and stepped on the hem of my dress.

"Ah..."

"Risa!"

With super quick movements, Alexus caught me in his arms.

"Are you okay?"

Hearing his voice so closely, my heart couldn't help but skip a beat. I slowly looked up at him and nodded silently, and his worried expression turned into a loving smile.

"You should be careful next time, okay? Let's rest for a moment and continue this after a cup of tea. I've already free up the entire day for you, so you don't have to worry."

D-Did he really... do all that for me...

U-Uuuuuhhh... Y-You cheating ikemen...

I nodded shyly and averted my face from him, hiding my red hot, blushing face.

*Snap!*

Eh...? W-Why did the camera snap...? D-Did he take a picture...? D-Did he just took a picture of my shame?!?!?!?!

"My lady! This is the best one yet!"

"Nooooooooooooo!!!!! Anything other than that!!!!!!"

Of course, my cries were not heard. And in the end, Alexus teamed up with Laura and Vincent and made that picture the main poster of our product line.

The one where I was averting my redly blushing face away from Alexus while he's smiling lovingly at me.

It was my greatest shame to this day...



AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter~! Please vote and comment your thoughts~!