The day after facing the emperor.
Contrary to my expectation that Princess Asteria would be too shocked to attend, she walked around the academy as if nothing had happened.
Of course, since the engagement hadn’t yet been officially announced, she couldn’t go around spreading the news herself, so she kept quiet about it. Still, judging by how much more somber she looked than usual, it was clear she hadn’t slept a wink and had spent the night mulling over everything that had happened.
Perhaps thinking it best to clear things up between us before rumors of her engagement spread, the princess made up a story that everything so far had been a mere act. She claimed she had asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend to lure out a stalker who had recently been obsessing over her.
It was a ridiculous excuse, but the students readily believed it without an ounce of doubt. Most likely because they couldn’t fathom someone like me actually dating the princess.
…Couldn’t they have questioned it, even a little?
“What on earth happened over the weekend?”
The noble lady who glared at me with suspicious eyes must have been puzzled by the princess’s sudden change in demeanor.
“Well, uh…”
What should I do? Should I just tell her the truth?
How was I supposed to explain that over the weekend, I had been dragged before the emperor, interrogated, and forced to witness the princess being sold off in real time to a foreign prince?
“What, did you actually go see the emperor because of that rumor?”
Flinch!
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
“…Haa.”
In the end, having already given myself away with my reaction, I decided to confess the truth to the noble lady.
I had the thought that I wanted to stop the princess’s marriage, but putting that into action would be incredibly difficult.
Still, if someone powerful like the noble lady took my side, maybe—just maybe—I’d have a shot at making it happen.
“Is that really true? That girl’s getting married? To another country?”
“Yes. And… please don’t call her ‘that girl’…”
“It’s all so sudden. I had heard the emperor wasn’t particularly fond of the Second Princess, but did he really want her gone so badly that he had to get her out of sight?”
Thinking back on it after the noble lady’s comment, it did seem a bit strange.
Some of the emperor’s reactions during the audience had seemed like natural, emotional responses of a father worried about his daughter’s well-being.
But it’s not like I could read minds, so I had no way of knowing the full story.
Did the emperor truly dislike Princess Asteria that much?
“So, what do you want to do?”
“Umm… Huh? What?”
“Why? Don’t you hate the idea of the princess being sold off?”
“I mean, well… yeah, but…”
I hadn’t even said anything about how I felt. How did she figure it out?
Was I that easy to read?
“You’ve been looking like the princess is bothering you all this time; that’s how. Anyway, just so you know, arranged marriages between noble families for political reasons are very common.
Honestly, this might even be a good opportunity for her.
Rather than staying here where she’s barely acknowledged, living a peaceful life as queen in a small kingdom might actually be a better life for her.”
“…That might be true. But…”
I couldn’t shake the image of her despairing expression.
Just as I had once been rejected by my parents, never acknowledged as their child…so too was she.
A runaway mother and a father I killed with my own hands.
I found myself wishing she wouldn’t walk the same lonely path I had, and that desire to save her welled up inside me.
“It’s hard to explain why… but I just want to help the Princess, no matter what. I’m sorry.”
“Figures. That’s just like you.”
The noble lady looked as if she had expected me to react this way. Her expression was one of resignation.
“Geez… I thought I’d finally be rid of my rival, but now we’re right back to square one…”
“Huh? What was that?”
“Ah, it’s nothing! So, do you have some brilliant plan or what?”
While I was trying to come up with a way to stop the wedding, I missed what she had muttered.
She stammered in embarrassment, and when she asked if I had a plan, I found it hard to come up with anything solid.
Political marriages between nations were extremely serious matters.
If a baron’s son like me were to interfere, it could bring harm not only to me but also to our innocent territory.
“What in the world should I do… hmm?”
Beep beep.
Just then, the communication stone I had been keeping in my pocket began to ring.
It seemed the same had happened to the noble lady, as we both pulled out our stones to check the message.
“This is… probably about that, right?”
“Yes. Most likely.”
[Princess: Everyone… could you gather in the club room tomorrow afternoon? There’s something important I need to discuss.]
***
The next afternoon.
We all gathered in the club room, just as the Princess had asked through the communication stone.
Pollo was delighted to see everyone gathered in the club room again after so long, and although the Saintess didn’t show it openly, she couldn’t hide the way the corners of her lips twitched happily as she sat beside Pollo.
“Ahem! I wonder what Her Highness wants from us. For her to call only us like this… could it be something serious?”
The Saintess who was trying to mask her expression deliberately spoke as if she were worried. But I knew the truth.
She was probably trying to discreetly inform us of her situation before making any official statement.
Knowing her personality, I doubted she was going to ask for our help or anything like that.
It wasn’t something we could do anything about anyway, and if we dared to side with the princess and suggest canceling the marriage, we’d only end up drawing the Emperor’s ire and leaving a bad impression.
Princess Asteria likely understood that as well, and had called us here simply to ask that we offer her our congratulations in advance.
On top of that, since she hadn’t been able to properly connect with Pollo yet, she was probably still clinging to some lingering feelings.
She must have wanted to use this opportunity to spend just a little more time with him.
Knock knock.
Clack.
“Thank you all for coming.”
Not long after everyone but her had gathered in the club room, the Princess entered.
Perhaps because she had a lot on her mind, she looked a bit more gaunt than before. But her beauty remained undiminished.
“It’s nothing. So… what is it you wanted to say?”
“Hmm… well…”
Even for her, it seemed difficult to casually bring up that she was suddenly getting married, and she hesitated.
It couldn’t have been easy to say she was marrying someone else in front of the man she had once loved.
At that moment, I caught the sound of a commotion coming from outside the clubroom.
At first, I assumed it was just noise from the activities of other student clubs. But that sound was unmistakably growing louder, and drawing closer to our clubroom.
Someone has stopped right outside our door.
Clack!
At that moment, the door swung open with force.
Without so much as a knock or a word of warning, someone barged confidently into what was clearly a private space. The audacity of it left us speechless. But when we saw who it was, our disbelief gave way to outright shock.
“So this is the room where Princess Asteria is staying… It’s a bit smaller than I expected.”
“W-Why are you here!?”
“Haha! What, is it so strange for a man to come see his future wife in person? That’s rather cold of you,”
With the build of an ox and rugged, intense eyes, his appearance immediately brought to mind Zhang Fei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Arrogant, yet undeniably powerful. The impression he gave was hard to shake.
“Who in the world is that…?”
“Could it be…?”
The Saintess didn’t seem to fully grasp his identity, but the noble lady appeared to have some idea, perhaps because of what I’d told her the day before.
“Oh, how rude of me! I got so excited, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Taurus Cretia, First Prince of the Kingdom of Cretia.”
“!!”
“Prince Taurus!”
Everyone except the Princess and me gasped in surprise at his sudden appearance.
It was understandable. Even if rumors about him weren’t all flattering, he was still a prince of a nation, and a prodigy swordsman who had reached the rank of Aura Master in his twenties.
Naturally, when someone like that appeared, word was bound to spread quickly.
Prince Taurus laughed heartily and shook hands warmly with everyone in the room.
When it came time to greet the Saintess, he opted for a respectful nod instead of a handshake. Perhaps he felt it would be inappropriate to touch someone who was a spiritual leader of the Church.
“You… Mars, was it? I heard you briefly pretended to be her lover to deal with a stalker…”
“It was more honor than I deserved. Thanks to the Princess’s quick thinking, we caught the culprit without much trouble.”
“Haha! That’s right, it was an honor! Don’t worry; I’m not the kind of man to hold a grudge!”
It seemed he had picked up on the rumors that had once circulated between the Princess and me. Unlike with the others, he added an extra comment before shaking my hand, and something about it made me deeply uncomfortable.
Smack—
“……!”
This aura…!
“Well then, now that introductions are out of the way, I’m sure my sudden appearance startled you all. But no need to be so stiff! I haven’t come here as the Prince of Cretia, but simply as a man, here to see his future wife!”
“Future wife…?”
The Saintess looked toward the Princess with a glimmer of concern, and perhaps deciding there was no use hiding it any longer, the Princess let out a quiet sigh.
“Yes. I am to be wed to Prince Taurus who stands before you now. The reason I called you all here today was to inform you of this.”
“Ah!”
“Th-That’s so sudden…”
The Saintess and Pollo couldn’t hide their shock. Their eyes grew wide at the unexpected news of the engagement.
The announcement stirred up a buzz in the clubroom, but I no longer had the presence of mind to care about any of that.
Because…
That aura I felt from the chimera’s creator… why is it coming from him?
The same murky, oppressive energy I had sensed when we defeated the chimera’s creator….I now felt it writhing deep within the body of the First Prince, Taurus Cretia.
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