“Stop fidgeting and come sit here.”

The king pointed to the chair beside the bed, looking at him with pathetic eyes. Thankfully, his cold tone and indifferent voice remained the same. Viett approached the bed with slight relief.

The king just stared at his son, who sat awkwardly beside the bed, with cloudy eyes. After a long silence, he spoke with a sigh, shaking his head.

“You really do resemble your mother a lot…… Fortunately.”

“D-did you j-just say f-fortunately?”

“Yes. When you were born, it felt like a curse, but now I feel it’s a blessing that you resemble Liliana.”

The king, who had been speaking enigmatically, gestured toward the radio on the table.

“Until now, I didn’t need to entrust you to that monster, but the situation has changed.”

“……”

“The memorial speech must have been a complete disaster, wasn’t it?”

Remembering that painfully embarrassing time he wished he could erase from his memory, Viett’s shoulders instinctively grew heavy. The king looked at his son’s rigid face with contempt.

“Just imagine you’re reading lines in a play. Is that so difficult?”

He clicked his tongue disapprovingly while sinking deeper into his pillow.

“Your brother excelled at everything……”

“……”

Another awkward silence followed. The king, who had been glancing at Viett, cleared his throat a few times, then turned his head abruptly in the opposite direction and gruffly began to speak.

“I originally hated giving speeches too. But after repeating it many times since I was crown prince, I eventually got used to it.”

Viett’s eyebrows twitched in surprise at this awkwardly added advice. Normally, his father would have compared him to his perfect brother and hurled all sorts of insults.

The king said nothing more. He simply closed his eyes and breathed shallowly and irregularly.

Had he lost even the strength to shout angrily and discipline his son as he used to? Viett looked at his father, who had weakened beyond belief, with complicated emotions.

Age and deepening illness seemed to have softened his once fiery temperament. The fact that the king hadn’t thrown Viett out of the bedroom yet was proof of that.

“Your Majesty. I have brought Her Highness the Crown Princess.”

Just then, Rose entered the king’s bedroom with Phenelity. Viett felt a sense of relief as he turned to look at his wife.

Phenelity was walking stiffly and awkwardly. Rose gently stroked her shoulder and said kindly:

“Since this is their first meeting, please welcome our new family member with kindness and affection, Father.”

“I greet Your Majesty.”

Phenelity, blinking with a bewildered face, bowed to the king. Viett looked at his trembling wife with sympathetic eyes.

“……She truly resembles Hughey Gallant.”

The king, who had been observing Phenelity with indifferent eyes, finally offered his first impression.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t Hughey Gallant the actor our princess was completely smitten with?”

Princess Rose responded to the king’s affectionate question with a shy smile, twisting her shoulders bashfully.

“Oh, Father! Smitten? How embarrassing……”

“Am I going to appear in that bizarre novel of yours now?”

“Yes…… I suppose so……”

Phenelity nodded in confusion at the king’s question. The king rubbed his wrinkled face quietly before blurting out:

“Then from now on, I’ll entrust my nursing care to you.”

“W-why would you b-burden my w-wife with such a d-difficult task when there are p-perfectly capable n-nurses?”

Viett immediately protested, jumping to his feet. The king responded in an indifferent tone without even looking at him.

“You worked as an assistant nurse in Costonia, didn’t you? Then nursing care shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

The king looked directly at Phenelity and asked almost demandingly. Startled, Phenelity glanced quickly at Viett before nodding hesitantly.

“What? Yes…… I suppose so……”

“Rather than having you hanging around your husband who’s acting as the king’s proxy and potentially exposing classified information in your novel, I’d feel more at ease keeping you tied here beside a sick old man under supervision.”

“Th-this is r-ridiculous……”

Just as Viett raised his voice, unable to contain his anger, Phenelity quickly jumped in front of him to block him. Then, with a very tense face, she looked the king in the eye and spoke deliberately:

“I’m sorry, but being constantly tied to Your Majesty’s side won’t work……”

The king, as well as Viett and Rose, were surprised by her sudden outburst and widened their eyes. The king was the first to recover, snorting and furrowing his brow.

“Are you defying the king’s order?”

“Actually, on my way to the bedroom, General Rippers gave me a list of official duties I need to handle.”

Viett stared blankly at his wife as she fumbled to pull out and unfold a piece of paper. The paper she unfolded was filled with royal official event schedules.

The courage with which she had spoken so boldly seemed to have vanished, as the paper she held out before the king was visibly shaking.

“After handling all of these first, I’ll nurse Your Majesty even if I have to stay up all night. I, I, I promise……”

Her voice trailed off, trembling weakly like a goat’s bleat. Despite her fear and trembling, his wife’s somewhat brazen behavior made Viett unconsciously smile slightly, lifting the corners of his mouth. Rose likewise turned her head to barely suppress her laughter.

“Oh, really? Even if you have to stay up all night?”

The king stared intently at the pale Phenelity before smirking.

“I’m not mischievous enough to disturb a newlywed couple’s night.”

He looked once at the paper Phenelity had unfolded, and once at her tense face.

A mischievous playfulness and interest flashed across his eyes. For the first time, the king, who until just moments ago had looked like a corpse with open eyes, showed signs of vitality.

“Fine. Do as you wish.”

The king waved his hand weakly as if bothered. Phenelity and the Hartmann siblings exhaled long sighs, relieved in unison.

* * *

That night, Viett tried to sleep in the cold couple’s bedroom with an unsettled feeling. Was it because he was lying in a strange place, a strange bed, rather than the room that held at least some childhood memories? Or was he anxious about the days ahead? Despite being exhausted to death, he simply couldn’t fall asleep.

As he tossed and turned several times, he felt a small hand patting his chest. He turned his head to the side. Phenelity, whom he thought had fallen asleep early, was looking at him with bright, clear eyes.

“I th-thought you were a-asleep.”

“I can’t sleep. I didn’t know our home would be such a lonely and quiet place.”

She murmured glumly as she burrowed deeply into his arms. He pressed her head against his chest and shook his head.

“This isn’t…… o-our home.”

Viett recalled the castle on his own territory. During their brief honeymoon in Costonia, he had always fallen into the same daydream before sleeping.

The peaceful days he would spend with his wife in his own castle after returning to Westenia once the war ended. He would go to sleep dreaming of that anticipated future happiness.

But if he succeeded his father as king like this, he and Phenelity would never be able to enjoy those peaceful days until they died.

“B-but…… this has n-now become o-our home.”

He murmured in a bitter voice.

“I’ve n-never…… f-felt this place as m-my home.”

Phenelity raised her head slowly after hearing his impulsively uttered words. She stared at his rigid face before carefully speaking.

“I never particularly thought of the count’s residence as a cozy home either.”

Then she tightly wrapped her arms around Viett’s neck.

“But with you here, I’m reassured that this place will soon feel like a cozy home.”

“……”

“Though I still can’t shake the feeling that I’m staying in an unfamiliar dormitory……”

Viett couldn’t help but smile at her honest mumbled addition. The small body nestling against him reassured him. He held her tightly and closed his eyes.

That night, for the first time since hearing of his brother’s death, he fell into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

「<Pepe: 77XX Days Since Birth.>

※ This regime propaganda novel may contain scenes inappropriate for children.

※ Names of characters other than the Little Lord and family will be marked as XX.

※ Please note that parts of certain individuals’ dialogue are marked with **.

When I woke up to the busy footsteps of the maids, Viett had already risen at dawn and left the bedroom. The chief chamberlain, who approached through the maids, bowed deeply to me.

— His Highness is with the Prime Minister.

— This early in the morning?

— And Lady Amelia is waiting for the Crown Princess.

— This early in the morning?!

Before I could even be surprised, I was lifted from the bed by the maids and forcibly dragged to the dressing room to be decorated. (I know it doesn’t make contextual sense. But I was literally ‘subjected to’ decoration in the dressing room!)

— It’s His Majesty the king’s order to comfort Lady Amelia.