I understood that she was a bad-tempered woman who mistreated employees and constantly cursed. But Amelia often acted excessively, as if she wanted every detail of her behavior to be recorded in my novel.

— You look like you have something to say!

— **! I said I don’t!

After shouting a curse loud enough to echo through the corridor, Amelia suddenly began looking around. Then she approached me closely and mumbled hesitantly.

— You……. I hear you’re quite skilled with your hands……”

— What? Oh, yes!

— Perhaps……. can you also make building mo, models……”

Why is she suddenly acting like this? I looked at Amelia, who was rolling her eyes wildly, with a puzzled expression. I wasn’t used to seeing her act like such a timid girl.

— Building models?

— W-well…… I’d like to…… request…… a certain…… model……”

Amelia’s face, which had been mumbling while avoiding my gaze, instantly turned bright red. Tears welling up in her large eyes happened just as suddenly.

— Mind your own business, you **!

— Huh? What did I do……”

— Get lost, **!

Then she ran away toward the opposite corridor as if escaping. I stood there dazed for a while, surprised by her tears. (Did I make some kind of mistake……)」

* * *

‘Leader of Easton predicts concentrated bombing of Westenia’s capital Lechen during speech.’

‘Easton’s firepower. Will it now be concentrated on Lechen?’

‘Possibility of Easton’s army directly invading Westenia?’

‘Revealed to be retaliation for Westenian public opinion pointing to Easton’s intelligence agency as being behind the former crown prince’s assassination……’

Viett lit a cigarette while examining the headlines adorning the front pages of various newspapers.

Finally, the flames of war had spread to Westenia. Until now, they had only dispatched troops to allied nations, but the time had come to establish border defense measures.

Damn bastard……. The assassination accusation was probably just an excuse. Viett glared hatefully at the photo of Easton’s leader printed on the front page.

Areas with relatively low defense capabilities had already suffered quite severe bombing damage. Easton airships casting transparency magic on their vessels and crossing the border were frequently detected.

In response, Viett recalled some of the mages and doctors who had been dispatched to the allied forces. In the current situation, homeland defense was the most important issue.

Among the talents ordered to return was Tenessa, who had been struggling in Costonia. The medical camp where Tenessa was stationed was in the capital, Lechen.

However, Tenessa sent a letter of recommendation to the king, claiming she had found someone to replace her.

It was frustrating enough that she refused Viett’s order to return and persuaded the king instead, but the identity of the recommended person was none other than Hillias Law.

The king had even accepted this without hesitation. The reason was that talents like Hillias should protect the capital rather than serve on foreign battlefields.

“The commander must have come to trust the doctor firmly.”

Phenelity clapped her hands with a joyful smile.

“If she’s being recalled before completing her term as a medical officer, the doctor must have really impressed the commander.”

“……”

“At first, the commander really hated the doctor……. Has she finally been recognized for her skills?”

“……”

“Well, there’s no way the commander would hate high-quality personnel like the doctor.”

Is this really something to be so genuinely happy about? Viett looked at his wife’s bright smile with dissatisfied eyes. Today especially, his wife praising that man in front of him seemed particularly annoying.

I must prevent that doctor from being stationed at the temporary camp near the palace. Viett silently vowed to himself. He couldn’t imagine any man who would welcome his wife’s school crush.

For the first time since returning home, Viett voluntarily visited his father’s bedroom. His father, who had been sitting in a plush chair examining some papers, looked up.

“What brings you here?”

His father put down the papers with a surprised face. The design for a sculpture, clearly drawn by Phenelity, filled the paper.

“You insolent boy, not showing your face for weeks.”

“I, I have a fa, favor to ask.”

“You only come to see your ailing father when you need something?”

His father clicked his tongue and removed his magnifying glasses. Viett hesitated for a moment before stammering out the words he had prepared in advance.

“Ple, please give me the me, medical staff recommendation le, letter sent by Te, Tenessa Sieltz.”

To change Hillias’s camp assignment from near the palace to a distant outskirt, he absolutely needed the recommendation letter Tenessa had sent.

His father looked at Viett with a mixture of interest and melancholy in his eyes, then smirked.

“Is it true that the doctor recommended by Sieltz is my daughter-in-law’s first love?”

Viett pressed his lips together, unwilling to confirm it himself. That seemed answer enough, as his father snorted and said,

“So you are a man after all.”

Viett anxiously watched as he rummaged through a drawer to retrieve the recommendation letter. As expected, his father didn’t hand it over nicely.

“But there’s a condition.”

“I, I figured as much.”

“Read that recommendation letter aloud in front of me.”

His father extended his hand holding the recommendation letter toward him. Viett accepted and unfolded it with a stiff face.

The piercing gaze fixed on his face made him want to flee the bedroom immediately. But his pride wouldn’t allow it, so despite the embarrassment, he stammered through Tenessa’s recommendation letter.

“I, I am truly so, sorry that I cannot vi, visit you in person to ex, express my condolences, Your Majesty. However, he, here in Costonia, under Ea, Easton’s large-scale bo, bombing……”

“Enough.”

The king waved his hand to stop his reading.

“Still terrible.”

Viett, accustomed to his father’s criticism, ignored it and continued reading the recommendation letter with his eyes. Hillias’s abilities, detailed by Tenessa, were quite outstanding.

He could understand why people questioned his career choice. Talents capable of both general medicine and magical treatment were rare. Yet he was merely a noble family’s physician. It was indeed a strange and suspicious choice.

Was he really planning to stay by Phenelity’s side? The king observed Viett’s increasingly distorted expression with interest and said,

“The faces of men consumed by jealousy all look the same.”

“……”

“So. You want to station that doctor at a camp far from the palace in the outskirts?”

“Ho, how did you know?”

“Because I’ve done the same thing before.”

Viett blankly stared into his father’s eyes, which were calm to the point of coldness. His father put on his thick magnifying glasses again and said,

“I also found Liliana’s first love irritating.”

It had been years since he heard his dead mother’s name from the king’s lips. Viett’s expression hardened as he recalled the day his father burned his mother’s will and belongings, and the painful sense of loss he felt then.

“Liliana’s first love was even a man with extraordinary abilities, so he frequently visited the palace. I was anxious about that, so I demoted him to a branch outside Lechen.”

“……”

“But that man climbed his way up to a high position and kept hovering around your mother.”

Your mother? The tone was affectionate, as if talking to a small child. Viett found his father’s seemingly softened tone and expression unfamiliar and awkward.

“I, I don’t think fa, father is the type of pe, person who would le, leave that alone……”

“You know me well.”

Seeing the wrinkled face smiling warmly made him feel even stranger. That kind of smile was an expression he only showed to his brother……

Viett, uncomfortable with the peculiar atmosphere, unnecessarily lowered his gaze to the recommendation letter. He wanted to leave the bedroom immediately, but needed the king’s permission first.

“……Indeed. You are my son.”

The king stared at him reading the recommendation letter and said firmly,

“I say this because your woman-obsessed appearance reminds me of my younger days.”

A bitter emotion was felt in his awkwardly added words. Viett responded gruffly, as if making excuses to himself:

“This is ju, just a decision to pre, prevent dirty ru, rumors from attaching to my wi, wife.”

The king snickered as if to say “sure it is.”

“By the way. Have you gotten used to performing state duties?”

He shook his head before Viett could even answer.

“Never mind. Seeing you stammer, I can imagine how you usually carry yourself.”

Why ask the question if he wasn’t going to listen to the answer? Viett frowned, upset by his father’s renewed coldness.

“I’ve go, gotten somewhat used to it.”

“You shouldn’t just get used to it, you should excel at it! Do you think I entrusted you with royal duties just to do ‘somewhat’ well?”

“Why are you pi, picking a fight suddenly?”

“You perceive this as picking a fight?”

“If not a fi, fight, then it would be ri, right to call it an unreasonable whim.”

“You speak quite well when you’re grumbling. Bah, get out of my sight now.”

The king clicked his tongue as he picked up the sculpture design again. Viett glared at his father with dissatisfied eyes before silently leaving the bedroom.