Kalintz spoke in a flat, dry voice. His expression gave nothing away.

“War…… yes. The friendly relationship with the Valia Duchy that exists now isn’t something that goes back very far.”

In the past, the Kingdom of Eiron and the Valia Duchy had fought bitterly over resources and territory. That conflict had reached its peak during the reign of the late King Karl.

The war dragged on, and after countless casualties, the two nations finally entered ceasefire negotiations.

As a result of those negotiations, the sole grand ducal lady of the Valia Duchy, Rhea Clovitz, became a frons and crossed over to the Kingdom of Eiron.

The previous queen had passed from illness without leaving an heir, so the seat beside King Karl was empty, and a handful of frons had been gathered in preparation for welcoming a new queen.

The frons system was generally a process for selecting a princess consort, but when the position of queen fell vacant out of necessity, the same process was used to select a queen as well.

In due course, as though following a predetermined path, Rhea Clovitz was chosen as the new queen of the Kingdom of Eiron.

But before the royal wedding could take place, King Karl died without warning, and Grand Duke Rubens ascended to the throne.

The Valia Duchy demanded that Rhea be installed as queen as originally planned.

Rubens, already engaged to Vivian, refused outright. But faced with the peace that had been won at such great cost after a long war, and the lives of his people, he had no choice but to yield in the end.

“But in exchange, His Majesty……”

It was a sensitive subject, so Blair chose her words carefully, watching Kalintz’s face.

“Declared Your Highness the sole heir to the throne.”

King Rubens agreed to marry Rhea, but in exchange, he kept Vivian Kruger as his concubine and publicly declared that only the child born of her would be recognized as his sole successor.

The nobility’s opposition had been fierce, of course, but on that point, King Rubens had never once yielded.

That was precisely why. That was why Princess Lina, Kalintz’s half-sister born of the queen, could never ascend to the throne.

“You know quite a lot. Then again, it’s common knowledge even children on the street would know.”

Kalintz murmured it as though speaking of someone else’s affairs entirely.

“But no matter how firmly my father holds to that, what can be done. Once I’m gone, the only blood left is Lina.”

“That’s true, but……”

“It’s not as though my mother is going to give me a younger sibling at this point.”

Mother. It was the first time she had heard that word from his lips.

But why does his expression……

A fleeting, unreadable emotion crossed Kalintz’s face. Something that looked faintly lonely, and faintly pained. Blair quietly swallowed her puzzlement.

Come to think of it, had she ever crossed paths with her……

During her time at the royal palace, Blair had never once encountered Vivian Kruger, Kalintz’s birth mother.

Thinking about it now, it was more than just not crossing paths. There had been no trace of her anywhere in the palace, and no one had ever spoken of her. In a palace as full of talk as this one, that was a remarkably rare thing.

Was it simply that she had never paid attention?

Blair wanted to ask Kalintz about Vivian, but something told her she should not. The expression from a moment ago still nagged at her.

“You look like you want to ask something. You keep glancing at my face.”

“No, it’s just…… everything I just heard is so surprising.”

She brushed it off vaguely and pushed the small curiosities to a corner.

“So, what do you think of my plan?”

“Think of it?”

“You said it was surprising. Is that all?”

What else was she supposed to say?

Blair looked at Kalintz, blinking as he waited for her answer.

“Say the word now if you’re not sure.”

Only then did Blair grasp what he was getting at, and she gave a quiet nod.

“No. It’s a little sudden, but I’m not unsure.”

Kalintz raised an eyebrow with a look of interest. For a moment she had the impression that those distinctively captivating golden eyes had flashed.

“There’s nothing I can do about it at this point anyway.”

Blair shifted her gaze away from his and continued.

“I already know this secret plan of yours in full. If I tried to back out now, would you really let me go?”

“And if I didn’t?”

“Well…… who knows. I might wake up one night to find myself like this.”

Blair raised a hand and drew it across her throat. Kalintz looked at her again with that same expression of amusement.

“Where did you pick that up?”

Where else, from Allen. Blair thought to herself with a silent scoff.

“Even so, I’d never do something like that to you. So rest easy.”

Kalintz smiled with his eyes and slid the shortcake on the table toward Blair. It was the dessert she had been sneaking glances at for a while now.

She had only looked at it because she was getting hungry mid-conversation, but Kalintz had caught on with uncanny precision, and Blair felt a little embarrassed.

Still, he had brought it for her to eat. Blair told herself it was only polite to have at least one piece, and reached out.

“Of course.”

Kalintz’s low voice came again.

“I also have no intention of letting you go at this point.”

His eyes gleamed with a sharp, steady light. Under that predator’s gaze, Blair felt once again like something he had marked as prey.

“So eat up. We have a lot to do together from here on.”

Kalintz pushed the cake plate the rest of the way toward her as he spoke.

“……Just how much are you planning to work me to the bone.”

Grumbling under her breath, Blair picked up the plate and cut a generous piece of cake with her fork and put it in her mouth.

The soft sponge, faintly steeped in vanilla, melted on her tongue.

Lost in the bliss of it, Blair closed her eyes without realizing and savored the cake, then found herself thinking about the person sitting across from her.

“Um, Your Highness?”

Blair set her plate down neatly and called to him.

“What is it?”

“……Aren’t you leaving?”

“Why would I?”

He tilted his head as though she had asked something strange.

“What do you mean, why. Are you going to stay here? Haven’t you said everything you came to say?”

“I’ve said everything. But I’m not done with what I came to do.”

“And what is that?”

“Watching you finish all of this.”

It was a thoroughly baffling thing to say.

“You’re going to stay here…… until I’ve eaten all of this?”

Blair asked in disbelief, and Kalintz smiled and nodded.

“Why on earth?”

“I told you, eat up. It would be a problem if you collapsed halfway through.”

It was a ridiculous thing to say.

“That doesn’t mean you need to sit here and watch me eat.”

“I need some time to rest too. There’s a mountain of work waiting when I get back.”

In other words, he was simply trying to shirk his duties.

“So take your time and finish it all.”

He leaned back into the plush sofa with a shameless grin. The sight of him lounging without a care in the world left Blair speechless.

Think I won’t eat it?

She had been so busy lately that she had been skimping on meals and skipping dessert entirely. She picked the plate back up.

Contrary to whatever the attendants outside were imagining with great enthusiasm about what the two of them might be up to alone, nothing but the quiet clinking of cutlery filled the room for quite some time.

❀❀❀

“Your Highness! You said you’d be right back, and this is your idea of right back!?”

Ernst shouted at Kalintz, who had returned after being gone for half a day.

“You only covered for me for a few hours. Why are you making such a show of it when I did everything else.”

Kalintz looked at the papers Ernst had neatly arranged on the desk in the study and spoke.

“No, that’s not the point! Why are you filtering the audience requests addressed to Her Highness the Princess Consort here!?”

“She already has too much on her plate.”

“What about me! Do I have nothing on mine!?”

Ernst raised his voice, aggrieved.

“And yesterday you apparently put in a huge order with the head chef out of nowhere! Mostly things Her Highness the Princess Consort likes!”

Ernst was quite certain he knew where all those desserts had ended up.

“I heard Her Highness hasn’t been eating properly lately? I’m right, aren’t I? You went over there with the desserts, didn’t you?”

Ernst narrowed his eyes and pressed.

“Enough.”

Kalintz cut off his subordinate’s complaints and dropped into the chair at his desk.

There seemed to be a faint sweet scent clinging to him, but he was not in a bad mood.

❀❀❀

Blair was staring a hole through a blank sheet of parchment.

“You really must send it today.”

Tilda stood beside her and urged her along.

“The royal wedding is three days away, and you still haven’t sent the invitation!”