“I am deeply grateful for the warm welcome, Your Highness.”

He gave a bow of courtesy, then turned his gaze to Blair. With a faint smile, he gave a small nod of his head.

“I was not able to greet you properly the last time, Your Highness. I am Rashid Remarque.”

Faced with the man’s entirely unexpected identity, Blair could only blink with an expression of pure disbelief.

Then that invitation…… was his own?

Blair thought back to the invitation he had held out to her the night before. She had assumed he was simply a knight escort carrying his lord’s invitation. That he was the young duke himself had never crossed her mind.

“Hmm? Are you acquainted with the princess consort?”

King Rubens, having noticed Rashid greeting Blair, asked with curiosity.

“We had a brief encounter in the garden last night.”

“Ah, I heard you met Kalintz as well. The princess consort must have been with him at the time.”

“That’s right. Strictly speaking, I met Her Highness the Princess Consort first.”

From beside her came the sound of Kalintz clicking his tongue.

“How did this happen? That man…… is His Grace Rashid Remarque, the young duke of the Armos Islands?”

Blair whispered just low enough for Kalintz to hear.

“So it seems.”

Kalintz muttered, glaring at Rashid across the table. He had apparently learned the man’s identity at the hunting grounds today and was equally taken aback.

“You had no idea either?”

“I’ve met the Grand Duke a few times, but never the son.”

He shook his head.

“I wondered what wind blew him here when he’s always out on campaigns.”

Kalintz seemed to find the man’s very existence disagreeable.

“Quite a remarkable coincidence. Did you not say His Grace arrived at the palace late last night? Now I find myself curious about what exactly happened in the garden.”

King Rubens looked back and forth between his son and daughter-in-law and Rashid with an air of amusement.

The unwelcome question made Blair bite her lip lightly and look at Rashid.

She had gone to such lengths to keep it from becoming a diplomatic incident.

Even if he chose to make an issue of the Bolton knights’ rudeness, she had nothing to say. They were not royal knights, but to a foreign guest, that distinction would mean little.

And he was Rashid Remarque of the Armos Islands. Renowned on the battlefield for showing neither mercy nor sentiment.

Rashid took a sip of his aperitif, then opened his mouth.

“I am sorry to say it was not a particularly pleasant affair.”

Ha. This is a disaster.

Blair let out a quiet internal sigh as she watched her efforts from the night before unravel.

“Oh? What do you mean, not pleasant.”

King Rubens asked with a slight frown.

“I came directly from a campaign and arrived separately from the delegation, and even entering the palace was a struggle. The reason was that I am from Armos.”

He spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.

“Setting aside the main gate entirely, even after entering through a side door in the garden, not a single person made any proper attempt to verify my invitation or my credentials.”

Unlike Rashid’s impassive face, King Rubens’s expression visibly stiffened.

“It was not particularly surprising to find that people who treat Armos nationals as ‘savages’ still exist.”

He kept his voice level and dropped his gaze as he spoke.

“But I was somewhat surprised to find that those people held the title of knight.”

“……Who on earth would do something so senseless.”

King Rubens murmured with a cold expression. It was understandable. This was hardly the kind of thing one wanted said in a room full of foreign guests.

The atmosphere in the dining hall went quiet in an instant. Kalintz was staring at the young duke of Remarque with an unreadable expression, whatever he was thinking impossible to tell.

Blair was debating whether she should step in and say something when Rashid spoke again.

“Fortunately, in my moment of difficulty, I received help from Her Highness the Princess Consort. She did not reveal her identity at the time, of course.”

“……The princess consort?”

King Rubens raised an eyebrow.

“She showed both wisdom and integrity. Even without knowing I was from Remarque, she demanded that the knights follow proper procedure. She even apologized on their behalf.”

At the unexpected words, Blair looked at Rashid with mild surprise. His grey eyes were turned toward her, giving nothing away.

King Rubens also looked at Blair with an expression of surprise. Rashid added,

“She said that someone ought to apologize. I was deeply impressed by that sense of responsibility.”

In truth, the greater part of her motivation had been not wanting it to turn into a diplomatic incident.

But there was no need to say that out loud.

“She also pointed out a certain bias I held myself. It gave me pause.”

The nerve of him, talking about reflection when he had been hiding his identity the entire time.

Blair tensed her brow to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

“So I decided to take Her Highness the Princess Consort at her word, that not all knights of Eiron are discourteous.”

Only then did Rashid let a faint smile show at the corner of his lips.

“Therefore, Armos will not be raising this matter as a diplomatic issue.”

At the unexpected conclusion, relief passed across the faces of King Rubens, Queen Rhea, and the foreign nobles alike.

A conflict between Armos and Eiron would not have been good for neighboring countries either.

“The princess consort of Eiron is remarkably wise.”

“And she did not even know he was Remarque. Her character truly seems upright.”

People began to offer a word or two of interest and praise toward Blair, and the tension that had gripped the room softened and eased.

King Rubens, though he did not show it outwardly, seemed privately grateful to Blair, and Queen Rhea was watching her with a look of quiet pride.

Well…… I suppose it worked out.

Blair was still a little dazed, but things had resolved themselves, so she managed a smile.

There was, however, one person who still looked thoroughly displeased.

“Slippery.”

Kalintz kept sipping his wine and watching Rashid with a sour expression.

“What is?”

“If he wasn’t going to make an issue of it anyway, he could have just let it go. What’s the point of bringing it up like that.”

Fair enough. That was a reasonable observation.

“He wanted to make his point and move on.”

“Exactly. And win someone’s favor in the process.”

“Whose favor? Who do you mean?”

At that, Kalintz looked straight at Blair.

“……Mine?”

Blair blinked and asked back.

“What would he gain from winning my favor. It’s not as though I’m an unmarried princess he could form a marriage alliance with.”

Kalintz said nothing, just made a crooked, disgruntled face.

The main courses began to arrive one by one. Slow-roasted lamb butter-basted and aged for two days, paired with Bernel mountain wine, melted the moment it touched the tongue, and every dish that followed was equally flawless.

Blair was deeply savoring the food, which bore the unmistakable soul of a master chef, when Rashid spoke to her.

“Thanks to you, I was able to rejoin the delegation safely last night, Your Highness.”

“……You went the opposite direction from where I pointed.”

“Ah. I have a poor sense of direction.”

How does someone say something like that with a completely straight face. The young duke of the Armos Islands had quite a peculiar personality.

“And if I was in any way rude in my conduct last night, I ask for your forgiveness. I had no idea I was speaking with His Highness the Prince and Her Highness the Princess Consort.”

He shifted his gaze to Kalintz as well. Kalintz responded in a tone of deliberate courtesy.

“The feeling is mutual. I also never imagined that the man in blood-stained armor speaking with my wife would be the young duke of the Armos Islands.”

The voice was calm, but the meaning was anything but gentle.

Depending on how one heard it, it might sound like a concerned husband’s remark. To Blair’s ears, it sounded more like: wasn’t it your fault for wandering around someone else’s garden looking like that.

“……Then I suppose we are even.”

Rashid picked up the wine glass beside him and answered. Kalintz raised his own glass in kind.

“If that is your preference.”

There was nothing overtly wrong with the exchange, but the strangely taut air between the two of them made Blair shake her head inwardly.

After that, the meal continued without incident. By the time dessert was served, the room was full of warm laughter, and the banquet drew to a close in a pleasant atmosphere.

There was, however, one exception. Vivian Kruger.

Blair had noticed Vivian’s rigid expression sometime after Rashid recounted the incident in the garden. More precisely, it was after Kalintz had made his pointed remark to Rashid.

From that moment on, Vivian had been watching Kalintz with a sharp, unrelenting gaze. At first Blair thought she was simply in a bad mood, but as time passed, Vivian’s expression only grew colder.