After giving her inaudible greetings to the prince, Dana looked around the banquet hall with Kaiden. As she scanned the nobles standing in the hall one by one, someone caught her eye. And beside them, a couple was approaching Dana. Dana’s eyes widened.

“Hilda!”

“Princess!”

Hilda and Dana walked quickly toward each other with outstretched arms and embraced. It was their first meeting since the wedding.

“You can call me Dana now.”

“But you’ll always be my princess.”

While Hilda and Dana were enjoying their emotional reunion, their two husbands, who had already exchanged brief greetings, stood awkwardly.

Dana felt strange as she looked at Hilda in her light green dress. The person Hilda and Bitern had just passed by was, as Dana remembered, Hilda’s husband from her past life. The man who had abandoned both Hilda, who had stayed by the princess’s side, and the kingdom when it was in danger. Now Hilda didn’t even look at him, smiling while holding her husband’s hand.

“I heard you arrived late yesterday. I wanted to greet you earlier but waited in case you needed rest.”

“Thank you.”

Dana smiled. At least Bitern, who was standing beside Hilda now, wasn’t the kind of man who would abandon his wife and flee in dangerous times. That alone made coming back worthwhile.

Hilda held Dana’s hands while stepping back. She looked Dana up and down while speaking:

“Hmm, let me see. Good, the maids are doing well with what I taught them. No, even better? You look especially pretty today.”

Hilda said, and Dana answered with a smile:

“What are you saying? I’m always ‘the same.'”

The man standing beside them, who couldn’t possibly understand the emphasis on that particular expression, thought to himself, ‘Yes, always pretty.’

“Everyone in the capital is looking forward to the jousting tournament after the banquet. Though we won’t be able to see it.”

“Because we’d get back too late if we stayed for that.”

While Dana and Hilda were having this casual conversation, someone approached them.

“Pardon my interruption, Lord Khalid.”

Kaiden, who had been standing like a pillar beside Dana, only moved his eyes to look at the person who called him. Then, he soon turned his head toward them. At this, Dana also turned toward them.

A nobleman with a white beard bowed to Kaiden.

“I am Count Mayers. Do you remember me?”

“I do remember.”

“I’m honored. This is my wife, Mariam.”

Count Mayers introduced the plump elderly lady with gray hair who had followed behind him. Then the Count and Countess Mayers also greeted Dana. While receiving the elderly gentleman’s greeting, Dana was inwardly surprised.

‘To think I’d meet this person face to face like this?’

As Dana stood there trying her best to hide her surprise, the count spoke to Kaiden:

“My eyes weren’t wrong. I’ve heard much about your reputation.”

Dana looked between the count and Kaiden and asked:

“How do you two know each other?”

Kaiden answered:

“In the past, he wrote a letter of recommendation for me to enter as a palace guard.”

The palace?

Dana was shocked. She had no idea Kaiden had worked at the royal palace. Count Mayers smiled and said:

“He was originally a squire but had lost that position. Seeing his skills were too valuable to waste, I wrote him a recommendation. If I may boast a little, without my recommendation then, it might have taken longer for you to gain your fame.”

The count tactfully avoided saying that without his recommendation, the duke might not have even been able to become a knight. And since the count’s contribution was indeed significant, Kaiden said nothing. If he hadn’t entered the palace thanks to the count’s recommendation, he wouldn’t have been able to see Dana on her seventeenth birthday.

In the end, the count was practically the person who played the biggest role in Kaiden becoming a knight and meeting Dana. Though he probably didn’t realize the extent of his contribution.

Hearing Count Mayers’s words, Dana nodded.

‘So that’s why.’

Dana had heard Count Mayers’s name before she turned back time. It was along with rumors about Kaiden.

‘Based on that connection, he had proposed for Kaiden to become his son-in-law.’

The Count Mayers that Dana remembered had tried to take Kaiden as his son-in-law in her past life.

From what she’d heard, Count Mayers only had one unmarried daughter. He must have calculated that with the favor he had shown and rumors that the famous northern knight Kaiden wanted a title, he could have Kaiden marry his daughter and inherit the Mayers title.

However, for some reason, Kaiden had refused that offer, and because of that, Kaiden had remained unmarried before the regression.

Hilda, who had been listening to the conversation beside them, said:

“Mayers is from the central region, isn’t it? Do you know Greve, which is close to the Haiman family’s territory? Haiman is my maiden family.”

“Then you must be Lady Vicar. I know Lord Haiman well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend your wedding in person. Though late, congratulations.”

“The wedding was held in Vicar territory, so I understand.”

“Thank you for your generosity, my lady.”

The white-haired Count Mayers looked at Dana with a kindly smile.

“There couldn’t be greater joy than the princess finding a good match and the kingdom gaining a prince. Indeed, isn’t it true that when the royal family prospers, the kingdom becomes stable?”

Dana saw the count meeting her gaze with narrowed eyes. Before her regression, Dana had only known of Count Mayers through rumors related to Kaiden, but now she knew she shouldn’t dismiss this person so lightly.

The count before her, though currently keeping a low profile due to the southern nobles’ influence, had originally held considerable power in the central region. That’s why he was someone Dana had kept in mind to establish connections with when she came to the capital.

Dana, who had been quietly observing Count Mayers, smiled with crinkled eyes.

“Of course. With people like you who care about the kingdom, it will be even more so in the future.”

The elderly count smiled more deeply. Looking at the count standing alongside his wife, Dana carefully asked after checking the atmosphere:

“Your daughter?”

Was the daughter he had tried to marry to Kaiden not attending this banquet? Though the marriage between Kaiden and the Mayers family hadn’t happened in her past life either, she was just curious. The countess standing beside the count answered:

“Unfortunately, she couldn’t attend because she’s with child. Though there’s still some time until the birth, she’s already having a difficult time. She’s looking after the territory with her husband instead.”

“Oh.”

Dana’s eyes widened in genuine surprise. She’s already married this time. Dana felt relieved. She thought it fortunate that Lady Mayers had already found another match.

“Congratulations, truly.”

The count and countess showed kind-looking smiles.

“Please stop by our territory on your way back to Khalid. We will host you both with our utmost sincerity.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

“If you ever need anything, please call upon me anytime. I’m always ready to roll up my sleeves for Rowen’s sake.”

Seeming to think he had successfully made his mark by then, the count withdrew with his wife after saying farewell. Dana watched his retreating figure thoughtfully.

Count Mayers, being a nobleman from the central region, likely died defending his territory during Rowen’s fall. However, because the southern nobles later surrendered helplessly and opened the way, their sacrifices would have become meaningless.

‘When the royal family prospers, the kingdom becomes stable, he says.’

It was unlikely that Count Mayers’s approach to Dana and Kaiden, deliberately revealing what he had done, was just a simple greeting. Being a nobleman from the central region, he probably wanted to establish connections thinking he might find a good opportunity someday in the current situation where southern nobles held power.

‘Even his attempt to take Kaiden as his son-in-law in the past must have been a calculation to try anything possible by adding northern power.’

Dana was curious about why Kaiden had refused Count Mayers’s marriage proposal, but that reason would remain forever unknown. Putting aside thoughts of the departed Count Mayers, Dana asked Kaiden what she was curious about.

“Since when were you in the capital? Weren’t you from the north?”

From Kaiden’s perspective, this was a difficult question to answer. Being an orphan who didn’t know his parents and had no family name, he couldn’t know exactly where he was from. He only knew that from his earliest memories, he had lived in a monastery in the north.

Kaiden answered as best he could:

“I was originally in the north, but when I was young, I came to the monastery in the capital with a holy knight’s recommendation. Then I became a squire.”

I see. Dana nodded. She had learned something she didn’t know.

“It’s surprising that you were at the palace. Did you ever see me?”

Of course, the palace was so large that he might not have seen her. But Kaiden answered after a slight delay:

“…Yes.”