And if her family found some fault with him and objected?

Rose would have crushed every obstacle the world put in her way and made him her lawfully wedded husband.

Even if the whole world stood against her.

Even if she had to fight the whole world.

Without fail.

“That’s it! That’s exactly it!”

Anne clapped her hands and burst out laughing.

“A big one’s on the line. A prize catch! Prince Cassius of Franzel has sent a letter of greeting. It says, ‘I was moved to my core by Miss Rosemaria’s painting of the fog forest. I sincerely hope to visit her  someday and receive her guidance.’ Oh ho ho ho!”

Vivi tilted her head with a lukewarm look as Anne shrieked with delight.

“A prince? With an imperial prince already pursuing her, is a mere king’s son even a worthwhile candidate, my lady?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Vivi. The Kingdom of Franzel is a very wealthy and promising nation. Prince Cassius might just be someone who could hold his own against our Rose. He’s widely rumored to be extraordinarily handsome as well. Given that Rose keeps turning her nose up at this one and that one, if anyone can stir something in her heart, that’s more than enough!”

So now it was marry anyone, just get it done. Rose exhaled a quiet sigh where Anne couldn’t see.

“But what man could beat Prince Julius in looks? He’s a heavenly treasure. Our Miss Rose is quietly quite particular about a man’s appearance, you know.”

There had, in fact, been one man who surpassed Prince Julius in looks.

Except he wasn’t a man so much as a large ape.

“Tsk, tsk. How foolish! A man’s face is completely useless! What matters is the body. The men of the Franzel royal family are famously built in the mold of the hero-king, generation after generation. Prince Julius seems just slightly lacking in size and strength to throw our Rose over his shoulder, but Prince Cassius might actually manage it.”

Nobody had ever attempted to throw her over anyone’s shoulder. What kind of standard was that for choosing a son-in-law?

In any case, there did happen to be exactly one person with the build and strength to throw Rose over his shoulder.

Of course, that wasn’t a man either. It was a large……

No. I won’t know until we actually try. I haven’t lost yet.

Rose bit down on her embroidery cloth, picturing the retreating figure of Jade and his pale backside swaying as he walked away.

“Miss Shurelli is running late, isn’t she?”

Vivi had started peering out toward the driveway beyond the garden, and it was nearly noon.

There was a reason the entire Ordo household had gathered on the first-floor terrace since that morning, Robert excepted, as he was away on business.

As it turned out, there was one other member besides Robert and Rose with the power to bring the whole Ordo family together in one place.

“Grandma!”

The owner of that power arrived in a carriage adorned with elaborate curtains, announcing herself in a voice as bright and sweet as a little bird’s song.

“Aunt Rose!”

“Shu! Come here, my darling!”

Rose set down her embroidery hoop and ran to her with a smile that bloomed like a flower.

“Oh, my little one is here!”

Anne transformed into the gentlest noblewoman in the world and spread her arms wide.

“Shu is here! Hello, everyone!”

Stepping out of the carriage was a little girl with curly golden hair tied in two bunches, decorated with ribbons that matched her pink dress perfectly.

Shurelli Ordo. Six years old. The only daughter of Anton Ordo and Eva Basil.

Shurelli had spent the previous autumn and winter at her mother’s family home, and now, with spring’s arrival, she had returned to her father’s house.

“I missed Grandma and Aunt Rose and Dad. And Vivi and the chief butler and the head cook and the coachman and the knight commander and also……”

The child rattled off the names of everyone she knew in Philiverden Castle, asking after each one. Her large eyes sparkled like a sunlit lake.

Shurelli’s eyes were rose-colored, like her aunt Rose’s. The rose-colored eyes said to have belonged to the founding head of House Ordo.

In the distant days when the family had flourished, many members had been born with those same eyes, but now only Rose and Shu carried the color of the founding head……

“Vivi! Shu told Mama all about you. She said you always braid her hair so prettily.”

Vivi pressed Shurelli’s offered hand against her cheek and wept.

“Eeeeek! Waaah! I’m so happy! You warm Vivi’s heart better than any healing spring, Miss Shu! Vivi’s little sunshine baby!”

It wasn’t only Vivi. Everyone in House Ordo adored Shurelli.

A child who loved her father’s family with her whole heart. A child who offered unconditional goodwill to every single person, without exception. A child who knew nothing of hatred or blame.

A child who had never even learned to feel negatively about Camelot……

It was perhaps a blessing that Shurelli had grown up shuttling between both families every year, her parents having divorced before she was even born. It meant her exposure to the blind hatred and violence that periodically turned the household upside down was kept to a minimum.

“Has everyone been good? Are you ready to receive the praise gifts Shu made?”

“Of course, Miss! We’d love a gift!”

“Ready to report our good deeds, Miss Shu!”

Even the most ill-tempered of Ordo’s household staff knew how to cherish family, and in front of Shurelli they behaved like the tamest of lambs. A girl who remembered everyone she had ever heard of by name and always greeted them warmly, it seemed, inspired everyone equally to want to be seen in a good light.

If only they all carried themselves the way they did around Shurelli, House Ordo might recover at least half its former reputation……

Rose smiled ruefully at the flock of suddenly docile Ordos.

“All right. Then Shu will give out flower pouches as gifts. Shu made lots, so please everyone take one. Dad, have you been good too?”

Shurelli distributed her rewards for good behavior to the flock.

Anton, who had spotted the Basil carriage coming and rushed back to the castle, stood there with a wide grin and both hands outstretched.

“Hehe. Dad wants a flower pouch too, Princess Shu. Dad taught the servants well, and just recently I was trying to teach those disrespectful Camelot lackeys a lesson too, ow!”

Rose’s hard shoe toe connected with his shin. Anton yelped, then quickly plastered on a smile for his daughter’s sake.

“Your dad has been praying very hard.”

Can’t you tell what’s appropriate to say in front of a child?

Rose shot Anton a sideways glare and reported his good deeds on his behalf.

“He even fasted and prayed for the peace of the Empire. There were times he went back and forth between the prayer room and his bedroom for three whole days.”

Not that it had been Anton’s own idea, of course. The family had reached a general consensus that he might secretly enjoy being locked in the prayer room, given how often he ended up there as punishment for getting caught in gambling dens picking fights.

“Wow, just like me! Shu prays every night before bed too, for the Empire and for our family.”

Shurelli beamed with pride at her father’s virtue, showing the gap where she had lost a front tooth.

“And in winter, I went to the Resias meeting with Mama too.”

“Resias……?”

“Yes. We all went to the poorhouse together and met lots of people and gave out gifts and everyone was happy.”

A strange shadow passed over the faces of the Ordos for a moment. Anton and Piar’s gazes drifted, slow and deliberate, toward Eva, who was exchanging greetings with Anne.

The young man escorting Eva rushed to explain.

“Ah, it was nothing grand, just a small gathering among families from nearby domains.”

Benyamin Basil. Eva’s younger brother and heir to House Basil.

“So…… which family’s son was it who dared invoke the name of Resias?”

Piar’s neck cracked as he pressed for an answer, clearly not appeased by the explanation.

“Who could possibly have the nerve to call a Resias assembly without Ordo, who stood at the very forefront of the ten great vassal houses and served the founding Emperor himself? Who dared put that name in their mouth? These people, I swear, I’ve been letting it slide but now—ow!”

Rose’s heel came down on Piar’s foot. He shrieked like a crow and assumed a suitably humble posture.

“That’s understandable.”

Rose smiled at Benyamin as though she found it all perfectly reasonable.

“It sounds like the eastern families got together for some solidarity. Melos is tucked away out west, so even when we want to make the effort, it doesn’t always work out. A shame, really.”

Resias was a sacred assembly that the ten great vassal houses had established during the reign of the first Emperor Escalus.

In those days, Ordo, Biella, and Camelot had been the three central pillars of the assembly. Then, the moment the first Emperor Escalus passed away, internal divisions broke out among the vassals and the whole thing fell apart.

Ordo and Camelot, the twin pillars of the assembly, had their relationship shatter entirely, and both families’ standing collapsed alongside it. The other great houses grew so unenthusiastic about the assembly that now they gathered only when some matter of grave imperial importance left them no choice.

Even so, the fact that an event bearing the Resias name had been held without so much as a word to House Ordo was a slight too significant to overlook.