Raiden’s face twisted with displeasure. Beriel’s expression hardened momentarily at his reaction.

In truth, Raiden was right. These were matters Felton could have handled, but Beriel couldn’t contain herself after hearing from a maid that Raiden was personally feeding soup to Rihana. She had used these affairs as an excuse to seek out his room.

Raiden handed the documents Beriel had presented back to her.

“When I said not to disturb me unless it’s urgent, I wasn’t just making idle talk.”

Beriel’s face stiffened at his cold expression directed toward her.

“Leave.”

“But…!”

Beriel cried out in confusion at Raiden’s dismissive gesture. Rihana observed Beriel carefully. She clearly had feelings for Raiden. It reminded her of herself when she had harbored unrequited love for Casian, getting swept up by his every word and action.

Rihana felt something ominous and suffocating, unconsciously pressing her hand against her chest. Raiden must have noticed, because he quickly placed his hand on her chest with a worried expression.

“Are you feeling sick? Is it stuffy?”

“I’m fine…”

“I’ll call a physician…”

“I’m fine, Rai!”

Panicked by Raiden’s attempt to call a physician over such a trivial matter, she grabbed his arm and shouted.

Beriel’s face contorted instantly, and Rihana didn’t miss that expression. Whether it was because she had grabbed Raiden’s arm so casually or because she had called him Rai, she couldn’t tell. 

But with such poor emotional control, her qualifications as a prince’s aide became seriously questionable. Though her concern was mixed with the blatant displeasure that stemmed from jealousy.

“Just leave now.”

Raiden gently pressed the upper part of Rihana’s chest with his hand while speaking to Beriel, confirming she was alright. Beriel bit the soft flesh inside her mouth as she watched Raiden, who wouldn’t even look at her.

“There’s one more matter we need to discuss.”

Only then did Raiden turn his head to look at Beriel. Meeting his eyes, Beriel spoke to him.

“Since she’s from the Empire and will be coming to Tarecus, she should attend social parties before becoming the Crown Princess.”

“…”

“Since she has never experienced this country’s social circles, it would benefit her to hold a tea party first to get a feel for the atmosphere.”

“…Imperial lady?”

When Raiden looked at Beriel and questioned the title she used for Rihana, Beriel pressed her lips together with a somewhat aggrieved expression, then looked at Raiden and said:

“She will become the Crown Princess through a political marriage, but she isn’t the Crown Princess yet. And I can’t address an Imperial Count by her official title, can I? So I believe that’s the only appropriate form of address I can use for now.”

Raiden’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Beriel after her explanation. Recognizing his displeasure, Beriel’s expression also soured.

“Lady Ariella.”

An unexpected name came from Raiden’s lips.

“Address her that way from now on. Tell everyone to call her that until my person becomes the Crown Princess.”

My person…

Fire ignited in Beriel’s heart. She couldn’t understand what he saw in that woman with her annoyingly jet-black hair that made him fall so hard for her. Moreover, wasn’t she a woman who had already been engaged once in the Empire? 

Even if it was a political marriage between nations, how could they dare pair some broken-engagement Count with the kingdom’s one and only noble prince? 

Both the kingdom’s king and the Empire’s emperor seemed to have lost their minds.

The same went for Raiden. He was someone who never showed the slightest opening when it came to women. He never gave his laughter freely to anyone but her, and he dealt with confessions cleanly and decisively. Yet here he was, personally feeding soup to a woman—it was unthinkable.

He was born and raised as Tarecus’s only prince, never once having done anything for another person. She truly couldn’t understand why he had changed so drastically.

Beriel forced down her rising jealousy and agreed.

“I understand. Then how shall we proceed with Lady Ariella’s tea party?”

At Beriel’s question, Raiden turned his head to meet Rihana’s eyes and fell into thought for a moment.

Tarecus Kingdom’s social circles were famously territorial and exclusive. Even Duchess Pellentes, who controlled the Empire’s social circles, had reportedly suffered quite a bit there, so it was natural for him to worry about Rihana.

“Getting familiar with faces beforehand would be a good approach.”

“I don’t mind… sir.”

Though she was being mindful, the habit hadn’t formed yet, so the honorific “sir” came out a bit late. But no sooner had she added the honorific than Beriel’s expression turned stern.

“You must not speak informally to His Highness, Lady Ariella.”

She spoke accusingly with raised eyes. Though Rihana was about to explain that she had added the honorific, albeit a bit late, she kept her mouth shut. Beriel didn’t give Rihana a chance to respond and began speaking accusingly.

“Unlike the Empire, Tarecus is very sensitive about honorifics. How dare you speak to His Highness in such a manner…”

It could certainly look presumptuous for a mere Imperial Count to speak informally to the kingdom’s prince. Rihana understood Beriel’s agitation and waited for her to finish before opening her mouth.

“Aide.”

“…Please call me Beriel.”

“Very well, Miss Beriel. You needn’t worry about such things. Though the person you serve finds honorifics uncomfortable, I intend to use proper honorifics except when we’re alone. I may not be accustomed to it yet, and I was indeed a bit late just now, but it was an honorific. You must not have caught it.”

“…!”

“So please don’t think I’m being reckless due to ignorance of the kingdom’s protocols.”

“That’s right. It’s not something for you to take issue with, Beriel.”

Only after Rihana finished speaking did Raiden also take her side.

Rihana was grateful to Raiden for trusting her and waiting instead of jumping into the situation and making her position more awkward. She smiled at him in appreciation. Raiden also smiled brightly in return. Beriel visibly hardened her expression watching them.

“I apologize. It was my oversight for not listening properly.”

Beriel forced her expression under control and bowed her head. Right now, getting Rihana to attend the tea party she was preparing was what mattered.

“Then shall I proceed with preparing the tea party for Lady Ariella?”

At her question, Raiden fell into thought for a moment.

Rihana knew nothing about the kingdom’s social circles, so she couldn’t prepare it herself. And it would look inappropriate to entrust it to Duchess Pellentes, who was from the Empire. Beriel would certainly prepare everything thoroughly and flawlessly. But a strange uneasiness lingered in his mind, making him wonder if he should entrust Rihana’s first social debut party to Beriel.

While he hesitated to give a ready answer, Rihana—perhaps sensing his reluctance—directly responded to Beriel’s question.

“I would be grateful if you would. As you know, this is my first time with Tarecus Kingdom’s social circles, and honestly, even outside of Tarecus, social parties themselves are unfamiliar to me.”

At Rihana’s words, Beriel stared at her intently without any gesture. Beriel already knew that Rihana was a woman more familiar with swords and battlefields than dresses and parties, serving as Kadelai’s knight commander.

Judging that she, who found swords and uniforms more comfortable than dresses and jewelry, would be ignorant about tea parties, Beriel planned to arrange a gathering under the pretext that she needed to make her mark in social circles before becoming Crown Princess, intending to show her the dignity of the kingdom’s social world. And she planned to expose Rihana’s ignorance to the gossip-loving nobles, so they would disparage the future Crown Princess as an ignorant woman who only knew swordplay.

The kingdom’s social circles were unforgiving even to those who had received thorough education from childhood. It was a place where one couldn’t establish superiority through status alone, nor exercise influence easily. 

There wouldn’t be many nobles willing to accept a woman who came from another country like she was being sold, especially one who had broken off an engagement, as Tarecus’s Crown Princess.

So when the already unsatisfactory prospective Crown Princess turned out to know nothing about social etiquette and only swung swords like men, many noble ladies and daughters would surely turn their backs on her. 

If such a sequence followed, even after becoming Crown Princess, she would inevitably end up treated like a hostage and relegated to the background. Raiden might find her appealing now, but if she proved unhelpful to his work and only caused disturbances in social circles, his feelings would inevitably cool.

Beriel calculated all of this and planned to put Rihana in a social party before she could study the kingdom’s social etiquette. And Rihana had very willingly stepped into her plan.

“I’ll prepare everything to the best of my ability.”

Beriel wiped away the uncomfortable expression she had when entering and smiled pleasantly.

* * *

It was true that Rihana had lived completely separated from social circles since her time in the Empire. Before becoming the Emperor’s Sword, she was too busy striving to obtain the position of knight commander to enter social circles early, and after becoming knight commander, she couldn’t directly participate in social circles because she had to guard the Emperor’s side.

As soon as she became head of the County, she somehow managed to enter social circles with Duchess Pellentes’ help, but she had never once exchanged invitations with other young ladies or noble ladies for tea time or tea parties. 

She had so few memories of even wearing dresses, having only roamed battlefields and subjugation campaigns, that formal speech patterns and etiquette practiced in social circles were unfamiliar to her.

Having obtained this information about her, Beriel planned to use it as an opportunity to bury Rihana in social circles.

During tea party preparations, Rihana asked several times if there was anything she could help with, but each time Beriel deliberately gave off the nuance of “you don’t know, so I’ll handle everything.”

It was like a power struggle to establish dominance from the start, but Rihana unexpectedly responded meekly with gratitude. Whether it was because she was a woman who knew nothing about social circles or because she was completely ignorant of noble discourse—either way, it worked in Beriel’s favor.

Beriel prepared Rihana’s tea party with great care. On the surface, it was a gathering to celebrate Rihana’s entry into the kingdom’s social circles as the future Crown Princess, and since she, whom Raiden trusted, was in charge, it was only natural.

Despite Felton’s worried advice to choose a different location because the tea party venue was near a monster forest, she insisted on that particular spot because it was most beautiful during this season and because it was Taniaran land—her family’s territory. 

Ultimately, it was all for the sake of creating the narrative that Beriel, Raiden’s most trusted aide, had put tremendous effort and time into preparing a tea party for the ignorant former swordswoman who would become Crown Princess—all for a social party where appearances were everything.

Beriel believed that after her prepared tea party ended, Rihana would be rumored in social circles as a very insignificant woman who was Crown Princess in name only, while she herself would become the aide Raiden trusted and recognized, and a woman with true Crown Princess qualities.

Yes, she believed this without a doubt.