She rolled her eyes up toward him, but Andrea was calmly smoothing back his hair and showed no sign of continuing.

Feeling inexplicably deflated, Riley lost control of her expression and her face crumpled into something close to tears without her meaning it to.

Look at this one.

Andrea muttered inwardly with something between exasperation and amusement, and squeezed his eyes shut to rein in his own desire, since his body was running just as hot.

He licked his parched lips and said, in a tone like a pronouncement.

“That’s as far as we go. The rest comes after marriage.”

Riley’s eyes went wide with something close to grievance, as though she had just been handed a sentence.

She sat up slowly, gripping her dress, and pushed back in a small, fading voice.

“Why, why only with me……?”

“……What do you mean?”

Andrea raised one eyebrow and gave her a reproving look for the baffling question, then added a warning.

“If you want to know what comes next, just marry me quickly. Even setting an engagement date would do, and I’ll give you all the passionate romance you want. I’ll be far better than that Alain you drew.”

Riley stared in suffering at Andrea’s handsome face as he delivered that crude remark with grave solemnity and tossed her a cool wink.

That’s not fair……!

Was the passionate romance she had been quietly hoping for only available after marriage?

Why only with me? You’ve never held back with anyone else……

The urge to shout ‘then let’s get engaged right now!’ rose up in her, but Riley held it down. She was not going to say things she could not take responsibility for.

Andrea, meanwhile, glanced down at the strain in his own trousers with a long sigh, then slowly kneaded the back of his neck before looking at Riley and letting his mood ease.

Her tousled hair, flushed cheeks, and pouty lips were too endearing to stay stern.

He could feel himself about to lunge at her again if he stayed like this, so he pressed his lips to her forehead and suggested.

“Enough of this gloomy business. It’s a nice day. Let’s go out. We can visit that Montmartre hill you like. What do you say?”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

At that same hour.

A figure was backing out of 1 Meymond Street in a hurry.

This can’t be happening.

It was Nina.

She stifled a groan behind the hand pressed to her mouth, then looked up at the second-floor window in question before crossing the garden to leave.

The maid had not been in the house, so she had gone upstairs with this week’s corrected draft, only to walk in on that shameless scene.

The color drained from Nina’s face. She tore her gaze from the window and turned away.

That’s not right.

What had been the purpose of all their work, the Royal Academy graduates who had come together to found a secret newspaper and given their loyalty?

It had been solely to secure Andrea’s right of succession and strengthen his standing.

They had fought back against Marquis Karan’s manipulation of the press and succeeded in ousting Queen Fabienne.

Which meant the crown prince’s seat was not His Highness’s alone.

It was also the world of the loyal subjects who had worked to put him there.

Of course, the surface reason Nina told herself for her resistance was this, but she pushed aside the truth that her jealousy as a woman ran deeper still.

He should be taking a lady from a proper family. To be taken in by a con artist like her.

And beneath that, a more dangerous thought began to creep in at the base of her mind. If that woman could do it, what was stopping her?

Why would he want to create a weakness like this.

This was clearly going to become a major political liability.

And if he was sincere about it, that was an even bigger problem……

If that woman was truly brought in as crown princess, how much more would the Daily Minerve have to fight to defend her against attacks afterward?

The thought of taking up her pen to protect that rootless con artist was genuinely repugnant.

Surely it would not come to that.

Nina smoothed her expression into something cold and composed, and walked quickly out of the garden where peach blossoms were drifting down, its unrealistic beauty making her mood worse.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A short while later, Andrea and Riley went out to Montmartre hill.

“Heh.”

Andrea laughed low as he took the portrait from the street artist.

The likeness was good, but something about it being a street painting gave it a slightly comical quality.

The artist offered a cautious apology, worried he might have offended his evidently distinguished customers.

“If, if I’d had more time, I could have made it more refined.”

But Riley, looking at the portrait with warm satisfaction, smiled, and the artist relaxed.

“Ahaha, Your High— I mean, Sir, you and I look quite well together in this.”

Riley glossed over Andrea as ‘Sir’ and murmured as she turned to go, sounding genuinely pleased.

“So this is how other people see us?”

Andrea, looking down at the portrait beside her, let out a quiet laugh.

“Seeing this after looking at your drawings, I can at least confirm you have real talent.”

The roundabout compliment filled Riley with pride, and she lifted her shoulders.

But more than that, she was pleased by the portrait, which made the two of them look like a couple, and she tucked it carefully into her small purse.

Andrea guided her along and smiled with a meaningful air.

“Oh, and there’s somewhere we’re going today.”

“Pardon? Where?”

Riley asked in surprise, but Andrea opened the carriage door without answering, the corner of his mouth curved with easy confidence.

“Wow……!”

Half an hour later, Riley was led into a salon decorated with delicate extravagance.

It was in fact the headquarters of the Daily Minerve, but dressed up with pale blue silk, chandeliers, crystal candlesticks, and silver tableware, it was every bit as fine as any noble family’s salon.

“It’s a celebration for reaching fifty thousand copies, and a welcome party for Miss Riley’s official membership.”

Roso held out a bouquet with a sly grin, and Riley took it without thinking.

“Is fifty thousand a good number?”

“Quite impressive. It all started with the wave that began after your illustrations were published, so the credit belongs entirely to you.”

Unable to hide her delight at those words, Riley looked around the interior of the office, visiting for only the second time.

The space had been so genuinely transformed, with a chamber ensemble and rare dishes that would not have been out of place at the palace, that she could not remember what it had looked like before.

Even so, Riley was sincerely happy.

The thought that she belonged somewhere again, that she had become one of them, warmed a corner of her heart.

Counting heads, there were seven people in all, including Alfonso and the palace physician Rufus, which seemed just right for a tight, nimble secret newspaper operation.

A moment later, Riley glanced toward the servants coming and going, and Edwin reassured her.

“The servants are from my family’s household, so there’s no risk of word spreading to your former colleagues, Miss Riley.”

He seemed to think she was worried about attendants from Eli Palace, people who had been her coworkers, being present.

Riley smiled awkwardly, and Bernay held out a glass of champagne.

“Either way, let us toast to this achievement, two years in the making! Brilliant glory to the House of Aurelion, and true friendship to our Miss Riley!”

The crystal glasses met in the air with a bright, clear ring.

Easy, familiar conversation flowed among the team members.

Most of it was about how powerfully Nina’s incisive articles and Riley’s satirical illustrations worked together, and why no one had thought to add a visual element to the paper sooner.

The conversation was largely in praise of Riley, and as she grew flustered, Roso patted the seat beside him.

“Come sit here, Miss Artist.”

Roso, like Edwin, had visited Eli Palace regularly and had been acquainted with ‘Raul’ back when he was still an attendant. He had a history of trying to flirt with her then and being rebuffed, so when he later learned her true identity, he had been thoroughly shocked.

Either way, she was intoxicated by everyone calling her ‘Miss Artist,’ and her smile stretched from ear to ear, which made Andrea click his tongue.

“Oh my, Nina has been the only woman here all this time, and now the Minerve has two beautiful ladies. Things are looking up.”

Despite Roso’s flattery, Nina, who had been sitting apart at a distance, wore a slightly cold expression.