Brow furrowed, as though feeling something deeply……

Captain Alain’s large, thick-knuckled hands gripped the lady’s rounded backside with rough possession.

Riley held the drawing at a distance and studied it again.

‘Is it because he’s handsome?’

Everything looks convincing on him.

She finished the drawing down to the last curve and shadow, slipped the manuscript between the pages of a sketchbook, tucked it into a drawer, and locked it.

Riley’s side work was thriving again today.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A few days later. The 〈Daily Minerve〉 office.

“Hmm……”

The small editorial team sat gathered around the meeting table, looking over the latest issue of the rogue magazine that had appeared out of nowhere.

The mood had grown somewhat more serious since Nina first raised her suspicions.

Last time, the conclusion had been that the theory was still too much of a stretch and they should watch how things developed.

But with each passing day, suspicion was hardening into certainty.

The previous week, 〈Clemont〉 had broken a scandal involving a certain lady at a masquerade ball, framing it as one of Andrea’s exploits.

Then, one week later, Captain Alain had followed the exact same trajectory inside 『A Ballad of Flame and Loss』.

Being fiction, it was rendered with considerably more vivid imagination, and a strange ripple had spread through Tennetcy. That ripple was growing.

Studying the latest issue with the same careful attention, Andrea had a faint twitch in his brow.

“The moment 〈Clemont〉 started featuring the count’s daughter, she appeared in this novel too. Every detail is the same, even the names are similar. Hah…… Lady Telia……”

Nina hesitated to say anything unkind about the count’s daughter in question, and Aiden stepped in.

“Lady Telia is, to put it charitably, free-spirited…… In plain terms, she’s a vapid flirt……”

It was true that the count’s daughter had pursued Andrea with relentless flirtation at the last masquerade ball.

But Andrea had kept her at a firm and practiced distance, and nothing had come of it in the end.

He had spent the night until dawn playing three rounds of whist and two of cards with Viscount Alexei, along with various drinking games, and gone home.

They had twisted that into a scandal, and now they were satirizing it in illustrations, turning the crown prince of a kingdom into a caricature?

No, this went beyond caricature. It was drawn close enough to him that it felt like someone peering into the crown prince’s private hours.

The kingdom’s people would start to believe it, and the social circles would begin to stir.

“Hmm……”

Andrea sat with his chin in his hand, studying the illustration, and Aiden mischievously began reading a passage from the novel aloud.

“Alain and Lady Telia slipped into an empty room in the palace and fell at once into a passionate kiss. Their tongues tangled hotly, and they began undressing each other. As the lady’s full br*asts emerged pale in the darkness, Captain Alain’s massive—”

“Stop.”

Andrea cut the reading short and shot Aiden a look. Everyone around the table dissolved into snickers.

“My, the illustrations are getting more developed too. They’re so vivid it looks like someone drew from life. Has the illustrator gotten a taste for the money and found their stride?”

“With this level of skill, it could be one of the students at the Royal Arts Institute. They might be working on commission. Shall we have someone look into it?”

“……”

This time, Andrea was not as composed as before.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. His grey irises gleamed sharp and clear.

“First, find out where that magazine’s main office is.”

He was visibly irritated now, and Aiden and Roso nearly burst out laughing, but one cool glance from Andrea was enough to shut them up.

He returned to his dry, businesslike expression and issued orders on the matters already in progress.

“Run the story on the Marquis’s trade collusion, and start laying the groundwork for the bribery piece. Plan to break that one around next week.”

The bribery case would be deeply entangled with the parliamentary faction nobles aligned with the queen’s side.

It was a card he had been holding in reserve to tighten the noose around his enemies, but things had reached a point where he had no choice but to play it now.

It was only a matter of time before people started believing these absurd rumors as truth.

With visual material like this added to the mix, it would happen in an instant.

“Wait, but are you certain the queen’s faction is behind this magazine?”

〈Clemont〉 had been targeting Andrea for some time, and Marquis Karan was behind it.

That Marquis Karan had long since joined hands with Queen Fabienne was common knowledge.

“It’s harder to believe otherwise.”

Andrea’s flat reply drew a sigh from Bernay.

“The queen is chasing something hopeless. Prince Henry simply doesn’t have what it takes.”

Everyone knew the queen’s ultimate goal was to push Andrea out and place her own son, the second prince Henry, on the crown prince’s throne.

But the second prince Henry was petty, mean-spirited, intellectually hollow, and impulsive, utterly incapable of constructive thought.

A complete disgrace, in short.

And yet the queen was staking everything on the impossible.

Opinions were flying back and forth on how to handle this absurd situation when Alfonso checked his watch.

“Your Highness, the schedule is tight. We should be going. You’ll be late for the exhibition.”

“Right.”

Andrea set down the magazine and pressed his fingers firmly against his brow, which refused to unfurrow.

Letting a vulgar attack like this get under his skin meant losing.

The afternoon held a new artists’ exhibition overseen by the Royal Arts Institute, followed by a patronage reception.

The thought of cleansing his eyes with refined, creative paintings settled his mind again.

That needlessly skilled illustration for the serial had been cluttering both his eyes and his thoughts.

Hah.

Andrea exhaled, stood, and picked up his jacket. Aiden and Bernay, who would be attending the reception with him, were busy in front of the mirror adjusting their bow ties.

Running 〈Daily Minerve〉 kept them out of official positions, but they were still full members of society and never missed a gathering where they might mingle with ladies.

As the group moved to head out, Nina turned to Andrea with a look of genuine concern and spoke quickly.

“Your Highness, striking at Marquis Karan’s side is well and good, but what about publishing an editorial warning directed at 『A Ballad of Flame and Loss』? There’s no telling what chapter they’ll use next to damage your reputation.”

Aiden nudged Andrea on his way past and teased him.

“Nina’s the most loyal one here. Roso and Bernay are having the time of their lives.”

“When did I— you’re the one who’s been more entertained than anyone.”

Andrea ignored Aiden and Bernay bickering and turned to Nina.

“Where do women gather most in the capital?”

Nina looked puzzled, and Andrea added,

“Places where a novel like that would spread fast.”

“Hmm…… near the girls’ schools, the cotton mills, and the streets on the outskirts lined with taverns.”

“Good. Go out and cover it firsthand.”

“Yes!”

At Andrea’s order, Nina immediately began gathering her things.

Then Andrea’s gaze landed on Roso, still sprawled lazily on the sofa.

“Roso. Go by your club and see what you can find.”

“Huh? Why the club?”

Roso, who had no habit of visiting clubs in broad daylight, sat up with a reluctant expression.

The lace on his extravagant silk shirt was still rumpled, which suggested he had rolled in from the club the night before.

The club Roso frequented was a rather particular kind of gentlemen’s establishment, a place where only men who preferred men gathered, from nobles to rough sorts alike.

Men like that, somewhat unexpectedly, read a great deal of women’s fiction and often drove trends. They were frequently the source of rumors as well.

Which meant their reaction could serve as a useful gauge of public opinion here too.

That was precisely why Andrea had recruited the dissolute Roso in the first place.

Andrea lit the cigar he had been chewing on and gave the order with mild irritation.

“Find out if anyone there is reading that novel. And if they are, whether they’re taking it as something ‘grounded in reality.'”

In other words, find out whether they were reading “Captain Alain” as a stand-in for the crown prince.

“Ugh. Fine.”

Roso stretched with an air of great reluctance but was already moving to the mirror to tidy himself up. He looked rather pleased at the prospect of loitering in back alleys in the middle of the afternoon.