“Uh… I’m Freddy Mars… I look forward to working with you, Mr. Santana, Mr. Cazerose.”

The Queen bows politely to the two people sitting in front of her.

Honestly, she never imagined she would find herself bowing to these two in her life. The insufferable younger brother she always looked down on, and the Paladin girl she deemed a lowly servant.

Now, they were in a position to give her orders as ‘Masters’, and instead of protesting, the Queen found herself in a miserable situation, unable to even show her true face while suffering in silence.

Meanwhile, the two, completely unaware of her internal struggles, smiled brightly as they looked at her and spoke.

“It’s been a while since we saw each other at the wedding. You’ve heard the news, but we hope you can work for us for a while. We look forward to your cooperation.”

“Y-Yes… I, Freddy Mars, pledge to do my best for you, Lord Santana Andreas of Bohemia and Princess Cazerose Sophia Raymond of the Dragona Empire.”

With great effort, the Queen tries to flatter them, even though she feels like she’s burning inside from merely uttering those words.

At that moment, Santana, who was observing her with a mix of curiosity and slight caution, asked.

“By the way… I realized I haven’t seen your real face since the wedding. If you don’t mind, could you remove that mask?”

“Y-Yes? W-Why…?”

Caught off guard by Santana’s unexpected request, the Queen couldn’t help but show her deep embarrassment.

Seeing her reaction, Santana smiled lightly and said, “After all, we should see the face of the person doing security work, shouldn’t we? It’s for precaution, so I hope you don’t take it too unpleasantly.”

“Uhmm…”

The Queen couldn’t come up with a rebuttal to Santana’s words.

Previously, she had a setup where she had purposely injured her face to wear the mask, but back then, during the wedding, that excuse had worked. However, now, with the mention of security and the command to show her face, there was no way she could appropriately respond.

‘What the hell… Why is the situation like this…’

Resigned, the Queen grasped the mask with trembling hands. In that moment, she began to slowly remove it, filled with deep longing in her heart.

And then…

“…”

“…”

A long, awkward silence followed.

During this time, the Queen, gripped by a heart-pounding tension, started to gauge her younger brother’s reaction.

After a moment, Santana slightly turned his head, cleared his throat, and spoke.

“I… I see. My apologies. You may put the mask back on.”

‘…Phew…’

Quickly putting the mask back on, the Queen let out a heavy sigh of relief internally.

Not long ago, she had hastily learned an illusion spell.

With the spell, she had successfully disguised her face with scars, making her look entirely different right after removing the mask.

Though it wasn’t a familiar spell yet, and it had various limitations and chances of failure, the Queen couldn’t help but feel a great sense of relief for having pulled it off successfully.

‘That was really close… If anything had gone a bit off, I would’ve been in deep trouble.’

Thus, having successfully concealed her appearance from the two in front of her, the Queen was unaware of the fact that another person in the room was observing her with surprise.

*

“Well then, Mother… We’re off now.”

“Alright, take care. If you need help, just contact me right away.”

Duchess Kattlena spoke with deep regret.

Watching her, Cazerose felt a fleeting sense of sadness at the realization that she was leaving this place forever.

‘This place that I so desperately wanted to leave… but now that the time has come, I feel this way.’

It was a feeling entirely different from the time she had run away in the past.

While she had left at that time due to personal dissatisfaction, this place was still home to Cazerose in her heart.

A place she could return to whenever she changed her mind… A precious location where her family awaited her.

However, for Cazerose now, this place was no longer positioned as ‘home.’

Of course, her family and parents would still welcome her warmly, but now, Cazerose’s home would be Bohemia, where she would live with her husband.

Feeling regret about leaving without being able to consider this place her home any longer… While at the same time feeling gratitude toward her mother, who had consistently shown her affection despite their frequent quarrels.

Cazerose embraced her mother tightly.

“…Mother…”

“You must be well. You absolutely must live happily. Because that’s the happiness you chose. You must do this, my dear…”

The two shared emotions of love and regret for a moment.

With that, the carriage carrying Cazerose and Santana began to move away from Sophia and head towards Bohemia, laden with feelings of longing, anticipation, and the premonition of oncoming storms.

*

The time spent in the Dragona Empire felt sweet, almost dreamlike.

But now that it had ended, I started to think about the new challenges coming my way.

However, this was not regarding the impending war.

What I needed to consider ahead of that was… related to Cazerose, who was snuggled up next to me with a happy expression.

‘Well, putting everything else aside, if it becomes known that Cazerose and I are married, there’ll be chaos. Even if it’s just this fact!’

It would be one thing entirely if it were a stranger.

Inside Bohemia’s Lord’s Castle, Cazerose’s face was already well known.

From her father, Count Turun, to her brother, Dust… Cazerose, a Paladin who had formed a bond with me, had clearly made an impression on my family.

If they were to find out that she was indeed the princess of the Dragona Empire and now officially my wife, it wouldn’t be hard to predict their reactions.

‘Well… It won’t cause serious problems. The real issue is how Estelle will take this.’

Though Cazerose had firmly secured her position as the primary wife, I knew well enough that I also needed to repay Estelle, who had loved me and worked hard for me all this time.

I had promised her the position of secondary wife for that very reason, and I had already obtained Cazerose’s approval on this matter.

The problem was how Estelle, who believed that I had entered into a politically arranged marriage, would react to the situation.

‘She might know I like another woman… Cazerose, but how she’ll interpret this situation is beyond my understanding.’

As I struggled with the unresolved issues regarding women, I gently stroked Cazerose’s soft hair that was nestled against me.