Ainis Princess, seated, sipped the tea poured by her maid Bertia while glaring at me.
Bertia had offered it to calm her heart, but she was wetting her tongue as if preparing for battle, managing her sword.
“So, you’re dating our Elise?”
“Sister! Please call me Elise here!”
Her expression seemed to wonder why she was using her alias Elise instead of her real name, but Ainis promptly accepted her sister’s request.
“……So, you’re dating our Elise?”
“No, we’re not dating.”
“That’s right, sister. I’m not dating; I’m just owned.”
Elise clung to me, crossing her arms. I hurriedly pushed her away as I saw Ainis spill tea like she was about to cough up blood.
“I’ve never owned her! I’m just a student at the same academy. I absolutely have no romantic feelings!”
“How can that be? Our Elise is so cute and beautiful! Aren’t you impotent?”
Pfft.
Princess Ainis suddenly shot up, and Tana, who was beside her, began to laugh. When I glared, she quickly pretended not to have seen anything but had already witnessed everything.
‘I can’t talk to this family.’
I expected this from Prince Oliver and Elise, but now Ainis Princess seemed quite off her rocker too. I wasn’t sure if it was from the extremely authoritative royal family environment or if such a bloodline was always like that.
“Then why are you here as just an academy student?”
The lengthy explanation was taken over by Bertia. As I spoke, Ainis Princess’s expression grew darker, culminating in fear.
I was already out of Ainis’s mind, who had just been hostile to me. She pleaded with Elise.
“Do you really have to do it?”
“……”
“Oliver is a scary person. He’s cruel and can cut down anything around him. I… I don’t want to lose you too, Elise.”
“Sister.”
Kneeling in front of Elise, Ainis cautiously held her hand, her eyes glistening.
“The claim that Sister Ilina was assassinated by Oliver is purely circumstantial. There’s no evidence. How could he have done that with a disease no one on the continent knows about?”
“But you know how Oliver has acted since then. It’s as if he was prepared, erasing Sister Ilina’s traces and quickly taking her place.”
“That’s……”
“And we must not let Oliver sit on the throne. You know that, sister. If we just lower our heads to keep our lives, we will watch the citizens’ blood and tears flow at our feet.”
The debate between the two princesses continued.
Elise felt she had to fight for the greater good of her long-ago assassinated sister, Ilina.
Ainis was pleading for her beloved sister not to fall into danger.
I didn’t insist on stepping in.
Not just me, but Tana and Bertia also kept their mouths shut and deliberately turned their gaze away from the two.
Everyone knew it was a situation where we couldn’t meddle carelessly. The moment I read the notes Bertia had given me about Princess Ilina—
“Uh?”
I couldn’t help but gasp, and the women’s eyes turned toward me.
Bertia and Tana subtly gestured for me to be quiet, while Ainis glared at me in annoyance.
But I couldn’t keep silent any longer.
Because the report on Princess Ilina’s condition had perfectly linked up with a certain scene I had seen recently.
“I think I know how Princess Ilina was assassinated, even if it’s a bit out of the blue.”
Everyone looked at me in shock.
“Don’t spout nonsense!”
Especially Ainis, who had been overly emotional about her sister’s death, shot up and shouted.
“No one on the continent has figured it out! No one knows how or what poison she took! That’s why it was classified as an incurable disease!”
Ainis’s voice trembled with pain, revealing the anguish trapped in her heart.
“So are you saying you figured it out just by reading a few lines? So easily? Then sister… sister…!”
In her silence, Ainis wiped her tears away and cried like a child.
“It means it could have been saved. If we, if I had just worked a little harder…”
I understood what she meant.
That Princess Ilina meant so much to Ainis.
Seeing her cry pitifully like a child while laying down her title of second princess.
Elise slowly stood and hugged Ainis while looking at me with determined eyes.
“Daniel, please tell us.”
The glorious blonde had faded to a dull white. Princess Ilina, who died in pain throughout her body, could barely walk, hunched over, with wrinkled spots blooming all over her body.
My lips parted, and the answer known only to two people in the continent spilled out.
It was the moment Princess Ilina de Frisia’s grievance was cleared.
*
“Everything is going well, I hope?”
Prince Oliver, asking while holding a woman in his arms in the king’s office. Inquiring about the progress of the royal banquet coming up, the butler standing nearby replied respectfully.
“Yes, it’s proceeding smoothly.”
“Good. This time, my father is attending despite his condition, so it has to be very grand.”
“Yes, I will remember that.”
“Increase the budget. It’s still insufficient.”
After the butler left, Oliver, having dismissed the woman he was holding, glanced around the room.
Since his father, the current king, was bedridden with illness, he was currently handling the duties as a surrogate. In truth, it was more of a venue for indulging in his own pleasures rather than any real work.
Here, oddly, drinking felt sweeter, and embracing a woman brought waves of pleasure crashing over him.
In a few days, there would be a royal banquet.
Around him, people murmured about how there couldn’t be a banquet with the king lying down, but of course, such words never reached Oliver.
The moment such words reached his ears, he wouldn’t be of this world anymore.
‘It needs to be even more splendid.’
Publicly, the banquet was said to be held to wish for his father’s health, but the meaning Oliver thought was slightly different.
‘This is a celebration banquet for me to ascend to the throne. It needs to be more splendid and brighter.’
When the banquet wraps up and all would enjoy it at its end.
His father would die, just like his sister, Ilina de Frisia, would die in a pitiful way.
And naturally, he would find himself sitting on the next throne.
He couldn’t help but smile. Oliver started nodding his head and feeling the rhythm, but—
Without knocking, the door swung open, and a silver-haired priestess entered.
“It looks like something fun is happening? You’re in high spirits.”
As the priestess playfully smiled and asked, Oliver scowled and became annoyed.
“You walk in without knocking, without permission to enter the king’s office? If it was someone else, they’d be hanged for disrespect to the royal family!”
He exaggerated a bit, but the fact remained. However, the priestess grinned back with a crescent-like smile.
“If it were someone else, yes. But I’m not, so I’m fine with it.”
“Tch.”
I’ve never liked her. Starting from that glint in her eye that knows everything, to the way she subtly reads minds with her actions.
“Alright then, where have you been? I told you not to move recklessly until after the banquet!”
I shot back as a warning, but the woman brushed it off playfully, raising her hand high.
“God has blessed me with a fated partner. It’s truly someone I’ve waited for! I was just preparing for that person!”
“Fated partner?”
I didn’t understand but decided to not get too involved. It wasn’t the first time I’d had a headache trying to keep up with this woman’s words.
“So after this banquet, I should be going with my fated partner.”
“Are you saying you will leave?”
“Hey, if someone overhears, they might misunderstand. I’m here by divine guidance, not because I’m with Prince Oliver.”
“……You will definitely attend the banquet, right?”
Noticing Oliver’s anxious expression, the priestess smiled reassuringly.
“Of course. My fated partner will likely attend the banquet too. We’ll encounter each other there before I leave. I’ll have a final farewell to you, Prince.”
“Phew, well then.”
That actually works out well.
I had introduced the priestess to gain control over the nobles, and the effect was outstanding; many nobles started supporting him.
‘Her influence has grown too much.’
Especially someone like Heaven Len, who took the priestess’s words as divine revelation and followed them.
‘If only she would withdraw at this point, it would be perfect timing.’
“You seem to have changed a lot lately, Prince.”
“What?”
At the sudden remark, Oliver frowned and replied.
“Well, everyone changes as time passes. That’s natural. Whether it’s growth or decline depends on the individual, after all.”
“If you’re going to keep spouting nonsense, just leave.”
“Hehe, those are the words of the God. You’d do well to heed them.”
Bang!
The door slammed shut, and Prince Oliver wiped his forehead with his hand.
He needed the priestess until the banquet.
But afterward, she would only be an obstacle once he ascended to the throne.
Even if he wanted to dispose of her, her teeth were so sharp that he would only get hurt if he tried.
Oliver found everything flowing according to his will and smiled.
