I hadn’t been in the office for a week and there was an unusual buzz in the room.
“Can you explain to me what is going on?”
The owner of this room was looking around at everyone with a soft smile on his face.
Although he was smiling, his gaze wore a blade of absolute zero.
I am sure I am not the only one who feels the urge to impugn the reputation of His Royal Highness the Gentle Prince whenever I see that expression on his face.
Who was it that said he was kind and compassionate…?
The young man with the Dardie royal family’s distinctive silver hair and cold azure silver eyes smiles even more in front of me.
My Lord and Crown Prince, Nigel Elsebard Thea Diehl Vera Dardie.
His appearance is very beautiful.
Perhaps it is because the people of the royal family have been beautiful for generations that they have a very beautiful appearance. Among them, this one is by far the best.
“Ray.”
Nigel’s lips carve my name.
My full name is Raymond Welsh Il Larda Ristoradae.
As for my status, I am one of the consuls of Nigel, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
The moment he calls my name, I feel a cutting pain because I don’t have the answer he is looking for.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I’ve been holed up for the past week adjusting the budget, so I don’t know what’s going on, either.”
“…You weren’t done yet?”
The coldness increased by about 20%.
“There were some numbers that didn’t quite fit.”
“Plus 30% increase. That’s 1.5 times more in total. If he increases the dose any more, I’ll be in trouble. So I said with a shrill smile,
“That’s okay. I’ve found out why.”
“…So?”
I am asked what I am going to do about it.
“Ah, I’m going to make him spit out the repayment plus alimony, and then I’m going to jerk him around like a carriage horse when he’s vulnerable, so will Your Highness please pretend not to see this?”
Is it really so strange that the rest of my co-workers are looking away at my words?
“…alright.”
Nigel pondered for just a moment, but quickly nodded.
Maybe he had an idea of who was churning out the budget, and that means he agrees with my idea.
It’s easy to get rid of them, but only the ones who do the wrong thing are competent.
I’m a advocate of reuse, so I tend to make the decision to tolerate it for once.
“By the way, what happened?”
At my question, the place went thin and quiet.
“Huh?”
The somewhat tense air made me more confused than I was when I asked.
But no one seems to know how to answer or say anything.
It was Nigel who opened his mouth.
“I heard that the princess was attacked.”
“What?”
I was stunned.
The Crown Princess is her Royal Highness Princess Arthirea, the daughter of Duke Elzevert.
Mainly because of her birth and bloodline, she is one of the most important people in the state, who is more highly guarded than anyone else.
From the time of her birth, she was destined to be in the custody of the royal family, and although she is a Duke’s daughter, she is called by the honorific title of Princess, and she became Nigel’s wife before she was a year old.
She is now twelve years old.
She is so quiet and unassuming that she is known as the Doll Princess.
Quiet is a rather reserved way of saying that she doesn’t speak, and to put it bluntly, she doesn’t speak to the point that it makes me suspect she has a speech impediment.
Well, Nigel seems to think that it’s better not to talk if you’re too chatty and noisy.
“They say she was thrown from the third floor of the castle into the lake and was unconscious for a while.”
“Well, of course. It’s winter! It’s almost time for the ice to form on the lake around there.”
“Yeah. Fortunately, the ice in the vicinity had been broken beforehand for the other kids of the house to go boating.”
They say they were children, but I’m sure they weren’t much older than us.
“That’s why it doesn’t seem like she was injured.”
Nigel said in a quiet tone, but cold sweat ran down my spine.
He has a clear face, but Nigel must have been quite impatient and irritated as well.
Evidence of this is the fact that he’s been clasping his hands for a while now.
There’s plenty of room for expression, but perhaps it’s just a good way to mend.
The most indispensable person in this country is neither His Majesty the King nor Nigel.
It is Her Royal Highness Arthirea, the Crown Princess and the only legitimate heir of the Duke of Elzevert.
There are other direct blood relatives that can be kings, but she is the only one who has the rightful blood of Elzevert’s rightful lineage.
“…Why?”
“Why is that? If you include the shadow guard, we had more than 50 people following us. But they still outsmarted me.”
Even the guards on the front were carefully selected from Count Stassen, down to the skilled ones.
“Or rather, she’s still alive?”
“Yeah…I’ve also received word that she’s awake, but it’s not clear. There’s a lot of confusing information and it’s not getting us anywhere, so I gave Phil to Elzevert.
Phil-Lynn …One of my colleagues for so long that I can’t remember his full name. The feeling is more of a childhood friend than a colleague.
Of the childhood alumni who didn’t put much emphasis on their statuses, the only ones left are me, Phil-Lynn, and Viscount Rius Serenius-Faddel
In the beginning, Nigel had no future to become the crown prince. He had no future to be called a prince, let alone a crown prince.
Nigel was supposed to be a mere royal duke, sitting at the back of the royal family, studying at the university to his heart’s content.
But fate did not leave Nigel alone.
First of all, Nigel’s father, His Majesty, was crowned Prince, and Nigel was declared the first prince as his legitimate son, and Nigel was crowned at the same time as His Majesty ascended the throne.
The entourage of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is required to have a high level of competence that cannot be compared to the entourage of a royal duke.
We are allowed to be here because we have barely cleared the borders.
That’s why I, Phil and Serenius have a faint bond, or something like an affection, that is different from the rest of the other aides.
Maybe those two are the same. There are hardships and some memories that bind us together that everyone else doesn’t understand.
And, of course, Nigel was also in that circle of bonds.
I don’t call him by his name anymore to his face, but the fact that I always call him Nigel in my heart is probably a remnant of that.
“The greatest genius born of royal blood.”
Ever since he was a child, Nigel had been told that all his life.
And this very good-looking man had the ability to meet the expectations of people from all walks of life, both tangible and intangible.
Gentle, compassionate, intelligent and strong-willed…he has been showered with the highest praise imaginable, and he has never failed to live up to them, the perfect prince..
He is the supreme power in our country, the equivalent of practically ruling the country on behalf of His Majesty’s political aversion. His only weakness is Her Royal Highness.
It is not a good relationship, but that does not mean that the relationship is terrible. The current relationship between the crown prince and princess is nothing special due to their age difference.
Political marriages can be established even if there is some difficulty, but it is unreasonable to expect a girl who is only twelve years old to be your wife. Nigel has no taste for young girls or anything else.
After all, Nigel is too busy.
And because of this, they haven’t been able to take the time to reach out to each other. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but just when I was tempted to neglect it, here we are.
“…If the news that you’re returning to the royal capital is true, then there may be a misunderstanding.”
Serenius frowns with a note in his hand that seems to come from a shadow guard.
If Her Royal Highness’ party is returning, they will take the official route, but Phil will surely take the fastest way. For various reasons, we are familiar with the unmapped intervening roads. Of course, so is Phil.
“I don’t care if Phil goes to the other side. I have to look into this case in Elzevert anyway. That’s just as well.”
I prayed lightly that Phil-Lynn wouldn’t come back empty-handed if he made a mistake. I’m sure it’s okay because it’s Phil, but that guy has a terrible poker face sometimes and I can’t relax.
“Are you sure the princess is safe? It’s not a false alarm, right?”
I’m sure you’ll be able to find a lot of good reasons for this.
Carefully reading the memos, statements, and official bulletins one by one, and while acquainting with Serenius, the Crown Prince’s chief secretary, the Viscount Rada, says with an uneasy expression,
“The same communication has come in from multiple sources, so it’s probably not a mistake. It’s just…”
Nigel’s teeth are unusually sharp.
“Is she hurt? How is she doing?”
“Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any apparent injuries, but…she seems to have lost her memory. That’s another piece of uncertain information.”
“…Hey.”
“Well, for the time being, I’m not going to let her leave the palace when I get back.”
Nigel says so flatly.
Initially, the Princess had lived in the inner sanctum of the main palace, but last year or the year before, she had been taken in by Nigel in the west palace where he lived.
Since he had said it so clearly, she must be under house arrest for the time being.
“I’ll send for a doctor, just in case.”
Serenius’ expression was grim. He may be more concerned for Her Highness than Nigel himself.
“No, I arranged it here.”
“A court physician?”
No. I turned my hand from the university.”
Despite graduating in history and law, Nigel is still a student at the university.
He has been a genius since he arrived at the university and has produced unrivaled results in several fields, and is highly sought after by his professors, so he has a lot of contacts.
“You have to be a court physician to get them to examine you, don’t you?”
“I’m worried about the medical examination because they are all old enough to know better…This is the only time they’ll bother me. For this achievement, I will leave it to the court doctor as her personal physician.”
It was not enough to be a court physician just to have a reputation as a doctor.
In a sense, it is a matter of life and death for the royal family, so the question is whether or not they can be trusted as well as skilled.
In the past few generations, this has become a special profession that has been monopolized by a few families.
“You’ll have complaints from the main palace.”
“I don’t care.”
I’m sure he plans to use this as an opportunity to renew the personnel of the court doctors.
Well, it’s doubtful that the doctors at the main palace can be trusted.
In this royal palace, there are occasional incidents involving poison.
And some of the princess’ close associates have died from poisoning.
“If she can remember, I can take credit for that, but that’s unlikely, so I’ll figure that out later.”
“…What are you giving up?”
I rushed into it unintentionally.
“Don’t you give up?”
“No, no, no! Memory loss left as it is?”
“…I guess she wanted to forget, so it’s only kindness to let her forget.”
Her Highness wanted to forget all this, so she ran into Nigel again, who had just said she that he had forgotten.
“But she doesn’t remember, does she? There’s a lot going on here, isn’t there? She might not even remember you, you know?”
“I don’t see how memory, or lack of memory, would change much of our relationship, do you?”
For a moment, I was lost for words. Honestly, I almost agreed with him without thinking that he was right.
“…You can’t pretend the past didn’t happen, Nigel.”
“Of course…But, Ray, she can’t escape from being my queen. So I think we should let her forget at least what she wants to forget.”
“That’s very sweet of you.”
“…If I was really sweet to her, I wouldn’t have made a caged bird out of a twelve-year-old girl.”
Nigel smiled bitterly.
“…For the time being, I’m going to remove Viscount Saria from the list of those who were allowed to accompany the group this time. If he doesn’t even send me a proper report, there’s no point in having him tag along.”
“Indeed.”
Viscount Saria was one of the civilian officials that Nigel had sent as an interloper along the way to the group that Her Highness was to attend with to funeral ceremony this time.
I don’t know what he’s doing, but it not very helpful because it makes me so nervous.
“Well, I’ll at least let you know the date and time they’ll be returning to the Royal Capital. It’s on the way, you know.”
“Yeah.”
I made a note in a corner of my mind that arrangements must be made for Her Highness’ return to the capital.
Of course, Nigel, as expected thought Viscount Saria was too useless that he was not even remembered by the maids, which was more of a problem than that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|♡| Table of Contents |♡| Support me! |♡|
KizunaTLs 