── Alberto who didn’t know there was a rumor about him and Clara, several days after being informed of the truth by Hans, was called by Christina’s father, Duke Zariel.
Christina’s father, despite being the retainer of the King, brazenly called the Crown Prince to the Duke’s mansion.
.
Christina who wasn’t informed of Alberto’s arrival, sensed a commotion from the mansion’s entrance hall, and so she showed up on the stairs’ dance hall connected to her private room on the second floor.
In this Duke’s mansion, after opening the entrance door, there was a grand stairs right ahead and at its end was the dance hall. From the dance hall, the stairs were split into left and right, and each connected to different rooms.
Descending to the stairs’ dance hall, Christina immediately recognized the figure coming in from the opened entrance door and paa floated a smile.
“Alberto-sama……!”
Wrapped in a vivid ultramarine colored suits with silver embroidery, the one who appeared in the entrance hall was the Noin Kingdom’s Crown Prince──Alberto. With a serious look, he reconfirmed the cuffs on his wrists while walking into the mansion as he suddenly heard Christina’s voice and raised his face. The moment his eyes met with Christina, who was wrapped in a casual dress, a very gentle smile formed on his face.
“Christina”
Christina hurriedly went down the stairs and walked up to Alberto. Her eyes were glistening even more than usual, dyed in love, they vividly displayed her feeling of affection towards Alberto. After all, it was the first time they met each other again after the reconciliation. Although she didn’t remember having any appointment with him, she was just very happy to be able to meet Alberto. Within his embrace, Christina who settled down inside Alberto’s arms tilted her head.
“What’s the matter? Did we have an appointment today?”
Alberto sweetly gazed down at Christina, but the moment he heard the question, his face stiffened.
“…… Un. The appointment is……er… with your father……”
“……Father?”
So Alberto was coming not to meet herself, but to meet with her father, as she was comprehending the current situation, suddenly a voice called out from behind.
“──My my, Your Highness. I wish to thank you for your willingness to come despite this sudden call”
Her stern father’s voice, was more cheerful than usual. Christina who turned around due to the surprise kept on blinking her eyes.
Standing on the stairs’ dance hall, he was spreading his arms to welcome Alberto, however his eyes closely resembled those of predator’s, instilling unrest in her heart.
Although the glint in her father’s eyes was frightening, Christina held back from saying that remarks, and for the time being asked him about this strange situation.
“……Father, did you asked Alberto-sama to come……?
Her father was the Prime Minister of Noin Kingdom. Due to his work, he went to the Royal Palace every day, hence, if he wanted to talk with a royalty, it would be faster for him to visit the royalty at the workplace himself. Moreover, as the King’s retainer, her father was normally not in the position to summon a member of royalty. If a retainer wanted to meet the royalty, that person must first sent a letter of visit, and if an approval was received, that retainer must personally go to the designated place. It was not a problem if the royalty was the one who went out, but for a retainer to call a royalty to his own place, it was preposterous, an extreme case of impoliteness, however──
Asked by his daughter with frightened eyes, Duke Zariel narrowed his clear blue eyes and raised the corner of his lips.
“──That’s right. I myself, sent a letter yesterday to His Highness Alberto, asking him to come here”
Her father didn’t hold any doubt, and nodded with a somewhat content smile.
“……th, that is……”
Should I apologize for Father’s impoliteness? as Christina turned towards Alberto.
Alberto felt Christina’s gaze, and with a slightly pale face, he smiled.
“Un. Don’t mind it, Christina. Since I roughly know what kind of talk it will be”
“……talk?”
Although she asked him again, Alberto kept on smiling and didn’t show any sign of answering anymore.
Her father, fun, snorted and started talking with a louder voice.
“Then──please come this way, Your Highness. Let us talk about your plan against a certain ‘foolish rumor’ “
“……”
Duke Zariel impolitely did not even bother himself to go down the stairs, and with a smile, Alberto looked up towards him. Those eyes, were twitching.
Noticing Alberto who was hesitating to go towards the stairs, her father grinned.
“──My daughter, how do you want it to be?”
Alberto firmly pressed his lips together, then turned towards Christina. Staring at Christina who didn’t seem to understand the flow of conversation, he gently smiled.
“……No matter what happens, I will definitely marry you, Christina”
Christina had just received a proposal few days ago, and when she heard him clearly saying again that he would definitely marry her, her cheeks blushed with a poof.
“……Yes”
“Un”
Alberto patted Christina’s cheek softly, and walked towards the dance hall where her father was. Seeing off that back, Christina finally had a rough idea about the contents of the two’s talk today.
I guess they both will talk about what to do regarding the case with Clara, won’t they?
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Having been called into her father’s study, Alberto was finally allowed to ended the talk after three hours had passed.
When the talk ends, please call me, was what Christina asked Hans to do, and when called by Hans, she immediately headed towards her father’s study.
“How was it? Is it okay?”
After he went out of her father’s room, Alberto’s face was strongly showing exhaustion and his complexion was also pale.
When he noticed Christina, he forced the muscle on his face and smiled.
“It’s okay”
“Father, did he say some unreasonable things?”
Her father had always been severe towards Alberto since before. It was not hard to imagine him asking Alberto unreasonable demand with a calm face.
However, Alberto was smiling.
“Uun. ──If it is to marry you, there is nothing impossible for me……”
“……”
As he declared in a voice filled with strong determination, within Alberto’s eyes, deeper than darkness, there was an abyss of despair seeping out somewhere, emitting a gloomy color of darkness.
Completely unable to understand the flow of the talk, Christina thought, should I ask Father?, and turned towards the study. Then, with a good timing, her father appeared from the inside when the door was opened.
“Father. What kind of talk did you have with Alberto-sama?”
As he looked at her face while being asked, her father raised his eyebrows and peeked a glance towards Alberto. Receiving the gaze, Alberto, although with a pale face, flashed a smile as usual. Alberto countered his appraising eyes with a firm smile, and seeing that figure of him, her father just smirked.
“Whaat, it is not something you need to mind of, Christina. Father only confirmed His Highness’ feelings, that’s all. Since it seems His Highness wishes to marry you, Father told him the ‘necessary procedure’ in order to marry you. Well, regarding of how that sort of worthless rumor came to be spread around, I just tell him a little bit of my thoughts as an elder”
In the end, both of them did not tell her what kind of talk did they had.
Afterwards, Alberto started to participate in all kinds of banquets and clubs, seemingly attempting to control the rumor. It was a vague expression because Alberto moved around busily by himself, meanwhile, Christina was unable to meet him at all.
Then, although she only heard it from his sister, Anna, it seemed the King assigned more than double the amount of government affairs to Alberto. On the way, she had an opportunity to meet him, but since he was looking so pale, she asked him to take a rest so he would not collapse, nevertheless Alberto started spewing out incomprehensible words “No……This is, a trial……” with an ashen face and then continued running about while staggering.
Government affairs as well as the control of rumor, it seemed he was given a strict order to deal with both at the same time, this too was something she heard from Anna.
And then, around the time when the common knowledge that the rumor was just a groundless one was spreading around, Marquis Schönhausen took Clara to his territory in the border. As the assembly was still being held, it was not the time to return to his territory, but since the rumor about the lack of discipline regarding her behavior in the high society started to spread, it seemed to be an acceptable judgment. He returned her to the territory, and when the rumor died down, it seemed she would have her debut again after being reeducated.
Christina felt slightly relieved.
Christina who only knew of the Happy End, didn’t know whether this situation meant Game Over or not. However, Marquis Schönhausen’s territory was located in a place that took a month or more to reach by a carriage from the Kingdom’s capital. In other words, that girl for the mean time, would not be returning back to the capital. Furthermore, as Christina had expected, if she was being reeducated for having her debut again later, she would come back at the spring next year. If everything went well, at that time, the marriage ceremony with Alberto would have reached its final phase.
As long as a natural disaster doesn’t occur, it will surely be just fine.
As Christina persuaded herself of that notion, she began to think about her future with Alberto from now on.
.
──The time that the two spent, the capital was, at the end of summer.
A peaceful, but still, a little bit of doki doki everyday, will begin──
A/N :
Thank you very much for reading.
When thinking about the story’s conclusion, I had thought will it be better to not put it up?, but since it will soon be almost a year, isn’t it already okay?, and so after thinking that I want to writee, I think I will put it up occasionally.
And I am also very grateful,
from publisher named J Publishing-san of the Fairy Kiss label,
on December 27th, a new book called “Tenseishita no ni, Mata Kanawanu Koi ni Ochimashita”[1] (R15) (PN; Kouduki Kitou”) is scheduled to be on sale. The reservation on Amazon is starting.
The detail will be put up in the activity report, but it will be the first newly written novel of Kouduki Kitou. If it is possible, I will be very happy if you get the book.
My best regards.[2]
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