Chapter 6: Return
In the Galarc Kingdom, ten days after Christina and Flora first went missing, Liselotte boarded an enchanted ship with Roanna, who had visited Amande to bring the message of Hiroaki’s proposal. They were now at Galtuuk, the kingdom’s capital.
After arriving at the port, they swapped from the enchanted ship to a horse-drawn carriage and headed to the castle. Roughly ten minutes later, they arrived on the castle grounds and made the rest of the way on foot.
The two daughters of dukes walking side-by-side was a truly elegant sight. They conducted themselves with the utmost refinement, catching the attention of all the guards and servants nearby.
“Oh my, it’s Lady Liselotte.”
“Looks like the rumors of her betrothal to the hero were true.”
“There haven’t been rumors about Liselotte’s marriage for years now...”
“Could it possibly be...?”
The sounds of people gossiping could be heard here and there. It seemed like news of Liselotte’s meeting with Hiroaki had spread throughout the castle. According to the chatter, Liselotte received marriage proposals on a regular basis, but this was the first time in years she had attended a meeting about one. She normally rejected them all using the excuse of being busy with her work. And now, she was here to meet the hero. If she had bothered to make the trip to the castle, surely this could only mean one thing.
That was the atmosphere in the castle—it made it rather difficult to refuse and put pressure on Liselotte.
Everyone sure says whatever they please.
Liselotte may have looked like she was walking elegantly, but her feet felt heavy as their destination got closer. Eventually, they arrived at a drawing room reserved for royalty. The two knights in front of the room opened the door without saying a word. As the messenger, Roanna was the first one to step inside.
“I have brought Liselotte Cretia here from Amande,” she reported with a graceful bow.
“Excuse me.” Liselotte entered after Roanna and bowed deeply.
Waiting inside were the potential marriage partner, Sakata Hiroaki, his candidate for first wife, Galarc’s Third Princess Rosalie, as well as King Francois, Liselotte’s parents, and Duke Huguenot.
A full lineup. I didn’t expect to wrap things up with just a greeting, but were they thinking of holding the meeting here?
Liselotte glanced around the room to confirm who was present. Just then, Duke Huguenot, who was seated diagonally to Duke Cretia and his wife, stood up and approached Roanna.
“Good work, Roanna. You may wait behind Sir Hiroaki,” he said.
“Yes, my lord.” Roanna nodded respectfully and moved to stand behind Hiroaki, who was seated in the chief seat. Beside Hiroaki was Third Princess Rosalie, who was to become his first wife.
“Welcome, Liselotte. Come, sit over here.” King Francois invited Liselotte into the seat beside him. It was directly across from Hiroaki.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Liselotte nodded cheerfully and started walking towards the sofa opposite to Hiroaki.
“Excuse me,” she said as she sat down.
“Liselotte. It must have been a great effort to leave Amande the same day you received the summons. You have my apologies,” Francois said with a remorseful expression. Was it because Liselotte was the most disadvantaged one present? It was extremely rare for the king to utter words of apology, so those words had a great weight behind them.
“Not at all, Your Majesty. I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting—and I’m able to meet Mother and Father again this way.” Liselotte shook her head in a sociable manner, looking at her parents. The two of them looked back at her with frowns on their faces.
“Now that everyone is here, let’s get down to business. We’ve gathered everyone here today for one reason—to hold an official marriage meeting between Lord Hiroaki and Liselotte. If the agreement goes through, both families will... Ah, Lord Hiroaki is a bit of a special case.” Francois looked at Hiroaki and Duke Huguenot. Hiroaki had no family, so as the representative of the Restoration, Duke Huguenot was there as his guardian.
“If the agreement goes through, Lord Hiroaki’s guardian organization—the Restoration—and the Duke Cretia family shall be tied together. Considering the influential power of each side, there could be political consequences no matter how the discussion goes. Thus, I will be in attendance as a mediator. The Cretia family is invaluable to the Galarc Kingdom too. Whatever the result, I want you to remember that I wish for both sides to end this on an amicable tone. Understood?” Francois corrected himself to properly include both parties, then looked around at everyone to emphasize his point.
“Now, how shall we do this? With the circumstances being what they are, this is a rather urgent matter. Everyone is gathered already, so as long as Liselotte is fine with it, we can proceed with the meeting like this...” He looked at Liselotte.
“That’s fine with me. I came with my answer prepared,” Liselotte replied resolutely.
“Acknowledged. If this were a first meeting between the two parties, it would have been custom for the meeting to begin with everyone present, then proceed with the two of you getting to know each other. However, I hear Lord Hiroaki has met you many times already—there may be things you cannot mention openly before us. How about it? Would you like to take a walk through the rooftop garden together?” Francois suggested to them.
“Oh... Well, I suppose, yeah. It’s a little stuffy having so many people here. Might as well. Let’s have a chat together, Liselotte.” Hiroaki started speaking a bit shamefully, his words sounding somewhat forced as he directed them at Liselotte.
I see... So this situation was created at his request, Liselotte thought, immediately understanding what had happened to create this scenario.
“Okay,” she answered curtly.
Afterwards, Hiroaki and Liselotte went up to the rooftop garden. There were no guards nearby—they were completely alone.
“Huh, I didn’t know the Galarc Castle had a place like this. How fancy. What do you think, Liselotte?” Hiroaki walked in front, addressing Liselotte without looking back at her.
“Use of this area is normally restricted to the royal family. I’ve only been here a handful of times myself.”
“Huh, is that so?” Hiroaki hummed.
“...”
The conversation died off there.
Ah, shit. I’m getting nervous—no, I am nervous. This is the most nervous I’ve been since coming to this world.
Hiroaki panicked. Left alone with Liselotte, he was more flustered than he had ever been before. He recalled the conversation he had with Duke Huguenot merely days ago in Rodania.
“It’s not really for me to negotiate, so I’ll leave that to you, but...I want Liselotte as my third wife. Can you make that happen?”
This was the condition he gave to Duke Huguenot in exchange for his engagement with Rosalie and Roanna. As a result, Duke Huguenot moved as quickly as possible to lay the groundwork in the Galarc Kingdom for him to meet Liselotte.
Thus resulting in what was happening today.
I heard Liselotte rejected every proposal she got using her work as an excuse and never sent out any offers herself, so I was wondering what would happen, but...Duke Huguenot really can make things happen. He’s amazing, Hiroaki thought. However, there were still certain issues with this meeting to address—the main one being the fact Duke Huguenot had only been able to prepare a meeting and nothing more.
The problem is how he’s left the rest completely up to me. I even made him handle things so I wouldn’t have to be the one to confess my feelings... Damn it, it’s not my style to take chances where I’m not guaranteed to win...
Until now, Hiroaki only had marriage interviews where the outcome he wanted was guaranteed. In other words, he only had meetings where the other party approached him first. As a consequence, he was severely lacking in experience when it came to making the first approach himself.
What did I normally talk about at those meetings? I can’t keep this conversation going.
His thoughts slowed down, hindering his ability to think of a topic.
But Liselotte isn’t speaking either... Even though she normally chats about things to keep a lively conversation going. She’s oddly quiet today—wait, could that mean she’s nervous as well? That means... Does she have feelings for me too? The moment that thought entered Hiroaki’s mind, he chuckled to himself with lifted spirits.
Well, that makes sense. Now that I think about it, Duke Huguenot was the one who set up this meeting, not me. Since neither of us have mentioned any feelings yet, we’re standing on even ground. Duke Huguenot prepared things perfectly, dragging Liselotte out to a marriage meeting she normally avoids. Since she’s actually here in person, she must feel something favorable for me—that’s what Duke Huguenot said earlier. But in order to bring up the topic of marriage, my ability to communicate will be tested. How could I falter here? Hiroaki admonished himself.
“Uh...” he said and turned around, meeting eyes with Liselotte, who had her head tilted in question.
She’s so cute... Following behind me silently, so meekly... Definitely marriage material. Hiroaki had regained his inherent optimism.
“Er, sorry about this. You must’ve been shocked to receive the news out of the blue, right? That was Duke Huguenot’s doing—he really wants us to get married.”
First on the agenda was to make his position absolutely clear. In doing so, he could establish an advantageous situation for himself. In other words, he clarified his relationship with Liselotte as a premise.
I’m not the one who wants to get married.
“I was surprised at how it came up suddenly. So it was Duke Huguenot who initiated this marriage interview?” Liselotte asked, casually trying to confirm the facts.
“Mm. Well, yeah.” Hiroaki’s reply was oddly inarticulate because he had been the one to set the condition of having Liselotte as a third wife before marrying Rosalie and Roanna. However, as long as Duke Huguenot wanted him to marry Rosalie and Roanna, he’d try to fulfill that condition no matter what. Since the one who had arranged the meeting was Duke Huguenot, Hiroaki decided this was in line with the truth.
“You’re oddly quiet today, Liselotte. You must be feeling nervous, huh?”
This time, Hiroaki tried to figure out Liselotte’s position. In reality, Hiroaki was just as quiet as her, but he disregarded that.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Perhaps.” Liselotte was actually feeling annoyed more than nervous, but she nodded anyway.
“I see.” Hiroaki chuckled smugly.
She’s definitely got the hots for me.
“We haven’t really had the chance to talk alone like this before, have we? It was always when we were with other people.”
“That’s right... Our dinner in Amande with Princess Flora and Lady Roanna is a fond memory of mine. Though it’s very unfortunate what happened to Princess Flora...” Liselotte said with a distant look, recalling Flora’s disappearance and frowning.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, it is,” agreed Hiroaki.
“If you don’t mind me asking... If Princess Flora returns alive after you’ve taken Princess Rosalie as your first wife, what will happen?”
“Ah... I suppose the engagement with Rosalie would be called off in that case?”
“I believe it’s extremely difficult to go back on an engagement once it’s been publicly announced, though...”
It wasn’t like there was no precedent of an engagement being canceled after its announcement, but appearances were important in their society. Whenever an engagement was canceled, it usually implied one side had caused a problem. Of course, if his original fiancée was discovered alive, such rumors could probably be dispelled easily, but that didn’t make the matter any simpler.
“Huh. I guess Flora would be my fourth wife, then?”
“If Lady Roanna is to become your second wife, it would be similarly difficult to have royalty like Princess Flora ranked below her.” In fact, it was impossible.
“Hmm. I don’t really want to place any meaning in the ranks, personally. Can’t you change those ranks afterwards?” Hiroaki asked with an annoyed sigh.
“It isn’t really heard of, but it should be possible if all the involved families agree.”
Most families didn’t want to have their rank lowered, but if it was for a logical reason, then most would understand. Considering Roanna’s loyalty to her royal family, there was a good chance she would willingly swap ranks with Flora.
“I see. Oh, but in that case, your position as the third wife might get affected as well. Though there may be some troublemakers who’ll complain if Roanna jumps from second place to fourth place as well.” Hiroaki spoke as though Liselotte was already his third wife in his mind.
Liselotte nodded after a slight pause. “Perhaps so.”
“In the end, I really don’t like the idea of ranking by order. It’s not like you’re inferior to Rosalie or Roanna just because you’re my third wife—I want to make that clear.”
“The hero is a very unexpected person indeed.”
Liselotte was unable to do anything but giggle. There just wasn’t any precedent for this.
“‘The hero,’ huh...” Hiroaki sighed with a frown, looking at Liselotte in objection.
“Is something the matter?” Liselotte tilted her head.
Hiroaki stared at her. “Say, Liselotte... Isn’t it about time we graduated from our business relationship?” he suddenly said.
“‘Business relationship’...?” The sudden change in conversation topic confused Liselotte, but she was able to question him back without letting that confusion show in her voice.
“I was just thinking about how I’ve never met you in private before.”
“Is that so...?” If Liselotte’s memory served her right, Hiroaki was constantly visiting Amande for no particular reason.
“And you always refer to me as ‘the hero.’ You never call me by my name. I figured that was because you’ve always considered our meetings until now part of your work—you were drawing a line as a form of hospitality. I just realized that.” Hiroaki stared at Liselotte.
Oh my, I guess even he could notice that much, Liselotte thought, slightly impressed.
“I respect your professionalism towards your work, but you don’t have to call me ‘hero’ forever, you know? Especially if you’re to become my fiancée.”
She could call him “Sir Hiroaki,” was what he was trying to tell Liselotte with his gaze.
“Umm... Should I take those words as a marriage proposal?” Liselotte asked.
“Oh... No?” Hiroaki’s gaze faltered as he denied that.
Huh? Then what was that? Liselotte snapped back in her head. Was he suddenly taking back his words?
“It’s just, y’know. I heard you’ve been rejecting marriage proposals because of your work. I get that you’re busy with all your different roles, but that means you barely have any time to date men outside of work, right?” Hiroaki continued. Most of what he was saying was uncalled for.
“You would be correct...” Liselotte nodded anyway.
“Marriage isn’t something to be done as business. That’s why I think you need a man you can date outside of your work. So I’m offering to let our relationship evolve from a business relationship. As long as you’re interested, that is...” Hiroaki explained his reasoning.
“In other words, you’d like us to date with the intention of marriage?” Hiroaki’s words were so vague, it felt like he was evading what he was trying to get at—so Liselotte decided to pursue the specifics.
“Yeah. If you can’t marry right away because of your work, we can just get engaged and wait for things to settle down first. It’s all up to you,” Hiroaki said, attempting to give Liselotte the option to choose.
Wait, does he want to make it sound like I’m the one requesting this marriage?
It was at this point that Liselotte finally reached this conclusion. If this were true...
“I see... However, even if it were an engagement, I don’t intend on marrying anyone right now. I’m sorry,” Liselotte stated clearly. She rejected the proposal in a way even Hiroaki would understand.
“So you won’t get engaged to me...?”
Hiroaki was nearly rendered speechless, but he questioned her again with a pout.
“Yes. I have no intention of doing so at present,” Liselotte stated bluntly.
“Oh, is that so... There are lots of people anticipating our engagement, so I reckon it’d be better to meet their expectations...” Shaken by how directly he had been rejected, Hiroaki’s voice trembled.
“Who would those people be?” Liselotte asked calmly.
“Y’know, like the Galarc Kingdom and the Restoration. Christina and Flora disappearing has left things in a huge mess, after all. If we married for the sake of our respective parties, we’d be opening up the future for everyone.”
“In that case, you’d find a brighter future for the Restoration and Galarc in marrying Princess Rosalie instead of a duke’s daughter like me.” After all, it would be an engagement between a hero and a princess. They would naturally have a greater influence than a betrothal to a duke’s daughter as the third wife.
“I see... So the meeting is over, then.”
Hiroaki pursed his lips unhappily. The marriage discussion with Liselotte had ended in failure.
After that, Hiroaki and Liselotte returned to the drawing room with King Francois and Duke Huguenot to inform them of their decision. An awkward air hung in the room after they heard the result.
“Well, there was no point in getting engaged when we had no romantic interest in each other, I guess,” Hiroaki uttered indignantly, giving a short reason why the proposal had failed. The one who reacted with the most shock was Duke Huguenot—the engagement to Liselotte had been the condition Hiroaki required, so his composure faltered under his desire to speak to him right away.
Francois seemed to read the atmosphere. “There’s nothing that can be done if it wasn’t meant to be. Let us end this meeting here,” he announced.
“Sir Hiroaki, do you have a moment? You come along too, Roanna. We shall see you again later, Princess Rosalie.”
Duke Huguenot immediately left the room with Hiroaki and Roanna.
“Rosalie, you may return to your quarters,” Francois said after the members of the Restoration had left the room.
“Yes, Father.”
Third Princess Rosalie left, leaving behind Francois, Liselotte, and her parents. The next moment, two figures stood at the doorway of the room. The Galarc king had summoned the hero, Sumeragi Satsuki, and Second Princess Charlotte.
“Can we enter now?”
“What a boring wait.”
Satsuki and Charlotte spoke up respectively.
“Thank you for waiting. Please come in, Lady Satsuki. Everyone, please be seated. The servants may leave.” Francois invited Satsuki into the room and sat down on a sofa himself.
Are we about to discuss something confidential? Liselotte wondered.
“Hey, Liselotte. It’s been a while... Since the dinner at your place, I think?” Satsuki said to her cheerfully.
“Yes. Long time no see, Miss Satsuki.” Liselotte smiled with a sigh of relief.
“Honestly, I wanted to attend that dinner so much. Come on, now. Lady Satsuki. Sit over here.” Charlotte pouted cutely and urged Satsuki into the head seat. They passed the servants on their way into the room and sat down. Duke Cretia and his wife selected seats diagonal to them and seated themselves.
“Your Majesty. Please accept my sincere apologies for rejecting the hero’s marriage proposal,” Liselotte said to King Francois, bowing where she stood.
“Don’t worry about it. You’ve achieved enough to earn your freedom in marriage. That is something I have acknowledged myself, and I expected you to decline this offer from the beginning. However, the current state of the Restoration complicated things. I had to give the other side a chance to meet you to avoid souring relations. I’m sure that made it more difficult for you to decline. My apologies for that,” Francois said, sighing tiredly.
“No, I am most grateful for your consideration, Your Majesty.”
It was at this moment that Liselotte finally relaxed. She had sensed that things had been arranged to make it harder for her to refuse when she was devoid of the chance to confirm Francois and her parents’ thoughts on the matter. She figured Duke Huguenot had arranged that with Francois, but his words just now confirmed her thoughts. And the fact he had revealed this to her meant that there was no issue in her rejecting the proposal.
“It seems like our worries were for naught, Lady Satsuki,” Charlotte giggled.
“So it seems,” Satsuki replied with a faint pout.
“The two of you were worried...?” Liselotte cocked her head.
“Isn’t it your belief that marriage should only be done out of love? If you agreed so easily to an arranged marriage, you’d be throwing away that belief. Lady Satsuki and I were worried you were being forced into the engagement.”
“I-I see... I appreciate that,” Liselotte said with a faint blush.
“But rest assured, if that man ever tries to force you into an engagement, I’ll stop him with my own authority as a hero,” Satsuki said firmly.
“Aha ha. I’m glad your fears were unfounded, then.” Liselotte sweated nervously at the thought of the trouble that would have created. Francois must have felt uneasy at that as well.
“But you can’t remain without a marriage partner at your age either, Liselotte—that’s asking for trouble to come to you, you know?” Charlotte pointed out with a heavy sigh.
“I’m sure it’s a challenge to find a boy worthy of someone like Liselotte,” Satsuki said with a giggle.
“Th-That’s not true...” Liselotte stuttered. Her parents watched that rare sight with curious looks. They were impressed that the princess and hero could make their daughter react in a way fitting for her age for once.
“Oh, speaking of gentlemen worthy of Liselotte, I believe I know of someone...” Charlotte put on a mischievous face.
“Th-This is urgent! I have an urgent report to make! Excuse the intrusion!” Fierce banging sounded from the door moments before it burst open to reveal a breathless knight.
“How dare you enter without waiting for a response?! What is it? This better be important!” Francois warned with a furrowed brow.
“Honorary Knight Sir Amakawa has arrived! H-He requests an immediate audience with Your Majesty!” The knight was so heavily flustered, he made his report without a second thought for Francois’ anger.
“Haruto, you say? In that case, you can bring him here. What is the reason for the urgency?”
“Th-That’s because he’s accompanied by...” The knight wheezed, out of breath from running the whole way here.
“What is it? Calm down and speak. What about his companions?” Francois asked unhappily.
“He’s accompanied by Beltrum’s First Princess Christina and Second Princess Flora!”
The two missing princesses were alive.
“What...?” At that moment, even Francois was as dumbfounded as everyone else present.
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