"I simply do my duty."

The Crown Prince looked at me with a smile forming on his lips.

"Such a quintessentially you answer. Duty. Most men can’t even manage that, but you’re different. That’s why I want to trust and rely on you. Can I trust you?"

Trust. The Crown Prince had seen trust betrayed far too many times. And ironically, it was me he was now asking to trust. Up until now, I had never betrayed anyone’s trust.

Not once.

"Trust me."

"Thank you. I’m glad I came to see you after all."

"Come anytime. I can’t speak for others, but Your Highness is always welcome."

"Once everything is settled, could I visit your estate?"

Of course.

It seemed the distance between the Crown Prince and me had closed. But Vermeer’s name still hadn’t come up. The Crown Prince was still afraid to face Vermeer, it seemed.

Unless he overcame that on his own, there was nothing anyone could do.

Still, it was a relief to see a smile lingering on his gaunt face.

Just as the Crown Prince, looking considerably lighter, was about to leave and opened the door, something pure white went thud and toppled over. Behind it stood the handmaids, flustered and at a loss for what to do.

The expression drained from the Crown Prince’s face.

Lily, who had been eavesdropping and fallen flat when the door suddenly opened, winced in pain but cautiously gauged the room. The instant her eyes met the Crown Prince’s, she let out a yelp and scrambled to her feet.

A sudden headache hit me.

Our future Crown Princess had gone and caused an incident.

"Are you all right, Fräulein?"

"Y-yes! I’m, I’m fine!"

"That’s a relief."

Then he turned back to me. The Crown Prince’s expression was positively murderous. I’d clearly earned myself a massive misunderstanding. Didn’t you just say something about trust? That was the face of a man whose trust had already evaporated.

"You scoundrel, you have Hilda and yet you dare bring another young lady into your home?"

"It’s not the kind of relationship you’re imagining, Your Highness."

"If it isn’t, then why is such a beautiful young lady in your house?"

"Please calm down. She’s the niece of Marquis Offenburg."

Any other noble might not have mattered, but Offenburg changed things. The Crown Prince looked back at Lily. Lily, who had been reading the room, put on her prettiest smile. In my eyes, it was insufferably annoying.

So this is what it feels like to be an older brother with a real little sister?

"It seems there’s quite a lot going on between you two that I don’t know about. Care to explain?"

If it’s not an affair, that is. The Crown Prince’s expression was still murderous. It was the look of a man who had caught his first love’s suitor cheating on her.

This was exactly why I’d planned to carefully arrange a proper meeting later, but that girl in white ruined everything. I explained the circumstances surrounding the Grand Duke sending me to Marquis Offenburg.

"She is the only remaining blood relative among the direct descendants of Princess Ingrid."

"Then why did you bring her here? What does that have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it. Because His Majesty has chosen her as the Crown Princess."

"...Crown Princess to whom?"

You. You.

The dumbfounded expressions on the Crown Prince and Eisenach were priceless.

Their eyes turned to Lily once again.

Lily was elegantly sipping her tea and flashed the Crown Prince a coy smile, making sure he noticed. The flustered Crown Prince, face beet red, quickly turned his head away. When Lily caught my eye, she stuck out her tongue playfully.

The coyness was really something.

Fine, go ahead and put on an act.

Her effort to smooth over her disastrous first impression was admirable, at least.

By the way, the Crown Prince seemed surprisingly naive when it came to women. Then again, even while angry, he had let slip and called Lily "a beautiful young lady." To my eyes she was just an immature girl, but apparently she looked different to the Crown Prince.

They were nominally relatives (sixth cousins), but such marriages were common among the nobility, so it wasn’t a major issue. Moreover, biologically speaking, the Crown Prince wasn’t related to Lily by blood at all.

I’d been worried that Lily’s eccentric personality, regardless of her looks, might put him off, but it seemed my concerns were unfounded. A young lady caught eavesdropping who then fell flat on her face? That was probably unprecedented in all of Beren’s history.

"Sir Eisenach, it looks like His Highness has taken a liking to Lily."

"Oh! Cupid’s arrow has finally found His Highness! How wonderful!"

"Why do you address Lily by her first name so casually?"

Oh? Jealous already?

But that sort of thing doesn’t work on a married man.

"I’m Lily’s older brother."

"Since when did you become a member of the Offenburg Marquis’s family?"

"Ask her yourself. We’re the same age, yet she insists on calling me brother."

The Crown Prince was clearly displeased and thoroughly annoyed. Watching him, I finally felt at ease. It seemed the Crown Prince had returned to his usual self. His solemn demeanor had felt so unfamiliar.

"Ahem. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am the Crown Prince of Beren, Franz Ludwig von Altringen. Might I be granted the honor of asking the Fräulein her name?"

"The honor is mine, Your Highness. I’m Lily. Lily von Rudelich."

"Lily. What a lovely name. It suits you perfectly, dressed in pure white."

It was like watching a scene from a romance manga.

Was it just me, or were rainbow-colored auras spreading around them like soap bubbles?

Eisenach watched the scene with great satisfaction.

"It may be a political marriage, but I’m truly glad His Highness is pleased. It reminds me of you and Lady Brünhilt at the Mainhof family’s banquet."

"...Hilda and I were like that?"

"You didn’t notice? It was embarrassing just watching."

Even so, I don’t think it was quite this saccharine.

In the end, I sent the Crown Prince and Lily off to the rose garden.

They’d figure it out from here. That’s how it works when you put young people together; they just naturally kindle a spark.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you were here. When I found out that His Highness was a bastard, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. Meanwhile, Sir Vermeer took action."

Vermeer had stopped Louis from assassinating the Crown Prince. He, too, hadn’t cared about the Crown Prince’s origins. He simply held genuine loyalty toward Franz; the man’s birth was no obstacle whatsoever.

Eisenach was now blaming himself.

He felt he didn’t deserve his title as Guard Commander.

"So I tried to step down, but His Highness placed unwavering trust in me. I won’t waver any longer. All that’s left is to repay that trust."

"Sir Eisenach, we just need to do our duty."

Doing our duty.

That was actually the hardest thing of all.

This was the first time Eisenach and I had sat together so leisurely and chatted like this. He always moved according to the Crown Prince’s schedule, so he rarely had a free moment.

I wondered what Lily and the Crown Prince were talking about right now.

I’d have to ask Lily later.

Bang!

"Excuse me!"

Suddenly Lily rushed in, grabbed her novel, and dashed back out. The title "Gale" suited Lily rather than me, it seemed. Eisenach, who had been sipping the rose tea I’d served, spoke up.

"You certainly have a lot of unusual young ladies around you."

"She’s just the odd one out. Hilda isn’t like that at all."

"She may become the Crown Princess. Mind your manners around her."

"Once she’s officially the Crown Princess, I’ll use the proper honorifics. Right now, she’s just like an immature little sister."

She was going to have to adapt well once she became the Crown Princess.

Unlike here, where I’d let her roam free, the royal palace required formality in everything. The Offenburg Marquis’s household had surely been the same, but the palace had far more nobles watching. I’d grown attached to her, and now I was starting to worry.

The Crown Prince and Eisenach left.

It looked like they wanted to stay longer, but surprisingly, Lily shooed them away.

When I asked why she had kicked them out:

"I want to put this soft, floaty feeling into words. I think the writing’s going to flow beautifully!"

"You should just marry your novels instead of becoming the Crown Princess."

I’m against this marriage.

I can’t hand the Crown Prince over to you!

When the day came to return to Feuzen, I found the Crown Prince standing with an awkward expression beside Lily, who was loaded up with a mountain of luggage and looking thoroughly pleased. There were only four days left until the declaration of war, and... wait, what?

Eisenach, looking troubled, explained the whole story to me.

"His Majesty has permitted him to stay in Feuzen for the time being."

"You’re joking, right? The Crown Prince, in my territory? At a time like this?"

"I wish it were a joke, too."

In the end, the Crown Prince and his retinue would be coming along to Feuzen.