“Not just newspaper articles. Another marriage proposal has come from the east. This time it’s Svenia. Alankar hasn’t given up either. Now they’re even sending official mediators. You have to respond.”

“They’re telling me to give up the position of Empress.”

Ru sharply grasped the hidden intention behind the marriage proposal. Empress was being expelled from their family, so come to this family as a bride. Is that enough for your dignity, or maybe it’s too much. No, she might think it’s overflowing.

“Trying to catch two birds with one stone.”

“If it were me, I’d catch only one properly. Doing multiple things at once is no different from juggling, right?”

Ru, as if asking when she had coughed severely, took a sip of juice and spoke cheerfully. It sounded like she had already decided what catching one rabbit meant, and her parents listened intently.

Since Ru had always learned one thing from her dad, she confirmed that both of them were not drinking by opening her mouth.

“I will be the Empress.”

‘I will become the Empress,’ not ‘I will be the Empress,’ had a subtle difference. The former was what a challenger would say, and the latter was a statement that a predetermined person could make.

Of course, a challenger with strong aspirations could say the latter, but Ru spoke as if she already knew the result. It was an unchangeable result, perhaps a fact that Ru herself couldn’t change.

“Well, if you want to, there’s nothing we can do, but Ru, aren’t you still too young?”

If he put it off any longer, he knew that his husband would start saying all sorts of illogical and forced things. Milene grabbed Ethan’s arm because it was an excellent child who graduated from school on her own, worked as a knight, and did her part even though she was kicked out!

“What’s difficult about her, honey? Yeah, Ru. Did you decide on your own, or was it a mutual agreement?”

With the word ‘mutual agreement,’ Ethan’s eyes widened, and he looked at his wife, then at his daughter. Mutual agreement? Ru, seeing his inquisitive eyes, shook hands with embarrassment.

“Well… I don’t know what the marriage process is like, but once you decide on the timing, it should be fine.”

“Timing?”

Dad, who wanted to deny reality, asked when. His voice shook.

“That, the wedding.”

Ru hesitated and added.

“I just have to decide that.”

It was the declaration of Rustica Genesis, deciding who would become the Empress, even if the newspapers made a fuss.

Ethan was lost for words, wondering whether he should scold the Emperor, who had pledged loyalty, for quietly deciding everything behind his back like a manipulative creature and waiting for his daughter’s approval, or whether he should be amazed.
First, what made him angry, though he never wanted to admit it, was that he had been embarrassingly kicked out of the Perseta Empire’s banquet hall.

Second, what made him angry was that the revered Empress of Aldwin, that is, Aldwin’s Empress, had uttered unforgivable words about the traitor Rustica Genesis. Of course, he never admitted that he was also angry about this matter.

And third, what made him angry despite all this was that he still couldn’t enter the Perseta Palace, and Rustica Genesis, claiming to be the heir, was gaining attention as one of the candidates for Empress, with her name appearing in the newspapers on a made-up day. It really made him furious!

“It’s unthinkable! This country is not normal! It’s utterly vulgar.”

He was a young artist, but before he knew it, his tone was gradually becoming like his elderly father’s. If he got a little older, he would become exactly like his father.

Ru never liked Aldwin for that reason a long time ago. He had pride and loyalty, but he belonged to a category that could never become a close friend. He had excessive aristocratic pride.

And Martin, who believed that Aldwin was like that if Ru believed it, also followed his opinion. If Aldwin got angry for the Empress, Martin also got angry. That was all.

“You should be even more careful at times like this!”

His attitude supervising Ru and employees, including Lucilla, became more stern. Originally harsh and merciless, he wondered if there could be anything more severe than this, but in cruel measures, there is no end.

But Elija knew that there were reasons other than hurt pride in Aldwin’s sharp plea for mercy.

“How’s the situation?”

In response to Elija’s question, which sometimes omitted too much and did not say military words, Aldwin sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“It’s said that Her Majesty herself went out on an expedition. It’s unprecedented.”

“That’s right.”

Unlike Perseta, there was only one type of newspaper in Kaleta, the official gazette published by the country. Therefore, Elija, judging that it was faster to ask Aldwin, who communicated with Kaleta, ‘to get accurate information,’ than to see the gazette, asked.

“What on earth did those cunning people in Perseta do! A monster appeared in the south!”

Even if he didn’t go to Kaleta, the people of Kaleta would say the same thing as Aldwin.