It was about 10 years ago, before the Wessex family gained independence from the Empire.

Frederick Louis Raines, the Emperor of the Hankin Empire, knew the value of the Wessex family, so he made great efforts to treat them with the utmost respect.

Of course, the fact that he had granted them a dukedom was already a sign of the Empire’s respect, but Frederick wanted to interact with them more actively.

As part of this, Adrian once received education alongside the eldest son of the Wessex family. It was actually a risky thing for Adrian, who had been earmarked as the Empire’s crown prince from an early age, to receive the same top-tier education, but Frederick trusted both the Duke of Wessex and his own son to that extent.

It was trust that the Duke would not betray him, and that his son would be more brilliant than anyone else.

As a result, a situation arose that did not match the former belief, but that was how it was at the time.

And Adrian and Layla first met on a day when Frederick invited the people of the Wessex family to visit the Imperial Palace for a banquet.

“Hmm, the entire family…?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Maeve relayed the news to Adrian, who had returned completely exhausted from his psychokinesis lesson.

Maeve was the head lady-in-waiting to the late first Empress, and she had been watching over Adrian since he was little, to the extent that it would not be an exaggeration to say she had practically raised him.

In terms of presence, she was almost like a nanny. For this reason, after Adrian’s mother passed away, she remained in the Crown Prince’s Palace to continue assisting him.

The news Maeve brought was that all the people of the Wessex ducal family, who had briefly entered the imperial capital from their domain, had been invited to the Imperial Palace.

It was quite unexpected. Until now, even though there had been considerable interaction with the Wessex family, it had been limited to the Duke himself, his heir the Young Duke, and occasionally a few sons who tagged along.

This was because the Duke and Duchess of Wessex had so many sons and daughters that they could barely count them on their fingers, and some of them were even infants.

However, now even the youngest child they had last seen was around 5 years old, so it seemed they were old enough to bring along.

Thus, a banquet between the Imperial family and all the children of the Wessex family, which could certainly be considered a large family in terms of numbers, was arranged.

Adrian grumbled with a slight hint of annoyance.

“No wonder it seemed a bit noisy when I came in…”

“You should hurry and get ready. There, bring the new clothes.”

Maeve forcibly raised Adrian, who was sprawled on the sofa and reluctant to move, then called for servants to change his clothes and groom his hair. She even had him put on uncomfortable makeup.

The moment he saw the powder, Adrian grimaced, but Maeve emphasized that he should endure it since he would be appearing before many people.

“Your future fiancée might be among them, Your Highness.”

At Maeve’s words, Adrian made a sullen expression.

“Even so, it would be the eldest daughter… What was her name again?”

“It’s Lady Victoria, Your Highness.”

“…Right, Victoria. If I had to pick a fiancée, it would probably be her.”

Victoria Wessex. She was the girl who occasionally followed her brother to the Crown Prince’s Palace and trailed after Adrian.

Honestly, he didn’t like her very much. She would often admire the accessories Adrian was wearing or the decorations in his room, then beg to take them away, which seemed quite shameless in his eyes.

If the Duke and Duchess had been attentive and thoughtful, they would have noticed and restrained the child’s behavior, but Victoria’s attitude hadn’t changed for years.

As Adrian showed a slightly grumbling expression, Maeve asked carefully with a troubled look.

“Perhaps you’re not keen on it?”

In fact, seeing that the brilliant-minded Adrian couldn’t even remember her name, this question was rather unnecessary.

“Can I be honest?”

“Of course, you can be honest with me.”

“If I have to marry her, I’d rather stay single.”

“That’s a dangerous thing to say.”

“But I don’t think I can love her if we get married.”

Wouldn’t that make both of us unhappy?

Adrian had long been aware that his marriage partner would likely be determined based on political value rather than love. However, he didn’t want a marriage based solely on that consideration.

At the very least, he wanted to marry someone he could open his heart to while living together. Someone he could fall in love with even after getting married.

In that sense, Victoria Wessex was completely out of the question.

Maeve looked quite flustered after hearing Adrian’s true feelings. Seeing this, he vaguely thought that Victoria Wessex might have already been decided as his partner.

However, pretending not to notice, he used the excuse of being ready to stand up.

“We have to go right away, right?”

“Ah, yes, Your Highness.”

Adrian’s expression was stiff as he strode out of the room. It was because he was starting to have suspicions.

A reasonable suspicion that today’s banquet might be the occasion to announce his engagement to Victoria.

Now that he thought about it, it seemed quite likely.

It was the first time the entire Wessex ducal family had been invited, and judging by how Maeve had insisted on him wearing makeup, it seemed the current Empress and the princes and princesses would also be present.

Adrian muttered quietly as he headed towards the Imperial Palace with a few attendants.

“I really don’t want this…”

How should I refuse?

Thinking such thoughts, Adrian arrived at the banquet hall within the Imperial Palace.

Layla Wessex opened her eyes wide at the sight of the Imperial Palace she was visiting for the first time.

She had already been constantly exclaiming in admiration at the enormously large and splendid buildings and the vast gardens full of beautiful flowers while crossing the imperial city in a carriage, until she caught the eyes of her father and mother.

But the Imperial Palace was incomparably larger than the other buildings, and its garden in the back was so vast it couldn’t even be compared to the ducal residence.

‘Amazing…’

Layla had occasionally eavesdropped on her eldest brother’s stories and built up fantasies about the Imperial Palace, but she realized that her imagination had actually been inadequate.

Layla sat quietly in a corner of the bustling banquet hall, filled with over twenty of her family members, the imperial family, and numerous servants and attendants, looking around curiously.

Her parents were engrossed in conversation with the Emperor and Empress, and as a result, were not paying attention to Layla.

Perhaps no one would notice if her seat was empty. Layla looked down at the empty plate in front of her, swallowing her boredom.

It seemed that the banquet couldn’t start because the Crown Prince hadn’t arrived yet. She heard her younger sibling in the next seat grumbling to themselves.

“Tch, shouldn’t they serve the food whether the Crown Prince comes or not? I’m hungry…”

With that, the siblings sitting near Layla began to murmur amongst themselves.

“Just be patient a little longer, they say he’ll be here soon.”

“But Charlotte is a pig, so it’ll be hard for her to wait, right?”

“What? Are you done talking, Oliver? Didn’t you just reach 70 pounds recently?”

“What’s wrong with 70 pounds? I’m growing taller quickly, so that’s fine.”

“You’ve got a pot belly, you pig.”

As the fraternal twins, younger sister Charlotte and younger brother Oliver, bickered, someone approached Layla from behind and tugged at her dress.

“Elder sister Layla…”

“Cedric?”

Turning her head at the voice, she saw her youngest brother Cedric had walked over from his seat at the far end. Layla blinked in surprise at the child’s slightly teary expression.

“What’s wrong? You should be sitting quietly in your seat, Cedric.”

Then Cedric said something perplexing.

“…My foot hurts.”

Charlotte immediately scolded the child from the side.

“Do you know how important this occasion is? You should endure it until we get home, you fool!”

“Charlotte.”

When Layla called her name, meaning not to do that, Charlotte turned her head with a huff. Layla looked around, then got down from her chair and crouched to meet Cedric’s eyes.

“Why does your foot hurt? Did you injure it somewhere?”

Cedric nodded, puffing up his chubby cheeks. Layla removed the child’s shoe to check and found his foot was swollen.

She lifted her gaze with a start upon seeing that it was even bruised purple, as if something heavy had stepped on the top of his foot. Cedric whimpered.

“Some lady stepped on me with her shoe…”

Since he would surely recognize family members, it seemed he had accidentally gotten his foot stepped on while mingling with one of the princesses or their attendants.

Layla was at a loss for what to do and whispered to Oliver in her dilemma.

“Oliver, I’m going to take Cedric out for a moment, so if anyone asks…”

“Who’s going to look for you, elder sister? Go ahead.”

“…Right.”

Indeed, being the fifth daughter and a rather useless girl, it didn’t seem like anyone at this gathering would be concerned about her.

Reassured, Layla took her young brother Cedric and left the banquet hall. She planned to ask the knights outside if there was an infirmary or something similar.

Just as they stepped out, there happened to be someone walking down the palace corridor.

It was Adrian Raines, the Crown Prince.