“Lord Amaren?”

Lescit Amaren, Talia’s husband, was coming out of the Empress’s Palace.

Lescit, who spotted him, bowed his head. Orien approached the man who was quite decent, unlike his cat-like younger sister.

“I didn’t know you were in the Empress’s Palace.”

“I had something to discuss with the First Princess.”

“Oh, it was about Rachel.”

And Orien naturally recalled what had happened before Lescit married Talia.

In fact, Lescit Amaren had proposed not to Talia, but to Rahelica.

“The first princess is still not ready to leave her mother’s embrace, but fortunately, I have two daughters.”

Because of those words from the Emperor, he ended up marrying Talia, but it was an inside story already known to those who needed to know.

Of course, being a man himself, Orien knew that people’s hearts don’t go according to plan.

But he objected to discord arising among his own family members. Especially since Talia didn’t get along well with Rahelica. It was because she couldn’t break the habit of biting everyone in the household except her younger sister.

Of course, Talia loved the merchant guild far more than the husband the Emperor had procured for her, so she wouldn’t be jealous of Rahelica.

But she was the type who didn’t want to give something to her elder sister even if it was broken.

It would be better to mediate before the household became chaotic. Having reached this conclusion, Orien said to Lescit.

“Rachel is certainly beautiful. But she’s only lived in the palace and won’t be able to have pleasant conversations with a man as busy with public and private affairs as you. So if you need someone to talk to, it wouldn’t be bad to come to the Crown Prince’s Palace.”

It was a roundabout suggestion to avoid hurting the other’s pride. He wasn’t particularly interested in his sister’s husband, but for the sake of family harmony, he could spare time once or twice.

But Lescit refused with his usual calm face.

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m fine. There’s someone knowledgeable about current affairs at home as well.”

“Talia is certainly clever. And she’s a good conversationalist as long as you’re mindful that she doesn’t like it when her elders meddle.”

“I’m well aware of what my wife dislikes and likes.”

It was already a lost cause that he came out of the Empress’s Palace where Rachel stayed knowing this, but Orien nodded, not wanting to waste more time. Anyway, it would be enough to give a warning to Rahelica.

“It’s good to see you’re attentive to your family. I’m afraid I have an appointment to keep now.”

“Please return safely.”

And Lescit bowed his head once to him, then passed by. Orien glanced at the man who looked upright but wasn’t in character, and took a step towards the Empress’s Palace. Anyway, this much warning should suffice, he thought.

Rahelica forced a smile at her brother who thrust his face in front of her when she was already dead tired.

“What brings you here?”

“Do I need a reason to visit my sister?”

And Orien took a sip of the tea brought by the servant. Rahelica thought about splashing that red tea water right in his face. Recently, she hadn’t been good at controlling her impulses. She thought it might be natural since she had been controlling herself for over twenty years.

Unaware of her feelings, her brother sitting calmly in front of her said at that moment.

“Would you like to take a sip of tea?”

Although she found him detestable, she couldn’t afford to upset him, so Rahelica did as told. The red, fragrant tea water slid down her throat.

“Does it taste different from before?”

“No, it’s exactly the same as before.”

“That’s what I thought too.”

Rahelica frowned at the words with unclear intent. It was then that Orien spoke.

“But some people say the taste has changed. I wonder if that guy had something to do with it…”

‘That guy’ referred to the Second Prince who was recently exiled from the country.

Rahelica didn’t bother to respond to Orien’s words. He wasn’t asking for her advice anyway, but just talking mindlessly as if to a doll.

As she expected, Orien continued talking to himself without a care.

“I was going to investigate Prince Reden who first raised objections, but he died before I could.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

It was a statement devoid of any sincerity. What did it matter what happened in a neighboring country when she couldn’t even leave the imperial palace?

“Yes, I suppose so. More importantly, I wanted to see Mother’s face… would that be difficult?”

“Her rest hours have changed recently.”

The truth was that she didn’t want to see the face of her son who resembled her husband, but Rahelica made that excuse.

Anyway, Orien didn’t really want to meet Iris, he just didn’t want to leave any loose ends, so he wouldn’t pry.

As she expected, Orien changed the subject without asking twice.

“Then it can’t be helped. Ah, on my way into the Empress’s Palace, I saw Lord Amaren. He said he came to see you.”

“We had something to discuss.”

“I don’t intend to prevent you from conversing with people, but don’t get too friendly with Lord Amaren.”

And Orien put down the teacup that had been covering his mouth.

“Men can be quite different on the inside from the outside, what’s friendship to you might be seen differently by him.”

People only see what resembles themselves, Rahelica smiled at her brother who thought a decent man was as twisted in thinking as himself.

“Don’t worry. Lord Amaren isn’t that kind of person.”

In fact, the reason Lescit Amaren came to see her was none other than because of Talia.

Rahelica recalled the man who wanted to know if his wife and Duke Aglante had been acquainted before. Being in a position to be disliked by Talia, he couldn’t ask her directly, so he came to her instead. It seemed he thought she was somewhat trustworthy since they had cooperated for some reason in the past.

“The Duke and Talia didn’t have any personal acquaintance, but I don’t think they contacted each other out of any ulterior motive, so don’t worry too much.”

“…I didn’t think my wife had turned her eyes outside the home.”

“The Duke is the same.”

Unless they were both docile, there was no way a man like Duke Aglante would be attracted to a woman similar to himself. He was a sensitive man from his appearance. Talia also had a difficult personality, so it would be fortunate if they didn’t end up quarreling while exchanging contacts.

“…Isn’t she beautiful in appearance?”

…It seemed even someone like Lescit Amaren didn’t have such thoughts.

Rahelica said to the man whose scale of fairness seemed broken when it came to his wife.

“If the Duke was going to be attracted to Talia for that reason, he would have been looking in the mirror all day.”

He was no less beautiful himself, after all.

She wondered if all prickly people were like that, as Talia and he had similar expressions. They both had sharp eyes and looked cold when expressionless.

Lescit, seeming reassured by those words, stood up saying he would leave. Only then did he seem to become embarrassed by his actions, leaving with words asking her to speak freely if she needed help later.

It was a useless statement since she didn’t want to use Lescit and get on Talia’s nerves, but Rahelica just smiled.

She couldn’t tell this story to Orien either.

Lescit Amaren might be one thing, but she couldn’t carelessly talk about a story involving her ill-mannered younger sister and Duke Aglante.

Not that she had much patience left to endure her brother’s conjectures either.

Rahelica, starting to get irritated, leaned back. She hadn’t brought a fan because her wrist, squeezed by Iris, hurt, so she had nothing to hide her face with and had to manage her expression.

The oblivious Orien continued talking.

“You’re saying such naive things because you don’t know men. Don’t you know that Lord Amaren proposed to you when he was Prince Tessendot?”

How could she not know? That was the very first strategy they had put their heads together to come up with. Rahelica twisted her lips.

If Lescit hadn’t proposed to her, that man wouldn’t have been able to marry Talia.

Though it’s said to have improved a bit now, until Talia got married, Tessendot’s national situation wasn’t very good.

Even though they couldn’t reject them because there was a pretext of maintaining friendly relations, they weren’t suitable partners for a marriage alliance.

The problem was that the second prince of that country had developed feelings for her ill-tempered younger sister.

Talia, who wanted to expand the merchant guild’s influence towards the north instead of the south mostly controlled by Orien, had gone to Tessendot, and that’s when it seemed to have happened.

So the second prince had come down to Egelbamot without much thought. Under the pretext of being an envoy for a national celebratory event that was happening at the time.

But even though he was treated almost like a national hero in Tessendot, his position was different in the Egelbamot Imperial Palace. What the prince realized after coming all the way to Egelbamot was that he couldn’t propose to the princess.

Rahelica had reached out to such a man first.

“Do you want to propose to my younger sister?”