A few days after the Second Prince of Egelvamot departed, Idren was able to hear news related to him.

“It seems the Second Prince wrote a letter to Gilrod Nebel.”

Salode, who had briefly stepped out saying he needed to check something, reported as soon as he returned. Idren nodded while skimming over the Lerk family’s land documents to see if they matched what he remembered.

“Sit down in front of me.”

Salode sat down as instructed and waited briefly. After finishing his review of the final page of the document, Idren put down his pen and raised his head.

“As I recall, there wasn’t much of a relationship between Nebel and the Second Prince to warrant exchanging letters.”

“That’s correct. It seems he reached out after hearing that Your Majesty had expelled the head of the Nebel family.”

On the day Ophelia was upset because of the Second Prince, Idren had ordered a knight to confirm if the prince had left the castle.

And the knight reported that the prince’s servant had conversed with a servant from Leden.

Though he could have taken action earlier if he wanted, Idren had deliberately left that servant alone. What would a servant working in the laundry know? What came out of their mouth was no different from what was circulating outside.

Of course, they would have to pay the price for wagging their tongue someday, but it was better to leave them be for now. There would come a time to deal with them all at once.

In any case, it wasn’t surprising that the Second Prince had contacted Gilrod. It made sense since they both disliked him.

It was a bit unexpected that he reached out to Gilrod Nebel even though he must know why he was expelled from the castle.

Seeing that his jealousy towards Idren was stronger than the indignation over the insult Ophelia suffered, despite claiming to be a friend, he truly had an unpleasant personality. Thinking that he should soon take measures to prevent anything related to him from crossing the Aglante border, Idren asked.

“What about the other matter I asked you to look into earlier?”

“The merchant group using a yellow peony as their seal is called Siwen. They operate between Leden, Egelvamot, and southern Aglante. They occasionally trade as far as Tesendot, but it’s not frequent due to the distance.”

“Their base must be in the south, yet they travel to Tesendot. They must be quite large in scale.”

“Yes, and there’s one peculiar point. While the details need to be confirmed, it seems Prince Mahanas owes a substantial debt to this merchant group. Though the exact amount isn’t known, the fact that the commoner merchant chief was allowed into the palace suggests it’s a significant debt.”

Before their marriage, Ophelia had mentioned that Leden’s finances were precarious.

The cause was surely Mahanas, so Idren had tried to find out who he owed money to, but couldn’t get much information.

So it was money borrowed from the Second Prince’s merchant group.

Idren wondered if Mahanas knew that his creditor was the Second Prince. If he had known, that class-conscious prince wouldn’t have summoned a commoner merchant to the palace, so he probably didn’t know.

Anyway, now that he had confirmed what he needed to, he could take measures. Idren said.

“I should write a letter to Princess Talia. She doesn’t like her half-brother much, so she’ll handle it. More importantly, how is the border region adjoining Brinwell?”

“There don’t seem to be any major issues so far. However, according to the spy we planted in Brinwell, the king has summoned Prince Namie to the royal palace.”

Namie was Lemetel’s only child and the Sigrasal royal whom Brinwell was promoting as the rightful king of Aglante.

Thinking of that child who wasn’t even ten years old yet, Idren couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

It wasn’t because he thought of him as kin. After all, Lemetel’s child was almost a stranger to him.

It was just that Namie was too young. Idren knew how young he was because he remembered himself at that age.

Moreover, if he hadn’t staged a coup, Namie would have been growing up as a prince in Aglante Castle. Of course, since he also had Brinwell royal blood, he would be treated well there too, but his circumstances would be completely different from now.

The throne was not originally his. He had only seized it as the only way to survive, he had no legitimacy.

Politically speaking, the throne of Aglante had been promised to those with Brinwell blood.

If the previous king hadn’t committed adultery, if he hadn’t existed.

No, even without going that far, if only the supplies to the northern front hadn’t been cut off, that promise would have been fulfilled.

And he himself would have died without even seeing Ophelia’s face, let alone marrying her.

Realizing that his own situation was actually the worst when he thought about it, Idren decided to stop questioning the legitimacy of the throne.

In any case, he had no intention of claiming that what he had done was right, nor did he want to assert the unfairness of his past situation.

For him, morality always came after love and survival. The former stemmed from education, the latter from instinct, so it was natural.

Having pushed the young royal child out of his mind, Idren continued.

“Now that their port docking rights have expired, they’re laying low for now, but they’ll start claiming succession rights again soon. We might have a war in about a year.”

It would take about that long to recover from the economic losses suffered when Queen Isde died.

Wasn’t there a war around that time in his previous life too?

Of course, unlike then, he had now stockpiled military supplies and strengthened border defenses. Moreover, he knew the geography of the mountainous border region with Brinwell inside out.

He had won the war even when he knew nothing. The second time should naturally be a victory. Even thinking that, Idren wasn’t at ease. Maybe it was because things were going too smoothly, but he felt uneasy somewhere.

Should he tighten the noose around Nebel’s neck more?

Scanning the documents on the desk with his eyes, Idren instructed.

“Check if Gilrod Nebel is contacting Brinwell’s potential son-in-law. He’s under house arrest, so he should be careful with his words and actions, but…”

It was then that a voice was heard from outside the door.

“Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Queen has arrived.”

It wasn’t often that Ophelia came to see him. Idren rose from his seat and said.

“We’ll continue this conversation later. You may go now.”

Salode stood up, watching the king’s back as he went to open the door himself.

When the wife appeared through the open door, the king smiled brightly. Salode could tell just by looking at his back.

After kissing the hand of the queen with large, seemingly harmless eyes and greeting the king, Salode left the room.

As usual when conversing with him, sitting side by side on the sofa, Ophelia informed Idren of her plan.

“I’ve summoned Starlet to the castle. In two days, I’ll bring him in disguised as a laborer.”

“…What did you say?”

Idren, who turned to look at her with wide eyes, had an expression of disbelief, but she had something to say as well. Ophelia asked him back.

“Didn’t you tell me not to go to dangerous places?”

Normally, she wouldn’t have done something like summoning a pirate to the castle either.

But Idren had repeatedly implored her not to do anything dangerous. He had said just as many times that pirates couldn’t be trusted.

In any case, she needed to meet Starlet, so Ophelia eventually chose the method of hiding him well and bringing him into the castle. She thought Idren would be anxious no matter where she went to meet him directly.

So it was all decided with him in mind, but Idren didn’t reduce the size of his eyes. He asked again.

“So you’re saying you summoned a pirate to the castle? To your and my castle?”

There was a strange emotion akin to betrayal in those words. Ophelia spoke to the man who was treating her like a terrible person without even realizing who this was for.

“Should I go to the 7th district instead?”

“…No. This is much better than that.”

But the man’s lips were already protruding as he said so. It was clear that he found the situation displeasing.

Ophelia, who heaved a deep sigh, asked the man who was on the verge of sulking.

“Do you want to meet him together?”

“What do you mean?”

“I meant I’ll do that if you want to meet him together.”

She was asking in advance because Idren would get anxious whenever she did anything.

As expected, he readily agreed.

“Then of course we should meet together!”

It was exactly the reaction she had expected, but somehow Ophelia felt strange and responded glumly.

“…Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.”

It didn’t matter if Idren knew about her intention to summon Starlet for a conversation. At least regarding Mahanas and Leden, he knew as much as he needed to know.

Having finished her thoughts, Ophelia sank back into the sofa. It wasn’t that she disliked being next to the man whose emotions fluctuated with every word, but it was tiring.

Idren asked her as she blinked slowly.

“Why are you summoning Starlet?”

“I’m going to have him move southward towards Leden.”

At that, Idren raised an eyebrow. Noticing that he wanted to know more about the situation, Ophelia added an explanation.

“Mahanas runs a handicraft business in Leden. Originally, he sold these through the canal, and when the ships returned, he had them bring back his luxury goods. But recently, he changed this to sea routes.”

It was a ploy to avoid paying canal tolls. Ophelia found her brother’s actions ridiculous.

The canal tolls hadn’t changed from her previous life to now. And in her previous life, Mahanas had used the canal until his death.

The reason he changed the transportation route was obvious. He must have felt it was a loss since commoners were receiving benefits while he wasn’t.