Sister, I'm the Queen This Life (330 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 293

“Prince Alfonso seemed reluctant to marry the Grand Duchess of Galico?”

Rubina dismissed Ottavio’s observation as wild imagination.

“If they’re only engaged, you can still put the marriage itself on the negotiation table and squeeze out more concessions.”

Ottavio’s naivety made Rubina involuntarily drop her usual formal speech. He clearly failed to see the bigger picture and focused only on the immediate surface. He was undoubtedly a greenhorn who didn’t understand that sometimes, even a desired marriage must be feigned as undesirable.

“Why on earth wouldn’t he want to marry? If Prince Alfonso refuses that marriage, he must’ve taken a blunt blow to the head on the battlefield!”

There couldn’t possibly be a fool who’d refuse the Galican throne handed to him for free. Rubina was convinced that if King Leo III simply gave the order, she herself would eagerly volunteer for that marriage.

Alfonso, after all, was Leo III’s son and destined to sit the throne. The seat in the Hall of the Sun inevitably forced such choices upon its occupant.

In any case, she had now made up her mind about how to treat Ottavio. Rubina had practically built the young man’s social standing with her own hands and had been his father’s political ally.

Moreover, Ottavio was also her son’s close friend. Feeling at ease, Rubina began acting toward him like a familiar aunt.

“Darling, I heard you tried to bully the prince’s one-armed knight and ended up humiliated?”

Yet this remark wasn’t spoken with genuine auntly affection. Rubina was brutally blunt and cared little for others’ feelings—except Leo III’s.

“Bullying is something you do only after you’ve secured your position.”

Ottavio’s face, ears, and neck flushed bright red.

“If you pull anything like that again, even I won’t be able to defend the new Count Contarini before His Majesty.”

Rubina continued her advice in the tone of a tavern madam giving counsel to a very young regular. Her original background briefly peeked through her idea of what an “aunt” should sound like.

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