“An Adjutant cannot stand idle while his Sovereign is in a predicament. If you make use of me, you can escape your dilemma. I told you at the start, please make use of me as you wish.”
You know…I’ve thought this for a while, but—
“The way you say the word…‘use’… I don’t like it.” Doesn’t it make Klifford sound like an object? But he’s a person. And to make matters worse, he talks about himself as if he weren’t a person. Besides. “If I give you a command as your Sovereign, you aren’t allowed to refuse it.”
Klifford gave me a confused look back.
“Why would I need to refuse?”
I don’t need to refuse…was what he meant.
Maybe when you base your entire existence around commands, this is the logical conclusion…
“What if I don’t give you an official command…but a simple selfish request instead? Would you mind it then?”
“As I am now…” His indigo eyes locked onto me. “I would not mind it.”
D-dang, that was blunt. Klifford refuted my worry with such ease.
“But if you give me a command as your Adjutant, I would kill my own will to carry it out.”
Y-yeah, I thought so… Like, is he speaking from experience here? Was he ever forced to carry out a command he disagreed with? It’s just a baseless theory, I know, but I just have a sense he did…or is currently? As in, present tense?
“But since I became your Adjutant, I never once received such a command. The same applies to personal requests.”
“…Do you mean it?”
“If it does displease me…,” Klifford continued, “then I will feel that way, when such a situation arises.”
“…?” I stared at him blankly.
“Like when you refuse to give me a command, Your Highness.”
Um, let’s see… Is he saying he’s upset that I haven’t commanded him to be my fake boyfriend…?
At my core…I’m a selfish person, okay? If you say a line like that to me, you’ll just enable me to interpret it however suits me best. You okay with that?
“Being my fake lover… It’s a hellish task.”
“Never has a command of yours felt hellish to me.”
But I still didn’t want to command him. If I had to choose, I’d rather make a personal request than a command. If I was putting my feelings first, I would request, not demand it. But—
Then I had a simple realization.
I should just ask him.
“Klifford, which would you prefer?”
“What do you mean?”
“A command…or a request.” Before Klifford could answer, I hammered it home. “And you can’t say you have no preference.”
After a breath, Klifford answered, “Then I prefer your command.”
Klifford clearly expressed his wishes.
Okay… Now I understand.
My mind was made up. Or my eyes were opened, maybe. If I had to ask this of Klifford, I might as well do it in the way that would make him gladly say yes!
I took a breath and said, “Klifford, I command you… Be my fake lover.”
“…As you wish.”
The corners of Klifford’s mouth turned slightly upward as he answered.
Standing at the entrance of the throne room, I gulped nervously.
At my feet, the bright red carpet extended out to the throne. All I needed to do was walk in a straight line. It was not far, but with all the eyeballs staring at me, I couldn’t help but feel like the room was swallowing me whole.
I spread Blackfeather wide in a futile attempt at respite and brought it in front of my face.
Alone, I proceeded along the red carpet.
My father sat on the throne, and Edgar sat on the throne beside him.
Filed on either side were the attendees of the great reveal—
I found Sirius and Sil on the right-hand side of the line furthest to the front. Sil wasn’t under surveillance…or I suppose that responsibility was handed off to Sirius. Sil’s face lit up the moment I set foot into the throne room. Though I had heard through Matilda how he was doing, it was a relief to see him looking so well. His complexion had much more color than it did the last time I had seen him.
Then there was Alec. Alec…was acting strange the day before, but he seemed normal enough today. He was looking at me with worry.
Suppressing the urge to wave, I looked over on the opposite side—the left.
I spotted Uncle Dearest and Lucinda immediately…and Derek. He was wearing his shrewd nobleman’s smile. Until very recently, that was the only smile I ever saw on him… We had grown so close, and since that was no longer the case…I was probably still in shock.
Shifting my eyes away from Derek, I walked on.
When I arrived at the small staircase at the foot of the thrones where my father and Edgar sat, I stopped. I closed Blackfeather, shifted it to my right hand, and curtseyed to the pair.
Okay, then—
My heart was beating so fast it felt like it might explode.
“Octavia,” my father called, resting his elbow on the armrest of the throne. “Where is your lover?”
“Don’t worry yourself, Father.”
Well, my father made a point to change up the original arrangement and invited a bunch of guests. The intimate Meet the Parents was no more. That’s the gist of it. And so…I decided to be as extra about it as possible.
Rather than entering with my lover, it was a lot more dramatic to bring him out later.
“I shall call him now.”
I turned around, to my waiting lover.
“Klifford.”
On my cue, Klifford strode toward me. Under a sea of attention, he walked the red carpet until he stood beside me.
Back in the little room, we had a brief meeting to go over the necessary details. (Actually, Matilda bought us a little time, but it was barely enough for me to tell Klifford what to do!)
I gave him the extremely broad instruction of “Follow my lead!” and nothing else. But even in an intense situation like this, Klifford was chill. He’d clearly been much more nervous when I’d asked him what his favorite foods were!