Cruyff crept over to the door without a sound and opened it. “Come in, Kriss. The queen would like to have a word with you.”
The moment the door swung open, I heard a thump and a scream, but Cruyff just strolled back to his place behind the queen like nothing had happened.
Kriss entered the room with a guilty expression on her face, rubbing her forehead.
“Kriss, you know that I assigned you to be Tenma’s handler so things like this wouldn’t happen,” the queen said.
“Well, I thought the instructions were more like, ‘You should give Tenma a hand if you’re free...’”
“What was that?”
“Forgive me, Your Majesty!” Kriss cried out.
And now it was time for Kriss to kneel beside Albert for her own lecture from the queen. I took that opportunity to slip away quietly. I might’ve been totally abandoning Albert, but since he was still staring at the letter in shock, I didn’t think he’d even notice me leaving.
“Tenma, you look exhausted,” Prince Caesar said.
“Well, it was his own fault, so he can’t complain.”
“I understand that expecting an adventurer to follow noble customs might be a lot to ask, but...” Prince Caesar began.
Princess Isabella interrupted him. “Still, whether you’re a noble or an adventurer, making a lady look bad is absolutely unacceptable!”
“I think it’s about time for me to be going...” Prince Zane said, and he quietly slipped out of the room while the other two bickered beside me.
“Zane sure doesn’t change,” Prince Caesar said, looking slightly exasperated.
“Speaking as his sister-in-law, I think a happy marriage is a wonderful thing,” Princess Isabella said with a smile on her face.
“Prince Caesar, if you’ll excuse us, I think we’ll head out too,” Duke Sanga said. “I’m truly sorry that Albert caused so much trouble. My apologies again, Tenma.” The duke nodded to both Prince Caesar and me. Then, he turned to say his goodbyes to Queen Maria and the king before retrieving Albert, whose legs must’ve gone completely numb from sitting formally for so long. Nevertheless, Albert was frantically trying to move his legs so he could get out of there as fast as he could.
“By the way, I had something to ask you about Amy,” I said after they had left.
“Did Tida do something?!” Prince Caesar asked with alarm.
I told him it had nothing to do with his son, and his face relaxed with relief. Princess Isabella giggled at the sight of it.
“What’s so funny, Isabella?” Prince Caesar asked her.
“At least someone looks like they’re enjoying themselves.”
Lord Ernest and Gramps wandered over to see what all the commotion was about.
It seemed odd to have such a large group just standing around, so we moved to a nearby table. We were also careful to stay out of Queen Maria’s line of sight—Kriss was still being subjected to her lecturing. Kriss noticed us slipping away and looked in our direction, but that only got her yelled at more for not paying attention. The king couldn’t exactly ignore the queen’s lecture, so he stared enviously at us. It seemed like he wished he could join in on the fun.
“So, what was your question?” Prince Caesar asked me.
“I heard there is going to be a party at the academy soon, and Amy’s family can’t make it. I was wondering if I should attend the party instead, as her guardian,” I said.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” he began. “The Otori family are her official guardians in the capital, so even if her birth family could attend, you’d still be getting a separate invitation.”
Apparently, the reason I hadn’t received anything yet was that different people were in charge of sending invitations to out-of-town guardians and local ones. The out-of-towners’ invitations had been sent out much earlier.
I then explained the circumstances further.
“So, according to Albert and the others, there’s a chance someone might try to propose to Amy during the party?” Princess Isabella asked.
“It’s definitely possible,” Prince Caesar said. “Even with your backing, there might be a student who thinks he can just push Amy a bit, thinking that she wouldn’t be able to say no because she’s a commoner. The royal family wants to avoid trouble, obviously, but since she’s not officially Tida’s girlfriend, we can’t interfere with her decisions. That’s one of the reasons why Tida’s been so grumpy lately...”
Ah, so that’s why Prince Caesar jumped into the conversation so fast when I mentioned Amy... He’d assumed Tida had done something reckless again.
“You know, the way Tida’s been acting lately reminds me a little too much of Father,” Prince Caesar confided.
“That’s pretty worrying,” I said.
Everyone at the table nodded.
“Love makes people do stupid things. Take Alex when he was that age, for example. He was a walking disaster!” Gramps said. Even though that comment had been quite rude, no one objected.
Lord Ernest looked down at his hands. “He really was. I lost count of how many times I had to give him a good walloping,” he said.
“Honestly, I’d rather have Tida continue being hung up on Amy than falling for someone worse. But if she rejects him...” Princess Isabella trailed off.
I understood why she was worried. It would be great if things were to work out, but there was always a risk that Tida would freak out if she were to not return his affections.
“I don’t think Amy dislikes Tida,” she added. “He might still have a chance if he doesn’t rush things too much.”
“I hope that’s the case. But even if they do get together, Amy being a commoner still poses a problem. You’ll be there to help if we need you, right?” the prince asked me.
“Of course,” I said. “Amy’s important to me because she’s my apprentice. I’ll do whatever I can.”
I’d thought calling her my student might’ve sounded too weak to protect her against a bunch of fools, so I’d gone with “apprentice” instead.
Prince Caesar seemed satisfied with my answer. “Good. I’ll be counting on you when the time comes. There will be conditions, of course. But given their ages, it might happen sooner than you think.”
Basically, it sounded like we were preparing to back Tida if things moved forward with Amy. However, that got me thinking about something Queen Maria had mentioned earlier.
“Prince Caesar, Queen Maria said that when it comes to noble marriages, the head of the family’s decision matters more than the individuals themselves. So how does that work in Kriss’s situation?” I asked.
Kriss had told me that she’d run away from home because she hadn’t wanted to get married to that older man to cover her family’s debts. But if the royal family had stepped in to help her, wouldn’t that contradict what Queen Maria had said?
Prince Caesar, Princess Isabella, and Lord Ernest all had awkward looks suddenly come over their faces.
“Well... Even Mother couldn’t stomach the idea of marrying off a twelve-year-old girl to a man in his forties who’d been divorced three times,” Prince Caesar said.
“Especially when he had already been a problem long before that. His first wife was his own age, but the second was only fifteen, and the third was a minor. She was about Kriss’s age at the time...” Princess Isabella said, filling in the details that her husband had tried to politely tiptoe around.
“He had an affair with the girl who’d become his second wife while he was still married to his first. When his first wife found out, he divorced her and married the next right away. Then, the same thing happened, and that was how he got married a third time. Apparently, his first wife was just for show, to cover up his, er...preferences. He wasn’t interested in grown women—he was only interested in young girls. So when his second and third wives grew up and were no longer his type, he dumped them too,” she explained.
Once his first wife had found out about his preferences, he had stopped trying to hide them. As for wives two and three, it was more like he had straight up abandoned them.