Since the party, a lot had changed around me and Amy—both our environment and our relationships.
Thanks to Tida practically skipping with glee through the party, rumors had spread like wildfire that the two of them were dating. Shortly afterward, the king had publicly recognized Amy as a potential future queen—a candidate for the crown princess. That had set off a huge commotion between the noble factions. Many nobles had a problem with the fact that she was a commoner, and some had even gone to the king in protest. But once they had heard the plan I’d devised and suggested to His Majesty, most of them had shut up real quick.
“I can’t believe Amy was adopted by the Otori family and the Sylphid family on top of that! So that means she’ll be my sister-in-law, right?” Albert asked.
Family ties mattered a lot in noble marriages. We officially adopted Amy into my family first, since I had influence with the royal family and several major noble houses. The next issue was her rank, so Eliza’s family adopted her as well. With that done, the next step would be for her to eventually get married to Tida.
Since there wasn’t an official engagement yet, there had been some talk about holding off on the adoption. However, Eliza had insisted on it and had filed the paperwork almost immediately.
I thought Karina and Arie might hesitate to give Amy up for adoption, even if it was just on paper, but they had been thrilled when I brought it up.
“Really? That’s amazing! Yes, we agree!”
They had told me that they’d already figured Amy would have to be adopted into a noble family if she were to end up with a royal like Tida. They had actually been thinking about asking me if she could be adopted by the Sammons family.
I’d been bracing myself for having to try and convince them, so their enthusiasm had caught me off guard.
Right after I had returned to the capital, Eliza had stormed into the house since she’d heard about the whole thing. Her father had shown up not long after, apologizing profusely, and had tried to drag her back home. But since Amy and Eliza were already close and becoming a Sylphid would make her Albert’s future sister-in-law, Eliza had argued it would only strengthen the bond. It had honestly made sense.
After some discussion with the queen, we went through with the plan, and Amy was formally adopted into the Sylphid family.
Of course, some nobles were still trying to cause trouble, saying things like the royal family was just passing Amy around for their own gain. But the queen put a stop to that talk by bringing it up at every tea party she hosted. She spun it all as a heartwarming tale of a sweet commoner girl who had followed her heart and had ended up with the boy she loved. By the time the critics even started, the story had already spread through the whole capital, and people thought it was lovely. There were even plans to turn it into a book once Amy and Tida were officially engaged or married.
But that wasn’t all that had changed. Amy now had a small squad of female knights from the king’s guard. And Karina and her family had a new knights’ garrison base built near their home. Technically, it was a broader security upgrade across Sagan City, so it wasn’t like they’d be guarded twenty-four seven or anything.
Meanwhile, I’d started getting invited to a lot more parties being hosted by the Sylphids and the Sangas.
This was all part of the strategy to publicly show that the Otori, Sylphid, and Sanga families were all backing Amy. I saw lots of familiar faces at those parties, including Marquis Sammons, Cain, Leon, and a bunch of other royalists. There were also some attendees from the neutral faction I’d met during that whole coup ordeal. They all helped spread the word that our three families were close and were backing Amy.
Even nobles who didn’t like her had to think twice before making any bold moves. There wasn’t a guarantee that no one would try to find weaknesses to exploit, but so far, the alliance between the three houses was rock solid.
“Is it just you today, Tenma?” Albert asked.
“Yeah. Gramps said it was too much of a pain and stayed home to relax. And the girls are out shopping with Amy for future events,” I said.
Up until now, all the parties I’d been to had been pretty casual, but eventually, I’d have to show up to some formal ones with a date. That was why the girls were out shopping for dresses. They had taken Amy along because they thought it would be good for her to have some outfits from my family too.
“Eliza’s probably already met up with them.”
“Oh, I guess that’s why she said she couldn’t make it today.”
I was at a party hosted by Albert, mainly for younger noble acquaintances of his. Eliza really should’ve been in attendance too since she was the future duchess, but she’d picked her new little sister over her fiancé. Under normal circumstances, that would’ve been a huge problem, but since the people at this party were all ones they were close with, we were all just joking about it. Eliza had likely figured that no one here would care. She was probably still due for a lecture from her dad when she got home, though.
“Hey, that reminds me... Albert, what was in that letter you got that time Queen Maria lectured you?” I asked.
“Which time?”
“After you got in trouble because of that thing about Primera.”
I was talking about the letter Duke Sanga had given Albert right after his lecture. I’d meant to ask about it ages ago but had never found the right moment. Now seemed like the perfect time to bring it up.
“Ugh...” The color drained out of Albert’s face, and he started to tremble. I quickly dragged him into a side room before anyone noticed—they might’ve thought I’d done something to him.
“Take some deep breaths. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said.
“No, it’s fine. Actually, Tenma, it involves you, so you should probably know.”
Hearing that made a knot form in my stomach, but at the same time, I really wanted to know what Primera had written.
“Just so you know, the problem wasn’t Primera’s letter. She didn’t write a single bad thing about you,” he said, much to my relief.
But in that case, what did that have to do with me?
“Primera’s letter was fine. But there were letters from my other two sisters too.”
Duke Sanga’s oldest and second-oldest daughters had both married into royalist families and were now countesses. It just so happened that they’d both come to the capital around the same time, which had been just before we returned.
“They were going to give me the letters in person when we got back, but since both of their duchies are to the north, they had to leave to beat the snow.”
Primera’s letter had arrived right before they left, so they had also decided to leave their letters behind instead of waiting.
“Most of what they wrote was furious rants directed at me. But they also demanded that I tell them about you. I think they want to judge for themselves whether or not you’re good enough for Primera. They probably won’t come here over the winter, but I bet they’ll show up the second the snow melts.”
He told me that his two older sisters adored Primera. It wasn’t a matter of if they’d come see me, but when—Albert told me to prepare myself.
I listened as Albert told me a few more stories about them, and once he had calmed down enough, we returned to the party. A few guests asked where we’d been, but when Albert told them we had been talking about future cooperation between the Otori and Sanga families, they didn’t push any further.
“Hm? It’s getting chilly out. Looks like it’s already started snowing,” I said.
It was light now, but I could tell from how the sky looked that the snow would start coming down hard any minute.
“Good thing I made this a daytime party. This may end up being the biggest snowfall of the year,” Albert said.
And sure enough, the snow really did start coming down harder. The party wrapped up early, and the guests began heading out in their carriages.
I stuck around to continue my show of how friendly Albert and I were, saying goodbye to all the other guests before I headed back home on foot. Albert offered to send me home in a carriage, but with the snow piling up, I declined because I figured it would be a pain for the driver to get back here. After all, in the worst-case scenario, I could just fly home.
“Brr, it’s freezing. Glad I changed before heading home,” I muttered.
Party clothes weren’t exactly made for snowy weather. It might have been against proper etiquette, but I’d switched into my usual outfit before I left Albert’s. I had put on a coat and used magic to warm the air between the layers. I wasn’t worried about freezing, but I didn’t feel like walking in this mess for over an hour either.
I decided to use my flying magic. Technically, flying through the capital was restricted and could get you fined, but I thought if I got caught, I could just say it was an emergency because of the snowstorm.
Armed with that excuse, I launched myself into the air, heading for the estate. I took it slow because flying through the snow too quickly wasn’t just cold—it hurt. My visibility was terrible too. I decided to just put safety first. It wasn’t a long way back home, anyway.
After flying for a while, I was just about to the estate when I suddenly felt a strange, ominous presence.
“Where’s it coming from?”