“All right, let’s hop in.”
Leni looked tense as we got into the carriage and headed for the royal castle with Cruyff driving. We traveled the whole way there in silence.
“I see. So that’s what happened... Well, it’s understandable—you had no choice but to give them some information if that’s the card the SAR played. Just to be safe, nothing else leaked, right?” the king asked.
“No, that was all,” I said. “Lani is one of their intelligence agents, and he seemed to understand that the rest was classified. He did try to negotiate some other matters, but they had to do with me personally, so there weren’t any conflicts there.”
The second I mentioned those negotiations, both the king and Queen Maria stiffened a bit. But when I explained what he was actually after, they burst out laughing. Leni had been so nervous as this went on that her face was twitching and her tail had puffed up.
“Well, if you’re fine with it and didn’t cause any problems, then it’s not really our place to interfere,” the king agreed.
“But I’m curious. What does this yuzu pepper paste taste like?” Queen Maria asked.
Of course they brought that up. I had figured this would happen, so I’d made sure to bring some with me. I gave them a few warnings as I handed it over, but the king gave in to his curiosity and dipped a finger right into it. He immediately recoiled from the heat. Then, he made it worse by rubbing that same finger near his eye—he started writhing in pain.
“It’s not as overpowering as I expected. I could see this working in a lot of dishes as a spicy seasoning...”
While the king was suffering, Queen Maria calmly offered her opinion. Cruyff tried it too and said that once the flavor mellowed a bit more, he’d like to try it in a few recipes.
“Leni, you’re worrying too much. The king and queen can be strict, but they’re not the type to blow up over small stuff. You should try to relax more,” Kriss said.
“I can’t! If someone acted like you do in front of most royalty, in the best case, they’d get fired, and in the worst, they’d get executed!”
“You’re overthinking it.”
Kriss had heard that Leni was in town, so she’d decided to swing by since she had the next day off. She had hopped into the carriage with us on our way home.
“Well, they’re not the kind of people who’d come down hard on someone who’s genuinely trying after a little slipup.”
“Exactly. I mean, Tenma here called His Majesty ‘Uncle Alex’ the first time they met. And he’s still not that formal with him even now. He doesn’t treat the queen like that, though.”
“Kriss, I only act that way towards the king when he’s being difficult. I’ve never treated Prince Caesar, Princess Isabella, Prince Zane, or Princess Mizaria like that,” I countered.
“What about the royals you didn’t mention?” Leni teased.
I ignored her comment. It wasn’t that I treated them poorly—I just treated them appropriately based on their own behavior.
“But even when Queen Maria goes off the rails, you never speak casually to her, right?” Kriss asked.
And I had a pretty clear answer to that. “Kriss, do you really think someone who always loses control and someone who only does every now and then should be treated the same?” I asked.
“Well, no.” She understood instantly and shrugged a little as if to say, Fair enough.
“Master Tenma, there’s a carriage from House Sanga waiting at the estate.” Cruyff had spotted the carriage just before we reached the mansion and reported as much back to us.
“Who do you think it is?” Kriss asked.
It had to be either Duke Sanga or Albert, but what could they want? I was still wondering about that as I stepped inside the house, but I was immediately summoned to the parlor.
Duke Sanga bowed to me the moment I walked in. “I’m so sorry, Tenma!”
Albert stood beside him and followed suit without a word.
“Albert, what did you do now?” I asked.
He was the only reason I could think of why the duke could be apologizing to me. I figured I’d try to lighten the mood a little, but...
“Hey now, I take offense to that... But, well...it is pretty much my fault.”
He actually admitted it...
“Tenma, they’re here to talk about something serious. Stop fooling around and take a seat,” Gramps said, stepping in.
Honestly, I was grateful he did that, because I had no idea how to react to Albert’s reply.
“Okay, so why are you and Albert looking so apologetic, then?” I asked, trying to reset the mood.
“Well, my daughter’s coming,” Duke Sanga said.
“You don’t mean Primera, do you?”
I couldn’t imagine they would both go out of their way to apologize to me if it was just Primera. But the moment I said her name, I remembered something. The ones who sent the letters that freaked Albert out so much were...
He must’ve been talking about his older sisters. They had written scathing letters after the whole matchmaking debacle involving Primera and had warned that they’d come see me themselves someday.
“My second daughter is coming to the capital soon, and she’s asked to meet you.”
Well, at least it’s just one of them. Still, that could mean they might be planning a staggered ambush. That made me uneasy.
“I don’t mind meeting her, but Albert will come with me, right?” I asked.
She was married, so I doubted we’d be meeting alone. And, if Albert wasn’t there, I’d be her only target. I also needed someone to mediate. In the best-case scenario, I could even throw Albert under the bus and minimize the damage to myself.
“Of course,” the duke said. “According to Primera, the person truly at fault here is Albert. She thinks you just got caught up in it. So Albert has an obligation to be there.”
Basically, what he was saying was that since Albert had dragged me into this mess, he had to take responsibility for it.
“So...how soon is soon? Do you have any idea?” I asked.
Now that I had Albert all lined up as my human shield-slash-sacrifice, I just needed to know when she would arrive so I could get some intel on her beforehand, but...