Now that it was only those of us in the know, His Highness made sure to give me the same complaints Lady Aurelia had.
I pouted. “There’s no way you didn’t know this was how it would turn out. I never stood a chance against a princess!”
“Then you should have tried harder!” he bellowed. “Does it not anger you that your own husband is being targeted?!”
“It depends entirely on Lord Simeon whether I am angered or not.”
“I would never do something so unfaithful!” my husband exclaimed vehemently. “You are the only one for me!”
“See? That’s the kind of person he is. There’s no need for me to get upset.”
I answered with a declaration that Lord Simeon and I were tied together by deep love and a strong trust in each other. But that didn’t stop the very miffed Prince Severin from raising his voice.
Duke Silvestre watched us with the usual glint of interest in his eyes. Triggering him the wrong way would lead to danger, so I made sure to leave him out of the conversation and to his own devices. Even Lord Simeon seemed to be ignoring him on purpose.
I folded my hands on my lap. “I suppose I did feel a bit dissatisfied with the princess’s behavior.”
Prince Severin looked slightly taken aback, but he continued forcefully. “Right? Of course you did!”
“It’s fine for her to act differently than what is expected of royalty, but she didn’t seem to be intentionally going for shock value. Something was off. Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Indeed! Wait...what?”
“When we spoke, her response to me should’ve been, ‘His wife is this type of woman? Hmph! Not much to see here, then. I shouldn’t have gone out of my way to meet her, ho ho!’”
“We don’t need her to react like that...”
“Tried-and-true tropes exist for a reason. We’re always supposed to have lines such as: ‘If you’re going to despise someone, then you should despise your charmless self. Between you and me, it’s obvious which one of us he’ll choose, isn’t it? As sorry as I feel for you, it’s time for you to give up.’”
“To me, you’re the most charming woman there is!” My husband sounded desperate. “I would only ever choose you!”
“Please be quiet, Lord Simeon. Princess Mira was trying to present herself as being such a character on the surface, but it felt strange—underneath that facade, there was no hint of that being her true nature. And it wasn’t like she was exposing that on purpose either. The puzzle pieces aren’t fitting together at all. It’s disturbing.”
I was completely serious as I reported what I’d gleaned during my exchange with Her Highness, but for some reason, Lord Simeon’s shoulders fell, and Prince Severin looked at him with pity.
I puffed out my cheeks at them for not listening and offered my conclusion. “I don’t know what the princess is plotting, but I don’t believe it’s anything to be worried about. Most likely, she isn’t truly attempting to steal Lord Simeon away.”
Prince Severin flicked his hand in exasperation. “But what if she is?”
“What if she is?”
I slid that question over to my husband, who covered his brow with his hands and answered with a tired voice. “It wouldn’t matter. I’m trying to convey to you that you’re the only one for me.”
“But you’re still going to listen to her requests, aren’t you? Usually, you’re able to refuse quite easily.”
“That’s...”
I hadn’t meant to attack him by saying that, but he must have taken it that way, and His Highness stepped in to defend him. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. Simeon refused to both escort and dance with her, and her attendants even tried to stop her, but she didn’t back down. I didn’t want to let these little incidents escalate, so I had Simeon give in.”
I nodded. “I suppose there’s no point in fighting over things like this. Foreign relations don’t need to be affected by such matters.”
“Indeed. This isn’t an issue that will negatively impact our kingdom’s honor either. The only thing that happened was that our customs were deviated from, to an extent. It would be worse for us to displease a future queen and damage our relationship with her.”
Though I agreed, I was still unsure about several things. This was how Lagrange was reacting to this situation, but what about Vissel? Prince Severin claimed that our customs were only deviated from “to an extent,” but the fact that the princess had taken the hand of a man other than our king—who’d invited her and was supposed to escort her as part of our warm welcome—was quite impolite. Princess Mira herself would be the one to suffer a damaged reputation from this, not us. It wouldn’t even stop at rumors spreading—her attendants would become exasperated with her as well. Wouldn’t the Visselians be the ones feeling embarrassed by all this?
That was yet another point of confusion for me. Even if the princess really had taken a liking to Lord Simeon, wouldn’t it be more proper for her to hone in on him in a more private location? Usually, someone of her status would pull back in a public setting. I’d previously felt that Princess Mira possessed both intelligence and class, but...
Prince Severin folded his arms. “Grudges continue to simmer between Lagrange and Vissel because of Terrazant, so it’s important for us to treat her carefully. That’s why I was trying to push things in a direction that would force her to give up.”
“My apologies.” I stared dejectedly at the floor. “I should have tried harder to fight against her with my eccentric oddball behavior, just as Lady Aurelia told me to.”
“Even if you’d won in that category...I don’t think it would’ve had much of an effect.”