After fleeing from Cian, Carla ran straight into the castle gardens.
The gardens—once tended by former king Albert, who had been a mediocre ruler but an exceptional gardener—were filled with winding paths, tall hedges, and scattered sculptures that made it easy to hide. Slipping into the shadow of a hedge, Carla caught her breath and pulled a small spherical object from her pocket.
“Liscia... Please answer...” she whispered into the palm-sized jewel.
It was a “mini-mini jewel,” a compact communication device. Originally, these were miniaturized versions of the simplified broadcast jewels used for public transmissions. Since the reorganization of the continent had brought an era of peace, technological progress had shifted towards improving daily life. Two of the greatest advances had been the creation of continent-spanning transportation networks and the miniaturization and mass production of broadcast jewels.
The latter had been developed by the House of Maxwell-Arcs with funding from King Souma. They revolutionized not only broadcast production but also communication, functioning much like video phones and greatly accelerating information exchange among the continent’s elites.
Though still expensive, mini-mini jewels had begun to spread among nobles, knights, and merchants. As a member of the reinstated House of Vargas, Carla possessed one as well. However, unlike a cell phone, the jewel couldn’t call just anyone. It could only connect to people whose devices had been directly registered. There were no ringtones, no call alerts; it was essentially a magical transceiver.
“Liscia! Liscia, can you hear me?!” Carla called into the jewel, her voice rising in desperation.
Nothing.
“Urgh... No answer, huh?”
The mini-mini jewels could transmit across any distance without the need for towers or relays, but their flaw was simple—if the other party wasn’t carrying their jewel, the call went unanswered. It seemed Liscia couldn’t hear her right now.
“Hmm? Is that Lady Carla?”
Carla turned towards the unexpected voice and froze.
Standing there were Sharan, the princess of the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago; Flora, daughter of Sebastian, the proprietor of The Silver Deer; and a third girl, the youngest of the three, barely twenty, who stared at Carla with wide, curious eyes.
Carla hastily straightened, standing at attention.
“Lady Sharan, Lady Flora, Lady Misora! P-Pardon me!”
“Is somethin’ the matter with ya, Carla?”
The girl called Misora tilted her head. She was Souma and Roroa’s second daughter, born after the war—a miniature version of her mother, cute and charming, though her half-lidded eyes always gave her a sleepy, absent-minded air. According to Souma, she took after his grandmother.
“Oh, ya’ve been playin’ hide-and-seek, indeed. I wish ya’d let me play with ya too, indeed.”
“Um, Misora,” Flora said with a sigh. “Tacking ‘indeed’ onto your merchant slang doesn’t make it sound polite, you realize?”
“Hmm? Don’t it, indeed, Big Sister Flora?”
Misora replied dreamily, seemingly unbothered, leaving Flora helpless in the face of her sister’s airheaded logic.
“By the way, what brings the three of you here?” Carla asked.
“Flora is visiting today, so we decided to have a tea party together,” Sharan replied with her usual composed smile.
Carla nodded, but Sharan suddenly stepped closer, her tone turning brisk.
“But more importantly, why are you here, Lady Carla? Lord Cian was practically glowing today, saying, ‘I’m gonna propose to Carla!’”
“Ah?! Well...”
“I see. So you were startled and ran away.”
As Carla stammered for words, Sharan let out a weary sigh, as if the entire situation had played out exactly as she had expected.
“Lord Cian finally mustered the courage to confess, and yet you responded by fleeing... If the two of you don’t settle this properly, it will make things rather complicated for me and my own relationship with him.”
“Um, do you truly understand, Lady Sharan? About...Lord Cian, I mean.”
“You mean his love for you, Lady Carla? Of course I do. I’ve known Lord Cian and Lady Kazuha since childhood, and I’ve seen the ‘Carla Love-Love Beams’ shooting from his eyes often enough.”
“L-Love-Love Beams...?” Carla repeated weakly.
Even after the continent’s reorganization—when the Maritime Alliance had grown into the Union of the Southern Continent—the Kingdom of Friedonia, the Republic of Turgis, and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago maintained strong, friendly relations.
The leading families of each nation often visited one another for diplomatic and personal gatherings, turning what began as official exchanges into something closer to extended family trips. Souma himself finally enjoyed the peace he’d longed for—swimming in the Archipelago’s waters during summer and skiing in Turgis before relaxing in its hot springs each winter.
Queen Shabon of the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago frequently visited Friedonia as well, both to allow her daughter Sharan and her betrothed Cian to meet, and to negotiate persistently for shipbuilding technology, including the designs of the famed island carriers.
Thanks to these frequent visits, Cian, Sharan, and their peers had grown up together, sharing countless days of play and laughter. That was why Sharan had noticed Cian’s feelings for Carla long before anyone else.
“Lord Cian treats me like a little sister, no different from Lady Kazuha, yet he has always looked at you as a woman he admires. It made me jealous, and I had to work quite hard to make him see me as a woman.”
“Lady Sharan...”
“You don’t hate Lord Cian, do you, Lady Carla?”
“N-No, of course not.”
“In that case, why are you being so indecisive about this?”
Confronted so directly, Carla finally gave in and confessed. “I’ve always...seen him as a younger brother. He’s grown so much now, and is the master I serve, but there are still parts of him that feel like a little brother to me.”
“My, what’s the harm in having a fiancé who feels like a little brother?” Flora said with a chuckle. “It’s endearing, really, watching a younger boy try so hard to act mature for you.”
“Well, you would say that, Flora...” Sharan sighed.
“You’re talkin’ about Big Brother Leon, indeed,” Misora said, giggling.
Flora blushed lightly but didn’t deny it. She was Leon’s older fiancée. Roroa’s son had little interest in politics but a natural talent for business, just like his mother. It had already been decided that, in time, he would leave the royal family to help run Roroa’s company alongside Flora.
Though many years had passed since the unification of the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Principality of Amidonia into the Kingdom of Friedonia, the memory of their former division lingered. There was always a risk that keeping Leon in the royal family, while still carrying the Amidonia name, might give agitators an excuse to stir up old resentment. Because of that, Leon and Flora had been raised together from childhood, their relationship mirroring that of Carla and Cian—an older girl and the younger boy who grew to love her.
Ignoring Flora, who’d begun proudly listing Leon’s good qualities to an increasingly dazed Misora, Sharan turned back to Carla.
“So long as things proceed in the right order, I see no problem,” she said calmly. “I bear responsibility for maintaining good relations between this kingdom and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, so I cannot compromise on my position as the first primary queen. Even if you are accepted as a primary queen yourself, you must conduct yourself in a way that reflects well on me in public. If you can do that, then I will not oppose your becoming a queen, Lady Carla.”
“Lady Sharan...”
In that moment, Carla saw the image of her friend Liscia reflected in Sharan’s face; the same quiet strength, the same resolve to shoulder the weight of a nation while standing beside the man she loved. This must have been how Liscia looked when she stood at Souma’s side, supporting him. Surely even now, long after he had abdicated the throne...
“The rest is up to your heart, Lady Carla,” Sharan said softly. “If you truly wish to reject Lord Cian, I will not stop you. But if you have even the faintest feelings for him, and are holding yourself back out of concern for his position or status, then...”
“Th-Then what?”
“Then I will keep persuading you until you change your mind. Even if it means following you around while you work as a maid.”
“Urgh... That’s a terrible way to go about it.”
Carla let out a defeated sigh.