I see Duke staring out the window in a daze and ask, “Do you miss her?”
I may be the only person, aside from Alicia, who’s noticed his amnesia is fake. He slowly turns to me, stares into my eyes, and realizes there’s no point in lying.
He smirks. “Yeah.”
“You really are a fool, Duke…letting that butterfly get away.”
Duke’s smile turns cynical. He always looks so confident, but now he looks like he’s struggling to keep it together.
He just exiled the woman he loves; of course he’s having a hard time…though Alicia seemed elated by the whole thing.
I wonder if someday people will call him the crazy prince for exiling somebody he loves… But the situation in Durkis left him no other choice.
In a kingdom with virtually no relations with the outside world, Alicia is the only person who can set the wheels in motion. There’s nobody else who can serve as a spy on this mission. Everyone else is laughably inadequate.
It’s more than that—this kingdom itself is off. It has a clean, put-together facade, but inside, it’s falling apart.
That’s probably why Duke thinks Alicia can do something about it.
She’s a genius.
She immediately grasps what others want—what they desire—and has the power to negotiate over it.
Diplomacy is not ordinarily the job of a nobleman’s daughter…but knowing her, I believe she can accomplish it without any difficulties. That is just how deep her potential runs.
In the right environment, she will grow stronger every day. She will polish and refine herself. She will become even more beautiful.
……I’m in awe of Duke’s mental fortitude. I know he’s very possessive. He’s a man of great character, and he loves Alicia; otherwise, he wouldn’t have set her free. Especially if that meant sending her over the border…
“Butterflies are meant to fly free.”
“Huh?”
Duke’s sudden remark jolts me out of my thoughts. It’s obvious he’s thinking about Alicia as he stares out the window.
“I could easily use my powers as a prince to keep her confined here. But there would be no point in that. If I did that, she would just resent me.”
“Because butterflies are beautiful when they fly? Alicia is going to get even more beautiful while she’s gone.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“She might just keep flying and never come back.”
“Oh, she’ll come back,” Duke answers immediately.
Where does his confidence come from? Of course, I want her to come back, too. But she might make the decision to stay in Laval.
“Alicia will never lose sight of her goal,” Duke says.
“I agree, nobody has her level of conviction… But aren’t you worried some other man will snatch her away?”
It’s entirely possible. Everybody falls under Alicia’s spell, whether they want to or not.
“I want to be a villainess.” It’s easy to let her twisted way of thinking fool you, but she has a talent for finding a person’s true essence and bringing out their charms. Everyone she sets her eye on eventually comes to love her.
“……That won’t happen,” Duke finally answers after a pause. “I’m all the man she can handle.”
……What in the world did he do to her? Did he already make a move on her? Knowing Duke, I understand that’s quite feasible.
“Alicia is a romantic dimwit with next to zero experience—what did you do, kiss her?”
Duke smirks again.
Yikes, I don’t like that look. He kissed her by surprise, then, to let her know he’s the only one for her.
“I wonder what’s going to happen now…”
I turn my gaze outside the window. Thanks to that stupid saint, this kingdom is slowly going off the rails. She’s using some sort of special magic spell—that’s the only conclusion I can draw.
And if I’m right…why are Duke and I immune to it? Because we love Alicia so much?
Duke is a smart man. He sent Alicia away from the country, and even though he’s the prince, why wouldn’t he leave as well?
“Gill, you and I are going to reform this kingdom.”
I look at him in surprise.
Huh? What…did he just say? “You and I”? He’s…including me?
His blue eyes are so earnest, I feel like I’m going to be swallowed whole. I can see why every woman on the planet is weakened by them.
“Do you mean that?”
“Of course.”
His daring smile sends shivers through my body.
“But if you stir up the nobility any further, they’ll be angry.”
“Who’ll be angry?”
“Like…the king.”
“Good. I welcome his anger.”
“Are you a masochist?”
Duke simply answers, “My father’s no fool. He has his own reasons for doing what he does. But kings like him are in great supply.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, conditions in this kingdom are not atypical. There are nations aside from our own where the gap between the rich and poor is even starker.”
“What good are comparisons?”
“No good. That’s why we’re going to make things better here.”
Duke will make a great king. His eyes are telling me that much. The way he never turns his back on problems and always faces them head-on… He reminds me of Alicia.
Cruel kings…mad kings…compassionate kings…this world has a wide variety. I’ve never met them, but if books are to be trusted, that’s how they are. That knowledge alone tells me Durkis’s king is no tyrant.
The only issue is, I can never forgive him for the role he played in shutting us away in Roana Village. Punishing not only criminals, but all their descendants, was needlessly cruel.
“Well, I’m honored a prince would rely on someone like me,” I say.
Duke frowns, as if to say, Of course I rely on you.
It makes me indescribably happy. The space Alicia carved out for me in the world is dazzlingly special—I feel it now stronger than ever before.
“You and I can’t sit here and do nothing while Alicia is fighting the good fight in Laval,” I say.
“Right.” Duke smiles gently and pats my head.
I hate being treated like a child. Duke’s touch, however, doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable in the slightest. If anything, it warms my heart.
“So what’s our first move?” I ask.
“Getting my uncle back home,” Duke answers promptly.
“……Gramps? You know about him?”
“Yeah. I’ve been gathering all sorts of classified intelligence from Durkis.”
Well, of course he has. This is Duke we’re talking about. There’s nothing this guy doesn’t know. He could gather and organize ten times the evidence I could.
“I’ve seen Will Seeker’s proposed policies. We need him.”
“How the hell did you get intel on him?”