“I’m impressed... I didn’t expect you to figure that out. You’re right. We’ve kept it a secret that House Lillard has magic in our blood. Everyone descended from our family can use it.”
I knew it. I should be more wary of this fact than her magic eye. When a family hid their affinity for magic, more often than not, it meant that they passed down a troublesome kind. Something worth hiding, such as charm magic, brainwashing, mind reading, and so on. Oh, I know what I should do. I should give Ana and the others a magic tool that prevents their psyches from being influenced by magic.
In the middle of my thoughts, Matthew whispered something into my ear. Ana had come to the drawing room to join us. Lady Francess agreed and Ana entered. With her in the conversation, the topic shifted to our days as students. It seemed that when Ana had still been at the bottom of the school hierarchy, there’d been a time when she’d been pushed into a puddle, becoming covered in mud. While she cried, Lady Francess had taken Ana by the hand to the changing room. Damn you, Lady Florro! Your bullying of Ana went that far?! I knew I hated you! Apparently, Lady Francess had helped Ana many times after that too.
“I truly thank you for everything you did for me. I really looked up to you back then,” Ana said, smiling.
I wished I could’ve started in elementary school with them. If I had, it would’ve been me protecting Ana. Though I was happy so many people had helped her throughout the years, the sparkling eyes of admiration that she showed Lady Francess made not so pleasant feelings well up inside me.
“That was definitely Lady Francess,” Ana said after Lady Francess had left.
Yeah, I completely agree. Recently, Ana had a habit of checking to make sure the women I met with didn’t give me anything like food, drink, or small items for some reason, and had done the same today.
“Sir Ginorious, madam, a very important guest has arrived. May I ask that you meet with them?” Mary asked as she entered the drawing room.
Wow, so many guests today, I thought, but I supposed it couldn’t be helped. We’d just started recruitment for the war. My mother- and father-in-law were gone for the time being, so that left Ana and me to deal with everything.
After I received the title of duke, Mary and the other servants changed the way they addressed our family. My father-in-law became lord master, my mother-in-law became lady madam, and Ana became madam. However, I asked that they continue calling me the same as always because I didn’t feel like my skill was worthy of respect yet. I didn’t explain my reasoning to them, though, so they didn’t know that this was coming from my sense of inferiority or uneasiness. I planned on having them change the way they addressed me once I had more confidence. I wanted more than anything to hurry up and become a man worthy of standing by Ana’s side.
“Good day, Duke Sevensworth and Madam Sevensworth. I’m honored that you agreed to meet with me. It’s an honor to greet descendants of the great dragon.”
“Y-Your Majesty?!”
Both Ana and I exclaimed this at the same time, our voices echoing across the twenty-second drawing room, Dianthus Musk. Our shock was not only at the decidedly not dead queen standing before us, but also that she’d addressed us with the highest level of formality as though we were monarchs, and had also used the old Sevensworth greeting method. We frantically urged her to stop bowing to us and had her sit down so she could tell us what happened.
“Why are you dressed as a commoner?” I asked.
It wasn’t unheard of for nobility to dress as commoners when sneaking around, but usually they’d wear clean, new clothes. What Her Majesty was currently wearing was ragged and stained, with not a single piece of jewelry, and she had her hair messily tied behind her like a commoner as well.
“I thought this the best way to keep Christopher from finding us.”
She was referring to our new king. By not using any honorifics, she was very transparently displaying her disdain for him. Today was the first day of our recruitment efforts and a lot of people had come to join, and they weren’t all just commoners. Nobles like Justin and Lady Francess had also come. The current king was no doubt very keen to see which nobles would side with us, and had sent his own people here to find out, making them very busy. That was probably why she chose to come today, and why she’d chosen to dress as a commoner just in case.
“They said you were attacked. Are you all right?” Ana asked.
Her Majesty answered this question by explaining how they’d been attacked within the city limits of the royal capital. For their safety, they’d tried to return quickly to the palace, but they found out that the first prince’s faction had already taken over. So they left the royal capital and traveled to our territory through the mountains, risking being attacked by monsters to take a path that not many people had their eyes on.
It made sense why she seemed so weary. As someone who’d gone from being the daughter of a marquess to being the queen, it had likely been her first time traveling without a bathroom or proper bathing facilities, let alone camping outside in monster territory. It must have been incredibly tough.
Though at first, they’d tried to go back to her maiden family, House Klein, they changed their minds and decided to come here instead. I already knew why.
The Sevensworths were very clear in their opposition to the current king. If we were going to stage a revolt, then having the queen and her son alive would be useful to us. We were certain to keep them safe. House Klein, on the other hand, was trying to avoid conflict with the current king, so there was the chance they’d hand the queen and prince over to him. Ultimately, she’d decided to rely on politics instead of blood since it was the objectively safer option.
“I humbly ask that you graciously grant us refuge,” the queen said, standing up and bowing once more.
Ana and I frantically stopped her.
“We will of course treat you with the utmost hospitality. You will be assigned a large number of servants to attend to your every need. Of course, we’ll make sure you’re well protected as well. Please use this estate as you like. If you have any complaints or requests, please let us know,” I said.
Her Majesty seemed relieved from the bottom of her heart and deeply bowed her head in thanks.
“Um, by the way, is he...” Ana asked, looking at the person sitting next to Her Majesty.
I knew that it was the former crown prince, but he seemed different. When we entered the room, Her Majesty had stood and greeted us perfectly, and had also explained the situation and asked for our protection. During all that time, he hadn’t moved a single muscle. Not only did he not even try to greet us, but he didn’t join the conversation at all. He was sitting on the sofa very slovenly, blankly staring at the ceiling.
“The reason we went out that day was because my foolish son accepted an invitation from the girl he bends over backward for. She said something about having made an important decision, so she wished to speak with him. It sounded very suspicious to me, but my son begged, so I relented and went with him to the meeting place. As expected, we were ambushed by assassins, and she herself tried to kill him. Now he’s like this due to the shock of everything.”
“That’s...quite a lot of hardship.”