This Time Will Be Different (1)
“Interesting. Very interesting, indeed.”
The imperial family of the Fredericks Empire was, without exception, a peculiar lot.
While Cain was openly and aggressively hostile, Stella, dressed in light armor, treated her as though she knew nothing at all and showed her nothing but goodwill.
They said they were the children of the Grand Empress Dowager...
Regina found Stella’s gaze, fixed on her so intently, oddly hard to bear, and ended up looking away from Cain instead.
Perhaps it was because she had never had to deal with someone whose goodwill was so complete, so uncomplicated, that Stella felt more oppressive than threatening.
Conrad gave a dismissive wave, telling her to go, but Stella, though hesitant, did not retreat.
Just as the crease between his brows was about to deepen, Cain moved first toward Regina.
“And what exactly do you mean by the proper courtesy you’re talking about? Do you even know what that is?”
Regina met his eyes squarely and barely managed to keep from laughing out loud at how ridiculous he looked.
Then, feigning innocence, she rested her cheek on one hand and tilted her head.
“I can’t say what the future holds, but for now you are the prince of Fredericks, so naturally I should treat you as royalty.”
In other words, keep that in mind while you still have the position you have now, because it could be taken away from you before long.
Cain let out a laugh that sounded almost like teeth grinding together.
“My, my. The woman who’s going to become my sister-in-law is saying rather amusing things.”
“Amusing?”
Regina took one step closer.
At her firm bearing, Cain instinctively started to draw back, then froze. It occurred to him that he might end up looking foolish if he kept retreating.
Did I just get overpowered by that woman?
He had only heard that she was a sheltered young lady from an inconsequential house, ignorant of the ways of the world.
A pathetic woman who had been foolish enough to fall for Conrad’s sweet talk without even realizing she was walking toward her own death.
If she had so much as heard rumors about how the noblewomen of other houses had died in the imperial palace, she would never have dared act so boldly.
Just as Cain’s face, flushed red with anger, was about to launch into another warning, Regina spoke first.
“No one speaks of life and death as though it were a game.”
Her voice was soft as spring wind as it slid into Cain’s ears. Yet the words themselves were as cold as ice, and for a moment he wondered if he had misheard her.
But when he met Regina’s calm blue eyes, he caught sight of a fierce, sapphire flame burning deep within them.
“Hah... tsk.”
Cain’s shoulders stiffened as he recognized the warning ringing through the air.
It was already hard enough dealing with Conrad; the future empress standing before him did not look nearly as easy to brush aside as he had expected.
I thought I could just crush her spirit a little. Maybe I need to revise the plan.
The color slowly returned to Cain’s face as his earlier rage subsided.
Regina watched him coldly, the man unable to collect himself even after such a light provocation. But Cain was too busy with his own thoughts to notice her stare.
He had heard, more than once, that as a prince he must not wear his feelings on his face, but it had done no good.
Since childhood, he had grown up under Chloe’s protection, arrogant and unchecked, and the hardest thing for him by far was controlling his expressions.
For now I only came to see what kind of woman she is. No need to overdo it.
Packing his unease into a semblance of composure, Cain finally forced himself to speak.
“As the woman who will become empress, you speak rather carelessly about a person’s life. The future of the Fredericks Empire looks bleak.”
“Oh? If one life can save hundreds, then that is precisely the sort of decision a ruler ought to make.”
Regina smiled languidly, but the curve of her eyes was filled with chill.
Feeling the sharp, stabbing pressure of her killing intent, Cain decided he had better go report to his mother.
He had gotten a rough sense of what kind of person his opponent was; as always, Chloe would be the one to devise the proper countermeasure.
“Ahem! I had business with the knights’ order, so I should be going. I only stopped by to greet you.”
After a perfunctory show of respect, Cain turned and disappeared at once.
That left Stella behind. Glancing at Conrad for his reaction, she held out the small box she had been carrying to Regina.
“A gift.”
“...Thank you.”
The box, unadorned by so much as a single ribbon, was plain and simple. It was a gift that reflected Stella’s character as a knight without embellishment.
As Regina looked down at it quietly, Stella scratched her head.
“I’m not sure if it suits your tastes.”
“What matters is that you prepared something at all.”
Conrad, who had not spoken a word until then, answered Stella curtly.
“I see?”
Shy but smiling with her eyes, Stella smiled back, and Regina returned the smile in kind.
She watched Stella leave as the girl said she ought to be going too, unable to tear her eyes away.
Conrad seems rather fond of his younger sister.
She had assumed that, being Chloe’s blood, they would be distant at best, but that seemed to be a mistake.
Deciding she would need to investigate Cain and Stella properly, Regina tightened her grip on the box and looked up at Conrad.
Setting that aside for the moment, he said in a cool tone, as if to make clear that this was a separate matter entirely, “Can you cast a purification spell?”
“Of course.”
Before he had even finished the sentence, Regina had cast it.
Red mana rippled outward and wrapped the box. Then the lid opened, and the magic moved toward the object inside as well.
Regina squeezed her eyes shut.
The flow of mana wasn’t smooth; I nearly made a mistake.
A purification spell could have turned into an explosive spell. She felt a faint sheen of cold sweat break out on her skin, and once the magic had fully dissipated, she looked at the object inside.
“A cute little doll.”
Not really my taste, though.
Regina swallowed the words that almost slipped out and looked at the rabbit doll instead.
She could not make sense of Stella’s intention in giving a toy that looked as though it belonged in a child’s hands.
“She probably meant no harm. She likely only wanted to give you a gift herself.”
“...I see.”
“Stella is that sort of child.”
She looked a little too grown to be called a child, though. As though speaking of a younger sibling he found adorable, a faint smile lingered on Conrad’s lips.
Is he on good terms with his half-siblings?
Was that even possible, with Chloe threatening him the way she did?
“There probably wasn’t anything wrong with Stella’s gift itself. The problem was the hands it passed through. Even if she had bought it herself, she wouldn’t have been able to carry it around the whole time.”
“...”
He did not suspect Stella in the slightest. At Conrad’s explanation that the purification spell was necessary because of some hidden scheme by someone else, Regina found herself puzzled.
It can’t be that easy to think that way, can it?
Even in the Ferman Empire, royalty distrusted one another and engaged in fierce struggles for the throne.
Had she not, herself, fought her way to this point?
Fredericks would be no different. Even now, with Conrad on the throne, there would still be fierce battles raging beneath the surface.
Stella, the current Grand Empress Dowager’s own daughter, could very well become Conrad’s enemy as well.
Conrad drew closer to Regina and took her hand. Feeling the faint warmth along with the movement of mana, Regina unconsciously eased the tension in her body.
After their marriage vow at the temple, she had been able to feel mana flowing between them even through the simplest touch, and Regina took a steadying breath.
“Stella has openly declared that she won’t inherit the throne.”
“Declaring it doesn’t legally strip her of her right of succession.”
Regina’s quiet warning earned a tug from Conrad, who pulled her hand toward him. When she gave him a questioning look, he angled his eyes toward their surroundings.
Since the moment the two royals had left, more and more eyes had begun watching them.
It was time to start acting again.
Conrad lowered his lips to the back of her pale hand.
His lips on her knuckles soon moved to her cheek, then brushed the shell of her ear. As his warm breath drifted over her skin, Regina’s fingers tightened around his hand.
The tips of her fingers tingled, and the fine hairs at the nape of her neck stood on end. Regina forcibly steadied the breath that had begun to quicken.
In a low voice, Conrad continued, “Since she became an adult, she doesn’t come into the palace often. She leads the same expeditionary force I do.”
Conrad added that she was less a rival than a comrade-in-arms.
“So that’s why she was wearing light armor.”
“Yes. But the people around her are the problem.”
As long as Conrad had no children, Stella, as the first princess, would remain first in line for the throne.
And Stella, for all her declaration that she would not take the throne, had not gone so far as to give up her status as a royal altogether.
She knew that if she renounced her claim completely, the next in line would be her younger brother, Cain.
If Cain, who lived wrapped in the Grand Empress Dowager’s skirts, became first in line for succession, the imperial palace would only grow more chaotic.
“Ah, so that’s...”
“Still, now that you’ve become empress, things will change. That fool will be able to breathe a little easier too.”