Wings, Not Shackles
Though she watched Karman's expression as he lifted his head, Diana couldn't even begin to guess what he was thinking.
She stared hard into his eyes, but the golden irises held no emotion at all. It was like looking into a mineral ruby—brilliant, and utterly without life.
Karman sipped his tea at his leisure, then turned his head slightly to gaze out the window.
Diana sank into thought.
I knew he was no pushover, but he saw through the whole act? And then he simply let us go? Why?
From the banquet to this very moment, she could not fathom what Karman was thinking.
What had Karman been like in her past life?
To Diana, he had always been the man seated at his desk, reading through documents. They had occasionally shared a meal or tea, but he had never once said anything designed to leave her guessing. He had mostly been the one listening, and back then she'd had no opportunity to speak with him directly anyway.
In this life, Karman had ended up as one of her research subjects. But today was hardly the time to lock herself in her study with her research subject in her arms.
"Your Majesty, I apologize for attempting to deceive you."
At Diana's apology, Karman turned his head and looked the two of them over.
"Then the reason had better not be a trivial one."
Karman set down his teacup and settled back behind the desk, fixing Diana with a steady stare.
That sharp gaze carried a warning: not a shred of falsehood would be tolerated.
"Of course, Your Majesty. But before that, there is something I wish to confirm."
"Speak, Lady Diana."
"You haven't forgotten your promise—that I might ask for anything at all as Prince Cassion's birthday gift?"
Karman gave a dry little laugh.
"It seems you don't understand the weight of a king's word, my lady. The late Duke of Ehrenberg praised you as remarkably clever until his mouth ran dry."
Diana flinched. She had never expected Karman to bring up her father—and she had certainly never known that the Duke of Ehrenberg had gone around singing her praises.
"I'm not scolding you, so don't be nervous. What I said just now was only a little acting cute, that's all."
Diana couldn't imagine why Chyo, Loomdrax, and now even Karman kept going on about acting cute.
"Diana, let me."
Cassion took her to be shaken by the mention of her father, and so he stepped forward in her place.
Karman's gaze slid to Cassion.
"Quite right. You came today to receive your birthday gift, didn't you? Then you should be the one to speak."
At the sudden brightness in Karman's voice, Cassion swallowed hard. He, too, could not read the King's mood at all.
"Before that—"
Cassion opened his mouth, but Karman raised a hand and stopped him.
"I should hear first how the two of you met. The visitor logs for the Third Prince's Palace contain no name of Diana Viola Ehrenberg."
Diana stopped breathing.
She would have to confess to Karman that she had been sneaking in and out of the royal palace, but her lips refused to part.
This was a different matter entirely from being caught by Julia.
Julia had dirt of her own, so she never pushed me too far—but King Karman was another story.
Anyone who discovered a hole in the palace walls was duty-bound to report it at once. She had used one to come and go as she pleased.
She could be taken for a spy and thrown into a cell.
They'd find nothing even if they searched, so I'd be cleared in the end—but still.
If word spread that she had been investigated, it would deal a fatal blow to her reputation.
Diana gnawed anxiously at her lip. Karman read every shift in her expression, then waved a hand in dismissal.
"Well, that's not the important thing. It can keep. As I said, today you've come for Cassion's gift. Go ahead, Cassion."
Diana raised her bowed head.
Was he really going to let this pass? Or would he corner me later about how I'd been sneaking in and out?
Diana turned every possibility over and readied her answers, but Karman asked nothing further. His gaze stayed fixed on Cassion throughout.
Beneath that gaze, Cassion hunched his shoulders. The Karman he had seen at the banquet and the Karman sitting before him now were strikingly different men.
At the banquet, the King had even seemed, for a moment, kind.
Had all of that been an act?
Cassion almost laughed at himself for having swept away years of resentment over a single gentle word.
And at the same time, worry crept in. What if the permission to marry never came?
I'll manage—but what about Diana?
Cassion looked at her.
Ever since the Duke of Ehrenberg had been mentioned, Diana had been staring at a point in empty air without moving a muscle.
Her late father brought up out of nowhere—of course she wouldn't be feeling good.
Cassion reached out and covered the hand resting on Diana's lap.
This time, it's my turn.
He had always been the one receiving from Diana. So he thought it was his turn to step forward.
Diana started and looked at him, but he had already turned to face Karman.
"Your Majesty, the gift I wish to receive from you is your blessing on my marriage to Diana."
Khk—!
Karman, mid-sip as he waited for an answer, lost his composure entirely. The sheer audacity of what his eleven-year-old son had just proposed made him spray his tea across the desk.
Kal hurried over and offered a handkerchief. Karman dabbed his mouth with it and waved the man off. It meant: leave us.
A heavy silence fell over the office.
The fleeting, human expressions that had flickered across Karman's face were gathered away, and that all-too-familiar mineral mask settled back into place.
He let out a long, slow breath, then spoke.
"Cassion. How old are you this year?"
"Eleven, Your Majesty. Diana is thirteen."
"I see. So you do know. Then why, knowing that, do you wish to marry?"
Karman had been about to refuse him outright, but the question came out instead. He had made a promise to Cassion, after all—and in any case, he judged he ought to hear the reason first.
"Because I love her."
Khk—!
Another cough burst out of him. This time even Diana was startled by Cassion's brazen answer.
This was not the answer Diana had wanted. She had intended to persuade Karman with cold, methodical logic.
"Cassion. You are far too young for a word like love."
Karman, only just recovered, pressed on in fits and starts. The mineral mask on his face had already been cast aside; he could not hide his bewilderment.
"So you neglected me because I was young?"
"What did you say?"
"Because I was too young to stand on my own—did you order me not even to dream of rising?"
With every word out of Cassion's mouth, Karman's face darkened another shade.
"Cassion."
He spoke the name sternly. It was a warning: do not cross the line.
Diana turned over the hand Cassion held, threading her fingers between his and squeezing tight.
That's enough, Your Highness.
If only telepathy were possible.
Huh? Come to think of it—right before I regressed, Cassion sent me a message, didn't he?
Why am I only remembering this now?
Magic messages were something only a truly exceptional mage could manage.
I'll have to look into how Cassion learned to cast one.
For now, though, escaping Karman's wrath came first.
"I don't mean to blame you, Your Majesty."
Cassion said carefully, pronouncing each word. Karman held his tongue, as if to say: go on.
"I said I wished to fill the emptiness at my side, because I was lonely."
"Foolish. Loneliness is not something a person can fill."
"Then what does fill it?"
The conversation between father and son was heating up by the moment. Their voices stayed flat and even, but that was how it felt to Diana.
"Power. Authority. Wealth."
Karman explained, folding down his fingers one at a time.
"People change too easily."
Then he added the reason.
Cassion was struck dumb. He had said he would marry to gain a person—and apparently that was exactly what he didn't need.
"Which is exactly why you should marry me."
Diana cut into the exchange between father and son. Karman tilted his head.
"You know House Ehrenberg, don't you? For Prince Cassion, my family would be wings—never shackles."
Diana realized anew the sheer power her family commanded, and silently thanked her ancestors for it.
She met Karman's eyes squarely. His brow creased.
Karman weighed the power and wealth of Ehrenberg against his own designs, and honestly admitted to himself that the girl was right.
"You speak true."
The tautly drawn string snapped in an instant.
"Are you granting the marriage, then?"
Cassion asked, his voice trembling.
Karman, who had been so thoroughly thrown by Cassion's bombshell, recovered his expression at once. He became the composed king again and studied the two young faces before him.
"Lady Diana, you are rather too sure of yourself."
Karman knew that if he withheld his blessing, Diana would be forced to appoint a guardian. And if that happened, her promise to be Cassion's wings would be so much hot air until she came of age.
It was true that he needed House Ehrenberg. But what he wanted was the head of Ehrenberg—someone who could fully command the family and serve his politics—not a child like Diana.
Having finished his calculations, Karman spoke.
"If you have nothing more to say, then rise, Lady Diana. And Cassion—you had better think of a different gift."
The order to see his guests out snapped Diana wide awake.
"Your Majesty, please hear me out a little longer."
Karman's brow furrowed. Diana's audacity was still, just barely, within the bounds he could overlook out of regard for his old friendship with the late Duke of Ehrenberg.
But she had defied his order to leave and insisted on staying. If she had nothing of use to offer him now, there would be no next time.
"Speak, then."
Karman glanced at the clock and granted it, if reluctantly.
"The Ehrenberg fortune is vast, Your Majesty. For me to marry Prince Cassion means that vast fortune moves with him."
Diana chose every word with the greatest care.
But Karman picked her statement apart, thread by thread.
"Didn't you say you would give Cassion wings? Why do you believe Cassion's wings would benefit the crown?"
The answer sprang to her lips at once—but she could not say it.
Karman had not breathed a single word about designating an heir. He had no intention of letting go of the throne yet.
Bringing up Cassion as the next king to the King's own face was as good as announcing treason.
"The question must have been a difficult one, Lady Diana. Then let me change it. What good would Cassion's wings do me?"