A Lie Well Told
Chloe played innocent.
“Loyalty. It is because His Grace and I love each other.”
“If speaking casually is difficult for you, let’s at least drop the ‘loyalty’ at the front.”
“Understood. His Grace and I…”
“I was the first person to visit my uncle the day after my father caused that scene at the banquet. I can roughly guess the circumstances.”
Prince Frederick cut Chloe off with a gentle smile.
Chloe glanced down again at Curtis below. But the prince standing on the terrace did not take his eyes off her.
She almost sighed.
So after His Majesty, now it’s the nephew testing me?
But Chloe was a soldier. No matter how close Curtis and the prince appeared, their contract was a kind of classified matter. If she leaked classified information to an outsider beyond her authority based on personal judgment, her military career was over.
“Let’s be honest. Is my uncle the sort of man who can share a bed with someone else?”
On that point, I agree with you very much.
But she could hardly say that.
“He loves me, so I’m sure he does so gladly.”
At her brazen answer, Prince Frederick smiled.
“I understand well enough why my uncle made this choice. My father’s ancient inferiority complex can be burdensome even for me, his son.”
“Thank you for trusting a foolish person.”
Meaning: Have you lost your mind, Your Highness? We only met today, and you’re insulting His Majesty to my face?
Even so, Frederick was still smiling.
“But the person I don’t understand is you, Lady Amboise.”
“…”
“Judging only by what has happened so far, my uncle is the only one benefiting.”
“That is not necessarily…”
“Then is this marriage profitable for you, Lady Amboise? I don’t think so. For one thing, you have thoroughly earned the displeasure of my magnificent father.”
It was far too insolent a tone for the prince of Ibanes to use when referring to the king.
But anyone who knew even a little about Prince Frederick would understand completely.
A child raised under a sinister, greedy parent while constantly being compared to others tended to grow into one of exactly two things.
Either the same kind of person as that parent, or a person who laughed at that parent.
The prince was the latter.
It was also why he got along well with Curtis.
He had watched the tense war of nerves between his father and his uncle for more than ten years. Now twenty-two, the prince could more than guess Curtis’s intentions from the sequence of events.
There was only one thing that bothered him.
Chloe Amboise.
The prince, too, had looked into Chloe Amboise’s history. And he had clicked his tongue.
People believed Chloe Amboise had enlisted in the military to marry up. But to the eyes of someone who had lived as heir to the throne, that was absurd.
If she had wanted to marry up, she would never have joined the Navy.
As everyone knew, for one year after discharge, it was difficult to marry even on account of superstition.
If he had been Lady Amboise and hoped to marry upward, he would have entered the marriage market young, with that rather pretty face and her tall, clean-cut figure.
Chloe was twenty-six now.
What lunatic aiming for an advantageous marriage would rot in the military for six years?
And she was not even planning to retire after marriage.
Chloe Amboise had applied for leave to get married, but she had not applied for retirement.
Of course, the post of Curtis’s aide did come with a condition that made retirement impossible.
But given the exceptional circumstances, if Chloe Amboise requested discharge, it would probably be approved.
“I looked into it myself, and it seemed Your Grace would have difficulty finding a new aide.”
“I know that. But ordinarily, even for that reason, someone who has become a Grand Duchess does not remain in the military.”
The prince cut Chloe off at once.
“No matter how difficult it is to find one, it is still the military. If there are no volunteers, they can simply conscript someone in the end.”
There was only one conclusion.
Chloe Amboise intended to continue her military career from now on.
The reason was obvious as well.
In the Amboise family, there was no one earning money besides Chloe.
The prince suspected there must be compensation involved in this marriage.
After all, marriage was different from an aide position. You could not simply conscript someone into it.
And then there was something else. When the Grand Duke had demanded permission from the prince to use the temple, he had said in passing:
“There won’t be a next time for this, Frederick.”
A next time.
Was there anyone who considered a next time for a wedding, something meant to happen only once in a lifetime?
In other words, this marriage was not expected to last very long.
A brief marriage, and some form of compensation.
What sort of deal had been made was none of his business. But no matter how one looked at it, this was a one-sided rescue.
What Chloe Amboise would have to bear afterward was a lifelong decline in reputation.
She was ambitious enough to have volunteered first for the position of Curtis Shan Berk’s aide, yet she was willing to endure this?
So what, exactly, was there to gain?
To the prince, it was a choice he simply could not understand.
It was not that the prince was unaware that the position of Grand Duke Berk’s aide was one everyone avoided. But precisely because of that, completing the post and leaving it would become a fairly impressive career achievement within the military.
Yet if she married the Grand Duke now, career or no career, her reputation would plummet to the worst possible depths.
On top of that, for the rest of her life, she would likely continue to be hated by the king.
There was no way she did not know that.
And so the prince grew curious about Chloe Amboise’s true intentions.
“I’m curious why you saved my uncle despite taking such a one-sided loss, Lady Amboise.”
But there was something the prince had overlooked.
The prince, too, had been a ruler from the moment he was born.
And he was an extremely normal person.
Which meant he was not someone capable of reaching the conclusion that an aide who had spent three whole months working overtime under his extraordinary uncle had thrown her reputation into marriage solely because she wanted to see that uncle kneel.
Naturally, she could not answer the prince with, I suppose I was a little insane.
Chloe smiled sweetly and replied.
“I am ashamed to say, but I have admired His Grace one-sidedly for a long time.”
Prince Frederick’s smiling face creased slightly.
“I believe I suggested we be honest, Lady Amboise.”
“That is why I’m speaking honestly.”
Chloe placed both palms against her cheeks and acted bashful.
“I saw Grand Duke Berk’s achievements in the newspapers for years and loved him all by myself. It was an unrequited love. So when the notice came up that His Grace was seeking an aide even from the Navy, I thought, This is it! and applied.”
“…”
“Though I never imagined he would truly choose me. I meant to be satisfied with seeing His Grace’s face up close every day, but to think His Grace would come to love me.”
Silence flowed between them.
Was that a little awkward?
Still holding her cheeks, Chloe subtly rolled her eyes.
At length, Frederick smoothed out his furrowed brow again. Then he said calmly,
“Indeed, Lady Amboise, you are very well suited to the position of Grand Duchess Berk. I understand.”
“…Thank you?”
It was then.
“He means you’re a good liar.”
Chloe hurriedly turned around.
At some point, Curtis had come up and was approaching them. He lightly placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and said,
“Nephew, aren’t you tormenting the woman who will soon be your aunt a little too much?”
“Tormenting her? I was only checking whether my uncle might be harassing an innocent citizen of Ibanes.”
Frederick shrugged.
“In all my life, I have never heard anything as astonishing as the idea that my uncle loves someone. Isn’t hating people the easiest thing in the world for him?”
Curtis snorted.
“I’m about to start hating you too, Nephew.”
“An honor, Uncle.”
Chloe was on edge, but it seemed this sort of joke between the two of them was nothing new.
Curtis continued indifferently.
“The priest was looking for you. It seems he has something to say about preparing the blood-oath ceremony. Sir Amboise must go to the prayer room now as well.”
“Understood. Then I’ll see you later at the blood-oath ceremony. You as well, Lady Amboise.”
“Yes. Thank you, Your Highness.”
But the prince did not seem finished speaking yet.
“Lady Amboise. Though it may have looked as if I was interrogating you, I most sincerely hope and believe beyond doubt that what you said was true.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean I hope my uncle, with his temper so full of defects, has at last found someone he loves so much he cannot even control himself.”
“Frederick.”
Unable to watch any longer, Curtis issued a dismissal.
Frederick winked one eye and disappeared.
As soon as the prince was gone, Curtis removed the hand he had placed on Chloe’s shoulder and shook it off. Chloe cautiously studied Curtis’s expression.
“Um, how much did you…”
“More or less all of it.”
“So…”
“This is the royal family’s private place of prayer. Even if you try to hold secret conversations on the second floor, the sound carries down the pillars, so everything can be heard on the first floor.”
Chloe’s eyes widened.
That meant Prince Frederick had spoken to her from the beginning assuming that the Grand Duke would be listening.
If I’d slipped and said the wrong thing, that could have been disastrous.
Whether he knew what was going through her mind or not, Curtis spoke indifferently.
“You did well. But from now on, don’t say it like that.”
“Like that? …Ah.”
She remembered the nonsense she had spouted about admiring His Grace one-sidedly for years, and a hollow laugh escaped her.
So he meant she should not make up nonsense they had not agreed upon.
But Curtis seemed to be thinking something rather different.
The answer that came out of his mouth was unexpected.