A Lover Before the King
“Well, you see….”
The King faltered for a moment as he stared at the aide who had abruptly transformed into Curtis’s fiancée.
Curtis Shan Berk answered with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Warrant Officer Amboise.”
Ah. So he’d hesitated because he didn’t know her name.
“Yes, Warrant Officer Amboise!”
The King snapped irritably, then rubbed his forehead. Then he asked Chloe,
“How many years have you served?”
“Regrettably, she came from the Navy, which seems to have made her unsuitable as a betrothal candidate for His Highness Crown Prince Frederick and thus removed her from consideration as a crown princess candidate. It was a fortunate turn for me, however.”
Curtis answered again. The way he lifted his chin and replied with absolute confidence was tremendously obnoxious.
The King snapped,
“The fact that she is so perfectly suitable makes this even more suspicious!”
That much was true.
It was a little absurd, but anyone could see that Chloe’s status and background fit Curtis Shan Berk’s situation with uncanny precision.
Chloe was semi-noble, but she did not count as a morganatic match. On top of that, she had served in the Navy.
For reasons to be described later, female soldiers and sailors in the Ivanes Navy were not considered suitable candidates for swift betrothals.
And the person who had personally ordered that women from the Navy be excluded from the list of potential brides for the prince during the royal marriage negotiations had been none other than the King.
Clever bastard….
By then, Chloe was beginning to grow suspicious of her superior.
At first, she had wondered if this Grand Duke talking about marrying her had lost his mind.
But no matter how she looked at it, this felt like a board Grand Duke Berk had deliberately set up.
Whether she looked at him suspiciously or not, Curtis Shan Berk smiled broadly at the King and replied,
“Surely her beauty and intelligence alone are enough to dispel your doubts?”
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut without meaning to.
The King mimed falling backward, his face flushed as if his blood pressure had spiked.
Curtis, who had delivered the shameless answer, even went so far as to lace his fingers through Chloe’s and draw her hand into his.
The high nobles around them belatedly began to murmur as well.
The King clutched his forehead and groaned. Then, this time, he turned back toward Chloe.
“Warrant Officer Amboise. Say it with your own mouth. By the endless horizon, are you truly that ragged son of a—my brother’s lover?”
If Your Majesty wished to call him a filthy scrap of a beggar’s foot rag, then as a proud soldier of Ivanes, I would find myself in profound agreement with Your Majesty’s wise opinion.
Others might not know, but Chloe—who had somehow ended up holding hands with her dreadful superior in front of the King and was now about to be falsely accused of being his lover—thought exactly that.
Of course, Chloe was a very intelligent aide, so she did not say it aloud.
Instead, she looked at Curtis with an expression of distress.
“…Your Grace.”
Curtis was smiling at her, but his eyes were not smiling.
On top of that, he gave a stylish little tilt of his head.
To everyone else, he must have looked breathtakingly handsome.
The splendid Royal Guard uniform he had worn for the banquet. His beautiful face. The sudden warmth touching that cold expression which, under normal circumstances, hardly ever smiled.
But to Chloe, it was simply—
Answer properly.
—a smile rich with threats.
Wow, this is tempting.
Chloe hesitated for a very brief moment.
If she said just one little “No, I’m not,” then surely it would only be a matter of time before Curtis Shan Berk, who had put her through hell on the Training Ground that afternoon, was utterly screwed.
But the situation did not wait for her.
“Warrant Officer Amboise. Answer at once.”
The King was urging her on.
It was a situation she had seen somewhere before.
When she had signed the appointment papers to become Curtis Shan Berk’s aide, the official in charge had hurried her along in roughly the same way… or so Chloe thought, her mind drifting far away.
Damn it. You’re not supposed to bargain after you’ve already paid the price.
It had only been three months since she had thought she should have watched the situation a little longer before signing that contract.
But what could she do?
Chloe was a proud and brave soldier of Ivanes, but she was not brave enough to say to the King, Excuse me, Your Majesty, but I need to negotiate with my superior, so would you mind waiting a moment?
In the end, she swallowed hard and opened her mouth.
“First, I beg Your Majesty to regard me with magnanimity. I was momentarily overcome by awe at finding myself in a position to answer anything before His Majesty the King.”
“Spare me the speech. Is it true?”
At the King’s question, Chloe felt Curtis, who was holding her hand, tighten his grip.
Squeeze.
Chloe glanced at Curtis.
At first glance, it looked like the sweet gaze of a man looking at his lover, but to the woman facing him, it even carried a hint of murderous intent.
Chloe raised one eyebrow, then turned her head back toward the King.
“…It is true. Not long ago, Brigadier General Curtis Shan Berk proposed to me.”
A vein bulged on the King’s forehead.
At the same time, exclamations like “Oh my….” and “Good heavens” burst from the nobles around them.
“However, the Amboise family merely received the title of 1st-Class Honorary Knight three generations ago. I am not of a station equal to His Grace Grand Duke Berk, and I once refused him for that reason.”
“Warrant Officer.”
Curtis called her immediately after a sharp grinding of teeth.
The King, by contrast, straightened triumphantly.
“Leaving aside whether these preposterous lies are true, there, you hear that, Grand Duke!”
Of course, the King’s triumph lost its shine the moment it overlapped with the sound that followed.
“Sob.”
The King doubted his ears.
Sob?
Sobbb?
And when the King turned toward the source of the sound, his mouth fell open.
The aide he had been pressuring until just moments ago was dabbing at her tears and looking up at Curtis.
But the truly outrageous part came next.
The woman with pink eyes buried her face against Curtis Shan Berk’s arm and said the following:
“How could you do this in front of His Majesty, darling!”
Darling.
Unthinkable.
It was a form of address no one had ever imagined someone might use for Curtis Shan Berk.
For one brief moment, every noble dignitary present enjoyed the luxury of standing in the same position as the King.
“Chloe is so moved! Yes, let’s get married!”
In other words, they all furiously dug at their ears just as the King did after hearing that.
Naturally, the social world of Ivanes was turned upside down that day.
The night had deepened.
It was already past midnight.
“We need to talk.”
That single sentence was enough.
As soon as the banquet ended, the two of them made their weary way to the office in the Royal Guard Building.
It was an office with all the dignity worthy of the name Grand Duke Berk.
Scenes of heaven were painted across the broad ceiling, and the walls were finished in silk. On the desk, made of old oak, decorative arches in a style at least thirty years out of date had been carved in relief.
Even at a glance, the craftsmanship made it immediately obvious that the thing was quite expensive.
Beyond that, antique furniture filled the room in a refined and carefully considered arrangement.
Anyone entering this office for the first time would surely marvel at the elegance flowing through the entire room.
Of course, to Chloe, who had been in her post for over three months, it was simply a place for overtime work, and one she loathed with a shuddering, bone-deep boredom.
The beautiful desk, furniture, and chairs.
All of them were merely tools for overtime.
And the root cause of all this entered the room and promptly dropped himself into the handsome chair behind the handsome desk.
Chloe strode in, removed the brooch from her collar first, and handed it to him.
“Mm.”
Recognizing it, Curtis frowned.
Because with the brooch Curtis had pinned on her without much thought, Chloe had completed the day’s finale perfectly.
What kind of finale?
Warrant Officer Amboise. Are you aware that speaking falsehood before the King is tantamount to treason? If the two of you intended to marry from the beginning, why did you keep it secret?
Naturally, even after Chloe’s performance, the King had flown into a rage, declaring that he could not believe the two of them were lovers.
To say it once more, Chloe was an intelligent and quick-witted aide.
Instead of telling the King the truth, she had started fumbling around, removing something from her person.