Ventorino Kingdom - Parley (1)
The only princess of the Ventorino Kingdom, Clara Ventorino, was in a foul mood.
"Hoooh...."
It wasn't because today was the day her younger brother Alfonso's engagement talks were finally being held.
"Oh, my beloved Clara. Why are you looking so troubled? Are you perhaps unwell...?"
"I'm fine, darling."
Nor was it because of her fiancé, Lloyd, who kept whispering his love and concern at her side.
"Are you really sure? If you don't like the court physician, I can call over our family's personal doctor—"
"Darling."
"Yes, Clara?"
"I'm really fine, so could you please be quiet for a little while?"
"I understand. But still—"
"Lloyd."
"...I'm sorry. But I'm truly worried about you—"
"Lloyd, please!"
"......"
Correction. One more reason to be in a foul mood had just been added.
In any case, the reason she was angry enough to raise her voice at the fiancé she loved more than life itself was bedtime. Not the intimate sort, given that she was still a virgin, but the very real business of sleeping at night.
More precisely, it was the dreams.
This was already the third day, and she kept seeing the same dream.
It was bad enough that she had woken up in the middle of the night after finally getting some sleep for the first time in ages. Even after summoning a maid, drinking cold water to calm herself down, and lying back down, the same dream came again. It wasn't exactly the same every time, but the details were close enough that she might as well have called it the same dream.
And so Clara had become afraid of going to sleep at night. The moment she lay down, she tensed up and kept waking over and over, so she never truly rested, and her temper only grew sharper.
Haaah, this is insane. Why do I keep having dreams like that...?
She had been having erotic dreams for three days now.
Erotic dreams. Lewd dreams.
That alone might sound like the sort of thing a girl in the middle of puberty would complain about, but the dreams themselves weren't the problem. Clara might have been a princess, but she was still a fresh virgin who had only recently acquired a handsome fiancé. Having a string of erotic dreams was unusual, yes, but not so unusual that she had never had one before.
The problem was the content.
In her opinion, it was not the sort of erotic dream a normal person should ever have.
It wasn't about rolling around in bed with someone she loved, which in this case would have meant her fiancé, Lloyd. Not even Lloyd appeared in the dream. It wasn't even a dream about bedding another man. If it had been, she might actually have found herself treating Lloyd a little better without meaning to.
"Haaah...."
The instant she remembered the dream, a sigh slipped from Clara's lips before she could stop it.
The people around her, including Lloyd, assumed it was the sigh of someone burdened with worries, but the truth was different. What escaped between those tiny, delicate lips was a breath warmed by heat and excitement.
Clara was, little by little, beginning to feel aroused now, as she thought about the content of a dream she herself considered absurd and unnatural. And with that came one very specific urge.
The urge to lift her dress right there in the middle of this crowded hall and expose her most intimate place.
Hah.... Why... why am I...?
In the dream, she was walking through the capital's streets.
The city was pitch-dark in the middle of the night. Clara stood alone in a place with hardly anyone around. Every time she had the dream, the shape of the road or its location changed a little, but for the most part it was always somewhere she had been before.
At that strange place, for reasons she couldn't understand, Clara wore only a single coat. The fabric was rather thin, but the coat itself was long enough to reach her knees. That was all she had on. No top, no bottom, no dress, not even underwear.
Only the long coat and her shoes wrapped around her skin.
The coat had been made for surviving a brutal winter, so she wasn't cold. Instead, she felt a shiver run through her.
Her heart pounded with an unknown sort of elation, and a throbbing ache pulsed in her lower belly. Despite the chilly air against her skin, her whole body was burning hot. In a dizzying excitement she had never felt in her life, Clara took off the long coat.
And the princess's naked body was laid bare in the middle of the street.
"Haaah...♡"
With the possibility of being discovered hanging over her head, she wandered the streets.
With a thrill of pleasure and an inexplicable anticipation in her chest.
And then, at some point, she would hear the sound of footsteps from one side, heavy and steady as they approached. Startled, she would try to run, only to be chased by the owner of those footsteps, caught, and exposed the instant her identity was discovered.
Then Clara would wake up.
......
Why am I having dreams like that...?
She couldn't understand it. She was an ordinary girl with perfectly ordinary tastes. She had never had dreams like that before, never even thought about them. And yet the strange dreams and the strange excitement that came with them were keeping her from sleeping properly and twisting her mood into something ugly.
She rejected the dream's content.
But at the same time, she was curious.
In the dream, she had been naked, strolling through the night streets and savoring an unbearable mix of excitement and pleasure. What would it actually feel like? Would she simply be afraid of being found out, or would she... really feel that way?
No, no. ...Let's not think strange things.
Princess Clara finally tried to steady her mind in the room where the conference between Ulsro Kingdom and Ventorino Kingdom was about to begin.
Drip....
She was so distracted that she didn't even notice a single drop of liquid sliding between her thighs.
In the royal castle of the Ventorino Kingdom, within one of the annexes set aside for guests.
Inside this place, a conference between the two kingdoms was underway. On the surface, they were discussing a royal engagement; beneath that, they were planning a practical alliance to stand against the Dezac Empire.
The talks were only now beginning, more than two weeks after the Ulsro delegation had arrived. Considering how often these meetings dragged on far beyond one or two sessions, the delay in getting started was rather severe. It suited Valdes just fine, of course. But it had been King Marc who had postponed the date.
The delegation had arrived a little early, but at Queen Katarina's request he wanted even the superficial pretext to be firmly established. So he had pushed the schedule back, giving Mari and Alfonso more time to grow closer.
He wasn't fond of his wife making a fuss or meddling too deeply in state affairs, but even he had to admit that a marriage between the two royal houses had many advantages.
The one small disappointment was that if the engagement succeeded, Beatris would become his in-law as well.
Queen Beatris is a little regrettable, but I do have some shame left.
Even so, Marc was not so lacking in restraint that he would make a move on his own in-law. In truth, he didn't feel much regret about it either. It was different from the days when he relieved stress by seducing the women around him.
Marc felt nothing less than deep satisfaction now, if not physically then certainly psychologically.
And all of it was thanks to one person.
I wonder what gift I should give Rachel today....
Even though she was a high-class courtesan, she was still a girl who refused to sell her body carelessly, a girl who would not accept even simple touching, let alone sex. He was receiving from her the peace of mind that even his own family had never been able to give him.
So deeply infatuated with Rachel that he had forgotten entirely how to act his age, Marc began visiting her almost every day. If it were ever discovered that the king of a nation had fallen for a prostitute, and worse, a girl who looked like she was less than half his age, the country would have erupted in outrage. But he did not care.
This, he believed, was true love.
All the while remaining ignorant that the girl was the daughter of Isabel Ventorino, and that her purpose was revenge.
But because he didn't know, he was able to enjoy what was, in his life, the second happiest time he had ever known.
"...King Marc?"
"Ah, forgive me. I was lost in thought for a moment."
"It's all right. Then about the engagement...?"
"Hmm. Might I ask you to consider that point a little further? Even so, it would be—"
Seated across from each other at a square table, Marc and Mercedes were deep in animated discussion.
Not only the two of them sat around the table, but also the working staff and members of royalty from both sides of the conference. The staff were there to keep the talks moving smoothly, while the royals were present because this concerned a royal engagement and thus involved them directly.
They were now discussing the engagement itself, the formal pretext for the meeting. Even with a friendly atmosphere, the two sides never truly narrowed their differences. One side was after this deal itself, while the other was merely using it as a pretext.
With opinions running on parallel tracks, the conference was growing increasingly sluggish, and everyone was starting to look exhausted.
The same was true of most of the Ventorino Royal Guard assigned to protect the hall.
"Yaaawn...."
"Captain. Even so, yawning is a little—"
"What, brat? You want me to stop because I yawned?"
"We're on guard duty. What if something happens? And what do you mean, brat? I'm your vice-captain, in case you've forgotten."
"Yes, yes. Our vice-captain. If you're so worried, why don't you take a lap around the annex~?"
"Haaah...."
At the captain's words, Jurina, the vice-captain stationed directly beneath him, let out a long sigh.
Captain of the Royal Guard, Hyk Blanstone.
Since he commanded the Royal Guard that served the royals at the closest range, he was unquestionably talented. The problem was that his personality was so sloppy it was almost painful. He was the textbook example of a lazy genius. It was strange how someone like that had ended up in such an important position.
Still, well... he's a kind person underneath it all....
Jurina glanced at him, her cheeks faintly red, as he yawned again. She didn't know how she had ended up falling for a man like this and making herself suffer for it. If he hadn't been the captain of the guard, she would have left long ago and gone back home.
No, wait. Is it because he's this kind of man that I'm suffering through all this?
Wouldn't her work be much easier if the captain weren't so careless?
It was a difficult problem.
"What, you didn't go take a lap?"
"...Forget it. If something does happen, you'll be the one taking responsibility, Captain."
"Honestly. What kind of trouble do you think is going to happen? This is our nation's capital. Sure, it's on the outskirts, but it's still the royal castle. Who'd even dare attack it? Anyone trying to get this far would have to break through the Royal Knights first."
"Well, I suppose that's true, but still...."
It was a remark unworthy of a Royal Guard, but it wasn't exactly wrong either. The guards were inside, the knights were stationed outside the building, and the delegations' own knights were positioned at intervals throughout the grounds.
Even the Dezac Empire would probably think twice before launching a reckless assault.
"By the way, the king's been in pretty good form lately."
Hyk said it while shifting his gaze toward the table where the conference was being held. There, Marc was speaking with Princess Mercedes in a spirited exchange.
Not understanding what her captain meant, Jurina tilted her head.
"Huh? How so?"
"Can't you tell at a glance? Normally he puts on this exaggerated smile and response, but right now it feels real. Like he's gone back to the old days."
"The old days? ...Ah, right. You said you fought alongside His Majesty during the war, Captain, didn't you? So you're talking about that time?"
"Yeah. Our king was truly a remarkable warrior back then."
"Hmm...."
Jurina stared hard at Marc, trying to understand what he meant, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. She had never seen the king's old self, so comparison was difficult to begin with.
"You little punk. Usually you've got instincts for everything, and the one time you need them, your proud beastfolk instincts don't kick in?"
"It's not beastfolk instincts. It's just my instincts...."
Jurina shot him a sidelong glare as he patted her head and then scratched the tips of her ears, which had sprung up in embarrassment. Beastfolk did not let just anyone touch their ears and tail. Only special people were allowed that privilege. Outside her family, he was the only one she had ever allowed to touch her ears.
It was such common knowledge, and yet he kept touching her ears as if it were nothing, never once noticing her feelings. After spending so much time together, how could he still be so oblivious?
Is this guy pretending not to know?
For some reason, her instincts as a Ma-in were telling her exactly that.
...No, there's no way. If he is, I'll just kidnap this idiot and run home with him.
There were quite a few beastfolk living in the Ventorino Kingdom. That said, they still didn't amount to even one percent of the population, but compared to other countries besides the Union Republic, their numbers were incomparable.
It was because the Union Republic lay to the north of the nation, and more importantly, because it bordered the beastfolk territories. So when the Union Republic was founded during the war against the Demon King, and the border issue was handled in an awkward, half-hearted way, some beastfolk lands ended up being treated as part of the Ventorino Kingdom instead.
It was a problem both nations wanted to avoid touching, but there were also beastfolk who did not wish to belong to either side, so the matter had still not been fully settled.
"By the way, don't you smell something weird coming from Princess Clara?"
"...Say that where someone can hear you, and you'll end up in the brig."
"Wouldn't it be more like dismissal rather than the brig...? No, that's not what I meant—"
And then.
KWA-BOOM──!!!
"?!"
"W-What was that?!"
Suddenly, an explosion rang out from somewhere.
Then came more explosions from other directions, the crash of breaking walls, and the violent tremor of the building itself.
It was an attack.
At the very center of the conference room, where everyone was thrown into confusion, only one boy was smiling faintly.