Side Story: The Happily Ever After Continues

Marriage. As a girl, it was something I had always dreamed of.

To my good fortune, I had met a man I loved. What’s more, he had returned my feelings. The pair of us had made it through a war alive, and we’d even managed to hold a proper wedding ceremony.

All that said... though married life itself was going smoothly, I was having trouble adjusting to my new position as the queen.

I never let my mother-in-law, Linesse, out of my grasp. Save me, Mother! I had wailed more than once, weeping and hugging her behind the scenes.

Mabel, who had finally returned to her post and was now looking after me as an attendant, had admonished me in hushed tones. “I must say, the way you’re always hugging that doll of yours isn’t the best for your public image.” Ever since then, I had to ask Mabel to hold the doll and stand next to me instead.

I didn’t really want to let her out of my grasp, though. Every time I had to receive someone as the queen, I thought I was going to have a mental breakdown.

Thanks to the help of my two assistants, I’ve managed to fake it ’til I make it... but I’m REALLY sorry, there’s no way I’m going to remember the faces of all these people I just met!

Even back when I was an adoptive daughter of the count, I rarely ventured out into high society, and I had never once been to the royal palace. That meant that I didn’t recognize a single one of the nobles who had come to the palace for a courtesy call—and that meant that I’d had no choice but to start memorizing their names from scratch.

When I broke down crying, Mother had said, “Take it slow. When I first started out, everything went in one ear and out the other. Until you can remember for yourself, just rely on the good memories of those around you, or those already acquainted with your guest.”

After that, I chose to focus on memorizing what they talked about instead, then match that information to a name and face later on. Thankfully, so long as I had Mother and Mabel around, I was able to keep tabs on at least some of the people.

Above all else, the fact that Reggie had brought Mabel back to the palace so fast had really saved my hide. She knew the faces of those who came in and out of the royal palace better than anyone.

Oh, but I at least knew the faces of the people who fought in the war against Llewyne, so all I had to memorize was their names.

In that regard, I was truly glad I had joined the war effort. Anyone who was part of the fight regarded me much more warmly, too, which made it easier to get my foot in the door.

When I said as much to Alan, he replied, “No, I’m pretty sure they’re just afraid of your magic. They’re grateful to you, sure, but it’s no different from fearful reverence.”

“Great. Thanks for the honesty, Alan.”

I was beyond bummed to hear that I was basically ruling with an iron fist. To be fair, it was better than having them pick on me, so maybe I was better off accepting it.

“Sure. If nothing else, no one who fought in the war will do you any harm for as long as they live. Good news, isn’t it?” he offered with a pleasant smile. I gave him a listless quirk of my lips in return.

Well, it’s good that I have fewer people to watch out for, I guess?

“As for anyone who evacuated the palace and is consequently less familiar with you, you’ll just have to treat them to a show of your magic. It’ll keep things simple.”

“I’m not sure you ought to be endorsing intimidation tactics, Lord Alan,” said reliable old Mabel, putting on the brakes for us.

True enough, it probably wasn’t a very queenly way of doing things. Besides, if I ever found myself in a situation where I couldn’t use magic, I’d be in serious danger of an assassination attempt.

“I’m just being honest. Besides, it doesn’t have to be a show of violence. You could repair or make something instead. Considering that Farzia’s power as a nation is currently in decline, wouldn’t it be better for its queen to give off an impression of strength?”

It seemed Mabel had to acknowledge what Alan was getting at. “I suppose so. His Majesty is a clever boy, but some things are simply out of his hands. In some ways, I believe it’s a good thing he married a spellcaster like Her Majesty; it has helped bolster Farzia’s image.”

“When it comes to intimidation tactics, she’s the perfect woman for the job.”

Intimidation? Ugh.

In my past life, I certainly wouldn’t have been happy to hear, If you get married, you’ll make a great military asset! Of course, I’d heard it enough times prior to our wedding that I was already used to it. It still felt like hollow praise, though.

No, c’mon now... As long as it helps Reggie, I should be happy about it.

If we came across as a weakened nation, there was a good chance more countries than just Llewyne would come start a fight. I heard that even our own ally, Erendor, was liable to start shoving unreasonable demands into our negotiations if we looked too vulnerable. Either way, we already owed Erendor far too many debts. They had helped us out quite a bit with deterring Llewyne, after all.

“Let’s take things one step at a time, Your Majesty. There’s no need to be in such a hurry.” Mabel rushed to neatly tie the conversation up.

Speaking of taking things too fast, there was a certain issue that had come to my attention ever since we’d gotten married.

That evening, we were to host a fairly modest party, so I went to go get changed. Reggie just so happened to pop up in the midst of my preparations.

It seemed he had arrived right on time for me to have just finished getting dressed. That only served to make him less patient, however, and he opened up the door without the slightest hesitation. “Are you ready?”

When they saw that Reggie had come to fetch me, the servants changing my clothes and putting up my hair went into a tizzy. If nothing else, however—perhaps because this had already happened several times in the past month—none of them dropped what they were holding in shock.

My heart had gone out to them back when they felt the need to apologize profusely, so I was glad to see they had gotten used to it by now.

I mean, it would be best if Reggie didn’t make these surprise appearances at all, but I’m only just learning how impatient he can be... or maybe I just never paid much attention to it before.

“Yes, I’ve just—”

Right as I was about to say “finished up,” Mabel cut me off. “It wouldn’t do for you to become as impatient as His Majesty, ma’am. I must ask that you wait a little longer as well, sire.”

Looking disappointed but resigned, Reggie saw himself out of the room for the time being. I failed to hold back a giggle.

Come to think of it, back when we decided to rush ahead with the wedding, Mabel advised us against that, too.

Indeed, she had warned us not to take things too fast.

◇◇◇

I thought back on the events of several months ago.

At the time, I had been so overjoyed to be getting married so soon that I hadn’t thought twice about it. After all, it meant we could spend even more time together without concern for the public eye. I had been afraid that if we were merely courting each other, we wouldn’t actually get to see each other too often.

That had been a slight miscalculation on my part, however. After formally announcing my position as his fiancée, I was no longer able to go see Reggie at my leisure. Things were different now that we were no longer at war, and I was expected to behave like a proper daughter of nobility.

Mabel had advised me to send one of my attendants to request a meeting, and then and only then was I allowed to go see him. Since we no longer held the tenuous relationship status of “lovers,” we were allowed to be seen together in public places, but our interactions always felt stiff and formal under the circumstances.

Mabel had explained that all this ceremony wasn’t for Reggie’s sake, but for mine. The nobles who came and went from the royal palace expected us to adhere to custom. Those were merely rules of their own making, yes, but if I got myself expelled from their inner circle from the word go, it would make it a lot harder to operate when I became queen—or at least, that was what she had to say on the matter.

“It’s alright to change the way things are done, but that has to wait until after they’ve accepted you. It’s much safer to trick them into thinking you’re their friend, then try to change things from the inside.”

“Trick them?”

That choice of words made me a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps Reggie’s penchant for dropping scathing comments so flippantly was because Mabel had rubbed off on him.

Of course, that was the most efficient way to do things. Maybe I just had to accept that this was what noble society was like.

Sure enough, clay-Linesse got a word in edgewise. “That’s a very straightforward way to explain it, Mabel, but don’t you think it sounds a little too calculating?”

“Not at all, Lady Linesse. I think it would behoove Lady Kiara to approach things from this perspective,” she bluntly asserted. “Humans are quick to forget, after all. Now that everyone’s memories of the war are fresh in their minds, they fear and respect her, yes. However, once enough time has passed since we’ve returned to our old ways of life, everyone will forget about these tough times and go back to judging others by the rules they’ve devised. When that time comes, if Lady Kiara tries to break those rules from the outside... it will spell trouble for her down the line.”

It seemed that Linesse couldn’t find it in her to argue with that assertion. When he saw her lapse into silence, Master Horace started snickering.

“This mentor of yours is infuriating beyond belief,” Linesse griped, which only drew more and more laughter from the subject of her indignation.

◇◇◇

While I was caught up in my memory, the servants had finished touching me up.

Reggie reentered the room with Mabel’s permission, then pulled me into a hug as I rose to my feet. “You look beautiful, Kiara.”

“Uhh, err... Thanks, Reggie.”

Considering all the servants were still hanging around, not to mention my mother-in-law was right there watching us, I wasn’t sure how to react. As a result, the words left my mouth in a jumble.

Perhaps because this had become standard practice as of late, however, Linesse only grumbled to herself. “Goodness, the honeymoon period is lasting quite a while with these two. Why, I never imagined my own son would grow up like this.”

“Hah! You can only say that because you always had your hands full during the war. Every time we had a spare moment to breathe, these two would start flirting right in front of me. It wore me out real fast, let me tell you.”

“I almost feel a little guilty, to be honest.”

“Oh, don’t get so down on yourself! You barely played a part in bringing him up, right?”

“But it could be hereditary, couldn’t it? His father had similar tendencies.”

“Aha,” Master Horace said with a sage nod, and the pair heaved deep, resigned sighs.

Watching the two of them acting like a couple of old friends was almost enough to make me giggle. I could tell Reggie’s heart was warmed by the exchange, too.

It wasn’t long before our time was up. I cradled Linesse in my arms, asking Mabel to hold Master Horace for me. Mabel couldn’t always tag along when I was acting independently, which was why I would be carrying Linesse myself tonight.

With that, we headed for the party venue.

The royal palace was huge. We had several different halls for hosting parties. It was still easy for me to get lost, so I was afraid to walk anywhere on my own.

I followed the lord-in-waiting escorting us into the hall. There, in the vast space lined with seats for partaking in the feast, nobles had gathered for the party. The ones who were already acquainted with me made no comment on my appearance, while the ones who didn’t know about my habit of walking around holding a bizarre clay doll looked positively startled.

Oh, this is kind of convenient.

It sure was making it easy to tell which people I hadn’t met before, or else had only met once.

Reggie and I took our seat at a large, U-shaped table set up in the center of the hall. We were the king and queen, after all.

The party was being held to celebrate the return of the king’s magistrates, who had been traveling around to check on the state of each province since spring and had just now come home to give their reports. As such, the magistrates and their families—as well as their more distant relatives and the various nobles staying in the royal capital—were all in attendance.

Before everyone took their seats, they lined up a fair distance from our table to greet us. Among them were a good number of noble daughters of marriageable age—probably here to either size up a potential fiancé or else attract someone new. That said, a large percentage of them seemed to be falling for Reggie at a first glance.

Ah well. Can’t blame them, I thought to myself.

Reggie always behaved quite amiably in these scenarios, and he was certainly handsome enough to merit the infatuation. Still, I wished they would stop casting me dubious glances on the side.

It hadn’t happened too often on the heels of our wedding, but lately, this sort of thing was becoming more and more common. For a daughter of nobility sheltered in the depths of her mansion—let alone one from a province far removed from the fires of war—perhaps the conflict with Llewyne had seemed like little more than the events of a far-off world.

Surely they were all thinking, I heard all these awesome stories about this girl being a spellcaster, sure, but she wasn’t even born into nobility, was she?

That made me think back to Mabel’s apprehensions, and it made me realize just how right she might have been. That said, there was nothing to do but keep my mouth shut and behave myself. It wasn’t as though they were doing anything worse than casting unimpressed looks my way, anyway.

After dinner, we held a ball in the open space of the hall. The elderly folks, Reggie, and I all remained seated, watching the dance from our chairs.

Nevertheless, an endless flow of women came to ask Reggie to dance. It was almost funny how many of them popped up one after the other. And it wasn’t just them, either. Even the girls’ fathers stopped by under the pretext of greeting the king. It was impressive.

Reggie turned them all down quite decisively, but they still wouldn’t give up. Watching their aggressive attempts to woo him almost reminded me of Ada.

Ada was currently staying with the House of Delphion and serving as an attendant to Lucille, who had been adopted by the new baron. Based on what I’d heard, she had made a good living for herself, and seeing as she could double as a bodyguard for both Lucille and the baron himself, they were more than happy to have her. Delphion had taken quite a hit from Llewyne’s occupation, plus they had shed a fair number of soldiers in the following expeditions to Trisphede and the royal capital, so they needed all the firepower they could get.

Emmeline was attending today’s party, so I was hoping I might get the chance to talk to her and hear about how things were going. It was as that thought ran through my head that the girls standing beside Reggie shot me horrified looks.

Uh, what? Did I do something wrong?

“Kiara... I’m betting your laugh gave them a fright,” Linesse whispered.

Oh, crap. It just slipped out when I was envisioning my conversation with Emmeline. Now what do I do?! It’s not like I’m trying to pick a fight with them. Gosh, things are so much easier when I can just whip out some magic and settle things that way!

I’d interacted with other girls my age back at the boarding school, but it wasn’t as if I’d had a vast network of friends. That was before I had fully remembered my past life, and I knew my stepmother had sold me off to become the count’s adoptive daughter, so I was a pretty gloomy, fatalistic girl at the time. What’s more, there weren’t all that many high-ranking daughters of nobility attending the school, so I wasn’t sure if I should talk to these purebred noblewomen the same way as my old peers.

That was when Reggie stood up and held out a hand for me. “Why let this opportunity go to waste? It wouldn’t do for the king and queen to sit the ball out, so let’s share at least one dance.”

At his invitation, I handed Linesse over to Mabel, who had been waiting behind me, and rose to my feet.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the moment we inserted ourselves into the circle of dancers, we drew everyone’s attention. I could practically feel all those rebuffed noblewomen glaring holes into me. No doubt they were just waiting for me to slip up.

Fortunately, I had gone through an intensive dancing course during the winter. I was good enough to trick any bystanders into believing I knew what I was doing, at least.

Way back when, Reggie grabbing me by the hand like this would have been enough to leave me a flustered mess, but now it only reassured me that I wasn’t alone. Once we started dancing, I knew he would cover for any of my own deficiencies.

As his way of telling those watching that I was his one and only, he made a show of whispering in my ear when we were done with our dance.

The actual contents of his murmurings, however, were nothing out of the ordinary. “I’ll see you later. Your friend is here today, so you should go make the most of it.”

With that, he let go of my hand and took a step back. No sooner had he backed away than Emmeline rushed up to take his place.

“Good evening, Your Majesty.”

“Miss Emmeline!”

I shook her hand without a moment’s hesitation. When he saw that, Reggie gave Emmeline a small wave before returning to his seat.

After that, I talked with Emmeline about all manner of topics. When I asked her what she was currently up to, she told me that she was helping to govern Trisphede while assisting in running her own territory on the side. Nearly all of Lord Trisphede’s family had been murdered, and his only surviving daughter had since been adopted into another noble family, so a member of a branch family had been selected as his successor in a hurry.

There had initially been plans to bring the province under the direct control of the royal family, but taking our reconciliation with Salekhard into account, we’d decided that restoring the House of Trisphede would serve to better placate both its citizens and the branch families governing the different regions of the province.

The new count of Trisphede had never had a hand in ruling an entire province before. The former baron of Delphion, Henry, had made the journey over to provide him with support, and apparently Reggie had deployed a magistrate there as well.

“That must be hectic.”

“A bit. I prefer to keep busy, however, and the forests of Trisphede make for a splendid hunting ground.” She said that with the most brilliant of smiles, so I could tell that she had loved the chance to hunt to her heart’s content.

“How’s Lucille? And what about Miss Ada? I heard she’s working as Lucille’s attendant now.”

Emmeline flashed a wry smile. “I must say, Miss Ada has undergone quite the shocking transformation.”

“Huh?”

“She’s Lucille’s tutor now. I was stunned to see how quickly she turned strict the moment she got started.”

Seeing as Lucille wasn’t old enough to attend boarding school yet, as the baron’s daughter, she was to study under a private tutor. Plus, there was talk of Delphion being elevated to a dukedom around the same time as Trisphede’s conferral ceremony, so a good education was more vital than ever.

However, the entirety of Delphion had been ravaged by war. Any tutor who had been summoned from an outside territory had long since fled, and there was no telling where they were now. Finding a tutor from within the province itself was going to take a while, so it was determined that Ada would take over her instruction in the interim.

From the sound of it, she had been unexpectedly suited to the role, and she was now well on her way to becoming one stickler of a teacher.

“She’s changed the way she dresses, too. These days, she wears nothing but clothes that keep her covered up from head to toe. Because that was the way her own tutor dressed, perhaps?”

“Now that’s a surprise.”

I was glad to hear she was doing well, though. If she hadn’t fit in at Delphion either, arranging for Évrard to take her in would have been the only option we had left.

“That aside, I see your marriage has made him even more brazen,” Emmeline remarked with a sigh.

“Huh? Who?”

“His Majesty. In the past, he held back from showing off too much—though he was always quite indulgent when it came to you, and he would hang around you every chance he could get.”

“I mean... I guess?” I faltered precisely because I knew exactly what she was talking about—particularly when it came to the latter half of our premarital relationship. Every time we had laid eyes on each other, he would reach out to hold my hand. He’d hugged me all the time, too.

“I tried making a bet with Gina about whether marriage would only make him more incorrigible.”

Wait, you were talking about this stuff with Gina behind my back?!

“Sadly, she also wanted to take the side that he would just get worse, so the wager didn’t pan out.”

I had no words.

“Things turned out just as we suspected, I see. The moment he knew you were his, it just encouraged him to hold you even closer. Why, he won’t even let you out of his sight, almost like a mother bird sitting on her eggs.”

Apparently, both Emmeline and Gina thought of Reggie like an overprotective mama bird. That wasn’t really too surprising, all told.

“That does explain why you never get jealous. There’s a chance others may get jealous of you, however, so do watch yourself. Once a bit more time has passed, you’ll be acting alone more and more frequently, too.”

“I know. I’m being careful.”

Mabel and Linesse, who had been through similar troubles during Linesse’s time as queen, had issued me a similar warning.

“Then again, I’m sure His Majesty will take care to eliminate anyone who merits that sort of caution.”

“Oh, c’mon. Reggie wouldn’t go that far.”

King or no, I’d like to believe he wouldn’t have someone exiled just for picking on me a bit.

Just as I was about to tell her she was exaggerating, Emmeline shook her head. “His Majesty’s mother went through untold hardship for that exact reason, did she not? He himself suffered under the cold gazes and attitudes of those around him, as well. I’d wager he’s quite unforgiving when it comes to that sort of thing.”

“Ah... Maybe so.”

I knew Reggie was that sort of person. Heck, if I ever saw anyone else giving him a hard time, I would be furious, too. If I was there to witness it, no doubt I would go threaten the living daylights out of his persecutor.

When I thought about it like that, it was a whole lot easier to understand—and I was delighted to realize he was thinking of himself just as much as he thought of me.

◇◇◇

“You did well today, Kiara.”

I had bowed out of the party a bit early and asked the servants to ready the bed and my nightclothes for me. Having changed into casual wear himself, Reggie called out to me upon opening up the inner door that led from his chambers to mine.

“Same to you, Reggie.”

I was glad these little exchanges had become customary for us, but considering I had been impolitely stretching my legs over the sofa when he came in, I rushed to sit upright.

“Are your feet tired? No need to mind me.”

“You say that, but...”

We’d only been seeing each other for a few months in total. It had only been one month since we’d gotten married, to boot. I’d gotten used to being around him all the time, but I still had some lingering desire to keep up appearances. I definitely didn’t want him to see me looking like a slob, at least. Luckily for me, though, it just seemed to amuse him more than anything.

Reggie came over to my side. Once he’d taken a seat next to me, he unceremoniously lifted up one of my legs.

“Huh?! What are you doing?!”

“Shh,” he hushed me, placing my foot atop his lap and going to work massaging my calf.

God, that feels good! I thought, steadily relaxing into the gentle comfort.

“I’m so glad I married you.”

“This is what makes you think that?”

“I mean, if we hadn’t gotten married, I wouldn’t have a king rubbing my feet right now!”

Up until now, we had spent most of our time in battle or on our wartime travels. The regulations had consequently been much more lax than normal, which was the only reason we’d been allowed to stay in the same room alone together. In a normal relationship between royalty and a daughter of nobility, however, it would have been out of the question for us to be alone together, let alone touching each other’s feet.

“You always think the strangest things.” He chuckled. “Normally, that’s where you’d say something like, ‘I would have hated being away from you for even a second.’”

“I mean, I would hate that!” I insisted. “I mean it!”

Reggie took his hand from my foot to give me a pat on the head. “Yes, yes. You get lonely so easily, I know. Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

“In that case, if you have to go out to battle again, don’t you dare try to leave me behind this time.”

I hadn’t forgotten our disagreement in Évrard, or the time he had left me behind during the Battle of Cassia. I wanted him to promise me he wouldn’t pull that on me again.

“I won’t.”

He smiled, kissed me on the cheek, and lifted my hand to place yet another kiss on the ring I was wearing.

“Really?” I asked to be extra sure.

Reggie nodded. “I promise.”

He made good on that promise before long—when we set out to raid the Kingdom of Llewyne.

Instead of leaving me behind, however, he ended up sending me home partway through. The reason he gave me for his decision was, “I kept my promise to bring you along, but I never said I would take the little one in your belly along for the remainder of the ride.” Frankly, it was hard to argue with that logic.

Though I was faced with such quandaries every now and then, my life went on.

There were some tough times along the way, but I’m truly glad I was reborn. I planned to do my best to make that statement ring true for the rest of my life—alongside my beloved, my companions, and my new family who would soon be born into this world.