Interlude 5: Glen

Once we’d returned to the capital from the Sargent Margraviate, I retired to my room. There, Ele showed up in kitten form. I quickly sent the servants away to speak to him.

“What are you doing here?”

«Making Lady Chelsea happy,» he replied, throwing the letter he’d been holding under his leg.

Catching it, I checked who the sender was, and saw “Chelsea” written in clumsy handwriting. Did something happen? I thought.

I felt more worried than happy, and once I ripped the letter open, I saw that it was a request for me to wait half a year before I went back for her. Apparently, aside from health reasons, she wanted to get some lady training in as well.

Back at the Eucharis Barony, she hadn’t been able to do any proper studying. At the Royal Research Institute, we’d only really done any during breaks in her Skill research and while we had our mana pool-increasing tea parties. This was a good opportunity for her.

«Will you be writing a reply?»

“Of course I will...”

«I’ve promised Lady Chelsea that I’ll return with any replies once you finish.»

“Is it okay if I take a few days?”

«I’ll be returning immediately if the barrier you put up is a weak one. But it isn’t, correct?»

“No. I made it even stronger than the one around the Origin Spirit Tree.”

«Hah... You have a soft spot for her.»

I looked away when he said that, not answering.

By the next morning, I had finished up my reply. In it, I told her I’d definitely come to meet her in half a year. I thought about telling her how my journey home had been, but I stopped because it wasn’t terribly interesting.

＋＋＋

The same night I’d arrived home, I went to my brother, the king’s office. Once I was inside, I had him send the servants away.

“I’ve just returned,” I reported, and he gestured for me to sit on the sofa.

“I’m glad you’re safe. But isn’t there something else you want to say?” he asked, sitting across the low table from me, looking amused.

“Chelsea, the research fellow, has come down with a mana fever, so she’ll be recuperating in her family’s territory for half of a year.”

“Of course; a growing child would need time to recuperate after a mana fever.” Since we were far apart in age, he must have remembered what had happened back when I’d gotten one. “We’ll retain her research fellow position here, and treat her recuperation as temporary leave.”

I was relieved to hear that he wasn’t going to end her duties.

“Anything else?”

Taking a deep breath, I told him, “In half a year, I’m returning to the Sargent Margraviate to bring her back.”

“Not a request, but a statement, huh.”

I nodded.

“Sending someone to escort her back is fine. But is there some reason a royal like you should go personally?” He was tilting his head curiously, but he had a grin plastered on his face.

If Chelsea was going to try to change, I would, too. If I couldn’t say it here, though, I wouldn’t be able to tell her.

I looked straight at my brother. “I’m going to propose marriage to her.”

“It would be a terrible loss if we lost a Skill as useful as hers. If she was to marry another noble, there would probably be some unnecessary conflicts,” he said, playing dumb.

I took another deep breath. “I don’t want to marry her politically. I want to marry her because I want her,” I declared, only for my brother to burst out laughing.

“You’ve finally said it! Took you long enough!” Once he finished laughing, he tilted his head questioningly. “The girl looks very young, does she not? Would that mean that you’re...a ‘lolicon’?”

The word he’d learned from the Reincarnator Dictionary passed down through the royal family pierced my heart. I had always worried about that. Royz had said that beastmen didn’t judge based on outward age or size, since they can change them whenever they want. Back then, I’d imagined Chelsea as an adult, and as an old woman. But I realized that my feelings for her didn’t change.

...Which meant I didn’t fall in love with her appearance. I mean, she was really beat up the first time I met her... It’s more accurate to say that I fell in love with her heart.

“Ahhh, uh... I get it. You don’t have to go on about your love.”

Damn, did I say that all out loud?

“I understand you from my standpoint as your older brother,” he said, before switching to his attitude to that of a ruler. “But as King, I will have Chelsea, adopted daughter of the Margrave Sargent, engaged to Royal Prince Glenarnold Snowflake.”

“What?!”

My brother... No, the King was going to have us engaged by royal decree. Which meant that it would look like a political marriage.

“We can’t have that girl running loose. You understand, don’t you?”

Chelsea’s Skill allowed her to create any seed she wished for. She could make a seed to charm and rule the world, or make one that would spout out poison and destroy it.

“If you hadn’t wanted to marry her, I was going to have her engaged to the crown prince.”

“He’s only three years old!” I protested.

“And if I couldn’t, I’d thought about having her confined in a tower, or having her mana sealed.”

“Chelsea hasn’t done anything wrong yet. In fact, she’s working to make the kingdom flourish... No, to bring world peace.”

“Then you’ll just have to protect her as her fiancé, won’t you?” my brother said, laughing.

“Then give me a magic tool from the treasury to protect her.”

“Alright. Take whatever you want.”

I’d meant for it to be an impossible request as revenge, but he immediately agreed. Earlier, I’d found a ring-shaped magic tool in the treasury that would automatically cast defensive magic in the case that the wearer was attacked. Once we were engaged, she might get into conflicts with other women, and I needed that ring to nip them in the bud before they started.

“Do your best to stop her from thinking it’s political,” he said, chasing me out of the room.