“Hey Eleden! You saw that, right? She willingly spoke to me!”

Eleden grinned at the excitement and joy that his friend and assistant, Lucious Vekenas, was showing. His friend’s eyes were wide and bright with spirit and his cheeks almost flushed. He was like a child finally noticed by his crush.

“Yes yes, I saw everything.”

Eleden was amused at seeing his long-time friend acting this way, and at the same time feeling wonder at why Estelia suddenly decided to give a bit of attention towards him and even tried to start a small conversation. Which was quite a bit of a sudden change.

“And the way she looked at me, my soul wouldn’t stop dancing.”

“Don’t get too excited, it might just be a one-off chance experience.”

“Come on El, don’t be like that. Please don’t let that happen.”

Eleden wasn’t sure how he was going to do that. He cannot control her own sister, she was always a hard one to influence. Or perhaps, Eleden just didn’t want to control Estelia in any shape or form, that was why he found it difficult.

To be honest, he was completely fine with how Estelia was. The one who was always so quiet and always alone. In his eyes, it was one of her charms, and he liked it.

“I have no control over her, you know.”

“I know, but at least like you know, help me out.”

“That will be hard to do without creeping her out. This isn’t like when we were children, I imagine now she will be more sensitive. I might even drive her away. So, take it slow.”

“Agh, other noble ladies are easily approachable, and I don’t even like them. But when it comes to her, it’s hard…”

It’s not that Lucious was embarrassed to talk with her, it was that it was literally hard to speak with her. She barely interacted with anyone, no less to him. Eleden pitied him a little.

Eleden patted Lucious’s shoulder a few times.

“You can do it.”

“Haaaaah…”

Eleden understood very well that Lucious liked Estelia, no perhaps one can even call it love. He already knew this ever since they were children, anyone could tell that Lucious liked Estelia just how he always tried to talk with her.

Eleden wasn’t against it though, in fact, he supported his friend. As he closely knew him as a close friend, he was comfortable knowing that he could leave Estelia to his care — if that ever happens. Eleden couldn’t predict what Estelia’s future would be, so it was hard to tell if Lucious and her would end up together.

“Still, I was surely surprised when she started a conversation with me... maybe she’s finally warming up on me. Maybe she realized something while I was in Myra… Maybe there is hope after all!”

Eleden couldn’t help chuckle at Lucious’s enthusiasm and hopeful demeanor.

“Do your best, she is closing in on her coming of age. I imagine you know how many young nobles would be attending the party.”

When Estelia hits seventeen, as the princess of the kingdom, the party would be huge and could span all nobles to be invited. If that was the case, using the palace to hold the banquet wouldn’t be a good choice. That aside, as Estelia was rarely seen, one can imagine how interested people would be, and how captivated they would become if they saw her only for just a moment.

Some young ladies might even feel inferior and insecure, however they wouldn’t be able to openly show it of course. Mere nobles have no match for royalty, and also, it was a fact that Estelia was incomparably beautiful than any ladies in the kingdom.

Eleden could confidently say that since he had already seen most noble young maidens. Lucious would surely agree with that statement. Truth be told, Eleden was a little excited that his sister would be debuting.

“Tch! Yes, I know. I have to be on guard for others, especially that son of Lady Eleanore.”

“Aren’t you meticulous?”

“Of course I would know of it. I’m sure that he must have tried to dance with her during etiquette lessons. No, I feel like he has already done it.”

He sounded a bit irritated and threatened.

“Well, you have no need to be afraid. Estelia wouldn’t become close with someone she barely knows that easily. I mean, she barely talks with you, whom she had known since childhood.”

“That’s harsh.”

“I’m trying to comfort you.”

“Haaah…” with slanted eyes, Lucious raised an eyebrow. “Where are we going? Are we going to your office?”

“Yes.”

“Come on, El. We just arrived. Don’t you know the word rest?”

“Well, Estevan mentioned he had sent some documents, important ones. I want to take a look and organize them so I can work better tomorrow.”

“At least it’s just some,” he heaved a quiet relieved sigh.

Eleden mentioned the documents, however, judging by his urgent steps, they were perhaps no normal documents. He was indeed a little impatient, he was wondering, curious, and worried of what he would discover.

Lucious noticed the urgency from Eleden.

“You look like you're in a rush?”

“... Yes… You see, Lucious, something terrible happened here while we were out there.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It’s not a matter we can easily talk about here. I’ll tell you when we arrive, we might also find out more from the documents.”

“... All right.”

Shortly, they arrived at Estevan’s office. When they entered inside, Lucious’s eyes went wide at the stacks of documents placed on the table. He was surprised they were able to move these out in such a short amount of time, as though they were already prepared to be moved out when the two of them arrived.

In contrast to Lucious, Eleden walked towards the desk, not bothered by the volume of papers. He picked up a few documents.

“These seem to be documents Father has yet to review. Estevan isn’t a quick worker when it comes to paper-based work, so it steadily piled up.”

Lucious picked a few, and after reading, he took a sharp breath and closely read the contents of other sheets of paper, as if making his eyes certain.

“Eleden these are… these are information gathered from espionage. Not to mention these are about our kingdom’s nobles.”

He looked at the documents again, one could imagine how much information was there. But there was no way all of these were all just information of a few nobles. With this much quantity, it would be unbelievable that a few nobles were only covered.

It was then it dawned on Lucious, Eleden precisely knew what he must be thinking.

“Don’t tell me even my family…”

He immediately searched through the pile. Panic was in his eyes as he searched for the names of his family. Being investigated by the crown was no small matter, it was almost akin to being thought of as their loyalty being doubted. Not only was it terrible and frustrating to be doubted, it was also dangerous.

Then eventually, Lucious found a group of documents. His hand trembled slightly after he read the names written upon it.

“Eleden… Even my family. My mother, father, siblings. It’s not hard to think that my other relatives would be here. W-Why? What’s going on? Why is the crown going to this extent?”

Lucious swallowed his own saliva as anxiety rose.

“El, you know we are loyal to the crown, we would never threaten royalty and kingdom.”

“Yes, of course… But, the situation calls for it. We need to be meticulous.”

“What’s going on?”

Eleden returned the documents and sat down on the chair behind his desk. He urged Lucious to sit down and he followed.

“Royalty is under threat. Or to be precise, Estelia.”

“What? No wait, why? Estelia has not done anything, she’s the passive and most quiet one in politics or anything.”

Yes, that was the case. Thus, it was hard to understand why.

“Father has yet to expand on that, and I’m intending on inquiring more. But, it would seem that we also have no clear idea. In any case, the crown is working seriously on this, nobles are no exception to the kingdom’s eyes.”

“... Right… But, I’m certain my family is doing nothing that goes against the crown.”

Eleden nodded his head.

“To the important matter, there’s something I would like you to know.”

Eleden then went on to tell him what happened in the palace while they were gone, conveyed to him by his family. The part of Oryn, and a cook, and the part where they threatened the princess’s life.

After hearing what happened, Lucious was in disbelief as he used one hand to cradle his head.

“How could that be? They even reached within? And… to think Estelia almost died.”

Eleden might have felt the same as Lucious when he first heard of what happened. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what he would have felt or what would happen if he arrived back home only to discover that his lovely and peaceful sister was dead.

His world would crumble. That was the least he could ever imagine. How he was filled with relief to see that Estelia was alive.

“And Oryn, I would have never expected,” Lucious muttered.

“You two were quite close weren't you?”

“... We are both assistants of the princes after all.”

“... I see.”

“I never would have thought that he was intending to kill Estelia… That guy…”

“For now, I would like you to gather more intel about this. There might be a few things that Father will miss to tell me.”

“I’ll talk to the servants.”

“Very good. Haaah,” he sighed “This really is troubling.”

“Yeah. This might be why even Vernon was assigned to Estelia. Also, there’s a deal with the maid, what was her name? Mera, yes that sounds right.”

“I saw that maid, isn’t she one of her rotational attendants?”

“Not exactly, I learned while talking with them that the maid was personally chosen by the princess to be her personal maid.”

“Interesting, is she that skilled?”

“I don’t really know.”

“Huh. But I suppose it’s good that she can finally have friends.”

“Yeah, especially when all that happened to her. She must have been terrified, should I do something for her? You think giving her flowers would work?” Lucious wryly smiled.

“If that’s what you want to do, then go ahead. Just be careful, you might drive her away instead.”

“Sometimes I just doubt that you’re rooting for me.”

“I’m only giving you advice. In the end, it’s all up to you on how you win her heart.”

Lucious often says doing bold things that would blatantly suggest his feelings towards Estelia. However, he would always find himself back out. Perhaps afraid of being rejected.

But that was understandable. Eleden knew his sister would start keeping her distance from anyone that would dare step over her personal line, one could say. She was too introverted and antisocial to be suddenly brought into something that happens socially.

That was why Eleden would often find himself giving advice to Lucious to be extra careful with Estelia. She was, after all, different from any other woman.

One could imagine that one simple misstep may be enough to drive her away. One might think they were doing fine after doing a mistake they didn’t realize, they might as well give up.

Other noble ladies may be compelled to find a partner. But not Estelia, she was different. And, Eleden noticed that their parents were also not in a rush to find a partner for her.

“Haaaah, whatever you say. So, should I start gathering intel?”

“Later, help me with these first.”

Eleden pointed at the papers.

“Fine…”