The eyes of Countess Balzo and Countess Bartolini widened at Prince Alfonso's declaration.
Duke Cesare, on the other hand, took some time to understand what was being said and was surprised a little later.
"What?"
Alfonso smiled brightly in front of Cesare, whose voice was cracking.
“As the Duke said, make sure my woman doesn’t meet another man.”
Alfonso tightened his arms around Ariadne, drawing her closer.
Ariadne gasped for breath as the thick left arm pressed against her ribs. The situation seemed surreal.
Alfonso, holding Ariadne tightly, gestured to Cesare with his chin.
“I wish you would just open the road for me.”
Cesare had difficulty breathing. He took a deep breath.
“Your Highness the Prince.”
It was dirty and lethal. It was heartbreaking to have to use honorifics for the man who held her in front of Ariadne de Mare.
But for the first time in Cesare's life, something—perhaps desperation—took over his pride. He could not let Ariadne go like this.
“You can’t do this.”
Alfonso's voice tone dropped.
“What doesn’t work?”
Alfonso always had a smiling face even after returning from the battlefield. His impression changed a little, but his expression was the same.
Cesare laughed off the public opinion that Alfonso had become more dignified and colder than before.
But now, looking at Alfonso's face, he could clearly see why his expression had changed.
The golden Prince looked down at his half-brother with a face as pale as the sands of the desert, indifferent and cold.
“No... That...”
Cesare struggled to find the words.
“I, I was talking to Countess de Mare. Even if you are a Prince, there is nothing in etiquette that allows you to interrupt a Lady’s conversation at will and take her away from the person she is talking to.”
“You’re right, there’s no such thing as etiquette.”
Alfonso asked back in a curt tone.
“But wasn’t that your argument?”
Cesare was speechless. But the reason he was talking to Alfonso now was not because he had any particular business to attend to, but because he simply could not let them, or rather her, go like this.
When he had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths, he looked at Ariadne instead of Alfonso and appealed.
“Ari, think carefully about what I said.”
"Duke."
Alfonso's eyebrows narrowed and his gaze sharpened. But Cesare paid no attention and focused solely on Ariadne.
“You can come back anytime. It’s up to you.”
"Duke!"
Alfonso, whose patience was running out, stopped him. But Cesare was in no position to back down.
He looked at Ariadne in Alfonso's arms and pleaded with her.
“I’ll contact you when I’ve gathered my thoughts...”
“Cesare de Como!”
Only then did Cesare open his mouth and look at Alfonso, who shouted like lightning. Alfonso thrust his head in and growled.
“Shut up before you get punched in the face.”
Cesare swears to heaven that he never imagined his always gentle, four-year-younger half-brother treating him like this.
And 'de Como'! This was an open slap in the face.
While Cesare was speechless and stammering, Alfonso spoke to Ariadne in a voice so gentle that the members of the Silver Cross would have been digging their ears into it.
“Let’s go, Ari.”
Ariadne nodded quickly. It was what she had hoped for, as she was contemplating whether she should throw herself between them and tell them not to fight because of her.
Alfonso passed Cesare, still holding her in his arms.
Alfonso walked at Ariadne's pace.
Since the two of them were slow, Cesare felt the disadvantage of being twice as hurt, but he was able to not miss the opportunity to shout one last word to Ariadne's back as she left.
“Ari! I’ll wait!”
Countess de Mare did not look back—and even if she had, she would have been obscured by the Prince's huge frame, the size of a house—and Duke Cesare's voice fell down the path like an unanswered echo.
Cesare covered his face with both hands, feeling utterly devastated.
But there was one person who was incredibly happy because of this incident. It was Countess Baljo, who got to see something she never imagined.
Her mouth dropped open. Her heart sank and her stomach grew hot at the thought of what she had just witnessed being talked about at the neighborhood tea party.
Clemente de Bartolini, on the other hand, had a bitter taste.
They've got a hot topic to heat up the social circle, but it just so happens to be about the son of their new boss getting screwed.
It's frustrating not being able to participate, but if she makes one mistake she might get dragged into the quarantine work.
Leaving all this behind, Ariadne walked forward without looking back.
Shr can't believe Cesare is saying something like that.
Life is truly ironic. There was a time when she risked her life to hear those words, but now hearing them only makes her head spin.
Ariadne didn't even want to think about it, shr just wanted to disappear from the face of the earth. Shr would be happy to lie down and rest for three days in a place where there was no one.
As she thought about that, she felt the body heat surrounding her and looked up.
Alfonso, whose thoughts she could not understand, was leading her with a strong demeanor.
“Brother! Sister!”
Princess Bianca waved her hand from afar. Bianca also heard a loud noise from afar.
Bianca couldn't hear the details, but it seemed like Duke Cesare was begging for something. Hurry up and listen to the explanation!
The capital was such a fun place!
Countess Baljo was a bit oblivious. This may have been due to her long reign as the omnipotent ruler of the Silver Cross Women's Association.
She ended up spitting out a story about what she had seen in front of Duchess Rubina, and Rubina was left scratching her head in front of a society lady she wasn't even close to.
Countess Baljo looked at Rubina, who was pulling out her hair, and boasted about her wisdom of life.
“Oh my! Duchess? I see you have lice. You should have been more thorough with your personal hygiene. When you have lice, boil mint in vinegar and use the water...”
Rubina had to struggle not to shout at Bartolini, 'Get that woman out of here!'
Alfonso's presence was crucial in making Rubina, despite her natural temper, tolerate the Countess of Baljo's infidelity and Clemente de Bartolini's failure—she threw a different ball on Bianca's debutante day.
The Little Prince, who was thought to be a cat, turned out to be a full-fledged tiger. And this adult tiger didn't even bother to hide its teeth.
“How dare you call my son ‘de Como’!”
After sending Countess Baljo away, Rubina left alone with Clemente, vented her feelings of threat and the anger that arose from it.
“That is an act of ignoring His Majesty the King’s recognition of my son!”
“I guess the Prince thinks he can do whatever he wants in the world!”
Clemente was a stickler. She had a stutter that improved dramatically when she cursed at men.
“...But... Wouldn’t this actually be beneficial?”
“Huh? Benefits? What benefits!”
Rubina screamed.
After listening to Clemente rant for a while about how Cesare's side was his side, how he would be a laughing stock in society, and how he should shut Countess Baljo's mouth with a rag, Clemente finally got a chance to speak.
“That, that... His Majesty the King, ah, hasn’t appointed Prince Alfonso... as Crown Prince (principe ereditario) yet?”
“Yeah, that’s funny.”
After Queen Margaret's death, or even before she died, Rubina attempted to take away Alfonso's privileges and honors, but Leo III mostly ignored her.
He succeeded only in a few cases where the King's actions were not likely to be reported to the outside world, such as not sending war funds to Taranto.
For a King whose power was based on the divine right of Kings, Leo III was extremely sensitive to public opinion.
He would never do anything that would compromise his own reputation for the sake of the Duchess Rubina or her happiness.
However, Leo III, ironically, did not appoint Alfonso as Crown Prince even before Rubina could appeal.
“...Your Highness, if you think about it from Your Highness’s perspective...”
Clemente cautiously presented a possibility to Rubina.
“...Ah, if Prince Alfonso really marries Countess de Mare... Prince Alfonso will have no, heir... He, he won’t be able to produce an heir, right...”
Rubina's eyes widened.
“What do you mean?”
“Yes... If, if Duke Cesare marries the sovereign’s daughter, and a son is born from that union... His Majesty Leo III... He cannot help but consider the successor...”
“...Are you saying that Cesare’s children will become royal descendants?”
Duchess Rubina's heart pounded, and the world beat powerfully.
“Oh, no! If the Crown Prince hasn’t been appointed yet, then maybe...”
Maybe... Instead of having the awkward cohabitation of appointing Alfonso as the next King and Cesare's son as the next King, they could just make Cesare the next King...
But soon a look of discomfort appeared on Duchess Rubina's face.
All of these assumptions had to be preceded by one condition.
The condition is that Cesare marries the monarch's daughter.
“Who would want to marry that bastard Cesare!”
Cesare's reputation was once again in question.
When he broke off his engagement with Countess de Mare three years ago, Rubina scoffed, saying that breaking off the engagement was a loss for the woman and that her son would not even blink an eye, but the world was not so easy.
The entire Central Continent was shocked by the story of a man who teased the woman he loved to death with her older sister and lower body.
Isn't it a cliché that when you find true love, you settle down?
As a result, Cesare's existing notoriety spread like wildfire with each new episode.
Cesare, Duke of Pisano, who was a country-wide debaucher, ended up becoming a continent-wide Casanova.
Moreover, Cesare's conduct after that was not particularly desirable.
People thought that the Duke was quietly spending his days in seclusion in his estate, detoxifying, but as soon as Cesare returned, his popularity and his family members returned with him.
In other words, it means that rumors spread in the capital about what Cesare had been doing in his territory.
According to rumors circulating in the capital, Duke Cesare was said to have been intoxicated with wine and other substances day and night, repeatedly embracing black-haired women.
Only a tall woman with black hair. He didn't know her face or age. And after sleeping with her once, he kicked her out and never saw her again.
Since there were more than one or two women who had been touched, it was impossible to suppress the rumors.
He didn't just touch women who wouldn't get hurt, he touched everyone from low-class prostitutes to noble children.
“Just shake your butt!”
Rubina snapped. Her words were so sharp that even her troublemaker son said it hurt when he was hit by his mother's tongue.
“There is already a shortage of suitable spouses in the Central Continent, and with that bastard Cesare acting like that, where are we going to find people?”
There was an objective shortage of manpower, to the point that the three-year-old girl of the Archduke of Yuldenburg was even mentioned as a possible match for Alfonso, who was perfectly fine.
She listed the possible daughters of the monarch but found no suitable match.
But even with all that in mind, Rubina simply ignored her son's wishes.
Even today, he cried and made a fuss while holding onto Countess de Mare, but Rubina had no intention of bringing the two together.
It is difficult to love a daughter-in-law who reported herself to be a syphilis victim and sent her to prison.
Rubina was not a generous mother who would make such concessions for her son's happiness.
“Do you know how difficult it is for men and women to get married? Even though they wash and practice the proper way to present a bouquet of flowers, they still can’t get rid of the habit of playing around with their lower body!”
“Ugh...”
Clemente's sighs were added, filling Rubina's living room with a duet of sighs.
In the midst of all this, Clemente carefully comforted Rubina. It was a life where it was hard not to be loved.
“Well, still... Ah, it’s a good thing that Prince Alfonso turned his eyes towards Countess de Mare...”
Clemente was a blood relative of the late Count Contarini and was vaguely aware of Leo III's failed attempt to take Ariadne de Mare as a wife.
During the incident where Duke Cesare was forced to step down as commander-in-chief, word leaked out about the children of the late Count Contarini.
“Ooh, His Majesty the King, I’ll definitely fall out of favor...”
Clemente looked at Rubina, unsure of how much she could say.
Fortunately, Rubina didn't seem to understand what Clemente was saying. Clemente decided to just blurt it out.
“...Uh, we have to support this romance... That, that way, the Duke’s position will be, uh, established...”
“Ugh!”
Rubina sighed in displeasure. If she had to name the women she hated most in the capital right now, it would be the de Mare sisters.
Luckily, Rubina had some fun things to do.
“Oh, that’s right. His Majesty the King asked me to make arrangements.”
Rubina told Clemente about a tea party she had arranged, which would include Leo III, Duchess Rubina, Duke Cesare, and the young Count and Countess Contarini.
Clemente added his touch.
“...Huh, that, that’s right...”
It was a composition that was in bad taste. Fortunately, Rubina did not ask Clemente for an answer and moved on to the matter at hand.
“Tell your younger brother. Tell him to come to the palace. There’s no need to delay. Let’s do it later this week.”
Because of this, the sparks of anger Rubina felt towards de Mare's younger sister, were turned on de Mare's older sister.
Duke Cesare, on the other hand, took some time to understand what was being said and was surprised a little later.
"What?"
Alfonso smiled brightly in front of Cesare, whose voice was cracking.
“As the Duke said, make sure my woman doesn’t meet another man.”
Alfonso tightened his arms around Ariadne, drawing her closer.
Ariadne gasped for breath as the thick left arm pressed against her ribs. The situation seemed surreal.
Alfonso, holding Ariadne tightly, gestured to Cesare with his chin.
“I wish you would just open the road for me.”
Cesare had difficulty breathing. He took a deep breath.
“Your Highness the Prince.”
It was dirty and lethal. It was heartbreaking to have to use honorifics for the man who held her in front of Ariadne de Mare.
But for the first time in Cesare's life, something—perhaps desperation—took over his pride. He could not let Ariadne go like this.
“You can’t do this.”
Alfonso's voice tone dropped.
“What doesn’t work?”
Alfonso always had a smiling face even after returning from the battlefield. His impression changed a little, but his expression was the same.
Cesare laughed off the public opinion that Alfonso had become more dignified and colder than before.
But now, looking at Alfonso's face, he could clearly see why his expression had changed.
The golden Prince looked down at his half-brother with a face as pale as the sands of the desert, indifferent and cold.
“No... That...”
Cesare struggled to find the words.
“I, I was talking to Countess de Mare. Even if you are a Prince, there is nothing in etiquette that allows you to interrupt a Lady’s conversation at will and take her away from the person she is talking to.”
“You’re right, there’s no such thing as etiquette.”
Alfonso asked back in a curt tone.
“But wasn’t that your argument?”
Cesare was speechless. But the reason he was talking to Alfonso now was not because he had any particular business to attend to, but because he simply could not let them, or rather her, go like this.
When he had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths, he looked at Ariadne instead of Alfonso and appealed.
“Ari, think carefully about what I said.”
"Duke."
Alfonso's eyebrows narrowed and his gaze sharpened. But Cesare paid no attention and focused solely on Ariadne.
“You can come back anytime. It’s up to you.”
"Duke!"
Alfonso, whose patience was running out, stopped him. But Cesare was in no position to back down.
He looked at Ariadne in Alfonso's arms and pleaded with her.
“I’ll contact you when I’ve gathered my thoughts...”
“Cesare de Como!”
Only then did Cesare open his mouth and look at Alfonso, who shouted like lightning. Alfonso thrust his head in and growled.
“Shut up before you get punched in the face.”
Cesare swears to heaven that he never imagined his always gentle, four-year-younger half-brother treating him like this.
And 'de Como'! This was an open slap in the face.
While Cesare was speechless and stammering, Alfonso spoke to Ariadne in a voice so gentle that the members of the Silver Cross would have been digging their ears into it.
“Let’s go, Ari.”
Ariadne nodded quickly. It was what she had hoped for, as she was contemplating whether she should throw herself between them and tell them not to fight because of her.
Alfonso passed Cesare, still holding her in his arms.
Alfonso walked at Ariadne's pace.
Since the two of them were slow, Cesare felt the disadvantage of being twice as hurt, but he was able to not miss the opportunity to shout one last word to Ariadne's back as she left.
“Ari! I’ll wait!”
Countess de Mare did not look back—and even if she had, she would have been obscured by the Prince's huge frame, the size of a house—and Duke Cesare's voice fell down the path like an unanswered echo.
Cesare covered his face with both hands, feeling utterly devastated.
But there was one person who was incredibly happy because of this incident. It was Countess Baljo, who got to see something she never imagined.
Her mouth dropped open. Her heart sank and her stomach grew hot at the thought of what she had just witnessed being talked about at the neighborhood tea party.
Clemente de Bartolini, on the other hand, had a bitter taste.
They've got a hot topic to heat up the social circle, but it just so happens to be about the son of their new boss getting screwed.
It's frustrating not being able to participate, but if she makes one mistake she might get dragged into the quarantine work.
Leaving all this behind, Ariadne walked forward without looking back.
Shr can't believe Cesare is saying something like that.
Life is truly ironic. There was a time when she risked her life to hear those words, but now hearing them only makes her head spin.
Ariadne didn't even want to think about it, shr just wanted to disappear from the face of the earth. Shr would be happy to lie down and rest for three days in a place where there was no one.
As she thought about that, she felt the body heat surrounding her and looked up.
Alfonso, whose thoughts she could not understand, was leading her with a strong demeanor.
“Brother! Sister!”
Princess Bianca waved her hand from afar. Bianca also heard a loud noise from afar.
Bianca couldn't hear the details, but it seemed like Duke Cesare was begging for something. Hurry up and listen to the explanation!
The capital was such a fun place!
***
Countess Baljo was a bit oblivious. This may have been due to her long reign as the omnipotent ruler of the Silver Cross Women's Association.
She ended up spitting out a story about what she had seen in front of Duchess Rubina, and Rubina was left scratching her head in front of a society lady she wasn't even close to.
Countess Baljo looked at Rubina, who was pulling out her hair, and boasted about her wisdom of life.
“Oh my! Duchess? I see you have lice. You should have been more thorough with your personal hygiene. When you have lice, boil mint in vinegar and use the water...”
Rubina had to struggle not to shout at Bartolini, 'Get that woman out of here!'
Alfonso's presence was crucial in making Rubina, despite her natural temper, tolerate the Countess of Baljo's infidelity and Clemente de Bartolini's failure—she threw a different ball on Bianca's debutante day.
The Little Prince, who was thought to be a cat, turned out to be a full-fledged tiger. And this adult tiger didn't even bother to hide its teeth.
“How dare you call my son ‘de Como’!”
After sending Countess Baljo away, Rubina left alone with Clemente, vented her feelings of threat and the anger that arose from it.
“That is an act of ignoring His Majesty the King’s recognition of my son!”
“I guess the Prince thinks he can do whatever he wants in the world!”
Clemente was a stickler. She had a stutter that improved dramatically when she cursed at men.
“...But... Wouldn’t this actually be beneficial?”
“Huh? Benefits? What benefits!”
Rubina screamed.
After listening to Clemente rant for a while about how Cesare's side was his side, how he would be a laughing stock in society, and how he should shut Countess Baljo's mouth with a rag, Clemente finally got a chance to speak.
“That, that... His Majesty the King, ah, hasn’t appointed Prince Alfonso... as Crown Prince (principe ereditario) yet?”
“Yeah, that’s funny.”
After Queen Margaret's death, or even before she died, Rubina attempted to take away Alfonso's privileges and honors, but Leo III mostly ignored her.
He succeeded only in a few cases where the King's actions were not likely to be reported to the outside world, such as not sending war funds to Taranto.
For a King whose power was based on the divine right of Kings, Leo III was extremely sensitive to public opinion.
He would never do anything that would compromise his own reputation for the sake of the Duchess Rubina or her happiness.
However, Leo III, ironically, did not appoint Alfonso as Crown Prince even before Rubina could appeal.
“...Your Highness, if you think about it from Your Highness’s perspective...”
Clemente cautiously presented a possibility to Rubina.
“...Ah, if Prince Alfonso really marries Countess de Mare... Prince Alfonso will have no, heir... He, he won’t be able to produce an heir, right...”
Rubina's eyes widened.
“What do you mean?”
“Yes... If, if Duke Cesare marries the sovereign’s daughter, and a son is born from that union... His Majesty Leo III... He cannot help but consider the successor...”
“...Are you saying that Cesare’s children will become royal descendants?”
Duchess Rubina's heart pounded, and the world beat powerfully.
“Oh, no! If the Crown Prince hasn’t been appointed yet, then maybe...”
Maybe... Instead of having the awkward cohabitation of appointing Alfonso as the next King and Cesare's son as the next King, they could just make Cesare the next King...
But soon a look of discomfort appeared on Duchess Rubina's face.
All of these assumptions had to be preceded by one condition.
The condition is that Cesare marries the monarch's daughter.
“Who would want to marry that bastard Cesare!”
Cesare's reputation was once again in question.
When he broke off his engagement with Countess de Mare three years ago, Rubina scoffed, saying that breaking off the engagement was a loss for the woman and that her son would not even blink an eye, but the world was not so easy.
The entire Central Continent was shocked by the story of a man who teased the woman he loved to death with her older sister and lower body.
Isn't it a cliché that when you find true love, you settle down?
As a result, Cesare's existing notoriety spread like wildfire with each new episode.
Cesare, Duke of Pisano, who was a country-wide debaucher, ended up becoming a continent-wide Casanova.
Moreover, Cesare's conduct after that was not particularly desirable.
People thought that the Duke was quietly spending his days in seclusion in his estate, detoxifying, but as soon as Cesare returned, his popularity and his family members returned with him.
In other words, it means that rumors spread in the capital about what Cesare had been doing in his territory.
According to rumors circulating in the capital, Duke Cesare was said to have been intoxicated with wine and other substances day and night, repeatedly embracing black-haired women.
Only a tall woman with black hair. He didn't know her face or age. And after sleeping with her once, he kicked her out and never saw her again.
Since there were more than one or two women who had been touched, it was impossible to suppress the rumors.
He didn't just touch women who wouldn't get hurt, he touched everyone from low-class prostitutes to noble children.
“Just shake your butt!”
Rubina snapped. Her words were so sharp that even her troublemaker son said it hurt when he was hit by his mother's tongue.
“There is already a shortage of suitable spouses in the Central Continent, and with that bastard Cesare acting like that, where are we going to find people?”
There was an objective shortage of manpower, to the point that the three-year-old girl of the Archduke of Yuldenburg was even mentioned as a possible match for Alfonso, who was perfectly fine.
She listed the possible daughters of the monarch but found no suitable match.
But even with all that in mind, Rubina simply ignored her son's wishes.
Even today, he cried and made a fuss while holding onto Countess de Mare, but Rubina had no intention of bringing the two together.
It is difficult to love a daughter-in-law who reported herself to be a syphilis victim and sent her to prison.
Rubina was not a generous mother who would make such concessions for her son's happiness.
“Do you know how difficult it is for men and women to get married? Even though they wash and practice the proper way to present a bouquet of flowers, they still can’t get rid of the habit of playing around with their lower body!”
“Ugh...”
Clemente's sighs were added, filling Rubina's living room with a duet of sighs.
In the midst of all this, Clemente carefully comforted Rubina. It was a life where it was hard not to be loved.
“Well, still... Ah, it’s a good thing that Prince Alfonso turned his eyes towards Countess de Mare...”
Clemente was a blood relative of the late Count Contarini and was vaguely aware of Leo III's failed attempt to take Ariadne de Mare as a wife.
During the incident where Duke Cesare was forced to step down as commander-in-chief, word leaked out about the children of the late Count Contarini.
“Ooh, His Majesty the King, I’ll definitely fall out of favor...”
Clemente looked at Rubina, unsure of how much she could say.
Fortunately, Rubina didn't seem to understand what Clemente was saying. Clemente decided to just blurt it out.
“...Uh, we have to support this romance... That, that way, the Duke’s position will be, uh, established...”
“Ugh!”
Rubina sighed in displeasure. If she had to name the women she hated most in the capital right now, it would be the de Mare sisters.
Luckily, Rubina had some fun things to do.
“Oh, that’s right. His Majesty the King asked me to make arrangements.”
Rubina told Clemente about a tea party she had arranged, which would include Leo III, Duchess Rubina, Duke Cesare, and the young Count and Countess Contarini.
Clemente added his touch.
“...Huh, that, that’s right...”
It was a composition that was in bad taste. Fortunately, Rubina did not ask Clemente for an answer and moved on to the matter at hand.
“Tell your younger brother. Tell him to come to the palace. There’s no need to delay. Let’s do it later this week.”
Because of this, the sparks of anger Rubina felt towards de Mare's younger sister, were turned on de Mare's older sister.
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