"Your grace wants one of the young ladies to go into the palace? I am against it! There hasn't been a day since they debuted, they are not ready for this!"
"As I said before, the queen has requested all the nobles to bring their heirs with them. And of course, when they mentioned the word 'request', it only means that we have to do it even if we don't want to."
"B-but so soon?"
The butler has the right to be worried and frustrated with the situation, but even if he or any other person opposed his grace for wanting to take one of us with him, it looked like we didn't have much of a choice but to obey the queen's order.
Every time I thought about it, it still was strange. The timing and the things that happened weren't right for a council meeting of the high-ups. But the queen had required not only all the power families and their heirs, but also nobles that had a title but neither land nor wealth. Such a massive turnout, the situation doesn't look promising and I don't want to let either of us experience something by meeting one of the royals this soon. I don't have a good feeling about this, because this event didn't take place when Nasya reincarnated for the first time, and why right after we made our debut?
Am I reading too much into this? I don't know if the purpose of the emperor is the same as the queen's motive for chairing the meeting. To be honest, I can't say that I approve of the ways she thinks and does stuff. She is not the person that can back down easily when something or someone is "stopping" her son from being the next in line for the throne, and those people went straight into her long black list of names that she wants to get rid of. And for Mireya to meet her this soon even if she is the daughter of a duke now, she is still going to be attacked by her when prince Jonathan starts to show interest.
Well, one of us has to go there right? And I don't have anything to do since the classes have been canceled because of the meeting, so if I go it would be one less problem to deal with in the future. But even if they told everyone that they should bring along their heirs, the oldest one is more suitable than the others even though we are both equal in terms of inheritance. And he mentioned that I or Mireya has to go with him, so he is not sure which of us should be the better choice. Since it came to this…I should probably take the chance!
"Your grace, is it possible for me to attend the meeting even if I am the second daughter?"
He was surprised that I made the move and volunteered for this, he knew that I would rather stay in the house all day practicing with the sword even if I didn't have classes, than having to deal with his political matters. The room was dead quiet, no one was moving or showing sight of reaction, the maid and even the butler were dazed by my expected question. Then one of the people broke the silence.
"I-if is not troublesome I want to go as well!"
'!!! What did I just hear?! Mireya, don't you know that I am doing this for your own good? If she is fine by going into the palace with his grace then my attempt was for nothing. What made her think that this was a good idea?'
Different from the last time when they were shocked from hearing me say that "I wanted to go", this time to me it looked that the butler and the others were more dissatisfied than surprised. And I don't blame them, because that way I and they see it, this conversation now has gone to the point where we are going to start fighting over who will be the one to leave and who is staying home. Like seriously, I am not that desperate to go to the palace where all those old and rotten people gather. But if I don't get this chance, Mireya has to face them all by herself! But she seemed confident and ready to go, despite the fact that I didn't want her to leave.
"It looks like the choice is up to me now, since you both agree to let me take one to the palace. And to answer your question earlier Raelian, it doesn't matter if you are the second or the first, since you are practically my daughters and I still haven't chosen the next duke to hold the family seat, both of you are equals for me. Until someone proves their worth of course!"
"Then let me prove my worth!"
'Take the hint, your grace! It would be perfect if you take me with you rather than Mireya, I am a better choice if your think about the things I can do to bring people down and prove to them that they can't mess with us.'
"All right, be ready quick and came to the carriage, you only have twenty minutes or I will take Mireya."
"I am ready!"
"You are not going to wear a dress?"
'His response before was fast, but he still didn't accept it entirely! Is not like I was his first choice, but well I don't care for my looks either way so I saved myself. A ponytail and the clothes that I am wearing now are pretty good, even though I was going to train wearing this. But I don't have to waste my time on that pointless stuff just to please someone else.'
"No, I am not!"
"Sigh! Butler, bring here her coat of arms. Since she is going to attend with pants in the council, then she needs our family crest!"
I have no idea what that sigh was for. Because I didn't change or because I didn't waste time by letting Mireya go in my stade? Besides isn't the coat of arms supposed to be for his descendants, I thought that I and Mireya were equals though. Whatever he meant by it or his purpose for giving me the family crest, I don't care as long as he takes me with him at the end. If he wants to give me something that is supposed to be for someone else, I won't forgive him. But still, once they bought the coat in front of me, I chose to change into more proper clothes, and then wear it.
'Damn it, why are my clothes so similar to my hair color? Wearing a dark blue coat and also clothes in the silver shade is going to make me stand out. Thank goodness that dressing as a man it's easy for me to do! If I were to wear a dress again, I would probably suffocate and faint on the court.'
While I was following his grace at the carriage, I thought that something wasn't right. Mireya didn't say anything and her facial expression all the time that was seeing us off, was of someone that was upset about the outcoming. There is no reason for her to feel this way, but the thought makes me uneasy and sad at the same time.
'Why are you making that face Mireya, are you anxious or angry with me? I am doing this for both of us, so I wouldn't have to worry about you meeting Jonathan, his mother, or even Nasya. But also, for you to not feel out of place or lonely in their company.'
The whole ride was silent, neither of us said a word to each other. His grace was dozing off for a few minutes and then looked out of the window, and I did the same by looking at the distance. The road, trees and even the houses were so familiar to me, I saw them where I first moved at the mansion when the butler took me to the tailor. Then after entering the center of the city with so many people and noisy crowds, I thought that the ride was about to end soon and my happy hours were over.
As our carriage approached the gates of the palace, I saw his grace wanted to say something to me but hesitated. Then he leaned closer and whispered, "Do not wander around and just stay close to me all the time and try not to cause a scene here, all right?" I noticed that he didn't want the coachman to hear him, so I just nodded and waited patiently for the door to open.
I guess what I was expecting to see was not exactly in the same category as what I received when I first saw the front view of the palace. It was so beautiful and majestic that I gasped for a long time while standing confused by how fabulous and intimidating that place was. The whole castle was built of white limestone, around it was a large space only with flowers and gold animal statues at the beginning and at the end of each road.
'I know that this palace is where many crimes and murders have taken place, but is this heaven?'
I surely couldn't take my eyes off it. Nasya and Mireya didn't sound as surprised as I was when I saw it, and I knew that I wasn't exaggerating my reaction since they probably were used to it, that's why they didn't care as much as I did.
"Raelian why are you standing there for? The meeting will start soon so we better hurry!"
'Like I care for your pointless meeting. Tsk, at least let me enjoy the view for a little longer!'
"Raelian!!"
"I am caming, I am caming!"
I didn't have much of a choice since I was there after all, so I just went along with it, but even throughout the meeting I thought about that view. Probably because I was bored or because they were talking about things that I already knew. For about an hour and a half, we waited for the queen to come and tell us the reason for our gathering, and I had to choose between sleeping and staring at the chair where the queen was going to sit. When she finally entered the court and everyone started to greet her, I was more busy holding my yawn than actually doing the formalities. I didn't like her character and attitude in the novel, so that made me lose all interest in her looks and words, no matter how beautiful she was.
"I am flattered to see that all the nobles are gathered here today and have accepted my request to talk about the matter at hand. I hope that everyone would bear with me today and let us all discuss together this huge crime that occurred not too long ago."
'Don't tell me, Is she bringing "that" up? It can't be the same, but why do I feel the chills down my spine. The others seem confused as I am, but what if she is talking about what I did?'
My eyes were on his grace, I suspected that he must have said something, but our contract was still valid. He can't betray me now, not at a time like this where I just started my plan. But the queen looked happy and was enjoying the reaction of the crowd.
"My queen, what do you mean that a crime has taken place not too long ago?"
"Well, when all of you were enjoying yourselves at the duke's party. Someone took the opportunity where you weren't paying attention and committed a grave crime."
My heart sank! The crime that she was talking about was the thing that I did to that girl. But how did she know about that? Was she trying to find the culprit by gathering all of us here? Her face looked more and more disgusting to me, and hiding after that sly smile and pretty words were the most disturbing thing that I could think about her. When she talked again, right after they signaled everyone to stay silent, my heart skipped a bit.
"Am I right, Alastair?"
'Huh?!'