Three women came out of the palace hall.
In the lead was a middle-aged woman with long white hair.
She has pale white skin, similar to Zara's, indicating that she rarely leaves the house.
She is also about 175 cm tall with a body that has no other words but perfect.
Seeing the footsteps of her long legs could fascinate men to the point of not being able to take their eyes off her anymore.
However, the cold expression on her face that looked like she was holding a grudge was enough to make anyone afraid to think dirty of her.
The other two women, on the other hand, looked to be in their early 30s.
They were also high-class beauties, one had blonde hair and the other had reddish-brown hair.
They were not wearing dresses, but shirts layered with vests and trousers, hiding their quite wild figures.
They were no strangers to Ciel.
The blonde one was Andrea while the reddish-brown one was Camelia.
Apart from his mother's bodyguards, they had also been his maids when he was young.
Their relationship is quite deep, basically there are no more boundaries between them.
People are of course not that interested in them.
They are more interested in Ciel's mother, Elizabeth L, the former Queen.
She was like the Phoenix in this Empire in that she had rarely appeared since her husband died.
Rumor has it that she is often sickly, unable to do many activities.
That's of course true.
Otherwise, Ciel's strength wouldn't be as weak as it is now if his mother had acted as his support.
Her illness was quite strange and mysterious, often leaving her feeling so weak that she could barely wake up. The Empire had tried many ways to treat it but to no avail.
The biggest suspicion was that it was caused by a Shaman.
This is a very dangerous kind of person.
They are not strong, but can transmit disease to others in certain ways.
Unfortunately their whereabouts are hard to find.
They always hide because many people are hunting them.
Curing the ailments caused by them was even more difficult, it took a lot of rare items to make a resistance ritual and it was also not certain to work.
The Empire had done so many times only to fail.
The former Queen stopped in front of the Prime Minister, she said, "Enough here! Let's discuss the wedding date."
She looked at Ciel, signaling for him to stand beside her.
While walking to her side, Ciel said, "Mom, I can handle this, you have to take care of your health."
He was quite worried.
Even if he had memories from another life now, his feelings for his mother were still the same.
Seeing her suffer made him feel sick.
Elizabeth L ignored Ciel's words, she took his hand and pulled him to her side, she replied "for each of your marriages, I will personally take care of it."
Her words were firm, not allowing any rebuttal.
Meanwhile, the people saluted her including the Prime Minister.
"Your Majesty, long time no see, — I hope you are well," said the latter.
His demeanor is calm and elegant, the kind that adapts easily to anyone.
After taking a slow breath, he quickly continued, "As for the wedding date, maybe we can ask the Emperor's opinion, I myself think the sooner the better."
His gaze fell on Ciel.
Elizabeth also looked at Ciel, she asked "what do you think, when are you ready?"
As for the matter of when to get married, Ciel had his own plans.
What Ciel really wanted now was to secretly increase his power.
He married not only because he wanted to, but because he also wanted to use it to counterattack.
Therefore, before he had enough power, he thought their relationship was enough until the engagement first.
That way, Zara cannot be fully involved with his affairs, different if she becomes his wife where she can move freely in the palace and gain some authority.
Since this was the marriage of two high-class families, there was no way Ciel would not abide by the marriage rules.
Engagement, on the other hand, is quite free.
Their bond is only up to the agreement of both parties, does not involve anything spiritual like marriage so they are not obliged to share the rights to what they have.
During this engagement, Ciel also gets to understand Zara more deeply and tries to find a way to get her out of the Prime Minister's influence. In other words, making her completely switch sides from her father's side to his side.
As a woman who rarely goes out of the house and interacts with other people, it is quite difficult to understand what Zara is like.
Maybe she really was a virtuous woman, but there was no way the Prime Minister had sent her to him without the confidence to control her.
Of course, this was the same with Jasmine Villarreal.
But for this woman, Ciel would probably give her a bit of a difference because he wanted her to be the Prime Minister's opponent.
"Ehmmm..." Ciel cleared his throat, looking at his mother and the Prime Minister alternately before saying, "I can't decide yet, but I'm thinking of getting closer to Zara. — If we really feel comfortable with each other, we can get married right away."
Ciel looked at Zara who was still calm.
From someone else's point of view, Ciel's answer wasn't too strange.
Many people prefer to extend their engagement to get closer to each other before actually getting married.
For a moment, the Prime Minister knitted his brows. He might not be happy with it, but Elizabeth's presence made him choose silence.
"Since that's what you want, we can talk about it again when you're ready," Elizabeth said.
As Ciel's mother, she clearly had an inkling that no one else had of him.
Perhaps she felt he had a certain plan, so she agreed without hesitation.
"Let's make this engagement official tonight, everyone here can attend," she added.
Everyone nodded.
All the affairs of the Empire were finally put on hold.
Prime Minister and Zara go straight home.
"Ciel, follow me," Elizabeth said after they had left.
Elizabeth stepped into the palace, followed by her two bodyguards.
Ciel, on the other hand, looked at Joe first, he said "I leave everything to you."
"I'll do what's best for you, Your Majesty," Joe replied, bowing slightly.
...