Away from the bustling and merry party hall, where all the other guests were socializing, inside a very luxurious living room, a boy and a girl stood in front of each other at a respectable distance. The boy had a bored expression, almost as if he was only sent there because he was ordered so, the girl on the other hand, kept a friendly smile, without any other signs that she had ulterior motives.
"... Your Highness Ludovic, It is a pleasure to meet you again this night"
"..."
The crown prince remained silent at Lysette's greetings as if he found the action of greeting her back to be a waste of time. Lysette, in turn also turned silent, but that was so that she could hold herself back from committing lese-majeste. With deep breaths to calm her nerves, Lysette skillfully maintained her friendly poker face, as she once again tried to open up with the prince with a small talk
"You highness, I was asked to come here today, to help foster the friendship between our families, I do not wish for anything more with you, aside from a healthy and friendly relationship"
"... ... ... Very well then, let us get this over with already. Please have a seat"
"..."
Once again Lysette took deep breaths to keep herself calm at the prince's rude responses to her attempts to talk with him, but still doing as she was taught, she maintained a friendly expression while doing as the prince said and gestured for her to sit down at one of the sofas, but small twitches could be seen on her smile.
When they had both sat down, the neatly organized chess board stood atop the table in between them. They both were told what they were supposed to do, and for what, but as it was clear by now, the prince had no intentions of putting effort into befriending someone that he saw as just like everyone else.
"... Since the white piece is on my side, I will be picking the first move"
"Understood, Your Highness. I hope you enjoy this match against me"
"..."
The prince once again showed no change in his expressionless face and simply moved his pawn in a very standard opening move. That was then followed by Lysette making her own move, which was a very unorthodox one.
"..."
The prince remained silent at her unexpected choice, but he remained calm and kept on thinking of various ways of responding to all of Lysette's moves. One by one the pieces were taken by the other, and after a few minutes...
"Checkmate"
"... I thought I could win this match, but you proved to be a better player, Your Highness"
"You showed some unorthodox responses to my moves, but you could not hide your plans"
"!"
Seeing the prince's rather respectable answer, made Lysette feel like she was managing to open the prince even if a little, just so that they could have a friendly relationship.
"I understand, then shall we have another match, Your Highness? This time, I will make sure to win"
"... *Sigh* Do not get ahead of yourself, just because I praised your skills"
"... Eh?"
"There is no point in having a second match because the end result will be the exact same. I do not have interest in people who only try to entertain me with the sole intention of getting close to me due to my position and looks, nor do I have interest in people who get easily enamored by a few praising words about their skills"
"... ... ... *Deeply breaths in* I understand, your highness. Then I shall be taking my leave"
Lysette offered her hand for a handshake, but even that the prince refused to accept, as he looked at the window revealing the clear starry sky of that night. Lysette maintaining the last threads of her composure, simply retreated her extended hand and bowed down to the prince before quickly making her way out of the room, but without running, as that would be improper. Once outside of the living room, Lysette walked down the wide and luxurious-looking corridor of the palace, but then her feet stopped moving, causing her to stand still in the middle of the corridor as she looked downwards.
A few drops of tears fell on the floor, unable to release her anger in any other way, all that Lysette could do was tear up and pout in anger while still feeling the desire to punch something and scream in anger. However, knowing that she couldn't show a weak image in such a place, Lysette steeled herself to endure until she and her father were inside their family's carriage and out of the capital.
"... *Cleans her tears with a handkerchief*... *Deeply breaths in*... ... ... I want to see Edward-sama..."
She had done all that by doing her best to think of her time with Edward, and Nanako, to improve her mood, but what that mostly did was make her want to see him as soon as possible. Still, with short steps, she made her way back to the hall, and to her father, as she did her best to hide any signs that she had just cried.
.
.
.
A few hours had passed since Lysette and her father had left the crown prince's coming-of-age ceremony.
Lysette had asked her father for permission to make an earlier exit from the ceremony, and seeing how stressed she was after her short private time with the prince. Hamilton decided to accept her request, and since he had also accomplished his plans for the party, he decided to use the excuse of Lysette feeling unwell as his excuse to make his early escape from the ceremony as well.
Their carriage was progressing at a decent rate, and by now they were already out of the sight of the capital's silhouette.
"... ... ... *Deeply breaths in* RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! THAT GOD! DAMN! BASTARD!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS TO ACT LIKE THAT!?"
"..."
Without the presence of the prying and judging eyes of others, Lysette finally snapped and let out all of her anger as she began to punch the carriage's sturdy wooden walls, she screamed and shouted with all her might. Her father, Hamilton, on the other hand, remained silent at his daughter's unsightly demeanor, but at the same time, he couldn't blame her, as he would've acted in the same way if he was as stressed and angry as her.
But he knew that Lysette would remain in a bad mood for at least a few days if he didn't do something, and thanks to his luck, the path they had to take from the capital to their territory, happened to pass close by the territory of the Harding family, which he had already planned on making a stop there on their trip back from the ceremony.
"... Lysette-chan"
"What?"
When he called for his daughter, Lysette who was in the middle of throwing multiple punches at one of the carriage's seat pillows, immediately answered with an angry voice, a perfect mirror of her current mental state.
"Because of the time and the dangers of traveling at night, even if by carriage and escorts. I plan on spending a night at the Harding family's estate, would you be fine with it?"
"!?"
Hearing her father's proposal, Lysette's angry eyes made a complete change to surprise, she wasn't expecting such an idea, but hearing it and quickly noticing that this meant she could spend time with Edward, caused her anger to start subsiding.
"... Or do you prefer to go back to our territory as soon as possible?"
"! L-Let's s-spend t-the n-night a-at E-Edward's place! Ah! I-I mean t-the Harding's m-manor!"
"Understood... Also Lysette-chan, you don't need to feel embarrassed for thinking about your fiancé"
"..."
Lysette whose anger had now completely disappeared, looked away with an embarrassed expression and then covered her face with the pillow that she had been, just a short while ago, punching it without holding back.
.
.
.
In front of the main entrance of the Harding manor, a small group of people were standing there, waiting for their very esteemed guests to arrive. That group consisted of all the official servants working for Oliver. His son Edward, and Nanako as the only "interns" who were able to remain awake at these hours, while the others were already sleeping due to their younger ages, but she was also there as Edward's second fiancée.
They had been in a position to receive their guests for a few minutes now, and after all those tense minutes, both Oliver and Edward who were cold sweating, only got tenser as the Neville family carriage approached their manor in the dead of the night, and stopped in front of them.
Oliver's servants swiftly moved to help Hamilton and Lysette to leave the carriage, but they both respectfully excused them, as they got out of the carriage themselves. However, when Lysette stepped outside of the carriage and saw Edward approaching to greet her like usual. Instead of greeting him with a bow, she...
"... EDWARD-SAMA, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!"
"!?"
"Ah!?"
Tightly hugged him while burying her face in his chest as she finally lost her remaining composure and felt like all of her stress going away. This unexpected reaction from her, caused Edward to be caught by surprise, as it also caused Nanako to make an equally surprised, but also jealous, reaction, so in response, Nanako approached the two and began hugging Edward as well from behind.
"..."
This put Edward in between two very soft sensations, that he was very used to by now, but that he still had to do his best to not show the wrong reaction to such a situation. So in an attempt to keep his mind from drifting away into that hellish pleasure, Edward tried to greet Hamilton instead.
"... It's great to see you in good health, Sir Hamilton, I hope you had a good night so far"
"Thanks for the concern, Little Edward. And also, I must say that you're one lucky boy"
Hamilton said that as he made a big and amused grin from seeing Edward's predicament at being hugged by two gorgeous beauties at the same time.
"Please don't tease me, Sir Hamilton"
"Fine, fine, I won't. But Little Edward, I must thank you for always being by Lysette's side whenever she needs it"
"I'm just doing my best to be a worthy fiancé for Lysette-sama, Sir Hamilton"
"Then please continue doing your best, also you can just call me father-in-law"
"I will have to refuse, sir Hamilton. That's too big of an honor for me"
"I insist, Little Edward. Please call me Father-in-law"
"... If you say so, then I'll have to accept your offer... Father-in-law"
*nods* "Humu, that's more like it. Heh, I can't wait to see the faces of my grandchildren, so you better keep working hard until then, Little Edward"
"I will try, Father-in-law"
"Ahaha! Good answer, boy!... Now as for you sir Oliver, how about we discuss some things related to the orphans from my territory that you began employing as these so-called interns, hm?"
"T-T-That w-would b-be a-a g-great t-topic, S-sir Hamilton"
Differently to Edward, where Hamilton acted like a cool uncle, towards Oliver, he put on a more professional, but still friendly, act, as he grabbed Oliver by the shoulders, and both of his actions were enough to make Oliver feel extremely nervous.
As for both Lysette and Hanako, neither of them paid attention to the conversation between Edward and Hamilton, as both had relaxed way too much from hugging him and feeling his scent up close.
With their greetings done, everyone made their way into the manor, to either finish their last assignments for the day or discuss some more matters that could end up prolonging until later into the night. As for Edward, this was the start of a somewhat hectic night for him.