CH 28.1

(Risel’s POV) A Young Prince’s Wish

Risel rereads the letters he received from his beloved over and over again.

He repeats the process, enough to memorize the sentences.

Then, he tucks it in his breast pocket and opens it in between bouts of his work. Whenever he takes a break, he reads it again and ruminates on it.

He was fully aware that the letter is just a formal polite reply, but for Risel, who is in the throes of his first love affair, the letter from Marie is like a talisman that negates all his sorrows.

For nineteen years, Rezel had no interest in romantic relationships and was well aware that such matters had no relevance to his own life.

Unlike most people, he was born and raised in an environment where he was the sole heir to the throne. Of course, if relatives were included, there would be people other than Risel who could succeed the throne, but since he was the only legitimate child of the current King, he had been destined to become king from an early age.

Growing up surrounded by adults, Risel doesn’t understand the feelings that people his age would have.

He has had opportunities to talk with close-aged subjects and children of vassals, but he has never been able to empathize with them.

Moreover, feelings toward the opposite sex were also unfamiliar to him.

He knows how to treat women within the boundary of common courtesy, how to interact with them, how to treat them with harsh words, and even how to charm them. It’s a cruel way of saying it, but he’s been taught how to treat women as if he was practicing swordsmanship.

Frankly, he thought it was knowledge he didn’t need, but now he was thankful for it.

Even though there is a big difference in status, Marie is still a baron’s daughter, a member of the nobility. It’s sufficient enough for the royal family, which places great importance on social status.

Even so, he learned from experience that even if he put his heart into it, there was still a possibility that it wouldn’t work.

Marie strongly told Risel that she didn’t want to become queen.

Her refusal showed more than a feeling of dislike for his status, and Risel didn’t want to force her into something she didn’t want.

But no matter how much he gets carried away by love, he won’t go blind by it.

Risel was raised to be more than a man; he was raised to be a ruler of a country.

He will never abandon that responsibility.

Even so, his heart isn’t weak enough to easily give up on the person he loves.

More than that, he enjoyed the fact that for the first time, there existed something he couldn’t get, and that gave birth to feelings that he had never felt before.

He was not going to let it end with “I can’t do it” or “It can’t be helped.” Risel himself wouldn’t give up on his feelings of love until he tried the best he could do.

However, the current monarchy is too fragile and weak to make Risel’s own affairs a top priority.

Only after the situation had become solid would he be able to relax and think about himself.

Moreover, Risel had a feeling that the monarchy was about to be shaken up.

First of all, the movement of the neutral factions is suspicious. Even within the country’s factions, there is an implicit division between the Queen’s faction, which used to lean toward Count Danzes, and the King’s faction, which has followed the King since ancient times.

When the search for his fiancée began suddenly, he initially thought it was the King’s faction, but upon closer examination, it turned out to be false.

Because he could not shake the feeling of discomfort, Risel had his own vassals investigate the situation, but it proved to be more difficult than he had imagined, and the reports were coming in much later than he had expected.

And just a while ago, Reynaldo’s name came out of the vassal who had been investigating the situation, which finally made sense to Risel.

Reynaldo is a man with a sharp mind.

And yet he is neither anti-royalist, nor royalist, nor neutral. He doesn’t appear to belong to any faction and appears to have risen to his current position unassumingly.

Of course, that is not the case. No matter how skilled he may have been in suppressing the rebellion of a small tribe and improving diplomacy with neighboring countries, he still needs connections in order to gain access to the inside of the kingdom.

Risel knew that both his father, the King, and his grandfather, Count Danzes, were wary of him and had investigated Reynaldo on numerous occasions. However, various names came up, from the King’s faction to the neutral factions, as to who might be conspiring against them.

In other words, even if they try to trap him somehow, they will be opposed and defended by his allies.

Reynaldo had placed himself in a situation that neither Risel’s father nor his grandfather could do anything about.

However, Risel sensed that he was suddenly moving forward in a hurry.

The change was so subtle that Risel couldn’t recognize it before. For a man who had planned so meticulously and had never shown any signs of weakness, he seemed to be in a great hurry.

Even if he admired him, Risel was the prince of this country. He had become more or less involved in the monarchy and had more often taken on the role of regent in place of the King.

The friction that had arisen because his father had entrusted the politics to a certain vassal might be rectified if he was the one who was in charge now. In order for his efforts to bear fruit, he intended to continue to work to regain the people’s trust day after day.

Now is the most important time.

Even if it’s his mentor, Reynaldo, Risel must stop him if he gets in the way.