Can Someone Please Explain What's Going On?! Volume 6

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1428-3
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 6, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Can Someone Please Explain What's Going On?!

Despite their marriage starting out as purely a business arrangement, Viola is starting to bend to Cercis's wooing and is (nearly!) ready to admit to her own feelings. Unfortunately for the pair, the neighboring kingdom of Aurantia is sending their crown prince to Flür for a ceremony to commemorate the end of the war. They're also asking for his sister, the princess, to marry into the country as a sign of peace. But she's picked Cercis, of all people?! To make matters worse, the crown prince himself falls in love at first sight-with Viola! Despite immediate rejections, neither of the royal siblings are going to give up easily! Viola and Cercis's relationship will be put to the test!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tsuredurebana

Weitere Mitwirkende

Hagiwara, Rin

Hemphill, Emily

Leseproben

Prologue

The garden that lay before us was a wonder—its guests could even enjoy luxuriously gazing at the beautifully sparkling surface of the Wahl River. Only one family in the Kingdom of Flür could possibly include a whole on their manor grounds: that of Duke Argenteia.

We—Miss Iris, myself, and two other ladies—had been invited to the Argenteia’s estate for a tea party by our friend(?), Miss Verbena.

The mild weather and cool breeze was perfect for an outdoor gathering, so us ladies were having a grand old time chatting and sipping on our teas. That is, until the subject of the princess of Aurantia—the country we’d just been at war with—asking to marry Mr. Fisalis came up. I brought down the mood after that.

“...”

There were six girls present, but the only thing you could hear was the inappropriately tranquil chirping of the birds...

Miss Verbena, Miss Iris, and the other ladies had all tried to follow up with something to lift my spirits, but now they were just silent, worriedly watching to see how I reacted. I mean, I’m super glad that they’re all worried about me, but still!

How many days had it been since Mr. Fisalis had told me that? I actually hadn’t seen him for a while after that—but let’s leave that aside for the moment. He’d told me that the Crown Prince and his party were coming to hold a ceremony celebrating the end of the war and to discuss the future. He never told me that “the future” included a husband for the princess, much less that was going to be her first choice.

From what the girls said, both Mr. Fisalis and the king himself had instantly refused the marriage offer and delivered an official document saying exactly that to Aurantia at record speed. If they’d refused already, wouldn’t it have been nice to at least mention it happening? It’s absolutely wrong that everyone but his damn knew!

Mr. Fisalis usually blabs about his work stuff, even to the point of leaking classified intel, but he couldn’t tell me something important? I mean, yes, our marriage began as a contract with no feelings involved. But after spending so long with him, I’ve ended up really seeing him in a new light (despite how I may act sometimes). And he’d given me a real vow too.

that

... did

“Miss Viola? Are you sure you’re alright?” Miss Iris, the daughter of Marquis Sanguinneah, was staring at me anxiously.

I’d told them I was fine when they’d asked, but I’d ended up getting carried away with my distressed thoughts. “Oh, yes—I was just doing some thinking... I’m sorry,” I answered after taking a deep breath to calm myself down.

“No matter what that princess does, we’re all on your side, Miss Viola! Stay confident!” Miss Verbena announced, with Miss Iris, Miss Nastersham, Miss Krokusse, and Miss Columbine piping in their agreements, complete with a few strong nods.

* * *

Thanks to those Aurantian idiots deciding that a trip to Flür was a great idea, I’d been having to stay at work later and later. Even today, the sun had already gone down by the time I noticed. I was gonna end up getting home in the middle of the night again.

The double whammy of getting home late but having to leave early in the morning meant I’d barely seen Viola in ages—at least when she was awake. She was always asleep by the time I got home and still sleeping when I had to leave again.

...I’d been sneaking the occasional peek at her while she slept, though. If I didn’t, my Viola deficiency would have driven me mad. I didn’t care if Rohtas gave me dirty looks for it either!

Just as I was hurrying through the halls of the palace to deliver some papers to the Minister of War as he chatted with His Majesty, I saw Consul Argenteia—Celosia—walking down the opposite side. He was carrying documents too, so he must’ve been on his way to bring them somewhere.

“Hey, Cercis. I was just looking for you. You’ve sure been busy lately, huh?” he said as we were about to pass each other.

As the second son of Duke Argenteia, Celosia was working at the palace as Consul. We’d known each other since childhood due to our family ties, and with us being the same age as well, we were pretty close. He was also Verbena’s older brother.

Seeing him walking the palace halls looking so composed was very funny to me, knowing his usual laid back personality. But whenever we met somewhere like this without any onlookers, he’d always slip back into his typical smirk. And despite saying he’d been looking for me, he didn’t like he had been.

“Thanks to you. I’m so busy, I might just go crazy.”

“Oh, so that’s why I can sense that pissy aura of yours a mile away.”

“Leave me alone,” I muttered curtly, only to get a smirk back.

When I glared at him, he just laughed it off. “Oh, don’t get so cranky about it. I know why you’re so upset. You haven’t seen your wife lately, have you?”

“Huh? That’s not it. We just haven’t had of a chance to talk since I’ve been so busy.” I made sure to emphasize the “much.” —really!

“That’s what I mean, though! I heard you didn’t tell her about the whole ‘marrying Aurantia’s Princess’ thing. It’s not good to keep secrets. Nope.”

His self-satisfied look as he said that pissed me off even more. I could feel the veins on my temple throbbing just from dealing with him. “I haven’t kept it a secret, I just haven’t told her directly since I don’t want her to worry. And the offer was rejected immediately, so it’s like it never happened.”

...

When I said that, the smirk vanished from Celosia’s face, and he suddenly looked at me with a completely serious expression. .

“...What is it? Wait... How do you know Viola didn’t know about the princess thing?”

“Verbena held a tea party at our manor today.”

“Yeah, I heard. Viola was invited.”

Verbena and Viola had become friends(?) at the Argenteia’s last party, despite Verbena being super hostile towards her before...? I’ll never understand women. But setting that aside that, I’d thought that Verbena was just being polite when she said she’d invite Viola to a tea party, but I guess she actually did it. Rohtas said that Viola was shocked to get the invitation too. That tea party was today, at the Argenteia’s manor.

Had something happened there?

“Apparently the topic of Aurantia came up.”

“Wait just a second. How?”

“I don’t know. It just went from Aurantia’s crown prince coming to Flür, to their princess marrying into Flür as a show of goodwill, and then to the princess’s first choice for a husband being you.”

“...I still don’t really understand how it came up in the first place, but I see how Viola learned about it.”

“Verbena said that she’d brought it up because she figured your wife already knew. Oh, but...if you didn’t actually tell her, there was no way she would have known. The Madam was quite shocked when she learned, I hear.”

While I was standing there in a daze, Celosia spoke up again. “Verbena was worried when your wife went pale, so she wants you to patch things up! That’s what she asked me to tell you.” Once he’d finished delivering...