Chapter 41

Inside the rattling, swaying carriage, even with his beloved new bride sitting right beside him, Alan kept his lips pressed tight and his arms crossed.

That was only to be expected, as Curtis McBride, the naval admiral of the Kingdom of Fieran, had requested to ride along in their carriage all the way from the port town of Angus to the royal capital.

“Surely a carriage shared by two grown men would feel rather cramped.”

“My, and here I thought a carriage belonging to the House of Gazard would hardly be so diminutive.”

Curtis smoothly brushed aside Alan’s remark.

Diana, seated beside Alan, watched the two of them with a wry smile.

A summons from the Royal House of Rutledge.

The arrival of a Fieran naval vessel—a nation with which they held no diplomatic relations—at the port of Angus, and the fact that the House of Gazard had stepped up to the negotiating table, had already been reported to the royal palace.

It was easy enough to guess that this was the reason for the summons.

Already, history was beginning to walk a path different from her previous life.

Wondering how the royal family would react to this summons, Diana let out a small sigh at the thought.

“You really didn’t have to accompany us all the way to the royal capital, you know.”

“Oh, come now, sooner or later they are someone I must present myself to.”

For the Kingdom of Fieran, which wished to expand diplomatic relations across the sea, deepening ties not only with the House of Gazard but also with the Royal House of Rutledge was undoubtedly the prudent choice.

Yet, even knowing that, Diana’s expression remained unenthusiastic.

“If that is the case, then all the more reason… I feel it would have been better had you not traveled alongside us.”

“…Hoh.”

It seemed Curtis sensed something unsaid behind Diana’s words.

He raised a single eyebrow slightly and stared intently at the two of them sitting affectionately side by side.

“I hear the House of Gazard is a prestigious lineage dating back to the kingdom’s founding.”

“Such praise is a thing of the past now.”

“Hmm.”

Curtis stroked his chin with a look of intrigue.

To Curtis, a military man, the royal family was an absolute existence.

For the House of Gazard to speak in such a manner, despite having taken in a royal prince as their husband into the family… To someone far away in the Kingdom of Fieran who knew nothing of the inner workings of Rutledge, Diana’s words were more than enough to stoke his curiosity.

“In the Kingdom of Fieran, there is a legend passed down: ‘Far away in the Kingdom of Rutledge, there stand the royal family and five guardians.’”

“Five guardians…?”

“Aye, it is a tale spoken of since ancient times.”

It was news not only to Diana, but even to Alan, who belonged to the royal family.

“I have never heard such a story…”

“I had thought perhaps some similar folklore might remain on this side as well.”

Looking inquiringly at Alan, Diana gazed up at him.

Alan merely shook his head slowly from side to side.

Alan’s maternal lineage was also one of the Five Great Noble Families, but the House of Pennington had already been extinguished under the charge of plotting treason by bearing the child of the former king.

There was no way Alan could know of any tales passed down within the Pennington family.

“My father might know something, however…”

Even though she had been chosen as the next head of the family, Diana had not yet formally inherited the peerage.

In her previous life, around the time of her father’s death, the entire country had been thrown into uproar by a sweeping epidemic.

Diana had hurriedly stepped into the seat of the head of the house, and ever since, she had been relentlessly pursued by the affairs of the ducal household.

She had never found the time to decipher the old texts left behind by her father, and the task of sorting through his personal belongings had been left entirely to her younger sister, Cordelia.

“Well, perhaps it simply means that the coastal nations once tried to meddle with the inland realm and learned their lesson the hard way.”

With those words, Curtis gave a light laugh.

(The royal family and five guardians, that must undoubtedly refer to the Royal House of Rutledge and the Five Great Noble Families.)

Diana murmured inwardly to herself.

How had those names traveled all the way to the distant Kingdom of Fieran?

And why had they endured down to the present day? Her curiosity was endless, but the current Diana had no leisure to lose herself in contemplation.

Upon arriving at the royal capital, Curtis was received with the hospitality due a special envoy of the Kingdom of Fieran and took up lodging within the royal castle.

Parting ways with Curtis, Alan and Diana walked down the long corridors of the royal castle.

The room they were ushered into was not even the Audience Chamber, but a secluded parlor tucked away deep within.

“We have been expecting you.”

Waiting for them there was the young chancellor of the Kingdom of Rutledge, Marquis Theodore Saxon, said to be the right-hand man of Lawrence.