This Wasn’t How It Was Supposed To Go [Interlude]

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, Arios thought, biting his lower lip.

The wedding banquet meal had ended, and now the venue had shifted to a time of mingling.

Every person he met praised Shitoen Balimore. No, rather, Princess Shitoen, now the Third Prince’s Consort of the Kingdom of Tidros.

Arios could tell well enough that it was not mere flattery.

Because they were all praising her where she was not present.

They said she had promptly cured the illness tormenting the people of the domain and brought benefit to the nation.

They said even the notoriously difficult Queen of Tidros and the Crown Princess had taken a liking to her and doted on her as though she were their own child.

They said she was such a gifted woman that one might think there was no language she could not speak.

And above all—

She was adored by her husband, Saryu El Tidros, and treated like a goddess by the order of knights under his command.

“He has done well to take such a fine princess consort.”

“The Crown Prince firmly supports the kingdom, and Prince Saryu excels in martial matters. And the diplomatic skill of the second prince, who married into a neighboring kingdom, is quite impressive as well. The Kingdom of Tidros is secure.”

And so, with everyone eager to curry favor, they went to Shitoen, offering smiling congratulations with ingratiating expressions.

She was completely different from how she had been in the Kingdom of Luminous.

Back then, she had shut herself up in Arios’s residence, and even when he brought her to social gatherings, she would leave his side and skulk about doing who-knows-what with elderly women. She was arrogant, quick to throw her rank around, and cruel to Mail.

That woman was supposed to have been that kind of woman.

“And yet… she looks so happy.”

“Even if it was a political marriage… it is still rare to see a couple this close.”

Some royal passing right in front of Arios said so with a fond smile.

That was right.

That too was one of the things that infuriated him.

Even though she had worn an expressionless mask whenever she was before him.

Grinding his back teeth together, he glared at Shitoen standing in the center of the hall.

At that moment, she was holding Prince Saryu’s arm, smiling with narrowed eyes. Saryu must have said something, because she covered her mouth and laughed as though amused.

Seeing that expression—

A memory suddenly surfaced.

No.

Far in the past.

Yes, when Shitoen had first come to the Kingdom of Luminous, he felt she used to smile like that.

‘Crown Prince Arios.’

She had said it in a gentle voice, smiling at him.

But then—

‘I hear that under those clothes, she’s covered in scales like a lizard.’

The voice stroking his eardrums was Mail’s cloying, lisping one.

That was right.

At some point, he had come to think exactly that.

That below that woman’s neck, her skin was densely covered in scale-like tattoos, making her look like some kind of lizard person.

‘Has Your Highness the Crown Prince seen it for yourself?’

The chancellor’s voice came back to his ears.

That had been about half a month ago, perhaps.

It was when the man had come to Arios’s office.