She was an interesting woman――――.

I left the evening party venue and boarded the carriage of towards the residence of the Duke who"s looking after me.
Because I"m uncomfortable with others, I ordered Duke Pellegrini to use another carriage. Only my escort knight Fabius is on my side now.

"Your Highness"

While the carriage ran quietly, Fabius kneeled at my feet and called out to me in a small voice.
I closed my eyes, and after losing myself in thoughts slowly opened them and fixed my gaze at Fabius.
The eyes that met mine were fearful.
Fabius secretly averted his sight.
He should know better than to incur my displeasure. To raise his voice even then means he has some important matter.

Then, I finally realized what I had ordered.
―――― Ah, that matter.

"What did you learn"

I had been searching for a suitable Princess Consort.

I was in great spirits, having unexpectedly found a woman who met all my conditions.
Even if she"s as yet another person"s.

"Yes. A message from the sent-out spies came in. s.h.i.+nigami"s presence has been confirmed inside Wilhelm Castle. The attempt to make a contact was abandoned due to presence of Apostate at his side. Apostate probably received the orders from His Majesty. We cannot afford to do it poorly. There was one victim"
"… Hou, he"s still in Wilhelm:

One of Father"s orders.
Contact s.h.i.+nigami and invite him.
But of course I don"t intend to do as Father says.
As soon as they found him, I intended for my subordinates to approach him, this was my most important objective in coming to Wilhelm.

Honestly, I don"t care about it――――.

I recalled the woman I danced with just now.
Come to think of it, that woman changed from the daytime audience.

The woman who is Crown Prince Friedrich"s fiancée.
The first impression was only that she was a beautiful woman.

Is the woman that flawless Crown Prince chose a woman of this grade, I was honestly disappointed.
I was aware I summoned her, but I didn"t feel like greeting her.
More importantly, I was curious about Crown Prince Friedrich whom I hadn"t seen for a long time.
So I ignored the woman on purpose and began talking only with the Crown Prince.

Maybe I wanted to see how would that women react when ignored.

Unusually for Crown Prince Friedrich, he joined in my talk.
As far as I know, he"s a calm and composed man, so I was astonished when he spoke provocative lines, but it didn"t take long to realize he was diverting attention from the woman sitting next to him.

I observed that he"d take a peek at her whenever there was a pause in our talk, so any idiot would understand that.

I see, he"s in considerably high spirits. If he"s so infatuated, she may become the trump card against this Crown Prince.
As I thought so, I didn"t feel anything beyond that.
But that crumbled after a while had pa.s.sed.

A violent verbal exchange with Friedrich.
It was so rare for me to partic.i.p.ate in these that I completely forgot about the woman.

But, seeing Crown Prince Friedrich look at his side dumbfounded, I remembered her existence. As if drawn in I followed his gaze.

I became speechless.
For a moment I couldn"t understand what was happening before my eyes.
Unbelievable.

What I saw was the Crown Prince"s fiancée stuffing her cheeks with sweets crowding the desk, smiling happily from the bottom of her heart.
There"s no sign of her overdoing it. That enchanting smile is not something you can force.
No matter how you look at her happily having her fill of sweets, her att.i.tude can only be called relaxed.

I was dumbfounded.
Until then, I and Crown Prince Friedrich have mostly been seriously exchanging words.
Both of us were aware that a normal person would find just being in this atmosphere painful.
And yet, this woman didn"t look like she minded at all, she was nibbling on sweets and sipping tea alone.

It"s far beyond having guts.

She had probably realized I completely ignored her, and without minding in the slightest focused on sweets, this can"t be done by an ordinary person.

What kind of person she is, for the first time I observed her.

Speaking of her appearance, she"s a slender woman with light brown hair and violet eyes.
Her body is clad in the brilliant dignity only n.o.bles possess.
Just as what I thought the first time I saw her, her appearance pa.s.ses.
Certainly according to information, this woman should be the only daughter of the foremost ducal house of Wilhelm.
That is to say, this woman is unmistakably the country"s number one young lady.

There"s no problem with the pedigree or appearance.

I began admiring her nerve as she didn"t even flinch with I and Crown Prince Friedrich in front of her.

… Interesting, I felt something inside me throb.

Unexpectedly curious I asked if I can dance with her, only to be surprised at the Crown Prince"s displeased face I"d never got to see.
But I smiled more when I took the opportunity to look at her reaction.

The instant I said I want to dance with her, it was only for a moment, but her face certainly warped.

Apparently, she found it quite unpleasant to dance with me.
In my whole life I"d never had a woman respond like that.
The fresh response only aroused my interest more.

According to Crown Prince Friedrich, this woman is not interested in his face either.
She"s not interested in the face of the Crown Prince who"s famous for his perfect beauty.
What an unusual woman.

Come to think of it.

I"ve always received irritating looks filled with pa.s.sion.
Yet I don"t remember receiving even one today.

As a test, I tried matching my eyes with the woman. She returned no reaction.
With a suspicious face she ended up averting her sight.

I thought she was just bashful, but it was different.
She truly seemed to have no interest in me.

I perfectly understand my appearance is above average.
In fact, the women who fall in love with me at first sight are endless, among women whom I forcibly made my Side Consorts were those who immediately changed their mind seeing my face.
It was truly the first time I was faced with such an indifferent reaction, so I felt happy instead.

Pedigree, appearance, courage, uncommonly not being fascinated by me.

Now then, what would come next.

I wanted to know more about this woman that"s like a jack-in-the-box.
But, the time for the audience was about to end.

Not wanting me to take an interest in his own fiancée, Crown Prince Friedrich seemed to want to drive me out as soon as possible.
With this curious resistance I couldn"t wait for the evening party.
I finally found an interesting woman. I want to observe her more.
I obediently left my seat and decided to take my leave.

I don"t care about the evening party, but just thinking I would dance with this woman make me look forward to it a little.

Like that, the evening party began, as planned I invited the woman to the dance floor.
That man"s face as I took his woman. His eyes eloquently told to not do unnecessary things.
Of course, I had no obligation to obey.
I was waiting for the opportunity to dance with this woman. I intend to enjoy it to my heart"s content.

As waltz began, we began performing the dance steps.
I couldn"t hold back surprise at the woman"s dance technique that exceeded my expectations.

If it"s like this, there must be various aspects she still keeps concealed.
Wondering what she"d show me next, my heart danced for the first time in a long while.
The woman"s chilly eyes still wouldn"t look at me.
For some reason, I found her expression that said I"m only fulfilling the obligation, strangely irresistible.
I want to see that expression crumble.

With such a feeling, I tried telling her a playful pick-up line.
Interested beyond expectations, I spoke words beyond what I came up with.
I put on a smile and directed it at her.
It"s been long time since I"ve given a woman such service.
I heard sighs of admiration from surrounding women, but I couldn"t care less.
All I wanted to know is the reaction of the woman in front of me.

The conclusion was, the woman wasn"t agitated in the slightest.
Her disappointing indifference that said don"t look down on me pierced me.

How interesting――――.

So far I"d never met a woman who ignored me so much.
At first I had doubted Crown Prince Friedrich"s taste, but this isn"t bad.
No, far from bad, perhaps this woman is fit to be my Princess Consort.

When I thought so, this woman suddenly seemed like the finest jewel.

I have to know more about this woman――――.
It was necessary to confirm with my own eyes whether this woman is truly suitable to be my Princess Consort.

I wouldn"t understand anything with a single waltz.
Forcibly I caught the woman who tried to run away from me and as a test requested one traditional piece from my country.
To be honest, I didn"t think she"d dance it.
Speaking of the traditional music of our country, there"s only limited number of people within my country who can dance this piece considered difficult even among difficult pieces. Among my Side Consorts, there"s only one or two who can dance it well.

I wanted to embarra.s.s her.
I wanted to observe what kind of reaction she"d show.

But when I asked the women whether she could dance it, she nodded like it"s a matter of course without showing hesitation.

I didn"t expect that.
Then show it to me, with such a thought I began dancing.
I didn"t think she could follow me, but she betrayed that expectation in a positive sense at the early stage.
Without even changing her expression, she showed a splendid dance.

Her footwork could be described as admirable.

She breezed through many difficult points like it was nothing.
Her expression didn"t even break at the place I thought to be impossible.
While I was genuinely surprised, the woman showed a smile that seemed to say serves you right.
This defiant face was so extremely sparkling, before I noticed I became intensely charmed.

Even this difficult piece is a simple etiquette for her, the woman seemed to declare.
Unconsciously I smiled at her courage and confidence.
Before I noticed, I"d already invited her.

"Princess Lidiana, aren"t you interested in Sahaja"
"I"m not"

The immediate reply made it even more fun.
Not in the wildest dreams would I think there"s a woman who would refuse an invitation from me, the Crown Prince of Sahaja.

I spun invitations one after another.
As I provocatively glanced at Crown Prince Friedrich during that, he returned an interesting reaction.
When this woman is involved, he"s like another person.
He must have fell in love with this woman that deeply, but I think the man sufficiently understands she could become his weakness.
If he understands that and yet can"t stop out of love, I think love is truly troublesome.

But, I"m different from that man.
I"m not bound by my feelings. It"s crucial to calmly ascertain everything.

As I continued to disturb the woman with words, she got so angry that she forewent polite language and glared at me.
Of course, I had zero intention of rebuking her.
Rather, I wanted to know what kind of person she is au naturel now that she stopped pleasantries.

Be it jewels or dresses, even a country, the woman refused all my offerings.
At the end, the declaration that she abhors me clearly came out of her mouth.

Abhors――――.
Somehow, I couldn"t stop laughing having heard that fresh word.

Ah, truly interesting.
I"d never get bored with this woman.

To obtain this woman means to literally turn that Crown Prince Friedrich into an enemy.
That"s why even if she"s appropriate for my Princess Consort I wanted to avoid making that man my enemy.
That"s why what I said partway meant to be joke, but now it came this far I completely changed my mind.

I want to make this woman my own.
I realized I began to seriously think of wanting to put her on my side.

Her qualities are satisfactory. Being still in her teens she"s young, she can conceive many children from now on.

Now then, how should I bring her home, while I was seriously troubled, the woman spoke outrageous words.

"You"re only curious because I wasn"t swayed by you. I know you"ll get tired of me immediately, so find another woman. In the first place, a man with eight concubines is out of question. I decline"