Chapter 378: Straight to the Point
As Elizalina declared the start of the meeting, she clapped her hands, her bright demeanor almost out of place.
Florence opened her mouth and spoke.
“But a meeting to overthrow His Majesty the King and those who side with him… when you think about it again, this is quite an outrageous gathering.”
Even in this country where Elizalina is acting as mediator, perhaps such meetings had been held before.
But with three princesses, a duke’s daughter, and a maid with exceptional combat ability, a group this capable of actually taking action had, at least since Elizalina began her mediation, never existed in this country until now.
“Well, yeah, I’ve explained it to everyone, but if Father stays king of this country like this, things will head in a bad direction… and more than anything, our individual wishes won’t come true!”
Individual wishes.
For Elizalina, Felisiana, and Florence, that meant becoming engaged to Lux.
For Rezamiliana, it meant becoming engaged to the man she loves.
For Violet, it meant seeing Felisiana’s wish come true.
As Elizalina reaffirmed each of their wishes in her mind, the three others, excluding Violet, responded to her words.
“Given our positions, we can’t say it comes above all else, but you’re right.”
“Of course, I understand.”
“It goes without saying.”
Since they were in front of Rezamiliana, Felisiana addressed Elizalina in formal language.
But that was normal for her, so no one paid it any particular attention.
“Mm-hmm! Then let’s quickly move on to the concrete discus—”
Just as she tried to proceed according to plan,
“Elizalina-anesama, please wait a moment.”
“Huh…?”
Unexpectedly, Felisiana stopped her.
We haven’t even gotten into the specifics yet, so why stop things here?
“What is it? Don’t tell me you wanted to be the one to run the meeting. But that’s not fair! I’ve always watched Rezamiliana-oneesama handle these things, and I wanted to try it too!”
“That’s irrelevant.”
Even when she tried teasing to test her, Felisiana didn’t react at all.
I know Felisiana can separate her emotions from her objectives, since she’s even willing to temporarily join forces like this with me and Florence for Lux’s sake, so it’s probably not emotional… then what is it?
As expected, Elizalina couldn’t think of any reason why Felisiana would stop the meeting here.
When she quietly closed her mouth, Felisiana turned toward Rezamiliana.
“Before we begin the meeting, there’s something I need to confirm with Rezamiliana-anesama. May I?”
With Rezamiliana-oneesama…?
“Ah, what is it?”
Though she didn’t know why, Elizalina felt a strange sense of unease.
In that moment, she opened the mouth she had just decided to keep shut and asked,
“Hey, Felisiana, is that really something important enough to stop this meeting, which could be called the most important one, just to bring up?”
In response, Felisiana glanced at Elizalina and answered,
“If it weren’t, I wouldn’t interrupt the meeting.”
That’s true.
She had just been thinking that Felisiana could separate emotion from objective.
If anything, am I the one getting emotional right now…? …Why?
It’s different from her feelings of love for Lux.
As she sensed herself experiencing yet another unfamiliar emotion,
Felisiana shifted her gaze from Elizalina back to Rezamiliana and spoke.
“Rezamiliana-anesama, you currently have a man you wish to become engaged to, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“…Is that man from a count’s family?”
“Yes, though I don’t recall telling you that… did you hear it from Elizalina?”
No, I never told Felisiana anything like that.
Since that was the truth, Felisiana naturally shook her head.
“No, that’s not it… however, if that’s the case… then I’ll ask you directly.”
Felisiana spoke in a serious tone.
With her unwavering gaze fixed on Rezamiliana, she said,
“The man you wish to be engaged to… is he Lux Rodwell, son of the Count of the Rodwell family?”