Something was disconcerting.
Lorian thought so.
The plan had worked.
The number of people allowed to enter the city had also been elevated.
As desired, all nobles were being allowed to enter the city. Instead, the number of escorts assorted to each person; the retainers they could bring with was reduced to two, but that was no big issue.
What mattered, and important was that they all came together.
Pretending to sympathize and stealthily unpacking and distributing the ration supply was also successful. With their overwhelming quantity and quality, it would not be a that hard task to capture the food flow of the city.
And to seize the food flow in crumbling, starving cities like these was to seize power.
From that perspective, in retrospect, the toll negotiations were an advantageous happenstance for them.
Because time was on their side.
'…Strange.'
It was nice that the plan had worked out faithfully.
But it had worked out… too well.
Like puzzle pieces fitting together…
The doubt that kept gnawing at his heart was largely resolved the moment he entered Lupus.
'The damage is more serious than expected.'
The streets were lined with beggars begging for just a quarter penny, the sight was aggravating for anyone to believe it was the Capital City of a Kingdom.
'They must be horribly starving.'
To the point they fought and devoured the apple he gave out to the core, even the seeds.
Then what he ought to do was simple.
All he would have to do was to make the apples so sweet they wouldn't realise they were swallowing poison.
Yes, that was it.
Then he can…
Something stuck.
'Why? What's the matter?'
Lorian, who continued to think, immediately recalled the conversation he had with Kieran at the camp.
He had apparently came out in the middle of writing a letter.
'Why had he been writing a letter?'
Maybe the letter could be a variable.
Lorian, who wanted to thoroughly prune out the variable from the plan, stuck next to Kieran and quietly inquired.
"Oh, that? Frillite."
He answered airily, to the extent as if Lorian was vain to ask about it.
"Right. My apologies for being intrusive…"
It was so airily that he almost slipped by.
'Wait.'
Lorian's steps stalled.
"…what did you just say? A letter to whom?"
"Did you not hear? It's a letter to Frillite."
Was it an illusion that Kieran subtlety brightened mentioning Frillite?
No. In the grand scheme of things, that didn't credit importance. For now.
Lorian frowned and criticized.
"Why are you writing a letter to Frillite? You should know she is very busy. The time to get your letter—"
"I know, she's busy. But if you receive a letter, you have to write a reply in regard out of courtesy, Prince Lorian."
Thud! Lorian felt his heart drop.
"The letter… you got it..? You got..? From her..?"
His voice, which had not been affected even in the freezing battle of wills, quivered violently.
It was gibberish.
Frillite had said she had never written a letter to anyone. When she needed to send a letter, she had someone else ghostwrite it.
She couldn't have written a letter to this man…
"Really. Wanna see?"
Kieran pulled out a parchment of paper from his bosom.
It was a letter envelope.
Treated with such great care that even the sealing wax used to seal the letter still adorned the letter.
"Look. Isn't it real?"
He tapped the center of the wax seal with his index finger.
The motif stamped in the center of the wax was a crest Lorian knew well.
How could he not.
It was the family crest of the woman he loved.
Lorian tipped his head forward.
He couldn't believe it.
He just didn't want to believe it.
However, no matter how much he denied reality, it didn't mean that nothing had happened.
He had to admit.
Frillite wrote her first letter.
Not to Lorian, but to Kieran.
His heart ached and eyes watered.
He bit his lower lip to fight back the pooling tears from dripping, but it was not enough to stop the blood that trickled down his heart.
Tuk. Tuk.
Tears fell drop by drop, soaking the floor.
'Why… only do the likes of you always decorate her first memories?'
After light skinship and drinks, now even a letter.
What was next?
Just imagining it makes his heart rattle painfully.
"What? Why are you like this?"
Kieran's voice sounded flustered.
Bastard.
He clearly knew about Lorian's adoration and love for Frillite, considering the smirk he showed Lorian the other day; but was now pretending to be naive. Disgusting bastard.
'Wait, does he…?'
Lorian's head whirred quickly as he recalled the past.
When talking in the tent, Kieran was sarcastic and intoned his words in a pulling tone.
Lorian thought it was just psychological warfare he was using to take the lead in the conversation.
But what if it was not?
What if it was just groundwork for mentioning the letter rather than a psychological warfare?
"Hey, are you really crying?"
Lorian raised his head.
He saw Kieran's face desperately suppressing a crackling laugh.
"You son of a b!tch!"
Lorian couldn't hold it in any longer and threw out his fist.
"…I apologize for the rudeness I showed to you earlier. Please overlook our transgression."
In the wake of the racket, Lorian, who had his head cooled down, sat at the inn table, smiling politely and apologized.
It was Leslie, not Kieran, who responded to his apology.
"As if it wasn't enough that you brought an entire army without any pronouncement, you very well tried to assault Kieran. Even though it was only an attempt… You know it's not an issue that will end with a simple apology, right? You will have to concede a bit in this negotiation."
She fired her points one after another in her characteristic cold tone.
"…the rumors that the new Grand Duchess of the Principality has joined the Kieran's party as his colleague are well met."
"Yeah, right. So, I would like you to look at me as Kieran-sama's colleague, and not as the Grand Duchess of the Principality. The chatter ends here. Let's move on to negotiating the toll."
The reason they had gathered here was not to welcome Lorian and the others as guests. They had gathered to get a reasonable fee from the uninvited guests.
That's why she didn't bother wasting time with useless bluff.
Lorian clasped his hands together and nodded.
"Alright. How much do you want?"
"30 million gold."
The meeting room tinged with silence. The words, 30 million, echoed in their ears.
Lorian's expression hardened.
"You are asking for too much."
"Are we? I think this is meagre compared to the risk our side faces and the potential losses."
Leslie replied with a grin.
"Then I think the risk is overstated. Our army is just commuting through the Kingdom of Prona on the way to support the Kingdom of Alitia."
"The army itself is a big threat to the Kingdom. Especially in times like this."
There was a heated negotiation between Lorian and Leslie to set the toll. While the two were negotiating, neither the Princess nor Kieran offered an opinion.
It had been discussed in advance that Leslie would be entrusted with this negotiation.
It was the same on Lorian's side.
Most of the nobility kept their mouths shut and paid attention to Leslie and Lorian's conversation.
Of course, there were also those who did not.
'Huh…'
Lewis Sentry.
The eldest son of the Sentry family, the acclaimed loser of the Eastern region of Prona, he admired the women sitting across him.
Duchess Leslie handling the negotiations and the downcast princess were also beautiful, but there was another woman who caught his eye.
Lewis tapped the nobleman sitting next to him. When he turned around, he pointed at the woman with his chin and asked.
"Do you know who that knight is?"
"Who are you talking about… oh, you mean Miss Neria?"
"Hoh, so her name is Neria? It's a pretty name…but somehow it's familiar."
"That's natural. She is a member of the Hero's party, Hero Kieran's colleague. Don't you know the Hero's party of your kingdom?"
"Uh, I don't prominently travel outside my manor."
When the aristocrat asked incredulously, Lewis scratched his cheek shyly. Then he looked at Neria again and murmured.
"Right. Neria, huh…"
He was well aware of the rumors about Neria.
The first seating of negotiations broke down.
It was because Lorian, who had to somehow drag the time, deliberately didn't reach an agreement.
Negotiations broke down and the participants went their separate ways.
Kieran was the same.
He was set for upstairs to discuss the future premises with Leslie.
If only Lorraine hadn't caught on.
Kieran tilted his head at the sight of Lorraine clasping onto his arm.
"What do you have to say?"
"What, what..?!"
Lorraine was momentarily at a loss for words.
After anticipating what he might blabber in his defence, she latched onto him. However, Kieran broke all expectations and showed a brazen attitude.
Did this man have a conscience?
Feeling her heart whine, Lorraine just wanted to scream out loud, but managed to hold it back. If she got angry here, she would only fulfill what he intended.
She wasn't stepping into a trap so easily.
She took a deep breath to calm down and spoke again.
"Duel. We haven't reached an end yet, have we?"
"Didn't I win that already? You have already lost to me over ten times."
"It's not over yet! Who declared it ended?!"
"Then when will it end?"
"Uh…"
'Until I win!' was what Lorraine almost replied, but she shut her mouth timely. All things considered, saying that loud was a quagmire.
"Yeah, when?"
"Sigh, stop being noisy! Shut up and prepare for a duel. Why are you chickening out now? You didn't when you did to me what you go around doing across the continent."
"Did I end up f*cking you too?"
"F*ck you! I'll defeat you this time!"
"Crazy b!tch…"
Lorraine unnatural obsession with the duels had Kieran fed up.
'This is the precursor to the very annoying nuances coming after.'
As he pondered over what excuse he should give to refuse, he remembered something and smiled.
"Sure. If you want to do that, let's do it. Duel."
"From the very beginning…"
"Instead…"
Kieran clamped his fingers around Lorraine's shoulder. He leaned and whispered into her ear.
"Starting today, this won't end with just kisses. Are you sure about this now?"
Lorraine flinched.
What did he mean it just won't end with kisses?
Was there something he could do more than kisses?
What could be more than a kiss?
Suddenly, the contents of the sex education she had received in her childhood came to her mind.
Lorraine's eyes trembled incessantly.