“Regarding the Hamparvo delegation, I can’t go into much detail. You’ll understand soon enough. As for the throne... I know you two have spoken with your daughters about certain things.”
Jenkins, standing in the shade of a tree, glanced at the young won in the distance. Hathaway’s back was to him, but he could see the diamond stud earrings she was wearing—a gift from him. He figured the red-haired girl could hear everything.
“Please, don’t pressure them. Whatever I beco won’t affect my relationship with them. Also, and I know this may be impolite, but you need to understand that I despise being manipulated.”
The cat on his shoulder owed in support.
“So, please, don’t try any tricks. Even if I don’t beco the king of this country, the Church will still have my back.”
Marquis Mikhail smiled but said nothing. Earl Hersha, with his military bearing, spoke up:
“Williatte, you need not worry about that. You can see this as a very important political investnt. We have no intention of manipulating the country. Besides, we’re not the only ones with our eyes on you. You just need to understand that, compared to the others, we are more trustworthy.”
“Is Miss Windsor not trustworthy either?”
“If we are rely seeking a political investnt to gain an advantage in the next generation, what do you suppose the Duke of Windsor wants?”
Earl Hersha asked, and Jenkins understood his aning.
“I don’t usually speak ill of others behind their backs, but the Duke of Windsor cannot be trusted. You’re a smart man, Williatte; you must know why that daughter of the Windsor family approached you. You said you don’t like being manipulated—in that case, you should be even more wary of those who bear the na Windsor.”
The earl said. Jenkins nodded and glanced back at Miss Windsor.
“I understand all of this. As for this ‘cooperation’... I am, of course, willing to accept.”
Although he hadn’t fully made up his mind yet, events were unfolding in such a way that he had to start preparing. In truth, he was already leaning in this direction, because what Alexia had said was just too true.
“Here’s to a pleasant cooperation.”
Hailing a servant passing by with a tray, Jenkins took a glass of wine.
“To a pleasant cooperation.”
Marquis Mikhail and Earl Hersha raised their glasses and said in unison.
Three glasses clinked under the hazy moonlight, and all three n got the outco they desired.
“ow~”
The moonlight still couldn’t reach Chocolate, but the cat liked the shadows, liked the dark. Though Jenkins himself was not dark, Chocolate liked him too. By Jenkins’s side, there was another person who truly possessed a dark soul—soone who might affect the cat’s life.
Marquis Mikhail and Earl Hersha took their leave shortly after, knowing the young man still wanted to enjoy the party. Jenkins turned to walk back toward Hathaway and the others, but just then, soone called out his na again.
“Viscount Williatte~”
Soone called out. Jenkins turned his head and saw a foreigner with the features of a man from Cheslan walking toward him. This was no stranger; he had seen him yesterday during the commotion at City Hall. This was the very emissary who had delivered the “ssage of peace” from the King of Cheslan, tasked with bringing word from Tackwen the Proud to Queen Isabella of the Fidektri Kingdom.
His presence here ant the ssage had been delivered, and the assassination attempt by factions of the Cheslan opposition had failed completely. The emissary was safe now; there would be no value in killing him anymore.
“Viscount Williatte, oh, please wait a mont.”
The man hurried over to Jenkins and bowed deeply.
“Thank you. Thank you for saving yesterday.”
Yesterday, Jenkins could have pointed him out in the crowd, and then none of what followed would have happened.
“It was a small thing. I think anyone with a sense of justice would have done the sa.”
So said Jenkins, a man who possessed immortality.
“No, I believe it’s rare these days to et soone with your fearless and courageous character. I am truly grateful. I’m just an insignificant person; to receive help from soone like you is a true honor.”
When the emissary set out for Bel Diran, he had been prepared to die. He knew the weight of the mission he shouldered and had long since resigned himself to a tragic end. To have completed his task successfully was the best of all possible outcos, which explained his current state of exhilaration.
Jenkins was happy for the man who had just completed such an arduous task, so he asked him where he planned to go next. The emissary told Jenkins that his mission was complete, and returning to Cheslan now would inevitably lead to being hunted by those who were humiliated and enraged. Therefore, he had decided to stay in the Fidektri Kingdom for the ti being, especially since he had no family anyway.
“I plan to go to Nolan City on the west coast. I’ve heard it’s a nice city, and I have friends there. Friends I knew... from before.”
He said vaguely, implying so things were better left unsaid.
So Jenkins wished him a safe journey. He was also a little curious about what the two monarchs would do next, now that the emissary had delivered the ssage from Tackwen the Proud to Queen Isabella. He hadn’t expected the emissary to know, but to his surprise, the man imdiately gave him an answer.
“His Majesty will be visiting Bel Diran with mbers of the royal family in the near future.”
He showed a reverence bordering on worship for the King of Cheslan, Tackwen the Proud.
“This decision had already been made. Even if I hadn’t delivered the letter, His Majesty would still have co. I imagine tomorrow’s newspapers will carry the news of his visit. Oh, but of course, your news will certainly be on the front page. After all, for this country, that is the truly big event.”
The emissary was a believer in the Righteous God, the Lord of War. Because this god’s teachings partially conflicted with those of the Sage, Jenkins had almost never encountered such a follower. The emissary told Jenkins that after arriving in Bel Diran and completing his mission, he had originally planned to seek sanctuary with the Church of War, only to discover that there wasn’t a single church dedicated to his god in the city. He had assud a major city like Bel Diran would certainly have one. It was a tradition in Cheslan, where faith in the Lord of War was widespread in the southern kingdom.
“Recently, the Twelve Orthodox Churches have all sent representatives to Bel Diran. You might be able to find their delegation. Then you wouldn’t have to go all the way to Nolan to seek refuge with your friends.”
Jenkins suggested.
“I think not. I’m not a particularly devout follower myself. To trouble the Church rely for my own safety would trouble my conscience.”
The emissary said, thanked Jenkins once more, and then departed. He didn’t linger at the party but left the Coldspring Palace directly. This place was not for people like him.
On Sunday morning, at a table in the Rosalia Inn, Jenkins sat between Hathaway and Briny, holding a newspaper. Just as he’d expected, the front-page headline featured a photograph of his family with Queen Isabella.
He chuckled and pointed out to Briny that the cat in the picture had sohow managed to hide perfectly in the shadows, making Chocolate look like a bizarrely shaped smudge. Briny looked at the photo with interest, then remarked that of the three Williatte brothers, Jenkins was indeed the one who most resembled Robert.
Shortly after his eting with the emissary from Cheslan last night, Robert had brought Newman and John to find Jenkins, and they had t Hathaway and Briny. Jenkins didn’t know what Old Daddy might have ntioned to Robert, but his father seed to understand his relationship with the two young won quite well.
But Robert hadn’t brought up any sensitive topics last night. He had rely clapped Jenkins on the shoulder and told the blonde and red-haired young won so amusing stories about Jenkins’s childhood. Afterwards, he had invited Hathaway and Briny to be guests at their ho on Maidenhaven Road once they returned to Nolan.
After all, the family was currently staying in an inn, which was hardly a proper place for a formal “eting of the parents.” Moreover, Mary, the mother of the three Jenkins brothers, placed great importance on a future “Mrs. Williatte” visiting their ho. Robert felt that his wife first needed to accept the fact that her husband and children were mbers of the royal family. The matter of Jenkins’s “friends” coming over was a lower priority and could be postponed for a bit.
The lives of the Williatte family were certain to change dramatically in the foreseeable future because of last night’s banquet. The newspapers claid that Her Majesty the Queen had already invited them to move into the Coldspring Palace. But as far as Jenkins knew, Queen Isabella had never ntioned it, and the Williatte family had no plans to move from Nolan to Bel Diran for the ti being.
Even if they were to move, it would only be after the matter of the royal succession was settled. It certainly wouldn’t be now. The Williatte family hadn’t let this affair go to their heads.
It seed as though all the details of last night’s banquet had spread throughout the entire city overnight. The other ladies in the tour group, sitting with Jenkins at the long table, now all knew about it. On the surface, they acted the sa as they had on previous days, but Jenkins’s ears could pick his na out of their frequent whispers.
He didn’t care about any of that, but he was concerned about the “other heirs” ntioned in the front-page headline. Before the Williatte family appeared on the scene, there were, after all, existing heirs to the throne, even if their blood ties were weak. The few people ntioned, including Miss Windsor, had not lost their chances completely.
Even that foreigner, Horas Luther, who had been driven away in front of everyone yesterday, still had a legal claim to the succession. For so ti to co, these people would certainly be regulars in the newspapers. Although public opinion generally held that the Queen had brought back the four descendants of her illegitimate children to find a successor among them, Jenkins couldn’t shake the feeling that the shrewd old woman’s true intentions were not nearly so simple.
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