Chapter 14
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Translator: Diva
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: They Don't Even Check Compatibility for an Age Gap of NNN Years
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“Have you checked if she has a lover?”
“What...?”
A lover—for her.
Elhart felt like he'd been smacked in the back of the head.
“Like most knight orders, the expedition team must have had a wildly imbalanced gender ratio. So someone might have caught her eye.”
It was a reasonable point.
“It's the kind of thing that could easily happen during a grueling expedition. We should start by confirming that.”
“......”
“Your Highness...?”
“A lover is just a lover. Men and women meet and part all the time, don't they?”
“Pardon?”
“I... was already thinking of marriage.”
Rick wondered if the man he served was in his right mind.
“You decided to marry her from the first meeting. No matter who she really is.”
Elhart, grinding his teeth as he said it, looked more wronged than he had on the day he was stripped of his crown prince title.
“Uh... um... you're serious, aren't you?”
“Of course.”
Elhart, who had roamed battlefields since boyhood, had never shown interest in women.
How could he afford distractions like that when his country's fate hung in the balance?
He'd focused solely on honing himself and rallying his soldiers to victory.
Sure, there were bold women who snuck into his tent seeking the crown prince's seed now and then, but he'd turned them all away without mercy.
He'd scorned men swayed by women as pathetic.
Weak-willed fools who succumbed to desire.
That had been his view... for sure.
Yet here he was, smack in the middle of enemy territory, asking a subordinate for love advice.
He knew it was pathetic, even by his own standards, but Elhart now clearly understood this wasn't something he could control with willpower.
Dozens of reasons why it couldn't happen flitted through his mind, but none stuck.
He just kept circling back to the possibilities, clinging to the slimmest thread of hope.
“And?”
“You need to become a peacock.”
“...?”
“What's the advantage of being younger? It's that youthful freshness, right?”
Elhart pictured Ser and himself in his mind.
Maybe it was because time stood still inside the black rift.
“Didn't you say she looked about the age of your youngest sibling?”
And Elhart was the same age as Rick.
In other words, anyone would see Ser as younger than Elhart.
“I just mean... spruce yourself up a bit.”
Speechless, Rick mumbled an excuse.
Elhart's face was handsome enough to turn heads—even for another man.
To the point where putting more effort into his looks seemed pointless.
“Well... you're fine as is, but still.”
Better than not trying at all, right?
“For now, consider it a blessing she has no little brother, Your Highness.”
Elhart sort of got why that might be fortunate, but not quite.
Everyone knew the expedition leader had no family, so he nodded.
“I'll ask my sister about the rest and report back.”
“Thanks.”
Elhart let out a small sigh as he spoke.
“And... send word to the homeland. Confirm the return of the other expedition members.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Relay my intentions to Duke Valder as well.”
“You mean advancing the plan?”
“Yes. One month. Everything has to be ready by then.”
“Understood.”
Elhart felt his priorities shifting inside him.
I've lived my whole life for my country's safety.
Now something else was trying to take that spot.
Better this way, maybe.
All his agonizing hesitations had cleared up nicely.
Plus, he'd learned he needed to take better care of his appearance—decent gains, all told.
First up, the banquet tonight.
Soon after sending Rick off, the crown prince's personal valet arrived to help him prepare.
“Which do you think suits my complexion better—this deep gray or that black?”
“For the hair: up front, down, or half-up?”
“Doesn't the cravat color look a bit off?”
The valet broke into a cold sweat under Elhart's barrage of questions.
He'd assumed, as always, that Elhart would just wear whatever was laid out and skip the fuss.
But this time, he spent far longer with Elhart than he ever did with the crown prince.
“We'll be late for the banquet at this rate...”
“Oh, has it gotten that late already? It looks decent enough... I don't know.”
As Elhart gave himself a final once-over in the mirror, the valet thought to himself:
The hostage prince would steal the show tonight based on looks alone.
“Let's go.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Elhart followed the valet to the banquet antechamber.
“Oh my, that one...”
His efforts hadn't gone to waste, it seemed. Eyes bored into him like daggers.
“That's the hostage prince from the annex, right?”
He nearly cringed at the blatant stares and whispers raking over his body, but the sight of Ser waiting for him melted those feelings away like snow in spring.
Not the crown prince beside her, not anyone else, not even where they were—nothing else registered.
Ser.
Wrapped in a subtle aquamarine gown, she evoked the holy, noble glory of her days as the goddess's knight.
Good call putting in the effort.
No way he'd stand beside her looking sloppy.
***
“...Elhart?”
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
The man approaching me was definitely him.
His distinctive mana scent had reached me from afar.
He looks like a different person.
I knew he was strikingly handsome, but dressed to the nines in formal wear with proper grooming? He was impossible to ignore.
Why go all out like that?
Showing up looking like temptation incarnate, right when someone might have laid a trap with that 'love potion'?
“Ser.”
Elhart strode up without a hint of a smile and offered his hand.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
He didn't spare a glance for the crown prince beside me.
Only when he'd placed my hand—over his—on his arm did a smile curve his lips.
Like he'd finally relaxed.
“It's been a while, Elhart.”
Surprisingly, the crown prince greeted him first.
“First time seeing you all dressed up like this. And we've known each other quite a while.”
I blinked in surprise at their unexpectedly chummy vibe and glanced between them.
“Thank you for helping my maid.”
“No need to thank me. I did it because I wanted to.”
“I see.”
Elhart brushed off the crown prince's loaded words like he hadn't caught the intent.
As he started toward the banquet hall, the crown prince spoke to me.
“Ser, about that proposal earlier. Why not give it another think?”
“Pardon...?”
What proposal had he made?
I'd been too busy scouting the crown prince's palace security to pay close attention, and it wasn't coming to mind.
“Moving to my palace.”
Oh, right. That.
This time, I felt Elhart tense up—properly provoked.
“I'll take good care of you. You won't want for anything.”
Wow, really laying it on thick.
I'd turned him down flat back then, and now he asks again in front of Elhart? His intentions were crystal clear.
“Your Highness, I'm sorry, but I can't.”
I gave Elhart's arm a light tap with my fingertips.
He flinched.
Hope that calms him down.
“You'll have no shortage of valets and maids eager to serve you. But Prince, you need me.”
I beamed up at Elhart.
“Right?”
His golden eyes met mine, soft and swirling, like he'd been waiting for this.
“Right, Ser.”
He took a breath, choosing his words, then whispered:
“I can't even get through a day without you anymore.”
Uh... huh?
That serious...?