CH 136

Margarete von Greif has been raised as a fiancée candidate for Prince Ludwig since before she could remember. It wasn’t just that Duke Greif thought so arbitrarily. Since First Queen Elisabeth had actively recommended it, King Wilhelm did not oppose it and decided to leave things to progress as they were for the time being.

Elisabeth had invited Margarete to the royal palace many times since she was young. Elisabeth and Margarete also began to personally meet frequently, and before they knew it, they had come to treat each other like family.

The people around them already thought that Margarete would become Third Prince Ludwig’s wife. However, 3 years passed, 5 years passed, and 8 years passed, and the engagement was never announced.

Even Ludwig doesn’t hate Margarete. He vaguely wondered if he would marry Margarete in the future, partly because of his birth mother Elisabeth’s recommendation.

However, by that time, people around him had come to recognize that Ludwig’s fiancée was not Margarete. Even though she had been part of his family since he was born, there is still no announcement of his engagement with Margarete. That is because it was whispered that he would not let himself be engaged to Margarete.

When such speculation began to flow, the next topic was, “Then will be Prince Ludwig’s fiancée?” If the fiancée of Third Prince Ludwig, the eldest son of the First Wife, Queen Elisabeth, was still undecided, naturally everyone would think the same thing.

You’d gain power by giving a member of your family as Prince Ludwig’s fiancée and becoming blood relatives of the royal family.

The Siegen Marquisate, who gained such power by giving their daughter, now-Second Queen Amelie, and the Nassam Duchy, the nobles above the Siegen Marquisate, are doing whatever they can to be blood-related to the royal family. If someone from their faction will marry the next king, Third Prince Ludwig, Queen Amelie will continue to hold power and by extension, them as well.

Knowing that everyone desperately buttered up to Third Prince Ludwig and began to advertise their daughters and the younger female relatives. Naturally, from the point of view of Amelie’s ambitions, that is unacceptable.

It would be impossible to overturn Ludwig’s succession to the throne after Wilhelm abdicates. At that age, Amelie could also read the writing on the wall. But what if Prince Ludwig dies early without leaving any offspring? After Ludwig, her children had the right to succeed him by their blood relation.

In order to prevent Prince Ludwig’s Faction from solidifying their hold, Amelie and her faction obstructed engagements with influential aristocrats, and if possible, prevented him from ever marrying at all so he would never have offspring. That way, the royal family can be taken over by Amelie’s bloodline and Duke Nassam can rule this country as part of her faction.

That’s why Amelie’s faction interfered with all engagement talks involving Third Prince Ludwig. Any method would do. In some cases, rumors about the prospective fiancee were disseminated, saying she was unfit to be a royal bride. Or they have blackmailed the young lady’s House and threatened them to withdraw the proposal, or else.

They used all kinds of means, and sometimes pressure the court officials to prevent the King from permitting an engagement. Thus, many young ladies were branded as unfit to be Ludwig’s fiancée.

Amelie and her faction thought their plan was working. That’s why they thought that all the fiancée candidates would be filtered out and no one would be able to become his but their choice. But they later found out that it wasn’t the case.

There was a marriage proposal with House Carruthers, the nobles even Amelie’s faction would admit had eye-popping military power, but Carruthers had no interest in the political center and were holed up in their territory, so Amelie thought that this proposal would be easier to obstruct than before.

Up until then, Amelie’s side of the family had been desperate to put together an engagement story with Third Prince Ludwig, betting their Houses’ fates on him. Therefore, it was not easy to interfere, and many powerful factions could rival both Houses Siegen and Nassam in terms of power and influence.

In comparison, House Carruthers has acted like they don’t belong to any faction in the capital and have no interest in joining, either. If they had no interest in the heart of politics, even if they interfered with Ludwig’s engagement, the other party would not resist. Hence, breaking it would be a cinch. If the other party wasn’t even invested in success from the start, there are any number of ways they could have proceeded.

That’s what they thought, but things took an unexpected turn.

Ludwig, who they had thought would go to the Carruthers’ home personally and then turn down the offer of engagement as usual, instead actively proceeded with the engagement with Carruthers’ daughter. By the time Queen Amelie realized that Ludwig was unusually positive about the engagement, it was already too late. She was able to interfere somewhat, but even so, the engagement with House Carruthers was unofficially decided.

And it wasn’t just Amelie’s faction that was panicked by this turn of events. Queen Elisabeth’s Faction, who were for Margarete as Ludwig’s wife, was also struck dumb by the bolt from the blue.

They never thought that Ludwig would be engaged to a woman other than Margarete. Even from Elisabeth’s point of view, the relationship between the two was progressing smoothly. Why, then, did Ludwig accept an engagement to someone he had never even heard of, like Flora of House Carruthers?

In the first place, due to Ludwig’s temperament, it was hard to imagine that he would like someone he had only met for a few days. Ludwig has no interest in women, no, rather, no interest in anyone around him, to begin with. And it was said people around him made him that way. Even his birth mother, Elisabeth, understood this very well.

That’s why she thought he would marry Margarete, who was the only one outside of his family you could say Ludwig opened his heart to. Elisabeth had accepted the interference of Second Queen Amelie’s faction because from the start, she intended to have Ludwig marry Margarete and needed to fend off other potential candidates, anyway. And yet, she can’t help but wonder… how did this happen…?

Since Ludwig and Flora’s engagement was unofficially decided, Elisabeth has been inviting Margarete more and more, and the two have had more opportunities to talk.

Why did House Carruthers, who was thought to be uninterested in the political center, suddenly interested in getting engaged to Ludwig, who was slated to be the next king?

Why did Ludwig, who had turned down all prior engagement proposals with numerous young ladies, suddenly accept an engagement with Flora, the daughter of House Carruthers? They both even took active moves to do so, taking advantage of all of Amelie and her faction’s falsehoods and interference to make sure there was no competition for Flora with what few prospective ladies were left already. What did they mean by this?

“In the end… perhaps they have gotten greedy and wish to marry the next King?” Margarete asked.

A few years after Ludwig and Flora’s engagement was decided, Margarete, who was 3 years older than Ludwig and 4 older than Flora, had already passed the age of 17 and had graduated from school. Margarete will turn 18 this year and Ludwig will still be attending school. Flora will be entering her first year, next year.

Elisabeth and Margarete continued to wait and see without taking any proactive action, thinking that their engagement would be canceled sooner or later, but contrary to those expectations, they found themselves panicked that the proposal never fell through no matter how long it was.

Until now, the distance between Berne and Carruzan had geographically separated them. They know that’s why they didn’t see each other very often. However, if Flora comes to live in the royal capital next year, the chances of the two meeting up will increase dramatically. They had to do something by then, and lately, Margarete has been so involved with the royal family you could say she already lived with them.

“I know both Lord Carruthers and his wife Maria very well,” Elisabeth said. “They are not like that at all.”

She denies any hint of greediness on Carruthers’s part to soothe Margarete. There is no way that House Carruthers would think about having a marriage just for the sake of being related to the royal family and gaining access to their wealth and power. However, this does not mean that they will refuse the marriage between Flora and Ludwig.

For better or worse, House Carruthers is loyal to the Kingdom of Ploiss. If it’s for the benefit of the Kingdom, they wouldn’t hesitate to give up even their only daughter. In other words, House Carruthers accepted Ludwig and Flora’s engagement, not because of their sake and their potential power, but because they judged that it would be better for the Kingdom of Ploiss. House Carruthers could be convinced of anything with this line of reasoning.

“Even if the two of them are honorable nobles, what about Lady Flora?” Margarete asked. “If Lady Flora wishes to marry Prince Ludwig and asks her parents to support her, would they be able to refuse?”

Margarete has seen many women approach Ludwig. There were also many who had snuggled up to him at their homes to try and marry Ludwig. However, there were also many women who followed Ludwig because of his handsome features, elegant appearance, and admiration for a perfect prince who could do anything.

Even if neither the parents nor the daughter had the desire to enter capital politics or become related to the royal family, if the said daughter was attracted to the wonderful Prince Ludwig and said that she wanted to marry him, the parents would be able to honor her request and unable to ignore it. It is not just the desire for power, but the possibility that it could be driven by such personal desire cannot be dismissed.

“I think it’s probably a political matter that Wilhelm hasn’t objected to it after all this time…” Elisabeth said. “We also don’t know much about Lady Flora. Isn’t that where we’re supposed to start? If Lady Flora can come live in the royal capital next year, we’ll have the opportunity to contact her sooner or later.”

“Yes……” Margarete said reluctantly.

But inside, she is not convinced. It’s too late then. If Flora comes to the royal capital and she has more opportunities to be with Ludwig, then she might be able to finally charm and seduce Ludwig herself.

Margarete is proud that she is the one who cares for Ludwig the most. Margarete is not interested in the power of his family or factions vying for dominance. Also, Duke Greif didn’t want Ludwig to marry his daughter for the sake of power, either. Both House Greif and Margarete are doing this in consideration of the royal family and Ludwig.

So she can’t let Ludwig marry an insolent girl who is trying to use Ludwig to gain power. She had sworn to protect Ludwig herself, but as time passed, Margarete had no idea how to harm this opponent and found herself at a loss.

Margarete was impatient, but a year passed without any measures against Flora. Flora has finally started attending school in the royal capital, and her chances of meeting Ludwig have increased dramatically. King Wilhelm and Ludwig are all talking about Flora, and neither Elisabeth nor Margarete are amused. In such days, Margarete spent her time taking care of Eleonore, the youngest child of the royal family.

“Princess Eleonore! You must not move around on your own!” Margarete cried.

“Big Bwotha~!……Not ‘ere,” Eleonore muttered after entering Ludwig’s room without permission.

Margarete also found herself tilting her head in confusion as she, too, realized that Ludwig wasn’t inside.

Eleonore has an extremely strong affection for her older brother, Ludwig, and follows him around whenever possible. So Margarete, who is taking care of Eleonore, can also follow Eleonore and meet Ludwig that way. She can’t barge into Ludwig’s room by herself, but if she has the pretense of chasing after Eleonore, then she’ll be free to enter regardless.

She always hopes for that, so she half-tolerates Eleonore’s strong will to find and be with her brother. And today, as expected, Eleonore rushed into Ludwig’s room, but Ludwig was missing.

Margarete has already confirmed that Ludwig has returned from school. Also knowing that her brother was coming home, Eleonore rushed there.

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And even before all that, when they arrived, there were a lot of clothes that had been taken off and scattered around, and there were a lot of maids cleaning them up. There is no doubt that he changed clothes here, and it is also proof that not much time has passed since he left.

Ludwig has a strong impression of being quite conscientious, exacting, and organized about everything, but in fact, he is usually unexpectedly sloppy and reckless. Only a few people close to him, like his birth mother Elisabeth and Margarete, know about this side of him.

Such a young man doesn’t care much about everyday clothes and wears whatever once he finds it or is handed it. He even wears what the maids have prepared for him without question.

What in the hell is that Ludwig going to do by changing his clothes and being so choosy? With all the information so far, Margarete had something come to mind:

“Don’t tell me… could it be that His Highness will be meeting with someone today?” Margarete asked.

The maids had their heads bowed in deference to her and Eleonore even as they barged in. The answer was as suspected, and Margarete immediately sprung into action after the maids replied:

“Yes, Lady Flora Charlotte von Carruthers is visiting today.”

“I see, thank you. Princess Eleonore, I know where Prince Ludwig is,” Margarete said.

“Wher’s Big Bwotha~?” Eleonore asked.

Ludwig and Flora probably met in the common room because she couldn’t be invited into Ludwig’s personal quarters. Though, it would be disrespectful to barge in uninvited on Ludwig and his guest in there. However, it is easy to get inside without issues using both Margarete’s position and Eleonore’s.

“Let’s find you out, shall we, Flora Charlotte von Carruthers!?” Margarete cried.

Margarete leads Eleonore to the common room and they both barge in on the two of them. And if possible, Margarete was burning to see who Flora was with her eyes.