Chapter 38.1

Crown Prince Raphael and his fiancée 1 (1)

Crown Prince Rafael POV

Lydith was gone.

Literally, she disappeared from my life.

Lydith and I met when I was ten years old. She was eight, two years younger than me.

The Duke of Annamaria family had long been close to the royal family, and as well as being good friends of the king, they also played an important role in diffusing power struggles.

The dukes often married the king’s queens from the ducal family, and often married off the king’s sisters.

In simple terms, they were relatives.

The Annemaria family was second only to the royal family in power, but they were usually only interested in their own lands and rarely lent their power to us unless we asked them to.

However, they were said to be righteous and honest, and always fulfilled their promises.

The role of Prime Minister, which is an auxiliary role in central politics, was held by the Umber family. My father once told me that if the Amber family was darkness, the Annemaria family was light.

I had exchanged greetings with Soleil, the eldest son of the Annemaria family.

I remembered him as a soft-spoken, calm man, but he doted on his sister so much that when Lydith was chosen as my fiancée, he declared a threat, saying, “If you do anything to make my Lyddie unhappy,my Ducal family will never follow the royal family again.”

I remembered meeting Lydith, thinking it was a bit troublesome to be honest.

It seemed that the royal family wanted to keep the connection with the Annemaria family. Since we hadn’t been connected by marriage for a while, the royal family wanted I and Lydith to be engaged because of our close age.

It was rumoured that the delay in the engagement was because Soleil did not approve, or because Lydith’s mother was reluctant, but I was never directly told the reason.

I was not interested, so I didn’t ask anyone, so I still don’t know the real truth.

My engagement to Lydith was announced at a tea party organised by the royal family.

I was dressed in tight clothes and my mother, the queen, took me to meet Lydith.

She was such a beautiful girl that I could understand why Soleil doted on her.

The flowers that were scattered on her straight silver hair and the dress that was made up of many layers of thin white and light blue cloth accentuated Lydith’s cuteness. I remembered thinking that she was like a fairy in a story.

“It’s nice to meet you, Rafael-sama. My name is Lydith Annemaria, and I am now the fiancee of the Prince, Rafael-sama. Since you have chosen me as the Prince’s fiancée, I will discipline myself, learn and serve the people of my country in order to become a person worthy of being a Queen.

The beautiful fairy bowed gracefully to me and said clearly in a dignified voice:

“Together, we will build a good country.”

It was hard to believe that these were the words of a young girl, younger than myself.

I suddenly felt ashamed of myself for thinking that meeting my fiancée was a hassle. Lydith was thinking in such a noble direction, but I, who had no other siblings, just vaguely accepted that I would eventually become king and didn’t think deeply about it.

I also thought that Lydith was a betrothed decided by the royal family, and I was irritated about the fact that Soleil had nailed me, even though I didn’t wish to be nailed. Because of that, I never had a favourable impression of Lydith from the start.

I thought that a duchess would be a dim-witted woman who was only interested in dresses and jewellery. But I knew that I was wrong as soon as I saw the way Lydith behaved.

“I am Raphael Evandia. I am the crown prince of the Evandia royal family.”

I knew If I didn’t watch how I spoke, Lydith might be taken aback. I had to change my childish attitude and I had to do it so that Lydith would approve of me.

When I thought about it, the words didn’t come out right. I referred to myself as ‘I’ because that’s what Soleil did.

I thought that if I used words similar to Soleil, Lydis wouldn’t look down on me as the crown prince

“Yes, I know who you are. I hope you will keep me by your side forever.”

Lydith looked lovely and beautiful as she smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but be grateful for the good fortune of having her by my side.

Perhaps it was a faint first love.

Lydith didn’t have the personality to come to my side on her own initiative.

Even if I kept quiet, I was always surrounded by power-hungry noble Ladies, but Lydith didn’t declare sovereignty as my fiancée, she did not care who I exchanged words with, and did not visit me unless she had something to do. However, she didn’t seem to dislike me, and whenever I greeted her, she returned my greetings with a radiant smile and often told me about things that had happened to her recently.

Lydith was a bit different, as she enjoyed going into the woods and observing creatures with her escort, a former adventurer who worked for the duke’s family.

She once practised swordsmanship in the garden with Noir, her escort with a mock sword.

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