Chapter 53: Agree to Disagree

The foreign visitors slowly dissipated over the following week but before they did Al and I still had to keep up appearances as 'important' members of the royal family.

We hardly had a moment to ourselves. The small talk was really starting to get to me.

The only somewhat interesting part of all this was seeing Mariela's reaction to the delegates from Shibatsu.

The king had sent over one of the warrior members of his royal cabinet, who apparently knew Mariela well, and the second prince Jondein. While she seemed very happy to see her brother, her reaction towards the cabinet member was odd.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say it looked like a meeting of exes after a relationship didn't end well.

Come to think of it, I didn't know much about Mariela's life before she became a princess of Annalaias. She typically used generalities when talking about the people she knew back in her homeland.

She claimed she had never had any notions of love but unless my eyes were deceiving me, this warrior class delegate was obviously in love with her.

And I wasn't the only one who noticed. Franz was in a VERY bad mood whenever the Shibatsu party was around.

I wanted to ask Al but he was pretending not to be bored while listening to the prime minister of Rowenhilde go on about exported chocolate.

Apparently cocoa beans couldn't grow here but they did grow in one of Rowenhilde's southern territories so all of Annalaias' chocolate came from them. Who knew?

The day before everyone left, I finally began mending my relationship with Mariela a little by saving her from an awkward encounter with that warrior from her country.

I was coming back from the ladies' room when I came upon the two of them in an empty hallway. I stayed back at first, not wanting to interrupt the conversation.

"…there is no way a man from this country could show you the respect that you deserve, Princess. The king misses you dearly. I am sure I could convince him to let you come home."

"You know as well as I do that will never happen. Without me here the alliance between Shibatsu and Annalaias would collapse. There is no need to worry about me, Hansel. I am treated quite well here," Mariela said softly.

She flushed slightly, no doubt thinking about Franz. As predicted, she had grown closer to her husband during our estrangement.

"You never should have been a bargaining chip to begin with," Hansel disagreed angrily, banging his fist on the wall as he leaned over her.

Mariela shrunk against it, discomfort written all over her face.

I saw the need to step in then.

"Mariela! I've been looking for you everywhere. Mother wants us all to bid farewell to the chieftain of the Ruby Islands."

Hansel the warrior reluctantly stepped away. Even as the unimportant third princess, right now I claimed to be speaking for the queen.

Mariela shot me a grateful smile as she said goodbye and even went so far as to link her arm through mine. That guy must have really unnerved her.

"Are you alri—"

"Shh! I will tell you about it later," she said as her eyes darted around nervously. "Not here."

I held her to that. A few days after everybody left and Al and I were forgotten once more I met Mariela for tea in Franz's office.

I hadn't been in there since the day of our argument.

Franz was off meeting with less significant members of the court. The session was about to end for the year and most would be heading back to their country estates soon so he was busier than ever.

The court met biannually so everyone would be back in the spring. He planned to make his move then but first he had to gather enough allies to make it happen.

It would time almost perfectly with my escape plan. The country would be taken care of and a few weeks later I could leave on the Shibatsu trade ship.

She fidgeted nervously behind the desk, which was unlike her.

"I am sure you are thinking something untoward has occurred between Sir Hansel and me."

I shook my head, surprised. It was pretty obvious that his interest was one-sided.

"I didn't think that at all. In fact, I only came over because you looked uncomfortable. If you were enjoying your conversation I would have left you to it."

Mariela raised a delicate brow.

"Left me to it? People from your land have the strangest sense of morals."

Ah, she thought that I condoned cheating. That wasn't it at all! Given her views on love, I thought it unlikely that she would have a secret lover back home.

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If anything, I thought Hansel was an old friend she would enjoy catching up with because she was homesick.

"You misunderstand me. I never thought the two of you were an item—I figured you might want to talk to a friend from home."

Her expression settled back into its usual tranquility.

"I see. Well, Hansel is a friend from home but he has been in love with me for longer than I can remember. I always brushed it off and made excuses because I knew it would never go anywhere and did not return his feelings but it became impossible to ignore when he went on a rampage after my engagement to Franz was announced.

"He is lucky my father values his military expertise so much or his punishment would have been much harsher. He was allowed to retain his seat in the cabinet and somehow convinced my father to allow him to come here and see me."

What a melodrama! I bit my lip, unsure of whether or not I should ask but…

"Would you go back if you could?"

She blinked at me like I was an idiot.

"I thought I already made myself clear on the matter yesterday. This is my home now. I have accepted my fate. Besides…it is not as bad as it used to be. Franz has been much more attentive lately. The homesickness is much easier to bear when he is around."

The look on her face…it couldn't be. I squealed like a teenage girl at a sleepover party.

"Are you in love with him?!"

She stood so quickly that the chair fell over.

"Don't be ridiculous! He is good to me and I enjoy spending time with him but that is all. I have long forgotten such silly notions."

Mariela's face was a dead giveaway. Even if she wouldn't admit it to herself, it was plain as day that she was beginning to have feelings for her husband. Good for her.

Since she had resigned herself to her role as a political tool, it was better that she learned to love the one she was stuck with so she didn't have to be so alone in a new land.

"Uh huh, sure," I agreed easily.

She would figure it out soon enough. My job meddling was complete.

"What about you?" she asked suspiciously. "You have said yourself that it is impossible to go back. Why not try to make it work here?

"You have the benefit of being able to see Catherine du Pont's siblings. I know you are fond of them. They may not be able to replace what you have lost but you are less alone here than I am."

"It's not about being lonely," I hedged. "It's about freedom and making things right."

"Making things right?"

"I was never supposed to be here," I said helplessly.

After having time to think about it I came up with somewhat of an explanation without explicitly mentioning this was all happening inside a novel.

"I assume Catherine du Pont died when I took over her consciousness. She was the simple, playful daughter of an earl. If I had stayed in my world, she would have been married to some random nobleman, not embroiled in palace politics. I only ended up here because of my political science degree. Can you understand that? I was never supposed to be here in the first place. Alpheus was supposed to marry someone else!"

Mariela pondered my words. I could tell they were sinking in better than last time because I had a sufficient explanation for my actions.

She picked up her chair and settled back into it, looking very much like the queen she was meant to become.

"Katie…Alpheus was 'supposed to' marry an insignificant baron's daughter. He would have been as miserable as ever with her because she would not have been interested in being his friend, only in being a princess, like Rosenia. You are a far better option for him. Why not accept that? He would be heartbroken if you left."

I held my tongue, unable to bring up Marcy because Mariela was a princess. She would not believe that a prince was destined to marry a commoner.

She went off of the palace gossip that the archduke had brought up during that croquet tournament where my life got turned upside down.

After a prolonged silence she sighed.

"I cannot understand why you are so insistent about this but I will let it go. I would much rather try and convince you to stay through actions since words are clearly not working. Enough of this. Would you like to see the list of minor nobles we have gotten on our side?"

So we were agreeing to disagree. I could live with that. It would be nice having Mariela back.

I smiled genuinely as I replied "sure."

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