When Alon first received the interview sheets from Alexion, Alon only thought he would pick a suitable partner without much worry.

...That was until Alon checked the interviewees’ names.

‘...Why is Yutia...?’

Yes. Yutia’s name was written on the interview sheets.

And it wasn’t just her.

After confirming that the names of everyone currently staying at the Palatio marquis’s estate—including her—were all written there, Alon became confused for a moment.

‘...What happened?’

In Yutia’s or Seollang’s case, at least.

As Alon had heard from Evan, they had been exchanging letters continuously, so they could have taken a partner interview.

But Rine and Magrina, who were in Fildagreen?

How on earth had Alexion managed to get in contact with them?

It was the same for Historia and Ryang-a.

If Alexion knew they were in Divine Land, Alexion could have contacted them, but how could Alexion have known about Alon’s ties with them?

Alon tilted the head without realizing it.

Alon looked at Alexion.

“Alexion.”

“Yes.”

“...You said you sent letters and accepted participants, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“...Yutia and Seollang, fine. But how did you send letters to the others?”

“Th-that—”

Alexion, glancing off to the side, somehow flinched, then suddenly answered with an awkward smile.

“Ah, th-that, I heard from Evan.”

“...From Evan?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Then it was understandable, to a degree.

While nodding, Alon soon noticed Alexion’s gaze kept flicking somewhere else.

‘...Behind?’

And the moment Alon realized that gaze was aimed behind Alon, Alon turned around, but—

There was nothing behind, in the window.

All that was there was the view of the inner castle Alon had always seen.

Alon held a slight doubt for a moment, but—

Thinking Alon must have seen wrong, Alon faced forward again.

And Alon decided to ask one of the questions that had been in Alon’s head.

“By the way.”

“Yes.”

“...This interview sheet, was it properly investigated?”

“Yes, but...... why do you ask.......”

“It says Yutia Bloodia’s age is eighteen.”

An innocent question.

Alexion hesitated.

Should Alexion tell the truth?

In reality, right now, Alexion could see the gaze of those people urging him to answer that truth.

Because, in the inner-castle scenery outside that had shown nothing when the Palatio marquis turned around—

Just like before, many people had appeared again and were watching Alexion.

Among them, Seollang and Rine—

‘Now! Tell the truth! Hurry!’

Stuck close together, on the opposite window where Yutia wasn’t visible—yet would be visible only to Alexion—they were wide-eyed, cheering him on(?).

“Th-the truth is—”

The moment Alexion, empowered by their cheering(?), was about to open his mouth—

he saw it.

The faces of Rine and Seollang, who had been sending enthusiastic looks until just a moment ago, turned pale in an instant.

And then—

Wham—!

In an instant, they vanished from the window, getting sucked somewhere.

“Hk.......”

“?”

A staging that felt like it belonged in a ghost story.

Alexion let out a sharp sound without realizing it and opened his mouth.

Alon made a puzzled expression at that, but Alexion still couldn’t take his eyes off that spot.

And filling Alexion’s vision was—

red, glowing eyes.

It was definitely midday.

And yet, from the strangely dark opposite window, red glowing eyes were visible.

And below them.

Yutia Bloodia’s smile was faintly visible.

Was it faint because it was hidden by darkness?

Or was it really, right now—

because the smile was disappearing?

However.

“...??”

The moment Alon noticed Alexion’s gaze and turned the gaze again—

Yutia vanished as if it were a lie.

“Alexion.”

“Yes, Marquis.......”

“...Is there something behind the window?”

At Alon’s question falling again,

“...No. There’s nothing.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“For that to be......”

Alexion weakly denied it.

Alon looked at Alexion as if suspicious.

But Alexion couldn’t open the mouth.

Because the moment Alon turned the head forward again, Alexion saw Yutia, whose smile at the corner of the mouth was growing fainter and fainter.

So.

“Th-the truth is—!”

“...The truth is?”

“Y-Yutia’s age, I wrote it arbitrarily......!”

“Arbitrarily?”

“I-I asked everyone else, but I forgot and didn’t ask only Yutia......!”

“Hahahaha—” Alexion laughed.

“I see. But why eighteen?”

“Th-that is...... doesn’t she look extremely young?”

“...So?”

“Yes, but I thought I should write down basic information on the documents, so I set it arbitrarily for now......!”

He added one more time, “She just looks so young.”

A desperate sight that was clearly struggling for survival.

“Hm— sure. Yutia could be like that. She isn’t very tall either.”

Alon nodded as if convinced.

And at that very moment, Alexion could see it.

The dark window turned bright.

And Yutia, with a huge beaming smile at the corner of the mouth, kindly waving a hand to Alexion.

“.......”

“.......”

And while being grabbed by the back of the neck by that Yutia......

‘You betrayed us, you traitooooor—!!’

Seollang and Rine were screaming that with their faces.

But even that was only for a moment.

Yutia, smiling as if saying “Good job,” soon dragged the two out while they were still flailing.

Alexion finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Then is everything else written there all fact?”

“For now, yes. But whenever you hand over an interview sheet, I’ll add a small comment each time.”

Answering Alon like that, Alexion recalled the resolve from earlier.

Even though he had failed to reflect his opinions in the interview sheets.

He had resolved to interfere, just slightly, even in a way like this.

“Fine. Start.”

“Yes.”

However, truly regrettably, Alexion couldn’t achieve his goal.

Every time Alexion tried to say something, someone kept popping out from somewhere.

And in a place only Alexion could see, they all made chilling expressions.

In the end, the only things Alexion could say to Alon were “Yes” and “That’s correct.”

“Is that it?”

“...Yes.”

“Hm. I’ll think it over.”

“Understood.”

After that, Alexion left Alon’s office and returned to his own office.

And Alexion found a golden cup placed on top of the desk.

A golden cup that looked like it was screaming with its whole body, ‘I’m an expensive piece made in Rosario—’

“......”

‘No matter how much I like money, something like this—!’

Staring at it, Alexion frowned and lifted the golden cup.

And at that moment.

“Sir Alexion, I have something to report— ah, isn’t that a golden cup!? Something so ridiculously expensive and precious! Where on earth did you get it!?”

The secretary who had entered suddenly made a fuss.

“Hmph. Don’t worry about it.”

“Wow, that’s insane. If you sold just this one, you could have enough money to buy a few villas even for the marquis’s estate.”

“...What?”

Alexion, answering curtly, turned his gaze at the continued explanation.

“Huh?”

“...This one cup is worth that much?”

“Of course! Just looking at it, it’s Rosario craftsmanship. Wouldn’t it be weird if it wasn’t that price?”

At the secretary’s added explanation, Alexion carefully set the cup back down on the desk.

...It was far too expensive to keep up pride.

The next day.

“Marquis, what are you looking at so intently?”

“A partner.”

“...A partner? Ah, that?”

“Yes.”

“Still haven’t decided?”

“Well, yes.”

Evan, entering the office, let out a hmm— and nodded as if understanding.

“Well, it wouldn’t be easy to just pick. A partner is important in many ways. For the partner and for you, Marquis.”

“...Is it that important?”

“Well— it is, right? Going to a ball together as someone’s partner is basically no different from acknowledging some kind of something. Naturally, there’ll be a lot of rumors too. And publicly, the image will harden.”

“...It was a heavier seat than I thought.”

At Alon’s words, Evan shrugged.

“But, well, you don’t have to think that deeply about it. If it doesn’t develop beyond that in the first place, the rumors will naturally die down too. And unless you’re a king or something, a partner isn’t that important a position.”

“Is that so?”

“For kings or princes, it looks a bit strange to change partners often.”

“I see.”

Alon nodded as if understanding.

“But still, it’s hard to choose.”

“...Are they that strong?”

“No, it’s not that they’re strong... it’s just hard to choose easily.”

He looked at the list again.

‘...There are a lot of options, but.’

Even so, the reason Alon couldn’t decide easily was because Alon thought others might be disappointed by Alon’s choice.

Of course, Alon didn’t care much if people Alon didn’t know were disappointed.

But the problem was—

More than half the people on this list were people Alon knew.

At this point, Alon even thought maybe Alon should pick someone Alon didn’t know instead.

But that didn’t feel like the right way either.

After worrying for a while, Alon spoke.

“Evan.”

“Yes.”

“...Can you gather the kids?”

“The kids... you mean the friends currently in the marquis’s estate?”

“Yes.”

“...? All right.”

After finishing his worries and making a decision, Evan was about to head out, but then turned back as if he’d remembered something.

“Ah, Marquis. Come to think of it, I had something simple to tell you.”

“What is it?” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“You told me to send invitation letters to the kings last time, didn’t you?”

“I did. Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened, but the letters probably all arrived today or so. Just in case, should I tell the Divine Land kids to prepare?”

Alon thought for a moment, then shook the head.

“No need. Like I said last time, it’s just for show.”

“Is that so?”

“No one will accept the invitation anyway.”

“Hm— understood.”

Evan left obediently.

Tern, where normally there shouldn’t be anyone.

Five kings were gathered here right now.

Kritenia Siyan of the Asteria Kingdom.

King Stalian V of the Ashtalon Kingdom.

Karmakses III of the Colony Kingdom.

Palmarian IV of the Caliban Kingdom.

Torimavia of the Raksas Kingdom.

Kings who gathered only once in a while at allied conferences.

Right now, without informing the outside, they were holding a very secret meeting.

And the reason they, who basically never moved from their kingdoms, had gathered like this was—

because of the Palatio marquis.

More precisely—

“I told you! The Palatio marquis wants to become a new sky himself. He’s preparing for war!”

“......Ahem—”

Because of that marquis’s ominous moves.

“Honestly, we still can’t say for sure.”

A small rebuttal from King Stalian V.

However, Palmarian IV frowned as if it was nonsense and continued.

“Do you really think that? The marquis has trained an extremely large number of knights and soldiers, and on top of that, even mercenaries—those numbers are only increasing.”

“.......”

“Think about it. If the Palatio marquis isn’t going to wage war, why is he gathering that many troops? Do you know how much money it takes to maintain troops? Isn’t that right?”

“.......”

“And on top of that, recently, his rumors have become absurdly good! As if someone is manipulating them.”

At Palmarian IV’s words, the kings all shut their mouths.

Because, indeed, there was nothing wrong with what he said.

Palmarian IV kept going.

The more they listened, the more the image of the Palatio marquis was turning into a dangerous person.

How long had the conversation gone on like that.

“Hm.......”

“Do you have something to say?”

Karmakses III, who had been quietly silent until now, let out a hum and opened his mouth.

“To be honest, I don’t think the Palatio marquis would make that choice.”

“...Do you mean that?”

“Couldn’t it be coincidence?”

“Coincidence? He trains countless soldiers and knights, brings strong people to his side, creates his own religion, gathers nearby slash-and-burn farmers and villages, and Divine Land is steadily growing stronger— and you call that coincidence?”

“Hm...... when you bundle it all together like that, it is hard to call it coincidence.”

Karmakses III made an uncomfortable expression.

If the Palatio marquis heard that, he would have turned pale and shaken his head again and again.

But the kings, not knowing that, continued the conversation.

A little later, Palmarian III threw a question toward Kritenia Siyan.

“Do you have nothing to say?”

“Nothing to say.......”

Siyan murmured quietly and fell into thought.

Unlike the other kings, without showing any expression on her face, she kept a calm expression and thought for a while.

Then—

“So what do you want to do?”

She threw that question at Palmarian.

“Of course—”

The moment Palmarian was about to answer the returned question—

Knock knock—

A polite knocking sound rang out, and someone came in.

It was Palmarian IV’s aide.

With an intentionally serious face, he approached the Fourth and began whispering something.

“...What?”

Then, as if waiting for it, from the open door, the aides of each kingdom entered one by one, and began telling their kings the bad news they had learned.

And soon, the kings, looking at each other meaningfully, spoke.

“...It looks like we all # Nоvеlight # received the same news.”

“...Seems so.”

“The invitation, right?”

“That’s right.”

“...It seems we won’t be able to refuse this invitation. If contact came at this time, it means he knows we’re here, and then—”

Karmakses III didn’t continue, but—

because there was no one who didn’t know what would follow.

“...We can’t even refuse the invitation.”

The kings had no choice but to respond to the Palatio marquis’s invitation.

...Carrying an absurd misunderstanding along with them.