"Grace, what are you doing?! You know how annoying it is when you just barge into my tent without me being here! Especially since you're a pervert!!!" Marie asks with her arms crossed while I look at the clothes of hers I'm picking out.

Marie's expression is clearly irritated, her brow furrowed. She's probably mostly annoyed that I'm messing with her clothes, but this time I'm not here for her panties.

"I'm picking out your clothes so we can celebrate! The ships are already in the ports, and the last shipment just arrived!! So that means we're finally done with the work here! So I thought it'd be nice to celebrate, right?" I tell her the truth. Marie seemed really sad about losing the throne.

"Yeah… I guess." She doesn't even try to keep the argument going, showing just how down she still is about not becoming queen. She speaks without any enthusiasm to try anything. I give her a little kiss on the forehead.

'I need to cheer up my wife!!' I wonder what I could do to lift her spirits. I understand perfectly why she wanted to become queen; she dedicated so much of her life to it, so it's only natural she'd be discouraged.

"Don't worry so much, Marie! We're done with the work here. You should try to enjoy yourself a little…" I stroke her head, messing up her hair while giving her my best smile. She stares at me for a few seconds before speaking.

"I know. It's just so frustrating that Evelyn stole the throne… she's not even fit to be queen. It's so unfair. I think even Esther winning would have been better than her." She sighs, sitting down on the bed.

'Evelyn as queen…' I'm not sure what to think of her. Evelyn is a strange girl, and I haven't spent much time with her. All I have are fragmented pieces and assumptions, but I also don't think she should be queen.

Still, I don't think Marie has the best personality for it either. The reality is that none of the throne candidates have a good mindset for a ruler. They all have serious moral problems based on what I've seen and experienced around them.

"Marie, do you want to come to my kingdom when this is over?" I ask hopefully. Since she has nothing left to stay on this continent for, maybe she could come to my continent, which is much safer, and we could have a quiet life.

"Huh?" She looks at me, confused.

"Well, you're not queen, and now that there is a queen, you don't have to stay here, right? Though I know you can't leave right now. When the war ends, you'll be able to go away from this continent." If she tried to leave the continent now, with a war ongoing, it would be considered abdication.

She would be banned from ever returning to this continent, become a wanted criminal, and lose all her money, territories, and support. Plus, proud Marie would never want to carry that terrible social stigma.

And unfortunately, since I'm married to her, I'd even end up with some problems. So it's better to wait.

"So how about you come live on the human continent? I can buy a mansion just for the two of us. We can live there peacefully." I give her a sweet smile. She looks thoughtful.

"Leave… that is a possibility… thank you for trying to cheer me up. Now that I have no way of becoming Demon Queen, there isn't much left for me on this continent. And even though I can't leave for now…"

"When the war ends, I'll be free… I'll think about your proposal… h-hmmm." I kiss her, and she kisses me back. I move my arms around her back, hugging her, and she hugs me back as we fall onto the bed.

"Grace, are you going to participate in the war?" Marie asks when I pull away from our sweet kiss. Her question has only one answer.

"I'm going to participate." Obviously, I'm going to participate to protect my adorable tsundere wife from any danger.

"For the Demon 'Queen'?" Marie asks if I'll fight for Evelyn. But obviously, I'm not doing this for the queen of this continent. I'm only doing this for Marie. I don't even like wars. I obviously wouldn't join one without a good reason.

"For you, love. I'm going to fight in the war by your side, only for you." I say tenderly. She smiles at me softly, blushing.

"You'd better keep that promise! I'll be angry if you fight for anyone but me!" She speaks with poorly disguised jealousy. It's pretty cute because she looks away.

"Of course, love! You'll see—"

"…" She takes the initiative, giving me a shy kiss. She's so cute. This tsundere side of hers really pleases me when it shows up during her attempts to be proactive.

"Grace, just answer with yes or no, okay?" She asks timidly, giving me a look that makes my heart skip a beat.

"Of course, love."

"…" Her expression gets a little irritated, and with that, I know the game has actually already started, and I answered wrong.

"Yes!" I answer, already getting into the game. With my answer, she starts smiling again, making that adorable thoughtful expression.

"Do you love me?" The first question is pretty simple. I don't even need to think much, so I answer without hesitation.

"Yes." With my answer, she gets a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Am I pretty?" Another pretty obvious question. Even if it seems like a trick, the answer is a guaranteed yes.

"Yes!!" I say with more enthusiasm so she can't say I'm lying. I even give her a flirty wink.

"Do you want to go on a date with me tonight?" Her question immediately excites me because I already wanted a date. It just reinforces my enthusiasm.

"Yes!!!"

"Do you want to do something hot tonight after the date?" When she says that, I blush and answer without even thinking!! How could I refuse the naughty requests of my adorable tsundere wife, who usually blasts me away with magic whenever the topic of intimacy comes up?

"YES!!!!"

"Grace, will you do the report in my place?"

"YES!!!..."

"W-Wait…"

"W-W-W-W-What?!" She smiles at me when I answer with an enthusiastic yes without even thinking, until I realize the actual content of the question. She ends up turning me around and shoving me onto the bed, taking a step back.

"W-Wait, this isn't—" She leaves the room before I can complain that this wasn't what I was expecting, but she's already closing the door as I realize I've been tricked.

"MARIEE!!!!!" I scream her name. She tricked me by asking only questions I'd like, and they were all lies, since the paperwork will take all day and all night, so there's no way anything can happen tonight.

"Marie… you're a demon… ah… literally." I look at the door, then look to the side, seeing the table full of papers. The reports I'll have to write are almost 90% of them because only 10 out of 112 pages were done. There are so many ships.

…

…

…

"What are you doing here, Royal Messenger Leyhey?" I ask uncomfortably, seeing this man standing here. I'm busy, so I don't want to be interrupted.

"Laplace-sama, I came to deliver a letter from Her Majesty. Queen Evelyn wishes for the reports to become weekly instead of monthly, for a better adjustment of the kingdom."

"…Alright… is that all?"

"Yes, Laplace-sama, that's all I have to inform you of, aside from this letter, of course." He takes a letter from his clothes and hands it to me. I see the royal seal, so I open the letter immediately to see what it says.

'Wait… this… isn't Esther's handwriting? …Why is Esther's handwriting on the letter?' I find this suspicious, but it has the royal seal, which is strange. The royal seal can't be used without permission; it even has a magic lock.

"Esther… why was the letter written by Esther?" I ask the messenger, but he makes a confused face, showing he doesn't know anything.

"I don't know? I'm sorry to say, but I'm just a messenger, Laplace-sama. Ah, yes, but it was Esther-sama who sent me. Here, she also told me to deliver this." He hands me a flask with frosted black glass.

I take the flask while I finish reading the letter. On the surface, it just seems like a common letter specifying orders, but putting together the first letter of each word, I form a smaller message.

'Esther is trying to buy me off…' I look at the flask. If what's in the letter is right, this thing in my hand will sate my hunger for vitality for a week, and Esther is promising more flasks as long as I report directly to her.

"Hmmm…" I think about the proposal for a bit. Between serving Evelyn or serving Esther, I think I prefer Esther. She's more logical, while Evelyn clearly doesn't like me.

"T-Tell Esther I'll do my best." I say to the messenger, who just nods. He doesn't seem to know anything, and that's fine. With this, Esther will understand that I'm on her side.

"…" I open the bottle, smelling it. The smell is bad, kind of intense and pungent, but it reminds me of something specific. Without even wanting to know what it is, I just put it to my mouth and drink. The taste is extremely bitter.

"Haaa…" I feel an intense and immediate relief when I finish drinking. The hunger practically disappears all at once, and I really was having problems with the hunger.

"Esther wants to control Evelyn?" Considering I'm in a military control post, and Esther wants reports that she won't pass on to the queen, I assume she wants some margin of military maneuver above Evelyn.

'Not my problem… I'll just ignore this…'