CHAPTER 04
The crystal glass fell to the floor and shattered.
Julia, who had been absentmindedly holding her quill, the physician who had asked the question in an attempt to lighten the mood, and even Endymion, who had shot up from his chair, all flinched.
Julia was startled. It was the first time her husband had raised his voice like that since ascending the throne. She stared at Endymion with her lips slightly parted, and just then, he turned his head and looked at her too.
Their eyes naturally met.
His blue eyes were filled with embarrassment. But just as Julia was about to say something, Endymion turned away and spoke in an icy voice.
“No.”
“Pardon?”
Perhaps he didn’t even feel sorry for the flustered physician. Endymion clenched both fists and repeated his words firmly. When Julia glanced at him, she saw that both his cheeks and the tips of his ears had turned bright red.
He seemed thoroughly angry.
“I said I’ve never had that kind of reaction while thinking about the Queen.”
His vehement denial left the physician at a loss.
“I apologize, Your Majesty! I—I only meant that I hoped the two of you had a good relationship! I had absolutely no intention of making fun of Your Majesty!”
Realizing that she had offended the King, the physician hurriedly tried to smooth things over. Then, in place of the King, who was growling like a wild beast, she appealed to the mild-mannered Queen for help.
“I only meant that it’s a perfectly natural physical phenomenon for young people in the prime of their youth. Women experience it too! Ah, Your Majesty, surely you’ve experienced something like that as well? When you think of His Majesty!”
“Hmm… I don’t think so. Mion just feels like a friend to me. I’ve never felt anything like that toward a man before.”
Julia answered absentmindedly, tilting her head.
After all, the husband who had been with her since she was seven felt more like family and a friend than a man.
Sixteen-year-old Julia was well-behaved, but she was somewhat inexperienced when it came to social tact. Having been taught that honesty was the most important virtue, the young Queen inadvertently made the physician’s face go pale.
“……Oh. I see.”
Julia belatedly turned her head.
Mion was looking down at her with an unreadable expression. Then he left the room after saying just one thing.
“That’s interesting. I’ve felt that way about a woman before.”
Bang!
And that was how the lesson ended.
After that, they began receiving their sex education separately.
There was a chance that rumors of discord between the young King and Queen might have spread, but fortunately, the matter was handled quietly. Julia made the physician swear to keep silent, and the physician, who knew she had made a mistake, guarded the secret faithfully.
Besides, that night Endymion apologized for hurting her feelings, and Julia graciously accepted his apology.
The two of them lay down together in bed and spent a peaceful night as usual.
I said I’ve never had that kind of reaction while thinking about the Queen.
I’ve felt that way about a woman before.
Hmm. So he had a girl he liked. I had no idea.
She quietly gazed at her sleeping husband’s flower-like face.
No wonder I thought his tone had been unusually stiff. Well, I suppose anyone would be upset if they were misunderstood like that.
Even though they were married, it couldn’t have been anything but awkward for them to receive sex education together when they were practically like siblings. Both of them had married at seven, and each had only ever known the other as the opposite sex.
Julia had simply treated the lessons as studying, but she had often noticed that Endymion seemed reluctant.
She had assumed he was uncomfortable because he had to sit through the lessons with a girl.
But apparently, it was because there was another woman he liked.
Considering that the lessons were specifically designed for married couples, the purpose was rather obvious.
Well, in romance novels, the male leads are always touching the women they like whenever they get the chance.
There were aristocratic couples who had children remarkably young. Some of them were even younger than sixteen. Sixteen wasn’t exactly an age when someone knew nothing about such matters.
After all, they had even received sex education. There was no way they could know nothing.
And yet Endymion had never even attempted to give Julia so much as a light kiss.
If he had thought of me as a woman, he would’ve made a move by now. We sleep in the same bed every single night, after all.
Julia giggled as she imagined her husband in the role of the male protagonist from one of the scandalous romance novels she had begged a maid to let her read.
The thought of kissing Endymion didn’t make her heart flutter at all.
It was so awkward that she felt like bursting out laughing.
Curious, Julia showed Endymion the book the following day and told him to imagine her as the heroine.
When she saw him stiffen completely and press a hand to his forehead, she became convinced.
Endymion didn’t think of her as a woman.
That intense memory from when she was sixteen became etched into Julia’s mind like an absolute truth.
It remained vivid even now, at nineteen, with her coming-of-age ceremony approaching and the duty of producing an heir looming before her.
……Of course, the fact that Endymion’s hands mangled the blankets embarrassingly every night remained his own secret.
In other words, the cause of this whole commotion went back to the previous day.
More precisely, to tea time before lunch.
Julia had received a message from Grand Duchess Milady, asking her to have lunch together for the first time in a while.
“Mother? All right. Tell her I’ll be there shortly.”
Milady was Endymion’s mother.
After the former King died suddenly, his widow, the former Queen, became a Grand Duchess and moved into a separate palace.
In Semele, it was traditional that after a King’s death, if his son ascended the throne, the former Queen would be granted the title of Grand Duchess, which was passed down through the royal family.
The purpose was to prevent unfortunate situations in which a former Queen might use her blood relation to challenge the authority of the new King.
Fortunately, Milady lived far enough from the main royal palace that they didn’t see each other often. Unlike the mothers-in-law in novels who lusted after power, she was also quite open-minded and enjoyed spending time with handsome young attendants.
The fact that she had accepted Julia, who had practically been sold off as a bride twelve years ago, as her daughter-in-law and treated her like her own daughter showed just how straightforward her personality was.
Semele was a powerful empire located in the heart of the continent, while Julia’s homeland, Ametrine, was a small kingdom on the frontier.
The crown prince of a country with an ancient history, vast territory, flourishing trade, and enormous wealth.
And the princess of a rural agricultural kingdom that survived by exporting crops.
There was practically no connection between the two.
But when Julia was five years old, a terrible famine suddenly swept across the continent.
No matter how much money a country earned through trade, there was no nation that could remain unaffected when its crops were failing catastrophically.
Semele and numerous other countries, now in danger, desperately searched for the cause.
Strangely, however, Ametrine was the exception.
Ametrine, which had been dismissed as insignificant because it was small and humble, enjoyed an abundant harvest.
Its grains became even plumper, and its fruits grew sweeter.
Unintentionally, Ametrine’s agricultural exports became wildly successful.
Julia’s father innocently celebrated what he believed was good fortune.
But his joy did not last long.
Several countries seeking the cause received divine revelations, and a rumor began spreading among them.
The only daughter of the King of Ametrine is loved by the gods.
They claimed that thanks to that princess, Ametrine alone had escaped the misery of the great famine.
Once this information reached other desperate nations, the situation exploded.
“A marriage proposal?! My daughter is only five years old!”
“What does her age matter? Don’t worry. If you give us the princess as a bride, our King will shower you with gold and treasures.”
“Our sovereign will even grant you territory ten times the size of Ametrine!”
Envoys flooded into Ametrine, all demanding Julia as a bride, turning the kingdom into complete chaos.
The King of Ametrine, who had raised his precious daughter alone and cherished her dearly, repeatedly refused.
But the great powers began fighting among themselves over who would claim the princess.
Many even resorted to military pressure against Ametrine.
Fortunately, Ametrine managed to hold out for two years by using its agricultural trade as a shield, but the King was gradually driven into a corner.
As pressure from across the continent continued, the princess rumored to be loved by the gods became a burden whom her own people began to resent.
“Daddy, I’ll just get married.”
Eventually, Julia, feeling guilty over something that wasn’t even her fault, decided to sacrifice herself.
Her softhearted father wept and made a tremendous fuss, but without marrying off his young daughter, the kingdom was on the verge of complete ruin.
The King set one condition: the princess herself would choose her husband.
He received assurances from everyone that no one would object to her decision.
“I’ll choose the Crown Prince of Semele.”
“Wh-Why Semele? Sweetheart, it’s far too far from our kingdom. Why not Tailegrand, our neighboring country?”
“What if Ametrine becomes endangered again because I marry someone from a weak country?”
“Sniff… My thoughtful little girl……”
Until the very day she left, Julia gently patted her father, who continued to sob and apologize, while forcing an awkward smile.
He was actually the youngest one.
Shamelessly, there were many adult kings willing to marry a seven-year-old princess.
Most were greedy middle-aged men who wanted to abandon their first wives and obtain the beloved child of the gods.
Only Semele, the strongest nation on the continent, sent a portrait of a young royal.
Fifty-two, forty-seven, thirty-nine……
Amid all those impossibly old men, there was one seven-year-old boy who shone brightly.
Julia had round purple eyes, golden-blond hair, and a gentle appearance reminiscent of a friendly puppy.
The Crown Prince of Semele was her complete opposite.
Sharp blue eyes, dark black hair, and the prickly appearance of a cat.
Endymion.
His personality seemed a little intimidating, but the fact that he was the same age already made him a winner in Julia’s eyes.
And he was handsome, too.
It wasn’t as though Julia was particularly obsessed with appearances.
Still, choosing a beautiful young boy among a crowd of balding middle-aged men was a truth even the gods would give two thumbs up to.
And so Julia chose Endymion.
They were married immediately.
Amazingly, the very year Julia became Crown Princess, Semele enjoyed an exceptionally abundant harvest.
It was truly a twist of fate.
Gradually, the continent recovered from the famine and quickly returned to peace.
Thus, it became an established fact that Julia, the Princess of Ametrine and Crown Princess of Semele, was favored by the gods.
But at the same time, Julia sometimes felt as though she were a kind of trophy.
Not Endymion’s partner, but a trophy that made the greatness of Semele shine even brighter.
After all, Endymion had been considered an ideal husband by countless royal and noble families since he was a baby.
As the Crown Prince of the strongest nation on the continent, that was only natural.
Julia had heard that shortly before she chose Endymion, there had already been discussions about his engagement to a young lady from a ducal family of foreign royal descent.
It was supposedly called an engagement, but the duke’s daughter had apparently fallen so deeply in love with Endymion that she had even become lovesick. The marriage was practically a done deal.
But when Julia chose Endymion, all of that disappeared in an instant.
Julia, who had broken off such an important prospective marriage and become Crown Princess, was a glittering trophy, but not a perfect wife.
She had the honor of being the beloved child of the gods, but her family could offer no power to strengthen her husband’s position.
Fortunately, Endymion’s father always said that Semele was overwhelmingly powerful, so it didn’t matter if his daughter-in-law came from a weak family.
He was quite fond of the quiet, innocent Julia, and whenever he met foreign kings, he proudly boasted about gaining the beloved child of the gods as his daughter-in-law.
Milady, who had become Queen Consort after the death of the first Queen, was the same.
She had originally been an ordinary concubine and became Queen after giving birth to Endymion. Perhaps because of that, she never looked down on Julia for being a princess from a powerless kingdom.
Even though Julia had no political power whatsoever that could give the Crown Prince wings, Milady never treated her harshly as ordinary mothers-in-law might.
Instead, she readily accepted seven-year-old Julia, who timidly watched her surroundings.
She praised and scolded her freely and raised her like her own daughter.
Thanks to that, Julia was able to remain bright and innocent and grow into a fairly happy young woman.
However, there was another reason why Julia, who had grown up loved and cared for without lacking anything, considered herself a trophy.
There was a somewhat complicated circumstance behind it.
And that reason had nothing to do with her father-in-law, mother-in-law, or husband.
“Julia, you’re here?”
“Yes, Mother. Have you been well?”
Julia smiled as she entered the beautiful garden of the Grand Duchess’s palace, filled with flowers.
