TWCT 06

Chapter 06

[SIDE: King Feliks] Queen Rupia 1

She looked like a princess from a great nation—someone who had been dearly loved and raised without a single doubt cast upon her.

That was my first impression of Rupia when I saw her.

At our first meeting—moreover, in the special setting of a grand cathedral lined with many attendees—she looked at me with a bright smile, without a trace of nervousness or shyness.

In that moment, I understood: she was a princess who had never known rejection, someone raised only with love.

In any case, she was a princess of the continent’s greatest nation, and she would become my wife.

Even if she was a little spoiled or a bit selfish, I felt she should be cherished—and I wanted to cherish her.

Driven by that feeling, I reached out and touched her hand, offering words of praise.

She must have been used to hearing compliments as a great nation’s princess, yet Rupia still smiled with genuine happiness.

Seeing that expression, I realized she was not only able to receive praise properly but also knew how to respect the other person’s position.

I became convinced that if she was such a princess, this marriage would surely succeed.

Originally, my wife was supposed to be carefully selected over the course of a month after my fifteenth birthday.

However, the Kingdom of Diablo used its overwhelming national power to force the selection of Rupia in just a few hours.

It was clearly an overbearing act that disregarded our kingdom, but the power gap was so vast that the selection committee had no choice but to accept her, despite their dissatisfaction.

However, Rupia’s name had not appeared among the candidates until that very day. Because information was lacking, an immediate investigation was conducted—and the report came back stating she had “issues,” which troubled everyone involved in the selection.

The biggest concern was her age—she was one year older than me.

At the time she was inserted into the selection process, she was sixteen. By the time of the actual marriage ceremony one year later, she would be seventeen.

For a royal bride, who typically marries at fourteen, this was clearly considered “late.”

Since there were multiple suitable noble families within the Kingdom of Diablo, it was suspected that there must be some reason she had not been engaged to any of them.

The most widely accepted theory was her poor health.

Rupia had been frail since childhood, frequently falling ill and bedridden. It was assumed she had been avoided due to concerns about whether she could bear heirs.

Although this was a serious issue, it posed no problem for the Starling royal family.

That was because a solution had already been prepared for matters concerning royal succession.

In the Starling Kingdom, the royal family was permitted to have multiple concubines in addition to the primary queen, and all children—regardless of their mother—were granted equal rights to succession.

However, it was assumed that the primary purpose of this marriage for the Kingdom of Diablo was to ensure that Diablo’s royal bloodline would be passed on to the next King of Starling. Because of this, there was concern that Rupia might not accept the existence of concubines.

Yet when negotiations concluded, Diablo accepted those conditions without much resistance.

They agreed to include a clause in the marriage contract stating that if Rupia did not become pregnant within two years, concubines would be permitted for me.

When I expressed suspicion, Gilbert—the brother of Rupia’s personal maid and also our kingdom’s prime minister—offered his opinion.

“In the end, they are simply blinded by affection for their child and unable to see reality. The King of Diablo apparently said something along the lines of, ‘Say whatever foolish things you like before the marriage. Once she is wed and you truly get to know the princess, you will inevitably become infatuated and accept everything!’”

Gilbert, who was ten years older than me yet still unmarried, seemed to have no dreams or hopes regarding marriage, and his tone carried a hint of mockery.

“…I see. So they believe that once I get to know Rupia deeply, I would say I would accept nothing but her, even if she could not bear an heir. I would rather like to see such a version of myself.”

No king could treat matters of succession so lightly.

I understood Gilbert’s sarcastic feelings, and I also thought the King of Diablo was quite optimistic.

I let out a quiet sigh.

I had never fallen in love.

Nor did I believe I ever would.

Because abandoning one’s reason and composure to become utterly absorbed in a single person—treating them as special above all others—would only happen if that person possessed extraordinary virtues.

And there was no way such a perfect person existed.

In the end, it all depended on how much illusion one could project onto another—and I was not a dreamer.

So I faced reality and continued speaking.

“Keep the concubine clause as a safeguard. But it is only a last resort. I want Rupia to bear my heir. Besides, if a child born from a concubine were to compete with the child of a queen from the great Kingdom of Diablo, it would only create instability.”

I wanted to build a proper marital relationship with Rupia.

For that, monogamy should be the foundation, and I did not want anything to interfere between us.

Concubines would only be necessary if succession became an issue. If Rupia bore my child, there would be no need for them at all.

Although this marriage was political, and I was displeased with certain aspects of Diablo’s methods, I found Rupia herself agreeable.

And I wanted her to live as peacefully and gently as possible.