The palace was in an uproar when the crown prince of Northern Ocrea finally arrived.

About a dozen servants had already approached the emperor to ask about some of the things they needed to prepare, and it wasn't even noon. Some maids gave reports about the guest rooms being finished and the meals being ready but most admitted that there was still a lot that needed to be done before the prince arrived.

For some reason, Theodore was completely calm though. He explained exactly what he had in mind, gave the servants some tips and encouraged them to work hard. All without showing whether he was stressed. He probably wasn't. After all, he happily enjoyed lunch with his lover and sat on his chair without shifting around.

To be honest, Blanche was much more excited than he was. She had never witnessed diplomatic discussions with the future ruler of another nation that had been their opponent for decades. Another issue was that she had no idea how to act. Her now almost useless memories of a different future had never introduced Crown Prince Linden fully and had also never offered a peaceful solution for the conflict between Artias and Northern Ocrea. She only had a vague description of that prince's appearance and personality in mind, which meant that she was basically blind when it came to this topic.

Blanche had no idea how this would go. She was just calmed by the fact that her composed lover would manage all of this. She might not even see the prince much since the guest would only be interested in the emperor.

At least she had thought that until Theodore pulled her toward the main entrance.

Blanche followed him silently for a moment before the realization set in. “Are we going to greet the prince now?”

Her lover gave her a soft smile and scanned her surprised expression before replying. “I'm not sure whether he will be on time. The carriages might have some issues and come a few minutes later. In any case, we can wait by the entrance. I don't want to risk someone else rushing in to see him before us. I'm pretty sure that he will be punctual though, so you don't have to worry about it getting boring.”

Blanche immediately felt panic rushing down her spine. She hadn't believed that she would be present while they welcome the guest. After all, only the rulers of the nations should meet now. She hadn't expected that she would have to see the prince on the first day. She looked down at her attire and slowed her movements. Blanche had worn a blue gown that her lover had chosen for the day. If that wasn't enough, she had also received some golden accessories along with it. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue, even if she cringed when Theodore gave her things in the royal colors. But she couldn't appear like this when they went to greet Prince Linden. “Then I need to go get changed. I will put on something more simple and-”

Theodore interlocked their fingers and gave her a gentle tug to make her stagger in his direction. “Why? We don't have much time, and you look gorgeous. There is no need to worry about that. If you were any prettier, I wouldn't let our guest see you at all. We can't risk him paying attention to the wrong person. I already have a stomach ache because of this. Don't make me even more reluctant.”

Blanche almost grimaced at that response. As always, he didn't seem to get what the issue was. “This is a diplomatic meeting. You and the empress have to welcome the prince. That I'm here is bad enough, but I can't wear the royal colors too. That might seem like I am making fun of our guests. Besides, we surely took our time eating for not having much spare time.”

Theodore remained unmoved by her arguments and pulled her forward. “Eating is more important than changing for no reason. I can assure you that Prince Linden isn't petty enough to consider small gestures an offense. He is much calmer than specific other people in their nation. The worst thing that could happen is him thinking that you are the empress. That won't be an issue either, so you can stop worrying.”

How was that not an issue? She could never dare to dress like the most powerful woman in the country and fool a guest with that. Blanche would have liked to discuss this a bit more, but it seemed like her complaints wouldn't be heard. As always, she could just hope that her lover knew what he was doing.

Otherwise, they would run into a lot of problems.

The entrance hall was almost completely empty, which confused the concubine. But when they stepped out and saw the plaza in front of the palace, it quickly became clear where all the people were.

Countless servants and guards were waiting in two rows by the street that led to the maid gate. But people were missing. Surely, there were many here, but in comparison to the number of staff members in the palace, the portion here was only a small fraction. Normally, one would expect that everyone except for the knights patrolling the palace would come here, but that wasn't the case.

Blanche turned to her lover and gazed at him. Apparently, that was enough to show him what she was thinking about.

Theodore linked their arms and led her to the staircase by the entrance, where they stopped to wait for the troop that would arrive in a bit, while explaining. “I only brought the people here that will serve him directly. I heard that Prince Linden doesn't like luxury much, so I decided to hold back. I hope that he won't feel like those are too many people, but we'll see. Even if that goes wrong, I know exactly what to say to win him over. The dishes from his home country should do the rest. If my family doesn't show up, nothing can go wrong. Unfortunately, I don't believe that they will be nice enough to stay away for one second. Those people will certainly arrive in a few minutes too. Cedar wrote me a letter and asked whether they could come. I had to agree while telling him that it would be better not to show up, but you can imagine that he won't listen. I created some issues that should delay their arrival, but that won't stop them fully.”

Blanche let her gaze roam across the servants in front of them and leaned against her lover. “I see. Let's hope that they will be very late.” She paused for a moment before looking up at the emperor. “Did you also not put on your crown because Prince Linden dislikes that?”

Theodore nodded. “Apparently, the customs in Ocrea are a bit different. Crowns are only to be worn during a coronation, a wedding or when you are facing your enemy after defeating them in a war. That's a strange combination, isn't it? So, me putting it on would have made him misunderstand my intentions quite a bit.”

The concubine didn't even want to imagine what such a misunderstanding could have caused. “Thank the gods. I'm relieved you knew that. You truly did your research, didn't you?”

A small smile appeared on her lover's lips. “You could call it that too. I learned through experience. When I last welcomed someone, it didn't go too well. So, I made sure to find out everything about Ocrea's customs before asking the prince to come here. The most satisfying hint was him having a sister that wants to steal the throne from him though. I'm glad that this is the case. He has a fundamental understanding of what my dear family could be planning after all. I want to make sure that I see him first. Afterward, I can introduce my brother while pointing out the similarity again. Ah, now that I mention it.” Theodore turned his head to her. He carefully pushed a strand of her alabaster hair behind her ear while grinning at her. “I wanted to remind you that I won't lie about anything regarding information on the royal family. Especially not about our relationship. I won't address the topic on my own, but if he asks, I will have to respond with the truth. That's fine, right?”

Blanche could guess how it would end up anyway. “It's alright. It would be useless to bother hiding it when we are cuddling the whole time. The prince probably isn't stupid, so he will find out rather fast. But we don't need to forcefully cling together in front of him either.”

“I don't intend to keep my distance because of his presence. If it annoys him, he can bond with Leon about that topic.”

The concubine paused to look around for a moment. “By the way, where is Leon? He surely will greet the prince with us, right? If I'm here, there is no reason for him not to come.”

Theodore smiled at that. “He still has a couple of things to do. For one, he needs to inform the empress not to do anything stupid. He is probably listing all the things that she should pay attention to right now. Every single thing, except for the topic of crowns, is based on common sense, but she insisted on getting the details. Now she is receiving what she was asking for. I wouldn't be surprised if she comes a bit too late because she needed to take off her crown and fix her hair. She will probably be here in a few minutes and coincidentally arrive at the same moment as the prince. Watch.” The longer he spoke, the more annoyed he looked, but when he finished, he returned to his original expression. “But the prince isn't too insistent on such a small thing. He seems to be rather composed if I read him correctly. In any case, there won't be any issues even if someone was late. Here, this might actually help since it will make the prince pay attention to her. They are quite similar, so they will get along splendidly.”

Blanche held back her thoughts about the empress only learning about all of this today and addressed another topic. “It would be good if they got along, but I can't ruin it either. Are you sure that everything about their customs is just common sense? I don't want to mess up.”

Theodore turned his whole body to her and let go of her arms to hug her. He pressed a kiss onto her forehead and grinned when she leaned into him. “Don't worry. Northern Ocrea doesn't care as much about those stupid norms. They actually see nobility as the people that are existing to keep the nation running. It seems like the aristocrats there are less materialistic and more focused on doing what's best for the commoners. That may be because they are a little less prosperous. That is an advantage since the nobles are less greedy, but the citizens also suffer because of it. There are some impoverished parts of their nation, and I feel like we could help them with that. In return, we might be able to convince some of our people that feeling more responsible for the nation is good. In any case, no one here wants a war. Even if you did offend him, which won't happen as long as you don't do it on purpose, he wouldn't react as sensitively as many here would. So, you can just act normally as if he wasn't there.”

Blanche grinned to herself as she put her head onto his shoulder and pressed her lips against his neck. She needed to stand on her tiptoes to do this, but it was worth it. “You shouldn't encourage that. Because I would cling to you the whole time if I get that chance. And kiss you and hug you and tell you how much I love you.”

Theodore chuckled at that. “I wouldn't mind. Maybe I should encourage you. Please act like you always do. He will be here for a while, and we will certainly not hold back for so long.” He wrapped his arms tighter around her to keep her from falling down because she rested her whole weight on him. “I wouldn't be able to stand a day without you. I assume that he will be here for two weeks, so you can't expect me to miss out on this for so long.”

The concubine knew that any of the servants that saw them had to be embarrassed for them or annoyed because of their overly sweet interaction, but she couldn't help it. She pressed a few kisses onto her lover's neck and slowly wandered up to his jaw. “I won't make you wait, don't worry. Even if you need to work a bit more for two days, I will wait for you in your room.” She brought her face directly in front of his, with their lips only being separated by a small layer of air.

“I look forward to that. But there is something else we could say about that. Regarding our room. You've been sleeping-”

Blanche hadn't wanted to interrupt him, but the urge to kiss him had been too great. She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him toward her. She melted into him and grinned into the kiss when Theodore gave up and enjoyed it with her. When she slowly moved back, she could just stare at her lover with a smile. “I love you.”

Theodore gently tangled his hand in her hair. “I love you too. You're really distracting, do you know that? I won't be able to focus on our guest now. You're way too adorable. I could just eat you up. My dear-”

Some cleared their throat to cut him off.

When the couple turned to the side, they found Leon there with his arms crossed. He glared at them and tapped his fingers on his arm. His face said everything. He had just arrived and was already fed up with them. But normally, he didn't look this annoyed.

Blanche looked at the spot next to him and realized why the secretary was questioning their sanity. Seraphina had already come too. The empress was standing there with her fuming maids and Noah, who seemed to be taken aback by this scene too. Even though the heroine gave her best to keep her expression neutral, it was obvious that she would like to roll her eyes and ask them to stop cuddling in front of her.

The concubine froze when they made eye contact. She almost wanted to retract her arms, but she just pulled her lover closer to her. Blood was rushing to her face, and she hurried to turn away to hide her blush. This was way too embarrassing. Now that she wasn't fully captured by Theodore anymore, she finally realized how many people were watching them. There had to be at least four dozen servants here, and the empress had seen them too.

Theodore just didn't care though. He put his lips onto her forehead and rested them there for a moment before loosening his hold on her. Instead of letting go, he linked their arms again and pulled her against his side while he turned to greet the people that had arrived. “Good day. Did anything special happen, Leon? Your face doesn't look too pleasant.”

The secretary narrowed his eyes at the other man. He probably didn't like that Theodore just ignored the correct chronology of how he had to address them.

When the emperor didn't receive a response, he turned to the empress. “There weren't any issues with the preparations, were they?”

Seraphina was as calm as always when she replied despite the rather unfriendly greeting. “Good day, Your Majesty. There weren't any issues. I was not involved in many of the preparations, so I could not be sure, but I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. I assumed that nothing bad happened since no one informed me of anything.” It was quite obvious that she was annoyed by the fact that her husband wasn't telling her the things she needed to know. As usual, she found a way to voice that without bringing up the issue explicitly.

Still, Theodore understood it and had the audacity to roll his eyes. “Nothing special happened, so there was no need to bother you. Everything is almost ready. The prince only has to arrive now.” He paused for a moment, and his annoyance faded away. He could barely hide the small grin on his face. “You should prepare to greet him. I hope you two will get along intimately.”

Seraphina stared at the emperor for a moment before speaking up. “Naturally, I shall offer our guest all the hospitality he deserves. I would ask you not to phrase it like this though. Will we greet Prince Linden alone, or will others join us? A part of me was expecting less pleasant guests.”

Theodore's smile just widened at that. “Oh. Yes, they will arrive later. I fear that their carriage might have a few issues and that their coachman called in sick a bit too late. They will come without a doubt. But depending on how prepared they were for this, that will come in anywhere from five minutes and four hours. We'll hope and see.”

The empress' expression still didn't change. “I see. That is calming.” She turned her head to the other woman. “Good day, Lady Blanche. Have you been well lately?”

Blanche felt how thick the tension around the royal spouses was and would rather not talk at all, but she had no choice. So, she decided just to be the polite one. “Naturally. Good day, Your Majesty. Nothing much happened, so I will not complain.” Even if she had enough reasons to do so. The way that the heroine scanned Blanche's attire was making her nervous in itself. She hadn't intended to wear a dress with colors that belonged to the empress alone. Theodore had made her do it, and she almost pointed that out.

But keeping quiet was probably the better option. She just forced herself to smile while holding onto her lover. He was the one that caused this interaction to be a hundred times tenser, so why was he so calm?

It took a moment of silence before Blanche decided that she would need to speak if she didn't want to become too tense. “I forgot to ask. How are you, Your Majesty?” It was painfully obvious that she tried to keep the conversation going, but it was better than nothing.

Luckily, Seraphina didn't ignore her and responded. “As you already said, nothing much happened. A few of my family matters have been resolved, which only lifts my mood. So, I am in good spirits.” Surely, the fact that Evelyn had been punished after a proper trial had to be satisfying.

Even Blanche had to admit that she was happy about that. “That is good to hear.”

“I was very pleased to learn about that too.” The empress paused before adding something else. “Lady Ravillot planned on writing you a letter to thank you once again, but unfortunately, she has some issues deciding how to phrase it. She will probably send it within the next week, but she may also delay it once again. She asked me to convey some of her words to you. Naturally, our entire family is extremely grateful, and she especially wishes to pay you back in some way. Please do not hesitate to inform her if there is anything that you require.”

That sounded completely different from the past. Hadn't there been an occurrence on which Seraphina had threatened to become serious if the concubine approached her sister? It was good to hear that she seemed to have changed her mind about that.

Blanche gave the other woman a smile. “It would be kind of you to tell her that I am thankful for that. But there is no need for anything like that. She should focus on her daughter. Your family has different things to take care of at the moment.”

No matter how much they hated Evelyn now, the Duremonts probably wouldn't be able to forget that they had spent so much time with that woman. Especially Elaine had to be shocked by her sister's true personality and the fact that her daughter's warnings, which she had ignored, had proven to be accurate. There was no way that they would get over this quickly.

Just when the empress opened her mouth to respond, a horn sounded from the other end of the property.

Everyone's eyes wandered to the main gate in the distance. There, on the street, which was barely visible behind the gate, something came closer. It was too far away for anyone to be able to recognize it, but it was easy to guess that those were carriages.

It seemed like the crown prince had arrived.

The people in front of the palace's entrance were silenced by this. Everyone tried their best to look as dignified as possible, even though the guest wasn't exactly here yet.

Theodore gazed at the gate with a content smile. “He's here.” He chuckled. “And my brother didn't catch him first. How ironic.”

Blanche was about to speak up and ask Theodore what he was talking about when he turned to her and gave her a radiant beam. She was silenced by that sight and had to hold back from kissing him again. “You look really happy about that.”

“I am. If my brother is good at one thing, it's talking to people until they believe him. This time, I managed to warn the other party about that first, but there were some occurrences in which I acted too late. At least everything is going well now.” He leaned forward to kiss her forehead again. “I'm glad.”

The concubine couldn't help but smile back, even though she was still a bit reluctant to cuddle with him while the heroine was watching. “That's good. I'm happy too. We are going to make this work.”

Her lover seemed to be overjoyed about hearing this. “We will. Let's do our best and make this crown prince want to become our ally.”

The group of carriage in the distance slowly came closer. It was like everyone was holding their breath when they eventually arrived at the gate. The golden wings swung open to allow the entourage to move into the royal estate. There were about a dozen carriages and numerous guards accompanying them on the backs of their horses.

It took one glance to see that they were a bit different from Artias' knights, but they looked just like any other person upon viewing the royal palace for the first time. Blanche was sure that her eyes had twinkled that much when Theodore had shown her the property too. It was a bit adorable to see how the guards were trying to admire the building and the garden while appearing serious and calm.

The emperor slowly began moving down the stairs and pulled his lover with him. They stopped directly where the coach should arrive and were there just in time.

The carriages came to a halt on the plaza in front of the palace, just a few steps away from them. The door of the first one swung open before a servant could open it. The man that climbed out of the coach unmistakably was a member of royalty. His posture and the aura that seemed to be accompanying him made that much clear. It was impossible to describe it curtly, but his clothes looked quite different with materials Blanche wasn't used to. It was like they were made for colder areas, which made sense since Northern Ocrea had a lot of mountains that were covered with snow the whole time. But at the same time, it appeared like he could move freely despite the thick fabric and didn't sweat despite the warmer climate in Artias. But even if he was warm, one wouldn't be able to tell.

This was the most irritating part of this prince. His expression showed as much emotion as Seraphina's did. No, he showed even less than that. He had a completely blank face while turning to the ruler of the nation that almost would have crushed his country in a war.

Theodore walked the last few steps to their guest and pulled his lover with him. “It is an honor for us to welcome you here in Artias. I hope that the long way did not trouble you too much. We are without a doubt more than grateful that you give us a chance to prove what our intentions are. I am Theodore Estien, the emperor of this nation. I will not only greet you as the ruler of Artias but also as my own person. I am overjoyed to meet you.” He talked much less about how great the meaning of this meeting was for the two countries than one would have expected.

The crown prince patiently waited until the other man finished before responding. “For me, it is an honor to meet you too. My name is Linden Sual. I am the eldest son of His Majesty, the king of Northern Ocrea. I look forward to working together with you and your nation.” With his stoic expression and black eyes like coal, he should have seemed more intimidating, but that wasn't the case. He just gave off a calm aura that made it appear like he was peaceful.

Even though the two rulers hadn't said much, it felt like the atmosphere between them wasn't tense. That was a relief.