Reward [Part 2]
The stage had a lukewarm atmosphere centered on the Stuart family and the Prince, but the guests waiting below couldn’t think of that scene so leisurely.
—Hasn’t Rose-sama already been abandoned by the King? How should my house that belonged to the First Prince’s faction make our move from now on?
—Eh? Our Second Prince’s faction has the advantage? Since when?
—Or rather, isn’t this a farce to form an engagement between His Highness Edward and Lady Emma of House of Count Stuart?
Does she first intend to let us know how well the King and the royal concubine get along by naming Rose-sama? Then even after she was rejected, she insists on saying that she wants to marry the Prince?
—However, if the Second Prince and the young lady from House Stuart get engaged, won’t the power balance in high society crumble?
House of Count Stuart has the Rothschild Company at its back, and even Imperial Japan will be on their side from now on, right?
Isn’t this all unfavorable to the nobles in the First Prince’s faction?
—Maybe it was all calculated?
That the Royal Family and House Stuart have moved forward with their plans while we were frantically preparing our dresses for the sudden evening party?
—The House of Count Stuart… such an underhanded trick…
In the first place, why is it not the Count but Lady Emma who chooses the reward for their House?
—Wait, I heard Lady Emma has a lot of hidden fans in the First Prince’s faction. Won’t the opposition from the nobles be minimized if Lady Emma is the one who touches this sensitive subject…?
—Which means the reward Lady Emma wants… is an engagement with the Prince after all?
The girl’s a pretty tough one despite having a cute face, huh.
Emma’s careless words made all the invited nobles nervous.
They felt their position in high society could undergo a drastic, unprecedented change depending on the girl’s following words.
Nobles of the First Prince’s faction held their breath as they waited for Emma’s next words.
If she were to say that she wanted to be engaged to Prince Edward, they had to oppose it right then and there. They would never be convinced that behind her request was only a simple, shallow love story of a 13-year-old girl, instead of a complicated power struggle intrigue.
“Now, Emma-cha… ahem, Emma Stuart. Title? Territory? Engagement? Which one will it be?”
The King began to narrow it down to three choices because he didn’t want Rose to be taken away.
—Why did he include engagement into the selection!?
The nobles’ agitation reached its peak, while only Emma was overwhelmed with pressure.
……
Title, territory, engagement.
Why is he giving me useless things in a three-set combo!?
Title… We can barely maintain our current rank of Count, though?
Territory… No, well, the Palace is already ridiculously big, you know?
Engagement… It will definitely be with someone with a title higher than a count, right?
It’s always a gainless and valueless lineup of rewards!
However, because this is only the beginning of the evening party, I feel bad for wasting time by hesitating.
I can only choose by elimination.
“…Then, t-territory.” Emma answered in a trembling voice. It’s better than a title or having her fiancé arranged.
“Huh?” Everyone in the venue expressed their confusion in unison.
No one had expected her to choose territory. Because one’s territory would automatically expand if one’s rank was promoted or one married into the Royal Family.
“Territory? Why?”
Even the King asked why even though he was the one who said she could choose anything by herself…
…?
Even if you ask why, it’s just by process of elimination, though?
Everyone standing behind Emma, other than her family, was looking at her with a bewildered face.
Emma dropped her gaze to escape all the eyes that fell on her, but her pure white dress was too blinding…
‘Ah, the Nitori pattern Harold-san drew for me has been totally erased by the white ink.
But I’m glad that the dress was done in time…’ When Emma drifted into her thoughts to escape from reality, she suddenly came up with something.
“Your Majesty, I, Emma Stuart, know which land I want as my territory.”
“Does that mean you have a specific place in mind?” The King prompted Emma to reveal which place she wanted as a territory.
He had never heard someone making a request like “I want this place” when granting a territory as a reward. Most of the time, the Royal Family would choose a suitable place to grant as a reward. But that rewarded land would also be decided by its proximity to the recipient’s territory and its estimated worth. Emma’s remark that there was somewhere she specifically wanted… was pretty surprising in itself.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I would like our House Stuart to be given the slums district in the royal capital.”
And then, saying that the land she had in mind was the slums, the Count’s daughter Emma Stuart looked straight at the King.
“Huh?”
Nobody in attendance could understand the girl’s words.
