FMY 10

“If he can be pulled up this easily, then making him tumble down will be even easier, is what I mean.”

It was impossible to refute those words, which were so confident they verged on arrogance. Serge unconsciously twisted his lips.

“As I said before, if I have enough time, I can pull Gabriel down again all by myself. And how can you be so sure that I would be such a rational person? What if I simply say I won’t negotiate because my feelings were hurt by what you did, Prince?”

Raphael should be thankful that Serge was a person who valued reason over emotion right now.

“No, Lord Serge d’Arthur. You are not that kind of person.”

Raphael raised his index finger and tapped his own temple.

“You are far too clever to make decisions so impulsively based on your feelings. The very fact that you came to this place right away without wasting time proves it.”

It was an accurate analysis.

‘He’s sharper than I thought.’

Tsk, Serge clicked his tongue and took another sip of tea.

It was just as Raphael had said.

It was not as if he were some solitary individualist, nor was he a person constrained by the need to overcome every process by himself to achieve his goal, like the protagonist of a shonen manga.

‘If I can do it, it’s better to make it certain by any means necessary.’

If it was for the sake of getting rid of Gabriel and living a peaceful life, there was nothing he could not join hands for. Besides, the time he had was finite.

But even so, wasn’t it extremely unsettling for someone on a time limit to get deeply entangled with someone else? Especially if the other party was Prince Raphael, whom he inwardly disliked. In the first place, he did not want to be engaged to the Crown Prince, and now he was to be engaged to the Second Prince? Wouldn’t things become even more complicated if he just changed his fiancé like that?

Those thoughts were the very reason he was sitting here, facing the prince.

‘To find a reasonable point of compromise.’

Serge gazed silently at the teacup, which was embossed with the royal crest—a crown placed on a shield—in gold leaf, then took a sip and slowly set it down. His throat, cleared by the brewed tea, produced a smooth and clear voice.

“Even so, I cannot accept an engagement with you. No royalty.”

It was a resolute voice he had never used before.

“As you said, now that we’ve dropped the formalities with each other, let’s be honest, Prince.”

“Alright.”

Now that his identity had been laid bare, it was better to state his desires clearly and end the negotiations quickly. For some reason, it felt like the more he mixed words, the more he was getting drawn in. Besides, it wasn’t as if his wishes were some great secret.

“As you might have already guessed, there are two things I want. To thwart the ambitions of Gabriel Loutel, who is constantly eyeing my position and preparing to bite my throat, and to get him out of my sight. And to live quietly without getting involved with anyone and end this life.”

Serge counted out the two conditions he wanted, unfolding his fingers one by one.

“For that second wish, the engagement you proposed is out of the question.”

“Hmm…”

“A person who wishes to live quietly ascending to the position of a Prince’s Consort? That’s ridiculous.”

Less than the Crown Princess, perhaps, but the consort of a prince, specifically the partner of the Duke of Bernadotte. It did not align with Serge’s goal of living this new life peacefully and quietly until its end. No matter how quietly the Second Prince was living, was he a presence that could be so easily buried? On the contrary, wasn’t he, along with the Crown Prince, the dominant alpha who drew the most attention from high society? Serge lowered the hand he had held up and snorted softly.

Hearing Serge’s argument, Raphael tapped the decorative part of the couch’s armrest with his index finger, lost in thought.

“I see what you mean. But at this rate… now that you’ve caught my mother’s eye, you’ll end up becoming the Crown Princess, just as Duke Arthur so desires.”

The way he shrugged his shoulders was utterly detestable.

“As I said just a moment ago, wasn’t it because I knew that, that I came to this place?”

He had hit the nail on the head.

Before, even when he was a loser who had not even caught the Queen’s eye, Serge’s father, Duke Arthur, had made his son the Crown Prince’s fiancé. Of course, it was for a very short time due to Gabriel’s schemes. If he was a father with such passion and ambition back then, would he be any different now? No, he must have already heard the news that his son had found favor in the Queen’s heart. Duke Arthur would not give up.

Raphael had pointed out that reality precisely.

“I admit that you are an opponent with enough insight to be worth negotiating with.”

Serge nodded with a cool expression.

Raphael, looking at him, leaned forward and rested both elbows on his knees. The distance between the two, with the table in between, grew closer.

“Anyway, alright, I understand exactly what you mean.”

“……”

“I promise. If you join hands with me, I will get rid of Lord Loutel immediately. And I will make sure you, Serge, never have to stand next to my older brother.”

“Hey, you haven’t understood at all, have you? Prince, standing next to you is also not exactly…!”

“Hear me out, Lord Serge.”

A gleam shone in the sharp, predatory eyes of a lion.

“Our engagement will be temporary.”

“What…?”

“What I mean is, this engagement is a ‘contract engagement.’”

One that will end as soon as I achieve my goal. Raphael added with a meaningful expression. He leaned back against the backrest again, leisurely.

“I have a purpose. And I have a perfectly prepared plan and preparations to achieve that purpose.”

What kind of a high-stakes gambler’s statement was this, holding all the winning tiles like the double tiles, the first tile, and even the bonus tile?

“Ha…! Well, congratulations to you?”

“It’s nothing much. I’ll gratefully accept the congratulations.”

He just does not yield a single word.

“Then why don’t you work hard on your own with all those perfectly prepared things you have, huh?”

Don’t you know the slogan, ‘Let’s do our own work ourselves’? Is he like this because he doesn’t know about education that develops talent…?

“Yes, but if there is one thing that this great me lacks, it is…”

The alpha, adding a self-praise, raised a white, thick finger and slowly pointed at the omega sitting across from him.

“…If it’s an omega you want, shouldn’t you have them in abundance around you?”

“No, not an omega.”

“Then what.”

At Serge’s blunt reply, Raphael smiled meaningfully.

“A solid faction.”

What? Serge’s furrowed brow crooked up diagonally on one side.

“To be precise, the backing of Duke Arthur, the Minister of Finance. And more precisely, the legitimacy he possesses and the support of the powerful high nobles. A condition that would make the conservative faction, like the Duke of Arthur’s family, appear to be my ally. I need things like that.”

At those words, Serge’s head, whose patience was reaching its limit with the prince’s self-praise, calmed down a bit as if doused with cold water. Yes, that’s right. There was something that fellow lacked too.

Prince Raphael had only one thing: his backing was weak.

As if he knew what Serge was thinking, Raphael continued his explanation.

“As you know, I have been shunned by the royal family ever since I was born because of a prophecy.”

That was true. When the Second Prince, Raphael, was born, it was a very famous story that Pope Paul VII, who was called a living saint at the time, came all the way to Blanchet, gave him the name of an archangel, and bestowed upon him a blessing and a prophecy. Of course, the exact words and content were top secret.

<The one who bears the seed of 00, he shall make the throne steadfast.>

The King and Queen and their vassals, upon hearing that vague prophecy, fell into deep thought.

What on earth is the ‘seed of 00’? Is it just an abstract phrase? And what does it mean to make the throne steadfast? Does it literally mean he will strengthen the royal authority of the Bourbon dynasty of Blanchet? Or perhaps…? Does it mean he will defeat his older brother, François Dauphin de Blanchet, who was born before him, and ascend to the throne……?

The saint’s prophecy, as befitting a ‘prophecy,’ was extremely vague and came with no explanation.

The powerful figures of Blanchet could not properly guess or be sure of anything upon hearing that prophecy. And the ones who became the most serious after hearing the prophecy were, of course, the royal family, specifically the King and Queen.

The King and Queen, who had gone through a fierce and arduous war of succession like a bout of measles due to their younger siblings coveting the throne when they inherited it from their predecessor. In order not to repeat the past, they made a firm decision then.

They would never let their second son, Raphael, covet or seize the throne of their firstborn son, François. And thus, they would protect the peace of the royal family.

A prophecy is just a prophecy, after all.

Since there was a saying that the prince would make the throne steadfast, it would be enough to meticulously raise the younger brother as a vassal who helps the crown prince, his older brother, from the beginning. That, they thought, would be the very act of ‘making the throne of the Bourbon dynasty steadfast.’ They believed they could make the prophecy come true in that direction.

And so, the King and Queen did just that.

Raphael Duke de Bernadotte.

This was the name recorded for him as soon as he was born.

Not a trace of royalty could be found anywhere in his name. From the time he began to think properly, Raphael always found that strange.

It was fine that he was not given the name ‘François,’ which directly inherited the king’s name like his firstborn brother. After all, it was his older brother, the firstborn, who would succeed their father and become François VIII.

But to not even be officially given the surname of this country itself, which the direct descendants of the king naturally bear, their glorious name that supports the meaning of ‘I am the state,’ ‘de Blanchet.’

Originally, he should have been recorded with the name ‘Raphaël Fils de Blanchet.’ That was the name originally given to him as the legitimate son of the King and his official wife, the Queen, and as their second son. He surely had the right to be proudly called with the surname ‘de Blanchet’ attached to his name… But that had been taken away from him from the very beginning.

All because of a saint’s prophecy.

Even after that, it was a series of injustices.

From birth, Raphael was unusually granted the title of Duke of Bernadotte and came to be called ‘duc de Bernadotte.’ So, no matter how much everyone called him the Second Prince, in official records, Raphael’s name would always be written as the Duke of Bernadotte.

History, too, would remember him that way. With the name and title that made him a vassal to assist the throne from the very beginning.

As if sending their son to a private boarding school and then to a military academy, unlike other royalty, was not enough, after graduation and commissioning, they did not even have him join the honorable Royal Guard as was customary. They only entrusted him with the position of commander leading the lower-ranking guards. The King and Queen had truly and thoroughly made their second son a vassal.

Even when everyone called Raphael “Your Highness” or “Your Highness the Second Prince,” his mother never once addressed him as a prince.

Always the same, “Duke of Bernadotte.”

She called him that way, as if addressing someone other than her son. With the eyes of someone looking not at her son, but at a thief who would snatch away everything from her firstborn.

All of that piled up and accumulated in Raphael’s heart.

Growing up like that, at a certain moment, it began to feel unjust. And gradually, he no longer wanted to endure and tolerate it. That was why Raphael was sitting here now, facing Serge.

“So I, too, need the support of Duke Arthur. A connection that is very tightly bound, like a marriage.”

“Hah, really.”

Serge was dumbfounded.

“In that case, it would be better for you to have a marriage meeting with my father instead.”

If Raphael said he would, he was willing to play the role of a matchmaker. Let the two of them have a thousand-year love, no, a thousand-year alliance. Of course, he would probably get a smack on the head from his father. But if he could get rid of this delinquent, was there anything he couldn’t do? He was more than willing to bear it.

“You’re telling me. It’s just a shame that the old Duke Arthur is an alpha.”

He had a shameless face that suggested he would have proposed long ago if the Duke had not been an alpha.