I flicked a g Lo. She nodded, a slight smile on her lips, before handing me a part. The paper was rough beh my fingers, the edges uneven, like it had been torn from something rger in a hurry. I traced the surface absentmindedly before turning my attention to the beautiful, precise handwriting scrawled across it.

  “Now, let me read the finer details about what exactly the royal pany and alliance are.” I cleared my throat, shifting my stance a little. “My brilliant assistant, Lo, helped with that.” At that, I poi her.

  Lo furrowed her brows, her lips pressing into a tight line. I grinned. Ah, the face of someone deeply regretting giving me her notes. Still, I pressed forward, sing the dot and ung into the words like a proper noble. “In accordah system rules, and as a member of the ruling family of an indepe entity known as Eeleim, I found a pany, and/or, Charlie choose the correct ba—”

  I stopped. Bit my lip. From the er of my eye, Lo facepalmed so hard I could feel it in my soul. And the entire room erupted into ughter. I let out a slow exhale, shaking my head as I tried—tried—to maintain an air of dignity. “Uhm,” I said, fshing a sheepish grin. “Apologies…”

  I skimmed ahead, this time actually trying to uand the bureaucratisense Lo had prepared. “Ahem. I—as in, me, personally— found a pany and alliance, and they will be reized as legitimate for one year under system w. Because the de jure nd of the kingdom Eeleim is uhe trol of a fy—”

  I frowned. Wait. That’s me.

  “—I personally have oo either incorporate appropriate nd into Eeleim or achieve high atus. Examples include…” I let out a suffering sigh and turned my head toward Lo. “Do I really o read this?”

  She didn’t say a word. Just gred. And then motioned aggressively for me to keep going. Fair. “Okay, okay, guys, apparently, the system o hear it out loud, so buckle up!” I called out, sighing dramatically.

  The crowd ughed again, some shaking their heads, others nudging each other with amused grins. Except for the attaché. I caught him watg Lo with a weird look, but not his usual disapproval. Was that… respect? Iing. I sed ahead, looking for something that wouldn’t make me want to curl up and disappear into my chair.

  My lips curled into a grin. “Basically, I have oo firm my status—” Before I could finish, a sharp voice cut through my mind.

  “Pretender, let me out! I help!” I froze. My breath hitched just slightly.

  “Uhm.” I blinked, my focus snapping back to reality. “Apologies, guys, but… Really?”

  Rendo’s voice was serious. “Yes. Now.”

  Lo colpsed into her chair, looking like she had just aged a decade iime. Her knuckles were white, fingers clutg her quill like it was the only thing keepiethered to reality. The sheer desperation in her expression was enough to make even the most hardened warriors in the room avert their eyes, as if bearing wito a bureaucratic tragedy too great to prehend.

  She looked like she wao cry.

  Hey, it’s not my fault! This time…

  I sighed and closed my eyes, pressing my fingers against the cool surface of the relic amulet hanging from my neck. Its a inscriptions buzzed faintly under my touch, the magiside it waiting. All it took was a trickle of mana, just the barest suggestion that the prince should be here in person.

  Ay bent to my will. A pulse of silver light fred in front of the throne, like the air itself had been cut open and stitched back together. Then…

  He appeared.

  Prince Rendo stht in the ter of the room, his regal hunting armor catg the dim magic torchlight, its dark green and gold ats gleaming faintly. For half a sed, there was stunned silence, a heartbeat of absolute stillness, before the guards reacted.

  Steel sang as swords left their scabbards. A dozen bdes were drawn, poiraight at him. And it wasn’t just the guards.

  Some of the more cautious pyers were already positioning themselves defensively, hands h over ons and wands, while others—like Stha—just watched in fasation, their gazes flig between me and Rendo like they were waiting to see how much chaos would unfold.

  “Wait, wait!” I hurriedly raised my hands, stepping forward before things could escate. “He’s… invited!” There ause.

  Then, slowly, the tension eased, swords l, but not before the attaché shot me a gre so sharp it could have filed down steel. Prince Rendo, for his part, simply bowed toward me, a smooth, trolled motion, exuding that casual, effortless arrogahat only true royalty could pull off.

  Theurned, his eyes sing the gathered crowd, making sure they all saw him clearly. I sighed, running a hand through my hair, before f a grin. “Uhm… let me introduce you all to Prince Rendo.”

  A few murmurs rippled through the room. The title alone had weight, but most of them were still processing the fact that a royal had just materialized out of thin air. “He’s been helpihe past few days to… gather things,” I added, throwing in just enough vagueo keep things iing.

  Then, before he could get too smug about it, I strode dowform and promptly spped the back of his head.

  A sharp smack.

  Another round of ughter. Rendo gave me a look of pure offense, but I was already turning away, hopping back up to my throne before he could retaliate. With posed dignity, he adjusted his posture before addressing the room.

  “As the princess says, I am temporarily staying with her.” His voice was smooth, perfectly measured, the kind of to to be heard in courts, not battlefields. “Until the battle you all anticipate is finished, I shall remain.” His gaze swept over the gathered crowd, lingering just slightly on the imperial attaché, who was now visibly fuming, though still silent. “After that,” Rendo tinued, “I hope to depart. But until then…”

  He turned. And walked straight toward Lo. Lo stiffened as he approached, her hands tightening around her part, her expression caught somewhere between wariness and fusion.

  Then, with formal precision, Rendo stopped in front of her, pced a hand over his chest, and decred, “in the name of my nation, as a prince, I reize the cim of Princess Charlie.” His voice was measured, ceremonial. “I reize her as… a pretender.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  In the back of the room, Stha had turned, deep in versation with a young man, but something in their exge shifted, and suddenly the guy called the guards.

  An argument broke out. As if the chaos in the room had given everyone permission to start causing their own problems, a few other disputes started rising in volume and the entire room erupted into chaos. Some people were shouting at each other, arguing over the meaning of prince’s words, while others were already talking in hushed, frantic whispers, likely trying to figure out how this ged everything.

  I massaged my temples.

  “We’ll tier we sort this out!” I yelled over the crowd, trying to cut through the hat got some people to pause, though most were still engaged in whatever newly-formed debate they had tched onto. “Thank you for your patience!” I added, trying to sound at least halfway sincere.

  Meanwhile

  Lunaris was running.

  I barely caught sight of her weaving through the crowd, but before I could even wonder why—

  I spotted Rob chasing after her. I exhaled sharply through my nose. Had he seriously tried to ask her out the same way he did with me? I didn’t even need an answer.

  I already knew.

  With a long-suffering sigh, I turned back toward Rendo and Lo, who were now standihe table stacked with dots.

  Time to figure out what the hell just happened.

  “Rendo,” I said, my voice turning dangerously cold, letting just a hint of Irwen’s authority bleed into my tone. His smug expression didn’t waver, but I saw the slight twitch of his shoulders, the way his fiightened just a fra. “I am not a pretender.”

  Before he could answer, Lo practically vibrated o me. “Lady, this is a good thing!” she burst out, her tone an absolute trast to the sheer despair she had been drowning in mere minutes ago.

  I turned, blinking at her suddehusiasm. She looked like she had just been hahe Imperial Treasury and told ta. “You are reized as a preteo the Eeleim throne!”

  I groaned, rubbing my temples. “Why is that a good thing?”

  Lo lit up even more. “The bonuses are eveer!” Her voice sped up as she practically vibrated with excitement. “And you could be a Queen!”

  Lo leaned in, her eyes gleaming, practically sparkling with ambition. “Irwen is the current Queen of six different kingdoms, right?” she tinued, words tumbling over each other. “That means you—” She grabbed a nearby part, flipping to a detailed set of notes I hadn’t even seen her write. “You cim one of those titles for yourself!” She looked up at me, breathless. “Lady, you could be a Queen!”

  Before I could process that insanity, Rendo let out a soft, knowing chuckle. “You’re a preteruly,” he said, his smile just a bit too pleased with himself. “Sihe day I met you.”

  I exhaled sharply, crossing my arms. “Okay, my lovely helpers.” I eyed both of them, leveling them with a poiare. “Even if I wao, I ’t just decre myself Queen ihe empire, I?”

  Lo hesitated.

  I raised a brow.

  She sighed. “Duchess first. Then… maybe find nd big enough to cim a kingdom.”

  I gestured. “Exactly.”

  But instead of discement, I saw something else spark in her eyes—something that made me just a little bit ed. Determination. Pure, unshakable determination. “We do it.” Her voice was steady, sure, filled with a kind of vi I wasn’t sure even I had.

  “As long as you hold the title of princess, we work toward it.” She straightened her back, standing taller, her quill tapping against the table like a judge’s gavel. “And thanks to Prince Rendnition of your cim, the bonuses for your pany and alliance are now doubled.”

  I grinned. I liked this side of her. Without thinking, I stepped forward and hugged her. Lo stiffened. Like, full-on statue mode. I felt the way her shoulders locked, her quill still clutched like a lifelihen, awkwardly, she patted my bace, twice—before I let go.

  I pulled bad smirked. “Lo, you have more ambition than me.”

  Her face flushed deep red. She cleared her throat, straightening her papers in a way that was entirely unnecessary. “I always wao be a Kingmaker.” She paused. “Or… Queenmaker.” Another pause. Then, under her breath, as if admitting it was a crime, “I might have… pnned for this kind of thing before.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but she was already shaking her head, pivoting back to the prince. “But, sir, how did you even e here?”

  I sighed, reag over and smag Rendo on the head again.

  A solid th.

  He let out a dramatic sigh, rubbing the spot, his expression deeply wounded—as if I had just gravely offended his royal dignity. “This joker is my ring,” I said simply.

  Lo froze mid-aking, her quill h over the page. She narrowed her eyes. Then she slowly, deliberately, poihe quill at us. “What do you mean, he is a ring?”

  I grinned. “You see… there was this ring…” I unched into a very vague version of the story, vely leaving out some morally questioails about my acquisitions of wealth.

  Lo listened, her expression shifting from curiosity to bafflement to deep, deep exasperation. By the end of it, she just buried her fa her hands.

  I patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ll get used to it.”

  From her muffled groan, I could tell she strongly disagreed.

  “Are the bonuses perma?” I asked, shifting gears as smoothly as I could. “I mean, Rendo or I take them back?” I leaned forward slightly, arms crossed. “Except for kig them out of the alliance, of course.”

  Lo let out a slow, practiced breath, the kind she used when dealing with a particurly tedious report. She tilted her head back, her quill tapping lightly against the table, before finally responding. “Yes, they are.” Her tone was steady, but the weight of the answer was clear. “You have oo somehow bee a tess. Or better—” she met my gaze. “A Duchess or a Queen.”

  I nodded, reag out to pat her shoulder, feeling the tension coiled beh her clerk uniform. Then, with a sigh, I turned away, heading back toward the throne. My heels echoed against the stone floor, each step measured, but inside, I was still burning with irritation.

  As I walked, I cast a gre at Rendo, my frustration at his royal meddling still very much alive and well. He had the audacity to smirk, as if utterly unbothered by my silent fury. Typical.

  I bit down my annoyand instead, inhaled deeply, stepping onto the raised ptform. Then, I let it rip. “GUYS!” My voied, cutting through the st remnants of scattered versations. All heads soward me.

  Good.

  My voice carried across the vast chamber. “I will first appoint my personal guards.” My gaze swept over them, pig out the faces I reized.

  Luminaria, standihe edge, her arms crossed as she studied me, calg. NightSwallow, still lounging with her air of detached amusement, but her fiapped idly against her belt. Stha, who was still half-distracted, but perked up at my words.

  They were watg. Waiting.

  I smirked. Time to reel them in. “After that, I will call on ead every one of you.” I let my gaze drift across the crowd, lingering on guild leaders, lone adventurers, the oill weighing their choices.

  “And ask—Do you want to join my alliah yuild?” A few heads tilted, pyers exging gnces, calg the implications. “Or do you want to join my pany? Which, in a year, will be turned into something akin to a guild, with me as the guild leader. Both has bonuses, and I will lend you a powerful item as long you are a member.”

  That got their attention. Some leaned forward, others crossed their arms, the wheels already turning. This wasn’t just a call to arms. This was a foundation being id. “So, let’s begin!”