Maynard put on an exaggerated display of blinking at Lutiya’s straightforward question.

“Me?  Surely you’re not suspecting me of being the culprit.  I arrived in Raelm last night.”
“You alighted at some place called the Dragon Burial Flower Field.  And that’s in the inner palace.  Natalie was also attacked in the inner palace.  No way that’s just a coincidence.”
“Unfortunately, it really is a coincidence.  So it was like that… Natalie was in the inner palace.”
“To begin with, why did you land in place like that?  You’re supposed to be the goodwill ambassador.  You weren’t meeting someone there?”
“Wrong.  It was that time of night.  I merely thought landing there wouldn’t cause a commotion.”
“As if that excuse will work!  If Jill-sensei hadn’t been there, Natalie and Frieda both might have been hurt!  Answer honestly—”

“What about the dragon you rode here?”

Maynard turned toward Hades with a look of surprise at those words.  That’s an unguarded expression, Hades thought as he continued questioning him.

“Didn’t you land there because you didn’t want that dragon to be seen by other people?”

Not pursuing that dragon immediately after it failed to answer Rave had been a mistake, but their attention had been drawn by Maynard.  Then, by the time Rave flew off to search for it, after receiving Maynard’s greeting, it was already nowhere to be seen.  The dragons around the imperial capital had also been asked, but not even they had seen it.

Paradoxically, it probably had not gone very far, but the fact that it had suddenly vanished without a trace was unsettling.  Moreover, it not answering Rave brought to mind the dragons that had rampaged in the Grand Duchy of Laica.

The existence of a dragon that didn’t obey the Dragon God or the Dragon Emperor went against logic.

And something contrary to reason concerned Rave’s divinity.

“…The truth is, I was meeting someone.  I can’t say who, though.”

Whether he wanted to hide the matter of the dragon, or whether he truly was meeting someone, his reply skillfully muddled suspicion.  This man truly is good at evasion.

“Well then, I suppose it’s about time I took my leave.  I’ve been doing nothing but traveling, going from Laica, to Kratos, to Raelm.  —Ah, and no need to worry.  I’ll obediently stay in the room you prepared for me.”

Maynard set his fully drained cup onto the saucer and smiled.

“Let me know once the time for the audience has been decided.  Of course, if you’ll allow me to meet with Prince Gerald, I’ll gladly accept.  Although, the only thing I really have to speak with him about is to inform him of the queen’s accession. Speaking of which, has Prince Gerald been told about the queen?”
“…”
“Well then, we’ve said everything we can say to each other.”
“—My grandfather, the Grand Duke of Laica… why did he die?”

Maynard, just before he could stand, looked at Lutiya.

“Did you kill him?  I’ve also heard that no one knows where Natalie’s mother… The former imperial consort Cornelia, is.  Was that your doing too?”

Maynard’s cheeks relaxed into a mocking smile.

“—How surprising.  Is there really any room to think it wasn’t me?”
“That isn’t an answer!”
“It was me.”

Lutiya was about to press the matter further but fell silent.  He was more than a bit shocked.  Hades sighed at Lutiya, who was, when all was said and done, innocent.

“Are you satisfied now?  If there is anything else, don’t hesitate to speak to me.”
“But Ludger-aniue doesn’t believe it.”

This time, Maynard was the one who fell silent.

“Arnolt-aniue, was it?  He said something like, “He isn’t the sort of guy who’d ruin what that man was striving toward.’”
“…  That man is as naïve as ever.  It’s why he could discard his right of succession to the throne without a second thought.”

Maynard’s eyebrows came together in displeasure as he turned on his heels.  Vissel, without turning away from the table, called out to his back.

“Please, make yourself comfortable during your stay.  I’d like to see the expression you’ll make when you greet Listeard.”
“What a coincidence.”

Maynard smiled back as he placed his hand on the door handle.

“I’m also looking forward to seeing what sort of expression that child will make when he greets me back after I offer my condolences.”

Maynard let his long hair trail behind him as he left the room. Lutiya stood up.

“I’m… accompanying him to his room.”
“The people form Noitral are watching over him.  Don’t do anything unnecessary.”
“But I might find something out.”

Vissel did not stop his youngest younger brother from leaving the room at those words.  Hades reached for his now cold tea.

“He’s a clever one.  He sees through exactly how we’re going to respond.”
“His personality is the worst, though.  The Rave Empire was said to have two pillars… and he was one of them.”

The other pillar was probably Arnolt.

“If that person were to become our ally, would Vissel-aniue be saved?”
“You don’t need to think about unnecessary things, Hades.  That guy may as well be poison.  Stay away from him.”

Vissel cut the matter off with a tone harder than usual.  Hades let out a long breath as he relaxed his shoulders.

Dealing with Kratos, informing them to the queen’s ascension, and handling Prince Gerald—Maynard’s proposal almost completely overlapped with the compromises that Hades and the others had been seeking for getting through the immediate situation.  That he hadn’t, apparently, come for the purpose of waging all-out war was also a positive development.

“I suppose we’ll have to set the matter of that dragon aside for now…”
“Yeah.  I told Rho to stay alert too, and the other dragons are keeping watch.”

Perhaps it was because there were fewer people around, but Rave was boldly munching cake from a dessert plate.  Not only had Maynard come, they had no idea what was happening in the inner palace, nor could they predict what would become of the Dragon Flower Crown Festival.  Problems were piling up, but he was quite comfortable.

“There’s also Jill’s reputation to worry about… I wonder if there’s a way to resolve everything in one go.”
“That is the Dragon Consort’s responsibility.  If the Dragon Consort fails, all the fault can be pushed onto her.”
“Except, aren’t half of those rumors about Jill emptying the food of a storage facility Vissel-aniue’s responsibility?  You intentionally overlooked them.”

Vissel looked at Hades with a wry smile.

“As they say, if there’s no fire, then there’s no smoke.  Now then, it’s about time for the meeting.  We’ll run what we just discussed with the Three Dukes.  After that will be lunch, the costume fitting, and then we’ll go over the parade procedures.”
“Then… Jill will be joining us starting this afternoon?”

Jill had been harassed last time.  As Hades worried they might end up missing each other again, the corners of Vissel’s mouth curled upward.

“Whether you’ll be able to meet is still a question.  At any rate, let’s see what the Dragon Consort is capable of.”

He wore the unmistakable expression of a father-in-law bullying his daughter-in-law.  It looked like the costume fitting would end with them missing each other again.

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