Serena Raksasia only stayed silent for a moment in the atmosphere that had frozen over in an instant, then awkwardly smiled.
"Ah... What I mean is, if I'm being honest about what I think of Marquis Palatio, I was trying to say that I wouldn't go so far as to call him revolting."
After finishing that, she let out a sigh of relief inwardly at what she considered, even by her own standards, an impressively excellent escape from disaster—
Unfortunately, the faces of Yutia and Rine as they looked at her were completely expressionless.
And so, after sitting in silence, Serena said,
"...Honestly, Teach— no, I mean, isn't the Marquis not the kind of face you'd call revolting?"
"Yes, yes! Of course I think so too. Actually, if you look at him objectively, the Marquis is handsome."
She nodded fervently, as if agreeing with Yutia's words.
They said words, once spoken, couldn't be taken back, but she still felt that this statement had at least smoothed things over.
However.
"Godfather is... handsome?"
"Yes, yes."
"Didn't you say a moment ago that he was ugly?"
"Ah."
The moment Rine brought up what she had just said, the atmosphere turned icy again.
Seeing their faces begin filling with suspicion once more, the princess let out a low gasp.
"No, I mean— if I organize what I was trying to say, I only meant that while he is on the handsome side, he doesn't feel all that attractive to me personally."
"So you're saying you admit the Marquis is handsome, just not attractive to you."
Then what was that earlier about liking handsome men?
So you were lying? The two of them looked at Serena like that.
Serena immediately tried to argue back, but—
"No, it's not that he seems all that handsome to me—"
"Aha— so Godfather is ugly and revolting...?"
This time you're insulting the Marquis that badly?
He's not that bad.
I'm feeling very offended right now. With the two of them wearing exactly those expressions, Serena's vision went dark.
Because she realized it.
She had fallen into a life-or-death forced choice.
"No, that's not it. Objectively speaking, he is handsome, but he's just not the kind of handsome that matches my taste."
"So in the end, the Marquis is handsome?"
"Th-that's right."
"Didn't you say handsome men are your type??"
"No, I mean, handsome men are my type, but— Marquis Palatio's personality isn't all that good, so—"
"Ah, so Godfather's personality isn't very good?"
"Ah......"
She desperately kept throwing out excuses in a frantic attempt to survive.
But in the end, the conversation only circled back to the same point over and over again.
That day—
"Now then, listen carefully, Princess. Teacher's title of 'Kalannon' is—"
"Yes... yes......"
Serena received a very thorough education from Yutia and Rine on exactly why Marquis Palatio was handsome, admirable, and great.
...From late at night until the sun rose.
A little more time passed, and now there was one day left until the proclamation ceremony.
The Palatio marquisate was filled with famous figures to an extent without precedent.
There were, for starters, the two kings who formed the backbone of the Allied Kingdoms.
And below them, countless important figures from duchies had gathered to congratulate Alon on his enthronement.
"Brother!"
"Nangwon, it's been a while."
"Yes, Brother, have you been well?"
"Has your sister been doing well?"
"Yes. Since the situation is what it is, she couldn't come with me, but she's doing well."
"That's good to hear."
"Then since you're busy, I'll regretfully stop with just my greetings and step back here. It looks like quite a lot of people are waiting to see you."
"Thank you for being considerate."
"I'll come see you again after the proclamation ceremony!"
Watching Nangwon leave the office brightly, Alon let out a quiet sigh, and Evan, standing beside him, spoke up.
"There are a lot of people gathering."
"There are."
"At this point, honestly, it'd probably be faster to count the people who didn't come than the people who did."
"...That's true."
Alon nodded.
Evan was right. With only one day left until the proclamation ceremony, among the people Alon had some degree of connection with, it really would be quicker to look for the ones who had not come.
'The only ones who didn't come are Seollang and Karsemm, maybe...'
Of course, Alon did not feel disappointed that they had not come.
In the first place, with Divine blood running wild like this, just coming here at all was difficult.
On top of that, Colony was still in recovery, and Seollang might still not have healed from the injuries from the last battle against Divine blood.
"...Evan."
"Yes, Marquis."
After thinking that far, Alon called for Evan.
"Have there been any updates about Seollang, by any chance?"
"Seollang? ...Ah, come to think of it, you did ask me to tell you right away if there was any news about Seollang, didn't you?"
When Alon nodded, Evan searched his memory for a moment.
"Mm— as far as I know, there hasn't been any special news. Actually, I heard Seollang's doing well."
"...Really?"
"Ah, though maybe because of the injuries, Seollang hasn't been coming out of the room very often."
"I see."
When Alon immediately accepted that, Evan tilted his head.
"But Marquis, is something going on with Seollang?"
"Why?"
"You seem to have been paying attention to Seollang a lot lately."
At that, Alon thought for a moment.
"It's not that. There's just something that's been bothering me."
"Something bothering you?"
"There is."
With that, the short conversation came to an end. Evan, who had looked puzzled for a moment, suddenly went Ah! as something came to mind, then asked,
"Marquis, now that I think about it, how was yesterday?"
"...Yesterday?"
"Yes, you had dinner with the princess of Raksas, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Did anything happen?"
Evan asked with an oddly expectant look in his eyes.
But at that look, Alon immediately shook his head.
"Nothing happened."
"...Huh? Really?"
"Yes. If anything—"
"If anything...?"
"It was a little... strange."
"...In what way?"
At Evan's curious question, Alon paused for a moment before speaking.
"...It was like......"
"Like...?"
"Like she'd been brainwashed, maybe......"
"...? Brainwashed?"
At Evan's dumbfounded question, Alon briefly recalled what had happened yesterday.
There was not really much to recall.
After all, the number of words they had exchanged over the meal had been very small.
It was just that, from Alon's point of view, those few words had left a strong impression.
'Does the food suit your taste?'
'Yes, it's truly delicious. As expected of the food at the Palatio marquisate, it's really delicious.'
'...Thank you for the compliment.'
'No, it's not a compliment, I mean it sincerely. The food at the Palatio marquisate really is delicious. Also, I like the scenery of the marquisate, and I really like your statue too. And I also believe that you are a god.'
Recalling the conversation he had had with her yesterday, Alon thought,
'...What on earth was that?'
At first, he had thought, Is she making fun of me?
But when he looked more closely—
Serena yesterday had looked exactly like one of those foreign superstar celebrities who came to Korea to promote a movie and mechanically recited, without a trace of soul, "I love kimchi, I love BTS, Son Heungmin is the best."
"...Well, something like that."
Alon brushed it off.
"I see."
At that, Evan shrugged and let go of the curiosity he still had, smoothly changing the subject.
"Still, tomorrow's finally the proclamation ceremony."
"It is."
"To be honest, it still doesn't feel real that you're becoming a king, Marquis."
Alon felt the same way.
His dream had never been to become a noble, let alone a king. It had simply been to save the Five Sins and then live an easy, leisurely life in Rodmil.
'How did things even end up like this...?'
After blankly staring for a moment at the darkened sky, Alon answered,
"To be honest, I feel the same."
"Are you going to sleep early tonight?"
"Well, that would probably be best. The proclamation ceremony... starts in the morning?"
"Yes. I checked through Alexion and Sili, and it'll probably be over around the time it gets past noon."
Alon nodded silently, then suddenly remembered something.
"Ah, come to think of it, have all the crowns been finished?"
He was asking because he had heard before that Sili, Alexion, and Deus were making the crown. At the question, Evan let out a small ah.
"Ah, as for the crown, I heard they're going to use the one they already made for now."
"...The one they already made...? Then doesn't that mean it's done?"
"It does, but they said they wanted to make a crown that suits you even better, Marquis."
"...A crown that suits me?"
"Yes. Apparently that's caused a bit of a delay."
"Mm......"
Alon might not have worried if it had just been Alexion, but with Sili's name in the mix, he almost reached up and held his head from an inexplicable sense of unease.
Still—
"Ah, but they said not to worry too much."
"About what part?"
"They said that even if the crown isn't finished, all the preparations for a splendid proclamation ceremony are already complete."
"...A splendid proclamation ceremony?"
"Yes."
"What exactly did they prepare?"
"I don't really know either, but apparently everyone prepared something one by one. Since it's your proclamation ceremony, Marquis, it seems everyone wanted to prepare something."
At Evan's words, which came one after another before Alon even had time to process them, his sense of unease only deepened for some reason.
"...I'll keep that in mind for now."
Even so, if people had prepared things for his sake, it wasn't as though he could tell them not to do it. So Alon only gave a small nod and ended the conversation.
And then, just as Alon left the office to go to bed—
In one of the many annexes of the marquisate,
"Brother."
"Sili."
Deus and Sili were talking.
"So, did you finish checking everything?"
"Yes."
"What about problems?"
"Not a single one. Most likely, there won't be any problems at all."
At Deus, who nodded firmly as if telling her to trust him, Sili smiled in relief.
Then—
"That's good. There can't be any problems during the proclamation ceremony."
With that, she turned her gaze toward the statue.
Toward the giant statue standing in the middle of Palatio territory.
The morning of the proclamation ceremony.
"Hoo—"
Perhaps because he had gone to bed early yesterday, Alon woke earlier than usual.
He petted Blackie once, where it had fallen asleep purring near his face, then got out of bed and pulled back the curtains as he always did.
"Mm......"
The view of the marquisate visible through the brilliant sunlight looked no different than usual.
The territory visible beyond the outer walls was as lively as ever.
And the sunlight pouring down seemed to breathe life into the entire territory.
Also, the statue standing in the middle of that territory looked just the same as always—
Did it...?
"...Hm?"
Blankly staring at the view, Alon turned naturally to look at the statue, something he had almost regarded as part of the landscape.
His statue was still standing there.
But even in his half-awake state, he realized without difficulty that the stone statue was different from yesterday.
No, there was no way he could not realize it.
Because the statue's pose had changed.
It had gone from that northern governor pose to an ordinary stance with both arms lowered.
At the unexpectedly more subdued(?) change, Alon was briefly bewildered, but—
"...Huh?"
He saw it.
The statue's hand was slowly rising.
And then, like some giant machine you would only ever see at an amusement park, the statue's hand rose higher.
Soon it lifted into a pose like it was summoning some dark black flame dragon—
Fwaaaash—!!
Blue light burst out, and blue lightning began to gather.
Alon let go of the curtain in his hand.
Shrrrk—
The curtain fell shut again.
[...Kkyu?]
At some point, Blackie had climbed onto Alon's shoulder, its eyes wide in surprise.
Seeing that, Alon naturally recalled what Evan had said.
'They said that even if the crown isn't finished, all the preparations for a splendid proclamation ceremony are already complete.'
Without a word, he ran a hand down his face.
He had only just woken up, but that strange sense of unease wrapped around Alon all over again.

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