.jpg)
The moderately warm autumn sunlight shattered over the woman's pale blonde hair. Under the rays of a color similar to her own, this woman did not seem quite so fragile.
The woman who came to him because of his frail father acted as if she could understand the man. A father whom even his own son did not understand.
If he told her that this marriage was the result of blackmail, he felt as though she would only ask back if such a thing could even be considered blackmail. Ironically.
Without realizing it, Ray gazed at his wife for a long time.
A woman who came from a place free from everything that distracted him during meetings.
* * *
Inside the carriage returning to the Crawford estate, Rose pondered for a while before asking.
“Is a war really going to break out?”
Until she had heard the story from Mr. Marcel, she hadn't given it much thought, but seeing that even the King and the Prince were worried, she began to feel anxious.
Above all, the King and the Prince spoke as if they had no choice other than war.
The man, who had been staring out the window in silence, slowly turned his head.
Perhaps because of the white dress uniform jacket, his features looked sharper and more emphasized than usual.
“Since His Highness is also worried... he said that if we consider the honor of Orturan, we must participate.”
“It is simply a matter of whether Ladan chooses war or not. If the party involved does not wage war, Orturan has no need to do so either.”
The man spoke in a businesslike tone, as if he were sitting at a negotiation table.
“I suppose so, right? Since you are the Foreign Minister, you are probably the only one who can actually persuade Ladan.”
Reassured by his usual demeanor, Rose was able to respond in a much lighter tone.
Tensions between Ladan and Cuetra had been rising for quite some time, and the fact that it hadn't yet spiraled into war seemed to be thanks to Ray Crawford.
While most of the Orturan people she met hoped Ray would return to the battlefield to elevate the name of Orturan once more, he was using everything at his disposal to prevent the war.
“But actually, I don't quite understand,” Rose murmured unconsciously.
It was a question that had been following her ever since she heard the King and Prince discussing the war at length.
In the last war, Ladan had seized one of Cuetra's islands as proof of victory. It had been Ladan's territory in the very distant past, but it had long since passed to Cuetra.
She had heard that the psychological warfare with Cuetra began again once Ladan started forcing the people living on that island to convert and treated them cruelly.
As soon as Rose heard that, a question arose, but she hadn't dared to speak up.
“Couldn't they just give the island back to Cuetra? The people living there probably consider themselves Cuetrans anyway and believe in the Cuetran religion.”
However, she could ask Ray. Since this man already thought of her as a strange woman, she had nothing left to lose. And he wouldn't report her remarks to the newspapers.
“Even if I gave such advice to Ladan, he would not listen,” Ray replied with a lukewarm attitude.
“Of course he wouldn't listen because it's 'advice.' No one ever listens to advice anyway.”
In Bolton, where children who didn't listen to their parents were everywhere, advice was particularly meaningless. That was why Rose's mother had threatened her children with a deathbed will.
“He would listen if he were pressured by other countries as well.”
“Pressured? What do you mean by that?”
His clean, handsome face frowned.
“You could just talk with Antaka and Planto. Tell them to just give the island back. If three out of the four allied nations say so, surely he wouldn't ignore it.”
Ray stared at Rose in silence for a long time; he didn't look like he was ignoring her, but rather like someone who completely failed to understand her words.
Just as Rose was about to check if she had accidentally misspoke in the Orturan language, he slowly opened his mouth.
“...Are you suggesting, right now, that we break the alliance?”
His attitude was full of suspicion, as if he believed there was no way Rose could have meant it that way.
“Yes.”
Because Ray's reaction was so baffling, Rose let her bewilderment show plainly.
“Then wouldn't that solve the whole problem?”
The expression that appeared on Ray's face at that moment was truly one she had seen for the first time since their marriage.
He looked at Rose with a grave face, as if he had heard something he shouldn't have. As if Rose had just said something insane.
He hadn't made such a face even when she cursed or threw a comb.
Looking at his expression, it wouldn't have been strange if he had immediately asked her if she was in her right mind, but he simply stared at Rose for a long while before turning his head back toward the window.
Then, he said nothing more.
Because of that, Rose had to spend the entire journey back to the estate wondering what she had said wrong.
* * *
That night, Ray visited Rose's bedroom.
Rose, who had been leaning against the center of the large bed reading an Orturan novel lent to her by Beth, had to move to the left because of the unannounced intruder.
He seemed intent on acting out the role of a couple sharing a bed at least once every two weeks.
Since they wouldn't actually have relations anyway, she intended to keep reading regardless of whether he slept or not, but Ray did not lie down upon entering the bed; instead, he leaned back and sat beside her.
Wondering what he was doing, she glanced at him and saw Ray, draped in a dark green robe, simply staring at her. Caught by that persistent gaze, Rose faced him.
Over his appearance in the dark green robe, the image of him running across the training ground earlier today in a khaki shirt that exposed his chest overlapped.
It was still hard to believe they were the same person.
“...Do you have something to say?”
Feeling burdened by the gaze, Rose eventually spoke first.
He didn't answer immediately.
It was a long while later that he finally spoke.
“What you said earlier.”
His characteristically low voice seemed to sink even deeper at night.
“Did you truly mean that we should break the alliance?”
“Yes. We can just abandon Ladan.”
As if it were nothing.
Rose answered the trivial question with equal indifference and turned her gaze back to the book.
“Is that such a difficult thing?”
She asked, wondering if he had some weakness that Ladan held over him, but a short laugh escaped him beside her.
“Do you perhaps... not know what an alliance means?”
Baffled by the indirect criticism, Rose turned her head.
He was the one asking the same question over and over, so how could he say such a thing?
“Why? Does the word 'alliance' in Orturan include the meaning of 'eternal'? That once you make one, you can never break it?”
Rose eventually sighed and set the book down on the nightstand.
“I asked because I really don't know. I wondered if there was any reason other than loyalty for maintaining this alliance.”
The expression from the carriage returned to Ray's face. An expression as if he couldn't believe her words.
“Justification and honor are important. Without those, I don't know if trust between nations can be maintained in the future. How would Ladan, or other countries, perceive Orturan?”
“There would be practical benefits,” Rose answered nonchalantly.
“Ladan might feel slighted, but they'll come looking for us again once they need something from Orturan.”
The man stared at her in silence again. Even in his expressionless face, she could feel a silent condemnation asking how she could say such a thing, and only then did Rose realize something.
“...I think I understand why you all hate Bolton so much.”
As a small nation, Bolton had always avoided conflict as much as possible.
Since some of its territory had once belonged to Orturan, there had been times when they were close, but that was a long time ago, and such history was not important to the current Bolton.
There was absolutely no reason to take Orturan's side just because Orturan was fighting with Antaka.
An attitude that prioritized survival over the past only fueled Orturan's anger, and the relationship grew more distant.
“No, it's not like Antaka, whom you now call an ally, was an ally from the start,” Rose spoke up again, suddenly feeling it was unfair.
“Wasn't the war General Hamilton—the maternal grandfather of the Duke—fought, a war against Antaka? I heard he became a hero by sweeping the Antakans away at sea. Yet you get along just fine with Ambassador Antaka.”
“That was over fifty years ago.”
“You fought with Antaka whenever you were bored even before then. And you criticized Bolton for not taking your side. If a relationship of over a hundred years of fighting can suddenly become an alliance, why can't we abandon Ladan?”
It wasn't just a matter between Antaka and Orturan. The nations of this continent had engaged in armed conflicts with each other whenever they felt like it.
The years they had spent pretending to be one friendly union were not that long.
“Even if we could break the alliance, leaving Cuetra unchecked is dangerous. We are connected, and if we give up the island Ladan worked so hard to seize, it could serve as a signal. It would give Cuetra the impression that we are weak.”
“Then if Cuetra picks a fight with Orturan, that's when you go to war. If there's something worth protecting, you should protect it.”
Before Ray could say anything, Rose quickly continued.
“But my point is, is there actually anything to protect right now? Shouldn't we avoid it as long as we can? Honestly, that island wasn't even necessary for Ladan. It seemed like he pushed himself to take it just for the sake of his pride.”
.jpg)