Something was disconcerting.

Lorian thought so.

The plan had worked.

The number of people allowed to enter the city had also been elevated.

As desired, all nobles were being allowed to enter the city. Instead, the number of escorts assorted to each person; the retainers they could bring with was reduced to two, but that was no big issue.

What mattered, and important was that they all came together.

Pretending to sympathize and stealthily unpacking and distributing the ration supply was also successful. With their overwhelming quantity and quality, it would not be a that hard task to capture the food flow of the city.

And to seize the food flow in crumbling, starving cities like these was to seize power.

From that perspective, in retrospect, the toll negotiations were an advantageous happenstance for them.

Because time was on their side.

‘…Strange.’

It was nice that the plan had worked out faithfully.

But it had worked out… too well.

Like puzzle pieces fitting together…

The doubt that kept gnawing at his heart was largely resolved the moment he entered Lupus.

‘The damage is more serious than expected.’

The streets were lined with beggars begging for just a quarter penny, the sight was aggravating for anyone to believe it was the Capital City of a Kingdom.

‘They must be horribly starving.’

To the point they fought and devoured the apple he gave out to the core, even the seeds.

Then what he ought to do was simple.

All he would have to do was to make the apples so sweet they wouldn’t realise they were swallowing poison.

Yes, that was it.

Then he can…

Something stuck.

‘Why? What’s the matter?’

Lorian, who continued to think, immediately recalled the conversation he had with Cloud at the camp.

He had apparently came out in the middle of writing a letter.

‘Why had he been writing a letter?’

Maybe the letter could be a variable.

Lorian, who wanted to thoroughly prune out the variable from the plan, stuck next to Cloud and quietly inquired.

“Oh, that? Frillite.”

He answered airily, to the extent as if Lorian was vain to ask about it.

“Right. My apologies for being intrusive…”

It was so airily that he almost slipped by.

‘Wait.’

Lorian’s steps stalled.

“…what did you just say? A letter to whom?”

“Did you not hear? It’s a letter to Frillite.”

Was it an illusion that Cloud subtlety brightened mentioning Frillite?

No. In the grand scheme of things, that didn’t credit importance. For now.

Lorian frowned and criticized.

“Why are you writing a letter to Frillite? You should know she is very busy. The time to get your letter—”

“I know, she’s busy. But if you receive a letter, you have to write a reply in regard out of courtesy, Prince Lorian.”

Thud! Lorian felt his heart drop.

“The letter… you got it..? You got..? From her..?”

His voice, which had not been affected even in the freezing battle of wills, quivered violently.

It was gibberish.

Frillite had said she had never written a letter to anyone. When she needed to send a letter, she had someone else ghostwrite it.

She couldn’t have written a letter to this man…

“Really. Wanna see?”

Cloud pulled out a parchment of paper from his bosom.

It was a letter envelope.

Treated with such great care that even the sealing wax used to seal the letter still adorned the letter.

“Look. Isn’t it real?”

He tapped the center of the wax seal with his index finger.

The motif stamped in the center of the wax was a crest Lorian knew well.

How could he not.

It was the family crest of the woman he loved.

Lorian tipped his head forward.

He couldn’t believe it.

He just didn’t want to believe it.

However, no matter how much he denied reality, it didn’t mean that nothing had happened.

He had to admit.

Frillite wrote her first letter.

Not to Lorian, but to Cloud.

His heart ached and eyes watered.

He bit his lower lip to fight back the pooling tears from dripping, but it was not enough to stop the blood that trickled down his heart.

Tuk. Tuk.

Tears fell drop by drop, soaking the floor.

‘Why… only do the likes of you always decorate her first memories?’

After light skinship and drinks, now even a letter.

What was next?

Just imagining it makes his heart rattle painfully.

“What? Why are you like this?”

Cloud’s voice sounded flustered.

Bastard.

He clearly knew about Lorian’s adoration and love for Frillite, considering the smirk he showed Lorian the other day; but was now pretending to be naive. Disgusting bastard.

‘Wait, does he…?’

Lorian’s head whirred quickly as he recalled the past.

When talking in the tent, Cloud was sarcastic and intoned his words in a pulling tone.

Lorian thought it was just psychological warfare he was using to take the lead in the conversation.

But what if it was not?

What if it was just groundwork for mentioning the letter rather than a psychological warfare?

“Hey, are you really crying?”

Lorian raised his head.

He saw Cloud’s face desperately suppressing a crackling laugh.

“You son of a b!tch!”

Lorian couldn’t hold it in any longer and threw out his fist.