Side Story 22: The Victory Parade and Tea Party (4)

Having all of us happily sampled the jam together, the atmosphere finally settled down. I, Cecilia, felt as though I could finally relax a little.

Looking at Queen Rerence again, I found myself entranced by her beauty. It was impossible to believe she had two children.

"Oh my, is something the matter?"

Noticing my gaze, Queen Rerence asked me what was wrong, and I hurriedly replied, "No, I was just thinking how beautiful you are."

"Oh, thank you," Queen Rerence said with a giggle, which only made her beauty stand out even more.

"Of course. There's even a legend that King Zeurasia fell in love with Rerence-sama at first sight and spent an entire month visiting her parents' home to woo her."

Lapiria-sama's words made perfect sense to me. I see. If I were trying to woo someone as beautiful as this, I would probably keep going for a year, not merely a month.

"Oh, Lapiria, that's an exaggeration. He only visited for about ten days at most."

"Is that so? Come to think of it, I feel like the number of days he spent visiting keeps increasing every year."

As these royal jokes flew back and forth—though I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to laugh—Queen Rerence brought the conversation back around...