“Your Majesty. I have a request.”
“…What might that be?” I asked.
“If it is at all possible, then like Aisha… I wish to continue singing at your side.”
Could she mean… No, there was no doubt about it, Juna meant for me to take her as my bride, too.
“Sire,” Marx said gleefully, “if you take Juna Doma, it will be as a secondary queen. If you wish to take her as a primary queen, you will need to have her adopted into a noble or knightly family first.”
He must have been more than happy to have another candidate for the position of queen appear. When I looked to Liscia, she nodded, accepting it.
But…
“I’m sorry, that’s not possible.” I gave a clear refusal.
Liscia’s eyes went wide, while Excel asked “Why…?” looking at me pleadingly. Juna continued to look down at the floor, so I couldn’t see her face.
The air in the room grew heavy, but… I hoped they’d wait to hear everything I had to say.
“I can’t do that now,” I said. “You’re the central pillar of Project Lorelei, the project to create a music program using the Jewel Voice Broadcast. You are the Prima Lorelei. You’re popular with the people, too. What do you think would happen if I announced you and I were getting engaged? There’d be riots.”
When I said it that way, everyone seemed satisfied with that explanation. It was fresh in their memories that the Congress of the People had sent petitions saying, “Show more of Juna on the Jewel Voice Broadcast.”
It was common for flame wars to break out on an idol’s blog if she was discovered to have a lover in my old world, but in the current situation, I worried Parnam itself might get torched. The Kingdom would be burning with jealousy… Yeah, not a funny joke.
That was why I said, “Could you wait, just for a little while?”
Juna gasped.
When Juna raised her face, I thought, Well, this is awkward, as I told her, “I need your strength as the Prima Lorelei for producing our broadcast programs. That’s why, for now, I’m asking you to stay the people’s songstress. When more songstresses have gathered, and we have trained enough people that can keep the program on course, I swear, I will take you then.”
When I said that, Juna rubbed the tears from her eyes. “I’ll wait longingly for that day, sire.”
When she spoke those words, she wore the smile of a pure, innocent young girl.
Intermission 2: What the Black-Robed Prime Minister was Doing Then
That day, when Souma the provisional King of Elfrieden welcomed new candidates to be his queen, there were two people in other places holding talks over the Jewel Voice Broadcast.
Elfrieden’s Prime Minister Hakuya Kwonmin was speaking to the image of the younger sister of Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne Euphoria, projected by the simple receiver on a desk.
“Your signal is clear,” said Hakuya. “It looks like the simple receiver you sent us is in good working order. Thank you very much, Madam Jeanne, for going out of your way to have it delivered by griffon.”
“My sister understood how important the hotline Sir Souma was talking about establishing will be,” Jeanne said. “With this, the Kingdom and Empire can coordinate as need be. It’s only natural we would hurry to get things in place.”
The Jeanne on the screen smiled broadly.
After the conference with Amidonia, Jeanne had reported back to her sister, Empress Maria, about Souma’s proposals: A secret alliance with the Elfrieden Kingdom, establishing a hotline between the two countries, and the exchange of plenipotentiary ambassadors from each country, as well as the establishment of embassies for them to be stationed at.
Hakuya had assumed that Maria wouldn’t refuse these ideas, and, as he’d expected, Maria had gladly approved all of them. In fact, she had even rolled around in bed laughing as she did.
“I’ve never seen my sister like that,” Jeanne said. “She must have been very pleased.”
“Pleased…?” Hakuya asked.
“To find someone who shares her values… a person who understands her, if you will,” said Jeanne. “There aren’t many of them inside the Empire. People who are able to understand my sister, that is.”
“I see.”
Geographically they were west and east, ideologically they were an idealist and a realist, and yet Maria and Souma, who appeared to be polar opposites, understood one another.
That might be interesting, thought Hakuya.
“With a response like that, I want to arrange for my sister and Sir Souma to be able to talk over the broadcast as soon as possible,” said Jeanne.
“They’re both very busy people at the moment, and it’s hard to make their schedules agree,” Hakuya said. “When things eventually settle down, let’s arrange a time for them to talk.”
“Yes, absolutely.”
After that, they made small talk (Including venting their frustrations about their respective leaders) for a little while, then Jeanne said, “By the way, there’s been something bothering me for a while now. I see many books behind you there, Sir Hakuya. Where are you now?”
“…Oh, these are books we have on loan from Amidonia as collateral against the war reparations,” he replied. “There are a good number of them that I want to have copies made of before they have to be returned. I was working on categorizing them until just a little while ago.”
“The Prime Minister himself is sorting them?” Jeanne asked in surprise.
“Of course, I have people to help, but it’s something of a hobby of mine,” said Hakuya. “I actually like to sort books. I divide them into categories, line them up in order, sometimes flipping through one that catches my attention, then derive pleasure from looking at the well-ordered bookshelf when my work is complete. Books are human wisdom. The progress of a country. When I think of them arranged before me on a shelf, available for me to read whenever I please…”
When she saw Hakuya wax eloquent about books, Jeanne’s eyes opened wide.
If you mentioned the name Hakuya, the pride of the kingdom, the Black-robed Prime Minister, he was famous as one of the geniuses discovered by Souma, the man who had used his trickery to make sport of Gaius VIII of the Principality of Amidonia.
Having met him herself, Jeanne had had an impression of him as a clever individual. However, when Hakuya spoke about books, his eyes were those of a young boy. That gap made Jeanne’s heart skip a beat.
“…I take it you like books?” Jeanne asked.
Hakuya came back to his senses. He quickly regained his usual clever expression, but the tips of his ears were a little red. “…Pardon me. I can get carried away when it comes to books, you see…”
“Hee hee. I feel like I’ve seen an unexpected side of you…”
“Is it that unexpected?” Hakuya asked. “I think I would make a better librarian than a Prime Minister, personally.”
The reason Hakuya had received an audience with Souma to begin with was that his uncle had said, “At your age, you need to stop sitting around doing nothing but read books. Go do something useful to society!” and entered him into the If You Have a Gift event’s Gift of Wisdom section without asking for permission.
He had won that competition, and when he’d had his audience with Souma, he had been charmed by the young king. Thinking that, just maybe, Souma could get this country that was on the verge of failing back on its feet, Hakuya had given up being a bookworm and volunteered his services, only to find that at some point he had become the Prime Minister.
The truth of the matter was, while Hakuya did want to support Souma’s reign, he had meant to do it as an advisor to Souma and the then-Prime Minister Marx. However, that Marx had gone and recommended him as a better Prime Minister than himself. Thanks to that, Hakuya couldn’t read the books he wanted to, and his days had become very busy.