The sixth prince, who had been executed in the kingdom after being betrayed by the trusted saint, was reincarnated and, in order to seek revenge, became engaged once again to the neighboring kingdom’s “Guillotine Princess.” As a result, he was adored and lived happily.

“Ah…”

“…”

Returning from the balcony, I found Princess Abigail standing alone near the wall of the venue. There were no party attendees or even her maid, Claire, with her. I hurriedly approached her.

“I-I’m sorry. I was just out in the night air for a moment…”

“…No.”

I offered an excuse while apologizing, but Princess Abigail merely nodded lightly and lowered her gaze. She must be upset about being left alone.

Then…

“Oh, you’re here!”

Suddenly, my personal maid, Mariette, appeared energetically.

“Is something wrong?”

“W-Well, you see…”

Mariette looked around, and after making sure no one was listening, she whispered something to me.

Apparently, some nobles from the Strasclad Empire wanted to talk to me.

“How should we handle this?”

“I don’t mind, but before that…”

I leaned in closer to Princess Abigail.

“I’m sorry. Some of the empire’s nobles seem to want to speak with me, so I’ll be excusing myself for a while.”

“What!?”

She looked surprised. Worried about her, I whispered to her again to avoid being overheard.

“In that case, it would be more convenient if you weren’t present, Princess Abigail… That’s what I think.”

“Then, even more…”

She must be concerned about me. Princess Abigail wouldn’t give in easily.

But from my perspective, it would be better not to have her present, especially when I needed to determine who in the empire could potentially be an ally or an enemy.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think anyone would be foolish enough to harm me and ruin everything. And just to be safe, Mariette will stay nearby. Of course, I’ll report the contents of the conversation to you later.”

“…”

She must have understood that I wouldn’t change my mind. Princess Abigail bit her small cherry-colored lips and remained silent.

“Well, I’ll be stepping out for a bit.”

With a courteous bow, I left the venue with Mariette.

“So… which noble wants to meet me?”

“Well, um, it’s Count Golton.”

Count Golton… From what I remembered, he was a neutral noble who had kept his distance from Princess Abigail and Bridget. In my previous life, we had never crossed paths, so why…

Well, dwelling on it wouldn’t help. Let’s meet him and find out what he wants.

“Thank you for waiting. I’m Gustave.”

“Oh, my, Gustave, it’s an honor to have you here.”

When I appeared in the salon designated for our meeting, a middle-aged man with some gray hair in his hair… Count Golton, greeted me with a bow.

“So… you wanted to talk to me?”

“Oh, well, it’s nothing major, but I thought Gustave-sama might be interested in learning a bit about the empire’s history.”

With that, Count Golton began to speak about the history of the empire, or rather, the history of the wars between the empire and the kingdom. However, despite a few embellishments that favored the empire, I was already aware of the contents, so it was a bit boring.

But why did he choose to talk about this during my engagement anniversary party with Princess Abigail? I couldn’t quite grasp Count Golton’s true intentions. While nodding along and giving appropriate responses, I tilted my head.

“…So, Your Highness Gustave, we are looking forward to the engagement between you and Princess Abigail. With this, peace will finally come to both our countries.”

“I see…”

“In addition, we believe that this engagement will be an opportunity to promote new exchanges between our nations for development.”

I see, it was a chance for trade with the Valrois Kingdom that they were after.

While the kingdom lagged behind in terms of technology and military power compared to the empire, it had more than twice the land and abundant resources. So, they wanted to use my connections as a Valrois prince for their benefit.

Now… what should I do?

I rubbed my chin, deep in thought, when Mariette whispered to me.

“Gustave-sama, this is an opportunity. We can make arrangements with Count Golton and draw him closer to our side.”

It seemed that Mariette had evaluated this move as advantageous in Louis and the Saint’s future plans. In that case…

“Count Golton, as you say, I’m interested in exploring opportunities for further cooperation between our nations.”

“Oh, it’s a pleasure to hear that, Your Highness Gustave. You seem to have a broad perspective.”

“Thank you.”

I briefly displayed a pleased expression before taking Count Golton’s right hand and shaking it.

“Well then, I apologize for keeping Princess Abigail waiting, so I should be excusing myself now. Oh, and please keep this conversation confidential.”

“Understood, Your Highness Gustave. Please proceed as you see fit.”

With that, Count Golton bid me farewell, and Mariette and I left the salon.

“Mar… Mariette. I answered that way, but is it really okay?”

“Leave it to me! Through my family, the Viscount de Jirou, I’ll relay this to the kingdom!”

“Understood. I’m counting on you.”

With Mariette in high spirits, I made my way to the venue where Princess Abigail was waiting.

…From now on, I would use Count Golton to gather information about Louis, the Saint, and their plans and turn it to our advantage.

For that, I needed Princess Abigail’s cooperation, after all.