I was expecting nothing good from Father's return.

In fact, I was half expecting torture as he deemed me not his daughter. I had considered that I might be forgiven a little because I'd defended the castle, but I was still expecting nothing good... but... he just stared at me with those calm eyes I couldn't quite read.

Honestly, I knew I was in over my head. Before this the Royal Family itself didn't have any motive but to attempt to please House Celeste... however that was going to change now. It was truly the worst possible situation for me.

I wanted out of the engagement, of course. However, without the engagement the Royal Family didn't have anything to hold House Celeste's loyalty. It wasn't like we would join up with the enemy, but there is a big difference in whether or not you push your men during a march... things like that...

The problem was 'Augustus'. He would be considered valuable, and his loyalty even more so. If House Celeste was connected to the Royal Family, then they'd be able to call on him for war, as he would be Lily's twin brother.

Of course, I cannot be both places at once, and nor can I live a life as Augustus as Lily would disappear.

On a more personal level. Let's say the engagement continues as it is now. Alstair will want to break the engagement when he meets the heroine, but he cannot since the royal family considers the connection to my house valuable. Instead of giving up, he can start pulling strings. With enough 'evidence' I'll look like a criminal and... well... we will be back to how the story was originally. In other words, my efforts with Eric and the Heroine will be worthless. One is supposed to be ignorant, and the other too naive.

Somehow my neck feels chilly...

I would have preferred that Augustus is considered dead... however... now where I sit in the carriage on our way to the capital in 'Augustus'' outfit, I know that won't happen.

We're going there to get a 'reward' from the king.

However, he's likely there to judge me.

Personally I pray that Alstair won't be there. I don't want to consider the possibility that he realizes that there is no twin, just a 'mask'.

---*---

I peer out the carriage at the breathtaking scenery of the 'Flower Capital's' streets. The half-timbered houses shine white with chalk bought from the Salender territory, and at the feet of each and every house shines countless of flowers. Just walking through the capital itself will make you feel like you're walking through a garden, with flowers at every window, every tree planted between the pedestrian's path and the road for carriages. Even the trees have flowers, and each tree type matches that of the street, and between the trees are flower beds surrounding benches, just there for you to enjoy the view and relax.

The roads are well cobbled with pale grey stones, allowing traffic to pass even on these extravagant boulevards with shops and rare flowers everywhere that turns the heads of pedestrians. Truly, if they did not have the specific paths for pedestrians I can imagine a high number of traffic accidents caused by people simply being distracted by the view...

Well... even I'll admit it's relaxing... however, as I think of how they got money for all of this when everywhere else in the kingdom appears to have a tight budget bothers me...

I understand that the taxes gained by the city is enormous... that tourism simply feeds all the boutiques and restaurants with more customers than they could wish for. The capital is an ideal place if you wish to sell luxury goods.

Of course now you'd wonder about the forges in the capital... but they aren't here.

They do indeed have sword and armor for sale... but it's all imported from Tepet's fief.

They sell the silver jewelry and semi-precious stone from the northern Marquess fiefs as well, though under-priced because the fiefs try to compete against each other to sell their resources. The reason they aren't one fief to begin with is because of infighting over the silver mines.

Well, there are other side effects to the capital's popularity as well.

Because of the amount of flowers, botany is incredibly popular. Or perhaps it was once the other way around?

Not only does the pretty flowers sell well for romantic events, or when pressed or dried. However, they also make up most of the kingdom's medicine, paint, dye and perfume production. Unvisited areas of the capital are said to keep the bees that flower the capital, and as such... well... as you can imagine there is a lot of honey and wax here as well, which makes restaurants open till late.

There is nothing like that in the rest of the kingdom by the way, nor was there anything like this in the book... other than a single illustration... no, there was certainly an incident where the heroine visited a restaurant past sundown where many candles were described. The flower paths were described as well... and the pedestrian paths too... perhaps this absurd situation was generated to even be able to match the story?

Furthermore... how are we not being invaded daily from all sides?

No, actually we have been in the past, otherwise Celeste Castle wouldn't be built as it was, and the many other fortifications in our fief wouldn't be either.

That's right, we have surprisingly many fortifications, many of which are unused, where Castle Celeste is the grandest. I haven't confirmed it yet, but according to my history teacher this is so for all the Marquess fiefs. Perhaps it was then that the flower capital came to be? Just to keep up with the amount of medicine needed. Then when it was no longer needed they just changed the type of flower?

I really want to find a history book that goes into detail about these things.

Either way, I can't imagine that the rest of the kingdom is truly untroubled by the gap in wealth between the capital and everywhere else. It might be a more fragile situation that expected at first sight. Perhaps that's also one of the reasons I am married into the royal family, though, that is merely speculation on my part.

---*---

Well, as you can imagine, the palace of the Royal Family cannot lose to just the city scenery...

It's... grand... it looks as if the spires of the castle are actually attempting to reach for the skies. The figure of the castle is, as expected, white... I can only imagine how much they pay to House Salender every spring to keep it this way.

The spire full figure of the palace is hugged by a neigh unending amount of crawling flowery vines slowly claiming the castle walls and bringing color to the white.

A part of me wonders if they use magic to prevent the vines from ruining the structural security of the palace. The thin spires already seem like they'd be unstable in a storm, so the vines digging into the concrete seems... troublesome at best. Though, I suppose it would make sense. The capital does have the largest amount of people blessed by faeries. It isn't really a surprise with such a surreal scenery, that those vain creatures would appear in the capital with higher frequency.

We stop in front of an ornamented metal gate as we wait to be allowed passage to cross the bridge to the castle. Honestly, though, the gate house looks... like a decoration at most. No arrow holes, no murder holes. The gate itself... An unarmored young man would be able to squeeze through a few places of the flowery design... Well, he'd be vulnerable as he did, but you'd just need a shield through, and spears to hold off the defenders. You could even toss a flood or fire wave through first to get the immediate defenders away.

I glance to my father who seems unfazed by the amount of security risks. However, I have a fairly good reason why he isn't bothered. I mean, good deals of the capital likely has flowers that are poisonous if their extract is taken in dozes that are too large. Consider that for a moment.

The 'Flower Capital' would also have the largest underground that sells poisons.

They don't need to invade the place. Just ruin the water supplies.

The faint memory of the part at the Salender Mansion pokes at the back of my mind. I decide to ignore it, I don't want to remember that. Nor consider how much the Salender family spends on poisons every year since they deal with politicians. I definitely don't want to see a register of how many people 'accidentally' died in their territory over the last decade...

I do.

Just to have a feeling of how dangerous Gilbert really is.

I make the quiet decision to never accept anything from Gilbert.

I fill with exhaustion at the thought of spending at least four years of my life in the capital... or... the rest of my life for that matter...