A Stranger Wearing the Name of Your Wife - Chapter 12

“So, it was Count Almgart, wasn’t it? Still… fufu, if you make such a fuss, people around will start watching you.”

I didn’t mind. In fact, I wanted more attention.
But for him, that would bring the worst possible outcome.
That’s why I gave him a warning—just once.

“How rude! Even if you did come crawling back, you’re nothing more than a former royal!”

Ah… he confirmed it.
What a foolish man, to react to such a small provocation.
I kept smiling and waited without replying.
There’s no way the surrounding nobles would stay still after that.

“…Pardon me for interrupting your conversation.
It’s been a while, Princess.
This matter about *coming back*—what exactly do you mean by that?”

“It’s been a while, Marquis Rhovine.
For someone like you, always well-informed, to *not know*—how rare.”

The young man who had been Eck’s childhood friend and schoolmate bowed gracefully.
He gave the most respectful bow used for royalty and treated me as a princess.
This was the proper reaction.
That such a traitor had been hiding among the nobles of the Richter Empire… how shameful.

“Oh? Is it that Princess does *not know* about this Klaus?”

He approached me while pretending not to know anything.
With a bright, harmless smile, he made it clear he was playing along.
Since Klaus is a key member of the royalist faction, I could safely leave things to him.

“Yes, it seems that way.
It looks like Count Almgart knows something even I don’t.”

I closed my camellia fan with a snap.
A few nobles looked relieved and let out a breath.
The camellia fan I held had played an important role several times in the past.
Whenever someone was condemned for their crimes, I would always use it to hide my mouth.

It’s a tradition passed down by the empresses and princesses of our royal family.
It’s not openly talked about, but nearly every noble in our country knows what it means.
So, for him to carelessly speak such things to me, without knowing—and when even someone like Marquis Rhovine didn’t know—it could only mean…

With this much evidence, it couldn’t be a mistake.

“Oh? You were the one who married into the Kingdom of Addison, weren’t you?”

So, Klaus knew, after all.

“W-What are you saying!”

“You called me a woman who *came back* in shame, didn’t you?
No one in this empire would ever say such a thing.
Because I’m still *unmarried*.”

It was a political marriage, and we held a wedding in the empire.
Any noble would know that I was married off to a neighboring country.
But the fact that I returned hadn’t spread yet.
I had stopped the information on purpose.
So then… how did you know I had returned, just days after I came back?

“…!”

He finally realized his mistake, but it was far too late.
If he had simply said, “It was a misunderstanding,” the moment I raised the question, and backed off, then he might have gotten away with it.
But someone who couldn’t read the situation that quickly would never make a good spy.
Sharp instincts are a must.

With the folded camellia fan, I pointed to Count Almgart.

“Seize him.
He is under suspicion of showing disrespect and committing treason against the royal family.”

Several knights in the hall moved at once.
At the same time, a few skilled nobles stepped forward to guard me.
Surrounded by a wall of people, I smiled without hiding anything.

Now the remaining rats would have no way to move.
The nobles, filled with doubt, would begin to watch one another.
While that was happening, I’d quietly start making arrangements with other countries.