“So, you decided to give your roses and get his tea in return?”

“No, I just gave him the roses. I gained his trust in return.”

The king couldn’t believe Rubica was talking about the fierce dragon’s trust.

He asked with suspicion, “What… are you? Are you a nymph like Edgar’s mother?”

“No, I am an ordinary human.”

“Then, why did your name replace that missing ring?”

“Didn’t Edgar explain?”

The king shook his head. He had talked about love when Rubica’s name showed up in that box, mostly to tease Edgar.

The duke stayed calm at first, but then he started to get mad. After that, he kept sending reports, but he shut his mouth at the mention of his wife’s name.

The king let him stop working on Stella when hearing Stephen might be a spy, but he had been wondering something. Who was this woman? He thought she couldn’t be just anybody.

“I died about forty years from now. Then Edgar used the ring to send me back to the past.”

“Aha!”

The king forgot everything about his authority and laughed. He had been right! That little boy who pretended to be the coldest and the most rational did have a fiery love.

“So, Your Majesty, I must ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“Please give up on Stella. No, please do not have Edgar make any more weapons.”

The king frowned hard.

Was she interfering too much? Maybe he was about to say she should care only about her own household like a proper lady.

Nevertheless, her tea meeting, which had significantly impacted the kingdom’s economy, had started out as a small gathering she started just because she wanted to wear pretty dresses.

Edgar was Duke Claymore, but before that, he was her husband.

“We shouldn’t make any more weapons? Do you want this kingdom to perish? As a duchess, you ought not to say such a thing.”

“I am begging you because I want this kingdom to survive.”

Thankfully, the king wasn’t telling her to mind her own business. He was open to discussions and new ideas, which was one of the reasons that enabled him to rule in peace for many years.

“They are going to abduct Edgar and force him to make Stella for them. Because of it, a huge war is going to break out in four years. It was a long and exhausting war, more than half of the continent was destroyed and this kingdom was devastated until nothing could live on it.”

“But we’ve caught Stephen, thanks to your help.”

“Yes, he failed this time, but the people who want Stella are never going to give up.”

“Just wait until we have the Golden Land. Then we will destroy Stella.”

“Would… you?”

Stella was the most powerful weapon in history. Would anyone be able to give up that power after tasting it once?

It wouldn’t matter if that person is good or bad since people can do bad things for good reasons. In fact, Stephen had tried to steal Stella to save his weak and poor homeland.

“After you take the Golden Land, you will want the trading route that leads to the eastern lands. Then, the fruits of the south. Next, the mana stones in the mountains you haven’t been able to mine yet because of the slumbering dragon, and it would be all for this kingdom.”

She was right. Although the king didn’t lose his smile, he could say nothing. He couldn’t defeat her on this topic. He took a sip of tea and changed to a different subject.

“Edgar’s curse is getting worse. Do you know about it?”

“Yes, our butler told me.”

“Then I must ask, do you know how to break it?”

“No…”

The king seemed quite disappointed to hear that. He had guessed so, but he couldn’t help getting disappointed to hear it.

However, he couldn’t have been half as disappointed as the woman in front of him. He soon hid his feeling and put on his smile back.

“House Claymore is managing almost all the businesses in this kingdom. If he falls, this kingdom will fall.”

“That is exactly why we shouldn’t rely solely on the production of weapons. I heard Lord Sesar’s roses are now more profitable than most weapons.”

“Yes, they have gained us a huge revenue, but only because of speculation. In time, the bubbles will fade, and they won’t sell as well as they used to. It would be safer to take the Golden Land and get a stable supply of food.”

“But Ios is…”

Rubica almost said he was too dumb, and they didn’t need Stella to defeat him, but she didn’t. The king might dispatch an army to defeat the dragon, and it couldn’t be good.

Ios called her cousin, so she wanted to find a way to coexist.

“He is fierce, but he isn’t helpless. Look, he gave this tea as a present. There is a much safer way than waging a war, why should we take the difficult way?”

The king narrowed his eyes to see the box full of tea. He had most certainly been surprised to hear what it was and who had presented it.

He had been reported each year about how people trespassed Ios’s territory and paid with their lives for it. It was impossible to easily accept the fact that the greatest foe he had thought to be impossible to coexist with could actually be persuaded.

“Two years, I’ll give you two years.”

However, what Rubica was saying made enough sense. War had to be avoided as much as possible. He didn’t want to be held back by his prejudice and miss this good opportunity. Plus, the offer of revenue he would be able to earn with tea didn’t hurt.

“Prove that this kingdom can be supported by other businesses in two years.”

If this went well, many were going to starve to death. The king made it clear he couldn’t wait any longer. Rubica also didn’t want to drag more time and sacrifice lives.

“But, if you fail, you must kill Ios yourself.”

He sounded calm, but what he said was cruel. Rubica almost dropped her teacup. The king was still smiling.

“Why are you so surprised? We can’t make a living by any other business, we don’t have any mana stone, and the duke, our only hope, might die at any time. The only way left is the Golden Land, and why would I spend a long time on making Stella and fighting a war when I have someone the dragon thinks of as a friend?”

The king wasn’t an easy man to handle, and Rubica remembered how Edgar called him a fox. He could manipulate people with a smile. He was the exact contrast of Edgar.

Was such cruelty and generosity required to rule over a kingdom? Rubica was rather grateful that he was giving her a chance instead of ordering her to assassinate Ios immediately.

‘I hope that idiot would listen to me…’

The fastest and the best way would be Ios letting Seritos use his Golden Land.

However, judging from his character, persuading him so wasn’t going to be easy. Telling him they should coexist to avoid war would only make him enraged. He didn’t like humans trying to win him over after all.

“Okay…. in two years, I will prove that this kingdom can be strong without the weapons industry.”

However, she just couldn’t give up. The king was making it clear taking the Golden Land was their only option.

If Edgar kept developing weapons, there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be a second Stephen, and the third. She didn’t want to let her past repeat itself.

“But Edgar must finish what he was working on now. We can’t stop now and violate international contracts.”

“Okay, thank you for giving me a chance.”

“You can come to me anytime if you need help.”

The king said so with a kind smile, and he wasn’t just saying that. Rubica thought he was a good man. She always had had great regard for him, even as a lowly noble lady who couldn’t even dream of seeing him in person.

“But…”

Rubica thought they were done, but the king was about to start on a new subject. He smacked his lips like a fox about to devour a bird.

“I’ve been wondering… how did you meet Edgar before you came back in time?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I know he went looking for you this time thanks to that clue, but how did you meet at first? I wonder when and how that cold boy fell in love. He gave you the chance to live again instead of taking it himself, so he must have liked you a lot. Did you get married? How did he propose to you? And, was he the first to confess his love?”

The king looked so excited, and Rubica was so confused by the shower of questions that she could say nothing.

“I’ve tried to put every good young lady in front of him at each ball, but he won’t even budge. His stubbornness almost drove me mad!”

Now Rubica could see why Edgar had been called a womanizer. The king had always put him up with the ladies, so of course, people gossiped about it.