Grimoire of Loss ; Change

Before Henrietta can properly react, I telekinetically arrange the dresses before neatly placing them back inside the wardrobe.

Then, I turn my head to face Henrietta and say in a calm tone while ignoring her stupefied expression,

"I hope you have been doing well these past few days."

As a response to my words, Henrietta immediately breaks out of her stupor and says,

"Yes, I have been fine."

"Good," I casually say before shifting my sight to a desk that has quite a few documents on it, reminding me about the matter regarding the nobles.

"Say, have the nobles been causing any trouble for you?"

"Ah," Henrietta says, "That's related to the reason I called you over for."

Oh? Could there have been some that actually had the gall to cause trouble?

Anyway, Henrietta said that she wished to gift me something, so I wonder how the noble families are related to that.

Unless…

"Henrietta, have you gotten your hand on the Grimoire of Loss?" I say, startling her quite a bit.

After all, that's the only possible scenario I can think of which consists of Henrietta being able to gift me something related to nobles.

"That's right," Henrietta says while beaming a smile, "How did you know?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I reply,

"It was rather obvious."

Before she can say anything else, I inquire,

"What about the nobles who decided to 'aid' me in my conquest against Gallia? Those personal armies of theirs. Have they been called back already?"

"Unfortunately, no," Henrietta responds with a serious expression, "From the looks of it, they wish to have a part of the 'reward'."

Understanding what she's getting at, I say,

"They want some land for themselves, huh?"

Well, I expected things to turn out like this, so I already have a way to deal with this issue.

"That's not it," Henrietta says, surprising me, "They all wish to hold an audience with you."

Huh? Why?

"And what's the reason for that?"

"I don't know," Henrietta says, "But, I speculate that they want to establish some kind of connection with you."

Ah, that would make sense. However, the problematic part of this would be what kind of connection they wish to establish.

Taking into consideration how troublesome nobles are, there is something that needs to be done quickly.

"Henrietta," I say while adopting a serious expression, "Let's hurry up and get married."

Stunned, Henrietta hastily says,

"Where did that come from?"

However, the next moment, realization seems to dawn upon her as her expression turns serious before she mutters,

"Marriage proposals."

"That's right," I say, "They will most likely attempt to arrange a marriage between me and a daughter of theirs. If I were a king, this would be neigh-impossible to achieve, but I've yet to be crowned as one…"

No wonder that they 'helped' me in the war so early on. What they did was reasonably risky, as, at any time, there could've been a counterattack from Gallia.

Due to their armies being stationed near the border, they would've been the one to suffer the most.

Well, since they've gone ahead and 'planned' all this, it wouldn't hurt to humor them a little.

"Forget all that," I say, "Where is the Grimoire?"

Hearing me, Henrietta gets up from the bed and walks over to the wardrobe.

She opens it and inserts her hand inside before beginning to move it around in an odd manner.

Before I can question her actions, a clicking sound reaches my ears as a square at the back of the wardrobe opens, revealing numerous interesting things.

A few seconds later, Henrietta takes out a black book before fixing everything up and walking back to the bed.

"Here," she says while offering me the book.

Taking the Grimoire into my hands, I open it, only to find a series of clear pages.

I check from one end of the book to the other before saying,

"It's blank…"

Perhaps, sensing the doubt in my voice, Henrietta explains,

"The ones I had assigned to the mission of retrieving the Grimoire were suspicious of this really being the real thing, so they tor- interrogated the viscount that was keeping it.

"Despite that, the viscount insisted on this being the Grimoire. As I thought, it truly is fake, right?"

I take a moment to deliberate on the matter before a notion appeared in my head.

The last Grimoire was similar to this one in 'uselessness', so this may actually be the real Grimoire of Truth.

"Are you keeping an eye on the viscount?"

"Yes. In fact, he's staying in the castle right now."

"I see," I say.

Well then, now that I know he won't be going anywhere, I can take this Grimoire back to Tiffa.

However…

I turn my head to look at Henrietta who's currently dressed in a marvelous violet dress.

The front of the dress is a v-cut, making a part of her cleavage visible.

Due to the way the dress has been designed, it does a great job of complimenting Henrietta's figure.

"Wales?" Henrietta's voice reaches my ears, causing me to shift my sight to her face, only to find it covered in a red flush.

"Does it look good?" she asks me in a demure tone that's very unlike her usual self.

"Great," I say while grinning, "It suits you very well."

Just when it seems like her joy will reach its peak, Henrietta's mood seems to deflate as she asks,

"You will don't remember anything, do you?"

I slowly shake my head and say,

"Nothing at all. As unfortunate as it may be, but I feel like this isn't going to change anytime soon."

Hearing my bluntly state the truth, Henrietta's mood worsens as she looks down at the ground with a perplexed look on her face.

This goes on for a few minutes before Henrietta raises her head with a resolute expression as she says,

"Then, Victor, was it?"

"Correct."

"Please take care of me from now on."

Oh? Looks like she has resolved herself to settling with me despite being aware that Wales Tudor and I are different people.

Now that I think about it, what has become of Yu Otosaka and Wales Tudor? I'm rather curious to know about that.

AI, do you know the answer to that?

{Negative.}

Well, I expected as much.

Shaking my head to ward off such thoughts, I look Henrietta in the eyes and say in a firm tone,

"You can always count on me."

With the two of us reaching a consensus, I slowly move closer to her and pull her into an embrace.

Feeling the softness of the fabric, I'm reminded that this young girl is soon going to become the queen of this kingdom. Not only that, but she will be my wife as well.

The whole thing seems so… unusual.

---

As I make my way to Tiffa's room, I sense that there seems to be something different about the air.

It feels much fresher than before for some reason. Normally, this wouldn't be something to be concerned about, but for it to happen so suddenly couldn't be normal.

I can only hope that it isn't a sign of more troublesome things to deal with…