"Yes, Your Highness. What can't I do if I don't need to see my brother's countenance anymore? Don't worry."

At the end of the remark, when Marquise Raban stepped away, Killian leaned heavily on the sofa.

"Ian, call a meeting in the evening. Call Spencer, too."

------

"Your Highness, please tell me I heard it wrong."

Adam had returned from Vicern at the command of Killian, and was now angry.

"I didn't joke, the Count, nor did you hear it wrong."

"Julietta is the Empress of the future!? She is an illegitimate child and was a maid of Your Highness."

Killian stared coldly at Adam's bitter complaints. "You're a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, too, Adam. But no one here is saying anything about your status, and no one is bothered by it. The same is true of Julietta. I think it's the stupidest thing in the world to lose a talented person to the clutches of that status. I think you're here by my side because everyone here has agreed with me."

Adam was a child born outside by the Duke of Martin. The infant was brought in from outside five years after the birth of his successor Kane and the d.u.c.h.ess's death. He was immediately adopted as the Duke's foster son, no longer needing permission from the first wife.

As such, Adam was incorporated into aristocratic society, but he could not remove the label of being an illegitimate child who was neither the Duke's successor nor a b.a.s.t.a.r.d born with t.i.tle or land. Adam always felt like an outsider as the days went by. Then he was sent by the Duke of Martin to be a companion to Killian, who was about the same age, and from then on, he became a friend of Prince Killian with Spencer.

Adam was knighted by the Count of Bertino at the age of seventeen. It was Killian's decision to give Adam a foothold to fly from.

Adam looked around at those who were sitting with him.

The Marquis of Oswald was a person who he would not be nearly as comfortable as they were now. There was no need to talk about Marquis Rhodius, who was a royal, nor Count Valerian, who was the commander of the Princ.i.p.ality of Bertino, and also the captain of the guard of Prince Killian.

But Adam couldn't give up lingering feelings about his lord's flawless stature.

"Yes, that's right, Your Highness. No one would despise the restriction on birth more than I do. But you are my lord. Is it too much of my desire to wish that a flawless lord would receive a more perfect Queen than anyone else?"

"It's your greed. I'm perfect, and my wife the Queen doesn't have to be perfect."

Oswald nodded unconsciously at Killian's arrogant words. "Your perfection is more than offsetting all the imperfections around you."

"Are you all okay? Am I the only one who opposes it?"

Spencer shrugged casually at Adam's words. "In fact, she will not be a Queen under the label of an illegitimate child, but she will be a Queen with the great status of the princess of Kiellini, who has a backer in Killian. What is important about her birth? If we talk about our status, the ancestors of Killian and I were savages who used to plunder others' tribes from time to time."

At Spencer's words, Adam looked at Oswald. "What about you?"

"As for me, it doesn't matter. Especially, if it is the beautiful princess and her amazing wit, I wouldn't stop her from being the Empress even if she is a commoner or an illegitimate child of a n.o.bleman. She is the most talented woman in the world. I like someone who is smart and capable. That's why I swore allegiance to His Highness, and that's why I'm so comfortable talking to you, despite you being an illegitimate child."

Oswald winked at Adam, but stressed that he was also an illegitimate child.

"What about Charles?"

When Spencer asked Count Valerian, he said with his usual stiff manner, "I don't think a person's personality is shaped by birth. Rather, I've heard many times about how mean and cruel people in positions that everyone would envy are."

Charles, a cousin on Killian's maternal side, had heard from his father, Count Louis Valerian, about how Killian survived the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Empress. The incident that Killian went through, even though he was young, had come as a shock.

Charles had decided to become a knight from then on. He decided to become a great knight like his father and protect Killian by his side.

"Adam, are you still going to oppose?" Killian added, and Adam shook his head in resignation,

"You're so obsessed with the belief that you should make me Emperor. In the past, I didn't want to be an Emperor, so I understood that your hard, inflexible actions might be a result of disappointment. But now it's different, as I have decided to become Emperor. That means I will be Emperor, no matter what natural disaster comes to me. I don't really need an Empress perfect from head to toe next to me. Why does it matter if I'm perfect? My perfection encompa.s.ses everyone around me, so don't worry."

It was an outrageous display of confidence and arrogance, but no one thought about it because it was Killian's charisma, which attracted everyone around him like a magnet.