The queen embraced her, and then cut the heartfelt moment short by revealing something of her own.
She had a premonition, more than ten years ago. In it she saw Pride wielding her power to hurt the weak for fun, and no one was able to stop her. It was awful. She had been so afraid that Pride would become a monster. That was why, up until her daughter was eight years old, she had struggled to treat her the way a mother should.
It shook Pride to her core, and she still tried to keep the heartfelt moment intact.
Over tea, Stale asked Pride about her visions of the future. He asked whether a premonition was the reason she had treated Anemone's second and third princes so harshly. He had felt at the time that her hatred toward them was unusually strong.
Pride began to shake nervously. Stale was earnest; he only wanted to understand her.
Tears fell as she told him she could not forgive them. Not only because of the future, but because of all the people at the pub who would have suffered as a consequence of their actions. She knew that it had not happened yet, and she could not stop herself from hating them for it.
Stale tried to comfort her while she went on about the potential future of that kingdom's suffering. She saw herself in those wicked princes, and cried even harder.
Stale hugged her suddenly and told her she would never end up like those two, that she was more beautiful, more noble, and more compassionate than anyone. And even if the worst came to pass, they would be there to stop her. He promised to always be at her side.
His face came closer, and at the same moment she turned her head, and now they were nose to nose.
He jolted at the suddenness of it and apologized. She did not think much of it. She was thankful, and she thought it was funny that he had told her the exact same thing Arthur had told her earlier.
One evening, over drinks, Alan was teasing Arthur for being Princess Pride's most trusted imperial knight. He figured that, since Arthur stood guard at her door every night, it was the perfect chance to chat her up. He asked whether Arthur had made a pass at her in the heat of the moment. Arthur told him he would never do that. Alan was only messing around.
During guard duty, Arthur could tell that Pride could not sleep.
He reassured her that Prince Leon was safe and would be fine when he woke in the morning. He told her to keep her spirits high. She had a loyal following, and every one of them was on her side. He gave her a little heartwarming speech that ran through practically everyone in her life who was here to help her.
Then he asked her to open the door a little so that he could lend her his hand. He held hers, just for the connection, and told her that he had been honing his skills with the sword this whole time in order to protect her, and reminded her of everything she had done for others by offering them chances — chances like the one she had given him. That was why they were willing to follow her lead, and why they would always be at her side.
She thanked Arthur by telling him she loved him, and then passed out. It was far too much for his heart.
Caleum and Alan were embarrassed for him. Instead of making any move on Pride, all he had done was talk about how cool the rest of them were.
The guys were caught off guard by Stale's sudden appearance, though Arthur knew it was him even while nearly passed out on the table. Stale sat down right beside him. And just as Arthur was about to start blabbering about how strong and smart he was, Stale had to cover his mouth. It was too embarrassing. He threw Arthur out of the room to sober up a bit.
Stale used the time to ask the rest of the guys what they honestly thought of Arthur.
Alan said he was fun to be around. Caleum said he had a genuine talent for battle and always put forth his best, even outclassing the other knights, and that he had chosen to remain Pride's personal guard and was as sharp as ever. Eric mentioned that there were many new recruits who had been inspired by Arthur.
They all thought well of him. It brought Stale great relief.
Arthur apologized when he woke up and found himself outside for some reason, and was surprised to see Stale there. He sobered up very quickly.
Now that he was up, Stale could get to business. He had come to tell Arthur that he would be shadowing Uncle Vest starting tomorrow, to see him work as seneschal firsthand. This was to prepare Stale for serving as the next regent. He wanted to be ready for whenever a new fiancé appeared for Pride.
Arthur headbutted him to the ground.
The two of them started to fight over it. Stale had wanted to make sure Arthur was the first person to hear about it. Arthur told him that if he wanted to vent, he should have done it sooner. By the end of it Stale had the upper hand, and tripped Arthur onto the floor.
He stayed serious, and explained to the rest of the guys that with him gone for the time being, he did not want a single person he did not trust anywhere near Pride. He trusted these three division captains, and he wanted all of them to become Pride's personal guard, walking alongside Arthur as her official guardsman.
It was not even that Stale trusted the three of them completely. It was that he had faith in Arthur's trust.
In the kingdom of Anemone, Prince Leon was offering food and drink to Val and the children.
Val asked why Leon had gotten Pride to exempt him from the rules of his contract. For Leon it was simple. He wanted Val to be his friend, and he thought Val was a good person at heart, even though Val thought he was crazy.
Leon brought up that a friendship was truly obtained when two people could discuss romance together, which caused Val to choke on his drink.
Val did not want to talk about that mushy stuff. He thought it was better suited to the prince, or to the bratty knight who hung around his mistress. Leon was confused; he had thought Val had a thing for Pride too. This only made Val more irritated, and he told him he hated that stupid brat.
That aside, Leon was hoping Val would just call him by his name next time, because that was what friends did. Val told him to learn to handle as much booze as he could first, before trying to get friendly. And Leon was more than ready for that, and set a great deal on the table.
Having imported ingredients from Leon's kingdom, Pride presented some original dishes of her own devising to the knights. They enjoyed them thoroughly, with no idea that these were Japanese dishes she had made in her past life.
Last year her cooking had been terrible and burnt. But thanks to Tiara's main character cheat skills, the two of them were able to reproduce the recipes with no problem at all.
The girls showed Arthur and Stale the melon pan, and Tiara told Pride she ought to feed them, since she had put her heart and soul into making them. Pride was shy about it, but took a piece of the bread and fed Arthur, and he munched at it so recklessly that his mouth ended up on her finger. He thought it was delicious, though.
Next was Stale, who ended up with some bread on his mouth, so Pride wiped it off, and that made him extremely shy. Then she fed Val some onigiri, and he wolfed it down, and then fed her back, and she maintained her poise throughout.
Everything seemed at peace, in the days that followed the end of the engagement.