Chapter 525: [Bonus Chapter] SWEET HOME... ALABAMA?

“PRINCESS Neoma, you called?”

Neoma smiled and nodded when Juri entered her office.

Her “children” were nice enough to give her an office in the floating villa that they gifted to her.

She was using the office well.

Even though she wanted to take a rest, she couldn’t. There were things that needed her immediate attention, like the official positions of her “children” in her Knight Order.

“Sit down, Juri,” Neoma said, smiling. “We have something important to discuss.”

Juri nodded, then she sat on the receiving chair in front of Neoma’s desk. “May I know what this is about, Your Royal Highness.”

.....

“You all know that I’m going to be registered to the Royal Household officially soon, don’t you?”

“Yes, Princess Neoma,” Juri said, smiling brightly. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Although that’s not the reason why I brought it up.”

“Oh.”

“Juri, once I get recognized as a royal princess officially, my Order of Knights would be officially formed as well. As I said before, I’ll appoint Lewis as the commander of my Order.”

To be honest, she could already see the process getting complicated.

After all, while she was pretending to be Nero all these years, Lewis was glued to her as her personal knight. Thus, everyone in the empire expected Lewis to become the commander of her own Knight Order.

[But Lewis would rather retire as a knight instead of serving Nero permanently as his personal guard.]

Thus, even though she would be criticized for “stealing” her twin brother’s most trusted knight, she was willing to risk it all just to bring Lewis back to her side. Nero had his own (mysterious) set of “children” anyway.

“Appointing Lewis as the commander of your Order is a wise decision, Princess Neoma.”

“I know, right?” she asked, then she casually dropped the bomb- aka the reason why she summoned Juri to her office. “And I plan to make you the vice-commander, Juri.”

Juri Wisteria was the second “child” that she “adopted.”

Plus, as the ‘Tank’ of the team, she thought Juri would make a great commander in the battlefield.

[Because I know that Lewis won’t leave my side if we find ourselves in a dangerous situation. I know, I know. Teaching my “son” to be independent of me is my responsibility as his mother, but he’s better at me when it comes to being stubborn-]

“I’m sorry, but I cannot accept your offer, Princess Neoma.”

“Yes, you really deserve to be the vice-commander...” her “autopilot mode” stopped when she realized that Juri turned down her offer- as opposed to what she had expected from her “daughter.” “Huh? You’re turning down the position of being my Order’s vice-commander?”

historical

Juri gulped as if she was suddenly nervous, then she nodded. “I’m so sorry, Princess Neoma.”

Oh.

Hearing Juri’s apology made her realize that she had overreacted.

“No, you don’t have to apologize, Juri,” she said while shaking her head. “I’m not mad- I’m just surprised since when we first talked about this, you entertained the idea of becoming the vice-commander of my Order. I won’t force you to do something that you don’t want to. However, may I know what changed your mind?”

“I’m actually getting engaged soon, Your Royal Highness.”

Okay, that almost made her choke on her saliva. “I haven’t heard about this before, my precious daughter. Who dared to take you away from me without officially asking me for your hand in marriage?”

Well, she wasn’t Juri’s mother.

However, in her heart, she cared about her “daughter” as if she was her own.

“And I don’t understand what your engagement has to do with my offer for you to become the vice-commander of my Order.”

Juri scratched her cheek as if she was embarrassed. “I made a deal with my family, Princess Neoma. In order for me to choose my husband freely, they asked me to turn down a dangerous position from Your Royal Highness’s Order. That’s why I can’t be the vice-commander.”

“Oh.”

“Moreover, after Paige joined our team, I realized that she’s more reliable than me,” her “daughter” added. “Paige is always calm and collected, unlike me. Lewis, our future commander, has a nasty temper as I do. So it would be nice for someone gentle like Paige to become Lewis’s second-in-command.”

That actually made sense.

[However, I don’t think Paige is as gentle as we think she is.]

Sometimes, she thought Paige was a sadist.

[Anyway...]

“Okay, I’ll consider your recommendation,” she said, then she went back to the topic. “So, who did you choose to be your husband and why did you keep it a secret from me?”

“It’s not like we wanted to keep it a secret from you, Princess Neoma,” Juri said nervously. “Jeno and I are just looking for the perfect timing to tell you.”

“Jeno?” she asked with knitted eyebrows. Of course, she already knew what Juri was implying. However, she wanted to make sure that she understood it correctly. Thus, she pretended not to understand anything. “What does Jeno have to do with this?”

“Jeno and I have agreed to marry each other, Princess Neoma.”

“Why?”

She wouldn’t be this nosy if she knew that Jeno and Juri had feelings for each other.

As far as she could remember, there wasn’t an ounce of romantic sparks between the two who often fought like cats and dogs.

But then again, there was a reason why the enemies-to-lovers trope was famous.

Her heart protested, though!

“I can’t let this marriage happen!”

Juri’s eyes went wide as if she was shocked by her reaction. “But Princess Neoma, you always tell us to respect other people’s decision, especially if that decision was made by an adult capable of making decisions for themselves.”

“This is a different matter,” Neoma insisted, then she slammed her hands on the table. “You and Jeno are siblings, Juri Wisteria!”

***

NEOMA crossed her arms over her chest while glaring at Jeno, who was kneeling in front of her.

After Juri left, she summoned Jeno to her office.

She hadn’t said anything yet when the Marksman suddenly knelt in front of her as if he already knew why he was summoned.

“Jeno Dankworth,” Neoma said indifferently. “Why are you kneeling?”

“I’m here to ask Your Royal Highness for Juri’s hand in marriage,” Jeno said nervously, and he couldn’t even look her in the eye. “Please allow me to marry Juri, Princess Neoma.”

“Are your families pressuring you to get married?”

Her bullshit about Juri and Jeno being “siblings” was just nothing but bullshit.

She was upset because she didn’t want her precious “children” to give in to the stupid norm of their society to let the young nobles marry early for the sake of politics.

“I can talk to the Wisterias and the Dankworths, if you want to,” she offered. “I don’t want you and Juri to resort to marrying each other just for the sake of stopping your families from bugging you. Jeno, I care about you and Juri a lot. That’s why I want you to marry out of love, even though I know that I shouldn’t be meddling with your affairs.”

After all, Juri and Jeno were two consenting adults who knew what they were doing.

[Probably.]

“I’m marrying out of love, Princess Neoma.”

Wait, what?

[Did I get it correctly?]

“I’m marrying out of love, Your Royal Highness,” Jeno repeated calmly. “I mean, I’m not totally in love with Juri yet. However, if I’m thinking about someone I want to spend my life with, Juri enters my mind.”

Huh???

“I know that we often fight,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have bothered her a lot if I wasn’t interested in her.”

Ohh.

Her children actually had feelings for each other?

Without her knowing?

[Well, I’ve been busy these days...]

She cleared her throat while organizing her thoughts. “Have you told Juri about your feelings for her yet?”

Jeno fell silent for a while before he nodded slowly. “I told her that being her husband doesn’t sound bad at all.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” the Marksman said, then he tilted his head to one side. “Is there something wrong with that, Your Royal Highness?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with that,” she said while scratching her cheek. “I was just wondering if your feelings have reached Juri properly.”

“I think they did,” Jeno said, then he gave her a gentle smile that he rarely showed other people. “Juri said that being my wife doesn’t sound so bad, too.”

.....

Oh.

[Ohh.]

Neoma was defeated.

[These two idiots are in love with each other without their knowing what exactly their feelings meant.]

***

“GREKO, you can’t marry without my permission,” Neoma said while hugging Greko who was busy mixing potions. She was being a nuisance, but she didn’t care anymore. “Do you know that Jeno and Juri decided to get married?”

“Jeno hyung told me after you met him, eomma,” Greko said cheerfully. “Don’t worry, eomma. I will marry you when I grow up.”

Aww.

That was cute.

There were some children who would say that they would marry their parent without knowing what it meant in reality.

“You can’t marry me, Greko,” Neoma said smugly. “Ruto won’t let you.”

“I know, eomma,” Greko said, laughing. “But how did Ruto hyung get involved in the conversation?”

Oops.