After a bit, Myrcella was finally done with her preparations, and everything had already been carefully set in place.

Servants had come and gone, adjustments had been made, details checked and rechecked, and now there was nothing left to fix or prepare. The atmosphere carried that quiet tension that always came right before something important, like the whole castle was holding its breath.

At this point, the only thing left to do was wait for the official coronation.

I walked alongside Veronica through the hallway, our footsteps echoing softly against the polished floors as we made our way toward the throne room, the place where the crown would soon be placed upon Myrcella's head. That was where everything would happen, where the moment would be sealed in front of everyone who mattered.

There were going to be a lot of people attending.

Of course, the throne room itself couldn't possibly accommodate all of them. It wasn't built for that. Still, that didn't stop people from gathering, from wanting to be as close as they could to the event. Even those who couldn't get inside would probably crowd the halls, the courtyards, anywhere they could catch even a glimpse of what was happening.

This wasn't just another ceremony.

This was something that wouldn't be topped by any other event that might happen in the Kingdom for another hundred years. Maybe even longer.

For them, this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Something they'd talk about for the rest of their lives, something they'd tell their children and grandchildren about with a bit too much exaggeration.

The birth of a new King.

While we were walking, right in the middle of all that quiet buildup, Veronica suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand.

"Let's have sex."

She said it so casually, with her usual calm and unreadable expression, that for a second, my brain just refused to process what I had heard. It didn't match the situation at all. One moment we were heading to a coronation, the next she was saying that like she was asking about the weather.

"You want to have sex? Right now?" I asked, turning my head slightly toward her.

"I feel some kind of itchy sensation in my groin," she said without hesitation. "And when I saw you, it became much more pronounced than before. I think it might be because I want to have sex with you."

Straightforward. Almost too straightforward.

Wow.

So she was actually horny right now. Just like that. Timing could not have been worse, or maybe it was just her being her. Honestly, I couldn't even tell anymore. A small part of me almost respected the honesty, even if it came out of nowhere like this.

Still, I wasn't exactly in the mood at the moment. There was a coronation about to happen, and that felt like it should take priority over… whatever this was.

"Let's do that later," I said. "And we should invite Myrcella and Lilia too. I think it'd make for a fun celebration if the four of us had a foursome together, wouldn't it?"

"A foursome?" Veronica repeated, her brows narrowing slightly as she looked at me. She had that look like she was trying to understand a word she had heard before but never really used.

"Having sex with all three of you at the same time," I explained, keeping it simple. "Are you against that idea?"

"So that means that while I'm having sex with you… you're also with the Princess and my sister at the same time?" she asked, carefully laying it out.

"Well, that's basically what a foursome is," I replied.

"Does that mean I can't have you just for myself?"

There was a slight pause after she said that. Her tone didn't change much, but there was something there. Something quieter, almost like disappointment trying not to be too obvious about itself.

"You sound a bit disappointed," I said. "Do you want me that badly?"

"Is it wrong to say that I do?"

That answer came out without hesitation.

It caught me off guard a little. Veronica wasn't usually the type to say things like that so openly. Or maybe she was, and I just hadn't noticed until now.

"Well, right now, I can't really give you what you want since it's Myrcella's coronation," I said. "But if you want to have sex with me, you can just join tonight."

She didn't say anything right away after that, but the look on her face made it clear enough. Slight disappointment.

Then something shifted.

I noticed it first, a faint presence that didn't belong, and it seemed Veronica picked up on it at almost the same time. Her grip tightened slightly before she immediately moved, stepping forward into her usual fighting stance, her body tensing up like a switch had been flipped.

But... well, the presence that I was feeling was... rather familiar.

"I don't think that's necessary," I told her.

She paused for a fraction of a second, then relaxed, lowering her stance. That could've gone badly. If she had attacked right away, there probably would've been one less hero from another world by now.

"We can sense you. Show yourself," I said, directing my voice forward.

There was a moment of silence.

Then she stepped out.

It was Hasegawa-sensei.

She looked like she had been caught doing something she absolutely shouldn't have been doing. Her body was trembling slightly, her hands close to herself like she didn't know what to do with them.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation…" she said, her voice shaky.

"It's fine," I replied. "It's not like we were hiding anything."

I looked at her properly then. She really did look like a scared animal that had wandered into the wrong place and now had no idea how to leave. Her eyes kept shifting, and she couldn't even hold eye contact for more than a second.

"Uh…" she hesitated, then forced herself to look at me, then at Veronica, then back again. "I-I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but… um, Mr. Leon, right? Y-You're in a relationship with… the Princess or I mean... the new King, right?"

"That's right."

"A-And… you're also… in a relationship with Vice Commander Veronica, right?" she continued, her voice getting smaller. "S-So then… are you… cheating on both of them? B-But I heard the word foursome… I-Is it like… 'for some,' like for some reason or something like that? I must've heard it wrong, right?"

She was trying really hard to convince herself.

She was clinging to the idea that she had misunderstood, that it meant something harmless, something she could accept without having to rethink everything she thought she knew.

"Foursome," I said clearly. "I'm planning to have sex with the three of them tonight. Me, Myrcella, Veronica, and Lilia."

She looked at me with wide eyes when I told her that.

"E-Even the Commander as well?" Her voice shook even more now. "I-I'm sorry. I-It seems like I'm still not used to the culture of this world, and I called you a cheater based on that… S-Sorry!"

She started stepping back as she spoke, putting distance between us one step at a time, like staying too close would somehow make things worse for her.

After a few steps, she turned and ran.

I watched her go.

She didn't make it far before she tripped at the corner, falling face-first onto the floor. For a split second, it looked like she might just stay there out of sheer embarrassment, but she quickly pushed herself back up and kept running like nothing had happened.

Honestly, that must've hurt.

Well, it wasn't really a problem that she found out. It wasn't like it would change anything at this point.

While I was still watching the direction she disappeared into, Veronica's voice pulled me back.

"You plan… to add her as well?" she asked.

I glanced at her for a moment.

There was a question there, maybe even a bit of curiosity, though it was hard to tell with her usual expression.

"Let's just keep walking," I said. "Myrcella's coronation is about to start."

She didn't press further after that, and then, we continued down the hallway.