It was a couple of days after the prince’s birthday ball that the king finally requested Maude and Jaspar to the palace with his decision on how Maude could become a citizen of Aulbert. The summoning letter had arrived early in the morning, so early that Helena hadn’t even come to wake Maude yet. As soon as the letter arrived, Helena had rushed in to wake her up and start getting her ready to meet the king. Or so Helena had told Maude anyway.

Maude had felt like she was barely able to breathe from the moment Helena had told her the words, “the king has summoned you.” She’d barely touched her breakfast at all. She’d spent most of the morning wringing her hands, wondering what the king had ultimately decided her fate would be.

When she and Jaspar had gotten into the carriage together, he told her not to worry too much about it. He told her that he had thoroughly explained to the king her situation, and suggested that asking Maude to fight in the war as a pacifist may be too steep of a cost for her citizenship.

Nonetheless, Maude had struggled to keep herself from hyperventilating throughout the entirety of the carriage ride to the palace. Jaspar had tried to comfort her, but nothing could replace the sense of impending doom that was growing in her stomach.

The carriage ride felt too short, and they arrived at the palace quicker than Maude had anticipated.

“Deep breaths,” Jaspar told her, as the carriage came to a slow stop in front of a different section of the palace than the one the crown prince’s birthday had been in.

“I can’t do this,” she declared. “There’s no way he’s not going to ask me to do something I’m not capable of…” She was starting to breathe hard again.

“I specifically asked that he try to consider your unique circumstances when making his decision,” Jaspar said. “Though that is obviously not a guarantee that he will, the king of Aulbert is not the same as the emperor.”

Maude remembered how terrified she’d been when her father had taken her to meet the emperor before the war. She’d never felt so small in her life before her father had crushed her face into the ground in front of the emperor.

What if that happens again? A panicky voice inside of her asked. What if the king of Aulbert is just as cruel as the emperor?

“Just trust me,” Jaspar added. “Whatever the king decides, I’m sure the two of us can come up with a plan to tackle it together.”

Maude swallowed hard, nearly choking from the lump that had formed in her throat. “How can you be so certain?” she asked him. “It is not as though you know the outcome of this situation any better than I do.”

“You’re correct,” Jaspar answered. “But I have confidence that no matter what happens, we can do our best to find a path forward through it. As long as we are a team, we will find a way.”

Maude met his blue eyes. There seemed to be passion filling them, in a different way than when he looked at her so lustfully.

“Are you certain?” Maude asked. “I fear having to lose you after I only just started to have you.”

“I’m certain,” Jaspar replied, stepping out of the carriage, and offering Maude his hand. “It was always my goal to become your partner. You just rushed things along faster than I anticipated. So I promise you that I will do everything in my power to find a way to make things work with you.”

Maude nodded, her anxiety starting to ebb away again. She took Jaspar’s outstretched hand and carefully stepped down out of the carriage.

“Welcome, Duke Rosenberg, Lady Holloway,” she heard a female voice say. She looked up, and behind Jaspar, she saw a young woman with thick, dark black hair smiling at the two of them.

“I’m Lauren, one of the king’s assistants. He asked me to escort you to the throne room as soon as the two of you arrived.” Her smile was pleasant with dimples gracing her chin and cheeks when she smiled.

“It’s a pleasure, Lady Lauren,” Jaspar said, offering a small bow. Maude wasn’t really sure what proper etiquette was, so she followed Jaspar’s lead and gave Lady Lauren a small curtsy of her own. “The royal family is waiting in the throne room, so we must be on our way, I’m afraid,” she gestured to the palace.

“Of course,” Jaspar murmured, gently grabbing Maude’s hand and pulling her after Lady Lauren.

Maude felt like her heart was trying to exit her chest. I’m going to die, she thought. That’s the only explanation for what is going on with my body.

Jaspar gently squeezed her hand. “We’ve got this,” he murmured softly as he gently pulled her up the stairs to the palace entrance.

Maude’s breath was starting to get huffy again, and it wasn’t from the exertion. The king is going to tell me that there’s no way I can become a citizen of Aulbert, she thought. That’s the only explanation for why it took so long for him to get back to us. Why else would it be?

Lauren led them through hallways with gilded embellishments on the ceilings and the walls. Velvet runners ran through most of the halls they walked through. Maude tried to distract herself from her inner turmoil by looking at the painted images on the ceiling. There were some colors that she’d never seen before in paintings; blues and purples dotted the ceiling.

Eventually, they arrived at two heavy, tall stone doors. Maude started struggling with her breath again.

“Is she alright?” Lady Lauren asked Jaspar.

“She’s going to be,” Jaspar answered, squeezing Maude’s hand again. “She’s just a little nervous,” he added.

Lauren raised her eyebrows at Jaspar. “Are you sure?” she asked.

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“Little” is putting it mildly, Maude thought.

Jaspar looked at Maude with concerned eyes. “Are you alright?” he asked her. “Just nervous?”

Maude started taking deep breaths. She squeezed his hand back and nodded. “I’m…alright,” she managed.

Lauren nodded. “If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask, my lady,” she said. “I will be standing in the corner by the doors if you do.”

Maude nodded, and Lady Lauren grabbed one of the circular metal handles on the door and pushed it open.

The throne room was the most luxurious room that Maude had ever been in, even surpassing the imperial throne room where she and her father had visited the emperor. The floors were polished white marble, and the ceiling and floor trim of the room looked as though it had been ornately carved, and then painted with silver metallic paint. The runner shifted from the red velvet to a royal blue velvet. In front of Maude and Jaspar were two thrones made of silver metal, gilded with gemstones on the top of the backrests. In one, sat the king, who clearly crown prince Erich was the spitting image of. Atop the king’s golden crown of hair sat his coronet. Despite the opulence of the room, Maude was surprised to see the crown was relatively unembellished. Next to the king sat a woman with long, rich black hair, which was most certainly where Prince Erich had gotten his own hair color from, was the queen. Her diadem was much more extravagantly decorated, and sat snugly against her forehead.

Behind the ruling royal couple, stood Prince Erich. He was wearing a coronet of his own, though it appeared to be significantly smaller than his father’s.

In front of them, Lady Lauren peeled away, to close the door behind them. Maude felt grateful that Jaspar was still holding her hand to guide her, as she couldn’t remember how close she was supposed to get to the royal family before they were supposed to perform their ceremonial bows.

Roughly three yards or so before the thrones, Jaspar stopped, let go of Maude’s hand, and began performing his ceremonial bow.

Maude followed suit, feeling as though she had ice in all of her limbs. Her heart was still pounding, but she managed to get her breath under control.

The end of the ceremonial bow brought her onto the ground, on her knees in front of the royal family. It was the same position her father had forced her into when she met the emperor.

“Please rise,” the king’s warm voice said. Maude felt her eyes widen at the sound of it, and from the words he said. Tradition in meeting the leader of the country in Aulbert seemed to differ greatly than it did from meeting the leader of the empire.

“Thank you, your highness,” Jaspar replied, rising beside her.

“Thank you, your highness,” Maude echoed, rising to her full height next to Jaspar.

“Thank you for coming today,” the king said. “I’m terribly sorry I called you both here on such short notice.” Out of the corner of her eye, Maude noticed that Jaspar was looking directly at the king’s face. She followed suit.

“It is an honor to receive a summons from you, your highness,” Jaspar replied, putting a fist on his chest and doing a small bow. Maude nodded deeply, remembering that was what she was supposed to do whenever Jaspar put his fist on his chest.

The king smiled at the two of them. “Our Duke Rosenberg has found love in the most unique way,” he said warmly. “Just like your father did.”

Next to him, the queen warmly smiled and giggled as well. “Duke Rosenberg, you have become so much like your father.”

“Thank you, kindly, your highnesses,” Jaspar said, a warm smile spreading across his own face, and his cheeks pinking a bit for a blush.

Now I see why he told me not to worry so much about this meeting, Maude thought, the vice grip she had was feeling in her chest starting to lessen. Of course he’s close with the king and queen if his best friend is the crown prince.

“Well,” the king said, shifting in his seat some, clearly suggesting he was going to switch to their business, “I also want to apologize for taking such a long time to get back to you both on how you, Lady Maude,” he said, looking pointedly at Maude, “can become a citizen of Aulbert.” He paused for a moment. “Hopefully you both can forgive me, as the war with the empire has been intensifying for a while.” Maude glanced over at Jaspar. His blue eyes caught Maude’s, and he nodded subtly.

The war has been intensifying, Maude thought. If it was an easy win for Aulbert, that most certainly would not be the case.

“Things are not looking good,” the king admitted, frankly. “Though we have not been saying as much so we don’t stir up Aulbert’s citizenry until such time as they will need to evacuate.”

Maude felt her eyes widen. Did the empire really gain that much ground on Aulbert recently?

The look on the king’s face was glum. “Lady Maude,” he said, looking directly at her. “Duke Rosenberg explained to me that part of the reason you came into our care in the first place was in large part because fighting others is against your values.”

“That’s correct, your highness,” she answered with a small bow.

“I’m so happy that you have decided to become a citizen of Aulbert, especially with all you might have to offer us. And I want you to know that when I was thinking of all the possible ways you could gain citizenship to our small kingdom, I did take your unique situation into consideration.”

“Thank you, your highness,” Maude replied, nodding.

“I also took into consideration that in order for you both to marry in the future, that it would become much easier for Lady Maude to become a duchess if she has a title of her own.”

Maude felt like her cheeks were on fire. Married, she thought. I’ve been so focused on how I could gain citizenship to Aulbert that it hadn’t even crossed my mind that truly, the point of all that was so Jaspar and I could get married.

“Thank you,” Jaspar said for the both of them.

“Unfortunately, titles are not just freely given in Aulbert, which means Lady Maude does need to contribute significantly to the kingdom in some way to earn one.”

Maude’s stomach was starting to constrict again. Oh no, she thought. Maybe this isn’t going as well as I thought it was? Will I still end up having to do something I really don’t want to do?

She glanced over at Jaspar and noticed that his jaw was tense. Is he getting the same vibe? She wondered.

She looked back over at the king, who looked extremely troubled. He paused in his talking. Maude’s heart rate began to pick up. Her stomach clenched, and she felt her shoulders tense.

I’m a sword saint, she thought. And there’s one thing sword saints are really good at. The greatest value I can bring to this country that could be on the brink of destruction is to fight for them.

“Unfortunately, there is only one conclusion I could come to, even after ruminating on this decision for so long,” the king continued. “And that would be for Lady Maude Holloway to gain citizenship and a title in Aulbert, she will need to fight in the war, and Aulbert will need to win.” The king sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his hands.

Maude noticed that both the queen and crown prince Erich looked surprised.

Her heart skipped a beat. Of course he wants me to fight in the war, she thought. If things are really that desperate, then a sword saint fighting on their side might be able to turn the tide of the war.

“Normally,” the king continued, “I would never consider asking someone to do something that they might be incapable of doing. But for you, Lady Maude, we are in a special case. You do have the capability to heroically help Aulbert in one of our greatest times of need. But ultimately, if Aulbert loses the war, there will be no kingdom to become a citizen of, no Duke of Rosenberg, and no Jaspar Rosenberg for you to marry.” The king swallowed loudly and paused, silence filling the room.

He’s not wrong, Maude thought. If Aulber loses the war, then this land will become a part of the empire. The emperor would destroy the nobility of Aulbert first.

“I am sorry that I was unable to fulfill your special conditions, Duke Rosenberg,” the king said, looking crestfallen.

Maude was shaking. Once again, she was being asked to fight in a war that she wanted nothing to do with.