As it turned out – Thersyn Van Walser was absolutely desperate to get rid of the surplus of jobless bachelors stinking up the place. The royal family had spread between eight different cadet branches, expanding the already large scale of the family tree beyond reasonable management.

Normally a cadet branch would handle their own affairs, but handing responsibility to the King was seen as a good way to get a leg up without having to do any work. Why worry about finding a wife for your children when the King’s clout was enough to do the hard part for you?

The day after I dispatched the letter and brought Franklin in on the plan, I received a response that happily accepted a visit at my earliest convenience. I packed some spare clothes and headed out in the carriage to visit the royal palace. Despite Ekkehard taking over the throne, the house was still controlled by Thersyn Van Walser.

Ekkehard was too craven to step on his toes and try to fight for it. He decided to live in the King’s residence in the capital instead. It was not nearly as luxurious as the palace, but the avarice within was far beyond even the richest of nobles. The palace was a hard act to follow.

For a start, there was a gigantic, medieval wall that surrounded the entire property, constructed from sterling white stone. It was very old, yet meticulously maintained and manned at all times by armed guards. It towered overhead, forcing me to crane my neck upwards as the carriage rumbled through on the stone path.

But that wasn’t even close to the front façade of the actual palace. There was a solid five-minute trip through the front gardens before we caught sight of the main building. Matching the scale of the palace grounds, the buildings in the centre were larger than some of the tallest in the city. Five stories across a hundred thousand square meters.

This was the true royal residence. Generations and generations of the family lived here in their own private wings. The front of the building reached out around a large fountain and driveway. Even that was deceptive – only showing a small part of the full complex from the front.

Every small part of the construction was painstakingly detailed by the most talented craftsmen that the nation had ever seen. Stone statues adorned the walls, with elaborate engraved details running across the entire length of the building. The carriage pulled around to the front door, where three attendants were waiting for our arrival.

“Leave the luggage in here for now. I don’t know how long this will take.”

“Aye,” Franklin nodded.

I dismounted and waited patiently for the lead servant to make the painfully long walk down to the parking spot. The sounds dragged by like they were stuck in a bog.

When he reached us, he bowed his head and took my gloved hand into his, “Lady Walston-Carter, it’s a pleasure to have you here at the palace today! I’m Fleur. I’ve been assigned to be your liaison during your visit.”

I curtseyed, highly aware of how high the standards would be when dealing with the royal family. I had appearances to keep. The entire scheme would be spoiled if they kicked me out for screwing them around.

“It’s my honour to be invited to the palace.”

“I would like to apologize in advance for the inadequate welcome. As I’m sure you’re well aware, recent events have occupied the time of many in the royal house. Master Thersyn would like me to convey his earnest support for your proposal. There are many young men in waiting who would love to have your hand in marriage.”

Too bad I wasn’t here to buy what they were selling.

“You need not apologize for that. I’m sure that the King is a very busy man even at the calmest of times.”

“Ah, well. If I may – he doesn’t permit being called ‘King’ given the present circumstances. He’s a traditionalist in that sense.”

“I will make sure to remember that.”

With the pleasantries over with, Fleur escorted Franklin and I into the grand lobby. My internal cynic pondered how much money was wasted on marble and expensive art. They could have fed an entire city for twenty years with that kind of cash, and here it was being wasted away on portraits and statues. It was by far the most excessive interior space I’d laid eyes on, and that was a stiff contest amongst the preening masses of Walserian nobility.

We walked to the left wing of the palace and found ourselves shown to a small bedroom. ‘Small’ in this context being three times the size of the bedroom I had back at the estate.

“We’ve prepared this room for your use. If you so choose, you can stay overnight if the interview process goes for a long time.”

Franklin knew he’d have to go back and get my bags. He was already stepping away to go and do that before Fleur turned back to the door.

“I see that we’re going at a brisk pace. Is there an urgent matter to attend to?”

Fleur’s smile was strained, “It’s been a stressful few weeks, as you may imagine. You are an honoured guest of the royal family – however, the practicalities of the process demand some efficiency. Are you prepared to greet the bachelors?”

Already? Something was going on here.

“Of course. I am always prepared.”

“Very good ma’am. Please follow me.”

Another long walk took me deeper into the palace’s labyrinthian halls. Fleur had memorized the entire layout like the back of his hands, an impressive display of dedication to the job. He was not exceptional. The servants in the palace were the elite of the elite. The nation’s finest maids, butlers, chefs and gardeners were assembled here and paid very well for the effort.

They also appeared to have an in-house artist and sculptor. There were hundreds and hundreds of artworks and statues against every wall I could see. They depicted notable moments in Walserian history, vicious battles, political upheaval, and family portraits of the Van Walser clan. Each one was individually priceless because of what they portrayed. It was a near-complete history of the royal family after their ascension to the top of the heap.

It was sinking in that this world had a long, winding history where millions of notable people fought for their vision and ideals. I had always acted as if this was a real place, not simply a copy of something I saw in a visual novel that lingered somewhere in the back of my mind gathering dust.

Durandia must have influenced the developers using her powers. I wondered if there was a deity assigned to my old world too. Did she ask for their permission or cooperation? How exactly did she nudge things in this direction with such precision without using brute force mind control?

Fleur stopped on a dime and twisted to face a pair of double doors, knocking four times with a practised rhythm.

“Announcing Lady Maria Walston-Carter!”

After waiting exactly two seconds he pushed the door open and stepped aside to usher me through. I kept my head tilted down to the floor and headed inside. I slowly turned my eyes back up and curtseyed, but I should have studied the room first. I almost choked on my spittle when I finally had a good long look at what terrors were awaiting me.

The reception room was rammed to the fore with no less than four dozen different boys of various ages. The moment I opened the door and stepped across the threshold, the tense silence inside was channelled in my direction. Every single pair of eyes locked onto me in unison like a choir of brainless drones.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

I retreated out of the room and closed the door, turning to Fleur with a confused look.

“Are you honestly telling me that every single one of those gentlemen is here to speak with me?”

Fleur nodded, “Yes ma’am. Is there a problem?”

I pushed my palms together and hushed my voice so they couldn’t overhear us, “I would have thought that you’d... narrow the field a little before I arrived.”

“Master Thersyn didn’t want anyone to feel left out.”

“It’s a marriage interview! Not a day of amusement at the local fair!”

Fleur was trying extremely hard to not look exasperated, or maybe he was trying to stamp down a laugh that was bubbling to the surface. It was ambiguous. Either way, the situation was far trickier than I first imagined.

I had foolishly insisted to Frankfort that I would be here for a day or two at the absolute maximum, but with so many potential suitors begging for attention I could see it stretching to a week if we went at a fast pace. And not all of them would agree to an expedited schedule. That would bruise too many egos.

So here I was – standing outside of a room with far, far too many single men who desperately wanted to get in with a rich and powerful noble family through marriage. I was not going to be tricked into saying yes to any of them, but the real problem was that my plan to assassin-proof the palace would be almost impossible if I was being hounded by so many different people.

Frankfort had squeezed her sources for every bit of information they could provide, and she discovered that the same man had visited several weapon sellers over the preceding week. He worked for Welt before he died.

There was a shift change coming up at the palace where some of the servants returned home for a brief holiday. That wasn’t enough to go on normally, but I had the power of narrative convenience and a future-seeing goddess on my side. They were all red flags that pointed to this being the right time.

I took a deep breath and focused on what I had to do. This wasn’t the time to lose my cool. I’d gotten out of worse jams before. Dodging some desperate royal bachelors was going to be easy by comparison. I put on my best fake smile and opened the door again.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Keep it stiff, keep it formal, and don’t let any emotion slip through the cracks.

“Apologies for my rudeness. I am Maria Walston-Carter. It’s my pleasure to meet you all.”

Any ‘rudeness’ was quickly forgiven in their eyes because of who was speaking with them. It bears repeating that the Walston-Carter family is the apple of every ambitious noble’s eye for a good reason. There was a single child destined to inherit the entire fortune – and that meant that her husband stood to gain from it as well. Even the royals knew this, which was why a turnout of this size had occurred.

There was whispering between some of the people in the room. Fleur stood next to me and clapped his hands to get their attention.

“Master Thersyn has asked me to oversee the marriage interview process. While I would prefer to give you all enough time to speak with Lady Walston-Carter in detail, the number of potential suitors has exceeded our expectations. We’ll have to do this orderly and respectfully.”

He placed extra emphasis on those last words and I became acutely aware of what was about to happen. All of the boys and teenagers in the room were the problem children. I was about to feast on a buffet of every personality deficiency ever discovered by mankind, and the words ‘orderly’ and ‘respectfully’ didn’t get any headroom amongst their number.

I was second-guessing our plan. Breaking into the King’s bedroom sounded easier than doing all of this bullshit. It was too late to do anything about it now. I had to face the music and deal with the mundanity of acting demure around a bunch of raving lunatics.

The naïve, younger suitors were all staring at me – presumably thinking about how I was the prettiest girl they’d seen. Samantha’s rival in the original visual novel had to be better than her in every way, so she was blessed with looks that would let her manipulate others into doing her bidding.

The older suitors weren’t as interested in me for that reason. To them, I represented their best chance to escape from the shadow of their relatives and land a cosy, low-stress spot at the top of an incredibly wealthy family. They didn’t necessarily have to move out of the palace and lose all of their perks either, they imagined a future where I moved in to be with my new husband.

It was time for me to run the gauntlet and see how much of this I could stand.

After making my full introduction to the assembled suitors, Fleur escorted me into a side room that was attached to the lounge. Each suitor would enter the room, introduce themselves to me and make their best case for becoming my betrothed partner. I sat on the chair and stared dead ahead at the window on the opposite end of the room, unmoving, unflinching, unfeeling.

The door opened and the carousel of horrors truly started.

It was unassuming at first. They’d walk in with a style of step that made them look like soldiers in a parade, sit down in the chair with what little nerve they could muster, and force out their names, ages and relations in a rote reiteration. I had no context for any of it – but the real games were played in the back end of the interview, where they would speak about themselves and their ambitions once they left the comforting embrace of the Van Walser house.

It was a given amongst them that it would be a matrilineal marriage. These were the dregs. The boys and teenagers who were too much trouble to bother keeping around, so this was their last gasp attempt to get some ‘value’ out of their flesh and blood relations by marrying into a wealthy family.

“My name is Cassidus. My great, great uncle was once the King of Walser. I’m fifteen years old.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I repeated for the twelfth time.

He glared at me for no reason and then concocted a story to get mad about on the spot.

“This is what you’ve been reduced to now? I would have thought that the Walston-Carter family was too good for the likes of us, but I suppose it’s desperate times given that you’re the only living heir.”

My eyes dropped, “You are utterly terrible at this.”

“What?”

“You have one chance to make a first impression and that is what you come up with? You’re supposed to be winning me over – not insulting my family.”

A lightbulb turned on in his head – as if this was the first moment when he realized that the exercise was intended for me to find an eligible husband and not as a makeshift therapy session for a misanthrope teenager.

“You... look nice?” he offered with a strained smile.

I shook my head and he showed himself out of the room early.

And on it went. Dozens of faces and names at a pace far too quick for me to remember. It soon descended into farce. This was a fire sale. All disinherited sons half off! Amazingly some of them were even worse than Cassidus was, expressing open contempt for the process that they volunteered for in the first place, or insulting me directly.

“I don’t want to marry an ugly nag like you anyway!”

“It’d be a mistake to lose my family name in exchange for yours.”

“I’m only here because my parents forced me to come.”

Things weren’t looking good – but on the bright side if they had so many unmarried royals running around, a natural self-selection process would be the easiest way to cut down on the number being born in the future.

The first round ended and I re-entered the lounge where Fleur was waiting for me. It had taken nearly three hours for a brief introduction and conversation with each suitor. I had already gotten my fill of this, but the royals wanted the process to be over with quickly.

“Thank you for your patience, Lady Maria.”

“No, no. Meeting so many new people was... simply delightful.”

It took all of my training and experience not to look like a serial killer as I said that. A perceptive person would detect an undercurrent of venom in my voice, instead of being dazzled by my appearance and voice and discarding their curiosity. How was Claude the only person to have figured me out after so long?

“Some of the boys have chosen to drop out of their own volition. We have fourteen remaining, although we have to get your opinion on who is in the best standing at the moment.”

You could have held a loaded gun to my head under duress and I still wouldn’t remember any of their names. The only ones who got the privilege of being recalled were the same people who were never, under any circumstance, going to have a happy marriage with their horrible personalities. None of them were on the list.

“I do not have any complaints regarding the people who are left. We can continue as normal.”

“The next meeting is scheduled for an hour from now. Allow me to show you to the dining hall.”

“Would it be a problem for me to explore the palace?” I asked innocently.

Fleur was concerned, “This is a rather large complex. I wouldn’t want a guest getting lost.”

“Don’t worry. I have a very good sense of direction. I assume we’re meeting here again?”

“Yes. That is correct.”

Fleur couldn’t explicitly overrule what I wanted without seeming rude, so he didn’t. Bringing Franklin along would also give me an extra layer of deniability if they felt that I was doing something wrong. I reunited with him in the dining hall and enjoyed the excellent food that the world-class chefs prepared.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“Terrible. I always felt that my manners were poor by comparison to some of my peers, but I know now that there was no reason to worry.”

Franklin coughed into his hand, “I would never accuse you of having poor manners. You were very observant during the lessons we held at the manor.”

Because I needed all of that stuff to blend in, mainly. Listening carefully was no substitute for having those rules and norms drilled into your head for years since the moment of your birth. I would occasionally make a mistake. It was fine when I used the wrong spoon during a meal because nobody noticed, but social faux pa was much easier for someone to notice and they could give you a hard time for doing it.

“To be frank, there wasn’t an ounce of charm between the lot of them. Some of them were too young to understand what they were there for, and the elder ones all had rotten personalities. It’s no wonder they have a surplus of them!”

“I take it that you won’t be leaving the palace with a betrothed, then.”

“Over my dead body. That’s not what we came here to do anyway.”

“You never know, a chance meeting is the very essence of romance.”

“In a novel, maybe – but we live in the real world. Nothing that convenient is going to happen here.”

The doors to the dining hall opened, but it was not Fleur who stepped through. It was the ‘Ice King’ Theodore Van Walser. He scanned the room before locking eyes with me and making a beeline for the table I was seated at.

“Maria.”

“Hello, Theodore. It’s been a while since we last spoke, hasn’t it?”

“It has. For what reason do you assail the palace at such a tumultuous time?”

There was that edgy, high-strung Theodore that I remembered from the game. He was normally pleasant at the academy – but his mood changed quickly when things were going wrong. It was why Maria there had an easy time manipulating him and turning him into the secondary antagonist, even if he learned his lesson by the end and turned on her.

“The world keeps moving around us even in times of crisis. Call it callous to say, but I am not in a position to feel troubled by what is happening. I am not protesting in the streets, nor am I attempting to place myself in line for the throne.”

A lie – it was very much my business to get involved in.

“I hope you’re not trying to pull a dirty trick on my family.”

“Hardly. My father simply insisted that I visit here for some marriage interviews with the unwed men of your house. Given who I have spoken with, the impression I get is that their parents will agree to a matrilineal arrangement and they’ll essentially cede whatever influence they have. It must seem like an upgrade to someone. Instead of being a fifth rung royal, they can become one of the most powerful nobles in the country.”

“That’s very cold of you.”

I scoffed, “This isn’t about romance, remember. This is what nobles do.”

Unless you were my father – who eloped with a secret police woman and had a child with her, before legitimizing that same child to be the heir to his empire. Theodore was not so put off by the detached description of what was going on, but how I was ceding my well-known independent streak to submit to his whims.

“I apologize. I’m used to you blazing your own trail, as they say. No matter what the other students at the academy said or thought – you always did as you liked. I came to admire that about you.”

Theodore always wanted to be more than third in line to the throne. He didn’t want to be the spare, waiting for the dire moment where his elder brothers were indisposed or murdered and he was shoved into their place. With his eldest brother soon marrying and potentially having a child of his own – Theodore would be removed from the succession line entirely and freed of that responsibility.

He wanted more, but how would he feel being less than what he was now?

“It’s easy to be that way when nothing is on the line,” I admitted, “We’re speaking of low-stakes conflict at a boarding school for spoiled nobles. Something more, like marriage, that’s out of my hands.”

Theodore shook his head, “You’ll eat them alive. I can almost see it now.”

“If this ends in an agreement, anyway. There are still many opportunities for it to all fall apart. We might end with no suitable candidates, or the handful that meets my standards may insist on retaining their name.”

“What good is a name alone? If I were in their shoes, I’d get out of here as quickly as possible.”

It was a surprisingly frank admission from someone who was normally extremely guarded. The candid tone of the conversation had made him feel at leisure to be honest about how he felt. Nothing made a person open up like mocking others or breaking a few noble norms.

“I hope that your father is well,” I said.

“He’s... okay. I appreciate your concern. It will take a lot more than this to rattle him.”

A bullet through the head or poison down his gullet would rattle him good enough for Sloan’s liking. I also had to worry about Theodore and his brothers, because they all had stronger claims to the throne than Ekkehard did. As the thought occurred to me – I put myself into Sloan’s shoes for a moment and had an epiphany on top of that.

Having multiple people with strong claims was what he wanted.

Theodore tried in vain to keep his head down and out of the race, but even without his knowledge there would be those in the noble class who wanted him to be King for a variety of reasons. The same could be said for his brothers too. It was the perfect situation for Sloan, wherein there’d be no easy way to revert the damage and there would potentially be a greater conflict between the three opposing sides.

Ekkehard could skate while the rest of the house fought for the right to challenge him.

But I couldn’t get ahead of myself. This was all my assumption. There was no guarantee that Sloan was thinking the same way as me. I could have been overthinking the problem, and if I made that mistake then all of them would suffer for it. I had to act under the assumption that all of them were targets.

“We never had time to speak at the academy before – so don’t be afraid to approach me during my stay,” I offered.

“Of course. I must take my leave.”

Theodore bowed his head and left the way he came, having gotten what he wanted from me. Franklin stood silently to my right behind the chair.

I polished off my food and put down my fork; “We have to assassin-proof this building.”

“But it’s huge. Where are we going to start?”

Putting myself into Sloan’s shoes was of debatable use, but assassins were another matter. Franklin didn’t have to worry. I simply had to pretend that I was the one gunning for Thersyn and his sons, and work from there.

“Follow me.”