Chapter 05
“Well, I…”
The king, who had been staring at Curtis’s so-called fiancée, suddenly faltered.
Curtis Shan Verck calmly replied, hands behind his back.
“Her name is Ensign Ambroise.”
Ah. He hesitated because he didn’t know her name.
“Right, Ensign Ambroise!”
The king snapped irritably and rubbed his forehead, then turned to Chloe.
“How long have you been in service?”
But before she could answer, Curtis spoke up again.
“Unfortunately, she served in the navy. That made her unsuitable to be Crown Prince Frederick’s fiancée. She was removed from the candidate list. Which, of course, worked in my favor.”
He spoke with confidence, even lifting his chin slightly. It was infuriating.
The king looked annoyed.
“It’s too convenient. That makes it even more suspicious!”
And that was fair. No matter how ridiculous it sounded, Chloe’s background really did fit perfectly with Curtis’s story.
She was a junior noble—not high enough to cause a scandal, but still noble enough that it wasn’t considered “marrying beneath his station.”
Plus, she was from the navy.
For reasons that would be explained later, female navy officers in Ivannes weren’t seen as suitable candidates for early marriage.
In fact, the king himself had ordered that any navy women be excluded from the Crown Prince’s bride selection process.
‘Sneaky bastard…’
By now, Chloe was starting to get suspicious of her commanding officer.
At first, she thought he had lost his mind, talking about marriage. But now… it was clear. Curtis Shan Verck had planned all of this.
Whether she glared at him or not, Curtis just smiled at the king and said,
“Just look at her beauty and intelligence—how could anyone still doubt it?”
Chloe instinctively shut her eyes.
The king leaned back, clutching his forehead like his blood pressure had spiked.
Curtis, on the other hand, confidently laced his fingers through hers.
Around them, nobles finally started to murmur.
The king groaned. Then he turned to Chloe once again.
“Ensign Ambroise. I want to hear it from you. Do you swear on the endless horizon that you really are that rag—my brother’s lover?”
‘If Your Majesty meant to say “raggedy bastard,” then as a proud soldier of Ivannes, I couldn’t agree more,’
Chloe thought bitterly. She had just been dragged into this nonsense and forced to hold her awful boss’s hand. Now she was being called his lover, too.
Of course, Chloe was smart enough not to say any of that out loud.
Instead, she turned to Curtis with an unsure expression.
“…Sir.”
Curtis was smiling at her—but his eyes were cold. He tilted his head in a dramatic, charming gesture.
To outsiders, he looked every bit the perfect man: dressed in his fancy dress uniform, with his handsome face and rare warm expression.
But to Chloe, that smile just meant:
‘Choose your words very carefully.’
‘Ugh, now I’m torn…’
Chloe thought for a moment.
All it would take was one sentence—“No, we’re not lovers”—and Curtis Shan Verck, who’d made her run laps in full gear that afternoon, would be totally screwed.
But the moment didn’t wait for her to decide.
“Ensign Ambroise, can’t you answer faster?”
The king was getting impatient.
The scene reminded Chloe of when she had to sign the paperwork to become Curtis’s aide. The officer at the time rushed her just like this…
‘Damn it. You’re not supposed to pay the price before you finish negotiating…’
She should’ve waited before signing that contract three months ago.
But it’s too late now.
Even if she was a proud and brave soldier of Ivannes, she wasn’t brave enough to tell the king:
“Sorry, can I have a quick private chat with my superior first?”
So she swallowed hard and began to speak.
“Please forgive me, Your Majesty. I was just overwhelmed by emotion at the honor of being able to answer a question from you directly.”
“Spare me the speech. Is it true?”
The king interrupted sharply.
At the same time, Chloe felt Curtis’s grip on her hand tighten. Hard.
She glanced at him. To others, his gaze might seem loving—but to her, it felt threatening.
Chloe raised one eyebrow at him in a silent “Really?” look, then turned to face the king again.
“…It’s true. Brigadier General Curtis Shan Verck recently proposed to me.”
A vein popped on the king’s forehead. Around the room, nobles gasped and whispered:
“Oh my…” “Good heavens…”
Chloe continued,
“But my family, the Ambroise line, only received a first-class knight title three generations ago. I felt we weren’t a good match, so I turned him down once.”
“Ensign.”
Curtis gritted his teeth as he called her name.
The king, however, sat up proudly, triumphant.
“There! You hear that, Duke? Even if this ridiculous story were true, she says she turned you down!”
But just then—
“Sniff.”
A quiet sob rang out.
The king blinked, confused. Did someone just… sniffle? Cry?
He turned toward the sound—and froze with his mouth open.
The aide he had just scolded, Chloe, had tears welling in her eyes. She looked up at Curtis like a heartbroken lover.
But that wasn’t even the worst part.
The pink-eyed woman buried her face in Curtis’s arm and wailed—
“You can’t say things like that in front of His Majesty, darling!”
Darling.
No one had ever dared call Curtis Shan Verck something like that.
Every single noble in the room suddenly felt what it must be like to be the king—utter disbelief.
“Chloe is so moved! Yes! Let’s get married!”
In other words, everyone in the room was now aggressively cleaning out their ears, hoping they’d misheard.
Naturally, that day, the Ivannes social world completely exploded.
****
It was late at night. Past midnight.
“We need to talk.”
That was all Chloe said. And that was enough.
As soon as the party ended, the two of them silently walked to the Royal Guard Headquarters.
The office of Duke Verck was just as grand as expected.
A high ceiling painted with heavenly scenes, silk wallpaper, and a massive oak desk carved with old-style arches—clearly 30+ years old and expensive at a glance.
Everything in the room was arranged with elegant care. Anyone entering for the first time would be stunned by its refinement.
But to Chloe—who had been working there for over three months—it was nothing but a place for late-night overtime.
A fancy desk, chair, and decorations—just tools for staying up too late.
And the man behind all of this?
He casually dropped into the chair behind that very fancy desk.
Chloe stomped in, yanked the brooch off her collar, and handed it to him.
“Mm.”
Curtis frowned when he saw it.
He had pinned that brooch on her earlier without much thought. But it had turned out to be the finishing touch to Chloe’s act today.
What kind of act?
“Ensign Ambroise! Lying to the king is equal to treason!
If you two really intended to marry, why did you keep it secret?!”
The king had still refused to believe their relationship. He had flown into a rage.
But once again, Chloe proved how smart she was.
Instead of arguing or confessing, she had quietly reached for something on her uniform and—
