“Not as many as I imagined,” Wilhelmina Minna sighed. “What I will miss most is Hans Borg, who is about to go to the lower house.”
“Think positively,” Albert counseled. “You only need to stay in the palace and issue orders, without having to experience the meetings in the parliament and senate. Those scenes would make you completely desperate about the empire’s future.”
Wilhelmina laughed lightly. “It’s just a pity that during the grand election, I am the only person in the empire who cannot vote. I don’t particularly care about the result, but I long for that sense of participation.”
“This is your empire, Willy,” Albert gently touched her hand. “And there is another person who also cannot vote.”
“Who?”
Albert stood still, smiling gently at Wilhelmina. Sunlight filtered through layers of leaves, casting dappled golden spots, while swaying tree shadows added a hint of ambiguity to his smile.
Wilhelmina realized, “Oh, you…”
She blushed and laughed. “I am truly an absent-minded person.”
“It’s fine,” Albert teased. “You still need some time to get used to having a fiancé.”
“And you?” Wilhelmina asked. “How are you adapting?”
Albert looked toward the end of the lawn and the forest, with a hint of bitterness in his smile.
After returning to Odin, Albert had successfully reunited with his parents and resigned from the military.
Some identities cannot be held simultaneously with any position, such as the queen’s husband.
As Wilhelmina’s fiancé, Albert’s rights and obligations remained undefined in imperial law. Although the empire legislated the queen’s rights and duties, the elders and parliamentarians debated whether these laws applied to the king’s husband.
Albert would be the first king’s husband in the Osenberg dynasty, having sacrificed much for this title, including over a decade studying at military school, the Selberg family’s military power. If the parliament remained indecisive, all his rights would depend on Wilhelmina’s generosity, potentially relegating him to a life away from politics, living quietly in the palace and engaging in charitable work.
“Don’t you feel that you’re still young and shouldn’t be trapped by marriage for life?” Wilhelmina asked. “I am a woman, and marriage won’t change my original path. But this marriage will change your life.”
