Context: Conversation between Shuurei and Ryuuki at the end of book 12.

….That night, Ryuuki visited Shuurei alone.
“I have something to say. Shall we go onto the deck?”

Shuurei’s heart pounded strangely. Since Ryuuki had awoken, they had conversed, but never just the two of them. If he were to say in a formal manner “I have something to say,” things were very off. Maybe it was because General Ran had said strange things to him. Shuurei shook her head .

“All right. Let’s go.”

Ryuuki walked to the deserted tail of the ship. There was something strange about moving back while the boat was advancing. They went to the very back, and then sat down next to each other. If you looked up into the sky, the constellations of summer, were already being pursued by the stars of autumn.

“Sorry.”

Ryuuki apologized from the heart, for flying off like he was fleeing.
“But, I was happy you came to get me.”

His whisper, like a sigh, was heartfelt. He had truly been happy.

Shuurei hugged her knees.
“I was worried. Even so, just a bit. ”

After a moment of silence, Ryuuki muttered:
“I heard from Shuuei that you cried for me.”
Shuurei stiffened. –Why did General Ran know something like that?
(Ehh? He wasn’t there!)
“That’s a lie! It’s a lie! General Ran was making that up!”
“Hmph.”
Ryuuki snorted in reply. He seemed happy. Shuurei grew even more dismayed.
“Shuurei.”
“Wh-wha-what?”

After he got on the boat, the unbearably painful feeling within Ryuuki’s breast had re-awakened.

“We can no longer become king for Shuurei’s sake.”

At those words, Shuurei was surprised.
While looking at the moon floating over the rolling waves, Ryuuki said bit, by bit:

“I still don’t know what “for the sake of the people” is, but I won’t lie about it. However, I want to be a king worthy of Yuushun who is waiting for me, Seiran, Shuuei, and Shuurei who risked her job to come after me. Maybe this is late. But we seek the king we alone can be. We will walk seeking our own path.”

Shuurei felt she vaguely understood the reason Ryuuki had left the castle without saying anything. Thus the answer he had given to her now, had always been his answer to that question.
Shuurei did not think those words were cold.
The person who was sitting next to her now was the king.
It was an odd way of putting it, but Shuurei felt that at this moment, Ryuuki had become king right before her eyes.

“A king must marry.”
Shuurei’s heart pounded at these slowly punctuated words. Today the conversation had shifted to an unexpected topic.
“….Th-that’s right.”
“I will admit Jyuusan-hime into the Inner Palace.”

Shuurei herself did not really know what kind of expression she was making. She was only certain that Ryuuki was extremely quiet, and had a calm look on his face. Before Shuurei could say something, Ryuuki continued.

“We will admit her as the Chief Lady-in-Waiting.”
“…Chief Lady-in-Waiting?”
“Shusui is still missing. We were told this before we came here, but without someone to manage things, the Inner Palace will definitely be in chaos. The Chief Lady-in-Waiting who presides over all of the Ladies-in-Waiting of the Inner Palace and servants, and is the closest to us, must be a woman we can trust. That is why at this point we will make Jyuusan-hime Shusui’s successor, and install her as the Chief Lady-in-Waiting.”
Ryuuki continued without waiting for Shuurei to say something.

“If we formally take as a wife anyone besides Shuurei, we will choose Jyuusan-hime. We will only need to promote her from from Chief Lady-in-Waiting to consort,” he said, finishing.

It was like you could unhesitatingly say it was impossible that this was the same person as the one who had muttered “if you say ‘congratulations,’ I’ll be angry” when Jyuusan-hime had come. Shuurei was, rather, in a state of shock.
Strange. This shouldn’t be. This was the opposite of usual. She should have just laughed, hohoho, and said “Ah, so you’ve finally prepared for the worst.” But why couldn’t those words come out? She definitely had a feeling that Ryuuki was preparing for the worst, but she felt that she had expected a different kind of preparation.

Ryuuki, not letting go of the initiative, pressed on.

“Shuurei.”
“Wh-wh-what?”
“We will marry. Since that is the duty of the king, we must definitely do that. So, we can no longer continue to wait for Shuurei forever.”

Shuurei swallowed her breath.

He could not keep on waiting. Of course. But the strange thing was, Shuurei just realized now that it was as if she had never thought that she would hear such words from Ryuuki.

She was more moved than she had thought she would be.

And what was more, Ryuuki did not for a moment move his eyes away, so he saw Shuurei’s agitation leak out. But if he were to turn them away, something more dangerous than that might be revealed, she felt, so there was nothing she could do about it. Reading Shuurei’s thoughts, Ryuuki was relieved. It seemed that some way or another, his chances were not nonexistent.
Yet he knew full well that Shuurei’s determination was harder than a boulder.

“Therefore, let’s have a match.”
“A match?”
“Yes. The time limit starts from now. If until that time, Shuurei runs completely away, then it will be Shuurei’s win. We will no longer say that we want to marry Shuurei. We will not be at a loss. We will marry Jyuusan-hime.”

Ryuuki had stopped taking the attitude of “waiting,” and now had struck.
For Ryuuki, this was a move he could not take back afterwards.

“If, during that time period, we are able to make Shuurei agree, it will be our win. How’s that?”

Considered calmly, Shuurei really had no duty to accept this. It was something she could reject. But　Shuurei right now was mentally caught in Ryuuki’s trap, so lacked even a speck of the calmness or leeway she would have needed to think about that.

Also, somehow wanting to show off that she had regained her footing, she ended up saying too much.

“Ha haha. Doesn’t this put you at a disadvantage?”
“What? Isn’t that better for Shuurei?”

When he responded grinningly, Shuurei was taken aback.

“G..g.got it. Why don’t I take up that challenge.”
“Okay. Then the time period is….”

Then Ryuuki told her what it was.
It was not short, but it was certainly not long either. As if to show Ryuuki meant it.
Shuurei accepted this.

….And at that time, she realized something, with a bit of self-consciousness.

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