Nisemono Ouhi, Ai o Shiru

The turmoil that engulfed many nations and dragged on for more than a decade finally came to an end, with the Kingdom of Weikling emerging as the dominant power. Its young king, Lionel, demanded that each country offer up hostages. In the Kingdom of Hammond, the only ones who met the conditions to be sent as hostages were the crown prince, Jonas—who was on the verge of marriage—and the queen herself. Unwilling to sacrifice his family, the king of Hammond abdicated in Jonas’s favor, hastily arranged a marriage for him, and devised a plan to present a fake queen as the hostage. The woman chosen to be a wife for that purpose alone was Laura, the daughter of an impoverished baron. The person Jonas truly loved was Silvia, his original fiancée, and even after the marriage, he never spared Laura a glance. Though Laura had been threatened with her family’s safety and forced to abandon her dream of becoming a civil official to accept the royal command, she was sent off to Weikling as queen of Hammond with barely any preparations to her name. Awaiting Laura upon her arrival in Weikling were the cold and ruthless Lionel—and the proud princesses from other nations, themselves hostages, who looked down on her for coming from a minor country. With not even a single lady-in-waiting by her side, Laura is bullied by those princesses as they compete for Lionel’s favor. Yet she endures it all, thinking of her family and holding on bravely. “It’ll be all right. I’m sure of it.” Even as she faces painful days, Laura continues to live with quiet optimism—and in doing so, she catches glimpses of the deep loneliness and desolation that lie within Lionel’s eyes.