Delphine Rosenroth had not earned her reputation by being easy to shock.
In fact, very few things managed to touch her nerves at all, not economic forecasts, not foreign lobbying scandals, not even the idiocy of half the Empire's junior nobility. She'd weathered decades of court evolution and family politics with the same grace she used to sign billion contracts: cold, clean, and with a pen that never ran out of ink.
She was in her personal office, the southern wing of the Rosenroth city mansion, warm summer light filtering through carved glass. Two assistants hovered quietly at their stations, filtering incoming reports from logistics subsidiaries and compiling the updated court invitations for the Coming of Age Ball.
Delphine herself was reviewing supply line expansions in the northern provinces. Everything was running smoothly and her circle of influence was rapidly spreading, not that she was cooperating with the Emperor behind the social world's back.
Then her tablet pinged.
A single notification appeared on her private screen, the one reserved for family-registered obligations and legal contracts.
She nearly ignored it, as usually Layle or Rafael would deal with their own problems, rarely needing help from her. Until she saw the sender.
New Event Added–Imperial Registry Notification
Courtship Date–Gregoris Aurelian Frasner, Duke of Alamina
Status: Approved & Synced
Candidate: Rafael Rosenroth
"Slot scheduled based on compatibility index and mutual registry approval. Note: The initial candidate submission was received under the formal lineage title without first name. Full legal identity verified and confirmed. Event locked."
[View Details]
[Rescind Approval - Unavailable]
[Appeal to Imperial Court – Denied]
Delphine stared.
Not at the notification itself, she had already read it once, twice, three times, but at the slow, pulsing glow of the confirmation seal, as if the tablet were mocking her. She placed it down cautiously, fingers unshaking, but posture unchanged. Her assistants didn't even glance up. They knew better. Delphine Rosenroth's silences were not to be interrupted.
For a moment, nothing moved but the shadows of the fluttering lace curtain and the second hand of the grandfather clock behind her.
Gregoris. Gregoris Aurelian Frasner.
She hadn't even known the man had a middle name, let alone one so dramatic. And yet that wasn't what held her attention. No. What held it was the memory of the form she had signed almost a month ago.
Her assistant had done a background check, as she always did with everyone requesting to be introduced to Rafael. The boy was not a social person, but his position in the Empress in waiting office and multiple social events with Rafael being a part of the imperial group had rocketed his already good reputation.
She had read the report; it was good.
Alamina was an old name she knew very well… she only forgot that the title was given to Gregoris after decimating the traitorous family.
That should have been the first clue.
But the form had come unsigned by a first name, filed only with the formal heraldic seal and the Duke's lineage credentials, just as the older versions of the courtship registry allowed. It had been, as far as she knew, an antique eccentricity. Anonymity through nobility. Nothing more.
And she, in a rare moment of misplaced indulgence, had allowed it.
The assumption had been simple: Augustus.
The Ravenstones had been around for months, quietly respectful, officially untitled but old enough in wealth and influence to pass. Augustus was disciplined, intelligent, and polished in all the right places. Rafael didn't hate him, which was rare, and the family logistics branches worked well with Rosenroth's eastern subsidiaries. A logical match.
But this… This was not logic.
This was Gregoris Frasner.
A man she had once publicly referred to as "an ethical war crime." A man who made full-grown dukes flinch by breathing in their direction. A man who once had threatened Delphina without an ounce of humanity in those damn eyes.
She had threatened to shoot him in the thigh if he ever came near her again.
And yet, somehow, she had approved this.
She exhaled slowly and returned her gaze to the tablet.
The interface had updated. There was now a countdown to the official date: five days. Rafael's schedule had already shifted. The calendar showed the new engagement slotted just perfectly at 19:00 on a Saturday.
She stared at the clocked‑in time.
Exactly 19:00.
Exactly when Rafael preferred formal outings, but not too late, because the boy hated evening crowds.
Gregoris had tailored the slot with the elegance of someone planning a military strike.
Delphine pressed her fingertips to her temple and inhaled once. Then she tapped her private line.
Rafael answered on the third ring.
He sounded wrecked.
"…Mother?"
Delphine did not waste time.
"Rafael," she said calmly, "Gregoris Frasner is not fair, nor is he nice, nor is he, under any circumstances, normal."
A stifled noise came through the line, something between a groan and a plea.
"You approved the form," Rafael whispered, like a man begging a deity for mercy.
"I thought it was just a Duke!" Delphine snapped. "I assumed the anonymous Duke was someone irrelevant. Not the Emperor's bloodhound."
"Mother… there are only twelve dukes in the Empire."
"Yes," Delphine said icily, "and I had hoped, naively, that at least one of them wouldn't be an unrepentant assassin with ether-reinforced gloves."
She stood and crossed to the window, the lace curtain shifting against her arm as sunlight painted delicate gold patterns across the floor. Her voice didn't rise, but it sharpened.
"Do you know why he's the Duke of Alamina?"
Rafael was silent.
"He executed the family personally," she said, each word precise. "When Damian offered him a choice of rewards, he didn't ask for land, or wealth, or a favor. He asked for their title. Because he liked their crest."
"That's not…" Rafael tried.
Delphine cut him off. "Because he liked. Their. Crest."
She turned from the window.
"He didn't need the land. The estate had been seized. The family had already been condemned. But Gregoris wanted their name. So he took it. With his own hands. And then he had the audacity to file his courtship request through a loophole so old I had to dust off the regulation binder to remember it even existed."
"…you have a regulation binder?"
"I have six."
"Of course you do."
Delphine ignored the remark. "Rafael, that man plotted this. He waited for Augustus to appear as a soft distraction, filed under a heraldic seal without a first name, waited for me to approve it, and then locked the date once the Imperial system confirmed your compatibility score."
"Mother, I'm aware of Gregoris's genius; he is not the Commander just because he looks dangerous." Rafael muttered, pacing audibly on the other end. "But I think I have a plan."