"You might actually be a genius. Who knew the mystical trait you condensed earlier would have this kind of use?"
Mephisto was full of praise, declaring outright:
"What reason could be more fitting than the pursuit of true love? Even the Wheel of Fate would never refuse anyone the right to seek it."
Faust gave a noncommittal sound. "What if it's purely physical attraction?"
"Of course that counts. The feelings of mortal men have always begun with physical compatibility.
Unlike us poor Fae with no bodies to call our own, the flesh grants you all something far more real. As long as it isn't purely lust, you're fine."
So there were actual advantages to being lecherous? Though, thinking about it, it made sense.
Just consider all those fairy tale princes, so thoroughly repressed that a single glimpse of a beautiful princess was enough to send them tumbling headfirst into love, no foundation whatsoever. If you called that genuine feeling, it was a stretch.
Mostly it was just desire at first sight, and brazen desire at that. Didn't matter if the girl was dead or alive, human or not. Pretty enough? Kiss first, ask questions never.
Truly repressed, the lot of them.
Faust shook his head with a sigh and returned to composing the proposal letter.
To convey the proper weight of the matter, he chose every word with care.
A graceful lady, sought by a gentleman of virtue. Though mountains crumble and heaven meets earth, still I shall not forsake you. Translate it, dress it up a little, and you had something rather moving. His reserves of such material were deeper than anyone could imagine.
While Faust was busy polishing his proposal letter with full enthusiasm, Viviana pushed the door open and came to stand quietly behind him.
The girl's deep violet eyes moved attentively over each word her lover had written, her long lashes fluttering softly, though the expression on her striking face remained as calm and serene as ever.
When Faust finished the warmly impassioned letter and leaned back in a satisfied stretch, he turned and handed it to the childhood friend standing at his shoulder.
"Viviana, this letter..."
"You want it sent to the Kingdom of Wintertide. I understand."
Viviana took the letter and read through it once more before looking up.
"There is something I'm uncertain about, Your Highness. Would you mind answering a question?"
Here we go.
Faust straightened in his chair, his expression turning serious.
The Prince of Aurum had never intended to hide this from her. He couldn't have hidden it even if he tried, so he might as well face it openly.
What he was pursuing was a way to use the mechanism of multiple Witches to shift the threads of fate, which meant becoming entangled with more than one of them. How to manage the relationships between them was something he had to think through carefully.
The sooner a mutual understanding was reached, the better. Even by this world's conventions, where a prince of the realm could certainly have more than one partner, and even though Viviana had always seemed perfectly unbothered by his private affairs before, there was a distinction to be made.
Dallying with maids and noblewomen was one thing, little more than recreation. It bore no comparison to a formal companion. Besides, he and Viviana were, by any reasonable measure, still in the early flush of love. To be sending a marriage proposal to a foreign princess he had never once met was undeniably peculiar, no matter how one framed it.
Under the weight of Faust's serious gaze, Viviana spoke quietly:
"Reading this letter, I cannot find any genuine feeling or love within it."
"Your Highness, you have never met the princess of Wintertide before. Why would you suddenly want to propose to her? Is it solely because that imperial princess offered you a generous reward for conquering Wintertide?"
"Faust, do you still remember the promise between us?"
The golden-haired girl's voice was unhurried, but every word landed with a heaviness that made it difficult to breathe.
Those gorgeous, fathomless violet eyes held his without blinking, a gaze that seemed to pierce straight through to the soul, and it was enough to make Faust's breath catch.
This is exactly what I wanted to see. Yes, this is it!
Mephisto, shut up.
Faust mentally snapped at his gleefully spectating contracted Fae, then pressed his lips together and met Viviana's gaze steadily.
"Of course I remember. I won't deny that self-interest played a part."
The Prince of Aurum acknowledged it plainly, then continued:
"But I truly was moved. Even without ever having seen her, the moment I heard of her existence, my heart stirred. It felt like something fated, as though an invisible thread already connected us."
"Is that so?"
Viviana studied Faust quietly. She showed no reaction at all to hearing him speak of feeling drawn to another woman. Not even a flicker of jealousy.
Or rather, rather than jealousy, what she was doing was carefully examining whether Faust was treating this feeling with sincerity.
Beneath that gaze, which functioned as something close to a lie detector where Faust was concerned, even he, with a perfectly clear conscience, felt the pressure bearing down on him.
"Then I suppose I'll take you at your word."
The uncomfortable silence stretched for quite some time before Viviana let out a soft sigh.
"Your Highness, I have only one request."
Faust nodded. "Say it."
Viviana lifted her eyes, the gentle melancholy of her usual bearing giving way to something resolute. She pressed one hand into a fist against her chest and spoke with quiet conviction:
"Whatever happens, please do not become the person you used to be. I don't want to see you calculating and measuring feelings again, treating precious bonds as currency to be traded and sold away. Whoever you come to love, let it be born from something true. That is all I ask of you, nothing more."
"Because I swore an oath to you. I would be your sword and your blade, to help you realize every beautiful wish and carry you to the end of happiness, until my last breath."
"Viviana!"
Faust rose to his feet in an instant and pulled her into his arms.
"How can anyone be this wonderful?"
His childhood friend's understanding had surpassed even his most optimistic expectations. He had prepared himself for a long battle, arming himself with honeyed words and his most persuasive rhetoric.
He never imagined Viviana would be so generous about it. After everything with Cinderella, he had assumed her sense of possession ran deep.
As for her one condition... it was already more than lenient, and besides, Faust had intended to do exactly that from the start. He had no doubt he could build something real with anyone. If all else failed, he could always pretend to be helplessly swept along by fate and make a dramatic awakening later.
Pulled into his embrace with a force that seemed intent on folding her right into him, Viviana's cheeks flushed scarlet and she turned her face aside.
"I can't help it. Because I love you, Your Highness. I love you, Faust, more than anyone else in this world. That is my happiness."
The golden-haired girl's delicate nose gave the faintest sniff, and she lowered her voice:
"And besides, whether you're called fickle or romantic, please just keep falling in love with me too."
Words so endearing they nearly burned his reason to ash.
Look at how adorable you are. I can't take it anymore.
Faust's chest felt like something was clawing at it from the inside. On the spot, he swept Viviana up into his arms and carried her in long strides toward the bedroom.
When it was just Viviana he was up against, teasing this prim-faced, melancholy, honey-sweet little cake of a girl... he had the upper hand.
Or so he thought, right up until the moment they crossed the threshold into the bedroom, when the golden-haired girl's arms looped around his neck and she smiled up at him, perfectly, sweetly at ease.
He'd walked right into it.