Bang!
The sound of porcelain smashing against the floor rang out clearly, somewhat shattering the elegant, beautiful atmosphere of the Princess's bedchamber.
But Ria, the culprit, could no longer care about such trivial matters.
"M-M-Marriage?"
Ria was completely stunned.
"Cough!?"
Not only Ria—even Shana, who had been standing silently behind her, widened her eyes and choked on a mouthful of saliva, instantly damaging her image as an impeccably composed and noble knight.
The two of them stood there in utter bewilderment, staring blankly at the serious-faced Roxie for a long while without reacting.
Roxie thought she had not made herself clear enough, so she repeated herself.
"I want to get married."
Those solid, unmistakable words truly left Ria and Shana dumbfounded.
"Ria?"
Seeing that Ria could only stare blankly at her without responding, Roxie frowned slightly and called out to her, seemingly wanting to say something else.
"Wait!" Ria did not give Roxie that chance. She raised a hand to stop her and said, "Let me process this first."
Ria pressed her fingers to her temples and rubbed them several times, as though she suspected she was mentally exhausted and had misheard. With her eyes closed, she took several deep breaths.
Only then did Ria seem to recover. She opened her eyes again, pulled herself together, and fixed her gaze on Roxie.
"What did you say you wanted to do?"
Ria stared straight at Roxie, as if hoping everything she had just heard had been an auditory hallucination.
Unfortunately, Roxie mercilessly shattered that hope.
"I want to get married." Roxie acted as though she had not noticed Ria's odd reaction and said wistfully, "What do you think I should do?"
No, no, no! I'm the one who should be asking what to do here, right!?
Ria desperately wanted to shout