He Married Another, I'll Wed the Enemy!

The Bellaros border is close to breaking and the court needs a marriage to hold it. Eloise Quimby asks the emperor to be the one sent. She grew up alongside the crown prince, and for ten years, whenever he was in the capital, the two of them were rarely apart, and the court took it for granted that they would marry. The crown prince ignores the mockery that now falls on Eloise and holds to marrying Camila Lowe, the younger sister of his own guard. Eloise stops expecting anything from him after that. The emperor does not understand why she wants Bellaros and she does not change her mind, so he issues a decree naming her Protector of the Realm and setting her departure at seven days. The crown prince has always taken it as settled that she would never leave him, and nobody has told him about the decree.