Chapter 422: Presence

Chapter 422: Chapter 422: Presence

Liam had spent most of his life avoiding rooms full of people who wanted something from him.

For years, that had been sensible.

Under Felix, attention rarely came without a purpose attached to it, and even after Nuria returned, Liam had preferred engineering meetings, foundation work, and small dinners where nobody expected him to remember the matrimonial history of twelve noble houses.

Unfortunately, avoiding the social world had not made it disappear.

It had merely left other people free to speak inside it without him.

Rubis stood at the long table in Liam’s office with three proposed guest lists spread across the projection before him. Morning sunlight reflected from the snow outside, bright enough that the heavy curtains had been pulled halfway across the windows, while the fire beside the bookshelves kept the room comfortably warm.

"This cannot look like damage control," Rubis said.

"I know."

"If we issue a formal event immediately centered on Lady Ayla, everyone will assume the rumor frightened us."

Liam leaned over the guest list.

"The rumor did frighten us."

"That is irrelevant."

Liam looked at him.

Rubis did not appear apologetic.

"Social perception rarely rewards honesty."

"That sounds terrible."

"It often is."

Liam sighed and returned to the names.

The first instinct had been to issue another statement denying everything Gerard’s media operation had spread.

The palace had already done that.

Ayla had never entered marriage negotiations. Gerard had possessed no authority to speak for her, Liam, Arik, Enia, or anyone else connected to the family. The supposed alliance did not exist.

It should have been enough.

It was not.

Stories survived facts remarkably well when the story was more entertaining.

"We need people to see her doing something completely normal," Liam said. "Not sitting beside me while I announce that she is definitely not marrying anyone."

Rubis nodded.

"Which is why I suggested the winter academy reception."

Liam enlarged the second proposal.

The Imperial Academy already held a midwinter gathering for senior students, faculty, donors, and officials connected to its exchange programs. Expanding it into a reception hosted jointly by the imperial household would require relatively little explanation.

Ayla and Samuel would attend because they were students.

"I want their classmates there."

"They already are."

"Not only noble students."

Rubis gave him a mildly offended look.

"I know how the academy works."

"Good."

"You are becoming difficult."

"I learned from you."

Rubis ignored that.

Liam reached for his communicator.

"And Sophia."

That got his attention.

"Lady Renier?"

"Yes."

"You intend to ask her directly."

"I intend to ask her to help."

Rubis studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"That is probably more effective than pretending we do not know how court gossip works."

Liam called.

Sophia answered within minutes.

Her image appeared above the table, dressed in a dark blue morning gown, silver threaded naturally through her pinned hair. She looked surprised to see Liam personally.

"Your Majesty."

"Sophia. I need a favor."

"That sounds ominous."

"It is social."

Her expression became more cautious.

"That may be worse."

Liam smiled.

"I need the marriage rumor dead."

Understanding appeared immediately.

Sophia’s humor faded.

"I assumed as much."

"The palace denial is already public, but people are still discussing whether there was some negotiation behind it."

"There was never one."

"No."

"Then I can make that very clear."

Liam leaned back against the table.

"I do not want you repeating an official statement. That only keeps the story alive."

Sophia considered him.

"What do you want?"

"The truth circulating through the people who actually create half these rumors."

Rubis’s mouth twitched.

Liam continued.

"Gerard came without invitation. He had no arrangement with us, Ayla had never met him, and she is attending the Imperial Academy because she wants to study here. Nothing else."

Sophia nodded slowly.

"And if someone asks why he invented it?"

"Tell them you do not know."

Rubis looked approving.

Liam added, "You can also tell them Ayla nearly threw her tablet across the breakfast room when she saw his photograph."

Sophia laughed.

"That detail will travel much faster than the official denial."

"Exactly."

"So you finally understand how this works."

Liam narrowed his eyes.

"I understand enough to dislike it properly."

"That is progress."

They settled the rest quickly. Sophia would attend the academy reception and bring several members of the older social circles who were influential enough that what they dismissed tended to die quickly. No staged conversation. No obvious correction campaign. She would simply make sure anyone repeating the rumor near her received a factual version before the evening ended.

The call finished.

Rubis closed one guest list and opened another.

"There is another issue."

Liam already knew.

"Me."

Rubis looked mildly pleased.

"You have spent months postponing the social calendar whenever your presence was not absolutely required."

"I attended things."

"You attended what could not be escaped without causing diplomatic concern."

"That still counts."

"It does not."

Liam moved toward the window.

Students crossed one of the distant palace-adjacent walkways below, bundled against the cold. Somewhere among them, Ayla and Samuel were probably complaining about morning lectures and pretending their security officers were not twenty meters behind them.

He had wanted them to have ordinary lives.

Children later would deserve the same protection.

"If I leave the social side of the imperial household empty," Liam said slowly, "someone fills it."

Rubis remained quiet.

"Cassian can manage nobles. You can manage events. Arik intimidates almost everyone without trying. But when the subject is me, my family, eventually our children..."

He turned.

"I need people to know me well enough that strangers cannot define us first."

Rubis’s expression softened, though only slightly.

"That requires consistency."

"I know."

"Regular appearances."

"Yes."

"Hosting."

Liam sighed.

"Yes."

"Remembering names."

"I changed my mind."

Rubis smiled.

Liam returned to the table.

"I am serious."

"So am I."

"I have been treating the social world like decorative nonsense because most of it feels decorative. But Gerard used exactly that space to attack Ayla. He did not need evidence. He needed enough people willing to repeat something."

Rubis nodded.

"And you intend to make that harder."

"Yes."

Liam looked at the reception plan again.

"Not by controlling everything people say. That would be impossible. I want relationships. People who have actually spoken to me, know Ayla, know Samuel, and eventually know whatever family Arik and I build."

For the first time, thinking about them did not immediately become a question of pregnancy, succession, or timing.

People believing they owned pieces of their future children’s lives because they belonged to an emperor.

Liam’s mouth tightened.

"No one gets to build a story around my children before they are old enough to understand it."

Rubis looked at him across the projections.

"Then we begin before they exist."

Liam smiled faintly.

"That sounded threatening."

"It was scheduling."

"Same thing when you do it."

Rubis expanded the calendar.

The next six weeks appeared.

Liam stared.

"That is too many."

"It is four."

"Exactly."

"One academy reception, one foundation dinner, one winter salon and one provincial cultural delegation."

Liam looked toward the door as if escape remained an option.

Rubis followed his gaze.

"No."

"I said nothing."

"You did not need to."

Liam sighed and pulled the nearest chair toward him.

"Fine. Start with the academy."

Rubis sat opposite and began reorganizing the evening.

For once, Liam did not look for an excuse to reduce the guest list.

If people insisted on watching the imperial family, then perhaps it was time he gave them something real to see.