Yeah, I first saw that in Hitomi's fic and meta but I can never be sure if she invented something or if she saw something in the Japanese script/notes that I can't read.

Possibly to ignore the fact that he was just snapping her up.

Yeah. Certainly Cellica's mother wasn't comforted much by the king of Sofia snapping her up. I think he gets the Worst Lord[*] Parent award.

* Yeah, yeah, she's a priestess/princess. Whatevs.