“Whatever for?”
“She hasn’t been well today. Whatever you have planned can wait.”
Kael’s blunt pronouncement caught me more off guard than anyone else.
“I-I’m perfectly—”
“Oh dear. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I got carried away.”
The Dowager Duchess lowered her eyes with the look of someone who had committed a serious offense. The sight of her looking so deflated made me wave my hands frantically.
“Not at all! I just need a day’s rest and I’ll be fine — please don’t worry.”
“Then we’ll bid you goodnight.”
Kael rose to help me up. For a moment it seemed he might simply walk me out in a civilized fashion.
“‘Oh!'”
He swept me up off the floor entirely — a princess carry.
“Put me down!”
I protested. He was unmoved.
I twisted quickly to check the expressions behind me.
Katherine was watching with a warm, deeply satisfied smile. Kayrin, who had been unreadable, let the corner of his mouth lift just slightly.
Kael carried me to his own bedroom. He laid me on his bed and pressed his lips lightly to my forehead.
I fell asleep like that, and when I woke at some point during the night, Kael had stepped out briefly. I had no energy to wash myself and accepted the chambermaids’ assistance, and no strength to walk back to the annex, so I simply lay down again.
When I opened my eyes next, the room was completely dark.
Through the haze of half-sleep, I called out his name.
“…Kael?”
“Yes.”
A large hand closed around mine. Something in me settled immediately.
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, the face beside me came into focus.
Kael was lying next to me. He had turned toward me, propped on one arm, and was looking down at me quietly.
Too exhausted to do anything else, I blinked up at him. He smoothed my hair back from my face with a gentle hand.
“Rest tonight. I won’t bother you.”
“…That goes without saying.”
I nodded, though I said it a little grumpily. I heard him give a quiet, amused sound.
‘Moments like this — he can be rather sweet.’
“What time is it?”
“Past midnight. About one o’clock.”
“…Goodness, I slept so long.”
“Go back to sleep.”
“Aren’t you sleeping?”
“I’ll sleep after I watch you fall asleep.”
I curled toward him. He tucked the blanket up around my neck and patted my back slowly.
“I don’t want to sleep anymore. I’m not tired.”
“Then stay up with me for a bit.”
“…You said you wouldn’t bother me.”
“I won’t.”
“Mmm.”
I didn’t want to sleep, but my mind was floating pleasantly. Probably the sedative Kayrin had brought.
“Actually, Kael.”
“Yes.”
“The banquet. The Crown Prince will be there, won’t he?”
“It’s his birthday. I would assume so.”
‘I must be a little dazed.’ Asking something like that.
“Right… of course. Since it’s his birthday.”
Consciousness and unconsciousness blended together and things slipped out without my meaning them to.
I heard a quiet, suppressed laugh. Then Kael pulled me in by the waist, snug against him. The warmth of his body was startling.
“Are you feverish? You’re very warm.”
“I run warm naturally.”
“Oh, I see. Like a furnace.”
‘Warm and nice.’ I wriggled slightly, cocooned inside the circle of his arms.
“But—”
I shifted back just enough to look at him. He was gazing down at me with heavy, drowsy eyes.
“Say — hypothetically. If you went to the banquet and there was someone who was your ideal type. What would you do?”
I was genuinely curious about what lay ahead.
That was understandable — in the original novel, I had not existed at this banquet at all.
“My ideal type?”
“Yes. The person you’ve always dreamed of. If someone like that appeared, what would you do?”
Kael stared at the ceiling for a moment.
‘Interesting. So there’s some hesitation.’
“Hmm.”
He answered at last, slow and deliberate.
“Seduce them.”
“…Seduce them?”
“Then sleep with them.”
“…You’re terrible.”
‘And here I thought he didn’t like women.’
I narrowed my eyes at him.
‘Ha.’ He laughed — properly, in a way that didn’t suit him at all.
‘He thinks it’s funny. My survival is on the line here!’
Getting eliminated the moment an ideal type appears — wasn’t that my fate?
“By that logic, Ivelina, you’re the terrible one.”
“What? Why? I’m not terrible at all!”
“You did the same thing to me.”
I opened my mouth. I blinked several times with wide, round eyes.
“You were completely out of it just now. Now look at you — wide awake.”
“Am I really? Did I do that? That’s a lie! I’m an extremely reserved person!”
“I told you, you were the one who started it. Are you going to pretend not to remember?”
‘Ha — haahm.’ I let out a conspicuously staged yawn.
“I’m suddenly very sleepy…”
I closed my eyes, attempting to look convincingly asleep.
Whether he believed it or not, Kael began patting my back — slow, steady, rhythmic — and under that gentle pressure, I fell genuinely, quietly asleep.
* * *
“She genuinely doesn’t remember a single thing.”
Kael watched Ivelina as she slept.
She was breathing softly, deeply, curled up like a child.
He traced her cheek with the tips of his fingers.
Then he gathered her against him with the care of someone holding something irreplaceable, and drifted into sleep, listening to her breathe.
* * *
The day of the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet.
The ducal estate was in a frenzy from early morning, all of them caught up in preparations for the betrothed couple’s debut appearance.
Every servant in the household, and Katherine and Kayrin besides, descended on Ivelina and poured their entire souls into the effort.
When the storm had finally passed, Kael and Ivelina departed for the Imperial Palace. Kayrin slipped out to go insect-catching. Only Katherine remained in the receiving room.
Worn out by the unusual exertion of banquet preparations, she felt the fatigue beginning to settle over her. She closed her eyes, breathing in the warmth of her tea.
“My darling!”
“Hmm?”
Katherine’s eyes opened, wide and surprised.
The person who had come rushing into the receiving room was her husband, Carson.
“Oh my — darling? When did you arrive?”
“Last night. I have something I must discuss with you, my love.”
“You’ve been gone a year and you burst in wanting to discuss things.”
“W-well, yes. I’m sorry. I kept meaning to write, but…”
“Never mind that. What is it?”
In truth, Katherine had never been particularly exacting about Carson’s correspondence. He managed himself well enough — and she had a great and abiding faith in him, and had been quite busy herself besides.
“I found a girl who would make an absolutely perfect daughter-in-law.”
“Did you.”
Katherine raised both eyebrows at his eagerness.
“And I want to arrange a match between her and our eldest.”
“……”
“Imagine my surprise when I found out the boy apparently already has a woman he’s promised to marry.”
“He does. And I’d ask you not to interfere.”
“As expected, you and I see eye to — what?”
In an instant, Katherine’s crimson eyes went cold.
The temperature around her dropped sharply. Carson was caught thoroughly off guard.
But he was so thoroughly captivated by Ivelina that he refused to surrender.
“You’d love her too, I’m certain! She gave me food even when she thought I was a vagrant — a girl with the most beautiful heart I’ve ever seen!”
“That’s enough. I’ve already chosen my daughter-in-law. I find Kael’s fiancée entirely to my liking.”
Before Kael had inherited the title, the true authority of the ducal household had rested with Katherine.
Carson had never once managed to get around her.
Long accustomed to this arrangement, he closed his mouth and swallowed his disappointment.
‘What a pity. What an absolute waste of a girl.’
* * *
It was nothing short of a miracle.
The moment Kael and I entered the banquet hall, the clusters of guests parted before us like the sea.
“Oh my goodness. That’s Duke Hardeion, isn’t it?”
“He’s so handsome.”
“Goodness. He even outshines the Crown Prince.”
‘Naturally. Kael’s looks are all anyone ever talks about.’
And I couldn’t disagree. Kael was considerably more striking than the Crown Prince, the ostensible hero of this story.
‘What kind of male lead is less handsome than the villain? Rather lacking in qualifications, if you ask me.’
“And isn’t that the Florence young lady beside him? The Duke’s fiancée?”
“Yes. Lucky thing.”
“But wasn’t she previously engaged to the sub-viscount Hansworth?”
“Broken off, apparently.”
“How resourceful. Beauty really does open every door. I’d love to have a face like that for just one day.”
I wasn’t entirely sure whether this counted as a compliment, but I received it with gracious humility. All of it was, after all, factually accurate.
And then, from somewhere not far away, came a voice — agreeably smooth, faintly theatrical.
“Hey!”
Someone made an entrance with a greeting that was somehow both casual and self-important.
It was Crown Prince Ian.
He came straight toward us in a few long strides.
“I thought you weren’t coming — you never even replied — but here you are, and — oh?”
The Crown Prince noticed me and his eyes went wide. His mouth formed a matching circle.
I was so flustered I forgot to bow entirely.
I was doing exactly the same thing — round eyes, round mouth, probably looking just as startled as he was.
‘Are… are these two close?’
Strange. The original novel had described them as cousins with very little warmth between them. They had even been rivals over the same woman at one point.
No, wait — the person standing in front of me was the Crown Prince of the empire. Get a hold of yourself and bow.
“I — I am honored to be in the presence of the empire’s star. I am Ivelina Florence.”
“Oh, yes! The daughter of Count Florence — I thought I recognized you.”
“Don’t be familiar with her. You’ve never properly been introduced.”
Kael’s voice came out sharp as a blade.
I startled and grabbed his sleeve.
‘You can’t speak to the Crown Prince like that! Even for cousins, surely there are limits!’
“That’s rather harsh of you. Every lady in the room counts as a personal acquaintance of mine.”
“Tch.”
The Crown Prince looked back at him with languidly drooping eyes.
Kael clicked his tongue.
‘Is this… actually how they are with each other?’
The surprises kept coming.
“I know perfectly well how things stand between the two of you. So — is Kael treating you well?”
“I — pardon?”
The Crown Prince spread his palm to shield my ear from the room, as though keeping our exchange private.
“Is he buying you nice things? Plenty of good food?”
I found myself nodding with great enthusiasm.
“Yes — lots of it. An enormous amount.”
At that moment Kael closed his hand around my wrist and pulled me behind him.
“Don’t get friendly with him. He’s peculiar.”
He looked down at me and delivered this warning with complete gravity. His expression was severe enough that I nodded reflexively.
“Well, really. To assume impure motives when my intentions are entirely transparent.”
The Crown Prince raised both hands in a show of innocence.
Kael remained visibly unmoved and continued to hold me behind him, maintaining a very deliberate distance between me and the Crown Prince.
“I — I’m sure that’s not the case. The Crown Prince seems like a very good—”
Kael fixed me with a blank, unreadable stare.
‘Choose my words carefully.’
“…person, wouldn’t you say?”
I held my breath under the weight of those red eyes, still pointed at me.
“Oh yes — Kael. Have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“Princess Reina of the Kingdom of Calon will be attending today. I’m to escort her — it is my banquet, after all.”
‘There she is. The heroine.’
Kael gave no reaction whatsoever. He simply took a sip of his whiskey.
“Word is she’s an extraordinary beauty. And with a gentle soul to match.”
“Is that so.”
“The kingdom has three daughters, and the youngest — Princess Reina — is said to be the most beautiful of them all.”
“Hmm.”
‘He is genuinely not interested.’ How was such absolute indifference possible?
Princess Reina was the female lead of the original novel — and renowned throughout the empire not just for her role in the story, but for her beauty and character in her own right.
I gave Kael’s sleeve a small, cautious tug.
“Kael.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not… curious?”
“About what?”
“About what the Princess looks like in person.”
“Why would I be?”
“I see… never mind.”
The crease between his brows. Those utterly empty eyes.
He looked genuinely baffled — if anything, faintly irritated. I closed my mouth quickly.
‘This is very strange.’
* * *
‘Goodness, what a whirlwind.’
I was paying the full price for standing at Kael’s side.
Every notable noble in attendance had flocked to him with their attentions, and as his fiancée I was obliged to receive their greetings as well.
As the evening wore on and the banquet reached its height, a small stir rippled through the room.
The Princess had arrived at last.
‘Oh. She really is beautiful.’
Just as the novel had described her.
Princess Reina had hair the color of pale pink spun sugar, and eyes like warm liquid gold. She was every bit as lovely as the words had promised.
I stole a glance at Kael beside me.
And Kael, upon seeing Princess Reina—
“……”
Blank. Silent. Entirely unmoved.
He looked exactly as he always did — perfectly calm, utterly detached, with the air of a man who had found nothing of the slightest interest.
‘What?’
I tried to recall the original novel’s description.
‘Kael, who had never felt anything for any woman, described the moment he saw Princess Reina like this:’
‘It was as though a single beam of light had descended into a world that had been nothing but darkness.’
‘In that moment, Kael felt something violent stir in him — something like possession, or desire.’
‘That doesn’t look like desire. That looks like absolutely nothing.’
I kept watching him closely.
‘He can’t genuinely be this indifferent. She’s right there — a beauty like that.’
Even I was half-tempted to stare.
Crown Prince Ian offered Princess Reina his arm. She took it. The host of the evening escorted his guest of honor through the room.
I glanced at Kael again — and met his eyes.
“Ivelina.”
“Yes?!”
“Is something the matter?”
“Wh-why?”
“You keep looking at me.”
“Oh. No, I’m not.”
‘He noticed all of it.’
I was reaching for a plausible excuse when—
“Kael!”
Crown Prince Ian and Princess Reina were moving toward us.
* * *
