Perhaps I had cried too much before — because now no tears came.
It didn’t hurt the way it had before either. Not that crushing, hand-squeezing-the-heart kind of pain.
Maybe because I had already been through it once. It was less terrible than expected. My mind was simply a little numb.
Huh. I feel more all right than I thought I would.
I found myself strangely surprised by that. Not even a few days ago I had sobbed myself empty.
It felt as though my thoughts were floating just slightly above me.
I sat there like that for some time before I heard a voice calling to me.
“…Excuse me. Are you all right? If you’re not feeling well, would you like me to help you up?”
A soft, melodic voice — like a small bird singing.
I lifted my eyes.
Sunlight-colored golden hair came into view first. My gaze moved from the hair to her face.
Pale, white cheeks. A soft, lingering blush. Eyes the vivid green of summer leaves. A face so full of sweetness it was apparent at a single glance.
I knew immediately who she was.
The heroine.
The heroine of this novel.
Come to think of it — today was the day she first appeared, wasn’t it.
I’d been so caught up in everything else that it had completely slipped my mind.
I was looking at her face without saying anything when she seemed to suddenly remember something and began to speak in a flustered rush.
“Oh — I’m — my name is Isabel Yerenia, of Countess Yerenia’s household.”
“I’m at a palace banquet for the very first time today, and I took a wrong turn and got completely lost… I know, it’s terribly embarrassing. Fortunately, on my way I happened to meet a young lord who was kind enough to help me find my way back to the hall…”
I stopped cold at Isabel’s words. The rest of what she was saying stopped reaching me.
Surely she hadn’t already crossed paths with Axel.
Axel was the only one who had passed through this way. I closed my hand into a fist.
This was a kind of anxiety I had never felt before the original story began.
Isabel, who had been rattling on, now extended her hand toward me.
“So — if it’s hard for you to get up right now, would it be all right if I helped you?”
Without thinking, I knocked her outstretched hand away.
Her wide, startled eyes looked at me with open bewilderment, trying to work out what she had done wrong.
But I was equally thrown.
Why did I… why did I do that?
Was I becoming an actual villainess or something? Something had gone wrong in my head. The pettiness of my own action disgusted me.
Before Isabel could say anything, I arranged my expression into a smooth, pleasant smile and addressed her.
“Oh — I’m sorry. I was lost in my own thoughts and startled without meaning to. Could you perhaps help me up, if you don’t mind?”
Isabel, who had been frozen in surprise, broke into a warm smile at my request and took my hand.
Supported by Isabel’s arm, I walked with her out of the dim corridor and back toward the light spilling from the open banquet hall.
We stepped in together.
People glanced over at us — an unexpected pairing — and stared with vaguely surprised expressions. I paid them little mind and turned to Isabel.
“Thank you for helping me up, Miss Yerenia.”
“Not at all — it was nothing, really…! If anything, I was glad to have someone to talk to. I don’t know anyone here, so I’ve been on my own the whole time.”
Isabel shook her head quickly, then looked embarrassed and colored a little as she spoke — which was so perfectly in keeping with the heroine I had always imagined that I almost smiled.
“May I ask your name, if you don’t mind?”
At her question, I hesitated for a moment. I was weighing whether it was truly the right thing to become close with her.
I had no intention of acting the way the original story dictated — not at all. But her open, expectant eyes were, if I was honest, a little overwhelming.
Whether I could treat her well when my heart was in this state was another concern.
The longer I took to respond, the more Isabel’s expression began to droop. The way she looked, like a puppy trying to guess what it had done wrong, made me let out a quiet laugh.
Isabel’s eyes were rolling around in quiet deliberation when she screwed them shut as though preparing herself.
“If — if I’m making you uncomfortable—!”
“Melberine. Judith Melberine.”
Her face lit up immediately — then, as though the name had triggered a memory, she tilted her head.
“Melberine… are you perhaps—”
The murmur of nearby voices drifted over. My name was being mentioned.
“Did everyone see Lady Melberine earlier? I came expecting some kind of scene given the whole love triangle in the papers, but nothing happened at all. I built myself up for nothing.”
“Right? Honestly, I wonder if she arranged that article herself. She does love the attention, doesn’t she.”
The group erupted into laughter, rich and indulgent, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
They were so absorbed in their own merriment that they hadn’t noticed I was standing within earshot.
“That is a very astute observation, Lady Randall. You really do have quite the analytical mind — perhaps a natural talent for deduction?”
“Truly! I was thinking the same thing.”
“I for one never expected Lady Melberine to attach herself to the Grand Duke. And she managed to stay by his side longer than I expected — I was quite surprised.”
“For all the good it did. I heard the Grand Duke threw her out. Which, frankly, was only a matter of time.”
Knowing laughter passed between them. Someone asked a new question.
“But why did she suddenly switch from the Crown Prince to the Grand Duke in the first place? That part has always puzzled me.”
“Why do you think? She’s always been greedy. She tried to have them both and ended up with neither. That’s what happens when ambition outpaces judgment.”
“Exactly. People keep saying Lady Melberine has changed, but the core of a person doesn’t change. She’s always been this way. Both of them must have simply run out of patience for her behavior and left.”
Ringing, bright laughter filled the air — the kind that made a corner of the room feel like a coven.
The conversation seemed to be winding toward a close, but someone who didn’t want it to end threw out a fresh piece of kindling.
The tone grew steadily bolder.
“Speaking of which — did everyone see her earlier? Smiling at all those young lords from other families like they were the only people in the room. For a moment I genuinely thought it was someone else.”
“Honestly. The moment she’s put aside by both the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke, she turns straight around and makes eyes at every eligible noble in sight. As a fellow lady, I found it rather hard to watch.”
“And why only the young lords? Why not show that sweet side to us as well, Lady Melberine? She really does have an exclusive taste for men, doesn’t she? Oh — perhaps I shouldn’t say that.”
Their laughter bloomed and swelled, showing no signs of stopping.
Under ordinary circumstances I would have walked past this kind of talk without a second thought. But this time, I couldn’t so easily.
Isabel was standing right beside me.
I glanced quickly at her expression. The face of the girl who had overheard the conversation had gone stiff.
In the original story, of course, the relationship between Isabel and Judith was never going to be warm. It was the worst possible dynamic between two people.
…What must she be thinking right now.
Was she regretting it? Regretting that the first person she had spoken to in the capital was me. She might well be thinking she had gotten unlucky.
That thought left something odd in me. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have cared either way.
Today had just been strange from beginning to end.
I was no longer able to stand there and endure it — I was about to tell Isabel I would be taking my leave — when, without a word, Isabel stepped away from my side with deliberate strides.
I watched her retreating back, lips pressed together, and said nothing.
