Chapter 29

That I liked Kirill was something only Kirill and Gizelle should have known.

Other people thought Kirill came and went from Erdona because of Gizelle, not me. I was not even a consideration from the start.

There had been times when that fact made me bitter, but now I considered it rather fortunate. And yet, of all people, Pavel knew?

"Yes. Nothing."

"Good."

He said something incomprehensible again. Neither Pavel nor I avoided each other's gaze.

"Why?"

Pavel did not answer this time. He simply curled the corner of his mouth again.

"We'll put that story off until next time."

"Then what about the answer to my question?"

"If I said it was because Gizelle dislikes you, would that be an answer?"

It was an ambiguous statement—whether he meant he had avoided a direct method because Gizelle disliked me, or that he had deliberately done it because Gizelle disliked me…