________________________________________
Slap!
“Oh! My lady, are you all right?”
I had pressed both cheeks sharply with my palms to clear my head. Mai startled at the sound.
“Perfectly. I just came to a realization.”
“About what?”
“About how catastrophic the consequences are when one compares oneself to a goddess.”
I lifted my chin toward Mai. The reddened cheeks, now glowing with the evidence of my penance, were presented with a certain dignity.
“Ah, yes, of course… Be that as it may—”
But entirely indifferent to my act of atonement—
“You really do look so like the Duchess, my lady, don’t you!”
Mai was beaming, pointing cheerfully at the portrait.
“That—that kind of thing is disrespectful to the Duchess!”
Ting—!
My twin-tails shot up toward the ceiling in alarm.
“Oh, forgive me. But I really did think so when I came to fetch you earlier—you looked so much like her!”
“She’s right, my lady! We thought so too! And since the Duchess always loved white dresses, seeing you in this one makes the resemblance even more striking.”
“P-please, that’s enough—!”
The handmaidens had joined in. I shrieked—
And then one of them peered at my face with a sly tilt of her head.
“If you want us to stop, why is your smile getting bigger and bigger?”
Oh no.
I pressed the corners of my mouth back down with my fingertips.
“Because human desire is boundless, and we are all prone to repeat our mistakes.”
“I see.”
So I’m about to make the same mistake again.
I squirmed and mumbled.
“…Do we really look alike? I mean—purely in the interest of objective analysis, from a one hundred percent impartial perspective, I did think, just ever so slightly—”
“You do!”
“You really do, my lady!”
Oh.
My body curved—
“Hee—”
I was becoming a jelly.
“Isn’t it true, though?!”
That someone so breathtakingly beautiful looked like me. I couldn’t help it—my face cracked into an enormous, helpless grin.
Then—
“…Aisha?”
A careful voice from behind me.
I whipped around in surprise to find Lucas standing there.
He had also finished preparing for the banquet—his tailcoat was neatly pressed, and his dark black hair fell calmly across his forehead. Behind it, his gold eyes were enormous. Rounded like a rabbit’s.
“What… are you doing here.”
His reaction was odd—flat, slightly off. My body stiffened.
Had I not been supposed to come here? Was this a space I had no right to enter?
Ah—right. I’m adopted. I’m not of their blood.
No matter how close we had grown, I wasn’t their flesh and blood. Even back then—even when we had lived under the same roof—there had always been a line between the relatives and me. I’d learned not to cross it.
And it made sense. It was the way of things. I had no intention of presuming otherwise.
So perhaps coming to look at the portrait of the Duchess had been presumptuous too.
“I’m sorry for looking where I wasn’t supposed to.”
My heart was pounding.
The moment of happiness—comparing myself to the Duchess, believing for just a moment that I resembled her—had already become something distant and surreal. I turned to leave—
“Aisha. Where are you going?”
A hand caught my wrist.
“Why do you turn and run the moment Hyung shows up? Do you not like me?”
I looked up. Lucas was standing there with his eyebrows raised and his lips in a tight, disgruntled pout.
“…Oh?”
I had expected anger. Not this.
My eyes rolled over in thought.
“It’s just—I thought you might not want me here…”
“Why?”
“…We’re not…”
A glance to the side.
“…not the same blood…”
“?”
I fidgeted with my fingers and mumbled it—and Lucas and every handmaiden in the room stared at me as though I had said something profoundly strange.
Then—
“Ah—FATHER! Emergency!”
Lucas let out a full-throated roar and summoned Calypse.
* * *
Two hours before the banquet. In Calypse’s dressing room.
“Is everything prepared?”
“Yes, Your Grace. The intelligence agents are already standing by inside the palace. They await only your word to move.”
White—the color of the north, the color of House Krost.
A row of gleaming medals decorated the left breast of Calypse’s formal coat—each one a reflection of the life that had earned him the title ‘Hero of Frozen.’
He exhaled quietly and pressed his hand into his trouser pocket.
What does any of it mean to me?
He hadn’t asked for past glory. What he needed was the safety of his children, right now.
He had told the staff not to bother pinning the medals—and they had done it anyway, every last one, then bowed and slipped away.
Knox, who had been silent for a moment, spoke.
“Thanks to Queen Consort Grace’s cooperation, our intelligence unit should be able to take their positions without difficulty. The critical concern now is Lady Aisha’s safety.”
Calypse stood before the full-length mirror. Knox’s gaze met his in the reflection.
“Must you truly bring Lady Aisha? Technically, since she has not yet been formally presented at court, there is no obligation for her to attend.”
It was a fair point. But—
“It’s a question of knowing one’s place.”
Calypse’s voice dropped. His gaze tilted, and as the shadow that had been obscuring it shifted away, Knox—who had been meeting his eyes in the mirror without caution—quietly swallowed.
“Foss has already sent nine waves of agents into the duchy to take Aisha. And that’s just counting from the creature rampage incident. They crossed a line long before that.”
He stepped toward the nightstand and pulled on a pair of white gloves.
“Tonight, I end this.”
“…….”
“An execution date. Or an execution on the spot.”
Calypse had been building his case piece by piece. He could have exposed the creature rampage affair the moment it happened—but doing so would have contained the matter within the north, and that was not what he wanted. It would have given Duke Foss every opportunity to slip free.
He refused to allow that.
He wanted something definitive. Tonight, Duke Foss would commit a crime that no trial could forgive—something too extreme to be sent quietly before a tribunal, something that would leave no room for escape.
“And the rumors about Aisha have grown far too numerous. Starting now, she needs to make her presence known in society—loudly enough that no one can question her as the daughter of House Krost.”
“…Understood.”
Knox chose not to add anything further and simply inclined his head.
Calypse could be sharp around family. That was—if one chose to see it kindly—the quality of a devoted guardian. And Knox would rather have a devoted lord than one who spent his evenings at gambling dens. Still—
I just hope he doesn’t let his emotions run ahead of him and blow this wider than it needs to go.
Knox felt a flicker of worry—but quickly decided things would be fine. This was not one of Calypse’s lone impulses. It had been planned and coordinated. If everything went according to plan, there was no reason to fail.
That was when—
“Your Grace. I have a report. There is, I’m told, something of an emergency situation—”
A knight hovered at the doorway, hesitating.
Calypse shook his head slightly as he loosened his collar a fraction—it had been pressing uncomfortably.
“The banquet takes priority. If it’s something manageable, have the captain of the guard see to it.”
“That’s—well—it’s not quite that—”
“What.”
The knight swallowed, braced himself, and opened his mouth.
“Lady Aisha was in the grand hall looking at the Duchess’s portrait—and when Lady Lucas arrived and surprised her, she apologized—said she was sorry for looking at it, because she and the young master aren’t of the same blood—”
“……?”
Every motion stopped.
The hand adjusting his coat went still.
Knox stopped too. That genuinely was an emergency.
“Knox. Emergency.”
“Yes, Your Grace. What are your orders?”
“Have the staff bring a comfortable sofa and cushions in front of the portrait immediately. Tell the chefs to prepare a basket of desserts. Target: Aisha.”
“At once, Your Grace.”
Kling—
Knox’s monocle flashed with a light full of pure, unconditional loyalty—and he was gone.
In the silence that followed—
“You. Take me to the children.”
“Yes—yessir!”
Calypse turned and fixed the knight with a flat, direct look. The knight, deeply alarmed, fumbled through a salute he didn’t need to give.
“Move.”
“…Yessir!”
The knight could feel the long stride keeping pace directly behind him and dared a sideways glance.
He never looked like this even during the creature exterminations.
“This is it, Your Grace!”
The grand hall. The knight squared his shoulders like a soldier marching into battle and opened the door.
