“Your Highness is right. If you have no intention of pursuing the throne, calling further attention to yourself serves no purpose. And I believe Duke Rommel has been showing very little regard for your wishes.”
At Friedrich’s calm interjection, Joachim blinked — and then turned to him with an expression of genuine indignation.
“You dare to lecture me on politics, Prince?”
“This isn’t politics. It’s common sense. And you, Your Grace, show very little respect for what Her Highness actually wants.”
The measured reprimand landed. Joachim looked briefly as though he’d taken a quiet blow to the face.
Truly — the only one I can depend on is my husband.
“That said, if it does weigh on you — perhaps doing it in secret would be one option.”
…Or so I thought.
Friedrich glanced at me and offered a faint smile. I looked back at him with eyes that weren’t quite sure what to feel.
“…In secret?”
“Because I suspect Your Highness would find it difficult to simply turn away from people who are suffering.”
“…”
Don’t make me out to be a better person than I am. I’m not turning away from them because I want to — I can’t do it because I don’t have the ability right now.
“And that way, no one would ever know the effort Your Highness had made.”
“Does that matter? And I don’t see why Your Highness needs to feel any unnecessary guilt.”
“…”
Joachim made a sound of reluctant agreement. I said nothing, and simply smiled.
“You seem to think rather highly of me.”
“That’s because you are someone worth thinking highly of.”
Oh, the immediate answer is making this worse. I gave a tired, helpless sort of smile and turned back toward Rene Palace at an ambling pace.
This is going to be a problem. If rain doesn’t come soon, Friedrich’s impression of me is going to take a rather significant blow.
And then, a few days later, an unexpected piece of news arrived and solved at least some of my worries.
* * *
After arranging to have Adelina removed from consideration, I had quietly resumed my usual state of being entirely detached from high society.
I had taken to tossing the relentless stream of invitations unread into the bin — until the day Elsa brought me one that gave her pause.
“What’s this?”
“A letter from Lady Marcella Weiss. I thought of it because you seemed to take some interest in Lady Adelina, and I thought this might be of a similar nature.”
“Hmm.”
To be honest, after the business with her sister, I had quietly abandoned my plans of being on cordial terms with my future sister-in-law.
“What do you know about Marcella, Elsa?”
“Not a great deal, Your Highness. She’s been far less active in society than Lady Adelina.”
That made the letter’s contents all the more unexpected. I frowned slightly as I read it and murmured to myself:
“She’s inviting me to volunteer with her?”
“Lady Marcella is?”
“Yes. Apparently she’s going to a drought-stricken area to do relief work with Anton, and she’s asking if I’d like to come along.”
And here I thought Anton was trying to use this to build his reputation. How dutiful of my little brother.
“…Volunteer work? You, Your Highness? In a drought-affected area?”
Elsa knew exactly how Rene felt about heat. The answer was obviously no — she looked certain of it.
“I’m going to decline.”
Ah — but I feel guilty. What else could I do? If I went along, Anton’s moment in the sun would be diluted. And — there was a reasonable chance it would put me in a position to use magic.
So I sent Marcella a brief reply to the effect that I disliked heat rather intensely, and then—
“Your Highness — Lady Marcella Weiss is requesting a visit.”
She wants to befriend me that sincerely?
“I can hardly refuse to see her.”
And so, unexpectedly, Marcella Weiss came to Rene Palace.
The maids of Rene Palace were collectively thrown by this development.
Rene inviting anyone to her own palace was something that had never happened before.
Even Elsa.
“It seems we’ve arrived at the day Rene Palace receives a visitor.”
“It appears you think rather well of Lady Marcella.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being on good terms with a future sister-in-law. The first attempt didn’t go well, but perhaps this time.”
Naturally, I couldn’t be purely optimistic about it. She might be here to uncover ammunition against me, for Anton’s benefit. Or she might be someone who, having been overshadowed by her older sister for years, was hoping to use me to climb to the top of Stade’s social world.
Well. Either way would suit me. Anything that helps me vacate Rene Palace sooner.
“Or she may simply have been charmed by Your Highness.”
Friedrich offered this, unprompted, in the most matter-of-fact tone imaginable.
Elsa’s hands stilled where she was adjusting my sash, and I was left to feel the awkwardness on my own.
“We’ve barely exchanged ten words.”
“Ten words can be sufficient. Your Highness has that kind of clarity to you.”
“You’re being very generous today.”
I laughed with mild embarrassment and looked at Friedrich — who had come to my room earlier to ask whether there was anything he should do to prepare for Marcella’s visit. I had said no, but he had not left.
He was sitting there like a perfectly proportioned sculpture in a museum, taking up my field of vision with complete serenity.
I asked him lightly:
“Didn’t you find that clarity a little lacking, when we first met?”
“What do you mean?”
“My appeal. You were like a cat with every hair standing on end, the first time we saw each other.”
“…That was…”
The perpetual cool of Friedrich’s face flushed pink in an instant.
“You still remember how we first met?”
Wait — he’s changing the subject.
“It’s been less than six months.”
I pressed a little further.
“You seem to have forgotten already. Was it not such a memorable impression?”
“No — that’s not—”
“Then it must have been insufficient charm, after all. Not quite enough to make an impact at first sight.”
Friedrich’s face was thoroughly, helplessly red now. I thought I should stop, but I also thought I really didn’t want to.
“…I was a child then.”
Friedrich said it suddenly. I blinked.
It was the first time he had referred to the curse that way — on his own, without being prompted.
And the reason he brought it up was as a defense against the claim that my charm hadn’t affected him.
That’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard—
I nearly laughed out loud, but just barely managed to hold it in. Barely. How was I supposed to not laugh?
Friedrich blinked twice. He looked exactly like a large dog asking, with his eyes, whether he’d been forgiven. The thought that he was adorable refused to leave.
“You’re still young.”
I laughed as I reached up and ruffled his hair.
But it seemed that wasn’t quite the response he’d been looking for. His brow furrowed.
“I’m not, currently.”
“You are, to me.”
He frowned more deeply. I smoothed the crease between his brows with my thumb, still teasing.
“You’ll get wrinkles.”
“Is that a preference of yours?”
“No.”
As soon as I shook my head, Friedrich immediately relaxed his expression.
He’s worrying about wrinkles already, at his age.
“I should go. Rest a little.”
Friedrich nodded, and I was still smiling faintly when I walked into the drawing room.
Marcella, who had been waiting, looked up at that expression and seemed mildly startled — as though it wasn’t what she’d expected.
“Shining star of Stade, blessed of the divine — I am honored, Princess Rene.”
Marcella sank into a proper curtsy.
Quite a different bearing from her sister’s stiff-backed version.
Even just from that, she already seemed like an improvement.
“What brings you here, Lady Marcella? You must be busy with wedding preparations.”
“Most of it doesn’t require much from me, actually.”
She smiled awkwardly and moved on.
“I received your reply, Your Highness. You wrote that you dislike heat.”
“I do. Which is why I can’t come on a volunteer trip, much as I’d like to.”
“Well — as it happens, my father recently acquired a carriage fitted with a cooling enchantment. Inside, it’s very pleasant.”
“…Are you telling me you came here in person to convince me? To come on this volunteer trip with you?”
“Ah…”
The look on her face said yes, that’s exactly what this is. I shook my head.
“I’m not going. And it’s honestly better for you too, Lady Marcella — if I come along, some of the attention you and Anton would receive gets divided. That’s not what I want.”
“Y-Your Highness, I—!”
Marcella broke in, suddenly flustered.
“I genuinely just want to spend time with you. The truth is — you’ve been something of a role model for me. Prince Anton’s reputation is not my concern at all— I mean, what I mean to say is—”
She stumbled over herself and then went abruptly quiet.
And then looked up at me with those wide, cautious eyes.
“…Would you really not consider it? Coming with me?”
Why do I keep being surrounded by people this endearing? Against my better intentions, I felt my brow soften.
