Chapter 9

When Adele returned from the fountain, every eye in the room turned to her.

They’d gone looking for her, only to find a naked man tied up instead.

And Eaton, who’d ended up that way in the middle of something he had no business doing, kept his mouth shut tight. Everyone assumed Adele alone knew the full story of what had happened.

“Adele, where have you been?”

Mia hurried over to ask.

“I had a bit too much to drink, so I went for a walk to clear my head.”

Adele’s answer came out perfectly composed, as though she knew nothing at all about the man.

“Madame Oswald?”

Just then, a young woman with a still-girlish face approached.

“That’s the Princess,” Mia whispered in her ear.

Adele had seen Princess April at banquets a few times before, though this was the first time they’d actually exchanged greetings.

“It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”

She lifted the hem of her skirt lightly and dropped into a proper curtsy.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Madame!”

April smiled with an endearing, youthful face and seized Adele’s hand eagerly.

“I was just about to leave, and I was so disappointed thinking I might miss you.”

April’s sudden warmth left Adele flustered. Needless to say, everyone watching was just as bewildered — no one had expected the Princess to take such a liking to Adele, society’s outcast.

“I’m terribly sorry. I must have taken too long a walk.”

Just then—

“One moment, April.”

Christine came up beside her. He was wearing the jacket again — the one he’d taken off for Adele earlier, which she’d had returned to him through Zimmer.

Christine murmured something in April’s ear. April, in turn, whispered something back to him.

The two of them looked entirely natural together.

Except that April’s already-rosy cheeks had turned a shade rosier still.

---

“I suppose it’s time I headed back.”

Having finished her whispered exchange with Christine, April turned to the crowd with a wistful expression.

Then she made a point of speaking to Adele specially.

“I may invite you sometime, mayn’t I? We can talk more then.”

The word “invite” left Adele puzzled.

An invitation — to the palace? Me?

At that moment, April leaned in and whispered, pitched so only Adele could hear.

“Tell me about the Count sometime.”

Then her young face flushed shyly.

Anyone could see she was a sweet girl, plainly in love.

“Of course. As much as you like.”

Adele gave the lovely Princess a quiet smile.

April winked back, as if the two of them had just become fellow conspirators, and turned away.

Behind her, Christine stood waiting with one arm held out. April looped her arm through his as though it were only natural, and behind them came a line of the Princess’s ladies-in-waiting and Christine’s men.

Everyone watching sensed it at once.

“There’ll be a royal wedding soon, I’d wager.”

“A pity, but they do make a fine match.”

Adele couldn’t tear her eyes from the two of them as they walked away.

The lovely Princess and the Empire’s hero.

Even to her own eyes, they made a dazzling pair — and perhaps that was why she suddenly felt so small.

A—pril…

And the sound of Christine’s voice, saying the Princess’s name, kept echoing in her ears.

She had never once heard him say another woman’s name in a voice so gentle.

So why did her chest keep aching like this?

“Adele, did you hurt your hand?”

It was Mia who pulled her back to reality.

After Christine left with the Princess, all that remained with Adele was his handkerchief, still tied around her hand.

“Oh — I tripped while I was out walking.”

“How did that happen? Did you put anything on it?”

“I’ll tend to it once we’re home. Let’s head back now.”

Adele’s expression was more resolute than Mia had ever seen it.

Sensing it, Mia nodded.

“Let’s go, then. But are you really all right? You look pale.”

“I’ll be fine once I rest. What about you — did something happen? You don’t look well either.”

Instead of answering, Mia only managed a faint smile.

“You were lucky today, Mother.”

Adele turned at the sound of Seira’s voice.

“And you were unlucky, Seira.”

She stepped in close and fixed her with a cold stare.

“I’ll call it even, whatever I still owed you — tonight settles that. From here on, be careful. I don’t know what I might do next.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”

Seira played innocent, but there was a flicker of tension in her face.

Most of the ugly rumors about Adele had been her own making — and yet there was undeniably something unsettling about the woman.

“Give my regards to Madame Hans too. Tell her it was a party I won’t soon forget.”

With that, Adele left Madame Hans’s mansion.

---

“What was that you said to Seira earlier?”

Mia asked, curious, as they rode home in the carriage.

“It was nothing.”

“Wait — wait, actually… were you all right, after drinking the wine I gave you earlier?”

Silence.

When Adele only stared at her, Mia broke down and confessed, on the verge of tears.

“After I drank it, I suddenly collapsed while I was dancing. I thought it was just strong wine going to my head, but I think there was something wrong with it.”

Adele let out a deep groan.

She had assumed she alone had drunk a doctored glass — but Mia’s had been drugged too. Of course; whoever had done it couldn’t have known which of them would take which glass.

“So you’re all right, then? You weren’t hurt?”

Mia nodded weakly.

“When I came to, I was lying in the drawing room. Thankfully, I recovered quickly.”

“Thank goodness.”

Mia asked again, carefully.

“Adele, were you really all right? Thinking it over, I think it was you they were after. Was it Viscount Eaton? Or Seira?”

“I’d call it a joint effort — Seira, Viscount Eaton, and Madame Hans.”

“I knew it! Those awful people, I’ll—!”

Mia looked ready to turn the carriage around that instant and go drag them all by the hair.

“Calm down. Nothing actually happened, thankfully.”

“Then was it really you who did that to Viscount Eaton?”

Adele hesitated for a moment, then decided not to mention Christine.

“…Yes.”

“Amazing, Adele! I had a feeling it might be you, but I couldn’t quite believe it. Serves him right! After all the trouble he gave you, he won’t be able to show his face for a good while.”

Having tried something vile against Adele only to end up humiliated for it, he’d have nowhere to even voice a complaint.

What was more, having been seen in such a state by the Princess herself made it a disgrace to his entire house — and it was plain that society would be buzzing with the story for some time to come.

There was no greater humiliation than this.

“He brought it entirely on himself.”

“…I’m sorry, Adele.”

Mia murmured suddenly, looking close to tears.

“What do you mean?”

“If anything had happened to you, I… I…”

“It’s all right, Mia. Nothing happened.”

“But it nearly went wrong because of me. It’s all my fault. I was the one who insisted on coming to a party like this, without knowing my place. Ugh, I’m such a useless, vain fool!”

Adele caught Mia’s hands as she smacked herself on the head hard enough to make a sound.

“Don’t do that, Mia. A little vanity suits you — it makes you more charming.”

Mia, who’d looked on the verge of tears, shot her a mild glare instead.

“Excuse me?”

“And tonight’s party wasn’t all bad. Thanks to it, I got the chance to grow closer to the Princess.”

Mia finally burst into tears and threw her arms tightly around Adele.

“Waaahh! Adele, you’re such a good friend! I swear I’m no better than an animal if I ever set foot in society again! I mean it, I’m never going back!”

Mia seemed thoroughly done with society altogether — she’d been used, after all, as a tool to trap Adele. Tonight’s events must have left no small wound on her as well.

Adele patted her sniffling friend gently on the back.

“I really am fine, I keep telling you.”

After sniffling for a while longer, Mia suddenly wiped her tears and grinned.

“So, you know, I got my own little revenge, in my own way.”

“Revenge?”

“Yep!”

Around the same time—

“Oh my, Miss Seira, what’s that in your hair?”

“My hair?”

Puzzled, Seira reached up to touch her carefully styled golden hair and its ornaments. Then her face suddenly twisted.

Something sticky had brushed against her fingers.

“Oh my, isn’t that caramel?”

“Caramel?”

Seira could hardly believe her ears at what people were saying.

Caramel — in her hair? Why would there be—

“Hold still a moment. Looks like someone’s half-eaten caramel got stuck right in with your hair.”

“I think it’ll have to be cut out.”

---

“You worked hard tonight, Count.”

April spoke up carefully, inside the carriage returning to the palace.

Christine, who had been resting his chin on his hand and gazing indifferently out the window, turned his eyes to her.

“Not at all. I enjoyed myself as well.”

He said it with a smile, though his face showed not the slightest trace of enjoyment.

Still, April’s heart raced even at his indifferent expression. Those blue-gray eyes, framed by silver lashes, were beautiful even when utterly unmoved.

“Earlier… I was so surprised you called me by my name.”

Her heart had truly dropped at the sound of it.

“My apologies. It didn’t mean anything in particular.”

Christine’s expression suggested it was nothing worth dwelling on.

“No — if you don’t mind, I’d like it if you kept calling me by name from now on.”

Silence.

When he only looked at her without answering, April’s voice grew a little smaller.

“At least… when it’s just the two of us.”

“I’ll try.”

“Oh! You mean it?”

Her eyes lit up as she tried to press him for a promise, but Christine had already turned his gaze back to the window.

“She was more beautiful than I expected, you know.”

Silence.

“That lady. The Dowager Marchioness of Oswald.”

At the mention of Adele, Christine turned back toward her.

“She was nothing like what I’d heard in the rumors. Such a beautiful, elegant woman. I can see why she’d move your heart, Count.”

Christine’s brow drew faintly together, as though displeased, but April failed to notice.

“That handkerchief she had tied around her hand earlier — that was yours, wasn’t it? The one you had tucked in your breast pocket when we arrived…”

“She’d hurt her hand, so I lent it to her to bind the wound. Please refrain from reading anything more into it.”

His voice was cold as a blade.

“Oh — I’m sorry.”

April, flustered, didn’t know what to do with herself.

“And you are beautiful as well, Your Highness.”

Startled by the unexpected words, she looked up at him in surprise.

“…Do you… really mean that?”

But Christine had already turned back to gaze indifferently out the window.

A tedious silence settled over the carriage, broken only by the clatter of hooves and the rumble of wheels.

April, though, was too absorbed in parsing the meaning behind his words to notice — she’d never in her dreams imagined such a compliment coming from this indifferent man.

Could it be that Count Weiss has some feeling for me, even a little?

Before long, the palace’s splendid lights came into view through the window.

From a distance came the guards’ shouts as they opened the gates, and the clash of spears and swords raised in salute.

April sighed, regretful. It was nearly time to part from Christine.

In truth, she had only won his escort tonight by earnestly begging the Emperor for it.

The carriage gave a jolt.

As it came to a stop, April gripped the hem of her dress tightly and gathered her courage.

“Would you… kiss me, Count Weiss?”

Just having his gaze linger on her made April’s heart pound wildly.

She gripped her dress still tighter and summoned a little more courage.

“Even just… a goodnight kiss? Would that be too much to ask?”

But he opened the carriage door and stepped down, indifferent, as though he hadn’t heard her at all.

Then he held out his hand to help her down.

So it really is no, after all.

April smiled bitterly and took his hand, stepping down from the carriage.

It happened in that very moment.

“Sweet dreams, Your Highness.”

Christine’s lips brushed lightly against the back of April’s hand.

“Y-yes, you t-too, Count…”

She managed the reply, her face gone scarlet.