“Still don’t get it? It was all a strategy! A strategy to win the Crown Prince’s attention! You know as well as I do that the Crown Prince never once accepted her before, right? But yesterday, for the first time, he did. Which means her plan worked. You two really are hopeless.”
“No way — so that’s what it was?”
“Then what about the Grand Duke? Are you saying Lady Melberine used him?”
“Well, obviously—”
And then — the maid who had been gleefully rattling away was suddenly silenced by the frantic hand of the woman beside her. The second maid’s eyes asked what is wrong — but then she looked up, saw what was there, and all the color drained from her face.
“Eek—!”
The very subject of their conversation was standing before them, regarding them with an expression of absolute terror.
“W-we’re so sorry!”
The maids bent at the waist, apologized, and fled. Axel watched them go, fist clenched at his side.
He could not even summon the desire to have those loose-tongued maids detained. The only thing that existed in his mind was a single, circling thought.
Is it truly…. Did Lady Melberine really…
Only Judith.
Axel noticed a gossip broadsheet lying abandoned where the maids had been standing. Under ordinary circumstances he would have ignored it. But something made him reach out and pick it up.
What greeted him on the front page was a headline printed in enormous letters, accompanied by a photograph.
A Noblewoman’s Courtship of Two Men — Was It All Smoke and Mirrors? Her True Love Is the Crown Prince!
A maid’s stunned voice asked:
The hand holding the broadsheet tightened. The corner he was gripping crumpled.
“A smokescreen?”
But what made him even angrier than the headline itself was—
“Right! It’s not like anyone doesn’t know she’s been running after the Crown Prince for years! Did you actually think she was going to give him up? How naive.”
Axel’s face twisted as he snapped aloud—
“What is this—!”
“So what happened then?”
— the photograph. The Crown Prince pressing his lips to Judith’s hand. Judith looking at him, smiling brilliantly.
She smiled like that — I thought it was only for me. Just what, just why—
Axel felt a wave of betrayal so immense it was almost beyond language.
The balance he had been carefully holding — between his trust in Judith and Shuian’s theory — began, slowly and irreversibly, to tip toward one side.
At last, Axel tore his gaze from the broadsheet and crushed it in his hands until its original shape was lost beyond recovery.
And finally, he admitted it.
That it had all been Lady Melberine’s plan — just as Shuian and those maids had said.
There was no longer any reason to wait for Lady Melberine to come to him. He had been thoroughly and completely played in the palm of her hand.
The moment that realization crystallized, a dark shadow settled over Axel’s face. It was not the expression of someone furious — it was the expression of someone who had just been made to look upon something unspeakable. Bleached, hollow.
It felt like crawling through hell.
Axel’s hand, trembling faintly, closed into a fist.
Why must I feel like this?
All he had to do was erase everything. Pretend none of it had happened.
Return every item she had given him. Throw out the photographs. Go back to the beginning. Then he would have nothing left to think about.
He was about to do exactly that — was just about to move — when someone stopped him. It was the servant who had delivered the letter to him the day before.
The servant, coming face to face with Axel’s murderous expression, stumbled over his words as he extended something toward him.
“Your — Your Highness, I was on my way to deliver a let-letter addressed to you… Sh-shall I bring it to the office?”
…A letter?
Axel’s gaze snapped immediately to what the servant was holding. An envelope bearing the seal of House Melberine. Before he had time to think, his hand shot out and took it — nearly snatching it away.
Then he said, shortly:
“That will be all.”
“Y-yes, Your Highness!”
With what he himself could tell were slightly too-eager hands, he tore open the envelope and drew out the letter inside. He read it through from the very first word to the very last, not skipping a single character.
The letter read as follows:
To His Highness the Grand Duke, who is responsible for my most beloved —
You will not believe it, but I woke up this morning to find the most outrageous article printed in the broadsheet! Father came to my room asking what on earth was going on, and that’s how I found out. I was absolutely shocked as well, I assure you! Smokescreen this, smokescreen that — complete and utter nonsense. A thoroughly fraudulent article!
Which brings me to my point, Your Highness. I know this is probably unnecessary, but I simply had to say it just in case — you’re not actually believing that ridiculous article, are you…? I’m sure Your Highness couldn’t care less either way about whatever the broadsheets say, but… regardless, I wanted it known that I am deeply, deeply wronged.
And to offer a small explanation on my part: the Crown Prince was really, truly, absolutely a coincidence. So please, please, please do not misunderstand. My most beloved is and will always be Your Highness, no matter what anyone says!
Oh, and Your Highness — about that other day… I imagine that’s been quite thoroughly wiped from your mind by now…? Ha. I know it’s a bit shameless of me to bring it up, but they do say holding onto anger for too long is bad for one’s mental health… Forgetting quickly isn’t the worst option.
Actually, I had considered coming in person today to explain myself, but I was worried Your Highness might still be angry, so I’m sending this letter instead. To put it plainly — there is nothing quite as irritating as having the very person who caused your anger standing right in front of your face.
So I voluntarily removed myself from view, as a courtesy. Surely things have calmed a bit by now…? Would it be all right for me to try approaching again…? Of course, it was my fault entirely for taking such a liberty, but in that particular moment, I simply could not resist the rabbit pin…! I truly, deeply repent from the bottom of my heart, so please — the only punishment I beg you to withdraw is the one where you confiscate my photo cards or forbid me from taking pictures…
Well, then. I shall take my leave, with the sincerest hope that Your Highness will see fit to forgive me with great generosity. Do keep your spirits up today, Your Highness! I will see you tomorrow!
With daily tears of repentance,
Judith
P.S. And just in case… if you are still not appeased, please look at the enclosed photo card, full of my most heartfelt remorse.
Receiving a reply would be more than I could ask for… but perhaps…?
Had the letter she sent the day before been her exercising restraint?
A helpless laugh slipped out at the letter — crammed with odd little symbols and not a shred of decorum to be found anywhere.
Though all he was doing was reading a letter, it felt startlingly close, as though she were right in front of him chattering away. The fire that had been raging in his chest had long since settled into something quiet. One letter had done that.
Lady Melberine had gone to the trouble of writing to clear up the misunderstanding herself, and to say how wronged she felt — which could only mean yesterday’s meeting truly had been a coincidence.
“Yes. Of course.”
There was no need to lend an ear to the gossip of people who knew nothing. The frigid atmosphere that had felt immovable moments before dissolved as if it had never been.
Where just minutes ago the scales in his chest had tipped toward doubt under the weight of the maids’ rumors, they now swung back entirely, completely, to the other side.
A look of quiet satisfaction crossed Axel’s face.
She had been so averse to being misunderstood that she had used the word absolutely three times in a single sentence.
He read the letter again. And then, reading it once more, he noticed that her true purpose lay further down the page.
…Come to think of it, I had not expected her to still be worried about what happened the other day.
He wondered how one could ever fully understand the workings of Judith’s mind. That two people could stand in the same moment and come away with such entirely different thoughts.
Axel read the letter once more.
