Terrified he might change his mind, I scrambled to pull the photo cards from my bag and thrust them at him. He pocketed them with practiced ease, then looked at me and opened his mouth with entirely too much satisfaction in his voice.
“Oh, but there’s something I forgot to mention — unfortunately, you can’t go inside the building right now.”
“…What? That’s not — you can’t do that!”
Four of my precious photo cards!
“That was your way of agreeing to let me, Your Highness!”
The audacity! I reeled at him in outrage, but the Crown Prince only blinked at me with perfect, guileless innocence.
“Was it? I thought you were simply giving them to me.”
Simply giving them?!
So this was what it felt like to have the rug pulled out from under you while your eyes were wide open.
“Oh my. There seems to have been a misunderstanding.”
I was approximately one breath away from imploding with rage when the Crown Prince magnanimously opened his mouth as though to do me a tremendous favor.
“All right. In that case — tell me something else, Lady Melberine. Who knows? I might grant it.”
Not a promise to grant it — just a willingness to hear it first and decide. What a shameless person. And to think I had gone out of my way to bring him extra photo cards. My regard for him dropped several points in an instant.
Even so — nothing ventured, nothing gained. I narrowed my eyes at him and made my request, head held high.
“Then please help me, Your Highness.”
“Help you? With what?”
“To make things work between me and the Grand Duke.”
“It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. Just… passing along kind words about me when the opportunity arises…?”
But the longer I considered it, the more I noticed his gaze sliding away from me — past me, toward the garden, toward something I couldn’t see.
Where does he keep looking? What’s out there?
I was just about to follow his gaze when his voice returned.
“Lady Melberine, you are rather cruel, you know… Did you entirely forget that I told you I was interested in you?”
And there came the handkerchief again — dabbing at eyes that had not a single tear in them.
Where does that handkerchief keep appearing from?!
My attention snapped back to him against my will.
“I think we both know that wasn’t sincere, Your Highness.”
“Not at all. Who says? Who says it wasn’t sincere?”
I stared at him in disbelief as he told the barefaced lie without even blinking.
“Even the broadsheets took us for a real couple. Didn’t you see?”
“…You believe that? You know perfectly well it’s nonsense. Please don’t start this as well, Your Highness.”
First my father, then the ladies-in-waiting — I had been interrogated relentlessly the day before, everyone demanding to know if something was truly happening between me and the Crown Prince. I was completely and utterly exhausted by anything to do with that broadsheet.
I like Axel, not the Crown Prince!
All the pent-up frustration came crashing over me like a wave. Why did no one actually listen to what I said? I had been perfectly clear — I liked someone tall, kind-faced, good-looking. I rounded on that endlessly grinning face and shouted:
“Of all people — why on earth would I ever like you, Your Highness?!”
We’re nothing but fan companions!
You do not register as a man to me at all. You are simply someone easy to talk to, someone fun to be around. That is all.
Saying it aloud was a relief.
And then — the Crown Prince burst into absolutely magnificent laughter. He laughed so hard that tears actually gathered at the corners of his eyes, and he had to wipe them away.
“Hahahaha!”
I watched from a safe distance, eyes half-lidded.
“Enough, Your Highness. You had no intention of helping me from the start, did you?”
Honestly, I hadn’t expected much from him. I’d said it on a whim — nothing to lose if he refused.
The laughter gradually wound down, and the Crown Prince spoke.
“No? Not at all. Does Lady Melberine not appreciate how sincerely I’ve been working to help? I have a feeling you’ll be thanking me one day.”
Who has been helping who, exactly? Sincerely?
I stared at him with open skepticism.
Right. Another lie. Just as I thought.
I glanced at the time and startled to my feet. Far more time had passed than I’d realized.
I genuinely had to go now.
“In any case, Your Highness — if there’s nothing more to say, may I take my leave?”
“Of course. Go ahead. I was about to head off myself.”
I’d half-expected him to refuse again, but he let me go without complaint. The Crown Prince smiled and waved as though wishing me well.
There was something vaguely unsettled in the back of my mind, but I bowed, said my goodbyes, and made my way out.
The path to Axel’s office felt strangely empty today. There was a chill to it — a kind of subtle unease I couldn’t quite place.
Setting aside the uneasy feeling, I quickened my steps and arrived at the office door. I knocked as I always did, and walked in with a cheerful greeting—
“Hello, I—”
The moment the door opened, a wash of cool air met me, and I blinked, still.
Hm…?
The lights were on. They were perfectly fine. But the interior of the office had such a heavy, sunken quality to it that it felt as if every light had been extinguished. I couldn’t explain it otherwise.
I stopped mid-word, swallowing quietly.
Axel was directly across from me. He looked at me — cold, sharp — the way one might survey an enemy on a battlefield.
Hm…? Why does this place feel so strange right now…?
That same day.
Meanwhile, Axel had arrived early at the imperial palace and was sitting in his office, staring at the door with an oddly vacant expression.
…When is she coming?
Judith, who invariably visited his office, usually arrived around the start of working hours. With a faintly restless gaze, he checked the wall clock, then forced himself to pick up a document.
About an hour still.
He intended to fill the time that refused to pass with work. But within five minutes of picking up the document, he had given up entirely.
His every nerve was occupied elsewhere. The words refused to register. This had never happened to him before.
“Ha…”
Axel set down the quill and fixed his gaze forward.
The first to enter the office was Shuian.
Coming in on his way to work, Shuian was met immediately by the razor-edged look of his superior and visibly startled.
“Oh… Your Highness. You’ve come in early.”
“…Yes.”
Axel gave him the briefest glance and looked forward again.
The closer working hours came, the more his nerves prickled. His eyes grew incrementally narrower.
After Shuian, the next to arrive — just barely on time — was Xenon.
When, again, someone other than who he’d been waiting for appeared, Axel openly scowled and exhaled.
Completely indifferent to this, Xenon greeted the room with his usual cheer.
“Ha, good morning to all.”
Axel’s fingers drummed the table faster than before.
When is she coming?
Working hours had already begun. She had said today, hadn’t she?
And then — Xenon, tilting his head at the peculiarly empty feel of the office, seemed to remember something.
“Come to think of it, Lady Melberine isn’t here. Did she step out somewhere?”
“Lady Melberine isn’t here? What do you mean?”
Xenon spoke as though she ought to have already arrived. He scratched the back of his head.
“I spotted her walking in the distance earlier, ahead of me. I assumed she’d gotten here first — but I suppose she had something else to take care of.”
“…Something else to take care of?”
The temperature around Axel dipped almost imperceptibly. From somewhere deep in his chest, unease began to spread, slow and insidious.
He could hold it back no longer. Axel rose sharply from his seat. Both Shuian and Xenon looked at him, wide-eyed.
“Where did you say you saw her?”
