“T-The Young Duke — how did you get here?!”
“I’m not entirely sure what I just witnessed.”
The Crown Prince muttered under his breath, instinctively stumbling backward step by step.
The intangible pressure radiating from Pernoa terrified him.
“I’ll be straightforward — after tonight’s party, you won’t be seeing Risideon’s face again. Consider that fair warning, Your Highness.”
Pernoa stopped walking only when the Crown Prince’s back met the Empress.
“If you intend to keep that seat of yours, you’d do well to spend the rest of your days living as quietly as a dead man.”
The weight behind those words drained the color from the Crown Prince’s face entirely.
The Empress stepped forward, placing herself between Pernoa and her son.
“What kind of outrageous nonsense is this, Young Duke?”
“I find it hard to believe you didn’t understand me perfectly.”
Pernoa paused as if considering something, then let out a short, humorless laugh.
“Ah — could it be that His Highness still doesn’t know?”
“…Young Duke.”
“How interesting. That makes this even more fascinating.”
Adrian, who hadn’t followed a word of their exchange, felt a flush of humiliation rise to his cheeks. He felt utterly dismissed — as though he didn’t exist in the room at all.
No matter that Pernoa was a Young Duke. He was the Crown Prince. He would not be treated this way.
“You overstep yourself, Young Duke. Are you threatening my mother and me?”
“Was reducing my son to this state not overstepping?”
“That was merely a light punishment because Risideon refused to obey my—”
Punishment.
The moment that word left the Crown Prince’s lips, Pernoa crossed the room in swift, deliberate strides and crouched to assess Risideon’s condition.
When he rose and turned back to the Crown Prince, his gaze was glacial.
The Crown Prince, still half-hidden behind the Empress, flinched.
“Let me give you one warning, Adrian Declair.”
Those calm, crimson eyes stirred — just barely — like still water disturbed beneath the surface.
It was enough to show exactly how much fury Pernoa was containing.
The Empress sensed it too. She went rigid.
“Do not take anything about that throne for granted until you are actually sitting on it.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed. What on earth is he talking about?
There was no other prince in this empire. He was the only one. A statement like that — cast over the question of the Crown Prince’s position — was nothing short of grounds for a charge of treason.
“Mother, did you hear that? We must tell Father immediately — the Young Duke of Arachrene clearly harbors treasonous intentions—!”
“Be quiet, Your Highness!”
The Empress snapped at her son, who was still blundering forward without reading the room.
The Arachrene family was known for having no exceptions to its internal discipline.
That was precisely why the Empress had assumed Risideon would be cast aside. Over two years, the boy had been psychologically worn down to the marrow, and an heir in that condition was discarded by noble houses without a second thought.
Risideon himself had believed the same.
And yet—
Was I wrong?
The Empress pressed her lips together. This was not good.
“M-Mother…”
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince — who had apparently never been spoken to harshly in his life — wore the expression of someone who had just been struck.
Pernoa watched him with poorly veiled contempt.
“It seems Her Majesty has raised him remarkably gently. So that’s why the Crown Prince acts as though nothing in this world is beyond his reach.”
“I apologize, Young Duke. — Apologize. Now. Your Highness.”
It was time to retreat. The Empress had made her assessment.
She gripped her son’s shoulders and pushed him forward.
The Crown Prince, who would sooner have died than done this willingly, had no choice but to walk toward Risideon.
How — how could Mother do this to me?
He was in a full panic.
Until now, the Empress had known about his punishments of Risideon and never said a single word against it.
And yet now—!
His pride in shreds, the Crown Prince clenched his fists and forced his head down. The humiliation was suffocating. He had never once imagined there would come a day when he would bow to someone he had considered less than nothing.
“I’m sorry, Risideon. I went too far today.”
“…I’m fine.”
Risideon answered quietly.
He felt Pernoa’s gaze on him but couldn’t bring himself to look in that direction.
Even so, something shifted inside him — a small, quiet easing in the hollow place that had been worn into his chest. He had been given an apology by the Crown Prince. The wound didn’t close, but it breathed a little.
“It seems you’ll need to find a new fencing instructor, Your Majesty,” Pernoa said, his voice cool and flat.
Risideon looked down at the sword still in his hand.
“If you cannot bring yourself to put that sword down, I will help you. But the choice is yours, Risideon.”
“Thank you for everything, Your Majesty. Your Highness.”
Risideon set the sword down without looking back.
⁂
The carriage ride back to the Arachrene estate was wrapped in silence.
And yet, strangely, the color had returned to Risideon’s face. He looked somehow lighter than before.
I’m not sure what happened, but it seems like things worked out. I’m just glad.
Riersha exhaled quietly in relief.
She hadn’t expected any of this — to be leaving in the middle of the party, the evening not yet finished.
She let her mind drift back to the moments before.
Pernoa had been in the middle of conversation with several nobles when Duke Marcella appeared at his side. The Duke leaned in and murmured something urgent. Pernoa’s expression hardened in an instant, and he excused himself without a word. Riersha had watched him go, her stomach tight with worry.
“Where did Daddy go?”
“To bring Risideon back. Can you stay with Uncle until then, Riersha?”
“Yes.”
Duke Marcella hadn’t shared any details.
But Riersha had understood that something was wrong. Please let them both be alright, she had prayed silently, willing them to return quickly.
And return they did.
“We’re leaving.”
Pernoa had taken Riersha by the hand and walked out of the party hall without ceremony.
The room had gone silent as if doused with cold water.
The faces of the nobles — bewildered, unsettled by the display of departing before the Crown Prince’s birthday celebration had concluded — were still vivid in her mind.
“Risideon.”
Pernoa’s voice broke the quiet inside the carriage.
“Yes, Father.”
“This is long overdue — but I owe you an apology.”
Risideon’s eyes wavered.
“You’ve been carrying all of this alone. That must have been unbearable.”
“…”
“When we return, I want you to speak properly with the family physician.”
In noble households, an heir known to be struggling mentally could be stripped of their standing. Because of that, such things were hushed, buried, denied — even by the person suffering. The endings of those stories were often tragedies.
“He is discreet. You have nothing to worry about.”
“…”
“I am not trying to discard you, Risideon. I am trying to protect you.”
“…Yes.”
Risideon accepted his father’s words without resistance, because he knew they were true.
In fact, something in him felt lighter — almost free. The person he had most wanted to understand him finally did.
“Is Oppa okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’m sorry, Riersha — I couldn’t keep my promise to you earlier.”
“Mm, it’s okay.”
“And…”
Riersha shook her head to say it didn’t matter. But Risideon hesitated, clearly with more on his mind, before he finally spoke.
“I’m sorry for ignoring you when we first met.”
“…Hm?”
“I was worried about you. My position in this family wasn’t secure, and I didn’t want that to affect you.”
“I know. You were worried about me, right?”
Riersha nodded as if she understood perfectly.
At first, she had thought Risideon disliked her. But in the moments they had shared alone, she had seen a different side of him — gentle, careful — and she had understood.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Riersha’s face broke into a bright smile, and the tension finally melted from Risideon’s expression, leaving something quiet and relieved in its place.
“I’m happy we’re going home together.”
“Me too.”
“Ricador Oppa and Riscal Oppa are going to be so happy. And Great-grandpa too. Oppa is a surprise gift!”
Pernoa glanced over at Riersha and found himself smiling — just barely — at the sincerity of it.
Risideon, on the other hand, had no idea how to respond to words like those. He simply looked flustered, caught somewhere between warmth and bewilderment.
“Watching the Empress today told me something.”
Pernoa turned to the window as he spoke.
“I had always thought her boldness was unusual — too deliberate to simply be confidence.”
Riersha tilted her head at that.
Was acting boldly a problem? The Empress was the second-highest-ranking person in the empire. It wasn’t strange at all for her to be wary of the Arachrene family, or to watch for any opportunity to threaten them.
At least, that was what Riersha had thought.
“When did the Empress know I would be away — and how did she time her approach to you so precisely, Risideon?”
That was before Pernoa had finished his thought.
