Kasha bit down gently on her lower lip. She had no idea how to persuade Leon.
The union of Odette and Simon had startled her in more ways than one.
Before her return — in the previous life — Leon had mentioned, only in passing, his miserable marriage to Odette. The real unraveling of that marriage had begun just months after the wedding, when a child came into the world.
He had never spoken of the details, but it was clear enough that the child had not been his.
Yet Odette had been brazen about it. She had continuously provoked Leon, who at the time had been tormented by desire beyond his control, and the more she pushed, the more fiercely he had refused her.
Enraged, Odette had apparently decided: if she couldn’t have him, she would at least see him thoroughly destroyed.
She slipped a powerful aphrodisiac into his dinner one evening after he returned from the demon beast war, broken and ravaged. Then she thrust a group of unclothed strangers into his room while he was beyond all self-control, and locked the door from the outside — presumably intending to ruin him with a filthy scandal.
But it was a spectacularly foolish act. It had lit the fuse on a curse already on the brink of detonation.
Under the influence of the drug, Leon had unleashed his madness in full that night. What had happened inside that room — he himself could not remember. He had only woken the next morning in a blood-soaked chamber, surrounded by the mangled remains of the bodies that had been thrown in with him.
He was arrested on Odette’s report and dragged before the temple, and the truth of his curse — that he had been consumed by a carnal madness — was laid bare for all the world to see.
The Holy Knight who had once been the object of the empire’s reverence became a figure of ridicule, condemned as a fallen knight, facing forced execution by fire. He had escaped in a state of frenzy and wandered the continent, until at last he arrived at an abandoned temple to Vanua — and encountered the villainess Kasha Rüschino.
But in this life, Odette married Simon, not Leon.
Kasha, who did not know that Leon had been the one to drive Odette into a corner, could not fully piece together how it had come about. But that two obstacles — Odette and Simon — had been removed at once was, whatever the reason, an unexpected stroke of fortune.
She looked up at Leon in silence.
In this life, at least, he would not be broken by a woman like Odette. Even if he was clearly wounded by her talk of ending the contract.
I’m trying to protect you, Leon. Because the one Simon Blanche truly serves — the one who pushed us both toward ruin and laughed while doing it — that person is…
Just then, from outside the forest, voices rang out.
“The banquet is beginning. Please take your seats!”
“…It’s time to go back.”
Kasha’s voice was subdued.
She turned away from Leon decisively and began to walk. A moment later, the steady sound of his footsteps followed behind her in silence.
The evening banquet was the grand finale of the imperial picnic — an outdoor dinner spread before the setting sun.
Fruit punch, champagne, and an array of fine wines arrived alongside a glittering succession of appetizers.
Three long tables had been arranged along the riverbank.
At the center table, positioned to offer the finest view of the sunset, sat the Crown Prince and his wife in the place of honor. Those gathered around them were mostly members of the Crown Prince’s faction, or the most powerful and promising nobles in the empire.
What drew particular attention that evening was Odette Tyrot’s companion. When Simon Blanche took the seat boldly at Odette’s side, the guests exchanged significant glances.
Sitting at a banquet head table for the first time in his life, Simon was in an elevated state of excitement, fussing over Odette — until a sharp glare from her finally quieted him.
The table to the right belonged to Duke and Duchess Vistas. The Duke, who was the unconscious Empress Ann’s younger brother, had re-emerged as the most prominent figure in imperial aristocratic society after the Crown Prince’s investiture. Those who had failed to secure a seat at the Crown Prince’s table waged quiet battles to at least claim a place at his.
The final table’s seat of honor had been taken by Princess Melissa.
As if reflecting her standing within the imperial family, her table remained notably sparse even as the evening wore on. Those who eventually drifted over and took their seats were largely the overlooked and undistinguished.
It was normally customary at such gatherings for the host to assign and direct guests to their seats. But the Crown Prince had declared that this particular banquet should dispense with formality — he wished for a relaxed, unstructured evening. Given that only young unmarried nobles had been invited, this had seemed natural enough.
The problem was that it placed Princess Melissa in a quietly humiliating position.
Melissa, still unmarried, sat alone at her empty table for a long while — her posture perfectly upright, as though she were enduring a punishment. The few who did eventually join her were those who would never ordinarily have dared to sit with a princess, and so the seats immediately to her left and right remained conspicuously vacant. The sight of such a diminished princess drew whispers.
“I heard it was the Crown Princess who suggested the open seating arrangement to His Highness…”
“And the Crown Prince and the Princess are seated separately at that. I suppose the rumors about the Crown Princess and the Princess not getting along are true after all?”
“Apparently they’ve been seen quarreling in the palace several times recently.”
“Princess Melissa really ought to be more careful about getting on the Crown Princess’s wrong side. She’s always been a bit too proud — just like the Empress used to be.”
“And she and the Crown Prince are already on awkward terms as it is. It got so bad, people were even saying they weren’t true siblings.”
“Oh, that’s nonsense. Hush!”
People cast glances of faint pity and quiet contempt at the Princess’s back.
The dreamlike light of the sunset falling over the river, the cheerful noise of the outdoors, the pleasant loosening that came with fine wine — it all made them bolder. And in the midst of it all, Princess Melissa looked only lonelier.
Then, a small group of beautiful young people appeared — bickering among themselves — and drifted, quite naturally, toward Princess Melissa’s table.
“Kasha can sit with us, so please sit at another table, Sir Leon!”
“I am Kasha’s intended. I hardly need a viscount’s permission.”
“Oh, that tiresome word again — intended!”
“Lord Daryl. Why are you getting so worked up? I’d quite like the chance to speak with Lord Leon myself.”
“That’s not — Miss Margaret, I only thought that Kasha might be uncomfortable—”
“Kasha. Are you uncomfortable?”
“…No.”
The Grand Duke’s son, Leon. Viscount Rüschino. Kasha Rüschino. And Margaret Yonder.
Each of them, in their own way, was one of the most watched figures in society at present.
Leon, whose beauty had, for reasons no one could quite explain, grown even more striking in recent months. Daryl, heir to the Rüschino line. Kasha, who had become the sudden talk of the town as a creator of magical devices. And Margaret Yonder, whose name had been linked to a potential match with the late Baron Marquis before his death, and who had since become the subject of breathless gossip as Daryl Rüschino began a vigorous pursuit.
Their arrival rapidly drew eyes away from the Crown Prince’s table and scattered attention across the room.
Leon, who cared nothing for any of it, went first to Princess Melissa and paid her his respects. The Princess answered with a small, refined smile. Leon studied her with a calm gaze.
“May we have the honor of sitting with Your Highness?”
“Of course. The other tables appear to be full — it seems you arrived a little late.”
She was letting them know, with gracious indirection, that they need not be too formal about it — there was nowhere else left to sit. Leon understood perfectly, and simply offered a plain, sincere expression of thanks.
Before Kasha could think to decline, Leon took her hand and drew her to sit beside him on Princess Melissa’s right.
Daryl looked on with indignant eyes, but could hardly cause a scene before the Princess.
Kasha suppressed a quiet sigh inwardly. She had not wanted to be seen at Leon’s side today — not more than necessary. But she knew that pushing him away now would draw even more attention.
She took her seat without protest, and Daryl, left with little choice, escorted Margaret to the left side of the Princess.
A slightly awkward silence had just begun to settle when, through the cooled evening air, a man appeared. He walked with unhurried purpose toward the Princess, paid his respects, and then took the one remaining seat — beside Kasha.
His arrival drew a murmur of quiet surprise.
“How unusual to see Lord Anthony here.”
“He’s been too delicate to show his face at social events for some time now…”
“He looks much better than the rumors suggested, though.”
“He really does. Perhaps his constitution changed as he grew older. He’s become quite striking.”
Glossy silver hair that caught the light. A face of sharp, sensitive lines that nonetheless came together in something harmonious. A tall, well-proportioned frame that suited his elegant suit as though made for it.
The surprise was not limited to the other guests. Leon looked at his brother with quiet bewilderment as Anthony settled naturally into the seat beside Kasha.
“I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I saw the invitation. No one would have expected me to attend, of course — but my health is decent today, so I thought I’d see what it was like.”
Leon saw the color in his brother’s face — a healthy, living warmth — and nodded in silence.
Anthony was an adult now, of an age to appear in society. If anything, it had been overdue. Leon had held back out of consideration, not wanting to burden him while he was unwell.
What unsettled him was a smaller thing: that Anthony’s attendance had not been mentioned to him beforehand. Whether this was connected to the growing distance between them of late, Leon was not certain.
Just then, Princess Melissa, who had been observing their exchange, spoke:
“Anthony. It’s been a while. You look well.”
“Your Highness grows more gracious with each passing year.”
“I must say, I prefer your manner to Sir Leon’s — he insists on treating me like a stranger.”
The Princess’s gentle reproach carried a real undercurrent of hurt. Leon met it with a quiet, steady gaze.
There had been a time, in the years when Empress Ann was still healthy and Leon’s mother Larissa was still alive, when they had moved together through the palace with ease.
Whenever Leon had been summoned to the palace as a companion for the Crown Prince, Melissa would find her way into their little group. The three of them had played hide-and-seek and run through the imperial gardens with lighthearted abandon.
Leon, your hair is so pretty. Can I try braiding it — just once?
Your Highness. I am not a doll.
Leon, if you say that, what does that make me — I let her do my hair every day.
Leon, Melissa, and Nigel — three small children sitting beneath the acacia tree in the palace garden, chattering away. Where had those carefree children gone?
As though she had somehow sensed the memory passing through his mind, Princess Melissa smiled a quiet, rueful smile and fell silent.
She knew, too. That displaying closeness now would only bring harm to them both.
Having returned to the composed, expressionless poise of an imperial family member, Leon turned his gaze to Kasha.
She was exchanging greetings with Anthony. But there was something in the way Anthony looked at her that Leon found quietly unsettling.
Because Kasha had turned toward Anthony, Leon couldn’t see her face. He listened in silence.
“Is that so. We seem to be running into each other rather often these days.”
At Kasha’s reply, Anthony smiled pleasantly.
“You don’t find my sudden appearance inconvenient, I hope? I’d hate to have interrupted a private moment between you and Leon.”
Was Anthony always one to smile like that?
Leon found himself wondering.
No — the word boy no longer fit Anthony. The slender jaw that had still carried a boyish softness only months ago had sharpened, and his gaze had deepened into something intense. And that curve at the corner of his mouth, every time he finished a sentence — it left a peculiar impression.
From various corners of the table, the eyes of young noblewomen drifted toward Anthony and lingered.
Anthony was displaying himself in society with the unabashed confidence of someone who had decided the time had come. Were it not for the fact that his brother’s attention was fixed so persistently on Kasha, Leon would have found all of this nothing but gratifying.
But that was not the only thing setting his nerves on edge.
