3.

From the day after Ines woke, Rupert Castle began preparations for the wedding in earnest.

“Head maid, what shall we do about the flowers? The ones we received earlier are already starting to wilt……”

“I’ve already spoken to them. Go and fetch fresh ones the day before the wedding. Leave the flower arrangements for last.”

“Yes!”

Under the direction of head maid Marisa, the servants moved about in a flurry.

The general preparations had begun the moment the marriage was decided, but there was no shortage of details that needed attention right up until the last moment.

However unwelcome the marriage, and however few guests had been invited, the parties involved were the master of the vast North and a princess of the Empire. It could not be done poorly.

Of course, the flurry of preparation was the servants’ domain. In most matters, the best thing those above could do was simply stay out of the way.

On top of that, the physician’s recommendation that she not push herself for at least three days, taken to heart by Killian with a serious expression, meant that the area around Ines’s quarters remained quiet, untouched by the commotion.

‘……All because I had to go and fall ill.’

Ines watched the servants moving busily outside the window and swallowed a sigh.

Killian had not blamed her for falling ill but had worried about her instead, yet the self-reproach sitting heavy in her chest like indigestion would not fully lift. The desire to do better this time, having already lived through it once, only added to the weight.

Just then,

“Your Highness, it’s me, Cecile.”

A cheerful voice followed a neat knock. It was Cecile, who had gone to fetch the wedding dress to check if any adjustments were needed before the ceremony.

“Come in.”

Ines shook off the gloom and answered, and Cecile entered with two other maids.

The maids greeted Ines with a somewhat formal bearing, then carefully removed the cloth from a large garment rack with gentle hands, revealing a pure white dress.

“Oh my……”

The scattered exclamations came from Cecile and the maids. If anything, the one who was to wear the dress was the calmest of them all, enough that anyone watching might have wondered if the roles were reversed.

Not that Ines felt nothing. It was simply that she already had a clear memory of wearing that white dress and holding Killian’s hand, so she was not moved.

In her past life, seeing the dress for the very first time, an indescribable flutter had welled up inside her, enough to briefly forget the tension and fear that had been with her since the marriage was announced.

Looking back now, that racing of her heart had probably come from the hope of leaving behind her life as a half-princess and starting something new, and from the excitement of gaining a husband who was, by any measure, elegant and impressive.

“Even without trying it on, I can tell it will suit you beautifully, Your Highness!”

“It really will……”

“With hair that pure platinum color, even just leaving it down would be absolutely stunning, don’t you think?”

“Oh, that would be lovely!”

Ines had been quietly looking at the dress, tracing back through a time that no longer existed, when the voices bright with excitement drew a faint smile from her. Both of the other maids looked four or five years older than Cecile, yet the atmosphere between them was easy and comfortable. The three of them seemed to be quite close. What was a little sad was that Ines had no memory of these girls.

‘……In my past life, I really never managed to connect with the people of Rupert.’

Despite spending five years as the mistress of the Rupert grand ducal household, the number of people whose names and faces Ines knew precisely was not large.

Aside from Marisa and Ivan, it was really only Cecile, who had been unusually devoted to her, and a handful of other servants.

‘I should have done this from the start.’

The regret of having been taken in by Lena Orso’s act and relying on her alone now cut to the bone.

Setting aside the particular tenderness she felt toward Cecile, who had given her life for her, Ines genuinely wanted to become a true part of Rupert in this second life.

Just then, Cecile caught Ines’s eye and gave a start.

“Oh, we shouldn’t be chattering among ourselves right now.”

“Goodness! I’m so sorry, Your Highness. We’ve never seen such a beautiful dress before……”

At Cecile’s words, the other two maids startled and bowed their heads deeply. The lively chatter cut off abruptly, and a silence fell. The maids looked a little frightened.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. If anything, I should be the one thanking you for saying it’s beautiful.”

Ines deliberately softened her eyes and smiled as she spoke. At the gentle tone, the gazes that had been fixed on the floor slowly lifted.

“Was it a lie, then, that you found it lovely?”

“Of course not!”

“In my twenty-six years of life, you are the most beautiful person I have ever seen……!”

Ines looked at each of them in turn and asked with playful mischief, and the two maids burst out with wide eyes. The fervent declaration made Ines laugh before she could stop herself.

With just a few exchanges and a few laughs, the maids quickly shed their nerves. Cecile, too, became livelier than she was when they were alone.

“Oh my!”

“Goodness, you look so beautiful……”

“Even the moon goddess would have to bow her head before Your Highness!”

“That’s right! What if the sun grows jealous of your radiance?”

While helping Ines into the dress with careful hands, the maids chattered away excitedly, and when Ines’s hair was pinned up slightly, they poured out praise so extravagant it was almost embarrassing.

Receiving such effusive admiration for the first time, Ines flushed slightly and waved her hand.

“……You’re all far too kind.”

“We mean it!”

“You truly are beautiful. If I were a poet, I could fill an entire book with Your Highness’s beauty.”

“That’s right. We can’t tell lies!”

Having quickly understood that Ines was not displeased but simply embarrassed, the maids raised their voices cheerfully. Even Cecile joined in with a bright laugh, and Ines found herself smiling in spite of herself.

“Then we’ll just take in the waist a little! It fits well enough now, but a slight adjustment would make it even better.”

“All right. I don’t know much about these things, so I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes! Then we’ll be on our way!”

The two maids, whose names turned out to be Tina and Cynthia, left with the dress, their faces still flushed from laughing.

The room settled back into quiet, and Ines had just taken a sip of tea when she heard Cecile’s voice.

“Um, Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“……I’m sorry if we were too noisy just now. I got carried away without thinking……”

Cecile bowed her head beside her. Ines looked up in surprise at the sudden apology.

“What are you talking about?”

“Looking back, I think we were being too comfortable in front of you. And you seemed a little tired too……”

Cecile seemed to be reading Ines’s expression cautiously, and spoke with a slightly deflated look. Only then did Ines clearly realize that however warmly and fondly she felt toward Cecile, she was not yet a comfortable presence for her in return.

It was unmistakably Ines’s mistake, no need to examine it closely. The tension she had kept so tightly wound in front of Killian had gone slack in front of Cecile.

Knowing the reason was that the two people affected her differently, Ines felt genuinely sorry, and let a little more warmth than usual into her voice.

“Not at all. I enjoyed it too. I’m just…… not quite used to it.”

“……Really?”

“Really.”

Ines was naturally calm by temperament, and had grown up in an environment where silence was the norm. That kind of liveliness was unfamiliar to her. But unfamiliar did not mean unwelcome.

Ines answered with firm conviction, and the sullenness that had settled over Cecile’s face gradually cleared.

The bright face that returned was so young it was almost startling, and Ines smiled softly as she erased the image of that face, red and raw with blood.

Ines used the excuse of having made Cecile feel self-conscious to push the cake that had come up from the kitchen toward her. Cecile refused again and again, insisting she could not presume to take something belonging to the princess, and only finally picked up a fork after Ines mentioned that it felt a little wrong to eat sweets right before the wedding.

“Once the wedding is over, I’ll ask the kitchen to make it again! You absolutely have to try it then. It’s really, truly delicious.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. The one in charge of sweets is Auntie Lisa, and she’s the wife of Uncle Hose…… that is, the head chef. And the two of them both graduated at the top of their classes from the culinary and baking departments at the Imperial Academy.”

“No wonder the skill is so remarkable. So that was why.”

“They’re both from the North, and the previous Grand Duke sponsored them so they could attend the Academy. So after they graduated, they asked to come work at Rupert Castle straightaway.”

With Ines occasionally responding, Cecile chattered on about this and that.

It was while they were like that when Marisa arrived looking somewhat grave.

Marisa, her salt-and-pepper brown hair pinned up neatly, sent Cecile out with Ines’s permission.

“I’ll see you later, Your Highness!”