“I have never seen anyone like you, Terion. There is no one in Masion with hair or eyes that color……”

“Do you like it?”

“Pardon?”

“What do you think?”

What do I think? She hesitated, trying to come up with an answer, when another baffling question followed.

“Pretty, right?”

She blinked and searched for words, then realized there was no other way to put it.

“Hmm. Yes, pretty.”

Terion Iligen was the sort who only ever reached for words that made one’s skin tingle, so she figured he would not find it strange no matter what she said.

“I am glad you like it.”

True to form, he did not seem the least bit flustered. He simply gave a light smile.

“There are people in Masion with a reddish tint to their eyes, I noticed.”

There are. My betrothed.

The only people with reddish eyes were those of House Dnie. Many people praised Sir Ian Dnie’s appearance, and his superior build and face were reason enough, but the unusual color of his eyes played no small part. They were dark, yet carried a faint, subtle red, and that was the mark of House Dnie. 

No one outside the family had ever been known to have such a distinctive color. People were always busy gushing that his eyes drew you in. Pamona had never bothered telling anyone that to her eyes, they looked a little frightening.

“He is from House Dnie. Did you see him?”

“Yes, at the banquet.”

“People seem to like Sir Dnie. There was never a shortage of people around him.”

“Yes…… He is quite popular.”

Admired might be a more accurate word than liked……

“But I am prettier, right?”

“Pardon?”

Terion Iligen even stopped walking and tilted his head as though waiting for an answer.

“Am I not prettier?”

Is this person quite all right……

He looked down at her steadily with those blue eyes. She thought it might be another joke, but he was clearly signaling with his eyes that he actually wanted an answer. His hands were clasped behind his back and his body leaned slightly toward Pamona. The closing distance nagged at her.

“That is how it looks to me. What does Pamona think?”

“……”

“Surely not. Him over me?”

“He is my betrothed.”

“I know, I heard. Even so, please answer fairly.”

“…… Why are you doing this, honestly?”

At Pamona’s mildly exasperated words, Terion Iligen burst out laughing. And yet that bright, open laughing face was so genuinely pretty that she could not decide whether to scold him for his nerve or praise him for knowing himself so well.

“Pamona, do you know it is all written on your face?”

“I know.”

“You know? That everything you are feeling shows on your face.”

It was obvious her expression read as annoyed.

“Yes, I got scolded for it often when I was young.”

“Scolded?”

“Yes, many times.”

“Why? It is endearing.”

Pamona looked up at Terion Iligen with raised eyebrows. By now she was fairly certain he was doing it on purpose because he found her shifting expressions amusing. Endearing, he said.

I am endearing?

The number of times her uncooperative expressions had caused her grief was beyond counting. It was simply easier to be alone than to meet people. At least Terion Iligen found it amusing, which was something.

“You have such a wide range of expressions. Do not say you did not know it was endearing.”

He said it lightly, like a joke, yet his gaze held a warmth, the kind one might direct at a genuinely charming child. Pamona covered her face with her palm and let out a sigh. There was clearly a vast difference between Ilion and Masion. To say something like that to a person’s face without any hesitation.

With her eyes covered, his voice seemed to reach her more clearly, and there was laughter woven through it. She thought his softly curved blue eyes would be looking at her, and it felt strange. The urge to hide surfaced again from somewhere.

“A little……”

“A little?”

“I think you are a little bit of an irritating person, Terion.”

Terion Iligen covered his own eyes with his large hand and bent back laughing. She had wondered whether it was all right to say something like that to anyone, but with Terion Iligen, it felt fine. It just did.

* * *

Pamona took Terion Iligen around to various spots on the eastern side. It was, without question, the most busily she had ever poked around the eastern side in her entire life. She went to places she rarely visited, places she had not been in years, and showed them to him with the easy air of someone showing off their own front yard. Then her energy ran out almost immediately.

They found a spot in the shade of a tree and sat down. Perhaps because she would normally be lying in bed doing nothing at this hour, her body felt sluggish and her eyes a little heavy. She had moved around far too much.

She had been unusually diligent. But he was a precious guest from a foreign country, and she had not wanted to leave him with a poor impression of Masion. It was a royal castle she had never felt particularly proud of, yet she had strained to wring out every good thing she could show him, and now she had nothing left.

Her gaze drifted unfocused to no particular point, and unlike the western side, a fair number of people moved busily within her field of vision, each going about their own work.

Terion Iligen sat beside Pamona with his arms folded, leaning against the tree. Occasionally he glanced at her, and beyond that he did nothing but sweep back the hair the wind tossed across his face. Watching the strands flow through his fingers, Pamona found herself wondering whether the men of Masion might look better if they let their hair grow out a little too.

Hmm. No, that would not do. It suits Terion Iligen because it is Terion Iligen. Hair flowing loosely over that mountain of a body and that rough face would be something else entirely.

“Pamona.”

A low voice tickled her ear.

“Yes?”

“I think I am hungry.”

She felt a pang of guilt. Pamona did not eat in the mornings, and she had completely overlooked the fact that Terion Iligen might be hungry. His face as he looked at her held some kind of expectation she could not quite name, and she felt puzzled.

“Shall we head back?”

“What about Pamona? Are you not hungry?”

“I do not eat at this hour normally.”

“Then I am fine too.”

The brightness in his eyes seemed to dim a little. He was clearly quite hungry, so what did he mean he was fine.

“But you said you were hungry.”

Even small, slight Heil had struggled when she missed breakfast. Someone this tall and sturdy would naturally need more food.

“If I am hungry.”

“Then you should go back and eat.”

“It is so far……”

What am I supposed to do about that……

“What if you collapse on the way?”

The person who looked like he would never collapse in his life looked up at her with pitiful eyes. Those large eyes, catching the light and gleaming, were clear and harmless as glass beads.

“Why are you doing this again?”

The wary words slipped out, and Terion Iligen laughed. He straightened away from the tree, then folded his large frame down and rested his head on his own knee, looking up at Pamona.

“I feel dizzy…… I am so, so hungry right now.”

He is definitely doing that on purpose.

“Why did you not eat breakfast, then.”

“I was afraid Pamona would leave while I was eating alone……”

Why would that……

The slightly deflated way he said it made him look like a child who wanted something but felt too timid to ask outright.

“Now, Terion.”

“Yes……”

He drew out the end of the word on purpose. He clearly knew exactly how pitiful, and how, how endearing it made him look.

“You really are a bit of an odd person, are you not?”

Terion Iligen buried his face between his knees, and from within came the sound of stifled laughter.

“If Pamona says so, then I suppose I am……”

Why does a grown man laugh in such a coy, playful way, and keep acting so endearing……

Was he lonely, having come to an unfamiliar place? She was wondering why he was like this when Terion Iligen’s situation, which she had briefly forgotten, came back to her and she felt a pang of sympathy. And naturally, Heil came to mind alongside it. Was that child eating alone somewhere, feeling lonely too?

“Shall we go to Payen Castle?”

What was so difficult about eating together. It was not long until luncheon, so by now Pamona thought she could manage to eat something as well. Just as Terion Iligen lifted his head with a bright flash of his blue eyes, a voice came.

“Prince Iligen.”

A shadow fell over them, darker than the shade of the tree. Even the shadow itself was massive, swelling as though ready to burst. The ones bowing their heads in greeting toward the two of them seated on the ground were no fewer than four princes.

Oh no……

Pamona barely managed to swallow the sound that had nearly escaped her mouth. Terion Iligen rose to his feet and extended his hand to Pamona first. She took that smooth hand, and once again her body lifted before she could push herself up.

Only then did he exchange greetings with the princes standing before them, with proper courtesy. Pamona bowed her head toward them as well, her mind working quickly. She was in danger of losing control of her expression and letting her brow furrow.

Their names…… What are their names?

The princes appeared to be taking a short rest after training, damp with sweat here and there. Their muscles looked even more excessive than usual today, grotesquely swollen as though about to burst. Pamona thought to herself that the sight was truly unpleasant.

Lose some of that……