Under normal circumstances, Pamona would not have been out at this hour, and even if she had crossed paths with them, she could have simply slipped away. They had never gone out of their way to greet her either, so there had been no reason for them to meet.

But now, the blue-eyed guest at her side was far too conspicuous, and she had run into them before she even had a chance to avoid it.

“……I did not expect to see you here, Prince Iligen.”

The one who stepped forward first had the look of a bull about him, and he seemed to be the leader of this group. He must be the oldest. As he spoke to Terion Iligen, he looked down at Pamona with a fixed, steady gaze, and it was clear he wanted to ask her why she was there with him.

“I asked the princess to show me around the east wing.”

Terion Iligen answered the unasked question with easy courtesy. His familiar gentle smile rested at the corners of his mouth.

“I see. If you send word to any one of us, we would be glad to assist with whatever you need.”

The bull was speaking in a measured, gentlemanly manner, but Pamona suspected what he actually wanted to say was something far more childish. Something along the lines of: why waste your time with a princess who can’t do anything useful for you, when coming to us would actually get you somewhere.

She could not pinpoint exactly what it was, but for some reason, the bull already looked displeased. He looked almost sulky, the way a child might, simply because Terion Iligen was with the princess instead of with them.

She wished a mind that produced thoughts like that would not come housed in a body that enormous and overbearing.

“Thank you, Kalos. But how could I impose on your precious time like that. The princess has been a wonderful companion.”

Oh……. Kalos. Kalos. Bull Kalos. Bull Kalos. Bull Kalos…….

Pamona stood beside the composed and smiling Terion Iligen, quietly repeating the name Bull Kalos to herself.

Did he know all the other princes’ names too? It would be helpful if he could just call each of them by name at least once…….

The princes wore masks of indifference, but the rigid set of their mouths and the narrow slant of their eyes told her they were all in a foul mood. It was absurd that men who were all several years older than Pamona were throwing a tantrum like this.

“In Masion, a man and woman spending time alone together outside the banquet hall invites misunderstanding.”

His voice was flat, as though he were simply sharing a point of cultural information. The bull looked at Pamona again. She genuinely could not understand why he kept directing his words through Terion Iligen when everything he wanted to say was clearly meant for her.

“The Crown Prince asked me to look after the guest.”

Pamona stepped in first, tired of the roundabout way of communicating.

“Yes, that’s right. He asked because we happen to be the same age.”

Terion Iligen backed her up. The moment she mentioned the Crown Prince, Bull Kalos lost his footing and fell briefly silent. It was a method Pamona had used often when she found herself in a difficult spot.

Crown Prince Sionel’s name served her well wherever she went. That name alone had a way of smoothing over all manner of troublesome situations. It was the only weapon she had.

“We train in swordsmanship every day at this hour. Why not join us, Your Highness. Ilion must teach swordsmanship as well.”

As Kalos spoke, his gaze swept over Terion Iligen’s body and hands. At that rude look, Pamona’s brow furrowed again, as it always did, without any attempt to hide it.

“Oh dear……. What a shame, Kalos. I tend to wake up quite late.”

At yet another refusal, Terion Iligen wore a genuinely apologetic expression. Even his mention of sleeping in sounded sincere. He seemed genuinely flustered by his own regret, while Pamona, standing beside him, felt tension creep up the back of her neck.

“Is that so?”

The princes were managing their expressions quite well. But these were men who had spent their entire lives with others beneath them, accustomed to having their will obeyed. The mere fact that a foreign prince of equal standing felt no eagerness to join their company was enough to wound their pride.

“You do know how to handle a sword, I presume.”

Anyone watching might have said he looked no different than usual, but frost had crept into Kalos’s eyes. The men of Masion did not place anyone on equal footing. They either elevated or they crushed. They built their own order within a clear hierarchy.

“Well, yes, but……”

“Good. Diegon.”

Diegon……. Diegon. Sly Diegon. Sly Diegon. Sly Diegon. Sly Diegon…….

Pamona’s mind was busy, in case she ever needed to use his name. Diegon had exactly the look of someone sly about him. At Kalos’s call, the sly one stepped forward, a practice sword in his left hand.

“Would you give us the chance to spar against Ilion’s swordsmanship?”

The bull shot a glance at Diegon and gestured to some toad-faced one standing behind him. The toad prince stepped forward and held out his practice sword to Terion Iligen.

“Since you happened to wake up early for once.”

Ah, what idiots.

Pamona pressed her gaze against the four princes standing before her, willing them to stop, but not one of them met her eyes. Surely at least one of the four ought to have had some sense in him.

If Sionel found out they had pulled something this childish on a royal guest, he would not let it go quietly. She had half-expected at least one of them to step in and put a stop to it, but all four pairs of eyes gleamed with competitive hunger. The corners of their mouths seemed to curl ever so slightly upward.

“Diegon, hold back. It would be a problem if the prince got hurt.”

She knew it was said on purpose, but Pamona’s temper flared. She could not keep her expression in check. She could not keep her eyes soft.

Did they actually think they were some kind of animals? The sight of them insisting on dragging every new man who appeared before them into their petty hierarchy, determined to put him beneath their feet, was nothing short of pathetic. They acted as though they had no way to prove their worth except through a show of force.

The toad prince’s hand holding out the practice sword was rough and coarse beyond any comparison to Terion Iligen’s. From those hard, sun-darkened fists, arrogance seeped through.

“Ha, well. I don’t think that sounds like a good idea.”

Whether Terion Iligen was not actually angry, or whether he simply found the provocation too childish to take seriously, he laughed with an easy composure.

“A good idea?”

“Wouldn’t it create an awkward situation?”

“It sounds like you’re not confident, Your Highness.”

Sly Diegon, who had been standing at the front, opened his mouth. His lips curved into an arc. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What did they think would happen if the prince of Ilion got hurt?

Even if he somehow came out unscathed. No, that was hardly likely. How could this body, near-perfect in every aesthetic sense, possibly win against those hulking, thick-necked brutes?

Did they not worry at all about Heil, who was in Ilion right now? If they failed to treat Ilion’s royal guest with respect, there was no telling what humiliation Heil might face over there.

“I don’t believe a sword can resolve anything. It’s more likely to create problems than solve them.”

At his words, a pony-faced one who had been standing quietly in the back let out a short, scoffing laugh. What did it matter to them what Heil might go through? They probably did not even know she had left for Ilion.

“Does Ilion not teach men to step up and face things head-on?”

Sly Diegon, apparently convinced that Terion Iligen was simply too afraid to lose to him, opened his mouth with great enthusiasm.

“Then shall I face you with fists instead of a sword?”

The other princes snickered at that.

“Surely you’re not hoping to fight by pulling hair like women do.”

Terion Iligen, who had kept a courteous smile on his face all this while, let a faint crack run across that expression, then turned to glance at Pamona and stepped slightly forward, as though to shield her.

“Stop.”

Pamona quickly grabbed Terion Iligen’s wrist and pulled him back behind her. He turned to read her intent. The force she used to move him was laughably small for the task, yet Terion Iligen willingly stepped back at her will.

“Stay out of it.”

She wanted to tell him to be quiet, but this happened to be the pony-faced prince whose name she did not know. Getting drawn into an exchange and having it come out that she did not know his name was not something she could afford, so she chose to ignore him.

“You are all being truly rude. Stop this now, before you embarrass yourselves any further.”

“Princess.”

The toad’s cold eyes fixed on her face.

“Did you say embarrass ourselves? You certainly don’t hold back.”

Pamona felt a chill run through her chest, but having already spoken, she could not back down now.

“What is this sudden talk of sparring? I simply showed the guest around the east wing. We also have somewhere we need to be……”

“Then go.”

“……Pardon?”

The four princes looked down at Pamona with cool eyes. There was not even anger in those eyes. They wore the look of men who found something tiresome and irritating, and today it happened to be grating on them more than usual.

“Who told the princess to stay? Go.”