Pamona rolled her eyes to glare at him and immediately met a pair of blue eyes looking back, so she snapped her head away. She felt she had talked too long about her own gloomy life. Trying to shift the mood, she tossed out a teasing remark and looked at Terion Iligen.

“If a certain someone hadn’t shown up, I’d still be comfortably settled in the Twin Castle. Thanks to one particular intruder, I’m in serious trouble now.”

But the face she looked at had already set its laughter aside. He was waiting for her to finish what she had been saying. She watched him for a moment, half-hoping he might play along, and when it was clear he would not, she opened her mouth again.

“They’re not going to come after me like they’re hunting down a bug, are they? Knowing how they are, I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Pamona lifted her legs onto the sofa and pulled her knees to her chest. She rubbed her chin against her kneecap, pressing into the feel of the dress fabric beneath it.

“What do I even look like to them?”

“What do you look like?”

Pamona looked up and waited for him to go on.

“Like a newborn squirrel.”

A what?

“What are you talking about now?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“……Do I look ridiculous?”

A newborn squirrel. Wouldn’t a newborn be a little unsightly?

She had never even seen one.

If she had had more chances to talk with the princes, would any of them have ever said something like that to her.

You, you’re no bigger than a newborn squirrel. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

“I mean you’re very small, and adorable, and impressive.”

More strange things. Looking at Terion Iligen made her ears and neck and back and everything else itch. He was the one doing it. When she looked at him, he held her gaze quietly, and when she looked away because it felt strange, his laughter would tickle at her ears.

Without meaning to, she kept blurting out pouty, sulky things, and he never found it odd or let a hint of irritation show as he listened.

“You’re strange.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“There’s no one else who talks the way you do.”

She knew even as she said it that what she was saying was stranger still, but it was the only way she could put it. Terion Iligen seemed not quite sure what she meant by talking the way he did, and looked at her with wide, round eyes.

Had he grown up loved, surrounded by people who said warm, ticklish things like that without a second thought? His unblinking eyes looked like two round blue gems floating in the air.

“You must have been lonely.”

Terion Iligen said.

“……No, I was fine.”

She was not fine at all, but afraid that more complaining would wear him out, Pamona brushed it off as though it were nothing.

“Even after something like what happened earlier, they never apologize to Pamona.”

“No.”

“They always look at you like that.”

“……Yes.”

“That’s awful.”

Pamona liked that Terion Iligen asked about her, one thing after another. The way he named exactly what they had done wrong, the way he took her side, made something flutter inside her.

“Hm. It really is awful.”

“It’s fine. I’m all right.”

“Should I go tattle to Sionel?”

He had been comforting her and then shifted to a playful voice without warning. That endearing move made Pamona laugh. Terion Iligen watched her with his star-like eyes.

She had a friend now. It was an evening that turned red without needing a sunset.

* * *

“Valentin.”

Terion Iligen raised a finger and pointed to another portrait.

“Julian.”

There were sixteen portraits hung loosely on the wall. They were rough, informal sketches rather than proper paintings, not particularly fine, but clear enough to tell who was who. They had been spending several days now in the Twin Castle, looking over the portraits.

‘Give them anything they can use against me and they’ll come running with glee. I wouldn’t put it past them.’

Terion Iligen had learned that Pamona avoided the princes even more because she did not know their names, and suggested they memorize them together. Pamona had not wanted to, and for several days she had simply watched him memorize them while she idled about. Only today had she felt enough goodwill to give it a try herself.

In the meantime, Terion Iligen had gotten to the point where he could rattle off the names of Masion’s key officials and the most prominent noble families as well. He pointed to three portraits in a row.

“Jikhaar, Bernen, Rafaello.”

“How old?”

“Twelve, eight, twenty-two.”

“This one.”

“Edeon.”

“How old?”

“Six.”

“This one.”

“……”

“You don’t know?”

Pamona let her gaze travel up the arm pointing at the portrait and rolled her eyes toward Terion Iligen with a sulky look. The face pointing at the same picture again wore a teasing expression dangling off it. Seeing that Pamona was not answering, he crossed his arms and stepped up close beside the portrait.

“All right. This one’s name is Pamona. Repeat after me. Pamona.”

He said her name slowly and clearly, the way someone might when teaching a small child to speak. It was a pleasant, low voice. Pamona did not want to repeat the name coming out of his mouth. She wanted to say his name. Terion. Terion Iligen.

“Stop teasing.”

“Now then, repeat after me. Pamona Masiode.”

Terion Iligen.

She did not understand why she felt a prickle of something sour, so she turned away and headed toward the sofa. Something made her feel like crying, though she did not know what. She felt a flash of irritation at Terion Iligen, who was just playing around without a care, calling her name over and over.

When he kept calling it like that, she felt flustered and did not know what to do with herself. She wanted to hide somewhere those blue eyes could not reach, somewhere he could not see her. She could not tell him to stop saying her name. She felt a creeping sense of danger, the feeling that the intruder who had taken over her bedroom was about to take something else from her.

“What’s wrong? Is it too much?”

Terion Iligen, in a way that did not suit his size at all, came after her and leaned an elbow on the back of the sofa, looking down at her.

He should not do things like that either. She wished he would do nothing at all. Nothing, and not open his eyes, and keep them shut so that blue would not show, and shave his head too.

Maybe then the urge to hide would ease a little.

“I’ve memorized them all.”

“That’s right. The ages too, perfectly.”

“Terion.”

“Yes.”

Terion Iligen answered and came around the sofa to sit beside her. The sofa sank slightly under him as he settled in, and she liked it. Everything was making her feel things and it was getting out of hand.

“Was I being cowardly?”

“Hm?”

“Back then, I threatened to report the princes to Sionel.”

Lately, when she lay down to sleep, everything she had done throughout the day would float through her head. The expressions she had made in front of Terion Iligen, the clothes she had been wearing, the things she had said, all of it came back so vividly it gave her a headache. She kicked her feet, hating that wretched moment when she had thrown Sionel’s name around.

“You never said you’d report them. You said you’d go and ask him to handle it.”

Good memory.

“It’s the same thing. It’s petty, but I can’t help it. Sionel is the only one on my side.”

Pamona felt a wave of self-reproach as that sorry moment came back to her.

I shouldn’t have said that. I should have just ignored them and walked away. Bringing up Sionel out of nowhere like that.

It was not as though she was going around spreading word that a useless person like her was throwing her brother’s name around as backing. Just thinking about it made her sigh.

Then Terion Iligen’s hand appeared, close enough to startle her. She flinched back, but the hand reached over and tapped her cheek. Tap, tap.

“Two.”

His warm, steady fingers pressed lightly on the spot they had tapped and settled there.

“Come tell me from now on.”

Her cheek felt like it was melting. She pulled her head back slowly, like a startled turtle, afraid a hole might form where his finger was pressing. Terion Iligen lifted his hand away and tapped the tip of her nose instead, tap tap, then laughed quietly.

“You were wonderful. Brave, courageous, incredible.”

……Why is he like this, really?

“You told me to protect you. How can you tell me to come tattle to you?”

“Why not. I can handle someone like Edeon.”

At that, Pamona burst out laughing. The youngest prince was six years old. She laughed and could not stop, and Terion Iligen, watching her, let a smile settle at his lips and broke into a silly, unguarded grin. All the while, his blue eyes rolled this way and that, following Pamona as she rocked back and forth with laughter.

The way someone might look who found it remarkable that she was laughing. The way someone might look who wanted to keep seeing it.

It was strange. She told herself it was probably just the air of mystery those blue eyes gave him, making everything seem different.

“I want to watch the sunset from here again today.”

“All right.”

“It’s prettier from the west bridge, that’s why.”

“Who said anything to the contrary.”

Terion Iligen caught the ends of her hair and tugged gently, smiling. The Twin Castle was the best thing Pamona had ever had. And of everything in it, the west bridge was without question the finest. Pamona wanted to show it off to Terion Iligen every single day, just how wonderful it was.

“Princess.”

The unfamiliar address made her hesitate a moment before answering. Strictly speaking, Pamona was indeed a princess, but no one had ever called her that. It was an endearing title, one that did not quite fit the formality of the royal house.

“Would you like to come to the Twin Castle?”

“Tomorrow too? Sure.”

“With your things packed. Would you like to come live here?”