Thinking back on how he had stood his ground and blocked those dull-witted princes without yielding, he was not such a soft person either. No matter how she thought about it, he was only like this with her. Only with her. No. Or was he just soft toward women?

“You’re strange, Terion Iligen.”

“Please don’t call me that so coldly.”

“You really are strange, Terion Iligen.”

She was curious what he was like in Ilion. What tone he used with people there, what expressions he wore when he spoke. Whether he had always been this warm and gentle with everyone, because that was simply who he was. Or whether, being in an unfamiliar place, he was more tender with her because she was his only friend here.

“Princess, you called me hey just now.”

She wanted to know. What kind of person was the Terion Iligen she did not know.

“When did I?”

“You did. When I ate your pastry, you definitely called me hey.”

His lips pushed out in a pout in a way that made it impossible to tell whether he was genuinely put out or not, but his eyes were smiling.

“I don’t remember that, Terion Iligen.”

“I was almost hurt, so I would appreciate some restraint going forward, Pamona Masiode.”

Pamona Masiode……?

Absurdly, Pamona felt a pang of something at hearing Terion say her name as “Pamona Masiode.” She thought she must be the one who had lost her mind, and yet somehow it felt like Terion Iligen was the one who had. 

“Have some more, Princess.”

When a dessert appeared right in front of her mouth and she opened it wide again, she confirmed that she was indeed the one who had lost her mind. It was not Terion Iligen. She was the problem. It was her own heart that had gone off the rails.

* * *

Pamona’s eyes were nearly drowning in the teacup in front of her. The liquid inside had a faintly reddish tint. The attendants had brought it out at just the right temperature to drink. There was no way it had cooled down enough to knock back in one thoughtless gulp. Yet her younger brother Reynard did exactly that thoughtless thing.

Reynard downed the tea in one go, hot as it surely was, and set the empty cup down with a clatter. Then he crossed his arms, leaned back deep into the backrest, and glared at the sister sitting across from him. She glanced over the cup to check it had not cracked.

“What have you been up to?”

She wished he would just say what he came to say and leave quickly.

Reynard crossed his legs in a way that did not suit him at all, putting on a show of ease. It was utterly laughable. No matter how hard he tried to imitate the Crown Prince, he was only an eighteen-year-old boy. A boy with a vile and grating personality.

“I’m busy, so get to the point.”

“Ha, busy?”

He scoffed. Everyone in the palace knew there was no one idler than his sister, and he thought she must be the only one who did not know it.

Pamona herself also thought she was idle, but she had no time to spare for Reynard. Not a single second. She wanted to jump up from her seat right then and there and walk out of the room.

Even after sitting across from him and exchanging only a few words, every encounter with her younger brother left her completely drained, as though she had done hard labor. She was exhausted. He was the one who was truly busy, so why did he come barging into someone else’s castle in the middle of the day to stir things up.

“You. Don’t tell me you actually thought it was sincere when our brother entrusted the royal guest to you?”

“What?”

What is he on about now?

“Why are you so dense, honestly? He was just saying it!”

It was such a stupid thing to say that she let it go in one ear and out the other. One of the princes had probably been whispering in Reynard’s ear.

“Ah……. Was that so?”

“Unbelievable.”

Reynard pressed a hand to his head as though at a loss for words. Arguing back and forth was slower than simply going along with it, saying yes, you’re right about everything. Pamona handled Reynard with the skill she had honed over many years.

“Even without you, everyone else will take care of things just fine. Shouldn’t the royal guest be spending more time with the princes than with you?”

Hmm. That is precisely the part I don’t like.

“You’d be lucky if hanging around you doesn’t get him mocked for being girlish.”

She felt like she had already heard some insult along those lines before.

“He’s scrawny anyway, isn’t he?”

“Who is?”

Ah. That was wrong.

She should have agreed, but the question slipped out before she could stop herself.

Terion Iligen’s build was so perfect that not even as a joke could anyone honestly call it scrawny. It was the frame itself. Standing among the people of Masion, he rose above them and carried himself differently from the start.

Compared to the rough, stocky hulks of Masion, he was tall, well-proportioned, defined, and looked solid. He was nothing like those wide ones who looked somehow sluggish, hard on the inside but with a soft layer of fat on top.

Reynard too had been growing wider every time she saw him. He was not some beast, so why was he so fixated on bulking up like that. Last time she saw him, he was eating enormous amounts, saying you needed to eat well for muscle to build properly. There was no way only muscle would come from eating that much.

Maybe muscle was not the goal, and it was simply an effort to grow sideways since he could not grow upward. In any case, the general taste of Masion tended to prize that sort of hulking, lumbering look. Either be unmatched in all manner of combat, or grow sideways, sideways…… until you looked like a wild animal…….

What Pamona found particularly disagreeable was the way they swaggered about with their arms hanging out awkwardly at their sides because of that senseless girth, when they did not even have the kind of sharply defined forearms that Terion Iligen had.

“Hey, stop paying attention to the royal guest and just do what you always do. Since when did you start listening so well? Is it because he’s handsome? Honestly, women. The ladies at the last banquet have not stopped going on about the royal guest ever since that day, enough to make my ears bleed. Are you the same?”

The one who should stop paying attention and go back to what they always did was sitting right in front of her making a fool of himself, Pamona thought. Had he come to amuse her? Sadly, the things Reynard said were ridiculous, but they never actually made her laugh.

“……”

“Hey, do you think the royal guest is impressive too? A man ought to have some solid build to him. All height and no meat, I could pick him up and throw him and he’d go flying. How much could he even weigh?”

“Sure, really. Try throwing him next time you see him.”

“What?”

“Try it and let me know. Take care going home.”

“Hey! What are you doing? Seriously!”

Why is he like this?

Pamona stood up abruptly and Reynard grabbed her and forced her back down into her seat. His grip was so strong that the thought of pulling free did not even occur to her. She was in a very bad mood.

He and Heil were surely the same age, so how could they be so different. Since they had the same father, she supposed she had to blame the mother. Ah, that might actually be it. The woman had a streak of madness in her.

Pamona had long since given up trying to understand her younger brother, but every now and then she genuinely wondered whether someone had secretly swapped the royal baby with a street rat’s child.

“The whole palace is already talking about you walking around holding hands with the royal guest! Are you out of your mind? What will you do when Sir Dnie finds out!”

It was not the words about holding hands that caught in Pamona’s ear, but the sudden mention of her betrothed’s name.

Right…… Ian Dnie existed.

It felt like a wall she had not seen suddenly appeared in front of her and she walked straight into it with a thud. She was engaged. There was someone she had promised to marry. Her head rang as though she had just learned something she had never known.

How had she forgotten that? Not even that long ago, she had been sighing several times a day at the thought of having to marry once her birthday passed. And yet why was that name coming up here?

“Conduct yourself properly. Understood?”

Conduct herself?

“Conduct myself how?”

“What do you mean how! Don’t go making rumors that will upset Sir Dnie!”

Upsetting him…… So he was telling her not to make rumors that would upset Ian Dnie.

If he would just keep his mouth shut the way a fool should, there would be no problem.

Reynard was a problem in every way, from his cocky and swaggering attitude to his arrogant and insolent personality, but as of today she would say the worst of it was that mouth.

“You keep this up and you’ll really regret it after you’re married. What will you do if Sir Dnie leaves you behind and takes other women to banquets and has children outside the marriage? If you don’t want to spend your life wringing out tears every day, start behaving yourself now! I’m only saying this because I’m your brother! Understood?”

Under normal circumstances she might have let even this pass, thinking well, that’s just how it is, that’s just Reynard. But she could not explain why his words made her so angry today. She pressed down the heat rising inside her and spoke.

“Because you’re my brother?”

“Yes! Who else would say it to you!”

“If you’re so worried, try talking them out of the marriage yourself.”

“What?”

“Don’t come here and run your mouth at me. Go to the king or Sionel and give them this much grief.”

“What, run my mouth? Run my mouth?”