The sun was setting on the fourth anniversary of the end of the war. Masion was a country with countless war-end anniversaries, so Pamona gave it little thought. It had been a long time since she had attended any of the celebration banquets held for each of them.

The Royal Palace at dusk was always beautiful. The castle walls taking on the same color as the sky, the hues of the garden, the ever-changing colors of the sunset that seeped faintly through the columns and windows each day were the one thing she never tired of no matter how many times she saw it.

Every day was the same, but she had never seen the sky the same color twice.

For the past several days, wherever she happened to be, she would stop walking when the time came, settle herself down somewhere in the castle, and watch the sun drop beyond the horizon past the castle walls. Today the sun had begun to tilt on her way to the lake, so she had simply dropped down where she stood, gazed into the distance, and closed her eyes for a moment.

Four days ago, Heil had left the Royal Palace.

‘Sister, you have to take good care of yourself.’

They had said goodbye with no set date to look forward to. The time of her return had not been specified, so there was no knowing when they would see each other again.

Heil had told Pamona congratulations in advance on her wedding. She said she hoped she would be able to attend the ceremony, but not to hate her if she couldn’t make it. The only people setting foot on Ilion’s soil alongside that child were a handful of servants and a few escort knights. Heil would now have to endure a strange land leaning on them alone.

No lavish carriage, no abundance of jewels and ornaments, could fill that child’s heart. It was the first time she had ever left the castle in her life. Even though it was the day she was finally leaving this suffocating Royal Palace, Heil could not smile freely.

Pamona felt she was looking at her own future. A future she had not expected to come to Heil first. She hoped this long journey would not shake that child’s life. She hoped she would not live in anxiety and helplessness the way she did.

Pamona saw Heil off with a smile on her face until the very end. Like a proper sister. Steadily. She told her to see the sea she had always wanted to see, to see Ilion, and to be sure to tell her all about it.

She tried to reassure Heil with words she did not even believe herself. That it would be all right. That this would be the first stroke of luck to come to her.

She stood her ground until Heil’s carriage disappeared from sight. Watching the procession grow smaller in the distance, she found herself wondering, suddenly, whether what she felt was guilt or envy.

She returned to the Twin Castle with an expressionless face when the carriage was no longer visible. She walked past the people moving busily about and climbed the stairs.

On the day she had said those pointless things in front of Sionel and Ian Dnie, the words that reached her as she was preparing to leave were that she needed to vacate the Twin Castle.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Go back to Payen Castle now. The Twin Castle needs to receive the distinguished guest coming from Ilion.’

‘You could just give them Payen Castle.’

‘Your Highness.’

‘First my sister, now my bedroom too.’

‘Enough. It was never yours to begin with.’

Those words felt exactly like being told that the past four years, the years she had spent smiling most in this lonely Royal Palace, had never been hers either.

The distinguished guest was expected to arrive within the next few days. Heil had left the Royal Palace on the agreed date three days ago, so the guest from Ilion would have departed at the same time.

That day, the servants had begun packing up Pamona’s belongings from the Twin Castle almost the moment Heil left the Royal Palace. The castle’s staff also moved busily, as though preparing for a thorough cleaning.

Pamona sent her escort a distance away and went straight up to the Western Bridge. She sat between the columns with her legs dangling over the edge and looked out toward the place where the sun fell every day, far in the distance. She had thought that since Heil was traveling southwest toward the sea, the direction would be roughly the same as where the sun set.

She had hoped to catch a glimpse of something, but the castle walls and dense trees blocked everything, and not even a dot was visible. There was nothing to see at all.

Such a long procession of over ten great carriages had filed out.

The scene was exactly the same as any other day, as though nothing had happened. As though she were the only one who knew of Heil’s absence.

She sat there for a long time. Long after the sun had set and darkness had fallen on all sides, she sat there still.

When she returned to the bedroom, all her belongings had already been moved to Payen Castle and the room was empty again, just as it had been at the start. She left the bedroom and was heading toward the stairs when something on the wall caught her eye and stopped her.

The day before leaving the Royal Palace, Heil had taken out a bundle of paintings. They were the paintings she had given Pamona as a gift on the day she first moved to the Twin Castle. She had then carefully unfolded the painting of the sea with the island of Ilion in view, the one she had said was her favorite, and pinned it to the corridor wall.

Saying that the person who would be staying here might miss home too, just like her.

Would you call a place like this home? Would you find yourself missing it?

* * *

“Hey!”

Oh no……

The moment she heard the voice, Pamona weighed whether to jump up and run or simply never open her eyes again. She had been so absorbed in thinking about Heil that she had let her guard down too much. There was no point in running. That colt charging toward her from a distance with all that commotion could not possibly fail to catch her. Pamona decided to stay seated with her eyes shut.

“Hey, hey. Pamona.”

Her younger brother Reynard had come close and was talking to her before she knew it. Reynard, who had been gradually pushing his luck a little more each time they crossed paths over the years, now treated Pamona with barely any deference at all.

Does he think he’s the older one……

She had tried to set him straight before, but it was too much effort and she had given up. She had forgotten about this and lived in peace while she was in the west. It was now clear that all the peace she had enjoyed in the meantime was shattered. It was such a great fortune for Masion that Reynard was not the Crown Prince.

Pamona genuinely believed the history of the Masiode royal family might have come to an end otherwise. Frivolous, dim-witted, emotional, rude, uncouth, impulsive, all pride and no sense……

“Why didn’t you come to the banquet again? Is there no one to escort you?”

I wish he would leave me alone……

The past few years without Reynard had truly been pleasant.

“Hey! We’re outside. Are you asleep? Did your head go soft from living in the west? Hey, open your eyes! Open them!”

Her ears ached enough that she had no choice but to open her eyes. Several days without proper sleep made her eyelids feel heavy. Behind Reynard, who could not stand still and was fidgeting restlessly, a number of servants stood at a distance.

After leaving the Twin Castle and moving back to Payen Castle in the east, Pamona had managed to get permission to go about without servants or escort. It had not been granted right away, of course, but she had insisted stubbornly that she was already of age and could manage that much on her own. Sionel, who knew her mood had not been good lately, had eventually had to give in.

She had done well avoiding him for the past few days. Reynard, seen for the first time in a while, had shot up again and now looked convincingly like a young man. His voice was clearly different from before too. Pamona thought it was a pity his personality hadn’t changed along with everything else.

“Where’s Sir Dnie?”

She opened her eyes a crack and saw him dressed in the most dazzling finery, likely having stepped out for some air after attending the banquet. Even so, he only looked like a child writhing to become an adult, which she found ridiculous. It was almost painful to look at, so Pamona closed her eyes again.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“If you don’t know, who does! He’s your sweetheart!”

Reynard practically worshipped Pamona’s betrothed, Ian Dnie, though of course he would never admit it. He would say that it was simply fitting for him, as the second son of the royal family and Ian Dnie’s liege, to be pleased that such a loyal and distinguished knight existed in Masion. He said it in exactly those words. It wasn’t even how he normally spoke, so it was simply funny trying to figure out who he was imitating.

Reynard had also been the most excited of anyone when news of Pamona and Ian Dnie’s betrothal broke. And yet whenever he met Ian Dnie at official gatherings, he would subtly try to pull rank on him. He did it because he wanted to be recognized as his liege. It only made Pamona’s face burn each time.

“Is that so?”

She did not feel like correcting him to say betrothed, not sweetheart. It was Reynard, after all. He never listened to a word anyone said.

“What? What do you mean, is that so. Are you even listening? Want to die?”

A man celebrated as the nation’s hero at the young age of twenty-six. It was entirely natural, almost procedural, that such a promising man would be given the hand of the kingdom’s princess. It felt strange to call that man her sweetheart. A sweetheart and a betrothed were entirely different things.

“Hey, hey. Keep it together. If he calls off the engagement you’ll be a laughingstock. You hear me? Do you think there’s another man like him out there.”

There might be two of you though……

Of course, Reynard was not wrong that there was no other man quite like him. Under ordinary circumstances Reynard would grit his teeth and kick up a storm trying to overpower someone, but perhaps there was some instinct men sensed in each other the moment they met. Whether he lacked the nerve to take a swing at him, he never picked the fights with Ian Dnie that he picked everywhere else when he was bored.

“Yes.”

Being betrothed to a man like that was a stroke of luck. Everyone said so in one voice, and Heil had said so too. That it was luck. He was a hero, and no one could match him. Marry that man, and the rest of her life would be comfortable, just as it had been until now, or so people easily assumed. Under that man’s protection. Nestled in the safety of that man’s broad, strong arms.

She had wanted to believe it. She had tried to believe it. In some ways it might be a little better than life as a princess.

It didn’t matter who she married……