He meant it. Baptiste would fall away before long too. And over something that admitted absolutely no compromise. A woman.

Maximilian slammed the door shut. Bang, a loud sound rang out beyond the door. A small shadow flinched and clutched its chest.

“My goodness, you startled me.”

At the sharp voice, the startled Maximilian looked up. Pale golden hair, nearly white, the very symbol of the imperial house, gleamed.

Perhaps a last hope. A momentary thought flashed through Maximilian’s mind.

“Mademoiselle Sehera.”

“Oh, hello. But……”

“Tour. I am Tour.”

“Ah, Duke Tour…… no, you’re still Viscount Dubuyt for now, aren’t you? Right, I remember. You still have a lot of your young face.”

Lumière glanced over the young face and, having confirmed he was not yet a duke, murmured. Then without any lingering sentiment, she placed her right hand on the bedroom door and waved her left hand at Maximilian.

“Well then, take care on your way.”

“Wait, Mademoiselle Sehera……!”

He called out to her urgently, but Lumière did not even pretend to listen. The sound of the bedroom door tilting open came with a creak, and the one who called out to Maximilian was the woman standing behind Lumière.

“Viscount Dubuyt.”

Even her voice sounded like a warbler singing. Maximilian turned toward the voice without meaning to.

A woman to whom the word dazzling suited perfectly was standing there. Her left hand drifted through the air.

The slender index finger that seemed to leave a pure white afterimage found its way to her red lips. A single index finger raised upright from a lightly closed fist covered those lovely lips. A small breath of sound followed.

Shh……

At that simple gesture telling him to say nothing, Maximilian fell silent before he knew it. Exactly as though bewitched by a witch.

With a small, lilting laugh, the woman followed after Lumière. The two women disappeared into the Emperor’s bedchamber. The bedroom door closed again. Maximilian stood still and stared at that door for a long while.

The woman problem that would bring Baptiste down. The words he had said to Baptiste came back to him.

‘Do you know what’s most frightening right now, Batine?’

‘Pardon?’

‘That woman hasn’t done anything.’

……No, that couldn’t be right.

That woman had done many things. Quietly, without anyone knowing.

A sudden chill wrapped itself around Maximilian’s body. It felt as though a terrifying monster was nearby. The legendary demonic beast of stories that devoured everything, bit by bit.

* * *

“Anyway, you do look much better.”

That was the first thing Lumière said the moment she faced Cassian. Cassian, still leaning against his pillow, offered a warm smile.

“I’m sorry, I should stand to greet you, Sister. I’m still not quite up to it.”

“No, no. The fact that you can sit up at all is something.”

“It’s all thanks to your concern, Sister.”

“Oh, this one. I only worried. Belle did all the nursing.”

At that praise, the woman who had appeared today in a pure white dress lowered her eyes slightly.

Cassian glanced at her. He could not help thinking of Valentine, who had suited white particularly well.

He had generally thought that the woman before him suited vivid colors more than white. Both were beautiful, but that ascetic color felt as though it provoked a person’s desires all the more for it.

Even in the middle of all this, his blood ran hot.

“Well, thank goodness it wasn’t worse. Who could have known it would turn into such a mess.”

At Lumière’s light remark, Cassian smiled and asked.

“So did you accomplish your purpose, Sister?”

“My purpose?”

At the direct question, Lumière let out a small giggle.

“Please don’t say anything about me keeping a modest share of the proceeds I arranged in advance. The rest I intend to spend willingly, in the imperial family’s name, for Sehera’s people. I am Mademoiselle Sehera, after all.”

“You hosted the event, Sister, so I have no right to interfere.”

The planning of the horse race, the raking in of the nobles’ money through betting tickets, all of it had been Lumière’s doing. So whatever she did with it, he had no right to say anything.

At the willing permission, Lumière curved her eyes prettily.

“How kind. Now then, I’ve made my appearance for the day, so I should go see Bashi.”

Lumière rose from her seat without any lingering. There was something Cassian needed to ask out of propriety.

“I entrusted the child to you and have been too preoccupied to ask. How is Bastian getting on?”

“Really. You’ve been ill all this time, who are you worrying about. Bashi is doing well and staying healthy. I’m glad he likes Belle.”

A warm smile appeared. A face that looked remarkably like Cassian’s.

Lumière wore that gentle, affectionate expression and murmured something cruel without any particular fuss.

“The one thing I’m concerned about is this. Childhood memories last longer than you’d think. I do hope Bashi will cleanly forget Sienne someday. As though he never had a mother like that.”

It was a remark that showed plainly how far below standard Lumière considered Amaryllis, to a startling degree given how she was looking after Bastian.

Cassian had nothing else to say. He agreed with Lumière’s words himself.

“Well then, I’ll go ahead. Belle, I’m counting on you again today.”

“Yes, Queen. Take care.”

At Valentine’s ready reply, Lumière moved with dignified steps. Before long the sound of the door closing filled the room.

Left alone together in the bedchamber, the woman opened her mouth. She did not move a single step from where she stood, as though a degree of wariness had come over her.

“As the Queen said, you do look considerably better today. Are you all right sitting up?”

It was a businesslike question.

Cassian was probably the least injured person in that horse racing accident. At most, scrapes and bruises. Even so, since it had not been a minor accident to begin with, he had suffered from a high fever for several days.

For Cassian, it had been something close to a stroke of luck. Not long ago, after that business with the so-called brother, things between him and her had grown a little awkward.

Thanks to Lumière putting her to work, she had stayed at his side and cared for him throughout the time he had been bedridden. Tending to his wounds with warm hands, wiping down his feverish body.

She would likely continue giving him this time for a while. At least until the wound on his leg from the horse’s kick had healed.

“Yes. It’s all thanks to your devoted care.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You stayed at my side and looked after me throughout.”

“The Queen commanded it. I simply followed willingly.”

“Is that so.”

Cassian let a bitter smile touch his lips.

“If it hadn’t been Sister’s command, this time would not have existed.”

“Naturally. I’m not someone who has any right to be at Your Majesty’s side like this.”

“If only you permit it, you can have more than enough right, at any time.”

“I still don’t want that. I have no certainty.”

The woman’s manner was somewhat cold. He found it persistently hurtful.

Was that why. Maximilian’s sneering words from a moment ago came back to him.

‘There is no one in this world who can live up to your lofty ideals to the end.’

There had been such a person. She had existed. He had simply lost her once.

But she had appeared again. She had come back. Into his arms, with the same eyes.

Cassian looked at her. Was it the resemblance in their faces, or that white dress that had suited that person so well? It looked almost like a bride’s……

The first night with the old love he had promised to be with forever came back to him.

As the fullness of that day returned to him, something cut through his heart. He reached out instinctively. Crossing the distance that felt a little far, a slender wrist wound into his grip.

“Your Majesty?”

At the sudden movement, she furrowed her brow slightly. Cassian looked at her steadily and murmured.

“You said you would be…… my one and only person who understands me.”

“Pardon?”

“Even if the ideals I pursue are in a place exceedingly high and far away, even if all the understanding in the world passes me by.”

He pulled the captured wrist toward him as it was. The slight body collapsed helplessly onto the bed. With a soft thud, the small weight made the bed shake. Dust that floated into the air left a white afterimage in the gaps of sunlight.

She was an injured person, but she could not overcome a man’s strength. Her voice trembled as she lay against the bed, clearly flustered.

“Why…… why are you doing this?”

“You said you would remain on my side. Those were your words.”

“Those were words meant to comfort you. It seemed like what you wanted most to hear.”

“That is cruel.”

The murmuring man closed the distance he had not been permitted until now, in an instant, without any consent. A skilled hand traced down her cheek, her nape, her shoulder. The touch moving over her. These eyes. This air.