Even if the one she served was not the crown princess, the fact that the crown prince came running the moment Bianca so much as nicked a toenail was, to Rosemary, a source of pride and distinction in her role as head lady-in-waiting.

“What? Bianca is in tears because she’s hurt?”

Just as expected, Felix rode to the Rose Villa with a fuss so conspicuous that word spread across the entire palace. Leaving behind a wife who had waited alone for three months, all for the sake of a beloved mistress who cried over a sore toenail.

Once the Rose Villa had the crown prince in its embrace, it rarely let him go. The emperor, too, had favored a mistress in his younger years, and that made him disinclined to treat the matter as a serious problem.

But a political marriage between nations remaining unconsummated after three full months was an entirely different matter.

“A letter of protest from the Kingdom of Lil, it seems.”

Emperor Richard stroked his beard and read the letter with an air of indifference.

“We held the royal wedding. Wasn’t our end of the agreement fulfilled?”

That was the position of the Kartos Empire, and theirs alone.

If the mistress Bianca were to fall pregnant, Elénoa’s standing would become precarious indeed. It was a selfish attitude that gave no consideration whatsoever to her circumstances.

“Since the final rites of the royal wedding were not completed, they appear to fear the Vatican could use that as grounds to demand an annulment.”

The Minister of Rites bowed his head as he reported.

“If things remain as they are, the Kingdom of Lil could move to nullify the royal marriage entirely. But should that happen… the dowry that came with the marriage would be reclaimed, and the territorial access treaty would fall through as well.”

The Chief Minister spoke with a grave expression. In a marriage between nations, the mutual benefits it produces have always mattered more than the two people involved.

“Am I to push my own son toward his wife?”

No one could bring themselves to answer that embarrassing question.

“At the very least, if the mistress of the Rose Villa were to be moved outside the palace for a time…”

The Minister of Rites was old but upright, a man who knew propriety. To him, who had always regarded mistresses as taboo and believed monogamy to be the will of God, a mistress was a perpetual thorn in his side.

“In youth, a man may give his heart to more than one woman, and find comfort in them. It is not something even the nobility hides. If anything, a crown prince who keeps only one mistress and cherishes her is preferable.”

The emperor was sharp-minded from his youth, but when it came to matters involving his son, he was soft without exception. It may have been because Felix fell gravely ill as a child and grew into a sensitive and delicate temperament afterward.

“However, Your Majesty. We cannot nullify or abandon every treaty forged through this royal marriage.”

Tsk. Richard clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

“I will summon Felix and speak with him myself. You gentlemen need not involve yourselves further in matters of the imperial household.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Perhaps sensing the ministers’ lingering unease, Richard immediately instructed the head chamberlain at his side to summon Felix. Only then did the ministers offer their bows and withdraw from the imperial audience chamber.

“Really… at my age, to be lectured like this.”

The head chamberlain, who had grown old alongside the emperor, simply nodded.

“A man may take one or two more women to his side. All the more so when that man is my son, the crown prince.”

“You speak wisely, Your Majesty. However, if they insist the royal marriage was never fully completed, the empire stands to suffer greatly.”

“Hmm…”

The dowry the Kingdom of Lil brought was, without question, enormous. If Elénoa left, that sum would have to be returned, and without the allied territory, military costs would double. In short, to the emperor, Elénoa was an asset he could not afford to lose.

“Did you call for me, Father?”

Richard watched Felix kneel before him and gave a nod. Felix rose and showed his face properly.

“Can you guess why I summoned you?”

“…Yes.”

Felix answered with a dark expression, but with considerable firmness. How could he not know of the questions and rampant rumors surrounding this royal marriage? He was the one at the center of it all.

“Why have you not set a consummation date? I respected your wishes until now, but is lying with your wife truly so difficult a thing?”

Felix said nothing, only pressed his lips tightly together.

The image of Elénoa, lovely with her platinum hair shimmering and her pale cheeks flushed, was no longer something he could find in her. The mere thought of that arrogant smile she wore after seizing his reins and tying his horse to a tree, as though she were some great hero who saved him, made his skin crawl with revulsion.

“I despise her, Father. Not merely dislike. Now, even imagining her face fills me with dread.”

The emperor was not ignorant of the truth behind the riding accident.

Nor was he unaware that Felix’s petty yet towering pride would never allow him to accept it.

“That is your personal feeling. We cannot lose the enormous dowry from the Kingdom of Lil and the alliance treaty over something like that.”

“I am not a stud horse. I refuse to so much as brush hands with a woman like that, one who now has a scar on her face.”

“Who said anything about brushing hands?”

The unexpected words made Felix look up at his father.

“Set the consummation date and spend a short while in the crown princess’s chambers that night. Those pious Vatican men would hardly dare to surveil or demand proof of what happens in another man’s bedchamber.”

The difference in experience was considerable.

“Then, Father, you’re saying I simply need to… make a show of it…”

“There is no need to discuss such embarrassing matters in an audience chamber.”

Even as he said it, Richard gave his son a nod. If the goal was to preserve the dowry and the alliance treaty, keeping Elénoa bound to this marriage in some form was sufficient.

“The Kingdom of Lil’s wishes are simple. Complete the marriage by fulfilling the consummation, and assign the crown princess appropriate official duties. You need only do your part.”

Hearing Richard’s stern words, Felix had no choice left.

“Understood. I will… tell the Bureau of Rites to set a consummation date. But I want no auspicious day chosen.”

“That is of no consequence. You need only fulfill your duty.”

“Yes.”

Richard gestured for him to withdraw, and Felix bent his knee in a bow before stepping out of the audience chamber. A cool, pleasant autumn breeze brushed his cheek, but his mind was filled entirely with the memory of that terrible day of the riding accident.

“Your Highness, the horse is acting strangely!”

“Your Highness! Your Highness, I’ll take the reins!”

“Your Highness…!”

Felix had fallen into a panic the moment the horse went out of control and could do nothing, while Elénoa seized his horse’s reins and calmly tied them to a tree. She looked as strong as a knight.

“That a mere woman dared to act as though she were some hero who saved me…”

What filled him with humiliation was the fact that he stood there trembling and helpless until everything was resolved. His body was weak in childhood and he never properly trained in the martial arts, but to be rescued by a woman during nothing more than a leisurely ride.

If anyone called that the story of the crown prince of this great empire, they would laugh in his face.

“I have no need for a woman that wild and ill-omened. Even less so if she’s a defective thing with a scar on her face.”

Felix shuddered once more and looked at the horse before him. He only recently managed to ride again, and for now was easing himself back with short rides along the straight, even roads within the palace grounds.

That too was owed to the unpleasant memory Elénoa left him, and her very existence within the palace walls was enough to irritate him.

“Where are you headed, Your Highness?”

“To the Rose Villa.”

Compared to Bianca, vivid and magnificent like a single red rose, Elénoa in her riding clothes, handling a horse, was no better than a savage.

The fact that he felt a brief pull toward her in the early moments of the wedding ceremony now made his skin crawl.

“Bianca is truly the finest woman, beautiful and able to embrace a man as he deserves.”

Someday, when time wore on and Elénoa quietly withered like a neglected plant. Or when his aging father Richard finally passed the throne to him.

When that day came, he would erase Elénoa’s existence and keep only Bianca at his side, in the rightful standing she deserved.

***

The crown princess’s palace was thrown into an uproar. The Bureau of Rites, which had treated the crown princess as though she were invisible all this time, came to her first, offered their respects, and informed her that the consummation date was tonight.

“Your Highness, at last…”

Color returned to Martha’s face, and the young maids each chattered away with excitement.

“I knew there was nothing to worry about. They say the imperial family is especially particular about auspicious dates. It was simply delayed, that’s all.”

“Yes…”

Elénoa tried to picture the face of the husband she could barely recall anymore.

“Martha, bring me the hand mirror.”

“Yes, my lady.”

She swept aside the platinum hair that half-covered her face, and the white scar beside her left eye curved into view like a crescent moon.

To think that a mere scratch from a tree branch would leave a mark that would never fade. It weighed on her, somehow.

“Your Highness, please don’t worry. The scar has turned white and faint. From a few steps away, it’s barely visible.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And even up close, your blue eyes draw every gaze so completely that no one will look twice at the scar.”

“…Will he feel the same?”

Martha was not without her own heartache over the blemish on Elénoa, her most precious charge. But it was no lie. The scar that remained in the shape of a crescent moon was not an eyesore at all. If anything, it made Elénoa look all the more delicate and ethereal.