“The emerald of Amaro, honestly.”

“This isn’t just any emerald, it’s none other than…”

“Right, I heard everything. Funny thing is, I know about a hundred gems supposedly gifted by emperors to their lovers, and I’ve never once seen a ring like this.”

“That’s because it was never made public…”

“A certificate of appraisal… do you have one?”

“Listen here, young man. You’ve barged into our festival and now you’re asking for a certificate of appraisal?”

The blatant sarcasm kept coming, and the witch finally snapped. The one who’d scraped her nerves raw accepted his fault with breezy ease.

“Ah, that was certainly my mistake.”

“Then if you understand, get out…”

“In any case, what you’re saying is that this is a genuine emerald, correct?”

Without waiting for the witch’s answer, the man took the ring from Rieta’s hand. The whole sequence of movements flowed as naturally as water, and perhaps because of that, neither the witch nor Rieta managed to stop what the man did next.

Specifically, he dropped the emerald ring, which wasn’t his to begin with, onto the ground without a moment’s hesitation.

The imperial-era treasure said to have survived the ages hit the ground with a dull thud in an instant.

“Huh……?”

Who is this person, why would he suddenly do something like that?

Under normal circumstances she’d have followed that thought more calmly, but the situation was anything but ordinary. Translucent light shimmered overhead, and the voices of witches laughing, chattering, and arguing tangled together in her ears in a scattered mess.

Rieta could only blink and let out a dazed little sound. The witch, who’d been on the verge of closing a sale, reacted faster than her customer.

“Wh, wh, what are you…! What do you think you’re doing, what if it had broken!”

“It’s fine, just as I thought.”

For someone who’d just hurled a gemstone with full force, his tone was so unhurried it bordered on indifferent. With an air that was impossibly graceful and composed, as though picking up a dropped handkerchief, the man handed the dusty ring back to Rieta.

“Clean. Not a scratch.”

“You throw something this precious and then…!”

“Curious, isn’t it?”

Whether the witch glared and trembled with fury was beside the point. The man’s gaze stayed fixed on Rieta with quiet persistence. Both of them had their faces hidden under robes, so it wasn’t as though either had the advantage there, but……

“Emeralds are naturally fragile under impact. A blow that strong should crack or shatter one.”

“……”

“Fakes have gotten really good lately. Sturdy, and the color’s lovely too.”

Out of place as it was, Rieta found herself thinking that his voice was pleasant to listen to. It had the quality of the venerable organ she’d heard in music lessons, a pitch that made her keep leaning in without meaning to. And unlike his presumptuous manner of speaking, the cadence itself was rather aristocratic, which made it oddly distinctive.

“So, are you still buying it?”

“Oh, no……”

She’d been tricked.

She’d nearly wasted a small fortune on a fake emerald. Knowing that, she didn’t feel particularly upset. If anything, the one who’d done the deceiving was far more furious than the one who’d nearly been deceived.

“You! What if it had been real!”

“Then I would’ve bought it with my own money. On the assumption that it was ‘genuine,’ of course.”

“I spent seven full moons making this…!”

It was practically a confession. The man turned his back without waiting to hear more. Rieta had no interest in a swindler’s excuses either, so she trotted after him. Matching his tall frame, he cut through the dense crowd with long, easy strides.

“Excuse me, um, um, um, um! Just a moment!”

Whether he couldn’t hear her or chose not to, the man didn’t look back once. She could’ve given up and let it go, but Rieta pushed past him and planted herself in front of him, face to face.

“Wait, just a moment.”

“What.”

“I wanted to say thank you for helping me. Truly. I nearly lost a lot of money. I’d like to offer some kind of…”

“Thank me for what.”

It wasn’t false modesty. More precisely, the intent behind the words wasn’t modesty at all. The man added, in the same tone he’d used with the witch.

“I’d rather have an apology than your thanks.”

“……Pardon?”

“Falling for such an obvious trick… it’s people like you, idiots, that keep muddying the water around here.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“No eye for things, no judgment. What, eternal love? You’re not a child, do you actually believe something like that? If you’ve got the mindset to believe in fairy tales, you’d be better off at a toy shop. That seems about right for your level.”

The sharp rebuke hit her so hard Rieta couldn’t even fire back, only blink. She’d only meant to say thank you, and now she was being stabbed in the chest so repeatedly she could barely think straight.

“With this little sense. It’s because gullible fools like you take the bait that swindlers like that get to run rampant. Because of frauds like her, I’ve had to…… hah.”

“……”

“Do you understand now? Go play the fairy tale heroine somewhere else. Now that you get it, stop wandering around making a mess…”

“Hey!”

She’d been genuinely grateful three minutes ago. In just three minutes, anger had completely overtaken gratitude. Rieta clenched both fists and raised her voice.

“Hey, and just how noble and grand is your purpose for being here? What exactly are you doing? You barge in while I’m buying something that’s none of your business… hey, hey!”

She was in the middle of talking, and the man turned on his heel without a single word in reply. This time it was so sudden she couldn’t even follow him with her eyes, let alone her feet. Rieta didn’t have the energy to go after him the way she had before.

“What is wrong with that guy?”

She was simply very, very, very furious.

* * *

She tried to push down her anger and buy something else, but the suspicion that kept rising up, ‘what if this is fake too,’ meant she left with nothing to show for it. For someone who’d slipped out of the manor with such bold ambitions, it was a thoroughly hollow ending.

Rieta heaved sigh after sigh as she climbed up the lime tree her father was so fond of. Her boot lace had come undone at some point and nearly made her slip, but she managed not to fall.

From the branch to the bedroom window, her outstretched legs moved with nimble ease. Just as on the way out, no one noticed her nighttime escapade by the time she made it back to her room. The perfect crime…

“Viola?”

……Or it should have been.

The breath flowing easily from her lungs froze cold. Rieta held it and crept quietly toward the bed. The figure there was still and silent, apparently long asleep.

Granted, the only person who’d barge uninvited into Rieta’s room and claim her bed was her one and only twin, but…… this wasn’t her. If it were Viola, long black hair would be spilling over the side of the bed.

This person’s wasn’t.

Then who?

Just then, the moon buried in darkness slowly reclaimed its light. Blue-white radiance washed into the darkened room like a tide. The vanished moon hung at opposite ends of the sky like a pair of mirrors, the night of the year when the moon shone brightest…

The intruder’s face came fully into view.

Pale gold hair tangled like soft spun thread, closed eyelids as white as carefully carved plaster, and a firmly pressed mouth that still held a trace of youth. But the thick neck and shoulders visible below were unmistakably……

“Why, why is he undressed……”

The man lay sprawled in a state of complete abandon, utterly at odds with someone who’d snuck into a stranger’s bedroom. He was, quite literally, completely exposed, yet Rieta couldn’t bring herself to move.

Having grown up alone with her mother for ten years, she wasn’t accustomed to the sight of a man’s bare body. She’d been with her lover for quite a while now, but she’d never seen him undressed, never even imagined it.

Rieta stared at the sleeping man, transfixed. The languid line of his eyes and the shape of his lips were delicate, like something drawn with careful strokes of a fine brush. He was obviously not her twin, and even more obviously not anyone she knew.

Without realizing it, she’d drifted close enough to reach out and touch him. Standing motionless beside the bed, Rieta drew her breath slowly and carefully. In a situation like this, there was only one thing she could do.

Namely, knock this shameless intruder over the head.

For reference, Rieta Sha was an amateur tennis player and the runner-up of the previous year’s regional tournament.