Chapter 13

The grand theater said to be the largest in Holdland displayed its immense splendor. Beneath the red neon sign, guards standing on both sides of the wide-flung entrance checked the tickets of those entering with disciplined movements.

Behind her was the subway station. Beneath the entrance spilling out people dressed in neat formalwear, it almost seemed as though the rumbling vibration could be heard.

Because of the streetlamps brightening both road and pavement alike, it was so bright that one could not tell it was late at night. By contrast, the rain and wind striking from the side were chilly.

Everyone except her carried large umbrellas and held onto someone’s arm. Ladies wearing thin summer gloves walked gracefully, handbags of matching material looped over their wrists.

The rain-soaked ground shone dazzlingly bright. Everything around her was utterly splendid.

This was the richest street in Holdland. A place where those who were not splendid had no right to set foot.

And into such a place stepped shabby Hazel Bennett.

Before a place that did not suit her in the least.

Before a person who did not suit her in the least.

“……”

Hazel slowly lifted her eyes. A blunt sea-green gaze was looking down at her.

The voice she had clenched her teeth and pretended not to hear buzzed in her ears.

“She’s only pretty.”

For a moment she had forgotten. The fact that, to Kyle, Hazel was no more than an old ornament in a display case labeled memory.

“……”

The strength drained from the hand clutching the man. Her wet gaze naturally fell downward. In her lowered sight, she saw the even stone pavement, and the polished shoes gleaming as they stood upon the rain-darkened flat ground.

For the reason that, once upon a time, their lives had crossed, she had mistaken herself for being at least a little special to him. She had thought she had that much right—even after hearing words like that. Even after comforting herself by cursing him in her heart dozens of times, she still had not understood her place.

Hazel bent deeply at the waist. She did not see Kyle’s brows twitch at a posture far more humble than he had expected.

What Hazel saw was the stone ground drawing ever closer in her view. The glossy surface, and scattered spots upon it, and thankfully, the puddles swallowing up her tears.

Her mouth, which had stared only at the wet ground, opened.

“I’m sorry. I thought you were a friend.”

“……”

“I was mistaken. I confused you with someone else. I’m sorry for my rudeness.”

Just because he had greeted her and acted as though he knew her, she had thought she had become someone special to Kyle. It had all been a misunderstanding. The lingering attachment she still held for him, the first love that had never properly ended, had simply distorted reality and spread it before her eyes.

In an instant she understood why, all this time, she had felt awkward in front of Kyle, why she had been so careful with each and every word. Deep down, she had known from the beginning.

This man is not the Kyle I knew.

The lingering attachment that had clung thickly to a bond that ended long ago fell away piece by piece. One piece at his indifferent tone, one at his blind obsession with his goal, and another at the perfectly defined relationship of complete strangers.

In a dry voice, she expressed her wish to end the conversation.

“Please go about your business. I’m truly sorry for disturbing you.”

She had finished speaking. But the pair of black shoes still remained where they were. And so, over Hazel’s head, which waited as though rooted to the ground along with her feet, came a woman’s husky voice.

“Kyle, do you know her?”

“No.”

As though the wrist Hazel had grabbed felt unpleasant, Kyle Strauss briskly brushed it off and turned toward the woman with the husky voice. Naturally, he did not leave even a single word of greeting for Hazel.

“I don’t know her. She must have mistaken me for someone she knows.”

People say a person can only feel one pain at a time. For the first time, Hazel was grateful for that fact. Because Colin’s funeral had given her the pain of flesh being torn alive, even Kyle’s cold response no longer came as a shock.

Thanks to that, she was able to hear the two of them talking without much sense of being struck. The woman gave a rippling laugh.

“Who in Bukata doesn’t know you? She must have thought if she acted familiar, something might fall her way. It must be tiring, being famous.”

“For a businessman, fame leads to money……”

Hazel thought that the rest of Kyle’s words seemed omitted—that given his circumstances, he ought to be grateful even when women like this acted as though they knew him.

Even that was very Kyle Strauss-like. The former soldier turned businessman, the one the newspapers loudly proclaimed had clawed his way up from the bottom and seized wealth. The man who answered the public whispers disparaging the source of his money with an arrogant smile and ran toward achievement alone.

Their voices grew farther away. Only long after that did Hazel raise her stiff head. Kyle had his back to her and was walking toward the theater entrance. Beside him, a woman in a satin dress with a thin scarf around her neck was hanging on his arm.

“I don’t know her.”

Following “She’s only pretty,” this was now the second memorable line from the man who could no longer be dressed up even with the word friend.

A hollow laugh escaped her at the retreating back.

“Ha.”

All of Bukata was mourning the death of Captain Colin Bennett. The three medals awarded to the hero who saved Prince Edward and the honor of being buried in the national cemetery filled every newspaper.

What were the chances that a businessman well informed about current affairs, and once a soldier himself, did not know about Captain Bennett’s death in battle?

And even if he had known of this tragedy, did she have any right to be hurt that he ignored her?

You foolish idiot, Hazel Bennett.

You should know your place.

* * *

A streetlamp in need of repair flickered, casting a gloomy atmosphere. The fine clothes Kyle had dressed himself in today shone far too richly to be mourning clothes.

They had said the church had closed two hours ago. After wasting the trip and turning instead toward the national cemetery, Kyle saw a woman in a long black dress reaching over her knees.

“……”

The woman, holding a single lily, met his eyes and gave a shy smile. A woman he had never seen before. Kyle turned his gaze away from her.

Finding Colin’s grave was easy. As though proving he had been buried that very day, it was a damp mound of earth with not a blade of grass on it, and before it were heaps of white flowers piled high.

Kyle set down a single chrysanthemum before the gleaming headstone.

‘They say he died in Reto.’

Reto was the stronghold of the Castina independence army. Soldiers who knew that fact made it a rule to surround and monitor Reto, but not enter the mountains.

Even Kyle, who had spent years on Kartnia Island, had rarely ever set foot in Reto. It was a difficult place to approach.

For the heir apparent to the throne to enter such dangerous land—what reckless rashness was this?

Did the Prince even know how beautiful the family was that his own hot-bloodedness had shattered?

A month later, a strange rumor began to spread through Bukata.

That the Prince’s bravado had driven a young soldier to his death.

* * *

Behind Bukata’s main square stood the royal palace. The palace, whose front had once been visible at least in part from the square, had had about a third of it blocked from view once the Strauss Hotel was built.

From the deepest part of that insultingly obscured palace burst out a thunderous roar.

“What were you doing instead of stopping the Prince!”

King Joseph III slammed his desk with a bang, breathing hard with anger. The uniformed military man standing at attention across from him silently bowed his head.

“From the moment he first expressed the wish to visit Reto, we consistently opposed it.”

“So although the Lieutenant Colonel tried to stop him, the Prince insisted on going into a dangerous area on his own authority, an attack occurred there, and an innocent soldier was sacrificed in the Prince’s place. Is that what you mean?”

The atmosphere grew even harsher. After glaring at the Lieutenant Colonel, Joseph III made a loud noise as he sat down. Since he had known the Lieutenant Colonel since the time he first ascended the throne, the picture of his own son behaving obstinately was far too vivid for him to place all the blame on the officer.

“How did this fact spread?”

“There were reporters who took note of the fact that the attack happened in Reto of all places.”

The Prince had visited an area so dangerous that even businessmen coming and going from Castina could not obtain travel permission for it. Considering his own political position, it was something he should absolutely never have done.

“What if we silence them with compensation money?”

“The five thousand dollars given to a fallen soldier has already been paid. If we try to compensate them with money, it will only provoke more resentment.”

His vision darkened. When exactly was that son of his going to grow up?

Joseph III’s gaze turned toward Earl Nett.

“What do you think would be the best way to resolve this situation, Earl Nett?”