The farm was not far.

The Grand Duchy’s land was vast, but a carriage ride of an hour or two brought them there quickly enough — and taking in at a glance the farm filled with fresh green leaves and the warm glow of ripened oranges, Lacy found an inexplicable sense of abundance washing over her, a smile rising to her lips.

“Welcome, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

The farm’s manager approached Rafez and Lacy and greeted them.

“Don’t mind us — go about your work. I’ll call if we need anything.”

Rafez sent the manager off and looked at Lacy, who was standing in silence, eyes fixed on the farm.

He didn’t know the details of House Lennon and its territory — but he knew that the ducal house’s lands lay to the east, the most fertile soil in all the empire, where a great deal of farming was done. Wheat and barley and other grains, as well as a wide variety of vegetables.

What was the daughter of that house thinking, standing here now?

Lacy, who had been looking out over the farm for some time, suddenly felt a pointed gaze from beside her and turned. Rafez was watching her.

“……Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No reason. You just seem to like it here.”

“You can tell that just from my face?”

“Yes — I feel like I’m starting to understand you, bit by bit. Which makes looking at your face quite entertaining.”

Rafez said it with a smile, and Lacy, flustered, turned away and looked straight ahead again.

“How has it been, staying in the Grand Duchy? Not too bad, I hope. There’s more to look forward to — things will be different from before once we’re back in the capital too.”

Lacy still didn’t look at him, her gaze drifting into the distance.

“Felista — do you know what the one thing was that I truly wanted?”

The shift in atmosphere — subtle but distinct from a moment ago — made Rafez hesitate before answering.

The one thing Lacy had truly wanted. Just one thing. What could it be?

She was a noble aligned with the Emperor’s faction — so the Emperor’s wishes, the Princess’s accession? That was the only direction his thoughts could go.

And even if he answered along those lines — that was its own problem. What reaction would be appropriate? What on earth should he say?

Fortunately, Lacy told him the truth before he could answer.

“I wanted to leave the capital — and live quietly in the countryside.”

Lacy turned to look at him again, and her dark eyes appeared hollow. Like a pitch-black void — nothing visible within, as though the depths of that darkness were entirely empty.

“……Where I don’t have to think about anything.”

Lacy and Rafez held each other’s gaze for just a moment — or perhaps, a little longer than that.

And then Lacy smiled and said,

“I should go pick some of those oranges.”

“What?”

Lacy took hold of her skirts and headed down into the farm.

“Lacy!”

Rafez called after her — but she was already moving away without hesitation, beyond hearing.

He had been speaking of what things would be like once they returned to the capital — and she had answered that what she had truly wanted was a life in the countryside.

But that was something impossibly far from her reach. For the daughter of House Lennon, for the Grand Duchess.

She who walked the thinnest of ice, the most watched woman at the heart of the empire.

Lacy stood at the center of that empire’s ice — where at any moment, the Imperial family and House Felista might fracture it apart from both sides.

* * *

Back in the capital, a fine, misty rain was falling.

The capital had always been prone to rain. The empire’s land was so vast that the climate varied considerably by region — and the capital was overcast almost constantly, with clear days few and far between.

Inside the Imperial Palace. Hereis quickened his pace. Rafez had been away resting under the pretense of illness for some time now, and had even gone down to the Grand Duchy in the meantime. As a result, the work he had been handling had fallen entirely on those who remained.

Not having to look at that face was a welcome thing — but only for so long.

“His Majesty the Emperor is waiting.”

Hereis smoothed the exhaustion from his face and stepped inside.

“Why have you only just arrived?”

The Emperor of the empire — Gloff, with silver hair and silver eyes — turned his already sour expression on Hereis the moment he walked in.

“The meeting ran long——”

“Those blasted meetings — meeting after meeting! The wars that could break out any moment, the money hemorrhaging because of them — does any of it actually get resolved by sitting around talking?”

Gloff shoved the stack of papers piled in front of him off the desk entirely.

This was not unusual. Gloff’s foul temper and hot-bloodedness were known even to neighboring countries, and many nobles were careful around him because of it. The one circumstance in which Gloff seemed to restrain himself was, for the moment, in front of House Felista.

Ah — though of course, he was endlessly gentle with the Empress and the Princess as well.

“……So. The matter at hand?”

Hereis waited in silence, and Gloff drew a breath and asked again.

“The particulars of the new weapons to be purchased, and the question of who to send to the border regions. The prevailing view is that the lord of Benerlov in the north is too advanced in age to sustain the continued fighting. What does Your Majesty think?”

“That’s a reasonable point.”

Gloff gave a nod and seemed to sink into thought.

The current situation favored the empire — the Kingdom of Benerle was little more than an ember barely clinging to life. And yet it kept resisting, that ember refusing to die out no matter how close it came.

Something different was needed.

“……I’ll have to send Rafez again.”

“Pardon? But the Grand Duke is currently away recovering from illness, is he not?”

“Then call him back. I can’t keep letting the Grand Duke rest indefinitely, can I? The Duke is already working himself half to death.”

Hereis found himself with nothing to say. Of course, the fact that Rafez had taken Lacy with him was no small source of concern.

How was Lacy faring right now. In that Grand Duchy.

“The Grand Duke has far too many grounds to refuse.”

“If not Rafez, who else is there to send? He’s already achieved a great victory on the battlefield — he’s young, and above all, he is this empire’s Grand Duke. If not the Grand Duke, who will fight for the empire?”

Gloff’s mouth curved upward.

That Grand Ducal title. Had he received it because he wanted it — or because Louis had wanted it for him?

Hereis, for his part, also wanted Rafez to go back to war. If he were to die on the battlefield without anyone having to lift a finger — there would be nothing more to ask for.

But if things went the other way.

“But if he returns with another great victory, that would only be giving him wings.”

“Like now, you mean?”

“……Your Majesty.”

“He already flies around as though he has wings. Notifying the Emperor he’s unwell and taking himself off to the Grand Duchy — and at every ball, people fawning over him trying to get on his good side. They watch my every move, and his at the same time, don’t they?”

“I too want the Grand Duke sent to war. But this war must be won.”

Above all, it had been barely six months since Rafez had returned from the last one. Forcing him back to the battlefield so soon — as Gloff had put it, he already had wings — would only give those who supported him the justification they needed.

House Felista and the Imperial family were currently engaged in a quiet standoff. Neither side had yet shown their claws, each simply watching the other.

Rafez might be the rising star of the moment — but the one holding ground was still the Imperial family.

There was absolutely no need to be the first to bare their claws.

“There are still many options available. There’s no need to go out of our way to make him a loyal martyr who died fighting for the empire on the battlefield.”

“……That’s a remarkably confident thing to say, Duke.”

Hereis spoke with an expression carved from stone.

“He is destined to die regardless, Your Majesty.”