“I mean it.”

After the regression, Rafez had looked into Lacy more carefully — and what he found was that she had done nothing against the Grand Ducal house. Not once.

Her contact with House Lennon was nothing more than what any family member might maintain — occasional letters, the odd visit. She had not leaked information about the Grand Ducal house to anyone, nor had she meddled in its affairs.

As the Emperor himself had noted tonight, she had barely even set foot in the Imperial Palace since the marriage.

There was nothing left to suspect. She was simply living as the Grand Duchess. And it had been him — he who had continued to doubt her, keep his distance, and leave her to her own devices.

He had only understood it after watching her die. But whatever chance this was, he wanted to make it right, even now. The marriage had happened regardless, and they were husband and wife.

“……It’s overwhelming.”

“What?”

“I don’t know why you’re suddenly acting this way.”

Was it really that much? He hadn’t even done anything of note.

He had only meant to start paying attention to her — and even that was too much to bear. Had things between them been that poor?

Of course, relations between Grand Ducal House Felista and House Lennon had never been warm.

But as Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, surely——

“I owe you an apology for not giving you the attention you deserved. I came back to the capital and took over the title straightaway, and then the marriage happened so suddenly, without proper preparation…… I wasn’t in the right state of mind.”

“That’s because it was a marriage you never wanted.”

“It was. But regardless, it was a match arranged by His Majesty the Emperor.”

“I have never said a word to His Majesty about this marriage. Nor will I.”

“I know. That isn’t what I’m trying to discuss.”

Rafez realized just how badly he had failed her.

She had already come to accept the cold treatment as something natural — had lived that way inside the Grand Ducal house long enough that even now, when he said he wanted to make it right, she couldn’t bring herself to accept it.

“Wanted or not, we are married. We are husband and wife. And so I want to make it right, even now.”

“There is nothing to make right.”

“Lacy.”

Lacy found her own name strange coming from his voice.

Had he not always called her nothing but ‘the Grand Duchess’?

Yet he’d had something to say when Mary used it.

“Since when have you called me by my name?”

Having his own words turned back on him, Rafez found he had nothing to say. It occurred to him that stepping in the way he had — with Mary — might not have been welcome to Lacy at all.

“That was——”

“Your Highness, I have no complaints about the life I’ve been living, and there is nothing I lack. So please, there is no need to concern yourself.”

It was the longest conversation they had ever had.

He also learned something for the first time today — that they were this difficult to reach.

And the words Your Highness — he hadn’t realized until now how stiff they sounded.

Lacy had grown up as the sole daughter of House Lennon, cherished and wanting for nothing. For her to say she lacked nothing in her current life made no sense at all. House Lennon was hardly known for frugality, and though he didn’t know her well — having been away at war for so long — the Lacy he remembered from before the marriage had not been a plain or simple woman.

“We are husband and wife. It’s only natural that we call each other by name.”

“Your Highness.”

“Lacy.”

They held each other’s gaze, neither willing to yield.

The more Lacy refused him, the more deeply Rafez understood it. Things had been wrong from the very beginning. And he felt the fault of it as his own.

“Lacy Felista — is that not your name now?”

Something moved in Lacy’s eyes at his words.

Felista. That name, attached to hers.

“You are part of our house. You are mine, now.”

* * *

In the pitch dark of night, in a room without even a candle lit, Lacy sat on her bed wrapped in blackness, sleepless.

She had endured it when she was made to enter a marriage she never wanted. She had endured it when she received not recognition as Grand Duchess, but contempt and cold indifference from the servants — and on top of that, had to live quietly under surveillance, her every move watched from within her own room.

She had endured it when her belongings brought from the ducal house disappeared. When her dresses were torn. Even when the necklace her mother had passed down to her as a wedding gift went missing.

“Haa……”

Her mother’s necklace — vanished while she had set it on the bedside table for a moment during her bath.

Even now, just thinking of it made her chest tighten and her eyes sting with tears that threatened to fall.

She had asked the head maid, and received nothing but denial. There was nothing more she could do. She could only blame herself for knowing the risks and letting her guard down anyway.

And so, in the end, she had simply endured it.

Yes — she had been able to endure that. She had married into an enemy house. A certain amount of this she had anticipated.

But to have the Felista name attached to hers.

She had managed to keep her composure through everything else — but in that moment, she hadn’t been able to hide what she felt. She should have controlled the tremor in her eyes, the swell in her chest. She should have.

Lacy pushed aside the covers and rose from the bed, moving to stand by the window.

She drew back the curtains and opened it. Bright moonlight and the cold breath of night spilled into the room.

“……Can I keep going like this?”

Lacy reached into the folds of her clothing and drew something out.

It looked like a small perfume bottle — its contents hidden, the glass too dark to see through.

She closed her hand around it and steeled herself once more.

* * *

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Greeting the morning as she always did, Lacy was surprised to find Mollys at her door earlier than usual.

Mollys didn’t come by every day — hardly ever, in fact, unless there was a letter to deliver or something to do with a ball. What could it be today?

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”

Mollys bowed his head in greeting first.

“What is it?”

“His Highness the Grand Duke requests that you join him for breakfast.”

“I’m not feeling well——”

“He said that if you are unwell, he will come to your room and have breakfast with you there.”

The breath caught in her chest.

“……Very well.”

“Then I will let His Highness know you will be coming out.”

As Mollys bowed and left the room, Lacy let out a short, hollow laugh. She couldn’t help it.

* * *

The door opened.

Before her stretched a long dining table laid with food, and at the far end sat Rafez.

The dining room — somewhere she had never been — felt less foreign than she expected. It had the same atmosphere as the rest of the estate. Not overly grand, just composed and dignified.

“Come in.”

Lacy sat down across from him without a word.

Every dish on the table had been prepared to her taste.

Things she hadn’t been able to have in a long time.

But Lacy felt nothing now. If anything, the sight of them only made her stomach turn.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. Thanks to you.”

She had already heard that he intended to come to her room himself if she was unwell — so his polite inquiry didn’t sit quite right with her.

Rafez smiled at Lacy’s answer, as though he already knew how it would go.

“Thanks for saying so — I appreciate it.”

“Is there something you wanted to say to me?”

Lacy sat perfectly still, not touching her utensils, and fixed her gaze on Rafez.

“Why not talk over the meal? Surely you don’t think I’ve poisoned the food.”

Rafez looked at her as he chewed his steak.

Those dark, cold eyes — he had never once thought to look at them before. But since that moment in the carriage, he kept finding himself drawn back to them.

Captivating eyes. Eyes he couldn’t seem to stop returning to.

“……I don’t usually eat much in the morning.”

“You’d know that if I were going to poison anything, I would have done it long ago. That was a joke, by the way. Come to think of it — this is probably the first time we’ve sat across from each other like this.”

Lacy could not begin to understand what he was trying to say.

“What is it that you want to say?”

“Hm. It’s not as unpleasant as I expected.”

“And?”

“I’d like to see more of you going forward. Sharing meals like this, for a start.”

“……Your Highness.”

Lacy’s expression went rigid at his words.

Rafez, by contrast, smiled.

“Don’t worry. I’ll work around you.”

* * *

Inside the carriage on the way to the Imperial Palace.

Lacy gazed out the window and let out a quiet sigh. Even though she was on her way to see the Princess for the first time in a while, she felt no particular lift in her heart.

“I want to try doing this properly, starting now. This thing called marriage.”

Was he actually going to follow through on those words?

Was there anything so remarkable about married life to begin with? Marriage was simply — leaving your own home, stepping into someone else’s, enduring it, growing accustomed to it. That was all it was. Love matches were rare in noble society, after all.

It hadn’t been a marriage she wanted. But that was how she had been framing it, how she had been holding on.

Without thinking, Lacy had been clutching the folds of her skirt — and then, all at once, she felt it.

A strange emptiness.

“……What?”

Something she had grown so accustomed to that she barely noticed it anymore. Gone.

She quickly searched herself, patting her sides, checking every fold of her clothing — but it wasn’t there. Nothing was there.

What should have been there wasn’t.

“It can’t be.”