The Imperial Palace was a place Lacy knew well.

She had been close to the Emperor, the Empress, and the Princess alike — visiting the palace often since childhood. It was only after her marriage that she had stopped coming without particular cause. Because her husband was none other than Grand Duke Rafez Felista.

Would it have been easier if it had been a marriage she wanted?

Feeling the soft brush of the breeze, Lacy shook her head. The match had been arranged by the Imperial family — and it had been for the Princess’s sake.

So she had no regrets about carrying out this role. No resentment either.

“Lacy!”

Princess Kelly came running toward her with a bright smile, crossing the distance in a single breath.

“Your Highness the Princess.”

Lacy greeted her first with a proper bow, but Kelly shook her head and pulled her into an embrace.

“We haven’t seen each other in so long, and you lead with formalities.”

“Your Highness——”

“But you look like you’ve lost some weight.”

When Kelly released her from the embrace, Lacy smiled at last, looking up at her.

“I’ve been doing well.”

“If you’re doing well at the Grand Ducal house, I suppose that’s a little bittersweet…… but still, I’m glad. Come, sit! I had them bring out every last cake they had.”

True to Kelly’s word, the cakes that arrived were too many to count.

“Give Lacy the strawberry cake first. Those strawberries look absolutely wonderful.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Go on, try it, Lacy.”

Urged on by Kelly, Lacy picked up her fork — and then, unbidden, another strawberry cake came to mind.

The strawberry cake Rafez had ordered for her……. She hadn’t managed a single bite in the end.

Why had that cake come to mind just now?

“Your Highness, there is something I need to tell you.”

Lacy set her fork down. The smile had quietly left her face, and her expression had gone serious.

At Kelly’s glance, the ladies-in-waiting withdrew from the room.

“What is it?”

“You know, don’t you, Your Highness? The final plan our house had been preparing.”

* * *

The following day. Rafez was up before dawn as usual, working through matters at his desk.

He had told Duke Schkotz he intended to carry on his father’s way of doing things — but Louis had been in poor health and had left a great deal unattended, so there was no shortage of work to see to.

He also hoped to clear enough of the capital’s affairs to find time for a brief visit to the Grand Duchy.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Mollys entered and greeted him.

“Your Highness, what would you like to do about breakfast?”

“I’ll skip it. And the Grand Duchess?”

It was not unusual for Rafez to forgo breakfast, so Mollys simply nodded and moved on.

“I’ve just received word that she has risen, Your Highness.”

“Prepare dinner for this evening — I’ll be dining with the Grand Duchess.”

“Pardon? Again — today as well, Your Highness?”

Had yesterday’s meal with Lacy actually been enjoyable? He had heard she hadn’t touched a single bite of her food.

“Yes. Every day from now on. Husband and wife ought to see each other’s faces at least once a day. We’ve been seeing less of each other than the estate servants.”

Mollys gave the faintest shake of his head, barely perceptible.

He could sense that Rafez was changing — that he had made some kind of resolution — but whether it would do any good was another matter entirely.

Even if things improved between him and Lacy, House Lennon and House Felista were still enemies.

What was he thinking? Surely he didn’t intend to reconcile with House Lennon?

“Your Highness, may I ask what is on your mind?”

“I know — it’s strange. But you know, I’ve come to think that the way I’ve been behaving all this time wasn’t exactly normal either.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s right. Lacy is the daughter of House Lennon. But regardless, she married me, and now she is part of House Felista. I think I lost sight of that for a while.”

Mollys felt he understood, at least a little, now.

In other words — Rafez intended to stop thinking of Lacy as a member of House Lennon, and start thinking of her as a member of House Felista.

“But Your Highness, the Grand Duchess——”

“I know. It won’t happen all at once. But I’d like to try. Lacy has been holding her own all this time, after all.”

On that point — that she had been holding on — Mollys had to agree.

It would be a fine thing if Lacy opened her heart and it led somewhere good. But it wouldn’t be easy.

“Understood, Your Highness. Ah — and the head maid has been requesting an audience.”

“Has she? Send her in.”

The door opened, and head maid Glen entered, greeting Rafez with a bow.

“Your Highness.”

“What is it?”

Glen reached into her sleeve without a word and placed something on the desk in front of Rafez.

“……What is this?”

“They are the Grand Duchess’s belongings, Your Highness.”

It was a small bottle — shaped like a perfume vial.

Had it been nothing more than perfume, Glen wouldn’t have brought it to him. And besides, Lacy didn’t seem to use perfume.

Rafez lifted the stopper and opened it — and then his body went rigid, arrested by a scent that was strangely familiar, at once foreign and known.

“This is……”

* * *

Knock knock.

An ordinary morning. An ordinary knock at the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and Mollys entered with a polite bow.

Lacy, eating breakfast as she usually did, turned to look at him.

“What is it?”

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess, His Highness the Grand Duke is asking for you.”

Not an invitation to a meal. No particular reason given. Simply — asking for her?

Perhaps this was the moment Lacy had been waiting for — and yet, at the same time, had hoped would never come.

She set down her utensils. A brief silence. Then she answered.

“Very well.”

When things change, there are consequences to those changes.

That’s right — she recalled hearing something once, that when a person changes, it signals their end.

* * *

Rafez’s room — somewhere she had never set foot before. It was wide and grand as befitting the head of the house, yet carried a settled, composed feeling to it.

It had a subtly different air from Lacy’s room, which was, after all, a guest room. The difference between a member of the family and a guest.

“Sit.”

Rafez’s voice had gone low and cold.

Lacy sat. This was not the moment to be glancing around the room out of curiosity.

“Have you lost something?”

Lacy looked at him with an expression that said she didn’t know what he meant.

Then Rafez reached into his pocket and set a small bottle on the table.

Lacy recognized it immediately.

Her instincts had not been wrong.

“What is this?”

He asked as though he already knew the answer.

“Must I tell you?”

“Of course. Everything in my estate — I have a right to know about all of it.”

My estate. The words were natural enough, and yet they landed coldly.

“……I see. Even if it happens to be your wife’s personal belongings.”

Something shifted in Rafez’s eyes at her words.

Wife. Yes — his wife. It had been just the other day that he had said he wanted to make a proper go of their marriage.

“Grand Duchess.”

“I understand. You are the Grand Duke, and I am the Grand Duchess.”

Lacy smiled.

That smile unsettled him. It grated.

She was telling him that the two of them were not husband and wife but two titles bound together — something closer to a lord and vassal. And he had nothing to say to that.

“Why do you have poison? What were you planning to use it for?”

He didn’t think she would be the one to say it first, so Rafez brought it up himself.

“Because it’s my sanctuary.”

Her answer was nothing like what he had expected.

Of course she wouldn’t come out and say she’d brought poison to kill him — but sanctuary?

“What do you mean——”

“I’ve carried poison on my person since I was young. Whenever I felt anxious, I would hold that bottle. It made the anxiety go away.”

“And you expect me to believe that?”

Rafez felt his composure slipping toward genuine anger.

He didn’t know Lacy in full — but he had thought her not the type for flimsy excuses or outright lies.

“You’re welcome to ask House Lennon.”

“Yes — and House Lennon will of course say the same thing.”

He gave a slow nod at that. There it was. Lacy was House Lennon’s through and through.

“Do you know why I recognize this poison? We have quite a particular history, this poison and I. Had it not been discovered in time, it would have found its way down my throat one day.”

A particular history?

The phrasing struck Lacy as slightly odd — but she had no time to dwell on it now.

“I had absolutely no intention of using it on you.”

“You don’t have to admit it today. We have plenty of time ahead of us.”

Rafez had already made up his mind and had no interest in hearing anything further.

What came next would be confinement, interrogation until she confessed. And once she confessed — divorce, and the annihilation of House Lennon along with it. On the grounds of attempted poisoning of the Grand Duke.

The Imperial family might even be drawn into it.

She couldn’t let that happen. She had no intention of letting it come to that.

“So this must be what you meant by marriage.”

“……What?”

“Fine. I’ll prove it myself.”

Lacy reached out and picked up the bottle. And drank it. Just like that.

It all happened before Rafez could do a thing.

A fragrant, grassy scent. A sweet taste.

The sensation going down wasn’t unpleasant. She had carried it with her all this time but never once drunk it. She had lived with the thought that one day she might — but to think it would happen like this.

“Ugh——”

The fleeting sweetness was gone in an instant. Blood surged from her mouth, and Lacy lost her footing and crumpled.

“Lacy!”

Rafez, seized by the sudden shock of it, threw himself forward and caught her as she fell.

He truly hadn’t imagined — not for a moment — that she would drink it.

It was clearly poison intended to kill him. And she had drunk it herself.

To prove her family’s innocence — had it really come to this? Or had she been telling the truth when she called it her sanctuary? Had she truly lived all this time soothing her anxiety with the thought that she could die whenever she chose?

Even as she bled and her consciousness slipped away, Lacy’s dark eyes did not cloud over.

“Lacy! Stay with me — Lacy!”

“You did it……a proper marriage……Your Highness.”

Those were her last words.