“Bellaris is here?”

A young lady who had just heard startling news from a servant asked without thinking, then gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. The few people nearby who had caught the outburst shot her flustered looks.

And no wonder, for they were currently attending a social party being held at none other than the private residence of the House Castoria of Montagna.

Castoria and Bellaris.

Those two words were never to be placed together, never to appear in the same sentence. Even a six-year-old child in the passionate empire of Pantheon knew about those two houses and their burning desire to destroy each other.

Two years had passed since the official announcement that the two families would put their long history behind them and wed their children to each other, yet there were almost none who truly believed it. Plenty of people whispered that there must be political motives lurking behind it all, that it was a contract that would shatter at the first sign of trouble.

The number of nobles who had their sights set on Valentino di Castoria, the sole legitimate heir and only son of the Castoria house, as a husband or son-in-law was beyond counting. The names being floated as the most suitable match for the boy, who had only just turned eleven, were too many to count on one hand.

But among them, the name of Yuria, the treasured only daughter of the Bellaris house, was never mentioned. Everyone was quietly avoiding it, as though it were a forbidden word. Half of them simply did not want to believe she had been chosen as Valen’s match, and the other half genuinely thought the announcement was a lie.

And for good reason, since the engagement between Valen Castoria and Yuria Bellaris had been announced but nothing had actually taken place, no ceremony, nothing at all.

So it was perhaps only natural that this young lady had been startled to hear of Bellaris’s arrival.

“Yes, my lady. I heard a carriage from Il Mare has just arrived.”

The servant, now quite flustered at having drawn the attention of the people around them, lowered his voice and reported to her. Wide eyes swept the surroundings. The youngest daughter of the Rezzo family, one of the noble houses with a base in the capital of Santora, was holding a tangle of complicated feelings.

Yuria Bellaris was clearly an incongruous presence who had no business being here, but among the young ladies her age, she was quite a well-known figure. Rumors of Yuria’s perfection had already spread far and wide. Not only did she carry herself with a composure indistinguishable from an adult’s, but she had long since mastered history texts and etiquette manuals that usually took years for noble children to get through, along with foreign languages as well.

Most noble children outside of Montagna were probably in awe of her. Helena Rezzo had genuinely wished she could meet Yuria even just once. Only not here, not at the Castoria residence.

“Oh, there.”

Helena murmured, having finally spotted a trace of Bellaris among the crowd. They always wore clothing the dark blue-green of the sea, and they were born tall and lean. Add to that their pale skin, and they were unsettling to behold.

Not long after Helena spoke and the servant turned to look, everyone nearby had noticed the presence of Bellaris. Stifled gasps and sharp intakes of breath came from all directions.

But regardless of the eyes upon them, the Duke and Duchess of Bellaris and their children stepped into the garden of the residence without so much as a flinch. It was the onlookers who ended up frightened by their sheer audacity.

Parting the crowd that trembled in fear of what might happen, the Bellaris family made their way all the way to the host of today’s party, the master of the residence.

These were two houses that had clashed bitterly even in the current generation over a poisoning incident. No one had expected the rift, deepened to its very limit by a Bellaris man’s murder of a Castoria woman, to heal like magic now of all times.

A tense moment. Everyone held their breath. It was so quiet that even the sound of a gentle breeze could be heard.

“You are late.”

The Duke of Castoria spoke first. Was he reproaching his guest for having the nerve to arrive late to his own invitation?

But defying most expectations, what came back from Bellaris was a courteous apology.

“My apologies. The journey from Il Mare to Santora took longer than expected.”

“You have traveled a long way.”

“When my future in-law calls, of course I must attend.”

In-law. Most of those present doubted their own ears. Was that story truly real?

The Duke of Castoria, Leo Castoria, a man of sturdy build and a kind face, and the Duke of Bellaris, tall and sharp-featured, shook hands. People from a few centuries past living in Pantheon would have wagered their own wrists on the claim that these two would never reconcile in their lifetimes.

And yet here it was, happening right before their eyes. It was without a doubt something no one could witness without astonishment.

The day’s banquet was a grand affair to which all seven of Pantheon’s great houses had been invited. It was a gathering of such scale that even the imperial household had taken an interest. Needless to say, it had been staged with the splendor befitting the wealthiest family in the empire, and befitting a Duke of Castoria who had taken as his wife the younger sister of the late empress.

And at such a momentous occasion, Castoria and Bellaris were joining hands. This was no longer easy to dismiss as a political show.

Then what of the two at the center of this engagement?

All eyes turned now to the young lord and lady, eleven and ten years old respectively. They were likely the most talked-about children in all of Pantheon at the moment.

Yuria Bellaris. A slender girl with silk-smooth black hair elegantly pinned up. Her eyes were a striking, deep blue, as though declaring her lineage as a child of the sea, and her face, pale to the point of pallor, was as fine as porcelain.

She was dressed head to toe in black and deep blue, yet somehow it inspired no sense of dread or ugliness whatsoever. On the contrary, her appearance seemed calculated to perfection from head to toe, a beauty that left nothing to chance.

The faint smile at the corners of her lips made an already pretty face all the more appealing, yet there lingered a feeling that it was somehow unlike the smile of a child.

And what of Valen Castoria by contrast.

He too, as rumored, carried himself with a maturity beyond his years. The boy who had walked over calmly at his mother the Duchess of Castoria’s side had his green eyes, inherited from her, cast downward.

His build seemed to take after his father, and despite his young age, his well-proportioned frame and height that stood out among his peers were immediately noticeable. His face, on the other hand, was classically beautiful. His refined features naturally called to mind a figure from a work of art.

A perfect pair, in every sense of the word.

If only they were not bound by a deep and bitter enmity.

“Oh…”

Helena let out an involuntary sigh. She had been secretly borrowing the cheap romance novels her older sister liked to read, and the ill-fated lovers described in those pages had come naturally to mind.

Love blooming amid the bloody feud of two enemy houses, and the circumstances around them doing everything possible to tear the two apart. The lovers who refused to give up nonetheless met a tragic end. How she had wept reading that story.

But these two would find a happy ending. How wonderful that would be!

Whatever small fantasies this little girl was spinning, however, reality was a very different thing. Yuria Bellaris was at that very moment thinking thoughts that could not have been further from romance.

‘That arrogant, insufferable little brat.’