“That…… well……”

Caught and unable to look away, her eyes flickered.

Blair tried not to let her unease show, but with Kalintz watching her with that unreadable expression, keeping her composure was difficult.

“I mean exactly what I said. Would you truly be all right with being expelled from the palace.”

He repeated the question, his face giving nothing away.

“Of, of course I wouldn’t be all right with it. I’m a frons.”

Blair deflected by bringing up the frons.

“A frons…… right. A frons. Then do you want the position of princess consort as well?”

He pulled one corner of his mouth up slightly as he asked.

Blair had no idea how to answer.

The prince had been paying her an unsettling amount of attention for days now.

And if she said here that she wanted to become princess consort, and if by some slim chance he actually chose her—

That can absolutely never happen.

But she couldn’t say she had no interest in the position of princess consort either. A frons who didn’t particularly want to become princess consort. That would sound strange in its own right.

On top of that, Kalintz was asking in a tone that felt like a test. Like he already knew she had some other purpose.

Could he possibly know…… that I want to go to the Withered Garden?

Blair looked up at Kalintz with a tense expression. He was watching her in silence with an unreadable face, waiting for her answer.

No. How would he know that. I’ve never told anyone at the palace.

Blair stared at his face for a moment, then shook her head inwardly. It couldn’t be.

The silence stretched long enough to make her anxious, and then Kalintz spoke again.

“That question seems to have been too difficult. Then, what about this.”

He reached into the inner pocket of his vest and drew something out. A small brooch with an amethyst at its center, reflecting the light softly.

“I happened to pick this up outside the palace walls a few days ago. I thought it might belong to you, Miss Blair.”

Blair’s green eyes filled with alarm. What the prince held in his hand was the brooch she had lost at the lake not long ago.

Blair searched her memory quickly. She had no recollection of meeting the prince at that lake. The only person she remembered was some shady figure hiding in the bushes, spying on her.

Wait. Then was that the prince? The one who threatened to drag her to the head of the guard?

Blair stared wide-eyed at the tall man standing before her.

The figure that day had been wearing a hood pulled low, so she hadn’t gotten a clear look at his face, but the build was similar enough. The decisive difference was that the man had brown hair.

How is this possible. Why does the prince have the brooch I lost outside the palace walls that day?

It was baffling beyond words. Blair stood there with a bewildered expression, running through theory after theory in her head, when she suddenly thought back to the very first day she had entered the palace as a frons.

The day she had accidentally overheard Kalintz and Sir Werner arguing in the maze garden, Kalintz had pressed a wig into Ernst’s hand and ordered him to pretend to be the prince.

“A wig……”

Blair murmured blankly. Thinking back, the man that day had brown hair, but his eyes had been an uncommon shade of amber. How had she not put it together then.

To think the prince’s hobby was disguising himself and sneaking out of the palace. And of all the days to run into him outside, it had to be the day she went to visit Allen at that lake.

Blair felt the world go dark around the edges.

“Blair Mervish. It was you, wasn’t it? At that lake, not long ago. We met.”

He rolled the brooch in his palm and asked again.

“…… No. I think you have the wrong person.”

One of his eyebrows went up.

“The wrong person. Are you certain?”

His face said he didn’t believe a word of it. The certainty was already there in his expression.

Even so, he was asking her a question. Which meant he had no immediate intention of having her expelled from the palace.

“Yes. It isn’t mine.”

That was the conclusion she reached. Deny it for now.

She didn’t know what he was after, but admitting the brooch was hers right now would be no different from handing him leverage over her.

Sorry, Allen. I’ll get it back somehow. Just not right now.

Kalintz watched Blair avoid his eyes while repeatedly stealing glances at the brooch in his hand.

“For someone who says it isn’t theirs, you seem quite attached to it.”

“……”

At his sharp observation, Blair quickly dropped her gaze to the ground. She felt his eyes on her for a while after that, but she refused to look up.

“Well. I’ll find out eventually.”

Kalintz left the words hanging and slipped the brooch back into his pocket. Then he held out a hand to her.

“Shall we go?”

With his support, Blair managed to climb onto Fitz’s back and took hold of the reins carefully.

“That path over there should be a bit more level. Riding at speed is out of the question, but you should still get to Mediang as quickly as you can, so don’t dawdle.”

Kalintz had returned to his usual self, but Blair’s heart was still beating fast.

She watched his back as he rode ahead and began turning over everything he had done up to this point.

Crashing the luncheon, the relentless stream of banquet invitations, and now this riding competition.

Looking back now, his strange fixation on her had started after the day she snuck out of the palace. After running into him at that lake.

He must have heard everything I was muttering to myself that day.

What she still couldn’t understand was why he hadn’t simply punished her on the spot for sneaking out, and instead kept circling around her like this, trying to confirm something.

What is he trying to confirm? Is he curious about my purpose? And what would he do with that information? It’s not as though it has anything to do with him.

Unless. He had some other agenda of his own.

Blair narrowed her eyes and stared at the back of his head.

“You’re being loud.”

“Pardon?”

Kalintz turned around without warning and said it, and Blair blinked at him in confusion.

“I can hear your mind turning from here, Miss Blair.”

“Ahem. No such thing. What would I possibly be scheming.”

Blair looked away and said it with a pout, feigning indifference.

“Is that so. Never mind then.”

That infuriating tone, as always.

❀❀❀

They emerged from the forest into a meadow bathed in warm, peaceful sunlight. The finish line was visible at the far end.

“If not for that leopard cub, you would have overtaken me easily. First place was well within reach.”

Kalintz looked back at Blair as they neared the finish line.

Her plan to cut straight through the hunting grounds forest had not been wrong, at least in theory.

“Why are there so many people over there?”

Blair looked toward the finish line with a guilty expression at his needling, then startled at the crowd gathered there.

“They must have come looking for us when we didn’t show up.”

Looking more carefully at his words, she could see a number of knights positioned around the area. The red lion crest on their chests marked them clearly as the prince’s personal order.

“There!! I can see His Highness!!”

Someone shouted, and the knights surged forward all at once. Taking in Kalintz’s torn, blood-spattered clothes, they went pale and rushed to check on him.

Kalintz raised a hand to signal he was fine, then called over one of the younger knights.

“Is there a carriage on standby?”

“Yes, Your Highness. We had one ready in case you were tired on the return!”

The young knight answered with crisp enthusiasm.

Blair had been watching quietly from a slight distance. She turned her reins and began edging away. The crowd had already pushed her toward the back, and she wanted nothing more than to slip back to the palace without drawing attention.

But Kalintz’s next words put an end to any hope of that.

“Good. Miss Blair can take that carriage. She’s injured her leg.”

He said it while looking directly at her where she had been trying to quietly disappear. Every eye in the area swung toward her at once.

“Pardon? No, Your Highness, I’m perfectly fine. I can ride Fitz back.”

Caught off guard by his sudden announcement, Blair flustered and shifted her weight without thinking, putting pressure on her injured ankle.

“Ow!”

A sharp stab of pain tore a reflexive cry from her.

Kalintz let out a short sigh and walked toward her. He dismounted from Nox and held out a hand.

“I’ll steady you. Come down carefully.”