“Well, I have other engagements, so I’ll take my leave first. Stay and make yourselves comfortable.”

Queen Rhea rose from her seat with a soft smile. Once she was gone, a cold silence settled over the reception room with only the frons remaining.

“How lovely for you, Blair. A necklace made from the Leaves of Tamira. It must be worth far more than the bracelet or the earrings.”

Selina was the first to speak. Her voice was thick with envy. Given how much she adored jewels, it was no surprise.

“…… I am simply grateful for Her Highness’s generosity.”

Blair gave a brief, noncommittal reply and moved to return to her room as quickly as possible. Until a voice cut across her nerves like a blade.

“I wouldn’t have expected it. You’re quite something, aren’t you.”

The voice belonged to Olivia. She was staring with eyes full of cold fury.

“My ‘behavior’?”

Olivia’s words were openly contemptuous, and Blair was just as irritated by them.

“I thought you had no interest in the position of princess consort. You nearly had me fooled, Blair. At the luncheon, you wore that drab outfit on purpose to win the king’s favor.”

Olivia looked Blair up and down with a crooked gaze, arms crossed.

“And then putting on that pathetic little act of virtue for some fool who can’t even handle a horse.”

“A, are you talking about me right now, Olivia?”

Tilda, having heard those words, went red in the face and asked in shock.

“Is there another idiot here besides you?”

Olivia turned to look at Tilda with a face carved from ice. Her sudden torrent of *buse left even Selina startled, hiding behind her fan with wide, blinking eyes.

Olivia paid no attention to either of them.

“Blair. I heard you followed the prince into the hunting grounds when he took a wrong turn. A restricted area, no less. I wonder where you learned to be so calculating.”

Blair was speechless at Olivia’s viciousness, stripped of every trace of her usual polished facade.

She was already annoyed at the unwanted attention that kept finding her, and now this on top of it pushed her irritation to its limit.

“Olivia. You should choose your words more carefully. You wore that mask so well for so long, and now you’ve ripped it off so fast it’s hard to keep up.”

Blair held onto the last threads of her patience as she spoke.

“Ha. Blair, why would I need to choose my words for someone like you? Outside these walls, you don’t even come close to my level.”

“We’re not outside these walls, which is exactly why I’m telling you to watch what you say. Do you know how many eyes and ears there are in this palace. I didn’t think your comprehension was this poor.”

Blair’s quiet, measured reply made Olivia’s face cycle rapidly through shades of red and purple.

“Look who’s showing her true colors. How dare you speak to me so informally—”

“You showed yours first, and you dropped formalities first. And what was it you said, pathetic act of virtue? What would you call turning a blind eye to someone in mortal danger without even that much?”

“Wh, what? Who said I turned a blind eye to Tilda?”

Olivia snapped back, flustered. Blair let out a short, dry laugh.

“Right. Nobody said ‘you turned a blind eye to Tilda.’ I just asked what you thought of it. Why. Is something hitting a little close to home?”

“Nothing is hitting close to—”

“Oh my, Olivia. Is it true? You saw Tilda and just kept going? For first place?”

Selina, who had been listening in silence, turned to stare at Olivia with genuine disbelief.

“I’m not one to talk, since I was the one who caused it, but at least mine wasn’t intentional.”

Selina shook her head, and beside her, Tilda stared at Olivia with a face full of shock.

“……Ha. So this is how it’s going to be.”

Olivia looked around at the disapproving eyes fixed on her and clenched her jaw.

“Honestly, every last one of you is so insufferable.”

With her mask fully off, Olivia no longer seemed to feel any need to hold back, and the profanity came freely.

“No need to get worked up over insufferable people. Shouldn’t you leave before you embarrass yourself any further? Though I’m not sure there’s much dignity left to lose.”

Blair delivered the cutting remark with a cold smile and walked out of the reception room. Olivia’s curses followed her, but engaging any further would only drag things out, so Blair let them wash past her without a second thought.

“Haah…… I’m exhausted.”

Blair stood in the corridor and let out a long sigh. The emotional drain had been entirely unexpected.

That wasn’t what I wanted.

She touched the necklace the queen had given her. The most celebrated of gemstones, and right now it felt like a noose around her neck.

She was about to leave the corridor when a voice called out behind her.

“B, Blair! Wait a moment!”

“……Tilda?”

Tilda came limping toward her on a leg that hadn’t fully healed.

“Blair, I should have said this sooner…… I didn’t know how to bring it up, and I waited too long.”

Whatever she was trying to say, Tilda looked deeply embarrassed. She dipped her head slightly and continued.

“Thank you. Truly. When the horse went out of control, my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t think at all. And then I heard your voice.”

“Hm? Oh…… it was nothing. I’m just glad you weren’t badly hurt.”

“Sir Werner told me afterward. He said if it hadn’t been for you, I might have died.”

“Tilda, like I said before, anyone in that situation would have done the same.”

“Olivia didn’t.”

Tilda said it with a face full of hurt. She was the youngest of the frons, and she had long admired Olivia, which made the blow land harder.

“Try not to dwell on it too much. Everyone has an ugly side. Olivia’s just seems to run deeper than most. Either way, she was only ever good at hiding it.”

Blair said it with an awkward expression, unused to offering comfort.

Just then, Selina appeared from behind Tilda.

“Blair, I have a new respect for you. You held your own against Olivia completely. That was genuinely entertaining for a—”

“Having fun, are we.”

Selina’s words were cut short by Olivia’s sharp voice ringing through the corridor.

Fresh out of the reception room, she fixed Blair with a look that could cut glass. Blair met her gaze and answered Selina.

“Ah. I’m just not the type to run from a fight when it comes to me.”

Olivia let out a scornful laugh at that, stepped close to Blair, and murmured low.

“We’ll see how long that lasts, Blair. See you soon.”

She shoved Blair’s shoulder and disappeared down the corridor at a quick pace.

“Wow…… she’s something else.”

“Are you all right, Blair?”

Selina and Tilda each said their piece as they watched Olivia go.

“Haah…… the list of people who want to see me again soon keeps growing.”

Kalintz, and now Olivia. She had no idea when her quiet, unremarkable days had turned into this.

Blair exhaled heavily, left Selina and Tilda looking baffled behind her, and made her way quietly back to her room.

❀❀❀

The next day, as though her words had conjured it, Lucia arrived with more news while Blair lay sprawled on her bed, too tired to even eat.

“Um…… Miss, a knight has come from the prince’s palace.”

Normally Lucia would have been beside herself with excitement, but after what had happened with Olivia the day before, she read the room and delivered the message carefully.

“……A knight?”

“Yes! His Highness sent him to bring you to the central garden!”

“……”

Blair’s usual reaction to anything from the prince’s palace was immediate dread, but her response this time was noticeably less hostile. Lucia took that as a good sign and gradually slipped back into her usual bright tone.

“Shall I do your hair again? Something pretty?”

“……Just tie it back.”

Lucia had been bracing herself for Blair to say she’d go with her hair in a mess. The murmured reply sent a silent cheer through her as she reached for the brush.

The night garden held the full weight of the changing season. Spring was drawing to a close, and beneath the rich scent of flowers in bloom, the fresh green notes of summer were just beginning to stir.

Not far away, he sat perched on the edge of the fountain. Still and unmoving, he gazed down at the calm surface of the water as though trying to fish the moon out of it. There was something faintly unreal about the sight of him.

Blair stopped walking without meaning to and stared. Then Kalintz sensed her presence and looked up, and their eyes met.

Perhaps it was the unusual brightness of the moon that night, but the dark amber of his eyes gleamed with a sharp, vivid light.