Blair spoke to Kalintz, who asked with his usual displeased expression.

“The brown-haired one with the minor role, I take it.”

He always had to say it like that.

“His name is Ned. I mentioned him before.”

“I know.”

She could not fathom why, knowing that, he still had to pointedly call him the one with the minor role. But time seemed short, so she let it go.

“Then, just a moment.”

Blair spotted Ned tidying up props and made her way toward him. Unexpectedly, Kalintz fell into step behind her.

“……Are you following me?”

“You said you were going to say hello.”

No, I mean why are you following me when I’m the one saying hello.

She expressed in her face what she could not say out loud, but Kalintz paid no attention.

“Kalintz.”

Just then, King Rubens, who had been discussing the play with other attendants, called out to him quietly. He clearly wanted to include him in the conversation.

“Your Highness, His Majesty the King is calling for you. You should go.”

“……”

Kalintz looked back and forth between Ned and Blair with a displeased expression, then let out a short sigh and went to answer his father’s call.

“Thank goodness.”

Blair let out a quiet breath of relief and made her way to Ned.

“Ned.”

“Oh…… I, I pay my respects to Your Highness the Princess Consort.”

Ned bowed his head awkwardly, clearly thrown by how drastically her status had risen.

“……You were wonderful.”

The extreme formality was just as awkward for Blair, but she could hardly tell him to drop the honorifics inside the palace.

In truth, even speaking with him like this, a commoner, might strike others as strange.

But if not now, she had no idea when she might see him again.

“The troupe seems to be doing well. A royal palace invitation, no less.”

“Word has been spreading lately and more people have been coming. It’s a good thing.”

After exchanging small bits of news and pleasantries, Blair glanced around briefly and brought up the question she had been wanting to ask since earlier.

“Um…… Ned. There’s something I’ve been curious about. You mentioned it to me before. That there was once a bloodbath among the frons.”

In truth, from the moment Blair heard the Abyss Troupe would be coming today, she had been determined to ask him this first if she got the chance.

She never could have asked with Kalintz following her.

“A bloodbath……? Oh, could that be what I mentioned when you said you’d become a frons?”

“Yes, that’s it. You told me to be careful.”

Blair lowered her voice as much as she could.

“I mean the time when Queen Rhea was still a frons.”

Ned’s expression stiffened slightly and he glanced around.

“It’s all right. No one here would think the two of us are talking about something like that.”

At best, people would assume a princess consort from a modest viscounty family with nothing but money was catching up with an old friend in a rather undignified way.

“When Queen Rhea came as a frons under the ceasefire agreement, you said all the other frons at the time either died or were driven out, didn’t you?”

At Blair’s question, Ned gave a careful nod.

“There were four frons in total, not counting Her Highness the Queen. Two died. One was expelled from the palace under a scandalous disgrace. And the remaining one left the palace of her own accord.”

“You said it wasn’t a coincidence.”

He had urged her to be careful, told her the palace was a frightening place.

“I don’t think anyone believed it was a coincidence. There was simply a situation in which someone had to be chosen as queen.”

Just as he said, from the moment the condition of sending the grand ducal lady of the Valia Duchy as a frons was placed on the negotiating table, the outcome was as good as decided.

Though the one who wanted that outcome was someone else entirely.

“The other frons died or were driven out at the hands of whoever wanted that outcome most, didn’t they?”

“Yes. And I think Your Highness already knows who that was.”

Willer Brienne. Ned had not named him that time, so Blair had taken it as nothing more than a passing word of caution.

But if Duke Brienne had orchestrated all of it.

“He’s far more vicious and cruel than I imagined.”

It would mean he had been taking lives for his own gain since long, long ago.

“One more thing.”

Blair brought up the other question she had wanted to ask.

“How do you know all of this? It’s too certain to be mere rumor or speculation…… your eyes were full of conviction. Then and now.”

The expression on Ned’s face, the way he had spoken, the look in his eyes when he had urged her to take care of herself on the day she told him she was becoming a frons, all of it came back to her vividly.

“……This is something I’ve truly never told anyone.”

Ned murmured quietly, glanced around once more, then continued in a low voice.

“I heard it directly from someone who was a frons at the time.”

“……!”

Blair nearly let out a loud sound in shock and barely managed to hold it back.

“So, Your Highness the Princess Consort.”

Ned spoke in a deliberately serious tone.

“Let your curiosity about that man go no further than curiosity. He is a cruel and lawless person.”

“……He’s already come after me once. I have no idea what he might do next, and I can’t just sit here and take it.”

If Willer Brienne had made her his enemy, she needed something to stand against him with.

The trouble was that the conspiracy seemed far larger than she had anticipated.

“……I don’t think you’ll be left to face it alone, though.”

“Hmm?”

Blair turned her head to follow Ned’s gaze.

Kalintz was making his way toward them with a stiff expression.

“I pay my respects to Your Highness.”

Ned bowed his head deeply. Kalintz looked at him for a long moment, then shifted his gaze to Blair.

“That was quite a lengthy greeting.”

“……It’s been a while since we’ve met.”

She had no idea what she might hear if she mentioned asking about Duke Brienne, so Blair kept it vague.

“I was just about to say goodbye anyway.”

The conversation with Ned had gone on long enough that the eyes of others were beginning to drift toward them.

“Then, Ned. See you next time.”

Ned bowed his head deeply once more and went back to the other troupe members.

“……Next time?”

Kalintz muttered with a furrowed brow.

“Of course we’ll meet again. I told you before, about my hobby.”

“You mean the writing.”

It had been a casual thing to say, but she meant it.

Once the contract marriage with Kalintz ended and things went according to his plan, she would go to Lis and enjoy all the freedom she wanted.

She could write as much as she liked without worrying about anyone’s eyes.

If that day came, perhaps someday the stories she wrote would find their way in front of an audience.

“Anyway, that’s all for later. Right now, what matters is carrying out the plan properly.”

That was the only way she would ever get to Lis or anywhere else.

“With that in mind…… I’d appreciate it if you made an effort to keep our contract intact.”

Blair finally said what she had been wanting to say to him.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that if I sleep alone in the bedroom again tonight, someone might start talking. I understand you want to avoid it, but.”

“……Avoid?”

Kalintz’s brow twitched with evident disbelief.

“What reason would I have to do that?”

“I thought you might be feeling a little guilty toward me.”

“About what?”

“Pardon?”

His perfectly composed counter-question left Blair at a loss for words.

“Did I say something wrong? I only told you not to do something no one asked you to do.”

At that, the anger Blair had tamped down over the past two days surged back up.

“Do you have to put it like that? And whether you asked or not, that man has, since the interrogation—eek!”

Kalintz pulled her sharply against him by the waist. At the same moment, a crashing sound rang out behind her.

“I, I’m so sorry. The prop was heavier than I thought.”

She turned to look. A troupe member stood beside a pile of scattered props, pale-faced and trembling.

“We should move along. The banquet will be starting soon.”

Kalintz’s low voice resonated close to her ear.

“If there’s more you want to say, you can finish later.”

“……Yes, let’s do that.”

Blair wanted nothing more than to go straight back to her room, banquet or no banquet, but she swallowed her frustration and moved her feet.

❀❀❀

Gatherings of nobles always ended in a banquet, as they inevitably did. Today’s, at least, was a relatively relaxed affair with less formality than usual.

Kalintz was pulled away again by King Rubens, and thanks to that, Blair stood a little apart from the crowd, quietly working through her irritation.

He clearly did not like the idea of her taking any interest in Duke Brienne.