“That’s why I came. With a whole pile of work.”

Kalintz nodded toward the table. His claim of being busy these past few days was apparently no excuse. Even at a glance, a towering stack of documents was piled up there.

“Then please work in peace. Don’t mind me.”

The conversation with Ernst had done enough to soften her feelings considerably. Blair held up the poetry book in her hand and headed for the bed.

“Before that.”

Kalintz’s quiet voice stopped her in her tracks.

“It seems Ernst said something unnecessary.”

He said it with a slightly furrowed expression. Blair thought for a moment about what to say, then answered.

“……It wasn’t unnecessary.”

Now she understood why he reacted so sharply to anything involving Duke Brienne.

“I didn’t know. That Duke Brienne had done such…… monstrous things to you.”

Blair turned away from the bed and spoke.

“I thought you simply felt I was overstepping in your affairs.”

“……I never thought that.”

Kalintz’s brow furrowed slightly.

“You misunderstood what I said.”

“Anyone would have thought the same thing hearing those words.”

“Either way, that wasn’t it.”

He just says it wasn’t and expects that to be the end of it. Quite a confident attitude.

“And overstepping. Do you have any idea what you mean to me.”

“……What do I mean to you?”

The sudden question caught Blair off guard, and she asked back with a slight tension.

‘His Highness protects what is precious to him, no matter what.’

Why was Ernst’s words coming to mind right now. Blair fidgeted with the tip of her fingernail for no reason.

But the answer that came from Kalintz’s mouth was a somewhat different kind.

“I think very highly of you. Sharp instincts, backbone to match, and none of the hypocrisy that most nobles wear.”

He listed a few more of Blair’s qualities, then tilted his head and said,

“I’ve said it more than once. Blair, there’s no one who makes a more perfect partner for me than you.”

“……Oh. Yes. You have said that.”

Partner. Something about that word made the tension that had wound tight in Blair’s fingertips drain away all at once.

“However.”

Kalintz’s voice took on a slightly harder edge.

“Willer Brienne. He’s a different matter. No matter how capable you are, if you become his target, there’s no telling what might happen to you.”

His eyes had already darkened.

“Ernst told you, so you know, but Willer Brienne relentlessly went after my life. From when I was very young.”

“I heard it was to force Queen Rhea to produce an heir.”

“That’s right. A man who treats human lives like insects. Well, maybe insects are too generous.”

Kalintz said it with a cold, contemptuous smile.

“So Blair. Nothing good will come from getting tangled up with him.”

“But at the interrogation last time—”

“He’ll be irritated that he couldn’t get rid of you then. All the more reason not to do anything that draws his eye.”

Those darkened golden eyes held hers steadily.

“Willer Brienne’s target is me. It has been, and it will continue to be. But not you, Blair. I won’t let you become the duke’s target simply for being at my side.”

His unwavering gaze made Blair feel, for some reason, as though her throat had gone dry.

“Ahem. So in other words, you said all of that because you were worried about me.”

“……Worried?”

“Yes. Everything you just said amounts to ‘don’t get involved because you might get hurt.’ That’s worry.”

At that, Kalintz looked away in a manner quite unlike himself.

“If that’s how you took it, then I suppose so.”

Blair stared at him, watching him oddly mumble his way around the words.

Could he actually be embarrassed right now… He was always so shameless about everything else.

“You could have just said from the start that you were worried.”

“……Easier said than done. That’s embarrassing.”

He muttered it without meeting her eyes.

“You manage far worse without any trouble.”

“Worse?”

“Smiling while looking me in the eyes, or suddenly getting close and making my heart stop. Every time you do that, I—”

Blair had been speaking without thinking and caught herself, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Every time I do that, what?”

But Kalintz’s voice was already full of laughter.

“Why did you stop? What happens every time I do that.”

He rested his chin in his hand and curved his mouth into a grin, looking thoroughly entertained.

“……You do it on purpose, don’t you.”

Blair shot him a withering look, and Kalintz let out a small laugh.

“You care more about looks than I thought, Blair.”

“What—! That’s not it at all!”

“Or is it the body?”

Blair felt heat rush to her face all at once.

He cannot bring himself to say he’s worried, and yet he says something like that without a shred of shame.

“Haah. You really are insufferably full of yourself.”

“Not full of myself. Just a prince.”

The effortless comeback left Blair sputtering, and Kalintz finally burst out laughing.

Watching that unguarded smile she had not seen in days, Blair stared at him with exasperation and then, despite herself, let out a small laugh too.

The air that had been cold between them for days softened into something warm, like a summer night.

In the easier atmosphere, Blair opened her mouth.

“There’s something I want to ask. About Duke Brienne.”

“I’ve been telling you not to concern yourself with him, and you’re asking me right now?”

Kalintz let out a disbelieving laugh.

“I can hardly go ask the duke himself.”

“There’s also the option of not asking at all.”

“There’s something I can’t make sense of.”

“Haah. What is it.”

Kalintz sighed as though he had given up.

“Why did the duke send Anais as a frons? He got what he wanted, a child from Queen Rhea. If he intended to put Princess Lina on the throne, there was no reason to send his own daughter.”

It had been a question nagging at her since she heard Ernst’s account.

Thinking about Princess Lina’s current position, Duke Brienne did not seem particularly invested in supporting her.

“……This is my speculation.”

Kalintz, who had been lost in thought for a moment, opened his mouth.

“The duke’s original plan was probably to dethrone me once the queen bore a prince, and install him as the heir. Then he would have made his daughter the prince’s consort.”

“A prince?”

He nodded and continued.

“That way he could maintain the relationship with the Valia Duchy and exercise power through his daughter. Even after Lina was born, the pressure for an heir continued. Which tells you a prince was what he needed.”

“……What a truly wretched man.”

Blair muttered with contempt.

“But the duke’s wish was never granted. The queen was in an accident.”

“An accident?”

“A carriage accident. The queen was badly injured and could no longer bear children.”

“Good heavens……!”

She had never heard any of this before.

“And around that time, Queen Rhea cut ties with her home country entirely.”

She had already harbored deep resentment toward her father for sending her away as a frons, and after that, she severed all connection.

“When you think about it, all of this started because of the condition Grand Duke Clovitz put forward at the ceasefire negotiations. She was forced into a marriage she never wanted, and then pressured into bearing a child on top of it.”

Blair knew better than anyone how suffocating it was to have parents who used their children as tools.

“You know the details of something that happened quite a long time ago.”

Blair turned her head away from Kalintz’s narrowing, interrogating gaze. She was not quite ready to admit she had devoured more than a dozen books digging through the past.

“In any case, given the situation, the duke had no choice but to change course. He decided to place Anais at my side for the time being.”

He continued with a cold, settled expression.

“Either use her to kill me, or find some other means. One of the two. My disappearance was necessary to give him grounds to put Princess Lina on the throne.”

“……And even that failed.”

The sudden death of Anais had brought Duke Brienne’s plans to complete ruin.

“And then someone he never anticipated became princess consort. I can’t even begin to guess what he’s scheming now.”

Kalintz pressed his fingers against the corner of his eye and murmured.

“So, Blair. Don’t think about doing anything on your own without telling me.”

“You really are quite worried about me.”

“Yes. I’m worried about you.”

“Well, if you care about me that much…… huh?”

Blair thought for a moment she had misheard and asked again. But Kalintz’s eyes were completely serious, without a trace of playfulness.

“I said I’m worried. About you.”

❀❀❀

Before long, the season had settled into the heart of summer.

“Time goes so fast. The Founding Festival is already tomorrow.”

Blair looked out the window at the fully ripened summer night. The festive excitement was already thick in the air.

“It’s going to be hectic for a few days.”

Blair murmured with a small sigh.

The Founding Festival was one of the Kingdom of Eiron’s great celebrations.

For roughly ten days, commoners and nobles alike enjoyed festivals and parties, and the social season reached its peak around this time, so the capital was alive with a fever of energy.