The effort to not think about him continued, and at last the long first dance came to an end.

She had barely breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Kalintz’s questioning came immediately.

“Blair. What was that about?”

A perfectly composed expression, with a voice that was anything but.

“Why do you keep pulling away.”

“I…… haven’t been feeling well today.”

“Not well? Are you sick?”

The tone and look in his eyes from when he had worried about her came back to her, and Blair quickly redirected.

“Nothing like that. Anyway, I need to go over there for a moment.”

“What? Out of nowhere—”

Just then, a familiar silhouette caught Blair’s eye.

“It’s been a while, Your Highnesses.”

Selina greeted them in her bright, lively voice. In that moment, Blair had never been so glad to see her.

“Selina, it’s been so long!”

“Oh…… yes, it has been a while.”

Selina looked slightly taken aback by Blair’s enthusiastic welcome.

“Then, we have quite a bit of catching up to do, so if you’ll excuse us.”

“Ha. Blair.”

Kalintz called after her with a look of disbelief, but Blair was already turning away.

“Your Highness the Prince, the Admiral of Sitar requests an audience.”

“Ah, Sir Magellan also urgently wishes to—”

As if on cue, people swarmed toward Kalintz from all directions.

Blair glanced back at the scene, then steered Selina toward where the women were gathered.

The back of her neck prickled quite a bit, but putting distance between herself and Kalintz right now was the best way to keep her composure.

“Hmm. What’s going on with you two?”

Selina fell into step beside her and asked with a knowing hum.

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t look like a lovers’ quarrel, but……”

She narrowed her eyes and leaned in to study Blair’s face.

Blair was trying to think of how to deflect when Tilda and Lady Miller approached.

“Your Highness, I wondered where you had gone off to so quickly.”

Tilda’s cheeks were flushed, apparently from hurrying after her.

“Are you going to greet the other guests?”

Lady Miller asked in her quiet, composed way.

Come to think of it, the area was swarming with noble ladies and young misses.

“Oh…… yes. There are especially many foreign guests today.”

She had come here to get away from Kalintz, but now that she was here, Blair decided she might as well do her part as princess consort properly.

A woman with an exotic appearance seemed to read her thoughts and was already making her way over.

“She is a princess of the Kingdom of Jenikia.”

Blair gave a small nod at Lady Miller’s swift whisper and exchanged greetings with the foreign princess.

Watching Blair from behind, Selina rubbed her chin.

“Hmm……”

“What is it, Selina?”

“For someone with such a scandalous wedding night, she seems awfully innocent.”

“What kind of thing is that to say in public.”

Tilda scolded her sharply, but Selina kept her sharp eyes on Blair with a skeptical look.

While Selina was busy sharpening her instincts, a group of noble ladies drifted nearby.

“My, look at that. Her Highness the Princess Consort is speaking with the princess of Jenikia.”

“I heard the one in charge of royal etiquette is quite skilled. She’s come a long way in just a few months. She’s finally starting to look like a proper princess consort.”

They were the sort who had always looked down on Blair with a quiet condescension.

Standing there watching Blair converse with a foreign princess, they traded thinly veiled mockery with each other.

“Pathetic. Don’t they ever get tired of it.”

Selina clicked her tongue at them. But Tilda did not stop there. She clenched her trembling fist and stepped toward the group.

“Please refrain from making disrespectful remarks about Her Highness the Princess Consort, Lady Rechis.”

Tilda approached Countess Rechis, the highest-ranking woman in the group.

“……Lady Royce?”

The middle-aged countess reacted a beat late, apparently not having expected to be addressed.

“Are you speaking to me?”

“I believe you just said something rather rude about Her Highness the Princess Consort.”

“Rude? What do you mean. We were simply admiring Her Highness’s dignity.”

Countess Rechis said it with a contemptuous curl of her lips.

“I’m not sure what about that was admiration……”

“If it wasn’t admiration, are you saying we were speaking ill of Her Highness?”

She caught the end of Tilda’s words and began to press slowly.

“Oh, Lady Royce, could it be that you still think Her Highness remains at the level of a viscount’s daughter? That she has not yet attained a dignity worth admiring?”

“That’s not what I meant—!”

“I thought it must be extraordinary loyalty to willingly serve as a maid to a viscount’s daughter without a shred of pride. But now I see Her Highness has taken in a disloyal maid.”

Countess Rechis cut Tilda off and steered the conversation in a strange direction. The noble ladies around her covered their mouths with fans and let out mocking laughs.

As more and more eyes from nearby nobles began to focus on them, Tilda found herself unable to speak.

Whatever she said, she knew it would be twisted the same way, used to belittle her and embarrass Blair.

Tilda’s face was growing red with helplessness when a clear, ringing voice cut in.

“You’re hardly in a position to speak of dignity, Lady Rechis.”

“……Selina?”

The blunt words came out of nowhere, and the smile that had been fixed on Countess Rechis’s lips went rigid.

It was no surprise. Selina, who said exactly what was on her mind without a second thought, and Countess Rechis were complete opposites.

Having had her composure thoroughly rattled by Selina more than once before, the countess forced a smile and said,

“Still saying whatever comes to mind without a thought.”

“I lack your talent for being cunning and roundabout, my lady.”

Selina waved her elaborate fan and retorted.

“Just now you were grabbing a young maid’s words and twisting them around. That looked rather unseemly.”

“Selina Vallenberg.”

The tension stretched taut, on the verge of snapping.

“There are many eyes on us. I suggest you compose yourself.”

When even Lady Miller stepped in at the tense moment, Countess Rechis’s patience apparently ran out, and her brow twisted sharply.

“How dare a viscountess of no name or standing presume to speak to me—”

“That sounds like something you should be saying to yourself.”

“Who do you think—!”

Countess Rechis turned her head irritably and then stopped, her expression shifting to one of alarm.

“……Your Highness the Princess Consort.”

“Lady Rechis. What a surprise. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“What do you mean? I received an invitation.”

“I mean I didn’t think you would actually come, even with an invitation. I didn’t realize you would attend a banquet without Count Rechis.”

At that, Countess Rechis’s expression went stiff.

Her husband had recently been removed from his post as diplomatic envoy. He had sided with Marquis Lorentz and suffered political retaliation from Duke Brienne.

“How is Count Rechis? He stepped down so abruptly, there was no time to say goodbye.”

Blair continued with a deliberately gentle smile.

“Oh, stepped down is perhaps too generous a phrase. It wasn’t of his own accord.”

“Wh, what are you—!”

“I heard even his petition for a minor administrative post was dismissed. I felt quite sorry hearing that.”

Countess Rechis closed her mouth, her face drained of color.

“It would have been nice if you, being so wise, had offered him some counsel. That Olivia would not be made princess consort.”

Blair spoke in a tone of sympathy.

“Then again, how could you have known? That ‘a mere nameless viscount’s daughter’ would become princess consort.”

The sharp barb embedded in those words made Countess Rechis scramble for a feeble excuse.

“That was…… not a remark aimed at Your Highness. How could I ever harbor such disrespectful thoughts toward—”

“How strange. Did you not say just now that I was ‘finally starting to look like a proper princess consort’? I assumed that meant you hadn’t thought of me as princess consort at all.”

Blair stepped closer to Countess Rechis, whose lips were trembling, and continued.

“And yet now you seem to have no trouble at all calling me Your Highness the Princess Consort.”

Blair’s green eyes settled into something very low and still. Countess Rechis, sweating cold under that pressure, finally bowed her head in silence.

Blair watched her for a moment, then spoke.

“Whether you acknowledge me or not, I don’t particularly care.”

She looked around at the faces of Countess Rechis and her group.

Every single one of them was from a family that had sided with Marquis Lorentz and been made to pay for it by Duke Brienne.

“But do not touch the people around me.”

She said it with her anger pressed firmly down.

“When your head is light, your mouth should at least be heavy. The royal etiquette instructor won’t teach you that, so take it to heart.”

Every pale face dropped toward the floor.

Blair pushed down the heaviness in her chest and walked past the bowing group.

❀❀❀

“Goodness. To see Lady Rechis make a face like that. That was deeply satisfying, Your Highness.”