6. In the Night Garden

“Something’s off.”

On the morning of the Founding Festival, on his way to the carriage for the visit to the grand temple, Kalintz stopped walking and murmured to himself.

“……Out of nowhere?”

Ernst, who had been walking behind him and nearly walked into his back, asked with a baffled expression.

“She seems to be subtly avoiding me.”

“Pardon? Who do you mean by…… ah.”

Ernst’s puzzled expression gave way to a nod of understanding.

“I thought you said you made up with Her Highness the Princess Consort. Thanks to my masterful mediation.”

“What is the problem now.”

“……You’re welcome? I know, even without being told.”

Ernst’s self-directed exchange went unanswered. Kalintz stood with his brow furrowed, saying nothing.

For the past few days, Blair’s quiet way of keeping her distance had been nagging at him. She was not openly avoiding him, but there was a subtle discomfort in the way she acted.

“Why is it never easy, not even once.”

A faint sigh slipped out.

“That’s precisely why she’s on your mind, isn’t it.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to keep being honest with me. I already know.”

Ernst flinched slightly at Kalintz’s sharp glare but pretended not to notice and pressed on.

“Why not take this chance to be a little more direct.”

“You must have a lot of free time lately.”

“I’m not joking. If you don’t express it, nothing will ever begin. Especially in a situation like yours right now.”

Ernst lowered his voice considerably.

“That’s enough. Mind your own business, Ernst.”

“Then perhaps stop muttering where I can hear you.”

Ernst made a show of being startled at the increasingly dangerous look he was getting and retreated toward his horse.

Watching Ernst’s back, Kalintz let out something between a sigh and a murmur.

“……Express it. Right. The reason I can’t is because of what we are.”

He was the one who had proposed the contract marriage to her. He had used a secret he stumbled upon as leverage to offer her a deal, and Blair had accepted.

She would serve as princess consort for two years and help with his plans, and he would send her to Lis when it was over.

Yes. That was all it was.

And yet here he was, developing feelings for her. Even he found it strange.

And even if he did express them, what would that change.

He could never compete with a dead first love.

The image of her face, on the verge of tears as she said Allen’s name, was still vivid in his mind.

The worn brooch she treasured so carefully was almost certainly a keepsake tied to that first love.

Thinking about it, his mood sank again, which was almost laughable.

“Haah.”

Just then, he saw Blair walking toward the carriage from across the way. Her red hair swept up elegantly, wearing a dress embroidered in gold, she stood out more than usual today.

He nearly let out a hollow laugh at himself for being unable to look away even now.

Whether she had any idea of the turmoil inside him or not.

Blair had been stiff and awkward with him all day.

It reached its peak during the first dance at the banquet.

“……You’re really not focused today.”

She kept inching away from him, as though she disliked being touched. He had felt a flash of irritation and pulled her waist slightly toward him, only to be told not to stay so close.

She pushed, he pulled. It was less a dance and more a tug-of-war, which was frankly absurd.

“I haven’t been feeling well today.”

The irritation that had wound itself tight unraveled helplessly at those few words. Worry surged ahead of everything else, and he asked what was wrong, but Blair gave him no real answer and disappeared like she was running away.

The attendants had shown up right then with an admiral from a neighboring country and a knight commander and a crowd of others, so there was no chance to say anything more.

After enduring a long stretch of tedious conversation, he had finally run into Ariela and been in the middle of discussing the medicine trial.

“……”

“Kalintz, are you listening?”

Ariela waved her hand in front of his face.

“Can’t see.”

He brushed her hand away like swatting a fly, and she seemed to say something in protest, but none of it reached him.

Blair had slipped out of his sight from among the group of noble ladies.

“Why is she going to the garden.”

“Hmm? Who are you even looking—!”

Ariela never finished the sentence. Kalintz had already gone down the stairs with a displeased expression.

“What’s gotten into him.”

Ariela tilted her head and murmured, rarely having seen him rattled like that.

Kalintz stepped into the garden and quickened his pace.

She had disappeared earlier with Selina’s arm linked through hers like she was fleeing from him, and now she had slipped away from everyone else and gone off alone somewhere.

Just then, he heard two men walking out from the rose garden, grumbling.

“D*mn it. Who does that woman think she is? Insufferable.”

They were knights bearing the Bolton crest.

“Hey, but if it weren’t for that redhead, things could’ve gone really bad. Who would’ve guessed that savage was one of Remarque’s knights.”

Redhead. That word snapped his attention to them instantly.

“Ugh. Fair point. If it had actually come to blades, we’d both be done for.”

“Exactly. She was annoying as hell but she basically saved our necks.”

“Maybe I should’ve been nicer to her. I’m into that feisty type.”

“You’re out of your mind. What about Viscountess Leighton? You’re going to get yourself in real trouble.”

The knights snickered vulgarly and moved away.

Ha. Don’t tell me.

Kalintz pushed down the unpleasant feeling creeping up inside him and moved toward the rose garden. And at last, a familiar silhouette came into view.

“……”

Blair was talking with a man. A knight from the Armos Islands in armor.

“What is your name.”

What is this.

A sharp, violent anger flared up inside him.

The unmistakable interest in the man’s eyes. Blair’s green eyes widening in surprise. Her lips parting as she considered whether to answer.

So this is what it means to see red.

The intensity of it ached all the way up to the back of his neck.

“What business does a man have knowing another man’s wife’s name.”

The flash of disappointment across the man’s face made his teeth grind. And then Blair, looking flustered at the sight of him.

His patience hit the floor. But the infuriating situation did not end there.

“Thank you, Blair.”

This bastard.

The man had heard him say Blair’s name without thinking and used it himself.

For the first time in his life, Kalintz felt the urge to grab a stranger by the collar.

Clinging to the last thread of reason he had left, whether Blair knew it or not, she grabbed his arm and tried to hold him back.

The damned Armos knight had vanished by then, and Blair was arguing with him in exasperation.

“Why are you so angry about this?”

She was right. There was no reason to be this angry.

She had only stepped in to prevent a diplomatic incident, and that was something he should have been grateful for.

That was clearly the truth of it.

And yet his mouth refused to move the way his head told it to. She had no idea what the look in that man’s eyes had meant, and she was staring at him with a baffled expression and snapping at him. It stung.

That was why he had done it. Brought up the contract of all things, petty as it was, and made it sound like he was blaming her.

“Haah. You can’t even pick up on something like that.”

At Kalintz’s sighing remark, Blair was thoroughly at a loss.

Is he actually trying to say I had some kind of romantic encounter behind his back? And what about him, laughing and chatting with another woman earlier?

Heat rose in Blair’s eyes.

“By that logic, you’re in violation of the contract too.”

“How am I.”

“You looked very close. With that Ariela, or whatever her name is.”

A flicker of surprise crossed his face, which had been cold and rigid throughout.

“You’re hardly in a position to accuse me of contract violations when there was physical contact involved.”

“Physical contact? What do you mean, I never—”

“Oh, so you’re close enough that you don’t even register it?”

Blair cut him off and asked in a sharp tone.

“……Ha. Whatever you think you saw, Ariela and I are not like that.”

“You seem considerably closer than that knight and I are, at least. I don’t even know his name.”

At that, one of Kalintz’s eyebrows rose. He was about to say something when—

“There’s quite an unexpected person sitting in the princess consort’s seat.”

A man’s voice came from beyond the tall hedges. The tone carried a subtle mockery.

She had the feeling she had heard it somewhere before, and then a familiar voice followed.