“……Did anyone expect it to be me.”

The voice thick with cold contempt belonged to Willer Brienne.

Blair’s eyes went wide and she looked at Kalintz.

He too seemed to have caught Duke Brienne’s voice, his brow drawing together.

“Have you still not found who was responsible for what happened to your daughter? What about that maid. The one who claimed to have seen the culprit from behind.”

“Turned out to be half a witness at best. I thought she might be useful, but she wasn’t much help.”

Duke Brienne’s voice was dry, as though discussing someone else’s affairs entirely.

“And then she died on top of it.”

“She died?”

“Apparently the carriage went off a cliff.”

“……Ah. An accident. Well, if that’s what you say, then I suppose it is.”

The man said it with a mocking lilt. Duke Brienne’s voice dropped lower.

“Your manner is getting on my nerves, Jake.”

At the name that fell from the duke’s lips, Blair drew in a small breath.

“Count Roman……?”

The voice she had thought sounded familiar belonged to Jake Roman, the Valia Duchy’s diplomatic envoy.

Why on earth were the two of them talking here, at this hour, about the series of events surrounding the selection of the princess consort.

Just then, the sound of their footsteps drew closer. They were about to round the corner and come face to face. Blair looked at Kalintz with a panicked expression.

He seemed to think for a brief moment with a settling gaze, then quickly seized her wrist.

“This way.”

Kalintz pulled her behind a decorative stone pillar along the path leading to the pond. Then he drew her against him, enclosing her in his arms, and pressed flat against the wall.

“……!”

Blair nearly made a sound in alarm but just barely swallowed it, pressing her lips together. Kalintz whispered in the smallest possible voice.

“Bear with it a little. This is the only way we won’t be found.”

The stone pillar was simply too narrow for two people to stand side by side and hide.

But still. This position.

Blair’s heart began to beat faster and faster at how completely they were pressed together, chest to chest without a gap between them.

At this rate, the sound of her heartbeat alone might give them away.

Held stiffly and awkwardly against him, braced with tension, Duke Brienne’s voice reached her again.

“What we know, we don’t know. What we see, we don’t see. That’s the kind of relationship we have, isn’t it.”

Just as Kalintz had said. There was no doubt the sudden death of Olivia’s maid was Duke Brienne’s doing. There was no other reason to say something like that.

“Of course, Your Grace. I’ll be more mindful from now on.”

Count Roman said it with a breezy, ingratiating tone.

“So what do you plan to do going forward. From what I hear, the prince is not the type to keep a mistress.”

“He’s not. And it seems he may actually be playing at love. His face has softened.”

Blair quietly tilted her head and looked at Kalintz.

Well. He really did seem like a sculpture carved from ice when I first came to the palace.

When she had first arrived as a frons, she never could have imagined seeing Kalintz smile. She certainly never imagined she would be held against him like this, heart pounding like a lovesick girl.

“……Why.”

He whispered so quietly it was barely audible. The voice grazed her ear like a breath, and Blair lowered her head and shook it. She was grateful it was night.

Just then, after a long pause, Duke Brienne spoke again.

“Given how things stand, we need to shift course toward the princess.”

Blair felt Kalintz’s body go slightly rigid. His expression had already gone cold.

“You mean to put Princess Lina on the throne?”

Count Roman asked in a tone of mild puzzlement.

“But she still has two years before she comes of age, and she has no real power base to speak of.”

“Power bases are built.”

Duke Brienne said it as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

“Is that feasible. The prince has a fairly strong hold on public sentiment. Last year, when the northern barbarian tribes invaded, the prince handled it himself and resolved it cleanly. That even opened up the trade route with Armos.”

Count Roman had a remarkably detailed grasp of Kalintz’s record.

“And then there is Queen Rhea. She won’t stand by quietly if someone moves against her own daughter.”

“What of it. What can a b*tch with no teeth do.”

Duke Brienne mocked Queen Rhea without a trace of restraint.

“All I need to do is fill the princess’s circle entirely with my people. The same way it was done when the queen first came as a frons.”

Blair found herself thinking back to her conversation with Ned.

When Queen Rhea was still a frons. With not a single person she could call her own, she would have been powerless against the storm of blood Willer Brienne unleashed.

“Wherever she reaches out, there will be nothing to grab but my hand.”

The words were terrifying in their cruelty, and Blair felt a chill run across her entire body.

“……Truly, Your Grace, I would not want to meet you as an enemy even in death.”

Count Roman said it with a tone that sounded entirely sincere.

“What do you intend to do about King Rubens. To put Princess Lina on the throne, you would need to break his will as well.”

“That is already well underway. No need to concern yourself.”

Already underway. What does that mean.

Blair’s mind began to spin at the duke’s firm voice. How much was he scheming, and how far had it already gone.

Kalintz too had gone cold and rigid, his jaw clenched tight.

“If you say so, Your Grace.”

Count Roman answered with a slippery ease, then added,

“Princess Lina as queen of Eiron. Whatever the circumstances, it works out well for Valia. His Grace the Grand Duke will be pleased.”

“……How is Grand Duke Clovitz keeping.”

“Always well. Except that he misses his daughter terribly.”

What he had said to Queen Rhea at the banquet earlier, about letters going unanswered, apparently had not been entirely for show.

“His Grace’s birthday is a few months away. Come to Valia for a change of air. We will receive you with the utmost hospitality.”

“Hmm. There is something I need to obtain, so the timing works.”

“Something you need?”

But Duke Brienne gave no answer to Count Roman’s question.

They were about to move on and walk away when a gust of wind swept in from the direction of the trees. The tassel ornament on Kalintz’s clothing swayed and brushed against the tip of Blair’s nose.

“Hm—!”

Blair clapped her hands over her mouth and nose as fast as she could. But it was too late. There was no stopping the sneeze already forcing its way out.

“Ah—choo!”

The muffled sneeze rang out through the quiet garden. Anyone nearby could not have failed to hear it.

“……It seems there was a rat.”

“!”

Count Roman muttered in a sharp voice and began walking toward them with steady footsteps. Blair looked around in a panic, but there was nowhere nearby to move and hide.

“Wh, what do we do?”

Blair looked at Kalintz and mouthed the words with barely any sound. But he did not seem to have a clear answer either.

The count’s footsteps drew closer by the second. He was heading straight for the stone pillar without hesitation.

Her mind was about to go blank. Blair had no choice but to grab Kalintz’s cravat.

“What are you—”

“Just kiss me. There’s no other way.”

There was no running now, and they could not afford to be caught eavesdropping.

Being seen as the passionately newlywed Einhart couple was a hundred times better than that.

Kalintz’s expression said he found this absurd, but he seemed to realize there was no better option, and let out a shallow sigh.

“……It can’t be like the royal wedding. You understand?”

I don’t, actually.

But there was no time to argue. Count Roman was nearly upon them.

Blair squeezed her eyes shut and pulled him by the collar.

His soft lips met hers. Warm, just as they had been the first time.

She held still against that warmth, lips simply pressed together, when he suddenly wrapped a hand around her neck. Then he parted his lips and deepened the kiss.

The rush of warm breath pressing in caught her off guard, and Blair flinched instinctively. He responded by dropping the hand that had been braced against the stone pillar and pulling her by the waist.

So that was what he meant by not like the royal wedding.

Trapped in his arms with nowhere to go, Blair struggled to keep up with the breath being drawn out of her.

Hot, tangled breathing. A heart hammering like it might burst. And the sound of Count Roman’s footsteps just on the other side of the stone pillar.