Good heavens. What did I just hear.

Blair endured what she could barely stand to listen to sober and turned her eyes toward them.

Count Roman was wearing a mask shaped like a kingfisher. It was so conspicuous that he was easy to spot.

“We may not have found the duke, but we found his chess piece.”

Kalintz said it with a stiff mouth, looking equally revolted. Blair shook her head and committed Count Roman’s appearance to memory.

Shortly after, the first piece ended and the dancers began to scatter.

“We still didn’t find Duke Brienne.”

Blair let out a short sigh as she spoke.

“We found Count Roman, though, so it wasn’t a waste. Look, someone’s already approached him.”

Following where Kalintz indicated, she saw that someone was indeed greeting Count Roman.

Blair moved naturally in that direction alongside Kalintz.

“……Local breeds make excellent racehorses, I hear.”

The man was speaking to Count Roman about fine horse breeds. The topic was one thing, but his voice was nothing like Duke Brienne’s.

“He will make contact, won’t he?”

Blair lowered her voice as she asked.

“He won’t pass up this opportunity. There’s no better setting for a private conversation than tonight.”

She was nodding at Kalintz’s answer when she noticed a man in a black mask approaching Count Roman. Even at a glance, he was as tall as Duke Brienne.

Blair gave Kalintz a quick look. He seemed to have noticed the man in the black mask as well.

“……Oh? Countess Roman is stepping away.”

That was not all. Count Roman glanced around and moved to a more secluded corner.

“Let’s go over there too.”

Blair headed with Kalintz toward where Count Roman had moved.

“It’s too tucked away. If we get too close it’ll look strange.”

“We could hide on the terrace next to it.”

Blair pointed to a terrace not far from Count Roman.

“……You have a natural talent for this.”

“Could you call it quick thinking instead?”

They slipped onto the terrace without drawing attention and drew the curtain closed.

“I can barely hear.”

At Kalintz’s murmur, Blair pressed herself against the curtain and put her ear to it. Then she gestured for him to come closer.

“Not clearly, but I can…… hear something.”

Blair spoke with a slight flustered edge as Kalintz pressed up behind her. The solid warmth against her back brought the memories of the night before rushing in like a tide.

I didn’t say to press in this close.

But Kalintz himself seemed entirely unbothered.

Blair steadied herself and turned her attention back to the voices of Count Roman and the other man.

“So…… the supply of slaves……”

“Perhaps…… the viscount will arrange…… to ensure there are none……”

Count Roman sounded dissatisfied with something, while the other man spoke at length in a tone that suggested he was reporting.

“That’s not Duke Brienne. Count Roman is speaking down to him.”

Blair said it in a deflated voice.

“So Count Roman is running an illegal operation.”

“It seems so. Slaves, of all things. He must be funding a brothel.”

In Valia, where slavery was gradually disappearing, the only place slaves were likely to be found was a brothel.

“For someone who adores his wife, he runs a filthy business.”

Count Roman and the man still had more to say and had not moved. And Kalintz was still pressed close behind her.

“……If we leave now we might draw attention. Let’s go when the count moves.”

It was something she said to break the awkwardness, but no answer came. His presence was growing harder to ignore, and she was just about to turn around when Kalintz’s hand touched the lace collar covering her neck.

“You covered up quite thoroughly.”

The touch brushing her nape sent heat rushing through her in an instant.

“Th, that’s because I had no choice.”

Blair covered her flushing neck and spun around quickly.

“After you left all those marks on my collarbone and shoulders last night, what else was I supposed to—!”

Blair caught herself mid-sentence, having blurted out the events of the night before without thinking.

“……Oh, is that right.”

But the words were already out and could not be taken back.

“You remember quite well. What I did last night.”

The gold eyes looking down at her had darkened to match the weight in his voice.

Blair closed her eyes and let out a long, silent breath.

She had been barely managing to dodge it. Her mouth was always the problem.

“I already knew the claim of not remembering was a lie.”

Kalintz tilted his head slightly.

“And I had no intention of playing along.”

With barely two hand-spans between them, his voice seemed to resonate more than usual.

“You can’t just confess it outright like this and expect me to let it go, Blair.”

With nothing left to say, Blair could not make herself speak.

“I’m curious what excuse you’ll come up with this time.”

“……Will you let it go if I do?”

“What?”

Kalintz’s eyebrow shot up immediately. With no more room to retreat, Blair took a deep breath and spoke.

“Why do you think I told such an obvious lie.”

“I suppose I wasn’t worth taking seriously.”

“Pardon? What do you mean, not worth taking…… Ha. I’ve never thought that.”

Not once. If anything, she wished she had, because then she would not have been shaken so completely and so helplessly.

Blair swallowed the words she could not bring herself to say.

“I’m not so sure.”

Kalintz’s voice was still cold.

“I said what I meant. Was there anything unclear about what I did yesterday.”

“……”

It was the opposite, if anything. The feelings he had shown her the night before were whole and unmistakable, without lack or excess. Enough to make the fact of their contract feel almost irrelevant.

“I told you to say so if you didn’t want it. Your answer was a kiss.”

She could feel his gaze resting on her lips.

“I don’t believe any of that was false. And I don’t believe it was a drunken mistake either.”

One hand-span. Kalintz closed the distance.

“Blair, I’ve become someone who knows exactly what you’re thinking just by looking at your eyes. Just as people say.”

Just as they had once argued about, the two of them now knew each other’s eyes far too well.

“And yet you say you don’t remember last night. What am I supposed to think.”

A heavy silence fell for a moment. Then Blair slowly opened her mouth.

“It’s not that I don’t take you seriously. It’s that I don’t know what to do.”

“About what.”

“We’re…… in a contract relationship.”

The words tasted bitter coming out.

“We both have goals we can’t easily give up. That’s why we entered a contract marriage for two years.”

Kalintz’s expression gave nothing away.

“When everything is over, we each have a path set for us. You’ll live as a mercenary here, and I’ll live freely in Lis.”

After that, they would become strangers again and go their separate ways. Blair swallowed that bitter truth.

“So what you’re saying is—”

Kalintz, who had been silent, spoke in a voice that had dropped even lower.

“The end is already decided, so you won’t begin at all. That’s what you mean.”

“……We’ll only end up hurting each other. There’s no need for that.”

Blair knew well what came of acting on reckless feelings. She did not want to repeat the same mistake she had made with Allen.

“It might not end in hurt.”

“Pardon?”

“Why decide before you’ve even tried. What is it you’re so afraid of.”

Being called a coward made something Blair had been holding back surge up.

“Do you think this is easy for me to say? I’ve been thinking about this and that until my head nearly split!”

“And the conclusion you reached was to pretend not to know, pretend it isn’t there?”

Kalintz’s sharp words cut straight through her.

Blair was about to say, ‘then what do you want me to do’, when he stepped one pace closer.

Now there was no space left at all. She felt a hand tilt her chin up.

“If you bury it and push it away like that. Is that enough for you?”

His fingers traced lightly across her lips. Each time they brushed past, a faint heat clung in their wake.

“It isn’t for me.”

The gaze bearing down on her wavered. Under that relentless look, her heart dissolved again, helplessly.

“Kalintz, I……”

“I’m asking about your feelings, Blair. Not about the contract.”

Blair could not say a word. All the things she had told herself over and over caught in her throat and would not come out.

“I’ll wait for your answer.”

Kalintz’s hand left her lips.

He pulled back the terrace curtain and returned to the banquet hall ahead of her.

Blair stood there for a long while, turning the words Kalintz had left behind over and over in her mind.