Lorenz’s lips hungrily consumed every breath she had.

Each time the thick, herb-tea-laced taste of him invaded her mouth, Judith pressed herself further back against the cold wall behind her.

Lorenz seized the back of her head and held it fast, pressing deeper still — as though determined not to give her even a moment’s escape.

The hotter it grew, the bolder his hands became. His fingers worked through her clothing and wrenched roughly at her buttons.

Pop.

A button gave way helplessly, and she felt the fabric part.

“What do you think you’re——!”

Judith shoved Lorenz’s shoulder away with every ounce of strength she had as he moved to press against her chest. The sudden force sent him stumbling back.

“Ugh……”

Pain flared in her shoulder — but she had no attention to spare for it. Judith clutched her open collar shut and glared at him.

And yet Lorenz, having been pushed away, showed not a trace of displeasure. If anything, he murmured with quiet interest:

“Just as I thought.”

He drew the back of his hand slowly across his lips and straightened his clothes without any rush.

The ardor he had been showing her until moments ago had vanished without a trace. He fixed her with eyes that had gone cold and still.

“Judith. So it was you.”

“……”

Judith could not say a word. Shame and fear crashed over her in a delayed wave, and her fingertips trembled finely.

Lorenz continued, calm, as though savoring her reaction.

“I noticed some time ago that you were performing as Erika.”

He took one step closer and studied her contorted expression at his leisure.

“Did I strike you as the kind of fool who cannot tell the difference between the person I love and someone playing a part?”

The corner of his mouth twisted upward. Judith bit down on her lip.

Love. Love, he said.

The word coming from his mouth felt profoundly wrong.

“……The person you love.”

Judith rolled the word around in her mouth. Something complicated and beyond naming stirred inside her.

“How remarkably shameless of you.”

“You were the one who spoke first, in Altmere.”

Lorenz let out a short, contemptuous laugh.

“……Erika, you said. You must have been quite rattled. Calling me that still — as though you still believe I think you are her.”

“As for what just occurred — put it from your mind. I would never engage in such a thing with you rather than Erika.”

Lorenz walked to the ornate console against the wall and, glancing at the mirror propped at an angle, smoothed his pale grey hair back into place.

The face reflected in the glass was so composed, so indifferent — it was impossible to believe it belonged to the same man who had pressed his lips against hers with such relentless intent just moments before.

“……You truly love Erika.”

“She is my entire world.”

Lorenz answered without a single moment’s hesitation. His eyes in the mirror burned with a clear, sharp light.

“So the word love cannot begin to contain it.”

“……”

An alien happiness was written across Lorenz’s face as he spoke Erika’s name. The pure madness of it made her skin crawl.

“Did that answer your question sufficiently?”

Lorenz stepped back from the mirror, apparently satisfied with his hair, and settled deep into the chair.

He crossed his legs with an air of arrogance and ran a languid gaze over Judith, who stood with her mouth pressed shut, glaring at him.

“Still, we are husband and wife in name at least……. I courted you for a time as well, so I thought I knew you rather well in my own way.”

Those violet eyes blinked slowly.

“It seems I was mistaken.”

“……”

“I’ve thought about it for over a week, and arrived at what I believed was a conclusion……”

He let out a sound of theatrical difficulty. His fingers drummed against the table as though working something through.

Then, at a measured pace, he continued.

“But looking at you now, I find I don’t know again. I genuinely cannot understand what is going through your mind — it exceeds my comprehension entirely.”

Judith swallowed and held Lorenz’s gaze directly.

“……Shall we take a short walk.”

At the out-of-nowhere suggestion, Lorenz narrowed his eyes — then let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Very well. That, at least, is like you, Judith.”

He rose from his seat without protest and moved toward the door.

* * *

The cool early winter air pressed deep into her lungs. Having just come from a room warmed by a well-stoked hearth, the cold wind felt all the more like ice — even though the afternoon sun had not yet set.

The two of them walked side by side along the edge of the wide ornamental pond at the heart of the Imperial Palace gardens.

Erika Braun. The days of hearing Rita speak of her and Lorenz had given Judith a great deal to think about.

The impulse to perform as Erika, even briefly, had been half instinct.

Not that I anticipated it going the way it did.

She had never entertained the foolish notion that she could perform Erika perfectly within just a few days.

“When did you know it was a performance?”

Judith asked, her gaze on the thin layer of ice that had formed over the surface of the pond. Lorenz answered with a casual, dismissive smile.

“You’re asking that now? From the very beginning, of course.”

“My performance must have been quite awkward then. I learned what I could from a maid who seemed close to Erika.”

“A maid…… ah.”

Lorenz thought back to Rita, whom he had encountered just moments ago.

The girl who had always fussed attentively over Erika whenever she came up to the Capital. Though of course, that had been less Erika’s warmth than Rita’s one-sided devotion.

He had been informed that she disappeared the day Judith’s soul returned — he hadn’t expected to find her here at the palace.

“No — your performance was quite remarkable. Even knowing from the start, there were moments I genuinely wondered if you might be Erika after all.”

Lorenz stopped walking and turned to look at Judith.

He took in the faint redness at the tip of her nose from the biting wind, eyes narrowing slightly, and added quietly:

“Though I did find it rather unexpected. Whether the incense simply didn’t work — or whether you’ve built up a tolerance.”

The words, which had seemed directed at her, were closer to a murmur to himself.

Judith pulled her collar closed against the wind and felt for the necklace beneath her clothing.

Without the necklace, she would never have thought to burn the incense burner at all. Thanks to it, she seemed to have built up enough of a tolerance that Lorenz’s sudden arrival had not struck him as suspicious.

And yet — given the faint interference she had been hearing, and the occasional dizziness——

……It still doesn’t measure up to direct contact.

The ring Rainer had given her, threaded onto the cord, met her fingertips.

Judith turned something over in her mind for a moment, then spoke.

“If you knew from the very beginning — then you would notice right away if something about Erika seemed different, even ordinarily.”

“What is it you’re trying to say?”

“I’m asking whether there have been changes in Erika since she began using my body.”

Lorenz stopped walking and turned to look at her.

“Why would that——”

“The sea, for instance.”

Judith cut across his words and continued without inflection.

“Erika hates the sea. She nearly drowned as a child, and it left such a mark that even a salt-tinged wind is enough to make her cry out — or so I’ve heard.”

“How do you know that…… the maid.”

“Altmere.”

“……”

“Erika wanted to go to Altmere.”

“Right, so take her now. We need to get to the sea quickly. You said you wanted to go to Altmere.”

“And you said that rather willingly — as though it was something you genuinely wanted.”

“Doesn’t that feel at odds with the Erika you know?”

Lorenz’s eyes narrowed.

It was true — of late, Erika had begun showing sides of herself he didn’t recognise. Tastes he had never seen before. Habits that hadn’t been there previously.

When he asked about it, her only answer was that she had always been this way.

He had known her since they were children, and he was certain the soul was Erika’s. And yet an unease he could not quite put into words had been visiting him with increasing frequency.

“……”

“Soul wavelengths.”

Judith spoke just then.

“You said I was the one whose wavelength matched Erika’s.”

Lorenz’s eyes sharpened and went cold.

“Where did you hear that?”

“I happened to overhear a conversation between you and your former secretary.”

Lorenz let out a short laugh.

“I had a feeling you might piece something together when Norman mentioned Clara Hoffmann — but I didn’t anticipate this.”

He wiped the expression from his face and fixed Judith with a flat, dry stare.

“Well. If anything, it simplifies things. This conversation will go faster.”

He stepped squarely in front of her.

“That body of yours. I’m going to need you to share it with Erika for a while.”

The voice that came was perfectly, utterly calm.