Evelyn flushed her cheeks and toyed with her fingers in a way that was uncharacteristic of her usual manner. The nobles nearby exchanged excited looks, murmuring that something must be going on between the two of them.

Delia, recognizing at once that Evelyn was putting on a deliberate performance, stepped between them. She shifted her body to block Evelyn’s line of sight to Kallius and smiled.

“It has been a while, Duchess.”

“Indeed. This is our first meeting since the tea party.”

“I heard you are expecting a child — you must be absolutely overjoyed.”

Unlike before, the provocation was now entirely undisguised — and Delia found it almost laughable. It was at least somewhat understandable that Evelyn felt a desperate urgency, given that it was Delia and not herself who was carrying Kallius’s child.

Had Evelyn not been after the position of Duchess, Delia might have extended a hand to her. But it was Evelyn who had drawn the blade first — and there was no reason to feel sorry for her or come to her aid. Now that she was to become a parent, she owed it to her child to hold her ground — and Delia made a firm, quiet resolution that she would not be made a target of this woman any longer.

“My, but you aren’t showing yet.”

“No — it takes at least thirteen weeks before it becomes visible.”

“Ah, is that so? What a shame. I would have thought a child of His Grace’s would show right away. I suppose that isn’t quite the case.”

Evelyn asked if she might touch the stomach, then slowly bent forward and placed her hand over the belly carrying Kallius’s child. She stared intently at the still-flat abdomen, and her lips curved upward.

“I do look forward to meeting the child when it arrives. Don’t you?”

But the look in Evelyn’s eyes as she said it was razor sharp. As though — should the child inside ever actually be born — she would never allow it to live in peace.

That expression, as though she might devour the child then and there, drained the color from Delia’s face. She stepped back from Evelyn quickly and wrapped both arms around her stomach.

The strange standoff between Delia and Evelyn set the gathered guests murmuring. The realization that she had become a spectacle in an instant made Delia’s face burn with embarrassment. The eyes on her felt like accusations — how dare someone like you be carrying a child.

Delia stood there clutching her stomach, cold sweat breaking out across her skin, when an attendant stepped forward and asked with concern whether she was all right. Delia swayed briefly, then managed a weak smile and said she was fine.

Before long, having apparently heard the commotion, Isabella appeared with a sharp, hard expression. She surveyed the scene, and when she realized that Delia and Evelyn were at the center of it, her expression hardened further still.

“What is going on here?”

“I’m sorry, my lady. In the middle of speaking with Lady Salchester, my stomach began to hurt……”

At Delia’s strained voice, Isabella turned her head. She moved to Evelyn’s side, crossed her arms, and asked:

“Is what she said true?”

“Yes, that’s right. The Duchess appeared to be unwell during our conversation — she suddenly clutched her stomach and began to sway, that is all.”

As she listened to Evelyn’s explanation, Isabella’s frown deepened by degrees. She waved away the attendants who had been trying to approach, then turned to Evelyn with a cutting edge in her voice.

“Then you should have been more careful.”

“Pardon? What do you mean by——”

Isabella turned her head sharply. She pointed at Delia, who stood clutching her stomach and breathing hard, and declared without a trace of give in her voice:

“Delia is with child. What exactly do you think you were doing? How dare you say whatever you please to a woman in her condition?”

Delia’s eyes went wide. Since marrying Kallius, Isabella had never once taken her side — not once. Could it be that she was doing so now simply because the child in her womb carried the Hildebrant bloodline……?

Isabella likely knew it herself. That it was nearly impossible for something as minor as placing a hand on a pregnant woman’s stomach to cause any real harm to the child. And yet Isabella had always been someone who would find any excuse to reproach Delia — which meant that Evelyn, now the one in her sights, was surely about to be humiliated in front of everyone.

And indeed — Evelyn’s face had gone red, her body trembling. She ground her teeth in what looked like betrayal, then turned on her heel, saying she needed a moment to herself. She walked away without looking back, biting down hard on her crimson lips, her eyes carrying the look of someone who had been stabbed in the back.

Delia watched Evelyn’s retreating figure with uneasy eyes, sensing she was on the verge of doing something reckless — when Isabella stepped to her side and asked in a cold voice:

“You. Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Not you. The child inside you.”

Isabella’s bluntness was so unabashed that Delia could not conceal her dismay. She had thought, for just a moment, that Isabella taking her side meant she was finally being accepted as a member of the family — but the sharpness in her voice made it plain to anyone listening, and Delia had no choice but to fall silent once again.

“What a thoroughly exhausting affair. Go get some air nearby.”

“……Understood. I’ll be back shortly.”

Delia kept glancing back, hoping Kallius might have returned, and reluctantly set off.

She could feel countless eyes clinging to her as she made her way out, but she could not afford to shrink with fear. Delia straightened her spine and walked with composure toward where the carriage was waiting.

How long had she sat inside, alone in that empty space? After perhaps ten minutes of sitting there in a daze, she finally burst back out through the door.

Her condition had improved enough of late that riding in a carriage was possible. But sitting alone inside one without even a coachman present was still its own kind of ordeal. She had somehow managed to stay seated — until the nausea rose so sharply that she pressed a hand over her mouth and fled the carriage entirely.

She was still drawing slow, steadying breaths to calm her racing heart when a small sparrow caught her eye — huddled in on itself on the ground nearby.

She moved quickly to pick it up and tried to set it back in the nest above — but the branch was just out of reach, and she was still struggling with it when she sensed a presence behind her. Someone reached past her and placed the sparrow gently back in the nest.

“Thank you so much for——”

But the words died in her throat.

The figure before her had hair the color of melted gold and eyes to match — brilliant, gleaming. It was Aiden, the First Prince of the empire.

Unlike the Second Prince Daniel, who was broad-framed and sun-darkened, Aiden wore silver-framed spectacles and had an air of delicate precision about him. The book of political theory in his hand made clear that his mind was rarely far from matters of governance. Delia composed herself quickly and offered him a proper bow.

“But — what brings the First Prince here……?”

“I have a personal acquaintance with the former Duchess. I was invited to the party and arrived somewhat late — the atmosphere being what it was, I was not able to greet anyone properly.”

At Aiden’s words, Delia pressed her lips together. The scene just now had begun with her — and so she stepped back from him with an apologetic expression.

Part of her discomfort came simply from the fact that the man before her was a prince. But more than anything, what unsettled her most was the thought that Aiden might be the very person who had tried to harm her.

“It seems I make you uneasy, my lady.”

Was that even a question worth asking? It was not merely discomfort — she could feel the sweat breaking out across her entire body in real time.

But she could hardly say so out loud, and so Delia shook her hands in denial and insisted it was nothing of the sort. ……Not that Aiden appeared to believe her in the slightest.

“There is no need to worry. Even if you were to be impolite to me, I have no intention of taking issue with it.”

Delia could not keep the surprise from her face. She had assumed the First Prince would be just as impossible to reason with as the Second — but this was entirely unlike what she had expected, and her lips parted before she could stop them. Coming back to herself belatedly, she smoothed her composure and asked him with polite formality:

“By the way — what were you doing, rather than attending the party?”

“Reading under a tree.”

“……Pardon?”

He had been placidly reading this entire time? Was he perhaps working his way through that impossibly thick volume of political theory he was carrying?

She was still keeping her distance from Aiden — who was, in more ways than one, difficult to read as a person — when he stepped closer and tilted his head.

“On another note — there is something I would like to ask you.”

“Pardon? Me, you mean……?”

Aiden gave a quiet nod. He pushed his slipping glasses back up the bridge of his nose and posed a question she had not anticipated at all.

“Does my lady align with the Noble Faction — or with the Imperial Faction?”

“Oh, that……”

It was difficult to conceal her bewilderment. Aiden was the first person she had ever met who asked about political leanings upon a first meeting.

People who met Delia for the first time often found themselves uncertain whether she belonged to the Noble Faction or the Imperial Faction. And so while she could understand Aiden’s curiosity, she could not quite hide the discomfort it stirred in her all the same.

When she made no effort to conceal her uncertainty, Aiden read the situation at once and stepped back, offering a quiet apology.

The unexpected response made Delia’s eyes go wide. Compared to the Second Prince, who had always pushed relentlessly at her from the very beginning, the First Prince Aiden was practically an angel by comparison.

“I have always been of one mind with my husband.”

“In that case……my lady would support the Imperial Faction rather than the Noble Faction.”

Even if her parents had been at the head of the Noble Faction, one could not assume their children necessarily shared the same inclinations. Delia asked in a tense voice whether his curiosity had been satisfied, and Aiden gave a quiet nod. He took a step closer and offered something that was plainly an expression of goodwill.

“That is a relief. I had no wish to make an enemy of you.”