Meanwhile, the imperial palace was thrown into an uproar by Alexis’s return. Before so much as setting foot in his own chambers, he insisted on an audience with his father, disturbing the Emperor’s rest.

“Break off my engagement at once.”

Alexis’s impatience was written plainly across his face. The Emperor reflected, not for the first time, that he had only himself to blame for indulging an only son from boyhood — but there was little to be done about it now.

“What is the meaning of this.”

“I saw the young lady’s face at the Elaise royal palace. She walks around with her scar hidden under a veil — as though even she knows how unsightly it is.”

The way he pouted like a child tattling on a playmate made it impossible to believe this was the Crown Prince of the Empire.

“The position of Crown Princess demands that she be without flaw. How am I to take a woman with pockmarks marring her face as my wife?”

The Emperor propped his chin in his hand and fell into thought at his son’s words.

He still needed Duke Lates — politically inept as Alexis was. The Duke served as a vital link between the imperial house and the parliament, and wielded considerable influence because of it.

“The engagement with House Lates cannot be dissolved so easily.”

“Father!”

The Emperor knew all too well how maddening his son’s pigheaded obstinacy could be. From childhood, Alexis had been difficult and endlessly demanding — wearing through one nursemaid after another. It had gotten so bad that finding anyone willing to take the position became a struggle in itself.

“I cannot enter into such a marriage.”

Alexis had always been fixated on appearances. Perhaps it was a consequence of his own striking looks, but his standards for others were exacting, and he was possessed of an unbending insistence on perfection.

“I would sooner die than marry a woman with pockmarks.”

And so the tantrum began in earnest. The Emperor pressed his fingers to his aching temple and looked down at his son.

“I already declared the engagement broken in front of the King of Elaise — with my own mouth. There is no undoing it.”

“Then do you intend to go through with what was mentioned before — marrying the second daughter of House Lates?”

“Even the second daughter… her mother’s birth is rather low. I don’t find myself inclined toward that either.”

Had Delilah heard any of this, she would have fainted dead away. To learn that the man who had burrowed into her arms and showered her with sweet whispers had privately thought of her as nothing more than a plaything — the consequences were plain to imagine.

“So you are refusing to marry at all.”

“First, have the engagement properly dissolved. Only then can I live with any peace of mind.”

There was no point in coaxing or shouting — Alexis’s stubbornness would not bend either way. The Emperor, listless and ineffectual as he was in all things, gave a ready nod to the child he had so badly raised.

“Very well. I will send word to House Lates and have the engagement formally annulled. Will that satisfy you?”

“For the time being.”

Alexis had gotten his answer exactly as he always did — by pestering his father into submission. He had known this method since childhood, which meant he had never had much reason to do anything the hard way.

“However — the second daughter of House Lates is absolutely out of the question. Find a young lady of noble birth.”

“……I will keep my options open.”

“You are the Crown Prince. Surely you understand that you must take a consort and produce an heir without delay.”

“I am aware. However, until a woman perfect enough to bear my heir appears — what is one to do?”

“You must marry into a family like House Lates — the daughter of a powerful minister. That is what will lend us strength.”

“But——”

“Better to marry first and seek other women afterward. Do you understand me.”

Alexis’s mother had died not long after giving birth to him — before she could fulfill her role as wife or mother.

“I understand.”

Father and son, neither of whom knew what it meant to love and build a life with another person, looked at each other and nodded.

“D*mn it all.”

The moment Alexis withdrew from his father’s presence, the profanity was already on his lips.

“Why did she have to go and catch smallpox and ruin that face.”

He had caught glimpses of Annabella from a distance on a few occasions. Back then, her face had been more beautiful than anyone’s — reason enough to consider her fit to be Crown Princess. Then things had gone wrong.

“If not for the pockmarks, she could have counted herself among the finest beauties in the empire.”

Alexis could not bring himself to lower his standards in matters of beauty. He himself would skip dinner if he gained so much as a little weight — how was he to be generous toward others? The young ladies he met with in secret could not even enjoy a meal in peace, terrified that a little extra weight might earn his contempt.

“If I had to name someone who resembles her most closely, I suppose Delilah comes nearest.”

Different mothers, but both daughters of Duke Lates — there was a resemblance of sorts. Had Annabella’s face remained as it was, the comparison would not even merit consideration, but circumstances had changed.

“I will go to the Lates ducal residence tonight.”

“Yes, I will convey that at once.”

The chief attendant bowed and withdrew.

“I ought to see for myself just how much of a likeness there is.”

Had he never known Annabella’s beauty, he would not have gone to verify the matter in person on the mere mention of smallpox. He had privately conceded — however reluctantly — that whatever his own considerable looks, Annabella had been the foremost beauty on the continent.

He had intended to marry her as though doing her a favor. Then the pockmarks had ruined everything.

“Damned, wretched smallpox.”

No matter how he turned it over in his mind, what a waste it was — that face, gone. The graceful bearing he had glimpsed up close at the royal palace above all. Without the pockmarks, she would have been the most fitting Crown Princess imaginable. Such was fate — one could never make sense of it.

***

The ducal residence, upon receiving word, bustled with preparations to receive the Crown Prince. He had returned so much sooner than expected that Delilah, caught momentarily off guard, rushed through her bath and sat down at her vanity in a state of barely contained anxiety.

“Hurry up. Quickly.”

“Yes, my lady……”

Jane, who always helped Delilah with her makeup, trembled slightly with nerves. For that, Delilah’s sharp hand cracked across her cheek.

“Why are you shaking like some ill-omened fool?”

“I’m so sorry, my lady……. I couldn’t help it, I was nervous……”

“It’s not as though you’re the one receiving His Highness the Crown Prince. Don’t tell me you’ve been entertaining some shameless little fantasy that an opportunity might fall your way too?”

“N-no! It’s nothing like that, truly.”

Jane — who had originally been Annabella’s maidservant — had no time even to tend to her swelling cheek before she bowed her head low.

“Get on with the makeup first. I’ll deal with the rest later.”

“My lady……”

“Did you not hear me say to move your hands?”

Jane had no choice but to take up the brush again and begin powdering Delilah’s face. At that moment, Delilah’s mother Miranda entered the room and took in the scene.

“Delilah — no matter how angry you are, you mustn’t lose sight of what matters most.”

Two women’s faces appeared side by side in the mirror.

“Men dislike troublesome talk. A dark expression or an angry face is no different. Is that the face you intend to show His Highness?”

“……No.”

Miranda was exceedingly strict with the household staff, but she was mindful enough of Duke Lates’s eye to stop short of striking them herself. Delilah, however, had inherited the Duke’s volatile temper — and was somewhat different in that regard.

“You must think of tonight as though your very life depends on it.”

Miranda had come from no higher than a lieutenant’s family, yet she had met Duke Lates at a salon she frequented and captured his heart entirely. It had been an unequal match from the start, and the Duke had never intended to remarry — but Miranda had fallen pregnant, and between that and her hold over him, she had somehow found herself installed in the ducal residence at last.

“Do you know that someone from the imperial palace came to see your father this afternoon?”

“Someone from the palace……. Which means……!”

“Yes. His Majesty the Emperor has formally dissolved the engagement.”

Delilah could not contain the smile that surged to her lips. Miranda’s own mouth curved in much the same fashion.

“Delilah — there is nothing stopping you from becoming Crown Princess.”

“I know. I know everything depends on it.”

“Yes. You take after me — you’re clever, and you understand a man’s heart. That is what matters. So you must not let your guard down, not until you have secured that position.”

“Yes.”

Delilah’s red eyes blazed with resolve. Alexis was her dashing lover — but he was also everything. Just as Miranda had once stolen the Duke’s heart, there was no reason the same could not happen for Delilah in turn.

“Now, hurry along. At this rate His Highness will arrive before you’re ready.”

Miranda urged Jane’s hands to move faster. Delilah studied her own blossoming beauty in the mirror and found it more than sufficient to steal Alexis’s heart. It was a thought only possible because she had no true understanding of what lay beneath his surface.

And not long after, the Crown Prince arrived at the ducal residence with brazen disregard — making no effort whatsoever to conceal his identity.

“We are honored by Your Highness’s presence.”

The Duke and his wife, along with Delilah, had been waiting and came forward to receive him warmly.

“I hear you have been to the Kingdom of Elaise. You must be terribly fatigued.”

Miranda smiled and spoke with familiar warmth, but Alexis dismissed her words entirely — she was, after all, nothing more than a woman of lieutenant’s stock in his eyes.

“Our residence is Your Highness’s place of rest. Please make yourself at ease whenever you wish.”

At the Duke’s words, Alexis gave the barest nod.

“The journey has left me truly exhausted.”

The Kingdom of Elaise lay quite close to the Empire in terms of distance — but for a man unaccustomed to riding hard, any road felt long.

“Whatever would bring Your Highness to such a place? It is a minor kingdom, nothing more.”

Duke Lates, angling for the Crown Prince’s favor, did not hesitate to disparage the Kingdom of Elaise — the homeland of his late first wife’s parents. Had Aubrey known, she would have wept tears of blood.

“Indeed. There is nothing worth noting there. I fail to understand why we bother sending envoys at all.”

The Kingdom of Elaise was in fact one of the most prosperous and strategically vital territories on the continent. But Alexis — lost in his own narcissism, having never applied himself to statecraft or politics — had no grasp of Elaise’s true worth.

“You are absolutely right. Elaise is inferior to the Empire in every regard. The King and Queen are excessively conservative as well — it must have been suffocating for Your Highness.”