Chapter 11

Moving the cloth to the Imperial Palace was something ordinary Knights could have done. It was even something the shop could have delivered directly. But Raon did not do that. If he could only avoid seeing Bersha, he had intended to come out with whatever excuse he could make.

If Bersha were before his eyes, he could not control the feelings that flowed endlessly, and he had to press those feelings down with guilt.

At times, his heart throbbed without end and hurt so much it felt as if his chest were being tightened. The anger at being unable to do anything at all was only part of it. Such complicated emotions made things hard for him. And he had to hide all of that behind a calm face.

In the end, under the pretext that he would personally inspect the goods, he fled.

The words Kina offered him in the place he had fled to contained many meanings. It was as if she had looked into him. But strangely, her interference was neither noisy nor unpleasant the way other people’s words were.

“I greet you, Your Highness.”

“Sit.”

When Raon belatedly came to the Crown Princess Palace, Chris was with Bersha. Raon sat opposite the two of them, who were seated side by side.

“So. Did you bring the goods back safely?”

“……Yes.”

It could have meant nothing more than asking whether the task had gone well, but when Chris said it, it was different. He was someone who knew why Raon had volunteered for that task.

“I look forward to it, if it was something you cared enough about to inspect yourself.”

There was even a hint of reproach in the look he gave.

“Did you choose it yourself,Raon?”

Bersha was faster than Raon in responding. She was pointing at the cloth in his hand. It was the very cloth Kina had draped over him. Since he had come straight from the shop, he was still holding it as it was.

“I never even thought of a color like this. If you chose it for me, Raon, then I’ll definitely have it made into something beautiful.”

Bersha rose from her seat and touched the cloth in his hand. Because of that, the distance between them had grown close. And before long she draped the cloth over herself. Just as Kina had done for him.

“Did you buy it because you thought it would suit me?”

The lightly pastel-tinted cloth did not suit her alluring rose-brown coloring. The color Kina had said would suit him well did not suit Bersha. Was that why? Raon reached out and took back the cloth draped over Bersha. In a very quick motion.

“Huh?”

At the hasty snatching away, Bersha was startled, and so was he, the one who had taken it back.

“This is…….”

Raon stepped closer to soothe Bersha, who looked as if she might sulk as usual. It was at that moment that a maid entered along with the sound of a knock on the drawing room door. And Raon’s approaching steps stopped, while Chris pulled the flustered Bersha into his arms from behind.

“Set it on the table. And all of you, stay far away until I call.”

“Yes.”

The maid placed the item on the table and disappeared. Even after the door closed, none of the three spoke.

“We still have to be careful for now.”

The first to speak was Chris, as he loosened the arm with which he had confined Bersha. Raon continued to look at the two of them standing close together, while Bersha avoided his gaze. It was because of the shock from before.

“Did you buy that cloth for yourself?”

Chris asked, having sat back down at some point. Only then did Raon look at the cloth in his hand, then between Bersha and Chris.

“……Yes.”

A little later, he answered while gripping the cloth tightly in his hand. It felt strange.

“I think I should leave early today.”

“Ra…….”

Before Bersha could catch him, Raon left the drawing room.

“Was I in the wrong?”

Chris sighed and patted Bersha, who spoke as if about to cry.

“……It’s just that the circumstances were bad.”

In truth, even he did not know what the problem was.

Only that Raon seemed to have many thoughts. In a very bad direction.

*

After leaving the room, Raon walked quickly, then hurried into an empty place. Without even thinking to shut the door, he leaned against the wall and let out a rough breath. Bersha’s wounded face came to mind. Along with his own situation, in which he could not soothe her.

As he raised a hand to cover his forehead, his gaze dropped to the cloth still clenched in that hand. He did not know why he had done it. He only remembered the feeling that he had not wanted to give this cloth to Bersha.

“Then are they together right now?”

Through the half-open door came the voices of maids.

“Those high-ranking people really are something. If it were me, I don’t think I could even look at each other.”

It seemed that he himself was included in their conversation.

“What do you mean, there are already widespread rumors that the two of them haven’t broken up yet.”

“How? They’re getting married.”

“How would I know?”

“Maybe they’re deceiving everyone?”

“There’s no legal issue, is there. If they each understand the situation, then maybe it’s fine.”

The two maids moved farther away while arguing over whether that marriage was right or wrong. Only after their voices had completely disappeared was Raon able to come out of there.

He stood in the empty corridor, looking first in the direction the maids had gone and then in the opposite direction, where the Crown Princess’s room lay. In the end, he quietly looked at the cloth in his hand and then left the Crown Princess Palace.

* * *

“Miss.”

The hurried footsteps of the butler echoed through the Viscounty of Sennet.

“Duke Graize has come.”

“What?”

“Duke Raon Graize is in the drawing room now. Since there was no appointment, he said he would wait until you had prepared at your leisure…….”

Before the butler could even finish speaking, Kina left her room. Behind her, she heard Perry’s urgent call of “Miss.” Normally, it would have been proper to do a little dressing up before receiving him, but she had no presence of mind for that.

Reaching the drawing room in a single rush, Kina roughly fixed only her breath and hair, then knocked. She heard someone rise from a seat, and when the door opened, Raon truly was there.

“Please forgive the discourtesy of coming without notice.”

Since the best Kina could do was stand still while trying to maintain her composure, he greeted her first instead. Only then did Kina come to herself, bend her knees in greeting, and sit down opposite him.

Even though Kina had no mind left to give orders, Perry cleverly brought tea. Kina moistened her throat with it and tried to calm herself. Perhaps out of consideration for her, Raon said nothing at all while she drank half of the teacup.

“There must be a reason you came all the way to this humble place.”

In the end, Kina was the one who asked the reason first.

“I came because I thought it would be proper to ask in person.”

“……?”

After hesitating for only a moment, he spoke.

“If it would be all right with you, Miss, I would like to send a proposal letter.”

Kina, who had been reaching for the teacup, froze with her eyes rounded wide. With her eyes still rounded wide. This time she could not maintain her composure.

“You…… just said a proposal letter…… is that correct?”

Kina barely managed to confirm his words.

“Yes. Of course, only if you would be willing.”

If he had not done it first, then it should have been something she herself had to propose first, so it ought to have been good. Yet for some reason, the words that it was good would not come easily.

“I know it is not an easy decision.”

Thinking she was hesitating, Raon spoke carefully.

“And I know there will be many things you will have to bear in a marriage with me.”

Their relationship was a strange one that went beyond the difference in rank between them. People who had been Bersha’s lover and Bersha’s friend. Both of them knew better than anyone how much the world would gossip.

“So I know that what I am saying is shameless. But…….”

Within that would be Kina, who had to cover the relationship with Bersha that no one knew of but that would continue, and also her role, along with the eyes and ridicule of other people.