Chapter 4

“……Was it obvious?”

The composure had left Raon’s face, and before long embarrassment had settled there. At that expression, one she had never seen before, Kina did not feel joy but despair.

‘He’s…… getting married.’

Even though he was someone she had thought could never possibly become hers, she still felt hollow.

“I’ll keep it a secret. Don’t worry.”

But she hid even that inside a calm smile. If it was a feeling that had to be buried anyway, then this way was not so bad. The fluttering excitement that had briefly risen sank once more like cotton soaked in water.

* * *

“I will definitely repay today’s kindness.”

After the long journey of the day, the carriage came to a stop once more before the Sennet Viscountcy. The sky had already grown dim. Raon truly wanted to repay her for helping him all day.

“It’s all right. Bersha is my friend too.”

Would it be greedy to hope that the unkind thought she had harbored for such a brief moment might be diluted by this?

“It is fine even if you do not tell me right away. There will come a day when you need my help. When that day comes, I will surely repay you.”

“……Then I’ll do that.”

Would such a day ever come? Even if the moment arrived when death cast its shadow before her eyes, or if a time came when she desperately needed money, Kina gave no sign that she would never go to him of all people.

“Then please go carefully.”

The carriage of the Dukedom of Graize she had ridden in for the first time, the time the two of them had spent alone for the first time. It was time to wake from that briefly happy time, like the magic in Cinderella’s story.

Raon watched Kina’s retreating figure as she moved farther and farther away.

When they had gone to the jewelry shop, Kina had worked hard and helped him choose gifts with utmost sincerity. And after leaving only two or three kinds of jewels, she had asked for his opinion.

‘Is my opinion important?’

Raon had asked Kina, who was seeking his thoughts.

‘Of course. If it were me, I think the gift I’d like best would be the one my lover chose while thinking of me. Probably every woman would feel that way.’

Realizing the meaning of those words, Raon had thought it over carefully and chosen the jewel he felt would suit Bersha well. Even while they went around to the jewelry shop, the wallpaper shop, and the bedding shop, the final choice each time had been made by Raon. While thinking how much Bersha would like it.

If Kina had not helped him, he might have chosen only expensive things without thinking of her tastes. That was why he truly wanted to repay her for today. No matter when it might be.

“To the mansion.”

After seeing that Kina had safely gone inside the residence, Raon gave the order.

How much Bersha cherished Kina was known by all the nobles. Of course, the same was true for Kina. Unlike the other young ladies, who had grown distant out of envy and jealousy, she had remained steadily by Bersha’s side. Even while knowing what kinds of rumors circulated about herself.

Even though he had watched Kina from Bersha’s side for years, Raon still could not easily define her.

At times she looked nothing but naive, yet at other times she endured in silence as though she had lived through more years than anyone else. So at times she made him wonder how she would react this time.

Suddenly, he recalled the look in her eyes when she had faced Chris’s rude words at the Imperial event. And the hand with which Kina had gripped her dress as if swallowing it all down.

“Really, that was too much.”

Frowning, Raon quietly reproached Chris and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes.

Together with that curiosity, if he had to define his feelings toward Kina, they were closer to goodwill than anything else. Solely because from the first time he met her until now, she had stayed by Bersha’s side the whole while.

* * *

“What do you mean I cannot see her when she is ill!”

Chris’s voice, sharpened by frayed nerves, rang out. He was so full of anger that even the attendants standing in his way flinched.

“It is His Majesty the Emperor’s command. Just in case…….”

“Just in case? Are you saying my wife has been struck by some dreadful disease!”

“It is not that, however…….”

The attendant wiped away the sweat running down him. According to the Imperial physician, Stella’s condition had been worsening little by little. Her complexion had grown paler and paler, and now it had become impossible for her even to sit up. He had come by once more this morning, and in the end he had shaken his head. It meant there was no hope.

“Please, just once.”

Chris spoke with desperate urgency, as though coughing up blood. He had seen Stella the day before, unable even to properly open her eyes. There had been no strength at all in the hand he held, and her pulse had been growing slower little by little. It was the first time he had found hateful the hand he used to say was beautiful because it was so white.

“Please…….”

“Your Highness!”

A scream from inside drowned out Chris’s desperate voice. The sound made the spines of everyone standing there turn cold.

“No……. No……!”

Chris shoved aside the attendant blocking his path. This time the man stepped back easily and followed behind. Chris’s urgent steps only stopped when he reached Stella’s bed.

“Stella. I’m here. I’m here!”

He clutched Stella’s body, already pale, and wept bitterly. But Stella gave no response at all. He clung to her body for a long while, howling like a beast.

“Please……! Didn’t you say you would stay by my side forever?”

At some point, Chris’s throat had turned hoarse, and from him came one last small cry.

It happened not long after the poorhouse event had taken place.

* * *

“Let us give thanks that she was with us…….”

All the people of the Estin Empire mourned Stella, who had returned as the daughter of God. It had been far too sudden a death. The first day she had collapsed from fever was the day after visiting the poorhouse. At first, they thought it was because preparing for the event had exhausted her. But she gradually lost her vitality, and in the end she returned to the heavens.

Anyone in the Empire knew well the beautiful love story, like fate, between Crown Prince Chris and Stella, who had been destined to become the Crown Princess. It had been a political marriage under Imperial law, but the two had truly loved each other. People said with one voice that the tragedy that had suddenly come must surely mean the heavens had grown jealous of the two of them.

Stella, laid inside the glass coffin, looked like a sleeping person. Her face was so peaceful that it seemed she might sit up at any moment. At least, that was how she looked in Chris’s eyes. His eyes were empty. He had repeated collapsing, losing his mind, and collapsing again, and only today had he accepted her death. Stella, who used to hold in check Chris, who looked upright enough but could burst off anywhere, was gone now. It was the day his heart finally died.

Beside him stood Raon and Bersha. Sunk in grief, Bersha leaned against Raon and shed tears. As she sniffled and cried without end, Raon firmly supported her.

Far away from them, at the very back of the memorial service, Kina had come alone.

The people attending the memorial each shared in Stella’s final farewell in their own way.

It was the beginning that changed many things.

* * *

“Tell me about her movements.”

The maid who had attended beside the future Crown Princess that day was in such an extreme state of tension that sweat marks stood out clearly on her back.

“The children called her Princess and…… r-ran over to her.”

She was squeezing her memory as hard as she could. Chris, his expression stiff, gestured for her to continue.

“The children……. Yes. That’s right.”

“Lady Stella had always been so good with children, and……. I never thought that would become a problem…….”

At the maid’s words, Chris fell silent for a moment. To her, that span of time felt like an eternity.

“So what you are saying is that you normally did not stop those who approached Stella either.”