“A mistress, is it? So even something broken still has its uses? If that’s really the case, then good. I’m already looking forward to seeing the look on his face when Lucian burns to death.”

Nelia thought to herself, once again, that Heliones would never fall for someone like you, but outwardly she offered a mild, acquiescent smile.

That useless fool had no business picking a fight with anyone, yet he was fixated on his half-sister who shared half of Heliones’s blood, and he was helping her plan along of his own accord. There was no particular reason to stop him.

“But what’s your angle? Didn’t you want to marry him and become Empress of Frianc? You have no real reason to help me.”

The man was apparently not quite the fool everyone took him for. He could ask a question that cut right to the point.

Nelia flashed a bright smile, the kind that said not to worry, and wagged her finger.

“It’s all for love.”

“What?”

“Men who go on about love are more common than you’d think. Only the love I want is not Heliones’s.”

Beneath her golden eyes, bright as a girl lost in a dream, a ferocious love that the man before her could not begin to fathom raged like a storm, consuming Nelia’s very soul.

And that raging love wore a face that looked exactly like what the world would call hatred.

Late June came and went, and the weather had grown to the point where stepping outside at midday without a parasol gave one pause.

The hydrangeas bloomed in luminous violet, just as I had hoped, greeting visitors from across the entryway, and beside them the potted plants Hanna and I had gathered one by one stood in a neat row, forming a small, colorful little garden.

Heliones truly did visit the lodgings without purpose, exchange idle conversation, and leave.

Some days it was an unusually beautiful stretch of weather, some days a new work by a favorite author, some days the fruits of the season. Any topic would do. So long as we could spend the time at ease.

In the meantime, I came to learn many things. Small habits of his I had never noticed even during two years of marriage, things like the way he leaned slightly forward when a subject he liked came up, or the way he scratched the side of his head for no reason when a silly laugh escaped him. Small things like that.

Paradoxically, when we were husband and wife, we had nothing to say to each other, but now that we were nothing to each other, we could talk about anything at all.

This distance suits us perfectly. It feels comfortable.

“Some of the court records were lost during the war, and among the administrative staff there are those who went missing, so processing has been delayed somewhat. I will see to it that you face no inconvenience in your daily life, so please make yourself at home while you remain in the capital.”

Despite the consideration he had already shown in abundance, leaving me wanting for nothing, Heliones always ended their conversations with this kind of reassurance, as though he needed to hear it confirmed.

Thanks to his daily reassurances, my mind had grown quite at ease, and I began taking walks to nearby bookshops, the flower market, and the park, savoring the life of a great city that I had never properly allowed myself to enjoy.

The summer flower market had a certain quality to it, a charm that couldn’t quite compare to spring. Once the spring season passed, most bulb plants shed their blooms and were left with only their leaves, so the variety of flowers dropped sharply.

In their place, roses of every kind filled the stalls, and since I had long wanted to try growing a full-bloomed variety, I moved from stall to stall, eyeing the roses with a sharp gaze.

“Oh, is that…?”

Among the roses filling the flower market, I spotted an unexpected red bloom and felt a sudden urgency rise in me.

I rushed over, and sure enough, a lovely flower with a familiar, longed-for form hung its head faintly in a corner of the market.

A variety of columbine, it had unusually long stamens and red petals that grew more transparent from the center outward, like a watercolor wash fading into light. With its vivid and graceful appearance, it was known as one of Rodencia’s most beloved flowers.

Columbines grew throughout the continent, but this particular variety, with its unusually large and mysterious blooms, could only grow wild near the capital of Rodencia, and had long been considered impossible to export.

The reason was that outside of Rodencia, where the geothermal warmth rising from the body of a divine beast buried in the earth a thousand years ago, a divine beast that had chosen to remain on the earth out of love for humanity, kept even the winters from growing too cold, the flower could not survive past a single year.

Commonly called the Rodencian columbine, it was one of the few beautiful memories I had left behind in a homeland that held almost no good memories for me.

Having had no occasion to see the Rodencian columbine for over four years, including my time married to Heliones, I bent at the waist and stood there for a while, taking in the flower’s appearance with a glad heart.

Ah, the wind from that day blows again. The faint floral scent carried on the damp wind that rolls in from the distant sea at the start of summer. I had grown sick of the color red, but your red gave comfort instead of pain.

“Oh, this flower is so beautiful! Should we buy some and plant them in a long planter to decorate the window?”

Hanna bent alongside me and began admiring the flower with curious eyes.

I hadn’t even brought the flowers in myself, but looking at Hanna’s sparkling eyes, I felt an inexplicable swell of pride and answered with my shoulders pulled back just a little.

“These flowers came from Rodencia. They’re usually very difficult to cultivate outside their native region, so I’m surprised to see them here.”

“Really? Then we should buy more! Let’s get a whole bunch and decorate the house with them!”

I was about to bend down again with a pleased expression, watching Hanna bounce with even more excitement than I felt, when I heard a familiar and deeply unsettling voice and wiped the smile from my face.

“This is a variety I developed with considerable effort. If you look at the leaf shape here, you can see I grafted it with a wildflower that grows native to Frianc.”

To anyone who didn’t know better, the tone was perfectly warm and pleasant. But sharp-witted Hanna caught the expression that had frozen on my face and immediately fixed a wary gaze on Roned, who had appeared at my side without my noticing.

“My name is Roned Iledn. I am a distant relative of Miss Lucian’s.”

Roned smiled with his eyes in that practiced, easy way of his, yet offered Hanna a bow that managed not to look frivolous.

“My name is Hanna, and I am in service to Lady Lucian.”

Hanna returned the greeting as courtesy demanded, but discreetly caught my sleeve to check on my state.

In any case, I had nothing weighing on my conscience. I had already told Heliones about Roned, so I had no desire to show weakness and give him something to use against me.

“I would think we have no further business with each other.”

At my cold words, Roned had the audacity to clutch his chest as though wounded, then turned to Hanna with a look of grievance.

“I only came to introduce the flower I developed to some classmates who took an interest in it.”

Classmates? Hearing Roned’s words, I became aware of focused gazes on me. I turned my head and saw a group of young lords and ladies around his age gathered nearby, watching the unexpected scene unfold.

“Is this not a variety that could only be found in Rodencia? It took quite a bit of work to cultivate, so I came with some classmates to show it off and introduce it before I submit it to the horticultural exhibition.”

Among his classmates were Delmir and her circle. Roned gave me the chills, but openly showing my aversion to him here did not seem like the wisest course of action.

The most sensible thing was to appear as nothing more and nothing less than distant relatives.

“I see. I think I may be in the way, so I’ll take my leave.”

“In the way? I’m delighted to run into you like this!”

I tried to turn and walk away, but Roned slipped in front of me and called out to the classmates who had been waiting.

“Allow me to make a proper introduction! The Lucian columbine, which took me a full four years to develop!”

“??”

What? What did this person just say?

I looked around and found reactions not so different from my own. It seemed I had not heard wrong.

“I had been wondering what to name it, but this flower originally grows near the Rodencian royal palace, doesn’t it? So I borrowed the name of Lady Lucian, the last surviving royal of Rodencia!”

“Ha.”

Watching Roned spread his arms wide and wear a harmless smile, clearly hoping for praise, I let out a short sigh before I could stop myself. I pressed a hand to my forehead and glanced around, and here and there I caught expressions that had moved well past simple curiosity into something more suspect.

What on earth was he scheming? Why was he going so far as to name a flower after me just to put me in an awkward position?

I moved to check the name tag at the base of the planter to confront him about making things up, and there on the tag, in large, bold letters, were the words: Lucian Columbine.

Ah, he actually named it after me? This is truly maddening.

I didn’t care what sort of misunderstandings other people formed, but I didn’t want Heliones to misunderstand.

I had no desire to add my problems to his mind, which was already complicated enough.

While I was busy trying to figure out how to explain the situation, Delmir approached me with a warm smile that could melt the ice mountains of the north. The sight of it would have set most people’s hearts fluttering, but given what I had been through with her, my heart trembled with tension instead.

Delmir lightly took my hand. Ah, a woman raised well even has lovely hands.

For a moment I felt embarrassed by my own hands, marked with small scars, and wanted to pull away, but Delmir spoke before I could, and what she said was so absurd that I missed my chance.

“My goodness. What a perfectly fitting name! Looking at that vivid, magnificent bloom, Miss Lucian comes to mind at once. It seems the developer holds Miss Lucian in the highest admiration!”

Ah, what is she saying? And why is Roned making that embarrassed face and scratching the back of his head?

I tried to pull my hand from Delmir’s and turn around to explain that I had hardly ever met Roned, but this time Roned was one step faster.