With Elren adding his praise, I felt considerably more confident in my appearance. Even dressed in only a clean-lined empire dress and thin gold accessories, the overall effect was striking enough to draw the eye without any effort.

Yes. This might actually be better. Since I’m appearing in my capacity as a former royal of Rodencia, emphasizing the red hair that is also a symbol of the royal family is not a poor choice.

The long, long preparations were finally over. By the time the sun had set, the streets had begun to fill with lanterns installed to mark the resumption of the suspended event. The sight of yellow lights coming on one by one against the spreading violet dark was a spectacle in itself, and Hanna, Elren, and I set down our busy hands for a moment to take it in.

Flowers made of light bloomed across the plaza in front of the imperial palace, and night officially fell. The palace was close enough to walk to, but considering the long line of carriages, we needed to leave now to arrive without being late.

In keeping with my restrained style, I requested the most modest carriage possible, and Elren, true to my wishes, prepared one far simpler than before. When I stepped outside to board it, quite a large crowd had gathered in front of the house, apparently to see whether I would attend the ball. Elren had told me that public opinion was beginning to divide in the wake of the fire incident and yesterday’s article, and just as he said, the crowd’s attitude toward me felt slightly different from before.

What had once been nothing but one-sided hatred and contempt now held a different quality mixed in.

The public, who had treated me as nothing more than a remnant of a warmongering royal family and a seductress who had bewitched the Emperor, now seemed to have grown humanly curious about the kind of person who would deny a family member whose body was covered in ugly scars. They watched me with wide, round eyes.

Vile insults and slander still made up the majority, but the occasional glance of pure curiosity was enough for me to decide to hold onto hope.

My goal was never to be loved, after all. It was simply to put those who might side with Lewian on alert. If public opinion toward me shifted even slightly in a positive direction along the way, that would be more than I could ask for, but if it didn’t, I had no intention of letting it sway my mood either way.

As expected, the nobles inside the palace hall did not openly show interest in me. A few occasionally asked whether I was feeling all right when our eyes met, but most kept their distance and observed me from afar.

Among them there were surely people who despised me, but they could not openly show contempt toward me, a victim of the *ssault, so they were swallowing their resentment in silence.

Across the ballroom, I spotted Dylan and Whitney. Whether they were conscious of recent events or not, they were dressed in comparatively understated outfits, blending into the crowd and chatting quietly. I had no particular desire to speak with them and tried to slip past their group without drawing attention, but one of the young ladies noticed me and spoke first.

“Are you feeling better?”

It was a thoroughly social greeting with no discernible intent behind it, and I responded with a smile and a small nod.

“Yes. I’m much better….”

“It must not have been much of a wound after all. Look at you, out and about like this.”

Before I could even finish my reply, Dylan, who had been ignoring me the whole time, fixed me with a sharp glare and snapped her fan open hard to cover her mouth. She had started the provocation and then made a show of not wanting to speak further. At Dylan’s behavior, the young ladies nearby frowned, clearly thinking here she goes again, and openly shot sideways glances at her. Whatever their private feelings, such rude conduct at a formal event was a serious breach of social etiquette.

Dylan and Whitney had not committed perjury at the trial. They had not visited Delmir either. But turning away from Delmir did not make them my allies, it seemed. Some bitterness still remained.

“Thank you for testifying truthfully at the trial.”

Even so, I had no desire to confront them. Whatever grudge they held amounted to little more than relaying Delmir’s words on her behalf, and in the end they had simply been willing to turn away from a longtime friend at their family’s direction.

At my greeting, Whitney visibly flustered and quickly hid herself behind the group, but Dylan seemed determined to prove that her reputation for poor impulse control was well earned. She bristled and turned on me instead.

“I didn’t testify for your sake. I just couldn’t lie in a courtroom. The nerve of you. If you want to impress His Majesty so badly, go ahead and show off those scars you’re so proud of and fish for sympathy votes. Why drag someone else’s reputation into it? Think you’ve won? You gave an interview, you’re showing up at the ball, you look very pleased with yourself, but you’re still nothing more than a former princess from an enemy nation and a former wife. A seductress wagging her tail at His Majesty to become his mistress. Look around you. Who’s here with you? Nobody’s saying it out loud, but they’re all quietly backing away because they can’t stand the sight of you.”

Quite a sharp attack. But it doesn’t particularly bother me. I already know my own situation well enough. Besides, Dylan’s pointed venom is something I’ve been hearing steadily since her days as the Duchess Gertil, so it’s grown rather tiresome. At least she isn’t actually stabbing me with a real sharp object.

“I know. Even so, thank you. The trial was able to conclude cleanly because of you.”

My calm reply must have infuriated her considerably, because Dylan’s breathing grew rougher and rougher, like a pot on the verge of boiling over.

“Is she actually out of her mind?”

“Even so, you are a woman with no title, no fortune, and no one beside you. You may have a foot in society, but you’re filth that everyone avoids.”

The words didn’t land with much force, but I wanted to end this pointless one-sided exchange, so I gave a light nod of acknowledgment without responding and turned to leave, when someone caught my arm and gave it a gentle tug. I turned to see what was happening, and Elise looped her arm through mine and greeted me with a bright smile.

“Are you feeling all right? Did you receive my letter?”

Dylan had not received any reply to her words, but she glared wide-eyed at Elise, who was being openly warm toward me in a way that directly contradicted everything Dylan had just said. Elise, however, was the daughter of an influential count’s house, unlike me. Whether poor impulse control could be cured in the presence of a title, Dylan bit her lip and directed her glare at me instead of unleashing her tongue.

With practiced ease, Elise said nothing to Dylan while showing me warmth, and in doing so flatly denied everything Dylan had said.

I had been wanting to see Elise anyway, so I ignored Dylan, who was clenching her fists and trembling, and turned a smile toward Elise.

“Yes. I received it.”

When both Elise and I ignored her one after the other, Dylan seemed to have truly reached her limit and began to show the veins in her neck, but just before she opened her mouth, Whitney caught Dylan’s sleeve and quietly murmured something to her.

“Right. I was so thrown off by the nerve of it that I forgot. Fine. That smile won’t last long anyway, so I’ll let it go.”

Whatever Whitney had said, Dylan’s anger suddenly eased, and I felt a sense of unease at the shift, but Elise beside me mattered more to me than whatever Dylan was scheming, so I simply ignored it and turned away.

“I really wanted to visit you while you were recovering….”

After the gossip spread that Lewian was leading the Rodencia revival movement and public opinion toward me turned sharply hostile, Elise, Nelia, and Giselle had stopped coming by. But among them, only Elise had sent me a letter asking after my wellbeing, so I had never doubted her sincerity.

In fact, far from doubting her, I understood very well just how much courage it took for a young lady of her standing, from a family of considerable reputation, and one who had only recently been caught up in something as serious as a broken engagement, to show me warmth openly at a formal event.

“You sent me a letter nine pages long. Conversation in words is a pleasure, but there are times when a conversation in carefully composed writing brings its own kind of joy.”

I patted Elise’s hand as she looked on the verge of tears with guilt, then turned my gaze toward a tray a server was carrying.

“That cake looks delicious! All that blueberry compote piled on top is exactly my kind of thing!”

* * *

People move according to their own circumstances. No matter how urgent another person’s situation may be, it can never feel more pressing than one’s own.

Inside the carriage heading toward the imperial palace, Nelia was busy searching for words to defend herself to herself. Her goal had never been Lucian to begin with. Lucian had simply been a stepping stone toward her objective, nothing more. She had never intended to do anything to her. Even when she grew close to her and came to understand that Lucian was quite a decent person, she had felt quietly relieved that Lucian was the same person she remembered.

But Lucian, who had been keeping a low profile, had suddenly resumed her activities. She was positioning herself as the being from the prophecy and working to disrupt the gathering of those devoted to Lewian.

Nelia respected that resolve in Lucian. But at the same time, she recognized that Lucian’s actions could pose a serious obstacle to her own plans.

She was sorry to Lucian, but the time had come to remove her from Heliones’s side.

No. She wasn’t sorry. Lucian had been dragged to the capital against her will in the first place. If anything, after things came to a head, a day would come when Lucian would be grateful not to be in the middle of the capital.

I am not obstructing her. I am saving her.

Nelia, remembering the bruise-covered smile Lucian had once turned toward her, made a deliberate effort to settle the stirring in her chest and directed an easy smile at the noblewoman seated across from her.