This was quite a predicament. Hanna had done her best to pack everything, but there was one thing she had missed. The canvas.

She had thought to bring the hydrangea from the garden, but it seemed the canvas, sitting there like a piece of furniture, had slipped her mind entirely.

With truly nothing to do, I wanted to at least paint, but there was no canvas here, and no dazzling sea waiting just outside the window the way there always had been.

“I’d like to go out for a bit.”

I asked cautiously, half wondering whether going out was even permitted, but Elren arranged a four-wheeled carriage without a second word.

The three of us, myself, Hanna, and Elren, boarded the covered carriage. It felt a little excessive for three people, but I had no desire to make an issue of small things, so I kept quiet.

Our first stop was an art supply shop.

The capital, as expected. High-quality paper was stacked in abundance. I felt a brief surge of greed at the sight of the sturdy paper that would not bleed no matter how many layers of paint went over it, but the price was too steep, so I bought only a few sheets and settled for lower-quality paper and a canvas instead.

“I’ll pay for these.”

“There’s no need.”

“Pardon?”

“The gentleman over there has already paid.”

When I went to Elren to pay for the art supplies, he shook his head firmly and refused.

“His Majesty has arranged to cover all expenses during Miss Lucian’s stay in the capital.”

“Living expenses are one thing, but there’s no need to fund a hobby as well.”

My objection was dismissed. Elren declined to engage, as though the matter were non-negotiable, and opened the carriage door with an unruffled expression.

Our next stop was a bookshop.

There was no picturesque countryside scenery here to work from, so I needed to buy art books for reference.

The moment I stepped inside, my eyes went wide.

Whether I was living as a princess or as a duchess, watching my every step had made freely wandering outside unthinkable.

I had stopped by bookshops occasionally when I lived in the countryside, but nothing like this had existed there.

Seeing is wanting, and greed reared its head again.

Having never had the chance to study painting formally, I had taught myself almost entirely by studying the collected works of various painters, and this shop was full of books by artists I admired.

I couldn’t buy them all, but I could press every image into my eyes and carry them with me.

I was lost in wonder, drinking in one dreamlike landscape after another, when a group of young noblewomen walked into the shop.

I had spent most of my time shut away at the ducal estate, so my social circle was not wide, but I had attended every important social event alongside Heliones without fail, and quite a few people from high society still knew my face.

Even so. Of all the people to run into.

Before his marriage to me, Heliones had been the most sought-after match every woman in society longed for.

His striking looks aside, the empire had fallen due to the mistakes of his father and brothers, but his family still carried international influence as a distinguished house, and there was no shortage of young noblewomen who wanted to marry him.

Among them, the Balthar ducal house, which had stood at the forefront of the movement to restore the Frianc Empire, had been particularly aggressive in putting forward a marriage proposal.

At the time, I had no idea that a restoration movement was quietly underway beneath the surface, and I had never been able to understand why the daughter of House Balthar kept acting so familiar with me when I was still very much his wife, even if only in name.

It was only after I heard that House Balthar had played a major role in destroying the Kingdom of Rodencia and restoring the Frianc Empire that I understood her behavior. I had assumed Heliones would remarry her immediately after our divorce.

Why he still had not remarried her, I didn’t know, but she was certainly someone I found awkward to face.

I pulled my bonnet down lower and turned to leave the bookshop quickly, hoping to avoid the daughter of House Balthar, Delmir.

“Oh, aren’t you Duchess Gertil? Ah, now… what should I call you? Either way, it’s lovely to see you after so long. You’ve been well, I hope?”

Delmir’s nickname in society was the Fairy of Spring.

From the very moment she made her debut, she had captured everyone’s attention with her brilliant platinum hair, clear blue eyes, and lovely face.

Whenever she appeared at a social gathering, all eyes fixed on what she wore and what she carried, and Delmir drifted through the flood of admiring gazes with the light, airy grace of a sprite made of light.

Where her hair swept through the air, it left behind a trail of glittering brightness, and she was the kind of woman any person alive would instinctively turn to look at.

But she had always made me uneasy. Delmir would approach me with a radiant smile, sweet as a fragrant flower, and then drive a sharp thorn straight into my sorest spot.

‘Why aren’t you eating? Is your stomach bothering you? Could you be with child? How wonderful that would be!’

The fact that I was a cursed princess from an enemy nation, and that my husband had never once come to my bed, was hardly a secret in society.

Yet Delmir always found a way to remind everyone of my situation, all while pretending to know nothing and to mean no harm.

At Delmir’s brazen greeting, I reluctantly glanced her way, and there she was, walking toward me with a dazzling smile that lived up to her nickname.

Beside her were Whitney and Dylan, who were always at her side. Dylan was the only daughter of the Horen county and a young noblewoman with a well-known temper problem in society, and Whitney was the third daughter of Marquis Monterre and generally played the role of egging Dylan on.

Both of them regularly stepped forward on Delmir’s behalf to insult and provoke me, while Delmir herself kept her hostility toward me hidden behind a pleasant smile.

“My, I had no idea you were in the capital. I thought you had gone back to your home country.”

I was keeping my guard up despite Delmir’s familiar tone, which at a glance might have seemed like that of an old friend, and was trying to think of a suitable reply, but Dylan cut in before I could say anything.

“Would anyone want to go back to a country that’s already fallen? I heard she was treated poorly there too, being a cursed royal and all.”

At Dylan’s words, Delmir tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled with an air of having nothing to do with any of it.

“With no family left in Rodencia, staying here would be the better choice, I suppose.”

“Is there family here for you either? Oh, are you having second thoughts now that your ex-husband has become emperor? Is that why you’ve shown up in the capital?”

This time Whitney stepped forward and fired off what Delmir had surely wanted to ask herself.

Ah. Two years had passed and not a single thing had changed.

But I had no desire to answer rudeness with rudeness. If I had bristled and reacted to every insult aimed at me, I would have been thoroughly humiliated in society long ago.

I ignored Dylan and Whitney and looked directly at Delmir.

“I came to sort out the divorce papers. His Majesty was absent at the time of the divorce, so a legal representative signed in his place. I’m here to have those papers voided and to submit proper ones bearing His Majesty’s signature.”

“Pardon?”

My answer seemed to catch her off guard. Delmir’s large, round eyes shifted as her voice rose.

“Now that His Majesty has held a formal enthronement ceremony, I imagine he wishes to correct any irregularities in the paperwork.”

“Ah, I see. A few months ago there was quite a stir over a will with a legal representative’s signature, so I suppose he wants to settle everything properly while he’s at it.”

Delmir raised her fan and held it over her lips. But the trembling at her fingertips and the tremor in her voice were more than enough to tell me what expression she was wearing.

It was anticipation. Excitement at the thought of Heliones cutting his last tie to the past.

Heliones had lived as a bachelor for the two years since our divorce, without stirring any particular scandal in that time.

Before and during our marriage, he had seemed indifferent not just to women but to human connection in general, aside from Count Fonta.

With no woman close to him personally, Delmir almost certainly believed she was the one closest to becoming the next empress.

Given the support House Balthar had provided during the restoration of the Frianc Empire, her expectations were not entirely without foundation.

“That’s probably right. Well then, I’ll be on my way…”

Tolerating petty provocations was not difficult, but I had no wish to exchange any more words than necessary, and I moved to leave quickly when Delmir stopped me.

“Duchess… ah.”

She must have had something to say, since she had called out to stop me, but she hesitated mid-sentence, apparently uncertain of how to address me.

“I’m no longer a duchess or a princess, so please just call me Miss Lucian.”

“Oh, I see.”

Perhaps pleased by the confirmation that I was no longer Duchess Gertil, Delmir broke into a bright, unguarded smile and called my name in a soft voice.

“Miss Lucian, then. I do feel rather embarrassed giving you such short notice, but I’m hosting a small tea party next week. Would you be able to come? There are quite a few young ladies who would love to see you.”

Hardly. Not a single person had asked after me when I was Duchess Gertil, nor when I left the estate after the divorce.

The reason Delmir was inviting me was probably, well, yes.

She wanted to show off to her rivals that she had been the first to learn that Heliones intended to settle the divorce papers once and for all.