“Alix!”

She quickly raised her head at the voice that was too vivid to be a hallucination. She dropped her spoon onto the table at the sight that was too real to be an illusion.

“Why is Lord Caleb here?”

Though Belleair Castle was separated from the main palace, it was still strictly the empress’s space. It wasn’t a place where unauthorized people could freely enter and exit. Caleb’s sudden appearance as an outside man felt like spicy chicken feet appearing as an amuse-bouche at a court banquet. No, why are you appearing here?

“I accompanied Duke Este when he came to hunt foxes in the Emperor’s Forest. Since we came, he said he would pay respects to Her Majesty the empress, so we briefly visited Belleair Annex.”

As if supporting his words, the sound of hunting dogs barking could be heard in the distance. Come to think of it, he was carrying a hunting bow on his back.

Moreover, Duke Este was the empress’s brother from her natal family. It made sense for him to come to Belleair. These days, his position had become quite narrow due to taking the emperor’s side, so with the empress, his lifeline, in seclusion, he must be feeling quite frustrated.

In fact, fox hunting was probably an excuse, and his real purpose was likely the empress, she thought while glancing at Caleb. Ah, if they bothered to bring Caleb as a tail, the set would have come together.

“Your Highness the Princess, how do you do. It’s been a while, Alix.”

As expected. Following needle Caleb came his faithful thread, Antoine. Though it wasn’t a particularly welcome face, she had to acknowledge him.

“Brother. It’s been a long time.”

“Marquis Levizet, Baron Julard. This seems to be the first time seeing you outside the main palace this year.”

Elene spoke arrogantly, lifting her chin slightly. This was the first time Elene had seen Antoine in private since their marriage talks fell through. Still, neither of them seemed to have any particular feelings about it. After some trivial weather talk, Elene spoke snootily.

“Well then, let the siblings who met after a long time catch up here. I should go see my uncle after a while.”

Elene naturally extended her hand to Caleb. At the gesture naturally requesting an escort, Antoine’s lips twitched for a moment, but it was such a small movement that only she noticed.

But what could be done? Since there was a gentleman present, Her Highness the precious Princess couldn’t move alone, so naturally he had to escort her. Watching the retreating figures of Caleb and Elene, she casually spoke to Antoine.

“You haven’t shown yourself much at court lately, is the Privy Council work very busy these days?”

“The discussions regarding the founding festival budget allocation took a bit long. But it’s almost finished now.”

She nodded. Actually, she wasn’t curious about Privy Council work at all. She just needed a motive to break the silence. She gestured for Antoine to sit across from her at the tea table and poured a cup of tea from the teapot to hand to him. Antoine, who was tilting his teacup, paused at her next words.

“Mother says she plans to marry me off soon.”

Antoine furrowed his brow.

“You’re still young.”

“Until early this year, Elene, who’s the same age as me, was also having marriage talks with you.”

“……In my case, succession to the marquis title was at stake, so I had no choice but to marry a bit early. But you can take a few years to consider several decent men before deciding.”

She almost got emotional at his genuinely concerned voice.

Actually, Antoine wasn’t a bad older brother. Rather, he had been a grateful brother who had thoroughly played the role of protector, trying to fill the role of the absent father for his younger sister who was five years younger. But why was he now blinded by love and dragging everyone, including the younger sister he cherished so much, into a pit of fire?

If he gave even half of what he gave her to his wife, Mélisande wouldn’t have to spend such difficult days. Suddenly, like winter icicles, mischief arose and she spat out sharp words.

“Well, I must be one of the most expensive brides in this empire. There aren’t many who can afford me, so I’ll have to weigh carefully.”

“Alix.”

Ignoring Antoine’s reproachful tone for her cynical manner of speaking, she continued.

“But what if—just what if—they torment the bride they brought at great expense, saying she doesn’t meet their standards?”

Antoine’s eyes sharpened.

“You are Levizet’s legitimate eldest daughter. What family would dare to treat you poorly?”

“You never know. If I can’t bear children, I’ll live being mistreated. Or maybe the husband already has illegitimate children or concubines? Or he could be a pervert with violent tendencies, or……”

As she listed various worst-case scenarios, Antoine waved his hand to stop her.

“Then I’ll declare war on their family’s territory.”

She laughed. What a response to an old story. It must have been hundreds of years since the last territorial war occurred. After letting out a hollow laugh at Antoine taking her frivolous talk seriously, she spoke seriously.

“Then what about my new sister-in-law?”

“……You and my wife are different.”

“She’s also someone’s younger sister. Though her natal family doesn’t have the power to wage territorial war, how can one weigh the heart of a brother who cherishes his younger sister?”

Antoine fell silent.

What words should she add here? She thought for a moment and carefully chose her words. She stroked the rim of the smooth Andrette porcelain teacup and opened her mouth.

“……I’ve noticed that you don’t love Mélisande.”

It was explicit and n*ked words without a single drop of social euphemism or metaphor. It was also an expression method only possible between those born from the same womb and raised on the same milk.

Antoine’s eyes widened, not expecting to hear from his younger sister’s mouth words that openly denied the love story of the couple called the ‘romance of the century.’

“……I’m not going to force you to love her now. But at least treat her as a marchioness should be treated. Whether you have a mistress, or you simply grabbed anyone hastily to marry because you didn’t want to be tied to the Princess.”

At least the two of them were married. Moreover, by their own free will without forced intervention. At her direct manner of speaking, Antoine rubbed his brow and raised his head.

“Are you criticizing me?”

“No, this is advice as a younger sister.”

Perhaps reading the argument that at least if he brought her because he needed her, he should pay appropriate compensation, Antoine closed his eyes. She briefly thought of the intangible mass of migraine stirring in his head and then looked away.

Actually, she didn’t expect Antoine to change from this one piece of advice. His life was already a puppet tied to Caleb’s will with the rope called love.

“I hope you’ll respect her even a little.”

However, it was meddling born from a small wish that if he came to his senses even a little, stopped exploiting his legitimate wife, and thought of paying just compensation, he could reduce the price of his wrongdoing. She shrugged and turned her head.

And she met eyes with Caleb, who was staring at their place from among the trees. Her heart sank at the deep rage contained in those eyes. She didn’t know when he had returned or from where he had been listening. She could only instinctively feel the betrayal and anger carved into his rigid expression as vividly as reality.

That by openly defending Mélisande in front of Antoine, their friendship, which had been precariously maintained for many years, had just cracked like thin ice at a lakeside after winter’s end.

***

“Alix, I missed you!”

Upon returning to the main palace, she felt strange emotions seeing Mélisande running to greet her happily. Though they had only been apart for two days, she felt proud that they had become close enough for her to say she missed her, but she was also a bit worried about her sister-in-law being so happy to see her. How hurt would she be if she was betrayed somewhere while easily forming attachments to people like this?

She thought she should protect her well until she became grand duchess, but suddenly shocking news struck them. Mother had announced she would visit the territory.

“Will this be enough?”

She watched Mélisande packing for the journey with quick steps. Mélisande, preparing to leave on a long journey for the first time since coming to court, even seemed excited. She found it amazing that Mélisande was preparing so cheerfully for a journey with a mother-in-law who ignored her so much.

Mother would go down to inspect the territory three or four times a year. Usually, great nobles who kept residences at court often didn’t go to their main castles even once a year, but Mother had no intention of leaving Levizet’s territory entirely in others’ hands.

When teaching her and Antoine how to manage the family, Mother’s most frequent saying was, ‘Don’t trust any limbs except those attached to your body.’

The background for no one being able to ignore Mother, who had lost her husband at a young age and managed Levizet territory alone, contained years of running around with her own feet. Though it was less now, in her younger days, Mother had personally put the necks of those who lined their own pockets on the guillotine after making surprise visits to the territory.

But did she absolutely have to go down now? She worriedly examined the luggage Mother had packed. Mother, who had been examining the books, had discovered where money was leaking and became furious, declaring she would go down to the territory this very evening.

Since Mother had been showing increasingly frequent headache symptoms lately, she wondered if she should follow, but she couldn’t go because there was a wedding scheduled in two days. She had agreed to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Vice Admiral Lambize and Sophie’s older sister. If she, one of the two bridesmaids, suddenly dropped out, it would be tremendously rude and cause major disruption to the wedding ceremony.