“You may still feel quite uneasy around me, but I’ll work hard to become your perfect right hand soon.”

The lady-in-waiting called May was a quite cheerful and friendly woman. Her unpretentious expression, kind tone, and half-moon eyes that creased when she smiled put anyone who saw her at ease.

Feeling the gentle hands wiping her face, Lia recalled the past few stormlike days.

After the war of words with the king, she fell into a deathlike sleep and opened her eyes to the dazzling, stinging morning sun.

What greeted her first was neither the terrifying king nor the lunatic man, but the soft air wrapping the tip of her nose.

Quiet stillness, dazzling sunlight, a soft blanket.

For a moment, everything last night felt like a dream. She had simply woken from a terrifying nightmare. A terribly frightening one….

But the many people who entered soon pulled her, being swallowed by vain hope, back into reality.

The first person her eyes landed on then was the woman before her now, May.

“Hello, Princess Blair. I’m ‘May,’ newly assigned to serve you. It is a great honor to attend you so closely.”

Approaching hesitantly, she greeted her in a trembling voice, enunciating each word clearly. Lia smiled awkwardly and received the greeting of the next servant, and the next.

Only after the greetings of more than ten servants did she realize.

‘Impossible.’

Everyone in that room was a new servant meeting her for the first time. Without a single exception.

What did that mean? Clever Lia understood at once.

Everyone who attended the former Blair was killed. By the cruel king, their father.

“How did you live in a place like this, you?”

Lia looked down at her ankles dangling beneath the bed.

Somehow they ached terribly. It felt like an invisible, heavy shackle was fastened there. The red carpet beneath her white, bony feet blurred her vision and began to turn her stomach.

Ah. Did her twin always sit here with this same feeling? Enduring this sickening nausea? Despairing over her situation, unable to flee? Did she sob alone, holding her breath?

She lifted her head at the surging nausea. The largest window in the room happened to be right in front of her.

Beyond the spotless, transparent glass, the sky came into view.

It was truly a blue sky.

* * *

“Louis. What do you think? Will that child do well?”

The king asked, placing his clasped hands on the desk. They were hands weathered by the years, yet still looked solid and strong.

Louis looked at the ring on the king’s finger as he answered. The large purple gem on the ring kept drawing his eyes.

“I dare to be certain that she will be a flawless Princess Blair, no, something beyond that.”

“Oh, that much?”

“For three days and nights before the deed, I watched and realized. That man raised her as a princess. Though not perfect, the posture and grace a royal needs were lacking in nothing, and she constantly read and studied something. I judge her basic refinement and knowledge will be lacking in nothing as well. Her boldness that does not yield even before terror, and her strong willpower, His Majesty saw for himself, so you can surely imagine.”

The man, reminiscent of a well-honed blade, finished his answer without blinking.

“I was surprised as well. Blood cannot be hidden, I suppose. That expression then… the spitting image of me.”

The king answered with a hearty laugh, pleased about something.

“With just a couple of months of good training, she will be the perfect Lady Blair. Felix can never learn of this. Last night, even Lady Blair’s nursemaid passed away, so the only ones who know of this are Your Majesty, myself, and the party herself.”

“Oh dear. So she too went to the gods’ side at last. Now everyone who was present the day the children were born is gone from this world. How regrettable.”

“….”

“You’ve worked hard. I’ll give you leave for a while. Do not come until I call you again.”

The king took a pouch the size of an adult’s fist from a drawer and tossed it onto the desk. Louis’s gaze went to the round golden cloth bundle. It was a different reward than usual.

“I stuffed it full of blood money, so you’ll lack nothing.”

The corners of Louis’s lips slowly curled as he picked up the pouch. He seemed quite pleased with the king’s reward.

He hurried to leave the king’s office for the leave that came like unexpected luck, but before that, there was something he very much wished to ask. Holding the doorknob, he asked the king.

“With respect, I must ask. Why did you accept her last condition?”

The king’s white brows twitched.

In truth, even the king himself did not know why he showed such generosity.

Why he cast away so easily a golden chance to gather enormous power and wealth. Why he so lightly let go of the substitute for Blair that he worked so hard to bring in.

After a brief silence, the king answered.

“That child kept saying I was mad, mad, so perhaps I truly went mad for a moment.”

* * *

After the quiet night, when even the moonlight held its breath, passed.

In the faint, dim dawn, some fifty people passed out through the castle gate together. They were Taran and the delegation he led. Blue banners fluttered in the sky, adding to the grandeur.

As the horses and carriages carrying knights, soldiers, and Felix’s high officials passed through the town in a line, petals scattered and a roar that shook heaven and earth burst out.

The public held immense interest in the crown princess who would return with Taran.

They had ‘expected’ it. Surely, barring some unusual change, the crown princess seat would be taken by Lady Ariel of the Stefan ducal house.

But the enormous ‘change’ of an unforeseen war defied everyone’s expectations, and a princess of a foreign country was chosen for the crown princess seat! The princess of Lucia, the country holding the world’s best gold mine!

Though it was a small country, the land it governed was immensely valuable. Felix’s people were enthusiastic, dreaming of an even stronger nation.

Moreover, even the people of Robini, recently absorbed, hoped Taran’s marriage might improve their lot a little. They thought Felix, which toppled their homeland, was a more livable country than they expected, and since it had come to this, they wanted Felix to grow even mightier. They did not want to become wanderers in the fields after losing wars twice.

Taran’s party, sent off with fervent cheers, crossed the border without incident a few days later and set foot on Lucian soil.

It was a sunny day, thick with the scent of spring.

Taran was watching the wide field in full bloom from inside the carriage.

Buds that began to open bloomed shyly on branches set against the blue sky. The flowers in the field, which bloomed earlier, swayed in the spring breeze to greet Taran and his party. It felt like a welcome.

Watching the vibrant scenery filled with the spirit of spring, the carriage he rode in somehow grew boring. Taran decided to ride a horse himself.

He got out of the carriage and mounted a black horse flaunting its glossy coat. Smiling with satisfaction, Taran quickly approached a short, ash-haired man riding some distance ahead.

“How much farther, Ian?”

“Four more days.”

“Still? I’m getting bored.”

“It will be soon.”

He was Felix’s finest swordsman, and Taran’s friend, with whom he shared sword, flesh, and sweat. Ian.

His answer was as dry as winter firewood. The man, with his bronze skin and long, single-lidded eyes, was very attractive, and his personality was the opposite of the glib Taran’s.

“Should I pick some flowers on the way?”

“…Are you looking forward to it?”

Ian asked, but no particular answer came. Ian did not expect one, so he asked no more.

Taran stopped his horse beneath a large acacia. Summer had not even come yet, but the sun beating down on his head heated his crown quite hot.

“Shall we rest a bit. I’m thirsty.”

“As you wish.”

Ian raised his hand high to signal the following procession to halt.