“If you’re attached to it, hand it over to me. I’ll dispose of it.”

“Ha.”

Dispose? Dispose!

Yolly was the only being that made Saena feel Yuri’s remnants. No one could take Yolly away from her.

Already on edge because of the Prince, hearing such words made it impossible to endure. Her desire to let things pass pleasantly disappeared, and her heart sank coldly.

“You don’t know your place.”

A cold voice unlike any heard before came from Saena’s lips.

“Please leave now.”

“…What?”

“And I’d prefer if you didn’t come without prior appointments in the future. If you wish to visit, please send a request in advance.”

I should have restricted access from the start. My mistake was forgetting to revoke the existing permission.

“Are– are you throwing me out instead of that beast?”

“Yes. You clearly crossed a line today. What? Dispose?”

“…Don’t you understand the situation! What will people say if they know you’re defending the attacking beast instead of the victim!”

I wonder if she realizes her words carry the tone of a threat.

Saena’s gaze grew colder.

“You introduce yourself as my ‘best’ friend, yet you make threats so casually.”

“…I-I’m not threatening! That’s just how the situation is!”

Yolly.

The Duke had definitely called him a ‘good fellow’ before. If he wasn’t just saying empty words, there must have been a reason he said that, and there must be a reason why Yolly particularly dislikes Elizabeth.

No need for three chances or anything else. There wasn’t even a need to consider it further.

The moment she touched Yolly, Elizabeth had no more chances.

“Even if that were the situation, wouldn’t a real ‘friend’ try to make it as if nothing happened?”

“What…”

“In that sense, we’re no longer friends. No, I don’t think we ever were friends.”

“……”

“And we won’t be in the future. I won’t have any reason to meet you or look for you. And……”

Elizabeth forgot her words as Saena’s expression, already cold, became like ice as she spoke.

“Though I’ve been lenient with you until now because of our shallow connection… that won’t happen anymore… Feel free to test it if you want.”

With these warning words that bordered on prophecy, Saena turned away.

“Saena!!”

Ignoring the voice calling her name in apparent anger, she spoke to the servant waiting outside the reception room.

“The guest is leaving. Please escort her out.”

It was a clear dismissal.

* * *

Dinner time.

Their father, Sage, and Saena all gathered together for dinner. The Count had come to the capital for some contracts, so all three family members gathered for the first time in a while.

“I heard there was an incident at the Imperial tea party?”

Count Debov asked as dessert was being served after the main course. It seems the news had reached Father too.

“It was nothing. Just tea spilling and ruining a dress.”

“Oh my. You weren’t burned?”

“No, I’m fine. The tea had cooled somewhat, and a doctor came right away.”

Saena quickly emphasized she wasn’t hurt, worried he might be concerned.

“Really nothing? Then why is His Highness asking you to come to the Imperial Medical Center?”

But Sage, who had read the Prince’s letter, still seemed unconvinced. He immediately pressed for details.

“Maybe he’s worried it hasn’t healed completely. But I don’t need to go. I’m perfectly fine, see? Do I need to strip n*ked to prove it?”

“……”

This seemed to convince him. However, that was just about whether she was injured or not.

“Why was the Prince at that tea party in the first place?”

“I don’t know either. He came suddenly.”

As the honorific ‘His Highness’ started dropping when they mentioned the Prince, Count Debov gestured to the butler. All servants except the butler withdrew.

“Do you not realize how serious this situation could become? Instead of hiding it……”

“If I wanted to hide it, would I have given you that letter, Brother?”

“……”

“Yes, Sage. Don’t get excited, let’s take this step by step.”

Saena had no intention of hiding anything. She just found it difficult to determine the Prince’s attitude definitively.

“I don’t understand why His Highness is acting this way either. I don’t know why he’s doing this to me.”

“When a man pursues a woman, what other purpose could there be? It’s obvious.”

“No, there’s a Hebeta, and with the imperial family, it’s not that simple, right?”

“That part confuses me too….”

In a world where arranged marriages were common even among nobles, the imperial family was actually more lenient about status.

While this might suggest the possibility of love marriages, the problem was that the imperial family’s leniency about status wasn’t because they didn’t care who it was.

Since pregnancy was a necessary condition for determining the positions of Crown Prince and Crown Princess, and such pregnancies were known to be extremely difficult, imperial marriages could be said to require more careful selection of partners than any other family.

This narrowed the conclusions down to two possibilities.

One was….

“Father. Perhaps…”

Though not certain, could it be related to Hebeta?

“Do you know the criteria for selecting Hebeta?”

Though Saena was uncertain whether she possessed the required qualities, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being tested somehow.

“Hebeta?”

“If it’s not my imagination that His Highness is showing interest in me……”

“It’s not your imagination.”

When she asked Sage’s opinion again, wondering if she was being overly self-conscious, he gave a definitive answer.

“…Then I think there might be two reasons, and one of them could be about Hebeta.”

“You think he might be considering you as the next Hebeta candidate?”

Father seemed to have never considered this possibility as he mulled over the question.

“Hm…. Now that I think about it, Lady Barnes has been Hebeta for over two years……”

Sage muttered, suddenly realizing something.

“But they’ve never taken a Hebeta from the central nobility?”

Count Debov spoke as though finding it strange. Indeed, who among the central nobility would send their daughter to be a Hebeta?

“Then… does he just want to… do something with me?”

“Do what?”

The second reason was actually somewhat awkward to discuss with family, but if Hebeta wasn’t the goal, there was only one reason for his advances, right?

“…One night?”

“……”

“…What?!”

Though unpleasant, no other reason came to mind. Sage’s face contorted completely, and Count Debov’s expression also froze cold.

“Saya, you… how could you think such…”

His face showed shock, seemingly unable to believe such words came from his sister who had just reached adulthood.

“No… I know it’s an outrageous assumption, but… Brother, can you think of any other reason?”

“Even if he is the Prince, how dare he– to House Debov’s legitimate daughter, such– Don’t say such nonsense!”

Sage shouted in fury. But shouting wouldn’t solve this problem.

“Right? Our family isn’t one that can be taken lightly enough to try something like that, right?”

“Of course not!”

“Then… what about the possibility of being a Hebeta? What happens if, by any chance, an imperial order comes down?”

Though it felt like she might be getting ahead of herself with worry, she had to ask.

While House Debov was a prestigious family, they focused more on commerce than producing government officials, so their political influence was relatively small.

This meant that if an imperial order came down before they could find any countermeasures, there would be no way out.

Surely there would be backlash from the central nobility, but the problem was that before any measures could be taken, Saena as an individual might have already crossed a point of no return.

“……”

“…I’ll look into it.”

Count Debov said with a cold, determined expression.

* * *

The next day.

Saena handled several personal matters.

She sent a reply to the Prince, expressing her gratitude very politely while clearly drawing boundaries, and wrote separate thank-you letters to her friends who had visited her.

She also prepared a small gift and letter for Her Highness the Princess, thanking her for lending the palace for treatment during the tea party and for her consideration.

The Prince’s flowers went to the accessory room like last time, and while the dress went to the dressing room, she ordered it hung in the very back, out of sight. She couldn’t bring herself to throw it away after all.

For the Duke… though she wrote something, she kept it aside. Somehow feeling shy, she decided to give it to him directly rather than through a messenger.

They meet every week anyway.

‘That medicine the Duke gave me was really amazing….’

In fact, the reason she didn’t need to rely on the Imperial Medical Center or other medicines might have been because of that potion. Actually, she had received a lot of help from him. This made her feel she needed to show a bit more sincerity in her gratitude to the Duke.

‘Should I look around shops and see if there’s a suitable gift?’

Yes. She would be in the capital all week anyway, so she’d go out briefly tomorrow.

“I’m planning to go to Rohaton Street tomorrow, Nanny.”

“For shopping?”

“Yes. I have some things to buy.”

“Alright. I’ll have everything prepared.”

“Thank you.”

And she heard about Elizabeth from the nanny. Apparently, even though she left angry, she took all the wooden boxes with her. It was unexpected — Saena thought she wouldn’t take them out of pride. Or perhaps she had expected it.

Either way, Saena had decided to cut ties completely.

“Did you tell the guard unit? Don’t let Lady Valdez in anymore.”

“Yes. I told them. But why……”

The nanny seemed curious about what happened. She was probably worried, as Elizabeth had been the only young lady who regularly visited.

“Something just happened.”

“…Are you really okay? Did you have an upsetting incident or fight?”

“Rather than that, um. I thought she was a friend, but she wasn’t.”

“……”

Thinking she might have been hurt from fighting with a friend, the nanny fidgeted anxiously.

“Kyang!”

Yolly appeared from somewhere, making a strange sound. Saena laughed and picked him up as he brushed his tail against her calves, going back and forth.

“Yolly. Are you here to cause trouble again?”

Tap tap. The way he wagged his tail vigorously seemed to say that wasn’t the case.

“Come to think of it, this little guy caused trouble yesterday, didn’t he? Did this happen because of yesterday’s incident?”

“Well, it became a catalyst, but that’s not all. Elizabeth was also wrong to come without notice, so we can’t blame only Yolly.”

“Hmm. That’s true too. Though he acted mischievous, I never thought he was violent, but yesterday he was particularly……”

The nanny looked at Yolly as if she wanted to get rid of him again. Yolly tapped his tail irritably, seemingly asking why she was looking at him that way.

“He strangely dislikes Elizabeth. I found it a bit surprising too.”

“…Ah, come to think of it, it was Lady Valdez last time too, wasn’t it? That’s right.”

The nanny tilted her head curiously.

Saena traced her past memories. Yolly had seemed to show dislike for the envelope from the Prince too…

“Yolly, could you perhaps have a sense for detecting bad people?”

Saena lifted Yolly up and muttered while meeting his eyes.

If not exactly bad people, maybe he had a sense for distinguishing between people who were good or bad for Saena. Since he was somewhat extraordinary, who knows?

Saena grinned as she let her imagination run wild.

* * *