Tarsa relented without a fuss the moment Calon was mentioned. Tarsa liked Lawrence well enough, but she liked Calon very much and followed him readily.

She had even said she wanted to marry him, so that said it all.

When Tarsa became too difficult to handle, Lawrence, the Emperor, and even the imperial princess all used Calon as bait.

Just like now.

“Marquis, I thought well of you.”

“Yes. I am a bad person.”

“Hmph.”

Tarsa stuck out her lip but walked along holding Lawrence’s hand tight. She chattered on, telling him about the waiting room again, and about how she and Jade had shared candy and become friends.

“It sounds like you had a good time.”

Lawrence looked at Tarsa with a touch of sympathy.

How bored must this tiny thing have been in the palace to come all the way out here and cause such a scene.

Just like Jade, Tarsa had no friends her own age.

He hoped the two children would grow close, but Tarsa being the imperial granddaughter weighed on his mind. There would be those who might try to use Jade as a piece on a chessboard.

“Bring Jade next time. I will treat him very, very well. I’ll even give him my treasure.”

“……Jade would be horrified to know that treasure is an earthworm.”

“Then does he like stag beetles? I haven’t found a rhinoceros beetle yet.”

“Please don’t look for one.”

Then again, there was probably no noblewoman her age who could put up with an imperial granddaughter who climbed trees and tore her clothes, stomped through puddles on rainy days, and somehow brought a stag beetle home in her shoe and declared she would keep it as a pet.

“I’ll see you next time.”

“Put in a good word for me when my great-uncle comes……”

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell him Your Highness was very well-behaved.”

“Mm.”

Tarsa let go of Lawrence’s hand and reached out toward the captain of the imperial palace knights who had come to collect her.

The captain only lowered himself in a bow and did not take the child’s hand. It seemed he could not bring himself to hold the imperial granddaughter’s hand.

A flicker of disappointment crossed her small face, but Tarsa quickly smiled again and waved at Lawrence, telling him she would see him next time.

Lawrence watched until Tarsa boarded the carriage before turning around.

“Ray, up you get.”

Arinne saw Lawrence returning and sat Ray up, who had sprawled across Lawrence’s seat and was lounging there.

Ray had grown tired of waiting for Jade’s next turn and sulked a little at Arinne too, but he settled down when Lawrence came back from seeing Tarsa off and handed him a meringue cookie he had bought on the way.

“Hm? Why do you have that look on your face?”

Arinne patted Ray’s back as he made his boredom known with his whole body, and studied Lawrence’s expression.

Lawrence lightly stroked the head of Ray, who was burrowing into Arinne’s arms, and lowered his voice.

“Actually, that child from earlier, …… she is Her Highness, Imperial Granddaughter Tarsa.”

“But Tarsa is four years old. She was four when I left the capital. Ah. Then she would be nine now?”

Arinne realized it only as she said it. Just as her own age had gone up year by year, so had everyone else’s, and the time of an adult and the time of a child were different things.

“But number 13 was a boy.”

Arinne pressed Lawrence, already having settled on an answer in her mind.

“She participated disguised as a boy. The eligibility requirements still only allow boys. Even aside from that, she has always been a rather unusual person in many ways.”

Lawrence shook his head and sighed. Thinking of Tarsa as a child her age made everything forgivable, but thinking of her as royalty, she was a troublemaker who was embarrassing to present in any setting.

“You expect me to believe this?”

“You may not believe it, but it is the truth.”

“How could that child from earlier possibly be Her Highness the Imperial Granddaughter……”

Arinne was dumbfounded. The fact that number 13 was not a boy but a girl, and that she was the imperial granddaughter Tarsa, was hard enough to believe, but the most shocking thing was the ‘time’ itself.

The Tarsa in her memory was a baby in a bright yellow dress, sitting on the Emperor’s knee and laughing without a hint of shyness.

A baby who had waddled when she walked had suddenly reappeared one day as a rough-and-tumble child who beat her opponent down with physical force.

“Goodness.”

Arinne could not hide her astonishment. Still unable to shake off the shock, she threw questions at Lawrence that were closer to talking to herself.

“Why do children grow up so fast? I can’t understand it.”

“I know.”

Lawrence agreed with a wry smile. His gaze came to rest on Ray.

Ray had already finished the meringue cookie and was smacking his lips idly out of lingering want, then felt the gaze and looked up.

“More?”

Ray’s eyes lit up, wondering whether Lawrence was going to give him another snack.

“Snacks are done for today.”

“Dad is annoying. You used to give Ray everything when I said ‘please.’ Your heart has turned bad. Right, big sister?”

Disappointed by Lawrence’s firm answer, Ray looked up at Arinne in a way that seemed like he was tattling on him.

“Hmm.”

Arinne looked at Ray quietly, then with full seriousness, took the child’s cheeks in both hands and turned his face this way and that.

“Ow? Ray’s cheeks hurt.”

“Hold still for a moment.”

This little ball of dough would, in a few years, become a child Jade’s size, then a boy, and eventually a grown man like Lawrence.

‘Ah.’

Ray becoming an adult. She could not picture it at all.

Arinne sneaked a glance at Lawrence and tried to imagine his face on Ray’s body.

“Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Does that mean Jade too?!”

Ah, no. Children should stay children forever. That is just too, too adult.

Arinne muttered with a grave expression.

“Are you listening to me?”

“No.”

“……”

“Say it again. I’ll listen properly this time.”

Arinne kneaded Ray’s cheeks with great dedication. The thought that once Ray grew up she would no longer be able to touch these cheeks made her reluctant to pull her hands away.

‘I should take a good long look.’

Arinne studied Ray’s eyes, nose, and mouth one by one while only pretending to half-listen to Lawrence.

“So, what we talked about was,”

“Was?”

“Arinne. It is very obvious that your mind is elsewhere.”

“Is it obvious?”

Arinne smiled sheepishly and took her hands off Ray’s cheeks.

“Please actually listen.”

“Alright. I’m sorry.”

“His Highness Tarsa said that before the tournament began……”

Lawrence continued in a low voice only after she turned to look at him properly.

Just as Lawrence had felt when he heard from Tarsa about what had happened in the waiting room, the smile faded from Arinne’s face too.

“Rude child.”

For some people, a fist was the cure. It was her firm belief that those who acted out trusting in their own power needed a greater force to bring them understanding and reflection.

“Ah. But I don’t touch children.”

She muttered quietly, and Lawrence, startled, spoke in a soothing tone.

“That goes without saying.”

“Which is exactly why I said I don’t touch them.”

Even Lawrence’s gentle reply drew a sharp response from Arinne.

She had a reputation for being utterly shameless and arrogant, second to none when it came to doing as she pleased, but she had her own rules.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. On top of that, she was someone who only felt satisfied when she paid back twice what she had received, and she did not care who the other party was.

But even she was lenient toward children.

“I can’t do anything to the child, but I can do something about the adults in that household.”

“Still, the children made up with each other, so I hear. Let’s just make sure that knight who threatened Jade is dealt with properly.”

The one who should have been more upset by what Tarsa had told him was Lawrence himself, yet he moved to soothe Arinne first.

He started to cover her hand with his, then stopped. His hand froze awkwardly in midair.

“Ahem. Well, I’ll need to confirm it with Jade again, but. Isn’t Jade’s match more important right now.”

“What are you hesitating for?”

She frowned and pulled his retreating hand back and held it.

“What are you doing?! Grabbing a man’s hand without a care in the world!!”

Lawrence’s face turned red in an instant and he pulled his hand free from her grip.

Arinne raised one eyebrow at an angle. When she told him not to hold her hand, he had been desperate not to let go, yet now that she was the one reaching out first, he leapt back in alarm and refused, which she found absurd.

‘He can do it but I can’t?!’

A pointless stubbornness rose in Arinne and she tried to take his hand again, and each time she did, Lawrence quickly pulled it away.

“Give me your hand.”

“No.”

He hid both hands behind his back entirely.

‘You call this giving it your best?!’

She shot Lawrence a resentful glare and called the man from earlier over to hand Ray off to him.

“Mister~!”

“Little one~!”

A bond that had started with gold coins had grown surprisingly warm in no time, and the man and Ray dissolved into their own little world, giggling together.

“Wait! Ray is my son,”

“That fact isn’t changing.”

He tried to pull Ray jealously back into his own arms again, but she was one step faster.

“Ah!!”