“So, I guess we have a common goal, and we had some fun with fire at the palace. We even broke down the Rose Palace. It seems we’ve become the kind of people who can just throw insults at each other.”
I glanced around. Although we were inside the Imperial Palace, the people who remained to clean up the area seemed to be mostly from the House of Castner. It was natural. The Royal Guards had all followed the Emperor, and Empress Cleo’s people had left to take care of Prince Brian and the Empress herself. The palace guards, who were already known for being lazy, were naturally startled by the demons, and when they heard that “the” House of Castner was taking care of the cleanup, they took off without a second thought.
In other words, no one was around to interfere with whatever we were doing. There was a man I presumed was Lisiansius’s colleague shaking his head a few steps away, but he showed no sign of coming closer.
I sighed and tore off a piece from the end of my skirt. For all the commotion, it wasn’t as dirty as I thought it would be. I pulled Lisiansius’s hand toward me and wrapped his palm tightly with the fabric. Treatment? The House of Castner can summon a High Priest in an instant. Just stopping the bleeding should be enough.
“But that doesn’t mean Young Master Lisiansius has the right to question me, does it?”
“…”
Lisiansius’s body stiffened when he noticed my eyes on the sword at his waist. At the same time, his hand in mine also went rigid. He was like a block of wood. Yet, his fingertips twitched slightly every time I wrapped the white cloth tightly around his hand.
“Hey, you, that…”
I clicked my tongue, watching Lisiansius hesitate, as if the words were stuck in his throat.
“I know. The Count of Oland and the House of Castner made up a story about your sword and made it public.”
“…You knew that my brother danced with another woman to create an excuse to give me the sword? But why did you then…”
“I didn’t know back then.”
My short reply left Lisiansius speechless. Our eyes met. My calm green eyes were reflected in his bewildered red ones, as if he had come up against an unanswerable question. It was a strange sight, like dead leaves and new sprouts in the same place.
“…My brother did that because of me.”
“I know.”
“He and that woman have no relationship whatsoever.”
“I don’t care.”
“What?” Lisiansius was startled, like a frog dropped into boiling water.
“Hey, I know perfectly well what a scene you made back then! You don’t care? How?”
“It’s a question I get so often I’m tired of it! But if I have to answer, go ask the tallest yew tree in the garden near the second-floor balcony of the Rose Palace… Wait, no. The Rose Palace, the garden, and all the trees have been shattered. The real answer! You just have to get a serious head injury!”
“Your jokes aren’t funny… Does my brother know you’re like this?”
“Of course. I even told him not to feel burdened because I’m planning to break off the engagement later.”
“What?! You’re going to break the engagement?!”
“This is a plan that would ruin me and the ducal family if it got out to the Imperial Family, so keep your mouth shut.”
“No, you, but…”
Lisiansius’s face was instantly colored with a mix of emotions. The change was so fleeting that it was hard to tell what they were.
“…For real? You don’t like my brother anymore?”
I hesitated for a moment before answering. Even though I was gritting my teeth to hide it, I didn’t feel completely unaffected when I saw Raymond. It was a relief that the adult woman’s self, who lived in the 21st century and had regained her past life’s memories, was more dominant than the affection-starved child’s self. But still, when I first offered him a deal at teatime and felt the blade pointed at my neck, I remember thinking, ‘Just as I expected.’ I clenched my jaw and replied.
“I think he’s an objectively great person, from one human to another.”
I hoped he would be satisfied with that, but Lisiansius stared at me as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I know how many years you’ve spent pathetically in love with him! And you’re telling me ‘from one human to another’? Just last year, you bought a love elixir from a strange fortune teller, soaked it, folded a hundred paper flowers, put them in a glass bottle, and gave them to him…”
“And he said they didn’t suit him! He told me to know my place and get lost! I’m finally trying to be cool, so stop spoiling it and just listen!”
Agh! I snapped at him, and Lisiansius hunched his shoulders like a threatened turtle retreating into its shell.
Okay. I’m sick of hearing about my past humiliation. It’s better to make it clear here and now.
“I! Do not! Like Raymond Oberon El Castner! Anymore! Do you understand?! Do you understand?! I was told to know my place, so I did! I was told to grow up, so I grew up! I was told to think of it as just a contractual engagement, so I did! Understand!”
“Uh, what?” Lisiansius replied in a dazed voice. He flinched and averted his eyes as soon as he saw my eyes burning with frustration and anger, then he suddenly looked at the space behind me and let out a small gasp.
“Princess Titania and Young Duke Raymond are politically engaged! That’s it! Nothing more! They are strangers, just strangers! End of story! Whether they have the title of fiancée or not, even if everyone else in the world died and they were left alone on a deserted island! They would never become husband and wife!”
Hah. I finished my rant, taking a deep breath. Was it just my imagination, or had everything suddenly gone quiet?
About three steps away, a man with a look of shock on his face was staring at me, his mouth agape. His face looked strangely familiar… Oh, right. Cassian, wasn’t it? Raymond’s adjutant who followed him everywhere like a goldfish’s waste. I wondered why he was here…
“Is that so?”
…Yes.
A shiver ran down my spine.
Stomp, stomp. The sound of footsteps was exceptionally clear. Raymond stopped between a frozen Lisiansius and me. Lisiansius, looking like he had just seen a ghost, looked back and forth between Raymond and me. Raymond’s face was just as it usually was.
That was even more terrifying.
