The Breakup Was Quieter Than Expected
It was the winter social season in the Imperial Capital.
A massive chandelier hung from the ballroom ceiling, cradling hundreds of mana stones that blazed as bright as midday. The melody of a waltz filled every corner of the hall, mingling with the soft clink of crystal glasses.
Yet beneath those glittering lights, the nobles’ gazes slid coldly toward me where I stood in the corner.
I looked down at the glass in my hand. Half-empty golden liquor. The ice had long since melted, leaving it thin and tasteless. Flat champagne. Exactly like me right now.
“You’ve arrived, Lord Rion.”
I raised my head at the familiar voice. Serena Valter stood a few steps away. Her silver-gray hair was neatly coiled up, and she was, as always, flawless. Not a single crease marred the blue-tinged dress, and her hands rested composedly at her waist.
Behind her, Count Valter and his wife stood in a line with the onlookers who pretended indifference while watching us closely. Faces waiting for the party’s highlight. Everyone was craning their necks, eager for this little farce to begin.
I set my glass down on a nearby table.
“My lady.”
“Might we speak for a moment?”
The usual polite notice. I nodded silently. We moved a short distance from the center of the ballroom, behind a marble pillar. The waltz melody grew more distant, yet we could not shake the dozens of pairs of eyes that followed us. Of course, even at this range it would be hard to escape the sharp ears of the nobility. Perhaps she meant to observe the bare minimum of courtesy.
Serena did not speak at once. Her gaze drifted through the empty air as she carefully selected impeccable words. Of the hands clasped before her, the thumb of her left hand lightly rubbed the edge of her dress sleeve—an unconscious habit that surfaced whenever she was tense or psychologically uncomfortable. I watched the motion quietly and did not press her.
Before long, the fingers that had been fretting at her cuff stilled.
“Lord Rion. Today, I wish to formally dissolve our engagement.”
Each word sounded as if it had been meticulously carved. I had expected it, yet hearing it aloud still left a strange feeling. That was the full extent of the sentiment inside me.
Serena’s clear, cold gray eyes slowly traced my face, as if checking whether I had been wounded.
“…I see. May I ask the reason?”
At my calm voice, her brow twitched ever so slightly.
“I am aware of the circumstances facing your house.”
“You mean the recent incident on the border.”
“Yes. The monster activity across the northeastern region has grown unusually severe. The estate’s yields are dwindling while the cost of maintaining the barriers climbs by the day.”
She hesitated a moment before continuing.
“As the eldest daughter who leads my family, I will speak frankly… the Elverhart family is likely to face even greater hardship going forward.”
Her voice carried the thorough rationality of someone weighing profit and loss. She was not wrong. House Elverhart was a minor noble family of the borderlands. Neither title nor fortune amounted to much. All I stood to inherit were the claw marks of monsters that pressed inward every year and barrier stones that crumbled a little more with each season. While capital nobles discussed next season’s fashions in ballrooms, we had to calculate how many of us might survive the coming winter.
Serena was not someone who could endure that barren life. I had no intention of blaming her for her practical calculations.
“As the eldest daughter of my house, I cannot allow myself to be swayed by personal feelings.”
“I understand. Your choice, my lady.”
Serena’s lips stiffened just a fraction. Had my immediate answer grated on her? Or had she not expected such an unattached attitude?
“…You understand?”
“Yes. Because it is your choice.”
For the first time, Serena looked at me properly. Those always-composed gray eyes wavered then for the first time.
“…You’re not going to stop me.”
She asked the question in a low voice. I regarded her for a moment. She must have known how arrogant her own words were, yet she bit her lip and waited for my answer. It seemed she had wanted to confirm the depths of the man she was casting aside.
I let out a short breath and spoke.
“If you have judged that path to be the right one, my lady, then I have no reason to cling.”
In that instant the air between us drew taut. Serena closed her mouth. Had she expected me to cling pitifully? The one who seemed lost was her. Her thumb began fretting at the sleeve edge again, more irritably this time.
From beyond the pillar came the shallow sighs of the onlookers. Such a clean breakup farce had clearly been too bland for their tastes.
“Well then.”
I bowed my head first.
“I wish Lady Valter every blessing for the road ahead.”
Serena could add no reply as I turned away. The moment I took a step, the murmuring surged in like a tide.
“Is that really the end of it?”
“I thought he’d beg.”
“Even while his house is collapsing, Lord Elverhart still wants to save face, I suppose.”
Face, was it. Well. Making a scene before an already-decided ending would only tire me out.
I turned toward the side door that led to a corridor, intent on leaving the noisy ballroom. That was when a heavy gaze settled on the crown of my head from above. Looking up, I found a woman leaning against the upper balcony, looking down at me.
The Second Princess, Isabella Ernesia. Pale hair nearly the color of gold. Cool eyes that seemed to pierce straight through a person’s insides. The expression at the corners of her mouth made it plain she had found the recent farce entertaining.
I did not stop walking. I offered only a brief nod of acknowledgment and withdrew my gaze. There was nothing to gain from getting entangled with those in power.
Once I passed through the side door, the laughter, the music, and the thick scent of perfume drained away like an ebbing tide. A long corridor led toward the waiting rooms. I drew in the noticeably colder air and absently rested my hand against the marble wall.
…?
An unpleasant chill prickled up through my fingertips. I stopped dead. The grain of mana flowing inside the wall was fractured. A vibration so faint that an ordinary person would never have noticed it. I pulled my hand from the wall and examined the small mana stones set along the corridor. For the briefest instant their light flickered, as if holding its breath.
My gaze moved naturally toward the gap of the open door at the corridor’s end, to the massive chandelier illuminating the center of the ballroom. The defensive barrier that enveloped the entire Imperial Palace. On the surface it looked intact. Yet my senses were clearly sounding a warning. The barrier was coming undone as a whole. An invisible knot had already been tied wrong and was slowly unraveling. This was no natural wear of the barrier stones. This ominous, alien rupture was deliberate—
“An interesting expression, Lord Elverhart.”
An alien voice sounded behind me. I knew who it was without turning.
“Your Highness.”
“Weren’t you just jilted? For someone in that position, you seem remarkably composed.”
Princess Isabella approached without a sound and came to stand beside me. From her rose a scent like a blade rimed with frost—far sharper than the chill of a winter night.
“Would anything change if I weren’t composed?”
“No.”
The princess answered my dry reply at her leisure.
“Yet right now, your gaze is fixed on a rather odd place for a man who has just been cast aside.”
Her eyes flicked toward the axis of the barrier in the empty air where my gaze had rested. At that keen observation I clicked my tongue inwardly. A sense unique to the imperial bloodline, perhaps.
I felt once more the vast tremor of mana that ran from the corridor floor up through the walls, and opened my mouth.
“Your Highness.”
“Go on.”
“I know this is an impertinent question, but was the maintenance of tonight’s ballroom barrier completed properly?”
A brief silence settled. The princess’s eyes cooled in an instant.
“…Why ask that? I can’t quite grasp your intent.”
Beyond the waltz and the laughter came an unpleasant cracking sound, like sheets of ice splitting apart.
“Because I suspect things are about to grow noisy in a rather unpleasant way.”
The princess’s eyes narrowed as she looked at me. In that same moment, the light of the massive mana-stone chandelier illuminating the very center of the ballroom flashed pure white and spat out a shattering sound like breaking glass.
I looked up at the ceiling and narrowed my eyes. It seemed tonight would not end peacefully.