The Closest Aides Meeting
“Wearing new clothes feels wonderful.”
Shuri hummed a cheerful little tune, her dress fluttering around her. The flowing chiffon swayed with her every movement, graceful as a butterfly in flight.
Ishtel had always liked seeing Shuri armed in a fur cloak and armor, but she had pointed out that the look did not suit the season.
The climate in Seider, the capital of the Tebron Empire, was far milder than that of the Northern Archduchy. Wearing a heavy fur cloak every day risked heatstroke, so lighter garments were necessary.
Thankfully, Ishtel had gifted Shuri some luxurious fabric, allowing her to have this beautiful dress made.
“Her Grace will love it, won’t she? I can’t wait to show her how it looks on me!”
Shuri smiled brightly at her reflection in the palace corridor window.
“Still… is it all right to visit the Duchess over something so trivial?”
Lately Ishtel’s expression had been far from bright. She had never been one to smile often, but recently it went beyond that. She seemed burdened by some grave concern.
“Hmm… what should I do?”
Shuri stopped walking and stroked her chin, lost in thought.
In that instant, her arm was yanked behind a marble pillar. Before she could even scream, long fingers pressed firmly over her mouth.
“Mmph—!”
“Shh!”
The one who had pulled her whispered in a low voice.
“It’s me.”
Pale blue eyes glinted in the shadows.
“Hellion!”
Shuri pressed a hand to her startled heart and smoothed down her dress.
“What are you doing, suddenly grabbing me like that? You’ve wrinkled my dress!”
“It doesn’t suit you all that much anyway,” Hellion replied.
He said it without meaning it; in truth he thought the dress suited her rather well.
“That imperial uniform you’re wearing doesn’t suit you either, you know. It looked perfect on Archduke Illid, though.”
Shuri had been inwardly impressed by how striking Hellion looked in uniform, yet her words said the opposite.
“Anyway, what are you doing hiding in a cramped place like this? If you have something to say, come out and say it properly.”
“I can’t. What if someone sees us?”
Hellion shook his head firmly.
“What would Ishtel think if she saw her former fiancée alone with me?”
“She probably wouldn’t think anything of it.”
Shuri winked, as if to tell him not to worry.
“Even when we’re alone together, she’s never once asked about you. So you don’t need to worry that the Duchess would feel awkward about our relationship!”
She had meant to ease his concern, but Hellion’s expression only grew sour.
“Really?”
“What?”
“Ishtel truly hasn’t asked a single thing about me?”
Hellion tapped Shuri’s forehead with his index finger, urging her to think harder.
“Hmm…”
Shuri closed her eyes tightly and recalled every recent encounter with Ishtel.
Their first meeting at the founding festival ball, the shooting contest at the imperial hunting grounds, the sword duel at the training field, the afternoon they had chosen dress fabric together… Yet she could not remember a single conversation that had touched on Hellion.
“No, I don’t think she has.”
“I asked a useless question. Sorry for bothering you.”
Hellion frowned deeply and kicked a random stone pillar with the toe of his boot. Still unsatisfied, he ruffled his usually neat red hair in irritation. Shuri, well accustomed to this habit, clicked her tongue. Here we go again.
“Then do you know why Ishtel has been so down lately?”
Once he had calmed himself, Hellion asked her directly.
“Every time I see her, her face looks troubled.”
“Oh, you noticed it too?”
Shuri nodded vigorously, glad to have someone who shared her observation.
“I wonder what could have happened.”
“You don’t know either? I thought you’d been spending a lot of time with her lately.”
“We have, but even so, I don’t know. No matter how close we’ve become, we’ve only known each other a short while.”
“That’s true.”
Hellion crossed his arms and sank into thought.
Looking back, Ishtel’s low mood seemed to stretch back quite far. Perhaps it had begun the day she reserved the imperial hunting grounds for the entire day. He could not be certain, but that felt like the starting point.
Since he could not guess the reason, he had asked Shuri—another woman—but she had been no help at all.
“Do you know anyone particularly close to Ishtel?”
After long deliberation, Hellion spoke again.
“People who might understand why she’s like this. Her closest aides, I mean.”
At the words closest aides, Shuri’s eyes sparkled.
“Of course I do. I know them very well!”
The agenda: ‘Why has Duchess Regentera been in low spirits lately?’
“Ah, ahem. I now declare the first meeting of the ICM—Ishtel’s Closest Aides Meeting—officially open!”
“What’s an ICM? Do you know, Molly?”
“First I’ve heard of it. What about you, Baroness Turen?”
“I have no idea. Completely new to me.”
The women, who had been dragged there by Shuri without explanation, sat around a round table. Only Shuri remained standing, her face bright as she began to explain.
“ICM stands for ‘Ishtel’s Closest Aides Meeting’—a gathering of those closest to Duchess Regentera!”
“Oh, is that so? It does sound like a lovely little group, but…”
Rose, chin resting on her hand, cast a sidelong glance across the table.
“Why is His Highness here…?”
The gazes of the nanny, Rose, and Baroness Turen all turned in the same direction. Perhaps feeling the weight of their collective stare, Hellion cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Ah, Archduke Hellion is actually the one who called today’s meeting.”
Shuri spread a large sheet of paper across the table and read the words written on it.
“The agenda is ‘Why has Duchess Regentera been in low spirits lately?’”
“Goodness. Even His Imperial Highness worries about our young lady?”
Molly, who remembered Hellion from his childhood, used the old title she had once called him.
“When did you grow up and become so kind-hearted? It feels like only yesterday you were releasing frogs into our young lady’s room to torment her…”
The nanny’s eyes grew misty as she drifted into memory.
“I spent days chasing those frogs… Even now I sometimes hear their croaking in my sleep like hallucinations. And a few I never managed to catch, so I simply pretended not to notice. I suspect all the frogs in the palace pond now are descendants of the ones that got away.”
Hellion, thoroughly embarrassed, subtly avoided Molly’s eyes. But the nanny, lost in warm nostalgia, paid no attention and continued listing one childish prank after another from his youth.
Meanwhile, Rose and Baroness Turen were thoroughly occupied studying Hellion from every angle. Though they had occasionally crossed paths in the palace, this was their first time seeing him at such close range.
“Now I think I understand why you were so obsessed,” Rose whispered to Shuri behind her fan.
“I’ll confess—I was actually on Archduke Illid’s side. But right now… I’m starting to waver a little.”
Rose looked Hellion up and down before continuing.
“He looks like a man, yet there’s still something of a boy about him… Those eyes are deep and sharp, and that jawline is so defined it could cut. And look at that vivid red hair. He really is like an untamed red wolf.”
“Pfft.”
Baroness Turen quickly covered her mouth with her hand. She barely managed to hold back the laughter triggered by Rose’s perfect description.
“Rose, you should become a poet.”
The baroness offered the compliment with complete sincerity. An untamed red wolf. It would be hard to find a better description of Hellion than that.
“Anyway…”
Before the nanny could launch into her eighth anecdote, Hellion quickly steered the conversation back on track.
“The reason I asked to see all of you is that Ishtel’s mood has been strange lately. It isn’t because of me, is it?”
“Oh dear, don’t worry about that. Our young lady pays no attention whatsoever to anything concerning His Highness Hellion. I, her nanny, guarantee it. I’d bet my entire fortune on it—though it isn’t much.”
Molly shook her head vigorously and waved her plump hand dismissively.
“You don’t need to go that far…”
Hellion let out a silent sigh at the nanny’s excessive certainty.
“Now that you mention it, Ishtel really has been different lately. Do you know why?”
At Baroness Turen’s question, both Molly and Rose shook their heads.
“I’m not sure either. Whenever I visit, she’s always just sewing and doesn’t say much.”
Rose fiddled with the ends of her hair as she murmured.
“You know how she is. Whenever the Duchess is stressed, she looks for something to focus on—whether it’s shooting, sewing, or visiting Her Majesty the Empress’s aviary, that sort of thing.”
“Actually, I’m worried because she’s been skipping meals often lately. She hardly eats proper food and only picks at things like green grapes, so she keeps getting thinner…”
Molly let out a deep sigh, her concern clearly genuine.
“I’ve asked her several times what was wrong, but she simply won’t open up.”
“Yes, I’ve gently asked a few times myself, but she only says it’s nothing and tells me not to worry…”
Rose trailed off, glancing at Hellion.
“So even those of us who call ourselves her closest aides have no idea what’s truly in her heart.”
Baroness Turen fanned herself lightly as she looked at Hellion.
“How upsetting this must be for you, Your Grace.”
“There’s nothing to be done. If even all of you don’t know, then it must be a secret Ishtel is keeping entirely to herself.”
Though disappointment lingered in his chest, Hellion quickly composed his expression.
“I won’t pry any further either. There are secrets in this world that cannot be shared with others.”
“My goodness. Are you saying you’ll protect a woman’s secret? How utterly charming!”
Baroness Turen let out a bright peal of laughter and began enthusiastically patting Hellion’s shoulder with her fan. Startled by her vigorous reaction, Hellion instinctively leaned backward. The baroness, however, simply scooted her chair closer to him.
“A considerate and wonderful man like you deserves a proper gift.”
“Ah, no, that really isn’t necessary—”
“Oh, but it is.”
The beautiful baroness gave the young archduke a meaningful look.
“You will definitely like it.”