The Fifth Prince's Birthday Banquet (2)
It was the evening of the day I'd returned from catching up with Agnes about recent events, along with plenty of idle chatter about Prince Antonio's birthday banquet.
Ethan had finished dinner in the dormitory dining hall and come back to his private room, where he abruptly posed a question to me.
"Have you prepared for the banquet in two weeks, Lilith?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Prince Antonio's birthday banquet at the imperial palace, two weeks from now. Don't tell me you forgot about it."
"N-no, of course not... I remember perfectly well what was in the letter..."
I was the one who had delivered that letter to Ethan in the first place—there was no way I'd forgotten it.
As for what Ethan would wear, I'd already set aside several candidates. Worst case, we could buy something from the shopping district below the academy and have it lightly altered.
Besides, he was the one attending the banquet. Why was he suddenly asking for my opinion on the matter...?
...Hold on. Wait a moment. This pattern...
An instinct flickered through my mind—if I glossed over this conversation like I usually did, it was bound to come back to bite me later. So on the spot, I pressed Ethan, who had raised the question so pointedly, about what he actually meant.
"Am I, by any chance, attending the banquet as well?"
"...Huh? Of course you are."
"......"
"...Don't tell me you thought you'd be staying behind while I went alone?"
"......Yes."
When I carefully nodded, Ethan shot me a look of pure incredulity.
And Isabel, who had been quietly watching our exchange, was now gazing at me with an oddly pitying expression.
Of course, I had my reasons for assuming Ethan wouldn't take me along.
As a rule, outside servants weren't permitted inside the imperial palace's banquet hall. If he wanted to bring me, he'd have to do so in the capacity of a fiancée or betrothed—something of that caliber.
Back before I'd enrolled at the academy, when I knew no one, it might not have mattered. But now, if I showed my face at an outside event, roughly half the student body would recognize me on sight.
Unlike Princess Seraphin's birthday banquet before, this time a single misstep could genuinely derail Ethan's path to marriage. It wasn't even a masquerade where I could hide behind a mask, like last time.
In a word, it had been a matter of knowing exactly when to squeeze in and when to slip away.
"Will you truly be all right with it? This time, a fair number of people really will come away thinking I'm your fiancée, Young Master Ethan."
"That doesn't matter. That's exactly what you'd want, isn't it? It's far better than all those women interested in nothing but political marriage latching onto House Blackwood."
"But what about your father, Lord Harold...?"
"I obviously got Father's permission too. I asked if he would allow me to attend with you at my side as my fiancée, and he told me to do as I pleased."
...Well, come to think of it, Harold was a hopeless doting father from the very start.
The moment Ethan declared he intended to attend the banquet with me at his side like a fiancée, Harold's opinion effectively ceased to carry any weight at all.
Lately I'd only ever seen the game's version of Harold the doter replaced by Harold the man who thrashed his son with a sword like swatting a fly, so I'd briefly forgotten that little detail. My bad.
"...Is it you who's worried here, Lilith—not me?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Our arrangement as temporary lovers only lasts while we're at the academy. Are you concerned that word might spread someday about the time you were my fiancée?"
"Why on earth would I start fretting over that now? Everything that's already happened at the academy should have made that rumor impossible to contain by this point."
"...Fair. That's true."
"Besides, I've never once given any real thought to marriage with any man who wasn't you, Young Master Ethan. So you needn't concern yourself on that account."
"...What."
"...Eep."
...Did I say something strange?
All I'd done was share my honest impressions, and yet both Ethan and Isabel reacted with unaccountable shock.
Now that I thought about it, though, it was a bit off. Getting married, and to a man, no less.
Even if I was a woman now, I carried the memories of having been a man in my past life. A future of me living happily ever after, cosily nestled beside some man, refused to take shape in my mind. It was as if my brain itself rejected the very notion of such a horrifying fantasy.
That said, my body was a woman's, so no romantic feelings surfaced toward women either.
Ethan was, among men, the one I was most used to and had owed a few debts of gratitude to—so he was the absolute limit of tolerance. But any other man? Marriage aside, I suspected even holding hands with one would send an indescribable wave of revulsion through me.
"Did I say something odd?"
"Ah—no, no, Lilith. I was just a little surprised. You never let it show on the outside, but so you really felt that way all along."
"...Lilith is usually such a scatterbrain, but every once in a while she gets surprisingly bold. Like those sounds I sometimes hear through the wall at night, for instance."
"Huh? At night, what?"
"Eep?! W-what did I just say? I-I suddenly can't remember..."
While I was busy wondering why Isabel was suddenly fidgeting and darting glances my way, Ethan turned his gaze back to me and picked up where we'd left off.
"Well then, if that's how you feel, Lilith, I don't see a problem. Even if you attend as my fiancée."
"Yes. For my part, it's no trouble at all, but..."
"Isabel's already prepared the dress, so you needn't lift a finger. It's the one you wore to Princess Seraphin's birthday before."
...You mean that deep crimson dress.
Given everything that had happened involving Lizzy back then, I couldn't exactly call it a fond memory—but the design itself had been rather to my taste, I'll admit.
Above all, that dark yet eye-catching color scheme had felt precisely like a villainess's gown, and I'd noticed it paired with Ethan, standing at his side, in a strangely perfect way.
I hadn't gone around dwelling on that particular detail at the time, but if I was going to play the fiancée anyway, that choice would suit best.
"If the color felt too dark for you back then, shall I have a lighter one prepared?"
"No, thank you. Darker shades suit me better beside you, Young Master Ethan, so I'll go with that one."
"...O-oh. Well, if that's how you feel, Lilith."
...Come to think of it, if I'm playing the fiancée, I'll need to revert to the forms of address we settled on back then.
It had been nearly three years since I'd last called him by that name, so the thought of it made my skin prickle with awkwardness—but determined to hide that feeling, I deliberately summoned my shamelessness and tried it out.
"Since I'll be attending under the standing of your fiancée, I shall use the same forms of address as before at the banquet hall two weeks hence."
"The same forms of address as before, you say..."
"...It's been some time since we last appeared together at a banquet hall, hasn't it, Ed? Might I ask for your escort once more?"
"......"
"...Like this, you see, Young Master Ethan."
"Ah... S-so that's what you meant..."
At hearing his pet name for the first time in years, Ethan flushed scarlet, flustered in a way that was plainly visible to the eye.
And then, dredging up those old memories himself, Ethan carefully brought the name he'd called me that day to his lips.
"Right. I-I'll be in your care this time as well... Lily."
"...Yes, Ed."
...Honestly, why is my face burning up over something like this?
Two weeks slipped by from the day I'd agreed to attend the birthday banquet of Prince Antonio, the Fifth Prince.
Timed neatly after the midterm examinations concluded, the birthday banquet began—and before I knew it, Ethan and I were stepping through the gates of the imperial palace.
It was Seraphin's masquerade last time... so that makes it nearly three years.
The palace, entered for the first time in an age, had changed quite a bit compared to before.
The most prominent change, unsurprisingly, was in its security and defensive installations.
Perhaps in response to the terrorist incident at Seraphin's masquerade, more than double the previous number of guards stood watch, and in the course of repairing the sections of the palace that had been damaged, defensive magic circles had been layered onto it so thickly that I could practically feel them humming.
In practice, I should assume that casting any magic inside is off the table.
To be precise, the moment I so much as used a minor spell, it would be reported straight to the palace guard. Even the finest defensive magic circle couldn't anticipate and block every type of spell, after all—but the very act of casting gave the caster away.
That alone was enough to expose any disguise magic or concealment magic from outsiders trying to sneak into the palace, which made it a perfectly adequate countermeasure against terrorism.
This time, above all, I need to avoid doing anything that draws the eye.
Since this was the first official event held since the Dark Sect's terrorist attack on the masquerade, they would surely be scrutinizing every visitor with the utmost, utmost care for anything suspicious.
I needed to refrain, as much as humanly possible, from any behavior that might look suspicious to an observer.
...For example, the sort of behavior where, on only my second visit, I knew the palace layout like the back of my hand and walked myself straight to the banquet hall without a guide.
"The banquet hall is the Sunflower of Noon Hall. Do you know the way there, Lily?"
"...I'm afraid I don't know whatever it is you're talking about, Ed."
"Huh? But at Princess Seraphin's masquerade last time..."
"There are plenty of maids right there at the palace entrance—there's no need for the two of us to go wandering about on our own, is there? That lady over there looks free at the moment, so let's ask her to show us the way."
"......"
And so, escorted by a maid, we made our way to the Sunflower of Noon Hall—where, within, the noble scions who had arrived ahead of us stood scattered here and there in conversation.
Whether Ethan had taken my throwaway request for an escort with complete sincerity, he began glancing at me solicitously.
"It's still a bit quiet in here, isn't it?"
"We left early to account for carriage traffic, after all. There's time to spare yet, so let's wait leisurely, Ed."
"Right, Lily. Shall I fetch you something to drink? Anything you'd like?"
"Anything cold will do fine."
"Got it. Wait here just a moment."
Nodding at my words, Ethan made his way toward the self-service bar prepared for the early arrivals.
As I quietly watched his retreating back, I felt a gentle tugging at the hem of my dress from somewhere down behind me.
When I turned my head, there stood a red-haired mage, barely reaching my chest in height, gazing up at me.
"...Lilith?"
"And a good evening to you, Miss Agnes."
"...What the hell? You said you weren't coming to this one."
...Come to think of it, I forgot to correct her on that, didn't I.