A Room on the Second Floor
"Diana!"
Bella came bounding toward me from beyond the lobby, shouting my name with all her might. As ladylike conduct went, it deserved a resounding zero, but my parents had always found that side of her utterly adorable.
A lush head of brown hair tinged with red, pink eyes, skin white and smooth as porcelain, plump cheeks, and full lips red as cherries. Bella had an adorable face, and with the pink dress on top of it, she looked exactly like one of those porcelain dolls so beloved by noble girls these days.
She is pretty, I'll grant her that. Going by looks alone, Bella was undeniably charming. Nothing like me, of course.
Where Bella possessed the delicate charm of a girl who might snap in two if you tapped her, I was more like a sunflower blasting out overwhelming vitality. And just as our charms were opposites, so were our attitudes toward life.
In the past, while I threw myself into my studies, Bella threw herself into dressing up. I worked for Dayson; Bella spent the money Dayson gave her. She used everything she had to enjoy her life.
Come to think of it, back when we attended banquets together, a buzzing throng of hangers-on had always swarmed around Bella. But could that really be credited to her charm alone? No. It was only possible thanks to my money. The halo of the Ehrenberg name, and the polish and connections bought with Ehrenberg gold — Bella had built nothing with her own two hands. That I had lost to a woman like her was, even in hindsight, laughable.
"Diana, I missed you!"
Having spotted me, Bella picked up speed. Each time she ran, her fine, waist-length hair rippled like a wave. Did Dayson really fall for this? Every time I recalled how Bella and Dayson had deceived me for years, my blood boiled.
The servants donned fond smiles at her fairylike cuteness. The only sour face in the crowd was Jenice's.
"I still can't believe it. About Uncle."
Bella brought up my father as she threw her arms around me. For me — a woman who had lived her life over once — my parents' deaths belonged to a distant past, and yet every time they were spoken of, my heart pricked.
"Diana, you must have been so lonely. From now on, I'll be here for you."
For your own sake, not mine. A scoff escaped me at Bella's adorable little lie.
"You are doing all right, aren't you?" Bella studied me with a face brimming with concern, as if she had never been smiling at all.
"Thank you for worrying. I'm truly fine, so let's stop talking about my parents." Because it turned my stomach every time you invoked them just to fuss over me. I said it with a forced smile.
"Oh, right — Diana, where am I supposed to stay? My room is still the same, isn't it?" Bella stopped halfway up the stairs to ask.
My parents, sorry for their only child's lack of siblings, had gladly welcomed Bella, a female cousin of the same age. Whenever Bella came up to the capital, she stayed at our house, and as her visits piled up, a room had naturally come to be set aside for her at the Ehrenberg residence.
A room identical to mine. Bella had always wanted everything to be exactly as I had it. The size of the room, the clothes I wore — down to the flowers in my vase. Whenever she was given something different, she would pout mournfully and say, "I want what Diana has. I really, really love Diana, you know."
She never loved me. She wanted to be me. Come to think of it, the pink dress she wore today was an exact match for a design I used to favor — the one with overblown ruffles at the cuffs and hem. Resolving to throw out every garment of similar design, I spoke to Bella.
"We moved the rooms around during the renovations, Bella. I thought it would hurt your feelings if I did away with yours, so I've prepared a new one for you. That's all right, isn't it?"
Bella's face darkened noticeably. Aside from the library and the study, my room had been the largest in the Ehrenberg residence — larger even than my parents' bedroom. As I grew older, my toys and wardrobe kept multiplying until I'd had no choice but to move into the biggest room in the house. Naturally, Bella's room had been every bit as large as mine.
Bella noticed that her room was now smaller than before, and her shoulders sagged. Making sure I could see, she stuck out her lip and refused to budge.
"Not curious about your room? If you're not, I'll show it to you later." But I didn't bother responding to each of her theatrics; I walked straight past her and up the stairs.
"D-Diana?"
Bella's flustered voice sounded behind me. I quickened my steps as though I hadn't heard. The footsteps chasing me grew urgent. Bella, fidgeting and anxiously watching my every move in case I truly meant not to show her the room, was a funny sight.
"Diana, I do want to see the new room. And I'm tired, so I'd like to rest too."
"Oh dear, tired already? I see. I was about to take you somewhere lovely, but I suppose that's off the table, then. Let's have you rest well in your room today."
"Somewhere lovely? Where?"
Bella was laughably easy to read. She only ever tried to slip out of each situation as it came; she never looked further ahead. I had meant to simply give her a hard time and toss her out — she was Count Kolkos's daughter, after all, and she had a history of feeding me to the wolves. But perhaps I ought to reconsider. She'd be handy to keep around and use as I pleased. Though I'd discard her in the end, of course. For now, I shelved the decision. Let's watch her a little longer.
"You said you were tired. We'll see the room first, then you can rest."
Bella looked conspicuously disappointed, but I feigned ignorance. I had walked on ahead and stopped at the second floor; Bella, trailing me like a lamb, moved to pass me and climb to the third, and I reached out and caught her. She froze and looked back at me, eyes wide.
"Where are you going, Bella?"
"Hm? You said you'd show me my room. Isn't it upstairs?"
It was. Not anymore.
There were conventions to how the rooms of a noble residence were arranged, and the most fundamental of them all was this: the rooms of the powerful were placed on the upper floors. A rule born of guarding privacy and preparing against unseen dangers, and so most heads of house took the rooms at the very top. Naturally, the first floor, where outsiders came and went, was usually given over to common spaces, and the second floor was much the same. The family's main living quarters began on the third floor — yet Bella had, until now, used a fourth-floor room, the same as mine.
This time, I had moved Bella's room down to the second floor. The level that ordinarily housed the guest rooms and the quarters of the butler or head maid.
"Your room is on the second floor, Bella. Come, I'll show you."
I pulled Bella along by the hand. She stumbled after me, and I flung open the door of the room I had prepared just for her. Though it was broad daylight, the room inside was pitch dark. It faced north, where the sun never reached, and every last piece of furniture had been matched in shades of grey and deep navy.
To be fair, the contents of the room were far too expensive for Count Kolkos's purse to ever dream of buying. But confronted with a chamber crammed with endlessly gloomy colors and stodgy furniture that suited a noble girl's room not at all, Bella said nothing for a long while. She stood in silence, blinking, and then asked, almost to herself:
"This is my room?"
"It is. What do you think? The furniture was imported from abroad. They say the craftsmen drove in every single nail by hand."
Bella's face said she loathed the room beyond all words. I paid that no mind, pushed her inside, and explained each piece of furniture to her in loving detail.
"...And this set was made by the celebrated designer of Brooke Kingdom. Magnificent, isn't it? What do you think, Bella? I chose every piece with you in mind. Do you like it?"
I cooed sweetly and looped my arm through Bella's. My expression grew brighter and brighter; Bella's grew darker and darker — exactly like the color of the curtains in the room.
Bella gnawed at her lower lip. I found myself curious what reaction she would show.
"Oh! Diana, what am I going to do? I just remembered I have a promise with Father today. I don't think I can spend the night at the estate. I'm sorry, Diana! I-I'll come again next time!" Bella bolted from the room.
"Bella, you simply must come again next time!" While I said things I didn't mean in the slightest, Bella slipped straight into her carriage, and the carriage bearing her rolled out of the estate grounds.
"Pfft— pffheh."
The laughter burst out of me before I could stop it.
"You never do come right out and say 'you're not sleeping here tonight,' do you, my lady?" Jenice remarked, having watched the entire performance at my side.
Clamping my mouth shut against another frivolous giggle, I nodded.
What, I wondered, had Bella taken away from all this? I had tried not to show too plainly that I disliked her. But she must have gathered by now that she could no longer wield Ehrenberg as she pleased. My parents, who used to fuss over her every little frown, are gone now, after all. I had played the oblivious child in front of Bella, so I was curious to see how she would come at me next. Will she start demanding it outright — asking me to buy things, to get things for her? I had my doubts. For a girl with nothing to her name, Bella had a habit of quietly posturing in front of me. Well, things are about to get entertaining. Playing the naive fool while I watched her reactions was far more fun than I'd expected.
"By the way, my lady — didn't you say you had something to tell Miss Bella?" I was finally losing the battle against my laughter, tittering away, when Jenice spoke up.
"That's right! The invitation!" Dayson had sent a letter last night inviting me over for tea. And I had meant to ask Bella to come along with me!
"Shall I go and fetch her back even now?"
"No, there's no need." Seeing her once a day was quite enough. A second time, I would pass on — for the sake of my sanity. Besides, Bella would accept Dayson's invitation no matter what, so it made no difference if I told her another day.
Humming a little tune, I pictured Bella storming out, trembling from head to toe. I looked forward to seeing just how Count Kolkos and Bella, the two of them, would go about amusing me.
"Did you find something, Karl?" Seated on the reception sofa in his study, Karman loosened the cravat that was strangling his neck. Karl set a cup of peppermint tea before him.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Lady Ehrenberg has revoked Count Kolkos's appointment as her guardian and is keeping herself shuttered indoors, they say."
"She can hardly be searching for a new guardian, then." Karman grasped at once what the marriage Diana and Cassion demanded truly signified. She means to become head of her house in her own right. A girl with ambitions that grand would never need to go hunting for a guardian — so what business kept her locked away? Pure curiosity toward Diana stirred in Karman.
"Keep watching her. And look into whether someone stands behind that child as well."
No one could have conceived of so audacious a move entirely on her own. Karman was certain that someone stood behind Diana, steering her.
"I will, Your Majesty. But there is something you must see first."
"And that is?"
Karman pressed hard at his weary eyelids. Karl studied him with deep, searching eyes as he gathered what he had to say; in the meantime, Karman took a sip of his peppermint tea.
"The Brooke Kingdom is behaving strangely, Your Majesty. They are said to be buying up timber from the countries around them."
"Timber?" Karman's eyes narrowed, and he set down his teacup. Stroking his chin, he sank into deep thought. Karl emptied the cooled tea and refilled the King's cup with hot water.
"Does my guess strike you as the correct one, Karl?"
Karl had been raised from birth to serve at Karman's side. Fed as Karman was fed, taught as Karman was taught, molded to think as Karman thought — a man reared so that the weight of kingship on Karman's shoulders might be lightened by even a sliver. And the kingdom's method of training him had certainly proven its worth. Karl understood Karman more deeply than anyone alive; he could readily guess what his King would think upon hearing the report, and he had already carried the follow-up investigation through to its end.
"You are right, Your Majesty. The Brooke Kingdom is preparing for a war at sea."
"A war at sea, is it. And who do they appear to have in their sights? Surely not us." Had Karl judged Petrora to be the target, he would hardly be delivering his report so calmly. Just as Karl knew Karman, Karman knew Karl well.
"Quite right, it is not us. I have identified two nations the Brooke Kingdom appears to covet. Shall I report them?"
"No, that will do. See only to it that no sparks land on us." The Kingdom of Petrora was at peace, and Karman had no wish to raise needless alarms over a war brewing in a neighboring land and stir up discord in such tranquil times.
But the very next day, Karman would be forced to change his mind.