The Eve Festival (2)
"I'm exhausted..."
Leaning my weight against the window of a tucked-away terrace few people ever passed through, I let out a long, heavy sigh.
People from the kingdom had ringed me in a circle, and yet I barely said a word in the middle of it. Most of them simply stood with a glass in one hand, recycling stories only they understood. Now and then a compliment aimed at me would surface mid-conversation, but I couldn't even follow how the talk had drifted onto me, so I just waved a hand, awkward, and let it pass.
After several hours of being forced to play the odd one out jammed into the in-crowd, I had finally made it out to this terrace window to catch my breath. That was the story so far.
Delphina came over.
"You look worn out."
"Completely."
I answered without a shred of pretense. Raw, as I was.
"Your dress is getting all rumpled."
Delphina hauled me upright and fetched a chair from nearby.
"Then just sit."
"I hate that chair. It's small and uncomfortable."
I shook my head and refused, but she sat me down anyway.
"Don't be like that. There."
Once she had me in the chair, she set a few sweets on the table.
"Would you like some?"
"Yeah."
I knocked back the warm water in the teacup in one swallow, grabbed a sweet, and bit it clean through. I was worn out, and the exhaustion had left me hungry.
"So undignified. What will you do if someone sees?"
"Let them look. I'm a princess. What's anyone gonna do about it?"
I muttered it without a hint of shame and reached for another.
"...And the prince? Did things... work out?"
"Ghk—!"
At that quiet little question, the cookie went down the wrong way.
"Cough— cough—"
"Are you all right?"
"Work out? Like hell anything worked out!"
"Oh my. What a shame."
Delphina chuckled as she said it. I glared at her through watering eyes, but she paid me no mind and went on.
"Why do you dislike the prince so much?"
"...I don't know."
I didn't really have an answer for that one either, so I turned my head a little and mumbled something vague. At the end of that sidelong glance lay the jet-black night sky, and the stars lodged through it here and there like crystals of salt, glittering where they sat.
"...Well. How do I put it."
The words slipped out before I knew it.
"Prince Oscar could meet any number of women far better than me. Two of them, three, as many as he wanted. Letting him cling to me anyway... it feels like I'm letting him do something that was never going to work."
So long as I recognized myself as a man more than a woman — so long as I found women more attractive than men — he would only go on with a love that could never be returned. Wasn't that too cruel? Far better, then, if he gave up on me early.
"...Princess."
Delphina, who had been listening in silence, said quietly.
"Where in the world is there a woman better than you?"
"Huh?"
A sternness had crept into her voice.
"A face this lovely, a figure this fine, the station of a princess of a kingdom, the honor of a war hero. What could you possibly be lacking?"
"D-Delphina. That isn't what I meant..."
"Then what did you mean?"
At that, I had to shut my mouth. Once again, nothing I could actually say came to mind. What excuse was I supposed to make? That I simply didn't want to marry? That I liked women better than men? I couldn't say that. Better to keep quiet and let the answer blur past.
"...Princess."
Delphina took my silence for something else entirely, and her expression set.
"There is no law that says you may not love, simply because you cannot bear a child."
I said nothing.
"It's all right to think a little more generously of yourself. Most people in the world already do."
That really isn't what I meant.
When I still gave no answer, the stiffness soon left her face.
"...Well. It isn't as if forcing you will make it so."
"Right?"
I answered, if anything, brightly, and Delphina looked at me with an expression too tangled to name. Let her. I planted my chin flat on the table and ate another cookie.
By now the eve festival was ripening into full swing. As for me, I'd had more than enough of being wrung dry by a crowd, and I meant to spend what remained of the night right here with Delphina, idly killing time. I'd talked plenty already, and they were carrying on just fine over there without me. I didn't feel particularly needed.
I was lifting the teacup to my lips on that thought when Delphina suddenly spoke, bright with excitement.
"Ah, Princess. Look over there."
"Hm?"
She pointed at the night sky.
"I think the fireworks are about to start."
Bang—!!
In the same instant, with the crack of the bursting firework, the black sky flooded with brilliant color.
"...Wow."
Delphina's eyes glittered as she murmured it. I looked up along with her.
"Isn't it beautiful, Princess?"
"Yeah..."
I nodded, trailing off.
"...Yeah. It's pretty."
It was pretty. That much was certain. But that was as far as it went. I wasn't moved the way Delphina was, drinking in a beautiful sight, and if anyone had asked whether I was impressed, that wasn't it either. It was simply nice to look at. That was the most I could manage to feel.
"...Hmm."
First Princess of the Valentine Empire, and first in line to the throne. A fourth-year in Political Diplomacy at Polaris Academy, and the academy's sitting student council president. Yuliana von Valentine sat on the second-floor terrace directly above the hall where the eve festival was underway, tipping her glass without a word.
The man dressed entirely in black, kneeling before her, had held that exact posture for precisely thirty-seven minutes, waiting only for her command.
Yuliana's brow shifted — the faintest, finest movement. At the same moment, something black was drawn in at the tips of her fingers, which had been resting over the terrace railing. More precisely, something she had let hang far down below climbed back up and settled once more into its proper place.
"...Bill."
Yuliana called the man's name. He bowed his head in silence rather than answer, but she paid that no mind and handed down only the order.
"Follow the two of them."
In the next instant, the man called Bill melted away. Like ice cream left out under a blazing sun, like something soaking down into the floor, he vanished. Yuliana gazed steadily at the small trace he left behind, then turned her head toward the window.
"...Surely not."
She had come into information she had never once anticipated, and still her face stayed perfectly blank.
Evangeline Failondia. Second princess of the Failon Kingdom. Hero of the Demon War, and the only princess knight on the continent. And the betrothed of Yuliana's younger brother, Oscar von Valentine.
When she first heard that the woman was deliberately avoiding her betrothal to that brother, she had been furious, as anyone would have been. But she had never imagined the reason might be the woman's own infertility.
If that were so... then perhaps it was fair to think of it this way. Evangeline loved her brother every bit as much as he loved her, yet because she could not bear a child, she had swallowed her tears and resolved to break the engagement. Her brother, still ignorant of the truth, had gone on courting her, while she — thinking of his future, tears held back — pushed him away. A commendable little theory.
"If that's how it is, well."
Yuliana smiled as she murmured.
If, contrary to what she had first assumed, the two of them truly loved each other, then this was a different matter entirely. In truth, the question of her brother's heir was no great problem. She would be the one to take the throne regardless, so even if he had a successor, no one would look to him for legitimacy. There were plenty of ways. If they wanted a child no matter what, they could take a concubine. If that didn't suit them, they could adopt.
And if...
Just then, as the fancy went on spinning through her head, Yuliana's brow twitched.
"...Wh-what?"
She stumbled over the words.
"That's impossible."
Slither.
At Yuliana's feet, a black shadow stirred and writhed as if it were alive.
"Bill's presence... it's gone?"
"What the hell is this."
Evangeline muttered, looking down at the trace Bill had left — a mark on the ground as if ink had burst, and then nothing.
If she were offering an excuse, even she would call this self-defense. Some shady bastard had been hiding all over the place and sneaking glances for a while, so she had warned him a couple of times: come out now, and she would let him live. He still showed no intention of emerging, so she wrapped mana around her leg and drove a soccer kick into the spot where he was hiding. That was all. She had warned him, and she had even given a signal before she struck, and he still failed to dodge. That made it death by natural causes. Whether the thing even counted as a person was another question.
"This is..."
"Whoa—!"
"The trace of a Shadow Doll."
Oscar, who had appeared at Evangeline's side at some point, murmured as he looked at it.
"You startled me."
Evangeline whipped her head around and snapped.
"And what is this? Were you hiding somewhere before you came out?"
"Hiding? You misunderstand."
Oscar shook his head.
"I was on my way to take a carriage back to the dormitory when I saw Princess Evangeline standing here, and came running."
Evangeline eyed him with open suspicion, but with no proof, there was nothing she could say.
Oscar glanced around.
"And Lady Delphina?"
"She went to call our carriage."
Evangeline answered, nudging the trace the Shadow Doll had left with the toe of her shoe.
Oscar, who had been watching her in silence, spoke.
"...Regarding that Shadow Doll."
"...?"
"I believe my elder sister created it and sent it."
At his words, Evangeline's face creased hard.
"...Who?"
"My elder sister."
Oscar wore a troubled expression.
"From the time we were children, she has been excessively overprotective of me and the rest of her siblings. Even these days, when something fails to please her, she will occasionally orchestrate affairs like this."
"And at Polaris Academy, she is in her fourth year of Political Diplomacy. She is also the academy's student council president."
"The presidency must be utterly starved for talent, then."
Evangeline's reply came barbed at every edge.
"One way or another, it is certain you will meet her at least once..."
Oscar grinned at Evangeline, who was scowling in his direction.
"Since the subject has come up — what would you say to meeting her right this moment?"