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Chapter 43
“Stop.”
At that moment, a broad back blocked my view. Around his waist, I saw the familiar sway of silver ornaments I’d seen many times before.
“Calix?”
I called his name in a voice as small as an ant’s, but he didn’t look back.
“It’s too soon to start pointing fingers, Nox.”
The unexpected words made my eyes widen.
“That spot had been in need of repairs for a while. I told them before we started to block it off—”
“Who exactly are you defending right now?”
Nox cut him off coldly. His anger extended even to Calix.
“I didn’t know you were such a thoughtless fool.”
Calix gave a disbelieving laugh.
“A fool, am I? I wonder who’s truly the stupid one here.”
Nox didn’t back down, and the air between them grew hot enough to ignite.
No.
If those two fought and Olivia got hurt in the process, I’d be finished.
I reached out and caught the edge of Calix’s sleeve. He glanced sideways at me.
His head turned back toward Nox, but then—almost without my noticing—a hand slipped behind him and quietly took hold of my fingers.
The noise around us was drawing attention, and nobles who’d been enjoying their secret trysts began drifting toward us.
When they saw the two drenched figures and the collapsed bridge, they shrieked.
“Tsk.”
With more and more eyes on us, Nox scooped Olivia up and carried her off somewhere.
Calix dragged me away too, forcing me down onto a bench in the corner. His sudden change in attitude left me dumbfounded.
After that, he ordered his subordinates to take control of the situation. At the same time, it seemed he was making sure the nobles who had witnessed the incident kept their mouths shut.
When he returned to me, I hurriedly blurted out:
“It wasn’t me.”
My mind was in such a rush that I couldn’t manage anything more intelligent.
I didn’t know why Calix had stepped in to help me, but I was desperate to grasp at any straw.
He didn’t get angry. He didn’t even demand an explanation.
Instead, Calix took me by the shoulders and lowered himself to meet my eyes. A yellow brooch I hadn’t noticed before dangled in front of me.
Back at the lake, I’d been certain he was furious with me.
But what I saw in his eyes now wasn’t anger.
“Nox, is it.”
It was absolute certainty.
“The one you’ve been afraid of all this time.”
His gaze pierced straight through me.
Lilith choosing Ressel as her first dance partner was only natural. Still, Calix couldn’t stop the irritation from welling up.
He withdrew his hand from the warmth that no longer existed.
“Why don’t you smile, brother?”
The taunting tone slipped in without leaving him a chance to avoid it.
“It’s a fine day, isn’t it?”
That triumphant smile was utterly loathsome.
Calix ignored Ressel’s provocation. Losing his temper here would mean defeat.
“Shouldn’t have come, after all.”
He muttered to himself as he moved to a more distant spot.
Ressel had once again gone to great lengths to keep Calix from attending the ball.
Thinking about the trouble it had taken to overcome that interference still made his head ache.
Even so, the reason he had been so determined to come here was unclear.
Lilith was simply an old friend—now nothing at all to him. She remained someone he could not trust.
So it wasn’t because he wanted to see her again.
Calix stood there, staring blankly at the sight of Ressel and Lilith dancing together.
It was an utterly unpleasant scene.
…The reason I came here doesn’t matter.
Instead of dwelling on his thoughts, he accepted one simple truth:
If he could take that place from Ressel, he wanted to.
But he didn’t have the ability.
Calix had never once surpassed Ressel—whether in the Emperor’s favor, in ability and power, or even in the divine gift they had been granted.
Yet Ressel acted as if Calix had somehow stolen those things from him.
He cut in uninvited to claim Lilith for a dance Calix might have asked for next. He trampled Calix whenever he tried to raise his head, and blocked him whenever he tried to get away.
Is all of this his fault?
The sudden desire for the throne he had never cared about, the wish to grow the power he’d been given, the thought of becoming close with Lilith again—
It all seemed to have been caused by Ressel.
Was it base inferiority? Or a maddening jealousy?
He could no longer remember which had come first.
Calix pinned the brooch back to his collar. It didn’t suit his current attire at all, but he didn’t care.
What a pitiful sight.
He looked exactly like a man who had been stood up.
“Ah…!”
Someone bumped their forehead against his back.
It was a young lady in a yellow dress—not dazzling, but with a striking richness to its color.
“My apologies, I—oh!”
When she looked up and saw his face, she gasped.
“Y-Your Highness the Prince… I am Olivia of the Primrose family.”
With trembling hands, she caught the hem of her skirt and curtsied politely.
“…?”
For some reason, the foul mood he’d been in moments ago seemed to vanish completely.
Though she didn’t meet his gaze, her eyes—resembling a vast forest—seemed to pull at something inside him.
In an instant, his mind went blank. His earlier troubles faded, blown away like dust in the wind.
Calix found himself standing beside Olivia, who said she didn’t yet have a partner. He began talking with her in an almost giddy mood.
For the first time in his life, he thought a ball was enjoyable. Whatever he said to her, he felt happy and content.
It was like walking through a dream.
When he came to his senses, he was somehow at the palace lake.
And there, chaos had erupted. Even without knowing the details, he could instantly understand what was going on.
Calix seized the figure before him.
Pale blond hair fluttered in the breeze. Her face was uncharacteristically ashen.
For some reason, it made him angry—angry enough for the heat to freeze over into something cold.
Lilith again… so this is what you were planning all along?
Every thought was in that vein.
“A word of explanation is in order, Lady.”
It seemed only natural for Nox to demand an account.
But when Calix turned to look at Lilith, the assumption shattered.
She was steeped in fear. The small, trembling movements of her body were familiar.
Suddenly, he remembered the Grandel banquet, when she had clung to him and sobbed. It was the same trembling.
The unpleasant feeling he’d briefly forgotten resurfaced.
The dream collapsed, and reality forced its way in.
He didn’t know what Nox had done to make her so afraid—but understanding could wait.
He lowered himself and took her by the shoulders. The vivid ruby of her eyes shook violently.
“I won’t ask how this happened.”
It was possible this had been her plan all along—to drag him in and use him as a shield. The same tactic he’d grown sick of enduring.
“Whatever it is, if you need me, come to me.”
But the words from his mouth didn’t match the suspicions in his mind.
“That door is still open.”
And the words that followed were ones he’d said so long ago they had worn thin.
Lilith seemed to have forgotten them, but they were familiar to him.
A fleeting memory from childhood, when it had felt like the only link between them was a single window separating their rooms.
Yes, this is all…
The reason he kept getting involved in her affairs, unable to walk away—
It was nothing more than a last kindness to someone who had once been a close friend.
Since the imperial ball lasted five days, accommodations were provided for the nobles. The Crescent dukedom was no exception.
After the incident with Olivia, I used the excuse of being in poor condition to skip three days of events.
But on the last day, the Duke insisted I absolutely had to attend, and dragged me out again.
I was on my way to the ballroom in the dress I’d prepared, when an unexpected figure appeared before me.
Pale blond hair, deep violet eyes, tall stature, cat-like gaze—a man whose beauty was almost more striking than handsomeness.
“Hey, what took you so long to come out?”
The sharp voice pierced my eardrums. His frown was so deep it wrinkled his brow.
Hair color like mine, a familiar temperament—as if someone had taken me, turned me male, and set me before a mirror.
“Brother.”
“Don’t call me that. It’s irritating.”
Apparently the Duke’s threat to fetch me before the ball ended hadn’t been an empty one.
This was Lilith’s older brother—if I remembered right, his name was Abel.
“Since you can’t properly assist Father, now I’m dragged along too?”
His voice dripped with annoyance, and my expression soured. The slight sympathy I’d felt when the Duke first mentioned him evaporated.
“And I hear you caused trouble while I was gone?”
Before I could answer, Abel kept going.
“You left the palace? Were you trying to run away or something? Are you insane? Do you even understand what that position means? Haven’t you heard how many years old that prophecy is?”
The rapid-fire scolding made my head spin.
“Why can’t you just sit still until you become Empress? What’s so hard about that? All you have to do is smile at the right people—how hard can it be?”
There were plenty of points I could have argued, but the barrage left me speechless.
“Let me enjoy some luxury too, will you? Please, sister. Just behave.”
Having unloaded everything he’d been holding back, Abel looked satisfied.
“Hey, Father’s coming. Fix your face, quick.”
He tapped my shoulder in an irritatingly casual way.
Yes—this infuriating personality definitely ran in the family.
