It all began one afternoon when Sir Fred came by Alto’s room with some sweets, saying he wanted to visit Sophia. He explained that her parents had asked him to visit since she was living at the palace now.
Since Sir Fred was first knight to the prime minister, Lord Keith had come along as well. Elly and I had met them before, but we were still too nervous to relax.
Setsuna, meanwhile, had been hiding in his room every day around this time. I suspected it was because Sophia and Elly kept trying to feed him until he felt like he’d burst. Honestly, I couldn’t blame him. If someone piled that much food on my plate, I’d want to run away, too.
Lord Keith was one thing, but then the queen came to visit with none other than the king himself and said, “I’d love to have tea with Alto.” My heart nearly fell out of my chest.
Naturally, the king’s first knight accompanied them, and the tension in the air was so thick I almost felt like I’d suffocate.
Alto seemed used to it, though, and he greeted the queen and king casually. It struck me that, in a very different way from Setsuna, he was amazing.
When we saw that Alto was perfectly fine, Elly and I exchanged glances.
“Alto, since you have so many guests, we’ll be going now. We’ll come back again tomorrow,” I said quietly.
But before we could slip out, the queen called us back. “Oh, we’re just about to have tea! Please stay and join us. I’d love to hear about the flowers you brought.”
The maids had everything set up before we could decline, including place settings for me and Elly.
“How did they get everything set up so fast? It’s unbelievable,” Elly whispered, awestruck by their efficiency.
The first knights initially refused to sit down, but the queen asked them so earnestly that they eventually gave in. They sat down at the round table alongside the rest of us, bringing the total to nine.
We only came here to bring flowers to Alto. How did this happen?
I knew Elly was wondering the same thing.
As the tea party began, the queen’s warm personality made it a surprisingly cheerful gathering.
Sophia started asking Elly about how she and I had met. I noticed Sir Fred just gave me a sympathetic look, but I just stayed quiet and drank my tea.
After that topic of conversation finally wound down, the queen asked Sophia how she and Georges had fallen in love. Sophia happily shared the story, which Elly listened to with a sparkling gaze.
Weren’t we supposed to be talking about flowers? Whatever happened to that?
I kept that thought to myself, though, and waited for the time to pass, watching Alto steadily work his way through the cookies.
The women’s conversation never seemed to slow down. Before long, they’d moved on to stories about Lord Keith and Prince Eugene’s childhood, and even Sir Cyrus’s old heartbreaks—all truly excruciating topics for the men in the room.
If those men knew they were being discussed like this behind their backs, they’d be so embarrassed. So maybe in that sense, I’m fortunate to be here instead. Or…maybe not.
My sense of what was fortunate seemed skewed, so I shook my head to snap myself out of it. When I happened to look up, a maid caught my eye and gave me a sweet smile. A chill ran down my spine.
Meanwhile, whenever the queen seemed about to say something that might embarrass the king, he very smoothly steered the conversation in a different direction. She never seemed to notice and would, instead, begin to reminisce about their past. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration watching how deftly he handled the situation.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sophia turned to Alto with a gentle question. “Is there anyone you like, Alto?”
Everyone turned to look at him.
“Someone I like? You mean Master?”
The whole mood of the tea party softened with his innocent reply.
“Not Setsuna… I mean, someone you love in a special way,” Sophia explained kindly.
“You mean…romantic love?”
“Yes, just like that!” Elly said cheerfully, clearly enjoying herself.
But Alto frowned and suddenly looked deeply troubled, then let out a little groan. “I don’t wanna love anyone like that. It’s too scary!” The color drained from his face, and everyone fell silent. “Bloody battles over love are even scarier.”
I honestly never imagined I’d hear Alto say something like that.
“Bloody battles?” the queen asked gingerly.
“Everything changes when you fall in love! They scream and say they’ll show you hell!” the young boy blurted out, his voice trembling. His entire body was shaking now.
Did he witness some kind of horrible love triangle over Setsuna?
“Love…is when you fight to the death until it’s a bloody mess and the last one standing gets to keep the girl, isn’t it?”
“…”
A hush fell over the room.
Why on earth does Alto think that’s what love means?!
“Ah-ha-ha!” The king burst out laughing.
But Alto looked totally serious. “I thought I was in love with Master, but then Master told me that the kind of love I felt for him was like family. And he was right. Because I’ve never once wanted to kill Tuuli or Kukka.”
“Why would you kill them…?”
“Because to make love come true, you have to fight to the death and win, right?”
“Er, um…” The queen seemed at a total loss for words.
Still chuckling, the king asked, “Did Setsuna tell you that?”
“No, Dahlia did.”
“Dahlia?” The queen tilted her head, clearly puzzled by the name. We asked Alto who that was, and he launched into an explanation.
Apparently, Dahlia had a beard that didn’t exist in the morning but would grow in by evening. She had muscles big enough to swing an ax the size of Sophia, and her clothing ripped whenever she flexed her muscles.
I glanced around. Everyone was frozen with the same strained expressions except for the king, who was listening with amusement.
Alto kept right on chattering away, oblivious to the atmosphere. I could tell this Dahlia had made quite an impression on him.
“Alto, why do you think love is so violent and messy?” Elly asked gently, placing another cookie on his plate as she tried to steer the conversation back on track.
“Dahlia told me about a book called The Farthest Ends of Love, which was all about love!”
Alto began to describe the story, and as he spoke, the mood grew heavier and heavier.
Basically, the book was about a woman who abandoned her lover to run away with a new one. But before she could escape, her former lover found her and killed her.
Why would anyone choose a book like that to read to a child? I don’t understand it.
Lord Keith pressed a hand to his temple. Sir Fred and the king’s first knight managed to keep their expressions perfectly composed, displaying remarkable self-control. The king seemed entirely uninterested and accepted a refill of tea from a maid wearing a calm, serene smile.
The women, meanwhile, listened with fascination, so I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this Dahlia person wasn’t entirely wrong about human nature. And the thought unsettled me.
“Dahlia said the ultimate love is when you kill the one you love, and then you die, too. But I figured, if you had to kill someone, you should kill the other person, not your lover. Because if you kill the one you love, you’ll never see them again!”
“…”
“And then I thought if someone tried to take Master away from me, I’d have to kill Tuuli and Kukka. But I couldn’t do it. So that’s when I realized I wasn’t in love with Master after all.”
So that’s why Alto said he couldn’t kill Tuuli or Kukka.
“Love is scary. So that’s why I decided I don’t want it,” Alto declared.
I could understand how he’d come to view love like that, but it was also fundamentally mistaken. The queen, Sophia, and Elly were quietly discussing it among themselves. It sounded like they were deciding which book to give him to read next.
Honestly, I thought it better not to bother him with things like love until he was old enough to understand it himself, but I didn’t have the courage to butt into their heated discussion.
Once the ladies had finished chatting among themselves, the queen turned to Alto.
“Was Setsuna’s love as messy as that?” she asked. There was a certain glint in her eyes, though I couldn’t tell what it was hiding.
Alto’s expression clouded over as the women watched him.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think…Master loves Tuuli,” he murmured before falling silent again. It looked like he was trying to sort something out in his mind. The rest of us watched him, uncertain of what to say.
Alto slowly began to speak again, and no one interrupted him.
“Tuuli was smiling, but she was crying the whole time. Her smile looked so sad and lonely. It hurt so much right here.” He pressed his palm to his chest. “I thought Master would go to her, but he never once turned back. He just kept staring straight ahead when he left on his journey.”
It was such a fragmented story that, at first, I couldn’t understand what he meant. But halfway through, I realized he was talking about when Setsuna and Tuuli had said good-bye to one another, and I found myself imagining what Setsuna must have felt.
“I thought Master didn’t notice she was crying, so I was going to tell him. But he looked just as sad as she did, so I didn’t.”
Alto gritted his teeth, waiting for something inside him to pass, then went on.
Sophia and Elly were blinking back tears, and even the queen looked sorrowful.
“But I still don’t understand. I don’t know why Master left on that journey without doing anything when she was crying. And I couldn’t bring myself to ask him, because he looked so sad.”
No one here knew what really happened between Setsuna and Tuuli, so we had no idea what to say to Alto.