“I see you’re still getting along very well with His Highness,” said Sierra, giving Estelle a somewhat vague look.
“I suppose so. He’s nice to me to the point where it’s a little oppressive.” Estelle smiled uncomfortably. “I’m sorry you had to come with me. I’ve heard you like riding horses.”
“It’s all right. I’ve just reached the age where I want to avoid getting a tan.” As Sierra tittered, a gentle smile appeared on her face, the beauty of which made one think of an ice spirit. “I hear you’ve started keeping a cat at the Libra Palace? I’d be happy if you could introduce me to it sometime soon.”
“Certainly. I’ll send you an invitation,” replied Estelle.
They’d ended up officially keeping that intruder cat as a pet at the Libra Palace. Arcrayne had said that, if they were going to keep a cat, it was best to do so indoors, where it would be safer. A room adjacent to his office had been dedicated to the cat. Also, outside that room, the construction of a special courtyard with fences for the cat had begun.
Finding it similar to her own situation, Estelle smiled unconsciously.
The cat had turned out to be female. On account of her coat, everyone had agreed to name her Snow. Although she had lived outside as she pleased all this time, she made no attempts to escape and acted like she’d owned her new room all along. Bit of a brazen one, that cat.
Incidentally, the maidservant who’d let Snow into the exhibition room had been appointed to take care of the cat as punishment. She seemed to be fond of cats and had said, “That’s a reward, not a punishment!” at the time, looking grateful. But she still had to perform her regular maidservant duties all day and now also find time to take care of Snow on top of that, as well as sleep in the cat’s room, so Estelle considered it quite an onerous job.
“You’re the one who embroidered His Highness’s mantle, right? It looked marvelous,” said Sierra.
Since the hunting contest was also a military exercise, all the men were wearing military uniforms. Arcrayne and Claus both had handsome, clear-cut features, so they were dazzlingly beautiful.
Liedis had taken a break from Royal College to participate in today’s hunting contest too. His features were no less shapely than Arcrayne’s, but unfortunately, he was still too young. Instead of him, it was Arcrayne—a representation of a fairy tale prince—and Claus—who was like a knight of ice—gathering the looks of primarily unmarried ladies.
As they were going to enter the forest, the men were supposed to be far ahead in the formation.
“Thank you for your kind words,” replied Estelle. “Lord Claus’s mantle suited him very well too. Did you prepare it, Lady Sierra?”
Sierra’s mana darkened all of a sudden. “Yes... I’ve never heard a single amorous rumor about him until now and he doesn’t like it when I find marriage candidates for him, so I’ve been growing nervous, wondering when I’ll get to hold my grandchildren. But I was wrong... I wish he’d stayed single rather than developing an interest in strange women...”
Her lips were smiling, but her mana was not. It was plain scary when a beauty like her acted that way, and Estelle’s face went stiff.
“You might already know about it from all the rumors,” continued Sierra. “He seems to be interested in Olivia Rainsworth...” The folding fan in her hand creaked.
While Arcrayne had been recuperating, it had been Claus with some other employees of the Libra Palace who had gone to sort things out at House Rainsworth in Arcrayne’s stead. Since the explosion had taken place inside the Rainsworths’ mansion, Albion Police and reporters had been trying to stick their noses into the matter—to put pressure on them, Claus had used the power of his own House Rogell. The reason he’d given for it had been that he’d “been concerned about Olivia all along after Arcrayne had turned his back on her.”
The public was excited about not only the sensational incident at House Rainsworth, but also the new love story. Now that he’d made such an announcement, Claus couldn’t simply take it back right away—and even after all the employees of the Libra Palace had returned to their usual workplace, he seemed to still occasionally visit the mansion to check up on Olivia.
Estelle didn’t know how Claus planned to bring the matter under control. Apparently, however, he hadn’t talked about it with Sierra in advance, and was still keeping the whole truth from her.
Which was why Sierra thought he was serious about Olivia, and was angry under a calm surface.
“‘Overcoming the antagonism between their parents, Marquess Rogell extended a hand to a tragic lady,’ they say...” Sierra tittered. “Everyone knows how deeply troubled her family is at the moment, so if I carelessly intervened, people would see me as a villain...”
Uh-oh. Estelle seemed to have hit upon a sensitive topic for Sierra. Cold sweat beaded on Estelle’s back.
Incidentally, as House Rainsworth was still in the process of restoration, its members probably wouldn’t appear in high society for a while. Naturally, they were absent today too.
“It’s not like I hate Olivia herself, you know? But she resembles Adeline too much... I wonder what I should do if Claus decides to marry her...” Despite the smile on her face, Sierra was seething with anger.
If she raised an objection to such a development, she would be seen as narrow-minded, and her pride wouldn’t allow that. Nevertheless, she also couldn’t accept a bond between Olivia, who looked like Adeline, and her son. Sensing such internal conflict from Sierra, Estelle couldn’t find what to say to her.
“I’m sorry I bothered you with all that talk. This is quite embarrassing.”
After venting her displeasure about Claus and Olivia to Estelle, Sierra apologized. It appeared that she had, in fact, merely wanted Estelle to hear her complaints on the subject.
After that, May joined the conversation and the coach ride became a pleasant one, all things considered.
The weather was good too. Spring in Albion came earlier than it did in the earldom of Flozeth, so colorful flowers were covering the road, and buds were opening up.
Back in Estelle’s snowy birthplace, spring would come all at once. Spring flowers bloomed instantly after thaw. Spectacular as that was, Estelle found it refreshing to see spring in the south where flowers bloomed gradually.
She thought of her favorite horse Lunaris, wondering how much fun it would be to gallop through these parts to her heart’s content. Estelle hadn’t been able to ride her the other day due to the latter being indisposed, but fortunately, that had been a temporary matter, and Lunaris was supposed to be all fine and healthy in the stables of the Libra Palace at the moment.
While the men would compete in the score they earned for the game they’d hunted, for the women, hunting contests were something of a picnic. They’d be leisurely enjoying tea and snacks at the base camp pavilions while waiting for the men to return.
Estelle relished the scenery while the coach moved at an unhurried pace. Finally, they arrived at the forest. There, she saw that the gentlemen and servants, who had gotten there first, had already put up pavilions at the forest’s entrance. A cursory glance revealed thirty to forty of them—quite the magnificent sight.
Estelle headed to Arcrayne’s pavilion together with Sierra and her aides. The pavilions belonging to royalty were set up closest to the forest and stood out by being considerably more imposing than the rest.
Sierra was going to be with Estelle all day today, helping deal with any visitors to this pavilion.
“Let me say this again, Estelle—you must stay in here as much as possible.”
Leaving Estelle with those words, the overprotective Arcrayne headed out to start hunting.
“How nice. This must be the most enjoyable time for you,” said Sierra.
Estelle responded with a vague smile.
It was true that Arcrayne cherished her, but it wasn’t the sweet kind of relationship Sierra imagined. All it was was a make-believe love that was beneficial to them both. Granted, she’d made up her mind to support Arcrayne despite that, but she couldn’t help feeling just a little sad about it.
“Why don’t we get the unpleasant matter out of the way first? Let us be off to His Majesty’s pavilion.”
Sierra’s suggestion brought Estelle back to reality.
Among the cluster of pavilions was one belonging to the king and queen. That was the only place Estelle had to visit of her own accord and pay her respects. It was frank of Sierra to refer to visiting Her Majesty as an “unpleasant matter.”
“You’re supposed to have a sprain, so you must drag your leg as you walk, Lady Estelle,” she said.
As they spoke, things suddenly got noisy outside. Next, Neil, who was supposed to be outside, came rushing into the pavilion.
“Lady Estelle, Lady Sierra, Th-Their Majesties are here!”
As her eyes widened at the news, Estelle exchanged glances with Sierra.