Am I actually so shameless...? Estelle wondered with a self-deprecating smile after her hunger woke her up.
She didn’t know what time it was, as there was no clock in the cell, but it was probably dawn, since light was starting to appear in the sky outside the window.
Estelle remembered crying herself to sleep. She was surprised that her body sought food even in a situation like this.
As she got up from the plain bed, she saw the food she’d left on the desk. The possibility of it being poisoned bothered her, but she’d heard that one couldn’t live for more than three days without food or water.
And water is especially important... she reminded herself. If she didn’t eat anything, she would starve to death.
Having resolved herself, Estelle reached out for the bread.
It tastes bad, she thought. As the bread had been left out for all this time, it had grown dry and hard. Even soaking it in apple compote wasn’t enough to make Estelle able to eat the whole thing. That said, she didn’t feel like touching the cold soup and meat, given how much time had passed.
Estelle sighed. She felt guilty toward whoever had prepared this meal. There didn’t seem to be anything off about it, and Estelle felt normal so far.
Estelle went back to bed, holding her stomach, which protested in hunger. She didn’t feel like she could fall asleep, but there was nothing else to do, so she lay down and closed her eyes. It had been quite a while since the last time she’d been in bed alone, and she missed Arcrayne’s warmth.
✦ ✦ ✦
As Estelle had discovered over the two days she’d spent in her cell, meals were provided three times a day at specific times, and there was always something like a book or a newspaper brought with them to kill time.
She could clearly hear the bell of the nearby Albion Cathedral, so she more or less knew what time it was.
Apparently guards patrolled and brought Estelle food in shifts. All of them were women. But they all persisted in their refusal to talk, and Estelle hadn’t managed to get any information out of them regarding the events outside. All she knew was what the newspapers told her.
The meals were served suitably warm and their taste and quality remained at a high level. They weren’t laced with anything either. Estelle found all this eerie, unable to understand the queen’s intentions.
Over the past two days, the newspapers had been extensively reporting on the queen’s actions as regent. They’d also said the king’s and Arcrayne’s conditions were touch and go, which made Estelle feel like her premonition was gradually turning into reality.
Even when she tried to read the books she’d received, their contents didn’t enter her head at all.
As she kept going in circles in her mind about the future of her and her loved ones, she would read the same articles over and over, sigh, and then repeat the process.
Was this how prisoners waiting on death row felt every day? Estelle didn’t think her mind could stand to spend a few more days this way. She wished they’d hurry and tell her what lay in store for her.
I wish I had never met Lord Arc. I wish I didn’t have this power, Estelle thought to herself. Her power was the reason Arcrayne had made her his betrothed. She hated herself for thinking this way. I’m his fiancée, and yet...
Frankly, her first impression of him hadn’t been good. His mask of a calm and gentle prince hid a man who was sly and calculating. However, his awfully gentlemanly attitude and the way he’d striven so hard to treasure her after forcing her to move to the Libra Palace had enamored him to Estelle, little by little.
She’d hated his scheming nature at first. But gradually she’d come to notice the deep-rooted solitude and distrust of people hidden underneath it, and at some point, her dislike of him had turned into wanting to support him no matter what.
Even now, Estelle’s love for him was overflowing. He was definitely the most important person to her in the whole world.
But at the same time, as a woman born into a family of hereditary nobles, she was just as concerned for House Flozeth.
If the king’s condition were attributed to food poisoning, and Estelle and Arcrayne weren’t accused of assassination, then her brother and uncle wouldn’t come to harm. She hoped so.
Sighing listlessly, Estelle lowered her eyes back to an article she’d already read many times over.
Suddenly, she sensed with her power that a large mass of mana was approaching. There was too much of it to belong to an ordinary noble.
The mana was on the other side of a wall of her cell. Estelle thought a new prisoner had been brought into a nearby cell and sneaked a glance along the corridor, but things were utterly silent outside. While she found it strange, she stared in the direction of the owner of that mana.
Then, with a dragging sound, a door-sized section of the wall suddenly slid down. Behind it appeared an imposing man with a sword on his hip. Estelle’s eyes went wide when she saw his face.
“I’m glad to see you’re doing well, Lady Estelle.”
The man looked like an older Arcrayne—it was the king, Sachis Ethelbert of Rosalia.
“Y-Your Majesty...?”
Sachis smiled sweetly at Estelle.
“My apologies that it’s not a prince coming to save the imprisoned princess, but an old man like me. I’ll explain things later, but for now, mind getting out of here with me?” He extended a hand toward her.
Estelle took it, not without hesitation.