UNDER Luke’s escort, Amelia returned to the Fifth Palace. Not a moment later, Prisca marched in, as if she’d been waiting.
“You seem to be on rather good terms with Lord Luke,” she said curtly.
Although the fourth consort wasn’t with her, the princess came with an entourage of five female attendants, and they all glared at Amelia as if she were their mortal enemy. Amelia felt put on the spot.
Helt, who’d returned to the Fifth Palace ahead of her, was standing behind her and offering his silent support. However, they were up against a fellow princess—he couldn’t carelessly interrupt the conversation, meaning that Amelia was the only one who could deal with her.
“That’s because he’s my fiancé,” Amelia said.
“Says someone with uncanny looks like you? Don’t you know that you have gray hair and eyes of blood?”
It was hard to imagine that such scathing words came from a beautiful girl’s mouth, but such a jab was barely effective on Amelia right now. “Luke said that I have silver hair and strawberry eyes. He said that I’m…cute.”
By all rights, it was likely safer if she didn’t make any rebuttals against Prisca. However, pent-up frustration over many years, as well as her elation over Luke returning her feelings, made her retort on impulse.
Before her eyes, creases formed between Prisca’s brows. “You may be full of yourself now, but that won’t last!” she spat before vigorously turning on her heel. With that movement, the necklace around her neck swayed, and the light pea-green stone attached to it sparkled under the light.
While Amelia was absorbed in the memento that she hadn’t seen in a long time, Prisca and her female attendants rapidly faded away into the distance. Amelia could march up to Prisca and demand that the girl return it, but she’d be in a bind if thoughtless provocation motivated Prisca to bring the fourth consort to the Fifth Palace. Imprisonment wasn’t anything new, so she could accept that. However, it would be troubling if the woman went as far as to intercept Luke’s letters. Furthermore, the necklace had been with Prisca since she’d snatched it from Amelia, and not having it on hand was already becoming her new norm.
“That brings back memories…” Amelia muttered.
The fifth consort had handed it over to Amelia before passing away, saying that it would protect her. For a good while after her mother’s passing, Amelia had wept in bed while grasping that necklace tightly, wishing out loud that she could return to the past.
As she recalled those days with nostalgia, Helt, who’d been standing behind her, stepped forward to her side and inclined his head, puzzled. “Was the color of that necklace always that pale?”
Amelia’s eyes widened. “Now that you mention it…”
Originally, it should have been a deep green stone with a striped pattern, but the stone she spotted earlier was a pale pea green. The timeline should have reset very recently—not that much time had passed since Prisca had snatched away the necklace. In that case, it didn’t make sense for it to be a different color from what Helt remembered.
“Huh? Wait…” Amelia muttered as realization dawned on her. Now that she thought back, she vaguely remembered it to be light green when she’d caught sight of it before the most recent timeline reset. “Its color…is gradually turning lighter?”
It was merely a color change—that wasn’t anything significant. Still, the stone belonged to the fifth consort, a Saint. Perhaps it was meaningful in some way. She wanted to investigate it, but Prisca had already left the bounds of the Fifth Palace.
Amelia frowned. “If I knew I’d start having doubts, I should’ve taken it back earlier. Hmm… Maybe I should pop over to the Fourth Palace with strawberries as offerings.”
“Please reconsider,” Helt said firmly. “What are you going to do if they frame you for attempting to poison them? You mustn’t concern yourself with those people.”
“Okaaay, I won’t.”
Helt’s wording was overblown, but he had a point. Both the fourth consort and Prisca disliked her, meaning that anything was possible. For now, perhaps the correct choice was to observe the pair at evening parties, just like Luke had said. That said, there was no guarantee that Prisca would wear that necklace to such venues.
A thought occurred to Amelia. “Come to think of it, I’ve never given it that much thought until now, but why are the fourth consort and Prisca treating my mother and me like we’re the bane of their existence to begin with?”
The pair had ostensibly displayed their animosity since her early childhood, so she’d known of their scorn, but she wasn’t too sure of the cause.
“To put it briefly, it stems from the fourth consort’s envy.” Seeing Amelia blink in surprise, Helt gave her a troubled smile. “Until the third consort, the consorts have wedded the king at almost the same time. After a short interval, the fourth consort settled into her current position. Following that, it was discovered that the fifth consort was a Saint, and she entered the royal court as a consort. In contrast to the fourth consort, who hails from an earl’s household, the fifth consort was a former orphan. She was aggravated by the fifth consort’s background from the beginning—on top of that, your mother even gave birth to a child—you, my princess—before her, much to her disgruntlement.”
Helt let out a small sigh. “That, and…I believe I also played a part in her animosity to some degree.”
“You did?”
Resentment over the fifth consort entering the royal court, as well as the order of childbirth, were both unwarranted grudges. But how does a guardian knight like Helt come into all this?
“I originated from the same orphanage as the fifth consort,” Helt explained. “I was adopted into a viscount household, and I served as a knight. I owe the fifth consort a great debt of gratitude, and when she entered the royal court, I took up the position of her guardian knight. And…the fourth consort has come to me several times after that, asking me to serve under her.”
Helt being an orphan was startling news to Amelia, but above that, the fact that the fourth consort had attempted to headhunt him was even more shocking. “But… Why didn’t you go with her? I understand staying while Mother was alive, but after her death, you’d have better working conditions serving under the fourth consort, right?”
Compared to being dragged into confinement and being stuck in that environment where even sufficient meals weren’t delivered, the work environment in the Fourth Palace should have been much more plentiful.