Until the following week’s council meeting, Milly devoted herself to investigating the cakes and teas to be served at the upcoming party in utmost earnest. Burdened by the responsibility of having delayed the last meeting, her zeal was unmatched. She marched through the capital herself, sampling confections, and even gathered the maids for full-fledged tasting sessions.
She would not soon forget that week: recording evaluations on a checklist that grew to over a hundred items, tasting sweets alongside her household staff, and rallying the maids who despaired over the threat of gaining weight. There were tearful pleas of “I don’t want to get fat,” heated arguments, and even moments that nearly erupted into outright scuffles.
After more than two hours of debate, they finally settled on a solution: Since no one wanted to gain weight, they would all exercise together. The decision left their bonds stronger than ever. Thanks to that, Milly’s survey went smoothly and to her surprise, the group workouts were actually rather fun.
Kyle had been furious when he discovered she had secretly turned an unused room into a wall-to-wall mirrored exercise studio, but she was already considering the addition of proper equipment.
Still, not everything was so cheerful. Brima, who had cut Sierra’s hair that day, had begun keeping her distance from Milly entirely. Her expression was always gloomy in class, and during breaks she wandered off somewhere on her own.
Since Sierra had said she didn’t want to make a fuss, Brima escaped formal punishment. But when Milly tried to approach her, Brima would run off, making it impossible to ask her anything about Angelina.
“Good day.”
So began the second student council meeting.
When Milly entered the council room with Lucius and Gilbert—who had kept his word and come to fetch her from class—they found the other three already in their seats.
Good. Ike is here too.
After what had happened, she’d half expected him to skip the meeting entirely. But it seemed he was honoring his duty as a council member. He sat there with a sullen look, nose buried in a book.
Milly took the same seat as the week before, Gilbert sitting beside her and Lucius next to Ike.
“Um, are you feeling better now? I was pretty worried.” The question came from Nicholas, in the same mumbled tone as last time. Why did he look so skittish? Did he really think she and Ike were about to start throwing punches? “Last week, you suffered from...sudden illness, was it?”
“Yes, more or less. I barely managed to hold it down.”
“Hold it...down?”
“It was a brutal battle indeed. I’ll tell you later. But first, may I say something?” Milly drew a slow breath and turned her gaze toward Ike, who still hadn’t lifted his eyes from his book. The others must have guessed her intent, for silence fell over the room. “Ike Ivrine.”
His shoulders twitched, and he finally looked up.
Those burning red eyes met Milly’s, laden with scorn and loathing. Time was supposed to dull anger, but his hatred showed no sign of fading.
“Lucius told me that you bear a grudge against my father over what happened with your family.”
“...”
“I’m sorry to admit this, but I didn’t know you. I had no idea that, because of my father’s quarrel, a child was torn from his own family and was still struggling with it today.”
Ever since her mother died when she was five, Milly’s attention had turned inward. Study, magic, research—she devoted herself to them entirely, knowing nothing of the world outside. She had no idea what her father did in society, nor of the people who had suffered because of his influence.
“I tried to think through why you were angry last week, in my own way.”
Milly’s ties to others had always been so faint that she could never intuit their feelings. That was why she thought things through. She read, studied, even used novels as reference, piecing together possibilities. It was the only way she could approximate what “normal” emotions might be.
“I think you were angry because of my ignorance.” This was the conclusion she’d come to after a week of reflection.
“What?”
“You were sent to live under the marquis’s roof, and then had to look at the grand duke’s daughter—your enemy’s daughter—smiling as if she knew nothing at all. That’s what made you furious, wasn’t it?”
Milly met Ike’s crimson eyes head-on. He said nothing, only bit his lip. That was confirmation enough. She’d guessed right. What truly infuriated him was that Milly, blissfully unaware of her father’s sins, could live so carelessly.
“I’m sorry I knew nothing of what you went through. Forgive me,” she said, her expression softening.
It had been her father, Kyle, who forced Ike into adoption. It was only natural that Ike bore a grudge against the grand ducal house, that his anger should spill onto Milly, that he would rage at her ignorance. None of it was strange.
“That’s why I want you to try to meet me halfway, and accept me.”
“Accept you?”
“I’m not asking you to be friends. Just...” Her words faltered there.
Milly bore no direct blame for the feud between her father and Ike’s family, which was exactly why she believed they could find common ground. For the sake of the student council, it would be better if their relationship were repaired. Everything would move more smoothly.
“Let’s try to meet halfway. Both of us. There’s so much we don’t know about each other.”
The hatred Ike directed at her wasn’t fair or righteous. But she could understand it. And because she understood, she made the proposal. Lay down their weapons, if only for now. Approach each other and think. And if, even after that, Ike still hated her, then so be it. At that point, she would accept it.
This was the plan Milly had stayed up nights devising. Maybe not the perfect solution, but it was the best she could manage.
Ike pressed his lips together, and silence once more settled over the chamber for an indiscernible amount of time. When at last his eyes met Milly’s, they still burned with that fierce inner fire.
“Tch. Don’t spout such nonsense. You’re nothing but the spawn of that heartless demon!” Everyone’s eyes but Ike’s widened. “You know full well what your family’s done, and now you talk about ‘meeting halfway’? You just say whatever suits you!” His voice dripped with fury, his expression so fierce it was as though he meant to kill Milly with a glare alone.