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THE next week, Edward and Lady Yulisse cornered me in an empty classroom, despite my best efforts to avoid them. Fortunately, Harold’s cautioning gaze was enough to keep me from grimacing at them, and I eked out a smile. I had to give them a warm welcome befitting a future king.
How dare you make me waste my smile! Do you have any idea how long I’ve practiced this for my darling Elizabeth?!
“Your Royal Highness,” Edward said with a low bow, heels clapped tightly together. “I believe it’s been some time.”
“Yes, it has been,” I replied with a composed nod.
While he was my senior, his family literally served mine. There was no need to show him undue respect.
Having finished with the formalities, Edward gestured to where Lady Yulisse hid behind him. “This is Lady Yulisse Merrifield. As you’re surely aware, she is the one and only heroine of Star Maiden!”
He still believes that book is real… If anything, his symptoms have grown worse. Poor man.
The way steam practically curled out from his nostrils to cover his salacious grin made me retch inwardly. Fortunately, neither of them took notice.
“What a pleasure it is to finally meet you, Your Royal Highness.” Lady Yulisse curtsied, but her angles were sloppy and unrefined. Even comparing her curtsy to Elizabeth’s would be insulting.
“The pleasure is mine, Lady Yulisse,” I said. “I’m sorry, I haven’t had the chance to read your book yet.”
After all, if it got out that I’d read it, I would have no choice but to seek out and punish the author in earnest. No doubt Elizabeth would reply the same.
Edward’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head, all tact instantly gone. “What a tragedy! Why, that book taught me what it means to feel for another, what love means! You must read it at once, I insist!”
“Hahaha. I’m very busy, you know.”
Besides, I don’t need that slanderous scrawling to teach me about love. I hope to build my own sense of love together with Elizabeth.
Hopefully, they would get the message and stop pushing me about it. In fact, I was hoping they’d leave me alone altogether. Not introducing myself was also a sign that I wasn’t interested in Lady Yulisse at all.
I’m not reading your book, and we won’t become friends, let alone lovers. End of story.
I turned to leave, but Edward stopped me.
“Please wait, Your Royal Highness! Poor Lady Yulisse has seen no end of troubles lately. Won’t you at least hear her out?”
Ugh. Can’t you be a little less knightly at times like this?
I stopped my shoulders from slumping or my smile from fading. I couldn’t leave. Turning back to them, I wordlessly urged Lady Yulisse to speak. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and gave me a pained look.
“You see, my notebooks and textbooks have been disappearing as of late.”
“Oh?”
It was a familiar line, and I couldn’t keep the interest from my voice.
She not only looks like Star Maiden’s protagonist, she even recites the character’s lines? This changes things.
“And you’re sure they aren’t simply lost?” I had to double-check.
“I’m sure. My things have been disappearing from my locker, and sometimes I find them in wastebaskets—or worse, torn to shreds.” She clasped a hand over her mouth as she recalled the pain, her eyes brimming with tears. Without a doubt, she looked just like the heroine, from her mannerisms to the smallest of details.
Edward placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Someone must have discovered her identity and is tormenting her out of spite. You know what this means, don’t you?”
“No, say it isn’t so,” I replied flatly.
He nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid it’s true.”
Honestly, Edward, what are you saying? I have no idea what you’re on about. I’m not even supposed to know the first thing about the Star Maiden, let alone if Lady Yulisse is her or not. Are all fans like this? No wonder they waste so much time and money on those theatrical adaptations…
Harold watched our exchange emotionlessly. That was normal for him, but his eyes seemed especially dead now. His masklike demeanor and icy gaze helped ground me, and I resolved to thank him later.
Lady Yulisse looked up at me, a pathetic, plaintive look in her eyes. I pointedly averted my eyes, but furrowed my brow in pretend concern.
“I’m shocked to hear any of our students would be so cruel,” I said. “This is indeed a crisis.”
They both seemed convinced the situation was playing out as it had in the novel, and that some party had moved to torment Lady Yulisse in the exact same way. Elizabeth’s entourage were the most likely culprits, but Edward had already directly confronted them. They wouldn’t be so foolish.
It would’ve been all too easy to play along with their delusions, but I hadn’t a clue what they might have in store for me should I do so. The safest option seemed to be to humor them while keeping them in front of me.
“Lady Yulisse Merrifield?” I finally said.
“Yes?”
I took her quivering hands and met her gaze. She was admittedly quite charming. Her large, clear eyes left a strong impression, and for better or worse, no noblewoman would ever be so frank with her expressions. I could understand why a passing knight might stop to lend her his aid.
I’m not so soft as to let her crocodile tears sway me, of course.
I shot Harold a sidelong glance, and he stepped forward to bow.
“This is my aide, Harold Abarakoff. Should you have any more trouble, you may consult him.”
“I am Harold. I look forward to serving you.”
“Oh… Thank you both so much.”
She paused and let her eyes swim for a moment in thinly veiled disappointment.
Was she upset I didn’t offer a more comprehensive solution? Or is there more in play after all?
“Isn’t that great, Lady Yulisse?” Edward said with a grin, oblivious to the subtext.
“Well, I’d best be going,” I said.
“Thank you very much for your aid!” he said.
I nodded at them as they bowed, then ducked into the hallway before they could stop me. My princely smile wouldn’t last another minute.
Elizabeth was at a study group session with some of the other ladies. I’d been lingering after class in hopes of catching a glimpse of her as she went home, but I was too exhausted now to do anything but retire for the day.
Outside the Academy’s gates, I boarded my carriage, and Harold sat opposite me. We waited until we were well underway and wouldn’t be overheard to talk.
“Put a guard on Elizabeth,” I ordered.
“Devolving into a stalker, are you, Your Royal Highness?”
“Oh, come off it. Who do you think I am?”
“A prince who’s all too infatuated with his fiancée.”
“…”
Bullseye, I suppose.
Nonetheless, I shot him a hard look to make it clear I was serious.
“Edward is one thing, but Lady Yulisse is highly suspicious. Did you hear how she didn’t deny being the Star Maiden when Edward introduced her as such? Something more is at work here, and I fear Elizabeth may be in danger.”
His brow furrowed. “To clarify, you’re referring to the novel you’ve been endlessly insulting?”
“The very same.”
“So you suppose Lady Yulisse will attempt to directly harm Lady Elizabeth? Is anything of that nature written in the book?”
I blinked in surprise. He had always listened to my complaints on Star Maiden without a word, so I had assumed he knew the story.
Was he ignorant of it all this time? Was he simply replying in the best manner?
“Haven’t you read it?” I asked him point-blank.
“I haven’t.”
“Oh.”
I’d never met anyone who’d honestly never read it before. The nobility had a social obligation to keep on top of cultural trends, so it was good to skim such things at least once.
“Read it, then. I’ll lend you my copy,” I told him.
“As you will.”
I resolved to give it one more quick read-through before that, just in case I had missed something. If Lady Yulisse had been duped into thinking she was the protagonist, then she was harmless, if naïve. Since others were getting roped into her delusions and turning the novel’s events into reality, however, I couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye.
I sighed as I gazed out the carriage window. The Royal Academy was in the heart of the capital, and the palace was a mere stone’s throw away. Since it was founded by the royal family, their children had the easiest access to its gates. The path from the Academy to the palace’s east gate was a secluded road lined with trees, cut off from the city at large. That said, it was still far enough that one had to take a carriage.
Dazzling sunlight pierced through the trees, and the sweet scent of flowers was ripe on the breeze, but my thoughts were elsewhere.
I wish I could show this to Elizabeth… No, I would settle for a glimpse of her.
I should have had a number of chances to talk to her by now. In the few months since school began, I estimated that I lost roughly an hour of time with her every day—that was nearly a hundred hours, gone forever. Wasted.
I’m not imagining it… I need release.
“Send a secret messenger to House la Montlivere,” I ordered Harold. “Ask Elizabeth what she thinks about coming to the palace this weekend for…a study session, I suppose.”
“As you will.”
I could’ve sworn he muttered something under his breath, but he nodded readily enough, so I let it slide. No doubt he could tell I was on the verge of snapping.
He’s a good man. I think I’ll keep him.