“It’s been a while, Ian. You’ve gotten even cuter since I last saw you. Come into the main hall with me.”
Grand Princess Ella, draped in a snow-white fur shawl, whispered in a sweet, languid voice.
I could feel the temperature around us drop sharply with her appearance alone, and the air seemed to press down heavily.
The other noble young ladies standing in the garden watched her every move, unable even to breathe properly.
“Haha, my.”
But even before that overwhelming presence, the expression on Alba de Espada’s face, seated across from me, did not change in the slightest.
“Well, well, Your Highness. I had already politely made my proposal first and was in the middle of a pleasant conversation with him. Yet you appear late and try to snatch away an appointment? How rude. In the North, do you not know the etiquette of social gatherings… Ah, right, do social gatherings not take place there? Well, in that freezing northern land where farming is impossible, what food would you even have to hold one?”
Alba crossed her legs, lifted her chin, and whispered mockingly.
At her provocative words, the young ladies nearby gasped.
“My goodness, how can she say that to the Northern Grand Duke’s daughter? Isn’t she afraid of the consequences? Lady Espada truly is brave.”
“Well, it isn’t just any count’s family. It’s the Count Espada family. A loyal house that would be second to none in its devotion to the imperial family. Since the imperial family is backing them, they must have something to say too.”
“That’s true. The Northern Grand Duke… isn’t exactly on good terms with the imperial family.”
‘It’s a bit more than just not being on good terms, though.’
The Count Espada family of the East, who loyally served the imperial family, and the Northern Grand Ducal family, who had built an enormous power base in the North, effectively acted as an independent nation, and were potential traitors who might strike the imperial family in the back at any moment.
The young ladies of those two great powers had clashed, of all things, with me between them.
‘…There’s a saying about shrimp getting their backs broken in a fight between whales.’
At Alba’s sharp provocation, Ella narrowed her eyes and smiled seductively.
“My, how rude? I was merely showing a small kindness to someone I’ve known very well since the imperial palace. To take that so pointedly as me stealing an appointment… How narrow-minded of you. You are, after all, the daughter of an imperial count’s family. How about showing a little dignity?”
At Ella’s mockery, Alba’s red lips twisted coldly.
She slowly rose from her seat, met Ella’s gaze, and raised an eyebrow.
“Ah, I overstepped. Well, compared to the Northern Grand Ducal family, our house is indeed lacking. To match the standards of a family that aims beyond even a grand dukedom and covets the imperial throne at every opportunity… Yes, the dignity of a mere count’s family could only fall short. Even so, our family is satisfied with what we have. We have no desire to become a band of traitors presumptuous enough to aim for the throne.”
“……!”
At Alba’s blatant mockery of the Northern Grand Ducal family as a band of traitors, Ella’s pretty eyebrows shot upward.
For an instant, Ella failed to manage her expression, and her violet eyes seemed to turn silver as the surrounding temperature plunged. But soon, as if she had calmed herself, Ella wore a composed expression and suddenly turned her gaze toward me.
“Hoho, there’s no need to respond to nonsense one by one. In any case, Lady Espada, why don’t we simply let Prince Ian decide for himself?”
‘Ah, come on.’
Ella turned her head toward me and extended her white, slender hand.
“Now then, whose hand will you take to enter the main hall? Naturally, you’ll choose me, since we’re already acquainted, won’t you, Ian?”
“Of course not. I was the one who invited him first. Prince Ian, you’d better think carefully.”
The two of them stood on either side of me and extended their hands as if competing.
Ella, with snow-white skin and snow-white hair, and Alba, with brown hair and brown skin—two noble beauties with completely opposite images, both reaching out their hands to take mine. It was an absurd situation.
‘…How nice it would’ve been if this had happened in my previous life.’
I swallowed a deep sigh inwardly.
Naturally, my answer was to refuse both of them.
I had already firmly promised Chloe, even linking pinkies, that I would not dance or partner up with anyone.
I had no desire to break that promise with Chloe here, nor did I want to make the foolish choice of turning one of two great noble houses completely against me.
After all, even if you couldn’t have too many friends, the fewer enemies the better—that was the basic rule of social life.
“I am truly sorry. I am deeply grateful to both of you, but I…”
I put on the most courteous smile I could and opened my mouth, choosing the gentlest words of refusal I could.
At that moment, for a very brief instant, Ella stared directly into my eyes.
‘……Huh?’
For a moment, as I looked into her eyes, I felt a strange sense of discomfort.
Were Grand Princess Ella’s eyes originally… that silver?
When I saw her last time, I was certain they had been the imperial family’s distinctive violet.
Deep within her pupils, I could see a strange afterimage like a silver vortex wavering.
And the moment our eyes met—
“……?”
As if a thick fog had settled over my mind, my reason grew distant, and a sensation swept over me as though my entire body were relaxing languidly like cotton candy.
I hadn’t even had more than a few drinks, yet it felt as though I had downed three more bottles of whiskey.
The words of refusal lingering in my mouth slipped right back down my throat, and Ella’s white hand fluttering seductively before my eyes began to seem like the most irresistible lifeline in the world.
‘……I have to take this hand. If I take it, everything will become comfortable.’
Before I knew it, my eyes had gone vacant, and like a person bewitched, I slowly raised my right hand and reached toward the hand Ella had offered.
At the edge of my blurred vision, I could see Ella’s white face.
The face of the Northern Grand Duke’s daughter, stretching her own hand toward mine with an alluring, satisfied smile of certain victory at the corners of her lips.
“No, th-that’s impossible…”
On the other side, Alba’s face had gone white in disbelief.
Seeing that face, an instinctive sense of danger rushed over me, but my body would not listen.
‘I mustn’t reach out…’
Just as my fingertips were about to touch Ella’s soft glove—
“Ugh!”
In that instant, it felt as though my mind snapped awake.
It was as if I had been in a languid, fluffy dreamland and was suddenly dropped back into reality. A headache flared for an instant—and thanks to that pain, my mind cleared sharply.
I abruptly changed the direction of my outstretched right hand and moved it toward my temple.
Then, with my finger, I pressed down on my temple as hard as I could.
Throb!
“……Hah.”
At the brief, intense pain inflicted on my head, the sweet, languid fog that had filled my mind vanished in an instant.
My mind suddenly clear, I breathed roughly and hurriedly withdrew my hand.
Then I shook my head slightly at Ella, who was staring at me in disbelief.
“……I gratefully accept Your Highness’s excessive kindness, but I have no intention of entering the main hall. As I told Lady Espada earlier, I have decided not to dance at this social gathering. I would be truly grateful for your understanding.”
When I regained my reason and answered properly, Ella’s relaxed expression was instantly dyed with shock.
“…How.”
“Yes?”
“No, what, this… That can’t be…”
As Ella stammered in bewilderment, Alba de Espada looked at her suspiciously, then soon glared at her coldly as though she had realized what had happened.
“…The White Witch, is it? That nickname wasn’t given for nothing. With emphasis on the witch part, that is. To use magic because you had no confidence in winning with your own charm—do you have no such thing as noble dignity? How utterly unsightly.”
Instead of answering, Ella began glaring at Alba with venomous eyes.
The Grand Princess radiated such murderous hostility that the onlookers behind her gasped and stepped back, while Alba leapt to her feet and snarled back at her.
As if what happened earlier had merely been a taste, the fact that this deadly battle of nerves, now openly filled with hostility, had not ended at all made my head throb to the point of madness.
‘Damn it, how do I get out of this?’
Just as I was desperately racking my brain for an excuse to escape.
“Hey, Ian!!! What are you doing over there! Come along! Let’s go to the main hall together!”
A tremendous shout broke the silence of the garden from behind me.
The two women, who had been glaring fiercely at each other, turned their gazes. At the end of those gazes stood a massive lump of muscle, proudly upright.
“Your Imperial Highness!”
Ever since I had come to the empire, I had never been so glad to see Second Prince Arthur.