53.
“It’s Baron Roxan, isn’t it?”
Meriana, who had been walking ahead, whirled around and asked.
At that, Rohwinas stopped walking and slowly raised his head.
It was as if he hadn’t even heard Meriana’s question.
As though his mind were somewhere else entirely.
Meriana worried at her lip, then stopped.
If she wounded her lip, her pride, already crumpled beyond recognition, might become a complete laughingstock!
The anger she had held back until they reached the rear of the building, where there was no sign of anyone, finally burst out.
“Answer me. That filthy, shabby woman wearing that hideous mask earlier—she’s Baron Roxan, isn’t she?”
When Meriana strode up and grabbed his arm, Rohwinas’s arm stiffened for an instant.
At that reaction, which he did not show openly but which was clearly far from welcoming, Meriana’s parted lips trembled.
“……So it is her. That’s why you aren’t answering my question.”
As Meriana pressed close, Rohwinas said in a low voice,
“My lady, you would do well to restrain yourself. No matter that we are engaged, this is not a good look.”
“Not a good look to whom?”
“…….”
“Do you even remember that we are engaged?”
“I do.”
Meriana steadied her breathing and swept back her hair.
“Who was it that proposed to me first?”
“It was I.”
Rohwinas obediently answered as his lover wished.
“When I said that not much time had passed since that great incident, and that I wanted to take a little more time to think. What did you say to me, Count?”
“I said that I already knew you liked me as well.”
“And?”
“……And that marrying me would be the greatest happiness for you, that I wanted to make you happy.”
“Is this the happiness you spoke of?”
“……If you are not happy,”
“Enough! I’ve already heard what I wanted to hear.”
Meriana cut him off sharply.
“Tell me. Do you love me?”
“I love you.”
His attitude was as though it no longer mattered whether that answer was true or false.
“Then go back with me now, and don’t ever leave my side again. Do you understand?”
Rohwinas reached out a hand. And then…… he removed a leaf that had flown onto Meriana’s shoulder.
Meriana flinched, then stared at Rohwinas for a moment as if bewitched.
Rohwinas silently looked down at the leaf, then let it fall carelessly.
And he nodded.
“If that is what will calm your anger.”
As Meriana turned away, Rohwinas’s gaze deepened a little more.
He remembered.
The sight of that woman reaching toward another man’s shoulder.
‘You had this on you.’
And then, just like this…….
The leaf she had let fall had slowly swayed left and right as it settled.
Onto the toe of his shoe.
Just like now.
* * *
Crash!
Daena nearly spat out the champagne she was drinking.
It had only been a short while since Count Canesion and Princess Meriana, the people under special scrutiny who had briefly disappeared, returned to the party hall.
The two had moved together, speaking quietly with expressions more composed and calm than expected,
and thanks to that, the people who had been buzzing over what happened earlier were gradually about to dismiss it as nothing much and move on.
If only Meriana had shown a little more patience, that was how it would have ended in the end…….
What Daena witnessed when she turned her head was ruin itself.
Meriana, her face flushed red, ran out of the party hall.
Left standing there was Rohwinas, clutching his left hand as blood dripped from it.
His aide, his face gone pale, rushed over to Rohwinas.
It seemed he had been scratched by a broken glass.
Rohwinas shook his head, then jerked his chin in the direction Meriana had run.
He was telling him to go to the princess first.
Judging by that alone, it did not seem their relationship would fall apart.
Should she call that a relief?
Would she have felt more at ease if she simply hadn’t known who the owner of that hideous mask at the center of all this was?
Surely the damage wouldn’t reach her as well, would it?
Had she given her that invitation for nothing?
It was true that she had given Asha the invitation partly so she could get under Meriana’s skin while she was at it…….
But it seemed the presence of someone named “Anastasia Roxan” was not something to be ignored as easily as she had thought.
Seeing as hiding her face with a mask had been useless.
Then again, there had not been a day since her debutante when that woman’s name had not been heard.
Above all, hadn’t she made the proud Count of House Canesion court her like a peacock spreading its tail wide?
After that, some people began to look upon her unfavorably, thinking that she should have quietly played the role of a lover, but instead, acting like she was something because she was a baron, she kept meddling in one thing after another. But no one dared show that in front of the two of them.
No one was able to seize the initiative in front of that woman.
Not even Count Canesion could do that.
Even looking back on it now, that woman had stood out unusually.
In other words, her presence had.
Even though she had nothing to her name.
When such a woman began, little by little, trying to interfere in matters of state and in the interests of the nobles…….
“That incident” broke out.
In the end, there had been no other reason everyone had felt secretly relieved.
That was what it came down to.
There were always complex reasons mixed into a great current.
And the condemnations hurled recklessly by people did not contain only mockery toward a woman who had “deceived and made a mockery of love.”
Moreover, at the forefront of it was Duke Canesion. And behind him was the Peregrine family.
Everyone acted with tact.
Since the current had already become irreversible, nothing would change even if they added a word or two more.
It was not difficult.
To trample down a young baron left alone so thoroughly that she would never even think of standing again.
So thoroughly that, in the end, even they themselves comfortably believed it was just.
Daena felt a strange sensation rise within her and set down her champagne glass.
Under people’s gazes, Rohwinas was calmly leaving his place.
‘What on earth is he thinking?’
If he was wavering between the woman he had abandoned and the woman he had chosen,
there was no one more pathetic than that.
Daena narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue.
And naturally, she thought that Anastasia Roxan would never take Rohwinas back.
“Daena, where is that maternal cousin of yours who came up from your hometown?”
Someone tapped Daena on the shoulder and asked.
Come to think of it, where had she gone?
She certainly had a talent for running away quickly.
“I’ll go look for her.”
“Yes, she must have been frightened after getting caught up in something like this. You should at least go comfort her.”
Daena gave a perfunctory nod and left.
After wandering around for quite some time, she had just made her way to the back garden of the party hall.
Daena saw it.
“No, oh, my goodness, no!”
“Oh my!”
“Kyaah!”
“Wait, oh no, stop!”
A complete uproar had broken out.
And at the center of it all, once again!
There was Anastasia Roxanne.
A thick branch snapped clean off, and a woman fell from the top of a great tree as tall as a two-story building.
From the woman’s limp arms, a child wriggled out and popped free.
“…….”
Daena began to suspect that perhaps she had been trying to understand that person in far too complicated a way.
That thing was simply,
a walking disaster.
* * *
The problem was that the incident happened, of all places, in the backyard.
While the young people wore masks and wandered the hall, exchanging heated glances, the backyard was where the elderly ladies of the families deepened their friendships.
That was why the problem was discovered only belatedly.
“See here, does it not look as though something is moving up there?”
“Well, I can’t quite…….”
“Wait, who is that child?”
“A child?”
“A little child?”
“Oh, dear!”
Not a cat, but a young child was hanging precariously from a tree branch.
A cat would at least cry for help, but the child, face bright red as they clung to the very end of the branch, did not so much as open their mouth.
Everyone was horrified.
If things went wrong, something would break, and if they were truly unlucky…….
Crack!
“Bring someone! At once!”
The elderly lady urgently shouted for them to fetch some nimble servant.
Even as she did, the branch the child was hanging from was slowly bending, revealing its pale inner flesh.
And in that very spot, there happened to be one person who had just fled to the backyard—a person who “climbed trees whenever she drank.”
Of course, that was me.
First, I rolled up my sleeves and took off my shoes, setting them down beside me.
Next, I gathered up the hem of my dress and tied it with a strip of cloth. The cool evening air brushed against the bare skin of my calves.
When I began stepping onto the tree trunk and climbing up, the maid attending the elderly lady screamed.
“N-no! If you climb the tree!”
The maid stamped her feet anxiously.
“It’s an extremely rare species brought from across the sea, and His Majesty even bestowed a name upon it!”
Was she telling me not to save the child, then?
Dumbfounded, I glanced back, and the maid shouted once more.
“The count cherishes it so much because it’s said to be a sacred tree. If it were to break,”
Just then, the elderly lady swung her cane and flew into a rage.
“Are you saying damaging that tree matters more than a child’s life? You insolent thing!”
The maid quickly prostrated herself on the ground.
“But, but…… if the count finds out later…….”
Whether the two of them argued or not, I kept diligently climbing.
‘Mm, no problem.’
I set my foot on a branch stretching out to the side and extended my body upward.
The little kid, of all places, was dangling from the highest branch at the very top.
Up close, their face was a mess of tears and snot.
And yet they were not crying out loud.
When I got closer, perhaps frightened, the body that had been frozen still began to flinch.
“Whoa, whoa, no, no, it’s all right, it’s all right, don’t be scared.”
Alarmed, I shook my head at the little kid.
“I’ll come to you. It’s okay. Stay still. Yes, there’s nothing to be afraid of. You can ignore the squawking down below.”
I planted my feet firmly on a comparatively thick branch and reached my hand toward the little kid.
The little kid stared intently at me.
“I’ll help you.”
At my words, they even gave a small nod.
If I could just get them safely into my arms and climb back down carefully, the same way I had come up…….
A commotion spread beneath the tree.
It seemed the servant the people had called had arrived.
Out of the corner of my eye, I confirmed that they had brought a net.
‘At least, even if we fall, we won’t die.’
Just then.
The branch the little kid was hanging from finally failed to bear the weight and snapped completely.