Chapter 23

When Alan returned to the headquarters from his patrol of the Royal Capital, he happened to cross paths with the Third Order’s vice commander, the female knight Monique, as she was heading out.

“Ah, good work today.”

Alan raised a hand casually with a smile, but Monique did not stop, merely dipping her head slightly in acknowledgment.

She hurried right out of the headquarters.

Naturally, Alan was not the sort to let such a thing bother him.

Figuring she must have been in a rush, he shook off the thought and stepped into the knights’ waiting room.

The headquarters where the Third Order’s knights gathered.

It was boisterous enough on any normal day, but today the atmosphere felt distinctly different from usual.

The moment Alan appeared, a tepid, knowing air drifted through the room.

“It’s finally happening, sir.”

“Hm?”

Failing to grasp the meaning of the words thrown his way, Alan knitted his brows.

Without caring about Alan’s confusion, the knights cast fond and teasing glances in his direction.

“Must be nice. I want a young, beautiful, younger bride like that too.”

“On top of that, she holds a peerage!”

“How on earth did His Grace beat us to it…”

The knights chimed in, jeering at Alan one after another.

He had grown somewhat used to such light banter lately, but even so, today felt unusually blatant.

“What is with you lot today? You’re being awfully cheeky.”

“Oh? Didn’t the Vice Commander tell you?”

One of the knights tilted his head in surprise.

Alan had just crossed paths with Monique earlier, but she had mentioned nothing of the sort.

“Will you spit out what on earth you’re talking about?”

Losing his patience, Alan raised his voice.

“Don’t get mad, it’s not like it’s bad news or anything.”

“That’s right, the old jeweler came by earlier and left a message telling us to come pick up the finished rings.”

“Ah.”

Realizing that was all it was, Alan nodded.

Ever since he and Diana went to order the rings together, time had drifted by slowly, and it was already late in the month.

Once the month turned, the wedding would be right upon them.

Leaving the suffocating royal palace behind, his life with Diana was about to begin.

At that thought, Alan’s expression naturally threatened to soften.

(With looks like this, I suppose I can’t blame everyone for teasing me…)

Tightening his expression, which was loosening into a smile, he gave a sharp cough.

“Understood, I shall go pick them up later.”

“Saying ‘later,’ you’re definitely going right away, aren’t you?”

“Ah, must be nice…”

Even the teasing voices were all born of their fondness for Alan.

Knowing that, he never truly got angry with them.

“Still… the Vice Commander did say she’d pass along the message, though.”

At the knight’s words, Alan paused in thought.

He had just crossed paths with Monique moments ago as he entered the headquarters.

Back then, she had merely dipped her head slightly without saying a word.

Had she simply forgotten?

Or perhaps…

A smooth, untroubled interval with the wedding drawing near.

Even at such a time, as though a small pebble had been cast into a pond, he felt his heart strange stirred.

Stepping out of the headquarters and heading toward the jewelry shop, what caught Alan’s eye right across from the shop was the figure of Monique, sitting all alone on a park bench.

Because she was still some distance away, she had not yet noticed Alan.

As he tried to close the gap, Alan’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

He realized that Monique’s expression was different from usual.

──This was just a little while before Alan discovered Monique.

“Hah…”

Sitting on the park bench with the small box containing the rings resting on her lap, Monique buried her head in her hands and let out a sigh.

She hadn’t intended to do something like this.

Doing something like this wasn’t going to change anything, anyway.

Even so, her body had moved on its own accord.

At the familiar jewelry shop she always visited on her patrols, she had lied, claiming she was sent by Alan, and taken the finished rings.

Her reason told her that she ought to deliver these to Alan immediately.

Yet Monique’s emotions refused.

With a rustle, she undid the packaging and opened the small box.

Inside rested two rings.

They shared a matching design, one quite large for a man, and the other sized for a woman.

She picked up the smaller ring and tried slipping it onto her own finger.

…A rough, calloused finger that had held a sword since childhood.

There was simply no way such a slender ring would ever fit.

She had heard that the daughter of the Duke of Gazard also used a sword.

But surely it was nothing more than the kind of fencing students learned at the academy.

It was not as though she had honed her skills professionally like a knight.

Besides, she had heard that woman’s true forte was magic.

Living without want as the daughter of a ducal family, with slender, delicate fingers that bore no hint of roughness, she had somehow managed to capture even the heart of the Royal Uncle.

Why had a little girl like that been chosen?

The more she thought about it, the more a dark, murky sludge swirled within her heart.

A mid-afternoon park.

Even the sounds of children running around and laughing merrily could not soothe her soul.

On the contrary, she even found herself wishing that right now──that these rings would just disappear.

That’s right.

The wedding was supposed to be right after the turn of the month.

If these rings were to vanish somewhere right now, the rings wouldn’t make it in time for the wedding day, and the two of them wouldn’t be able to hold the ceremony──such a devilish whisper echoed sweetly in the back of Monique’s mind.

“Hey, you two.”

The ones Monique called out to were two children playing tag in the park.

One was a boy, and the other was a girl.

Perhaps childhood friends, as Monique addressed them, the boy stepped in front of the girl as if to protect her.

“What is it?”

Wary of a stranger, no doubt.

Seeing their clever demeanor, a smile naturally escaped her lips.

“You two look awfully close… I’ll give you a present.”

The pair of matching rings Monique handed over made the young sweethearts’ faces light up.

“They might be too big for you right now, but when you grow up, they’re sure to be just the right size. Until then… get along well, you two.”

“Yes!”

“Thank you!!”

Whether to show someone or to take them straight home, the two children who received the rings ran off out of the park.

She didn’t know where the children lived, nor even their names.

A strange, thrilling sensation welled up in Monique’s chest.

Was this regret? Or perhaps a sense of superiority for having outwitted that woman?

Before she knew it, her heart was beating at a frantic pace.

Now, belatedly, the realization that she had gone too far began to take root.

If he asked the jeweler, the fact that Monique had picked up the rings would become known immediately.

If Alan questioned her, how ought she to answer?

Should she claim she lost them while on duty?

Could she really gloss it over with that?

She didn’t know.

She didn’t know, but rather than staying here like this, she felt it would be better to return to patrolling the city and move her body, even just a little.

Just as she thought that and started to stand up—

“Monique…”

Narrowing his blue-gray eyes, Alan fixed his gaze upon her.