Are You Saying It Was Deliberate?

“The court of Luminous is apparently in quite a frenzy right now.”

Someone muttered it under his breath. When I shifted my gaze away from Lady Shitoen, several others nodded along with the remark.

“They say the new Crown Princess is unfamiliar with current affairs and poses no problem within domestic high society, but cannot be sent to diplomatic functions.”

“Ah, that thing, right? The matter with the Tania envoy.”

“The envoy?”

When I asked, several of them nodded with grimaces on their faces.

“Your Highness is aware, of course, that King Tania was greatly angered by the matter of Lady Shitoen’s broken engagement, and that exports of mineral resources to Luminous have currently been halted?”

“Ah, yes. As a result, they have gone to the trouble of purchasing Tania’s resources from foreign countries instead.”

When I said that, everyone nodded.

“And regarding that matter, the new Crown Princess… um, Crown Princess Mail, was it? It seems she suddenly barged in on the Tania envoy and directly pleaded, ‘Please sell me gemstones.’”

I was dumbfounded.

“And the reason, of all things… was apparently that otherwise the number of jewels used at her own wedding would be reduced.”

Snorts of laughter leaked through the circle of conversation. What kind of bad joke was that?

“Up until now, well… Lady Shitoen had been made to play the villain, and that was probably why the current Crown Princess had such high popularity…”

“But now that the trick behind it has been exposed…”

The nobles exchanged shrugs with one another and sipped the liquor in their glasses.

“The crown prince of the neighboring kingdom really has no eye for quality.”

Raul murmured that only to me. I gave a snort.

He had hurt Lady Shitoen that badly.

A little suffering would do him good.

“Oh?”

Just as I was growing irritated, Raul made a small sound. He had probably adjusted the volume so only I could hear it. The surrounding nobles had not noticed.

I shifted only my gaze and looked at Raul.

His eyes were directed at Lady Shitoen.

Drawn along by that, I followed his line of sight.

There was Lady Shitoen, holding a slender glass and tilting her head. She wore a slightly troubled expression.

Huh?

Had she been holding a glass before? While my eyes were elsewhere, had a waiter handed her something?

In the next instant, I saw Eaton, her maid, hurry over from the wall.

Lady Shitoen discreetly stepped away from the circle of conversation, said something to Eaton, and Eaton seemed to be furrowing her brows quite deeply as well.

“Raul, go.”

Raul started moving before I had even finished speaking.

The guards had noticed that something was amiss as well, but seemed to be waiting for instructions from either Raul or me.

When I gave a slight shake of the head, they continued to hold position.

Raul approached Lady Shitoen and Eaton and said something to them.

Eaton complained with her shoulders stiff with indignation, while Lady Shitoen soothed her maid.

Raul nodded, took the glass from Lady Shitoen, and she lowered her head to him, looking relieved, but also somehow apologetic. Raul hastily stopped her from doing so.

Prompted by Eaton, Lady Shitoen quietly returned to the circle of conversation.

The noblewomen too wore puzzled expressions, as though wondering if something had happened, but they seemed to casually draw Lady Shitoen back into the conversation.

“What happened?”

I too stepped away from the circle of nobles and spoke to Raul when he returned.

“Well, it’s this.”

Raul held out the glass to me.

It was the one Lady Shitoen had been holding earlier.

Judging by the color, it seemed to be orange juice mixed with sparkling water. Had there been some trash in it or something?

“Could you smell it for a moment?”

He pushed it right under my nose, and I jerked back in surprise.

“Don’t tell me it’s gone bad?”

“Not that.”

I took it from Raul and cautiously brought it near my nose.

It really did smell like orange juice. That refreshing citrus scent tickled my nose.

“Hm?”

But my brow furrowed.

It was not just that.

Thinking it was bad manners, and yet doing it anyway, I brought my nose even closer to the glass.

“Doesn’t this have peach in it?”

My voice turned sharp without my meaning it to.

It was faint, but I could smell that distinctive sweet scent.

“Right?”

Anger was showing in Raul’s eyes too.

Before our stay, a notice had been sent to the lord of every territory.

Lady Shitoen cannot eat peaches or apples. They must never be used in meals or sweets.

Apparently, ever since childhood, when she ate them, the inside of her throat and her face would swell up, and she would develop a fever and suffer terribly.

That had grown worse year by year, and now even contact with the juice alone was enough to make her unwell.

So we had informed them: absolutely do not include those in her food.

In fact, they had not been used at all in today’s dinner or dessert.

And yet.

Why was peach appearing here?

“…Why was this glass given to Lady Shitoen?”

“According to Lady Shitoen, a butler approached her and said, ‘Here you are, Princess,’ so she accepted it, thinking it was orange juice. Apparently, before that she had asked for orange.”

In appearance, it truly was exactly that. Even holding it to the light, all one could see was orange-colored liquid and the tiny bubbles of diluted carbonation.

“However, when she brought it near her nose, she noticed the smell… and was wondering what to do about it.”

“Was it meant for someone else by mistake?”

If one were told it was a soft cocktail of this sort, that seemed possible.

“But he addressed her as ‘Princess,’ did he not? There is no other woman in this hall with that honorific, surely.”

Raul’s voice dropped lower. He was giving off a prickling vigilance like a trained guard dog.

“Are you saying it was deliberate?”

When I asked, he answered plainly, “Yes,” which made a bitter smile escape me.

“It’s still too early to make a scene. Let’s watch a little longer.”

Raul bent his mouth into an unhappy line. I gave a shrug.

“Find the butler who handed that glass to Lady Shitoen. We’ll ask for an explanation. That comes first. I do not want to make this eventful in a dangerous way at a place like this, which is practically Lady Shitoen’s debut, and it would be awkward to give anyone the wrong impression.”

At last Raul seemed convinced.

He gave finger signals to several knights by the wall and headed toward the entrance.

“Has something happened?”

When the count asked, I put on a polite smile.

“No, nothing. My apologies, I was just speaking with a subordinate for a moment.”

Saying that, I returned to the conversation.