3

The sound of soaring music echoed throughout the royal palace.

It was a dinner party hosted by the royal family. Of course, the guest of honor was Noel, and this was a grand dinner party held by the entire nation to celebrate Noel’s achievement.

The largest hall in the royal palace was used, and every high-ranking noble in the country was invited.

With the noble ladies and gentlemen murmuring in the white hall of the white palace, it was as beautiful as a greenhouse where flowers had all bloomed at once.

Noel still had not been able to return to the greenhouse.

He was so busy that he had barely been able to communicate only the minimum necessary business messages to the members of the Magic Institute.

Today’s grand dinner party, too, could not begin without Noel, the guest of honor. It was a great national celebration.

(I want to go back to the greenhouse.)

However, Noel, the guest of honor, who was basking in all the glory of this world, simply wanted to return to the greenhouse the entire time, even while looking at the flower-like noble ladies or speaking with the scholars praising him.

He wanted to return to Beth’s greenhouse, full of plants growing freely however they liked, and be healed.

However, contrary to Noel’s feelings, Noel was spending even busier days than before he had completed the elixir.

(This was not how it was supposed to be.)

Once he completed the elixir and awakened the princess, Noel would finally nap in the greenhouse as much as he liked.

He would fight over the sofa with that stray cat, and then when he woke up, he would eat sweets together with Beth.

That was right. He had also promised to cut Beth’s hair, which had grown long.

“Congratulations on this occasion.”

After receiving greetings from a great many riffraff while his mind was mostly elsewhere, the person who performed a flawless curtsy before Noel was a face Noel knew.

Luxurious, wavy golden curls. A passionate red outfit.

The only people permitted to wear this color were limited to those from marquis families and above.

It was Eloise.

Noel felt relieved at Eloise’s false, doll-like face.

“My beautiful young lady, would you dance with me?”

“With pleasure.”

Noel put on the smile pasted to his beautiful face and invited the doll-like beautiful girl before him to dance.

The two of them glided out onto the floor.

The hall filled with sighs at the dance of the two beautiful people.

Without knowing what kind of conversation was being exchanged between those two beautiful people.

“Is Beth well?”

Without any preamble, Noel frankly threw the thing he most wanted to ask at his cousin.

“Oh, it has been so long, but you have no greeting for me at all? How cold. Well, fine. If you mean Beth, she went home.”

Without letting the doll-like smile pasted to her face fade, Eloise said that to Noel in exasperation.

“Went home… Hey, what do you mean?”

Noel also kept the smile pasted to his face from fading, but in his agitation, he reflexively gripped Eloise’s hand with all his strength.

“I said that hurts. Ease up, you idiot Noel. I will tell you, so take us to the balcony.”

This perfect doll-like girl was Eloise in her role as a duke’s daughter.

(It has been a long time since I saw this face too.)

Eloise, as a duke’s daughter, was also obligated to attend today’s royal ball celebrating the completion of the elixir.

Eloise’s hands, usually completely roughened by chemicals, had been polished today, and even red lacquer had been applied to her nails.

This was not Eloise the magician, wearing the usual Magic Institute uniform and deploying lazy magic, but Eloise the duke’s daughter as an elegant doll princess, and she was truly beautiful, and truly looked constrained.

Somehow shaking off the people who gathered noisily around Noel like flies, he escorted Eloise to the balcony by the window, and finally Noel entered a position where he could speak with Eloise alone for a short while.

Even if they were cousins, there would likely be no tactless person at this night party who could interrupt a man and woman talking alone on a balcony.

(Just speaking with my cousin for a short while takes this much effort?)

When Eloise arrived at the balcony, she deployed a small spell in one breath. The next moment, a recent extra edition was held in her hand.

Eloise thrust the extra edition toward Noel.

“Read it.”

She said that in a displeased tone.

Though his head was not working well from busyness, he read through it for the time being, as Eloise told him to.

Sensational titles caught his eye.

“The Princess’s Awakening,” “The Completion of the Elixir,” “The Marriage of the Tragic Great Saintess’s Memento and the Third Princess,” “True Love.”

Then an entirely nonexistent love story between the princess and Noel had been spun in dramatic style, and at the end of the article, it said grandly, “The elixir was completed by the power of the Goddess of Love.”

“What is this?”

“It is apparently the story of Noel.”

According to the extra, the son of the Great Saintess and the princess, who loved each other deeply, had suffered a tragic accident, but by the will of the Goddess of Love, who recognized the power of their love, the legendary elixir was completed, and the princess awakened.

Apparently, this extra was propaganda aimed at the common people by the Temple faction.

It seemed they wanted, no matter what, to have the Temple’s influence attached to the elixir.

(Though the Temple did not even bless me. How ridiculous.)

Because Noel’s birth had ended his mother’s life, the Temple had refused to bless Noel both when he was born and when he came of age. They had called him an abominable life that killed the Great Saintess.

Apparently, if one did not receive the Temple’s blessing, then after death, one could not go to the goddess, and would be burned eternally in the flames of limbo.

(As if there could be any will from the Temple’s Goddess of Love for me, whom they did not even grant a blessing.)

After the completion of the elixir, the invitation to a renewed blessing ceremony addressed to Noel from the Temple had been turned to ash without even being opened.

“So, what do you mean Beth went home? I have not heard anything from anyone.”

“It seems she went back to the mill alone, without even saying goodbye to me. Naranda-sama knows how things went. She seems to be doing well.”

“Hey, why is Naranda the only one who knows? Why did she go home without saying anything to me? Did something happen while I was absent?”

Noel was flustered, and without thinking, he raised his voice. He had spent this busy period looking forward only to meeting Beth, only to returning to the greenhouse where Beth was.

“Noel, calm down, please. Beth had Naranda-sama process her resignation. To begin with, you were not at the Magic Institute all this time, were you? And most likely, Beth heard things like what is written here. That girl is truly innocent and honest.”

Eloise sadly tore the extra edition to pieces and threw it from the balcony into the night sky.

The extra edition scattered in all directions like white butterflies.

“…Hey, that is a misunderstanding. Most of what is written there is complete nonsense. Eloise, even you know that.”

Noel was shaken.

“That is true. Most of the contents of this extra edition are complete nonsense. But Noel, even you know that not all of it is nonsense.”

Noel flinched at Eloise’s point. Eloise spoke to Noel with a stern face. It was the face of a guardian, as an older cousin.

“Noel. You did not tell Beth that you were engaged, or whom you were making the elixir for, did you?”

(That was… because Beth did not ask.)

In his heart, the ugly Noel began making excuses.

(No, that is not it.)

Noel faced his own servile and ugly heart.

He had not said it because he wanted Beth’s love.

Because he was afraid that if Beth learned he was engaged, she would reject Noel’s heart.

Like an older sister, Eloise spoke to Noel as if admonishing him.

“Noel. If Beth has left your side, then do not chase after her anymore. You can sleep now even without Beth, can’t you?”

“…Yes.”

The insomnia that had tormented Noel had completely disappeared now that the source of his anxiety was gone.

Even outside the greenhouse Beth had made, Noel had become able to sleep even in his office.

“Then, Noel, you have no more business with Beth. The contract between Beth and you has ended. Beth and you are only an employer and a gardener. And you are the fiancé of the third princess. You will become one of the most noble people in this country. Neither the Temple, nor Marquis Saratoga, nor the royal family, nor anyone else will ever look down on you again. So please. Do not meet Beth anymore. I do not want to see that girl get hurt.”

Crystal-like tears had gathered in the beautiful blue eyes of strong-willed Eloise.

A long silence fell between the two of them.