Chapter 65
“Vieta, am I making you uncomfortable?”
After saying that, Blanc fell silent.
Vieta, too, kept silent as she tried to collect her thoughts, and only awkwardness spilled into the air amid the campfire’s crackling.
“Why did you think that?”
To dispel the awkwardness, Vieta picked up some branches and tossed them into the campfire.
Blanc likewise snapped off a branch lying nearby and pushed it into the fire.
“I could be mistaken, but Vieta, it seems like your behavior has changed a little lately.”
“…My behavior?”
“To be honest, you’ve been avoiding me, haven’t you? You were like that even when we ran into each other in the dining hall a few days ago. You avoided me and hid behind Fulcare. Why on earth did you do that? At first, I thought you were simply tired or had some other reason and let it pass, but that wasn’t it.”
As though forcing down his emotions, Blanc’s voice grew increasingly pained.
“…It was only because I was busy.”
Vieta lowered her head, unable to meet the beautiful violet eyes gazing at her.
As if dumbfounded by such a feeble excuse, Blanc let out a hollow laugh.
“As you know, there was a lot to investigate this time, and I got a little tired in the process.”
“Then why are you avoiding my eyes now?”
“I haven’t avoided them.”
To lend force to her words, Vieta raised her head and looked at Blanc.
Through the flickering flames, their gazes became chaotically entwined.
“Another lie.”
The corners of Blanc’s mouth, curved in a faint smile, were tense.
“There’s no reason for me to lie to you. I really was busy then.”
Vieta desperately defended herself. Otherwise, she felt she and Blanc would become estranged forever.
“Why are you acting like this? When we were trapped in the room, did I make some mistake? Is that why you’re acting this way?”
“What mistake?!”
I like you, Vieta.
Recalling the six syllables Blanc had painfully forced out between ragged breaths made Vieta’s heart pound, and she unconsciously raised her voice.
“Thinking about it, I realized we never had an open conversation after that night. That means I must have made some mistake then. Besides, I wasn’t in my right mind….”
“Nothing happened.”
Vieta hurriedly cut Blanc off.
She felt that if he continued speaking, the situation would become even more awkward than it already was.
No, rather, she felt she herself might lose patience with the awkwardness and blurt something out.
“I happened to overhear the knights talking, and they said that once you return, Blanc, you’ll have to take a crown princess as your wife. But I can’t get in your way.”
“Why are you suddenly bringing up a crown princess? And what exactly do you mean, getting in my way?”
This time, Blanc’s voice grew even more heated.
“Am I wrong? No, I’m not. Once you become crown prince, you’ll have to find a good partner, and you can’t risk people getting the wrong idea because of me, right? We can think of ourselves as friends, but people around us might not see it that way.”
Vieta made a vague excuse based on what Fulcare had told her. Simply insisting that she had not been avoiding him no longer seemed enough to persuade Blanc.
“…Why do you care about a partner or misunderstandings?”
Despite Vieta’s plausible excuse, Blanc’s face was more crumpled than ever.
“Why do I care? I can’t stand in the way of my friend’s future.”
“Did you really think I’d cast you aside because you were a hindrance?”
“No. I know you wouldn’t do that. I just didn’t want to interfere with you.”
Seeing his trembling fist, Vieta deliberately put on an exaggerated smile.
She meant to convey that she had done it out of genuine concern for him as a friend, without any ulterior motive.
After a brief silence, Blanc finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“…You might think it’s unfair of me, but, Vieta, you were the one who said it. You said you’d help me and asked me not to draw a line between us.”
The prince bit his lip at intervals as though trying to control his emotions.
“But if you suddenly turn your back on me like this, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
After he finished speaking, Blanc exhaled the deep breath he had been holding, and the corners of his mouth and his jaw began to tremble.
His gaze had long since lost a place to rest.
“…That wasn’t my intention.”
Right. Of course it wasn’t.
Without waiting to hear her reply, Blanc got to his feet and walked away alone.
That insignificant mutter hurt so much that Vieta could not bring herself to stop him.
***
“You’re back.”
In the distance, the Empire’s flag flying from a tower fluttered in the fierce northern wind.
It took a full eight days of riding from the Elven Kingdom to reach Imperial territory.
Vieta waited on a hill near the checkpoint until the entire pilgrimage procession had passed through.
She didn’t want to approach needlessly and run into Blanc.
Since that night, Blanc had not come looking for her even once.
Instead, Fulcare came to see her every day.
Under the pretext of bringing her whatever she needed, Fulcare would stay by Vieta’s side for a while before leaving.
Yet he never once mentioned Blanc.
Vieta was grateful for Fulcare’s consideration.
“Guess I should get going.”
Only after waiting two hours was Vieta able to pass through the checkpoint and enter Santpol, a small city near the border. The city was bustling because of the pilgrimage procession that had just arrived.
“Should I buy that hide for now?”
Avoiding the crowds that had gathered to see the prince, Vieta took a detour around the outskirts and rubbed her hands together as she looked at fox pelts spread along a general store’s fence.
Having stood in the wind on the hill the entire time, her chilled body creaked and cried out.
“I’ll give you a discount to celebrate the prince’s arrival. Have a look.”
Perhaps realizing that Vieta was interested in the hides, the hunter tanning them beside her waved to her. Drawn in by his call, Vieta carefully examined the hides, making the hunter frown.
“Miss, even if you’re an adventurer, if you wander around dressed like that, you’re liable to freeze to death.”
“…Will I really freeze to death?”
“Do you even have to ask? That outfit is barely more than autumn wear. The North is cold even in summer.”
The hunter set out a cape, gloves, and thick socks—things she could throw on lightly in cold weather.
“This should be enough. And the scarf is free.”
The hunter wrapped a scarf around her neck. Grateful for his kindness, Vieta paid without another word.
“By the way, miss, what brings you to the North?”
The hunter spoke as he sorted the things Vieta had bought.
“Don’t tell me you came for the hunting tournament too?”
“The hunting tournament?”
Vieta pursed her lips and searched her memory. But no matter how she thought about it, this was the first she had heard of it.
“Once snow starts falling, it gets hard to go hunting, so we have to catch as much game as possible during the two summer months. Everyone’s been talking about the prince participating this time too, haven’t they? If you’re interested, miss, go to the notice board by the city gate. The pay should be pretty good.”
Vieta quietly nodded as she accepted the envelope the hunter held out.
***
Fulcare came to see Vieta that night as well, after she arrived in Santpol. He had slipped away while Blanc was having a private meeting with the lord of the castle.
“You sure know how to find me?”
“It’s not like this is the first or second time I’ve gone looking for my captain.”
Vieta waved a fork with a sausage speared on it at Fulcare as he entered the inn.
Fulcare chuckled and headed toward her table.
After ordering a mug of beer from the server, Fulcare spoke.
“Why not put your name back on the list, even now? Don’t put yourself through needless trouble.”
“What’s the point of adding it now? Besides, I can manage.”
Stubborn as ever.
Fulcare clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“By the way, are you participating in the hunting tournament too?”
“Oh, that.”
Fulcare gulped down the beer the server had set down, then continued.
“What would I be doing in it? Only Blanc and Allos are participating.”
“Then are you just providing an escort?”
“I suppose. Given the location, I’ll likely be too busy to do anything besides escort duty.”
Vieta recalled the tournament notice she had seen on the notice board.
The hunting tournament was being held in a low mountain range east of Santpol. The slopes were not steep, but the trees were dense, making it a gloomy place where sunlight barely reached even during the day.
“Besides, that mountain range connects to the Duchy of Sijak, so we have to be careful. We’re holding the empress’s leash, so the Duchy of Sijak probably won’t act rashly, but you never know, right?”
Since Crown Prince Gabin’s death, an odd tension had been building between the Empire and the Duchy of Sijak, the empress’s maternal family.
“Then I’ll have to go to the hunting grounds too.”
“Of course. Since you’re not part of the pilgrimage, you’ll probably have to register separately.”
Vieta slowly lowered the fork she had been holding.
The moment Blanc came to mind, her chest tightened and her appetite vanished.
“By the way, there’ll be a battle among the maids for Blanc’s trophy, but who’s going to stop that?”
“Prize?”
“The first-place prize is an artisan-made everlasting ice flower. Apparently, there’s an old belief that possessing one lets you have eternal love. So I hear nobles from the capital often seek them out too.”
So the everlasting ice flower really was exactly what its name said—an ice flower that didn’t melt.
Vieta had assumed it was the name of something metaphorical—something expensive and luxurious.
And eternal love, at that. The childish grand prize left Vieta utterly deflated.
“…Can’t you make that flower with your magic? You could probably make hundreds.”
“Want me to make you one?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Vieta covered Fulcare’s palm, where blue chill swirled, with her own.