IYTTEPAAK Chapter 18

He hadn't laid eyes on Sasha even once today. She'd been shut up in the dressing room from well before dawn until now, without so much as showing her face at breakfast or lunch.

All he'd gotten his fill of watching were Hamel and Demia, bustling in and out of the chamber with jewelry and articles of clothing in hand.

"Busy, busy! Banquet day—it's a war, every time!"

"Is Her Highness still not finished?"

"Almost there!"

"Is there anything I can help with——"

"Nothing! I'm off to fetch a calming draught from the court physician. Can't have her waiting around too long!"

The instant Demia vanished out of the chamber, Hamel came in a moment later, carrying a tray of light food.

"Is that for Her Highness?"

"Yes. She hasn't had a bite all day, so I thought she should have something in her before the banquet starts—oh, goodness, where's my head."

Hamel started as if something had just occurred to her.

"I forgot to fetch the outer coat from the laundry. Sir Regen, would you tell Miss Demia I'm asking her to take care of this? And tell her to cut it into small pieces, please, so it doesn't ruin Her Highness's makeup."

Hamel disappeared back through the door she'd come in by, leaving the tray in his hands.

Demia, gone to the physician—no telling when she'd be back. The departure time, almost upon them. And beyond that door, the princess, starving.

Given the situation he'd been handed, Regen decided: this was simply his to do.

The dressing room was just one room past the drawing room. He went to knock, only to find the door already open wide enough for one person to pass through.

Backlit by bright sunlight pouring through the lattice window, the princess stood with her back turned.

Fine platinum hair, trailing thin down her nape. Shoulder blades, standing out pale. A blue dress, cinched at the waist, falling full below.

Coiled in backlight, the princess was beautiful—and that was just her back.

"......"

Regen forgot he was even supposed to knock, and simply took the sight into his eyes.

"Hamel, the ribbon's come undone. Help me."

Sasha was straining, arm reaching awkwardly toward her own back.

Regen set the tray down on the side table and came up behind her. His long, neat fingers tied off the ribbon into a knot.

"There—how does it look——"

The two of them, meeting each other's eyes, flinched at the same instant. The princess had been startled by the knight's sudden appearance; the knight had been startled that the princess was even more beautiful than he'd imagined.

"...Sir Regen?"

"......"

Turned to face him, she looked like a scene lifted straight out of a masterpiece painting. She seemed a being born from some great pearl-shell, carried in on the sea-foam of a winter ocean.

Even her pale sky-blue eyes, wavering with confusion, were beautiful. Regen's throat bobbed once, entirely without his permission.

"I brought you something to eat."

"I thought you were Hamel......"

Sasha was too distracted by the state of her ribbon to spare a glance at the food at all.

Regen himself was inwardly baffled as to why he'd done what he'd done, but he managed to produce a reasonably good justification.

"It brought back a memory—of tying my little sister's ribbons."

"......Ah, of course. A brother would know how to tie his sister's ribbon or two. Right."

"Yes."

"......"

"......"

The awkwardness faded, replaced by a lingering stiffness, though only briefly. Much of the credit for that belonged to Sasha's determined effort to act as though nothing had happened.

She checked her reflection in the mirror, examining the ribbon Regen had tied.

"The ribbon suits you, Sir Regen."

"I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"It's pretty, but composed."

"......I'm glad to hear it pleases you."

Regen picked up the knife from the tray. A pound cake, packed generously inside with wine-steeped fruit and topped with nuts, had been cut into small, bite-sized pieces.

He speared one piece with the fork and held it out to Sasha's lips.

"If I may——"

"Didn't your brother do this for you too?"

"He did. Of course he did."

Regen was honestly startled watching Sasha's whole demeanor change on a single word.

Just something to say, that was all.

It was surprising that it had actually worked. Whoever this brother of Sasha's had been, he must have fed his sister by hand as well.

Regen thought him an unusual sort of brother, but didn't dig any deeper into it. There might well be one such abnormally affectionate brother somewhere in the world, after all.

He'd only picked up a bad piece of learning: that to a princess, the word "brother" might be a kind of universal key.

The pieces of pound cake Regen held out disappeared one by one past Sasha's lips.

Perhaps it was because the bread had been cut into pieces that were far too small. He found himself thinking she looked like a bird being fed, and then a hazy memory brushed past him.

'Hadn't this happened before, somehow?'

A small girl comes to him. Days without food. Lying on the floor. Just breathing, thin and ragged.

He'd torn white bread into small pieces and pushed it into the girl's mouth. No suspicion. Just quietly chewing it down, swallowing—docile as a hatchling fed from its mother's beak.

Of course, in the very beginning, before she'd regained consciousness, she'd bitten his thumb more than once with her teeth bared.

Sasha's voice pulled Regen back from his reverie.

"The figs are good."

He picked out the pieces with fig in them on the fork and held them out to her.

Sasha ended her brief meal with a sip of tea to clear her palate. By Regen's reckoning, she'd eaten even less than that small girl once had.

Before he could offer her more, Sasha rose from her seat. She turned a full circle in place for him to see, as if inviting his verdict.

"How is it?"

"You're beautiful."

"......"

Sasha's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Why do you say that?"

"It came out too plainly. I wondered if it was just something said out of duty."

Not at all.

The answer had come without a moment's hesitation only because he'd been thinking it the entire time.

If she'd been a landscape or a work of art rather than a person, Regen could have spent hours simply taking her in, right where he stood.

"I meant it sincerely."

"Thank you. You look wonderful too, Sir Regen."

Now it was Regen's turn to feel the same thing toward Sasha.

Hadn't her own words, just now, been every bit as much a matter of duty? It sounded like something she could have said with her eyes closed in front of a man like Domynick.

Of course, being a properly trained knight, Regen kept his true feelings well suppressed.

"I already feel like I'm tiring. I wonder if I'll have the strength left this evening to treat your mana core."

"There's no need to force the schedule. It would be best if you rested tonight."

"I need to help you regain your strength soon. I've been worried lately that the recovery's been slowing a little more than it should."

Regen had noticed it himself—the core's rate of recovery growing more gradual. At this pace, there was no telling when the treatment would ever be finished.

"All the more reason to keep at it more consistently."

"......"

Without noticing he did it, Regen's thumb traced the knuckle of his right forefinger. It was the place the princess's lips touched, every single night, by their mutual agreement.

"Oh my, Sir Regen. Why are you in here?"

Hamel had returned with the fur coat. An innocent question could still sound, to whoever overheard it, like an accusation. Fortunately, Hamel answered her own question before anyone else had to.

"Ah, Miss Demia must have stepped out, so you were attending Her Highness in her place. Thank you."

"It was nothing."

Demia returned just then as well.

"Your Highness, here—a calming draught. Drink up."

"I said I don't need it."

"Of course you need it. You act calm, Your Highness, but you're really quite on edge underneath, so——"

"I am not. Never mind that—hand me my ring."

A vintage ring, engraved with a rose in relief, was slid onto the princess's forefinger.

It wasn't the Silver Bird crest that marked Sasha; if anything, it was a somewhat rustic piece to be wearing to a banquet.

"You always wear that one for banquets."

"My mother gave it to me."

"Ahh, then the lady will watch over you, Your Highness."

At Demia's cheerful pronouncement, Sasha only offered a strange, unreadable smile in return.

Hamel draped the winter coat over Sasha's shoulders and spoke.

"The banquet has begun. We should be on our way."

Now it was Regen's turn. He held out his right hand to Sasha.

"The honor of escorting you."

"Gladly."