IYTTEPAAK Chapter 25

Perhaps because her elder sisters were slow to react to the unexpected, none of them had stepped in yet.

This was Lilliana's moment. If she, as the senior princess present, intervened to mediate and set an example, she stood to gain real credit for it.

Lilliana cut into the stage Sasha and Nanaën had made of themselves, pitching her voice into a stern, matronly register she didn't actually feel.

"What is this recklessness, and in front of His Majesty? Apologize this instant, Rosasia."

"I haven't done anything that needs an apology."

Inwardly, Lilliana punched the air. Wasn't Sasha handing her the excuse to corner her, gift-wrapped?

"Sasha, senior princess or not, this simply isn't done. What sort of unruly, disgraceful conduct is this for a princess of the empire?"

"......"

"It isn't too late, even now. Apologize to Nana properly for your rudeness."

"I told you—I haven't done anything wrong enough to warrant an apology."

"Well. There's no helping it, then. You've brought this punishment on yourself."

Justification secured, Lilliana's orange eyes flashed with delight.

She didn't even notice how openly, how delightedly, her own face was smiling.

Without dirtying her own hands, Lilliana settled on a fitting punishment to humiliate Sasha.

"Wine spilled on your dress, didn't it, Nana."

"Hm? Ah—yes. A little."

"There's no better lesson for someone who won't own her fault than to feel it from the other side. Go on—pour some wine on her too."

She pressed a wine glass into Nanaën's hand with a gesture so tender it could have passed for genuine affection.

Caught off guard, Nanaën received it in visible confusion.

"......That seems like a bit much. I'd rather not make a bigger scene of it."

"It's your rightful due. I give my permission, as your senior—you may."

"......."

Nanaën's eyes flicked toward Sasha, trembling.

'Sasha-sis, you're taking forever. What am I supposed to do now?'

But Sasha only kept her gaze lowered to the floor, her expression unreadable.

By the time the stalling had grown awkward even to sustain, a new figure stepped onto the stage.

"Can't manage it? Shall I help?"

"Ah—"

Cehera snatched Nanaën's wrist and swung it in one motion.

By the time Nanaën blinked her eyes open again, it was already over. What met her sight was Sasha, drenched in wine from head to face.

While Nanaën was still reeling from how fast it had happened, Cehera spoke without a trace of shame.

"Oh, dear. What a shame. My hand slipped a little, trying to help Nana."

"......."

It was a moment before Sasha could open her eyes again. Red wine dripped in beads from the ends of her lashes.

Lilliana and Cehera were savoring her wretched state when someone cried out.

"L-look at the floor!"

The white rose petals that had fallen onto the spilled wine were dissolving, as though corroding from within.

"P-poison! That's a poison reaction!"

"The glass the Golden Deer Princess offered to Her Highness the Silver Bird—it had poison in it—!"

Sasha spoke, sweeping her wet hair back from her forehead.

"I told you. I hadn't done anything wrong."

As if she'd been waiting for exactly this, Nanaën shoved past Cehera's shoulder and rushed to Sasha, hanging teardrops from those deer-doe eyes of hers.

"S-sister...! There was poison in it! I had no idea——!"

"I know. I turned the glass down, and you were about to drink it yourself."

"So that's why you tried to stop me...?"

"You're annoying. But you're my sister."

At Sasha's words, Nanaën clapped both hands over her mouth in exaggerated shock.

The Golden Deer's stricken, visibly moved expression was exactly the sort of thing to win over an audience. Gasps of admiration rippled through the ballroom.

The mood had turned completely now.

Sasha and Nanaën exchanged a look.

It was a calculating look, worlds apart from the tender scene the two of them were currently performing.

That's enough for now.

The warmth ends here. Time to turn cold again.

Sasha slowly turned her head. Lilliana and Cehera, still floundering in confusion, flinched under her gaze.

Sasha said, "There's usually a reason our elder sisters stay quiet when they do. All the wise ones seemed content to simply watch—perhaps you might have waited a little longer too, Lily, until things were clearer."

"——!"

Nothing wounds quite like comparison. Lilliana trembled with fury at having her fitness as a senior princess called into question.

"And Cehera."

"W-what?"

"You do seem to reach for your hands the moment an excuse presents itself. If you carry on as though your royal blood puts you above everyone, how do you expect those beneath you to trust and follow you?"

"You——!"

The nobles who'd long harbored grievances against Cehera's conduct nodded along. That single remark had, in one stroke, made every noble present see their own situation reflected in Sasha's.

They murmured among themselves.

"There's been talk for a while now that Her Highness the Early Summer Princess is difficult to serve. She'd slander anyone the moment they displeased her, apparently."

"Her Highness the Silver Bird handled that with real composure. At this rate, who's the elder sister and who's the younger, I wonder."

"Exactly. One sister helps a sister out, even one she can't stand—and another goes and slanders her own..."

"However you look at it, it does seem like the Early Summer Princess was jealous of the Silver Bird, doesn't it. You can't trust rumors after all."

Cehera, sensing she'd been utterly ruined, stared with wide eyes. Sasha passed by her, murmuring quietly.

"This is what happens when you keep crossing the line."

"——!"

In that instant, Cehera grasped the full shape of what had happened.

It wasn't sudden intelligence. Her own instinct for blaming others had simply, accidentally, stumbled onto the truth.

"Sasha! You planned this whole—!"

Dong—dong—A bell tolled, crushing her outburst flat.

"Voting has concluded!"

Marquess Osbond's deep voice settled the commotion in the ballroom. Attendants moved briskly to prepare the tally.

Through it all, Sasha tidied her face while pretending not to notice Cehera's murderous glare pinned to her cheek. Her handkerchief was ruined after only a few passes wiping away the wine.

Regen, who had approached without her noticing, silently held out his own.

"Thank you."

"......."

Not even the customary "think nothing of it." His actions were tender, but the stubbornly closed line of his mouth and the cold set of his cheek weren't like him at all.

'He's angry. Very.'

Sasha wanted to sigh.

She couldn't bring herself to waste Regen's handkerchief on herself, and just stood there clutching it—that's when someone else came up.

"Please accept this, Your Highness."

"Sir Julis?"

The cold-mannered knight was holding out a handkerchief of his own.

A glance showed Lilliana too caught up arguing with Cehera to notice. Julis's kindness had nothing to do with his mistress's wishes.

Sasha revised her opinion of Julis. Just because he carried himself like something without feeling didn't mean he had no will of his own.

She accepted the handkerchief quietly, and Julis, without waiting to hear thanks, returned quickly to his mistress's side.

She dabbed at her neck with Julis's handkerchief. Watching, Regen spoke without quite meaning to.

"Why that one."

"Sorry?"

"......."

When Sasha looked up, having apparently not caught it clearly, he closed his mouth again. He'd realized, halfway through, that a knight had no business objecting to whose handkerchief his lady used.

Still, he couldn't quite smooth the brief crease from his brow—the displeasure hadn't fully drained away. Naturally, even that expression suited his handsome face well enough that a few onlookers nearby caught their breath.

The favor tokens were standardized objects, easy to measure by weight rather than counting each one by hand, so the tally finished quickly.

"We will now announce the results."

Banners embroidered with each princess's emblem were raised one by one along the flagpoles. The height at which each banner flew marked that princess's rank in the contest.

The one raised highest was a pale gray banner embroidered with a bird.

"First place: Sir Regen, personal knight of Her Highness the Silver Bird Princess."

The reversal, snatched at the very last moment—first place for Princess Rosasia.

At the dramatic turn, the nobles broke into applause.