TMWDS Chapter 21

"And are you feeling somewhat inclined to follow my orders now?"

Florence asked in a voice soaked through with triumph.

A knight who's carried a sword, cowed by a slap this paltry—what a childish thing to believe.

In a way, it was a rather innocent belief.

"Louisa—would you bring me a damp cloth?"

Ionna turned to Louisa, who had been standing behind her, and asked.

Whatever she had just witnessed seemed to have left her speechless; it was a moment before she collected herself and went to fetch what had been requested.

Ionna turned next to the attendant beside her.

"Lizzy—go directly to the Commander and inform her that I have invoked emergency authority under Security Protocol Article Four."

A faint confusion passed across Florence's face.

She had registered that something was going wrong, but she didn't yet appear to know what emergency authority under Article Four actually meant.

Ionna was generous enough to explain the position her guest now occupied.

"Lady Florence. By reason of obstruction of official duties, I am issuing a summary expulsion order from the imperial palace. The knights will escort you home. Please follow their guidance."

Laying a hand on an Imperial Knight in active service was treated as a serious offence. Because those knights protected none other than the imperial family.

Interference or assault that compromised security could not be permitted to stand—and so the penalty applied regardless of the offender's rank.

Ionna continued in the same even tone.

"The precise duration of the prohibition on entry will be determined in consultation with my superiors and communicated to you at a later date. Sir Hardy, Sir Pattison—escort Lady Florence from the palace grounds."

"What kind of nonsense have you been spouting this whole time? Have you actually lost your mind?!"

Florence shrieked, her voice breaking with the effort.

Having been raised an only child, her vocal projection was somewhat weaker than Yvonne's.

"Expel me from the palace? Ha—the nerve! Fine. Go and fetch the knight commander yourself. I'll confront her directly."

"If that is your preference, we can certainly pursue the more formal procedure. Whether having this matter recounted before a full audience would be a wise choice on your part—that I cannot say."

Ionna answered with an undisturbed expression.

At that moment, one of the attendants who had been waiting behind Florence stepped close and murmured something into her ear. Florence's face went slowly rigid.

It seemed Florence's party contained at least one person with a functioning head.

Palace ordinance held that once an expulsion order had been issued, no one short of an imperial family member could have it reversed.

Rihardt, of course, had his doors shut and would not emerge to rescue an uninvited guest over something like this.

Troubling the other senior members of the imperial household over the matter would likewise be inadvisable.

Florence bit down on her lower lip, furious.

"I am to be the consort of Lord Rihardt. Can you truly answer for every consequence this will bring?"

Florence had been permitted a great many liberties on account of her status as the Crown Prince's betrothed, but she was not yet formally a member of the imperial household.

Nor would she ever attain the position she wanted. She and Rihardt would not, in the end, marry. Ionna already knew that.

Ionna answered with perfect composure.

"Lady Florence—that sort of talk can wait until after the wedding."

"……"

"You can't even steal a glimpse of your betrothed—and yet you mean to walk down the aisle somehow?"

Ionna looked down at her with something that could almost have been mistaken for sympathy, and offered a thin smile.

"Shall you walk out on your own? Or shall I drag you out."

Something ignited in Florence's eyes.

She thrust a hand toward Ionna in threat—and it was immediately stopped cold. The junior knights who had been standing by moved before she completed the gesture and seized her arms.

Pinned and unable to move, Florence let out a sharp scream.

"Let go of me! You all heard what she just said!"

"See the lady safely home."

Ionna did not spare Florence a glance. She accepted the cloth Louisa was holding out and pressed it to her cheek.

Hardy and Pattison wore expressions that suggested they were not entirely certain what was happening, but they followed Ionna's instructions and removed Florence from the corridor. They appeared to assume Rihardt had given Ionna separate orders to this effect.

He had given her no such thing, of course. But if this left Rihardt displeased, it was of no particular consequence. She was nearly done with this post anyway.

'No need to ingratiate myself anymore.'

Her one and only liege. Colleagues she had served alongside for more than half her life.

Something in place of a home…

In the past, Rihardt had been everything to her.

Whether she had truly loved him—if pressed, the answer would have been no. And yet Ionna had spent years bending herself into whatever shape would earn his approval. Because Ionna without Rihardt had been nothing at all.

But that was wrong.

The one who had made her nothing was herself.

A person who lives only to please others earns no one's respect.

What such a life could purchase was nothing more than a little hollow pity.

The kind, precisely, now directed at her from those worried eyes.

"Are you all right?"

It was not concern about the consequences. Louisa seemed to have concluded that Ionna had accepted the humiliation on Rihardt's behalf—and so she asked after Ionna first.

Ionna answered simply.

"No."

"It seems His Highness truly intends to dissolve the engagement."

"I wouldn't know."

"……Surely you didn't do this entirely on your own."

"My cheek hurt. I kept getting hit."

Ionna answered with complete candour and brought the cloth back to her face.

It seemed she would be relying on heavy cosmetics for some time yet.

How she was supposed to become a figure of prominence in high society looking like this was beyond her.

"You've been rather strange lately, Dame Ionna."

Louisa said, quite abruptly. Ionna answered with equanimity.

"Marriage is a significant crossroads in a person's life."

"It's the fact that you phrase it exactly like that."

Louisa's eyes narrowed. But she apparently could not identify the source of the change, and turned her head away a moment later.

"Well. If someone like that had become our superior, we'd have been the ones suffering for it."

That was fortunate. Louisa, at least, would never have a mistress like that to serve.

Ionna extended the damp cloth back toward Louisa.

"I'll take my leave, then. The Commander will be on her way here shortly."

"What—you're not going to report in person?"

"Please tell her I'm taking early leave on grounds of severe psychological trauma."

Saschia would piece together what had happened well enough from that single message alone. The expulsion of the Crown Prince's own betrothed was not a minor matter—there was every chance Saschia would come herself to assess the situation, which would mean the whole tedious aftermath landing squarely on Ionna's shoulders.

She had somewhere to be this afternoon. Given the choice between getting caught and losing next year's performance marks, the performance marks could go.

The pay of a woman about to resign was not something worth protecting.

"Shouldn't you at least pay your respects to His Highness before leaving?"

"In this state? You'd have me appear before His Highness looking like this?"

"……You'd better go."

Louisa could not find a way to stop her.

Ionna left her behind and crossed the corridor at something close to a run.

Perhaps it was the power of early dismissal.

The further she moved from her post, the more the pain in her cheek seemed to recede.

Once clear of the Crown Prince's residence and out into the open air, Ionna broke into a proper run.

She had ridden in that morning, and her horse was stabled in the mews directly behind the knights' building.

The route put her at risk of crossing paths with Saschia, who would be coming from that very direction once the news reached her. If that happened, any hope of leaving early would evaporate.

'I should have sent Lizzy a little later.'

It had been an impulsive decision—she hadn't thought through the logistics.

What she had in her favour was this: a lady's attendant would not come running. If she timed it right, she could slip through without being seen.

Ionna swallowed a sigh and lengthened her stride.

A workplace where you get slapped in the face while on duty and can't even be guaranteed an early exit.

The answer, really, had always been resignation.

A resolve that had already been solid became, in that moment, absolute.