Chapter 2: The Ability to Let Things Slide Is Important

With her health fully restored and her daily life back to normal, Faustina received a visit from the kingdom’s Crown Prince, Bernhard.
Apparently, he had attempted to visit several times while she was recuperating, but each time he had been politely turned away, as no one knew the cause of her illness and it would be disastrous if it were to spread to the Crown Prince.
Even after her fever subsided, Bernhard had judged that it would still be a burden until her condition was fully stable, so upon hearing news of her complete recovery, he came to visit the Wittgenstein ducal residence.

Bernhard’s visit had been announced in advance.
Rinsue knocked on Faustina’s door to summon her.
However, there was no response from inside.
She knocked again, but still there was no answer.
Feeling suspicious, Rinsue gently opened the door.

“Excuse me.
Miss?
Are you here?”

Peeking inside, she saw Faustina sitting at her desk with a troubled expression, deep in thought.
She should have known there would be a visit from Bernhard at this hour, since Rinsue had informed her that morning.
As Faustina murmured to herself, groaning softly, Rinsue spoke to her hesitantly.

“Um, Miss?”

Faustina jumped slightly and hurriedly closed the notebook spread out on her desk.

“Ah—Rinsue.
Sorry, I was thinking so hard I didn’t notice you at all.”

“That’s quite all right.
His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived.
Shall we go to the reception room?”

“All right.”

Rinsue followed behind Faustina as she stood up from her chair and headed out.
She glanced briefly toward the notebook, then quickly looked away.

They stopped in front of the reception room.
Just as Rinsue raised her hand to knock, cheerful voices drifted out from inside.
Faustina and Rinsue looked at each other, then quietly opened the door just a little.

“……”

Inside the room, Bernhard—who should have been waiting for Faustina—and Faustina’s younger sister Elvira were seated on a sofa, chatting pleasantly.
Nearby stood several of Bernhard’s guards and several maids in service to the Wittgenstein household.

“Why is Lady Elvira here…?”

At Rinsue’s perfectly reasonable question, Faustina—

“Let’s not interrupt them.
We’ll just pass by.”

“Eh?”

Her mistress spoke those unbelievable words with an oddly radiant smile, prompting Rinsue to let out a baffled sound.

Pass by?
Why?

Those questions were written plainly across Rinsue’s face, but Faustina merely smiled again and walked away from the reception room.
Snapping back to herself, Rinsue hurried after her.

Instead of returning to her private room, Faustina made her way to the mansion’s back garden and sat down on the dimly lit grass.
She had shaken Rinsue off along the way.

“I recognize that scene far too well…!”

It was part of the memories she had recalled thanks to that mysterious high fever.
Just like today, she had heard news of Bernhard’s visit and gone happily to the reception room…
Only to find him chatting warmly with her sister Elvira.

“My former self got angry, chased Elvira out, and screamed at His Highness too.
Jealousy, when taken too far, is nothing but ugly.
But this time, I cleared it properly!”

And besides—

“Seeing His Highness, I thought, ‘Just as expected.’
In the end, whether I became the worst person or not, His Highness would fall in love with Elvira anyway…”

Even though she had experienced it once and learned the lesson, there had still been a tiny part of her heart that hoped.

“……”

The building blocked the sunlight, leaving the back garden in shade.
A pleasant breeze gently swept through Faustina’s sky-blue hair.

Rinsue would eventually come looking for her.
Until then, she decided to close her eyes and let the gentle wind wash over her.

—At that moment.

“Miss!”

“Geh.”

“‘Geh’ is not an appropriate response!”

Slightly out of breath, her face flushed red, the maid Rinsue finally found her mistress and declared firmly—

“Please go to the reception room immediately!”

“Do you have the courage to walk into that atmosphere, Rinsue?”

“I do not, but you must.”

“Why!?”

As Faustina glared up at her in protest, Rinsue replied sharply,

“Enough!
His Highness has been waiting for you this whole time.
Come, let’s go!”

“If he’s waiting, then why was he having such a great time talking with Elvira?
If I go in now, it’ll look like I’m the one interrupting them!
We should just say my condition suddenly worsened and ask him to leave for today!
Yes, that’s perfect!”

“Well, when you put it that way…”

Faustina’s argument did have a point.
If she entered while those two were clearly enjoying their conversation, the atmosphere would inevitably turn awkward.
Faced with her vehement refusal, Rinsue could no longer force her to go.
Though she had been told by the head butler to search for Faustina and had only just managed to find her…
Rinsue hesitated, then sat down beside her and gazed blankly up at the sky.

“…I suppose it can’t be helped.”

“…That’s right.
It can’t be helped.
No one wants to be the villain.
(Though I already became one.)”

The two of them indulged in escapism until the head butler eventually came to find them.

Bernhard, who had been waiting for Faustina, was informed by the head maid that Faustina’s condition had suddenly worsened while she was preparing, making it impossible for her to see him.
Though he insisted that this was all the more reason he should see her, the head maid’s troubled expression drained his momentum, and he reluctantly decided to leave for the day.
As he departed the mansion, he said only that he would come again.

That night, Faustina—who had desperately begged the head butler and head maid to help her pretend to be unwell—finished her dinner and bath, then sat alone at her desk in her private room with a serious expression.
Spread out before her was the notebook she had been writing in earlier, before Rinsue came during the day.
She had written down as much as she could remember from the memories that surfaced during her mysterious high fever.
On the notebook’s cover, written in large letters, were the words: [All About Faustina].

“There was a day just like today before.
Back then, I went straight into the reception room and got angry at His Highness for chatting happily with Elvira.
I remember demanding that Elvira leave immediately too.
The more I remember, the more I realize I did nothing but things that made me hated.”

She slumped forward, utterly sick of every action her former self had taken.

“There’s no point in moping.
I need to remember more, and either avoid dangerous situations beforehand or be able to deal with them if they happen.”

“Romantic feelings” still existed, even after regaining her memories.
The purplish silver hair and lapis-colored eyes that had drawn her in when they first met.
Colors that gave a cold impression, yet somehow felt warm.
That gentle expression that softened whenever he smiled…
She loved all of it.
She wanted all of it to be hers.

“Haah…”

She leaned back against the chair and stared up at the ceiling.

She could think about why her memories had returned some other time, slowly.
For now, what mattered was not repeating the same mistakes as before.
The fact that Bernhard could talk so naturally with Elvira despite having met her only recently meant that he was destined to be with Elvira from the start.
There was no place for Faustina to stand.
The reason she had been chosen—why she had been selected as Bernhard’s fiancée—was mere coincidence.

At that moment, an idea flashed into her mind.

“That’s it!
If I keep pretending to be in poor health and give the impression that someone as frail as me could never fulfill the role of a royal fiancée, then wouldn’t the engagement be annulled…?”

Deciding firmly to go with that plan, Faustina began writing various actions to take in order to have the engagement annulled in [All About Faustina].

—Several days later, Bernhard once again visited the Wittgenstein ducal residence.
This time too, a proper letter announcing his visit had arrived in advance.
Determined not to repeat last time’s mistake of getting lost in thought at her desk, Faustina waited together with Rinsue from about thirty minutes before the appointed time.

The head butler announced Bernhard’s arrival.

“Shall we go, Miss?”

“Yes.”

Though she desperately wanted to run away, as the eldest daughter of a ducal house she had a responsibility to fulfill.
With the head butler leading the way, they headed toward the guest room.
The head butler knocked on the door.

“Excuse us.
I have brought Lady Faustina.”

After announcing them, he opened the door.
Passing beside the head butler holding it open, Faustina bowed to Bernhard, who hurried toward her with a delighted expression.

“It has been some time, Your Highness.
Thank you for coming.”

“Faustina.
I heard you’re feeling much better, but are you truly all right?”

“Yes.
As you can see, I’ve fully recovered.”

“I’m glad.
Truly.”

(…Ah, he’s beautiful…)

He must have been genuinely worried.
The relief filling his expression as his earlier anxiety faded was the smile Faustina had once desperately wished he would direct at her.
Though not illuminated, it seemed dazzling—perhaps because of royal blood.

At the same time she thought, ‘He doesn’t hate me yet,’ she judged that since she hadn’t done anything to Elvira, her impression hadn’t worsened.
Even if their relationship was delicate, Faustina had no intention of bullying her own sister for the sake of breaking the engagement.
…Even if she had done so before.

They sat side by side on the sofa.
The conversation revolved around Faustina’s health, but it wasn’t a topic that could last long, and soon it stalled.
She didn’t know what to say next.
As she vaguely thought that someone eloquent like Elvira would never let a conversation die like this, she decided to try using the good idea she had come up with yesterday.

“Your Highness.
If you ever find someone you love other than me, please tell me right away.
I would gladly… accept your decision.”

She offered the refined smile she had perfected through intense etiquette training and mentally pumped her fist in victory.
If she, his fiancée, declared this, then when Bernhard eventually united with Elvira, he could point out that Faustina herself had said such a thing and announce it openly.

The night before, she had desperately thought through ways to annul the engagement while minimizing the damage.
If Elvira had been chosen from the start, Faustina would never have needed to resort to such terrible methods.
She wouldn’t have needed to be consumed by jealousy or cling to a man who never loved her.

Satisfied, she smiled inwardly—then noticed that there had been no reaction at all.
Tilting her head in confusion, she turned to look—and froze.

“M-Miss…?”

The head butler, who had been standing by, was staring at Faustina with a deathly pale face.
So were several of Bernhard’s guards.

And Bernhard himself as well.

Confused by his unexpected reaction, Faustina felt flustered.

“F-Faustina…
Do you… dislike me?”

“Perish the thought!
I harbor no such feelings toward the Crown Prince!”

She couldn’t possibly say out loud that it should be the other way around.
Seeing Bernhard so visibly shaken by her words, Faustina was at a loss.
At the same time, a realization dawned on her.

‘Of course…
I haven’t treated Elvira coldly in front of His Highness yet, and I haven’t run into her while she’s with him.
Maybe he doesn’t hate me yet…?’

She didn’t want to be expelled from the ducal house, so even if she saw Bernhard and Elvira together, she did nothing.
It might be faster to provoke a breakup by doing something to Elvira, but that would only repeat the same cycle.

The original reasons she had been hated were bullying her own sister and abusing her status as the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
On top of that, she constantly bragged about herself in conversation.

Somewhere deep down, Faustina had thought she should stop.
But once her negative emotions swelled, they were not easily restrained.
In short, she had lost her brakes.

“I-I see.
I see…
Then why would you wish for something like that?”

“Eh?
Ah, well, I thought that rather than someone frail like me, a healthy young lady better suited to be Your Highness’s future wife would be preferable.”

Faustina’s body was not frail.
In fact, she had never even caught a cold before collapsing from that mysterious high fever.
She was perfectly healthy.

“I see… I see…”

Bernhard muttered like a delirious chant, his face still pale.
Faustina did think her own words sounded strange, but because she believed that true happiness lay in his union with Elvira, she quickly tried to forget it.