Chapter 3: You Have No Right to Say That

There is an order to everything.

Annulment right away had been too hasty.
Remembering Bernhard’s pale face from yesterday, Faustina reflected on her mistake.

However, since she had not acted or spoken in ways that would make her disliked, Bernhard did not yet harbor negative feelings toward her.

After breakfast, she remained in her private room, thinking about how to bring things to an annulment.

“How can I get His Highness to annul the engagement as quickly as possible?”

Faustina understood full well that an engagement formed between the royal family and a ducal house could not be easily broken.
Last time, it had been annulled because of her own actions, so she would not repeat the same mistake.

“Haah… even knowing that, it still stings a little.”

The scene she had witnessed before, of Bernhard chatting happily with her younger sister Elvira.
Even though she had learned the lesson firsthand last time, she had once again realized that he would ultimately fall in love with her sister.
For now, he might appear to hold affection for Faustina, his fiancée, but in the future he would surely choose Elvira.
The more she thought about it, the more her chest prickled with pain.

She decided to think of it as a small fish bone stuck in her throat and turned back to her notebook, pondering once more.

—Several months later.

As the fiancée of the First Prince and Crown Prince Bernhard, Faustina was naturally the leading candidate for Crown Princess.
Starting the month after her health recovered, her education as a future queen began under the direct guidance of the current queen.

At present, Faustina was walking through the corridors of the Wittgenstein ducal residence.
The queen was busy every day, so she could not conduct lessons daily, and for the past few days the education had been on break in preparation for attending a ceremony in a neighboring country.
That did not mean Faustina could afford to do nothing.
She reviewed what she had learned, and when necessary borrowed books from the royal castle’s library, cramming her head with vast amounts of information—national history, politics, economics, foreign languages and histories, and international affairs.

After finishing her studies with her personal tutor, Faustina was informed that Bernhard, who visited the mansion regularly in the afternoons, had arrived, so she headed toward the guest room where he was waiting.

And then—she gracefully ignored him.

Today, Faustina’s personal maid Rinsue was on holiday and had gone into town to shop.
Other maids attended to Faustina’s needs instead.
After merely peeking inside the room without entering, and being told with a dazzling smile to move along, Faustina could do nothing but comply despite her confusion.

After returning to her private room, Faustina was served orange juice, and the maid asked why she had not entered the guest room.

Faustina let out a slow sigh.

“…You’d understand if you saw it yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Elvira and His Highness were chatting together very warmly.
I don’t have the courage to walk into that.”

“Eh?
Lady Elvira was there?
But at this time, she should have been studying with her tutor…”

“What?”

Faustina reacted instinctively to what the maid said.

Studying with her tutor?
Yet she went to Bernhard instead?

“Where is that tutor now?”

“I do not know that much…”

“I see…”

She took a sip of her orange juice.
Faustina loved the sweet-and-sour taste of oranges.
Today, her father Citrine had gone to inspect a small village at the edge of the territory.
Her brother Kane, as the next duke, had accompanied him.
That meant that besides Faustina and Elvira, only her mother Ludmila was present in the mansion.
Since there had been no commotion, Faustina deduced that Ludmila had overlooked Elvira skipping her lessons.

If Faustina had done the same, Ludmila would have flown into a rage.
But Elvira, whom she doted on because she resembled her, was not scolded.

(Back then, I got angry at the unfairness, wondered why we were treated so differently despite being sisters, and felt hurt…
But now, I don’t care anymore.
To stop expecting anything from my mother at just seven years old…)

She swallowed down a sigh that nearly made her feel sick.

“May I have another glass of orange juice?”

“Certainly.”

She handed her empty glass to the maid and watched as the pitcher tilted and orange juice poured in.
She oddly enjoyed the sound and motion of liquid being poured into a container.

“Here you are.”

“Thank you.”

Taking the refilled glass from the maid, Faustina resumed drinking.

Since drinking orange juice endlessly would grow dull, she decided to pass the time by reading a book she had previously received from Citrine.
Because she would only be reading, she asked the maid to leave the room.
She had the pitcher refilled to the brim.

She lined up several books on the bed and deliberated over which to read.
A romance novel suitable even for children, an adventure story where a magician defeats villains, a heartwarming tale of a girl cooking delicious food…
All of them looked interesting, making it hard to choose which to read first.

“Hm?”

She suddenly picked up one more book.
Rather than a book, it was an animal encyclopedia.

Casually choosing it, she flipped through the pages.

“So cute…”

Various kinds of cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, and more were depicted in beautiful illustrations.
She had once asked her parents if she could keep a pet, but it had been rejected as unnecessary for someone destined to become Crown Princess.

Mainly by her mother.

“Hmm?”

Her eyes stopped on a particular page.

Fluffy, downy white feathers, a yellow beak and feet, tiny black bean-like eyes, and a round little body brimming with charm.

“……”

Her heart was completely seized, and Faustina stared at the page without moving for a while.

When she finally did move, the first words out of her mouth were—

“So… so cute!”

“Adorable, absolutely adorable!
Let’s see, call duck… the world’s smallest duck.
Even among ducks, there are so many kinds.
It says they can be kept at home.
What you need is…”

Murmuring to herself, she read carefully about what was needed to raise a call duck and what kind of food it ate.

After reading thoroughly, Faustina closed the book and downed her orange juice in one go.
She tilted the pitcher and poured more into her empty glass.

“I’ll ask Father if I can keep a call duck as a birthday present!”

After all, she doubted Ludmila would listen even if she brought it up.

That evening, as Faustina headed toward her father’s study to make her request, her mother Ludmila stopped her.

With the same black hair and ruby-red eyes as Elvira and Kane, Ludmila was a beauty whose smile could make flowers bloom—yet deep lines were etched between her brows.
When her mother looked like this, her business was usually nothing good.
It had been the same last time.

“Faustina.
You were informed of His Highness Bernhard’s visit today, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you not go to see him?
His Highness was waiting for you the entire time.”

Did her mother know that Elvira had skipped her lessons with her tutor to chat with Bernhard?

Faustina had already decided not to expect any love from her mother anymore.
She lifted her face.

“Was he?
For someone supposedly waiting for me, Elvira stayed by his side the whole time.
Elvira, who should have been in the middle of her lesson with her tutor.”

“Th-That has nothing to do with—”

“Nothing to do with it?
I don’t care whether you dote on Elvira or dislike me, Mother, but I don’t want to hear anything from you when you only scold me unfairly.
When I show weakness, you lecture me for hours, yet when Elvira refuses to study and acts selfishly, you never get angry.
Wouldn’t it make you happier if adorable Elvira, rather than me—whom you dislike—was getting along with His Highness?”

Faustina had never once taken a defiant attitude toward Ludmila before.
Now, being criticized in rapid succession by her daughter, Ludmila turned deathly pale, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly.
Like a fish flopping on dry land.

From her reaction, it was clear she knew Elvira had skipped her lesson with the tutor.
Whether she knew Elvira had gone to Bernhard, who was waiting for Faustina, was unclear, however.

With no intention of saying anything further to the speechless Ludmila, Faustina turned and resumed walking toward Citrine’s study.
She felt some kind of presence behind her but ignored it as mere imagination.

Left alone, Ludmila stared at her daughter’s retreating back, her face still pale.

“Fa… Fausti…na…”

Ludmila had never imagined that her own daughter disliked her so deeply as to say such things.
The shock and impact were so great that she could not properly form Faustina’s name.

She did not hate her.
Nor did she find her displeasing.

Faustina was, like Kane and Elvira, a beloved daughter carrying the blood of the Wittgenstein family.

Faustina’s birth, inheriting her husband Citrine’s sky-blue hair and pale yellow eyes, had delighted not only him but Ludmila as well.
When Elvira was born next, resembling Ludmila herself, Citrine had rejoiced just the same.

Someone once said that children who resembled oneself appeared cuter.

“……”

Ludmila had known in advance that Crown Prince Bernhard would visit the mansion that afternoon to see his fiancée Faustina.
However, when Faustina failed to appear no matter how long they waited and a knight of the guard informed her that His Highness would be leaving, Ludmila had flown into a rage at the humiliation.
She had planned to question and scold Faustina that night, but the unexpected barrage of words had scattered her anger to the wind.

She also knew that Elvira had abandoned her lesson with the tutor, having been told directly by the tutor that Elvira never showed up.
Unlike Kane and Faustina, Elvira was an ordinary child, so Ludmila had not forced her to study beyond her limits.

She had never imagined that Elvira would skip her lesson to go to Bernhard.

“…Could it be that Faustina…”

She wondered if Faustina had seen Elvira and Bernhard together and found it difficult to approach.

“……”

Even though she thought of going to speak with her again, the image of Faustina’s indifferent pale yellow eyes resurfaced in her mind, and Ludmila found that her legs would not move.