---
Camilla swallowed hard — the slow, involuntary swallow of someone who had just heard the worst possible news. The muscles in her face twitched in strange, uncontrolled ways.
She went utterly still. Then, all at once, her entire body began to shake, and she broke down weeping.
"No... I don't want to die — I don't *want* to die —"
She grabbed the hem of Mina's skirt again, desperate and clinging.
"Please, someone — *Your Highness* — please, do something —"
The elegant Countess Dmitri was nowhere to be found in the creature before me. I watched her unravel and slowly let my lips curve.
"...There is, in fact, no antidote."
I let the pause stretch — then crossed the floor toward her and spoke again.
"Because it was only tea."
Camilla looked up at me. Her face was a ruin of smeared black tears.
"...I beg your pardon?"
Her eyes darted back and forth. It looked as though her mind had simply stopped.
She stayed like that for a long moment, breathing hard, before she managed to speak again.
"Then... then what...?"
"There was no poison. There never was."
Camilla stared at me in a blank, glassy daze. Then the air rushed out of her all at once, and she fell back like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She lay there for a moment, just breathing — and then, slowly, awareness crept back into her expression.
"Your — Your — *Your Highness!*"
She shot upright, her voice cracking with outrage. "How could you do something like that to me?!"
"For the same reason you did what you did to my maid — because I could." I held her gaze. "When you tormented Mina, wasn't it precisely because you thought no one would stop you?"
"—!"
"And thanks to all of this, we were treated to the rare sight of Camilla Dmitri offering a *sincere* apology."
"That was — I didn't — that wasn't —"
The color blazed back into Camilla's cheeks. She was clearly replaying it in her mind: herself, rolling across the floor, sobbing at a maid's feet.
I gave her a mild smile and extended my hand.
"Come now, Camilla. Get up. I can barely stand to watch anymore."
The person most unable to stand it was Camilla herself. She looked up at me with an expression of sheer mortification — and then, with what dignity she had left, took my hand and allowed me to pull her to her feet.
I began brushing the dust from the hem of her gown as I spoke.
"Countess Dmitri. The brightest star in Northern society."
"......"
"Though I imagine that position may become somewhat harder to hold onto from here."
"What — what do you mean by that?"
"Think it through. If word were to spread — even as a rumor — that you had wept and begged on your knees before a half-blood maid... I suspect it would do rather a lot of damage to that illustrious reputation of yours."
"...!"
Her face went scarlet again. She stood there for a long moment, jaw tight, eyes blinking rapidly. Then the words came tumbling out.
"What happened today — I won't speak of it. Not to anyone. I won't raise a word of complaint —"
There it was. The moment her tail went between her legs.
She feared the shame of it more than anything else. More than I'd expected, honestly.
I felt a quiet satisfaction settle over me.
*You caused all this chaos — and in doing so, you made it far easier to be rid of you than I anticipated. Perhaps I should thank you.*
I moved to the sofa, sat down, crossed my legs, and regarded her with comfortable ease.
"Is that so. That suits both of us perfectly, then."
I leaned back, arms resting behind my head, and looked at her.
"Camilla. This stays between us, of course — but I hope you won't forget what happened here today."
"Why would you say that...?"
"Because you are hardly the first person to be humiliated in exactly this way." I tapped my temple lightly. "There have been many others before Mina. I hope you'll keep that somewhere in your memory — and consider how they must have felt."
Camilla lowered her eyes and gripped the hem of her dress.
"...Yes, Your Highness. This lesson — I will not forget it."
The words were shaped into something resembling submission, but the fury underneath them was unmistakable. I looked at her and smiled.
"I'm not telling you not to forget so that you can plan your revenge, Camilla. Our Countess wouldn't do something quite that foolish — would she?"
She said nothing.
"Because the next cup of tea I offer you will not be empty of poison."
The blood left Camilla's face.
"Of course not..."
And then, like something inside her had finally given out entirely, she lowered her head.
"Good. I think you understand. Off you go — you must be exhausted."
Camilla nodded — a small, defeated motion — and turned toward the door. I watched her walk, her shoulders curved inward, nothing at all like the woman who had swept into this room an hour ago.
"Oh — Camilla?"
She stopped, nearly at the door, and turned her head slowly.
"Yes, Your Highness..."
The voice was hollow. The venom had gone out of it entirely. But the resentment in her eyes, even now, was plain.
"I do feel terribly sorry about this — but you were so insistent about resigning, I'm afraid I have no choice but to accept."
A tremor moved through Camilla's golden eyes — wide and sudden as a wave.
I lifted the corner of my mouth.
"Goodbye, Camilla."
---
*One week later — the Mansion of Light.*
True to Rebecca's word, nothing of what had happened that day reached beyond the walls of the Twins estate. But within those walls, it was the most talked-about event in recent memory.
"Have you heard? About Her Highness and Camilla?"
"What happened? Did they hurt another maid between the two of them?"
"No, *no* — apparently Camilla laid a hand on Her Highness's *personal maid.*"
"You're lying."
At first, everyone dismissed it as nonsense. But most of what was being whispered turned out to be true — and there were eyewitnesses to confirm that Rebecca herself had dealt with Camilla personally. And that wasn't even the most astonishing part.
"Xena said that Her Highness told the staff at the Dark Mansion they are *not* to bow their heads simply because they're half-bloods."
"That's absurd."
"It's true! And Camilla really *was* dismissed — for what she did to Mina!"
"I heard that too! And apparently Her Highness has been giving the Dark Mansion staff regular days off and even bringing them dessert?"
The more the stories circulated, the wider the jaws dropped. The staff traded stunned looks with one another.
"So — Her Highness has genuinely *changed?*"
"I'm telling you, she has!"
One of the maids pressed a hand to her chest, shaking her head in something between disbelief and feeling.
"And have you noticed Princess Bianca lately? The way she looks at Her Highness — there are practically hearts in her eyes."
---
Meanwhile, in the banquet room of the Mansion of Light, dinner was being served.
The day's main course arrived before Cedric and Bianca — a lamb steak so perfectly prepared that the scent alone was enough to stir an appetite. But Bianca had picked up her fork and set it back down three times without taking a single bite, her attention clearly elsewhere. Under the table, her short legs swung back and forth in an irregular, restless rhythm.
Cedric caught a glimpse of it and, despite himself, let out a quiet laugh.
"Bianca — shall we eat?"
"Oh — yes!"
But her legs kept swinging. Cedric set down his knife.
"You've been in a remarkably good mood lately."
"It's more than that, it's — it's because of Her Highness..."
"...The Grand Duchess?"
"Yes! No matter how I think about our secret, I just —" Bianca's cheeks went pink and she cut herself off. Then the words burst out of her all at once, breathless with excitement. "I think she's just *so incredibly cool!*"
She leaned forward, as though the table were the only thing keeping her from launching off her chair.
"When I grow up, I'm definitely going to become someone just like Her Highness! She's kind to her people, but she doesn't let anyone get away with anything — she's *wonderful.*"
Cedric blinked his pale blue eyes slowly.
"Rebecca... is that sort of person?"
He knew, of course, that Rebecca had changed. Anyone who spent time near her could see it. But the Rebecca Bianca was describing — *that* Rebecca felt strangely distant from the one he had known.
He was still sitting with that gap, turning it over in his mind, when Bianca's bright mood quietly dimmed.
She looked down at her plate, her voice going soft.
"I wish I could stay with Her Highness in the Mansion of Light..."
Cedric blinked. He hadn't expected that.
*I never imagined Bianca would say something like that.*
This was the same child who used to tense up the moment Rebecca's name was mentioned. And now she was not only singing Rebecca's praises — she was saying she wanted to *live with her.* Cedric found he couldn't immediately form a response.
*If it had always been like this from the beginning... would Rebecca and I still be together?*
The thought arrived without his permission, and others followed quickly after it.
He pushed them aside.
*Useless thinking.*
He had never had much patience for people who dwelled on 'what ifs' and 'if onlys.' And yet here he was, turning over the same question again and again, the same name at the center of it every time.
Cedric's brow furrowed slightly.
"Um — Your Highness the Grand Duke."
Bianca was watching him now, her expression tentative, like she was working up the nerve to say something difficult.
"What is it, Bianca?"
His voice was gentle. But Bianca opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again.
"It's about... Her Highness the Grand Duchess."
"Yes?"
"Is she living at the Dark Mansion because of me? Because I was frightened of her?"
Bianca's round eyes searched his face earnestly.
"If that's the reason — could we ask her to come back? She likes me now — I'm sure she would agree!"
Cedric shook his head, carefully keeping his expression steady.
"That isn't —"
"...?"
"It wasn't because of you that the Grand Duchess left the Mansion of Light, Bianca."
"Then why?"
A long silence. Cedric chose his words with deliberate care.
"The Grand Duchess and I simply felt that some time apart would be better — for both of us."
"But *why?*"
His lips pressed together. The silence that followed said more than any answer could, and Bianca — young as she was — understood it. She pushed out her lower lip.
"I think it would be much nicer if you and Her Highness got along..."
She fixed him with a look of such sincere, guileless sympathy that Cedric had to glance away.
"Can't you let her come back? All you'd have to do is say so. Please?"
Cedric was quiet for a moment longer. When he finally spoke, it came out slowly — as though the words were being pulled from somewhere reluctant.
"...Even if I asked her to come back now, Rebecca wouldn't."
He said it with the air of someone who had already accepted a fact they weren't entirely at peace with. But Bianca's eyes lit up with something altogether different.
"That means — as long as *Your Highness* is willing — you'd allow it?"
Cedric looked away. He said nothing.
But Bianca had learned that his silences were not always refusals. If he had truly meant to say no, he would have said it already, cleanly and without hesitation. The fact that he hadn't — that felt like an opening.
*He was the biggest obstacle. And he's not saying no.*
That was enough.
"Then I'm going to ask her right now!"
Before Cedric could so much as open his mouth, Bianca had scrambled down from her chair and bolted from the dining room. For all that she was small, she was fast — and Cedric, left standing in the sudden quiet, didn't even try to follow.
He just stood there, calling after her.
"Bianca — *Bianca —*"
---