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It was just as we finished dinner.
Mina came back after clearing the empty plates and picked up where she'd left off.
"Is it really true, Your Highness? Before, no one believed a word I said — but after that day with Camilla, they've been coming around little by little!"
"Oh?"
"Yes! And apparently, there's even a group in the Dark Mansion now who are saying Her Highness has a generous heart!"
Mina pressed her hands together in delight. The bandages on them caught my eye.
"Mina, are you actually applying the ointment like you're supposed to?"
"...This?"
She shrugged as if the question were completely beneath her and began unwinding the bandage. To my surprise, the skin beneath was smooth and clean — not so much as a faint trace of a wound.
"I just kept it on to get out of chores, honestly..."
She winced, nose wrinkling. "I think the head maid figured it out. She kept trying to take it off. Ha..."
She laughed with the slightly sheepish look of someone whose scheme had been thoroughly seen through.
*Our Mina.* Bright as sunlight and transparent as glass.
I shook my head, pressing two fingers to my temple.
"Your Highness, Princess Bianca has arrived."
The doorkeeper's voice came from just beyond the door.
"Princess Bianca?" I straightened. "Please show her in."
How long had it been since I'd last seen her?
Bianca burst into view with flushed cheeks and flying skirts.
"Bianca, what's happened? Is everything all right?"
Her round cheeks were bright pink, her blue eyes lit up like morning sky. She had clearly run the entire way — she was dabbing at her temples with the sleeve of her dress — and she threw herself into my arms without slowing down.
"Your Highness!"
I settled her quickly onto my lap and pressed my handkerchief to the damp little forehead.
"My goodness, look at you. What on earth had you running at that speed?"
Bianca, who seemed to have grown entirely comfortable being held, tipped her face up at me with a radiant smile. She was still catching her breath, but she swallowed and pushed the words out anyway.
"I missed Your Highness so much!"
Her eyes shone with a guileless, uncomplicated blue.
*How starved she must be for warmth... And yet she comes to me so freely, even after everything Rebecca put her through.*
I looked at her with a quiet ache in my chest.
Before I could say anything, her small lips parted again.
"Your Highness, were you in the middle of a conversation with Mina?"
"Not exactly — I was just checking whether her hand had healed properly."
Mina, who had been darting bright looks between the two of us the whole time, seized the opportunity to crow with great satisfaction.
"It did heal! And because of everything that happened with Camilla, the staff in the Dark Mansion have started seeing Her Highness differently!"
Bianca clapped her small hands together with the kind of enthusiasm that only a child could make look completely natural.
"That's wonderful! More and more people are going to believe His Highness has changed — I just know it!"
"How can you be so sure?" I asked, amused.
"Because I know!" She looked up at me with great certainty. "Before, Her Highness was hurting. But Her Highness's real self — the way she truly is — is..."
"...?"
"Very, very kind!"
She beamed up at me, cheeks round and rosy.
It was the same smile I had only ever seen her give Lobelia in the story. The one I had assumed was permanently reserved for someone else.
*I never thought I'd see it aimed at me.*
Something in my chest pulled tight with an almost unbearable sweetness.
*She's so genuinely adorable I can barely stand it...*
Bianca held my gaze for a long moment, then slowly blinked her blue eyes. Her lips pressed together, and she seemed to wrestle with herself over something.
"Um... Your Highness... so here's the thing..."
"What is it, Bianca? Go ahead."
She screwed her eyes shut and blurted it out at full volume.
"Please come back to the Mansion of Light, Your Highness!"
I blinked.
*The Mansion of Light... come back?*
Those were words I had never expected to hear from her. Not from Bianca, of all people.
*Is that why? Is that really why she ran all the way here?*
Something warm and unexpected moved through me.
"You don't have to be afraid of coming here anymore. Because I — I really am..."
Bianca's round eyes widened as she looked up at me, and then she smiled — soft and earnest and uncomplicated, like a painting of a baby angel.
"Being with Your Highness is my favorite thing in the whole world!"
The blow landed squarely in the center of my heart.
I pressed my hand to my chest and clamped my lips together.
*She's going to be the end of me.*
But I couldn't let this happen. I *couldn't.*
*If I say yes, the whole separation agreement with Cedric falls apart.*
I bit down hard on my lower lip and tried to collect myself. Bianca watched my face, and her expression immediately drooped.
"Your Highness... you don't want to be with me?"
"No — I *do!*"
"You're sure?"
"Absolutely. Being with Bianca makes me happier than almost anything."
The words were out before I could stop them. And they were true. How could anyone be unmoved by that face? But the fact remained — Cedric and I had already ended things. Officially. Irrevocably.
*How do I turn her down without breaking her heart?*
I was still working through that in my head when Bianca tilted her face up at me with the most devastating expression imaginable.
"If being with me makes you happy, then you should come back to the Mansion of Light — so we can be together every single day!"
She blinked up at me with enormous, luminous eyes.
My heart nearly gave out. I gripped my composure with both hands.
"Bianca, I'd truly love to, but..."
"Are you worried about His Highness the Grand Duke?"
*Oh.* That was actually a perfectly reasonable excuse to use — and, strictly speaking, not entirely untrue.
I nodded, pushing down the faint twinge of guilt.
"I did make an arrangement with the Grand Duke, Bianca. If I simply decided to return to the Mansion of Light, it would be breaking that promise. He wouldn't be pleased."
*There. That was handled cleanly.*
But to my dismay, Bianca's face lit up.
"Then — if His Highness the Grand Duke said it was all right, Her Highness would be able to come back?"
She turned the corners of her mouth up in a smile that was just slightly too knowing for a child her age. Whatever she was about to say next was cut off by the doorkeeper's voice from outside.
"His Highness the Grand Duke has arrived."
*Cedric?*
I blinked, genuinely caught off guard. *Today of all days?*
*Oh. He came to collect Bianca.* Of course. That made sense.
I had never imagined Cedric would arrive feeling like something of a rescue — and yet here we were.
Once I gave permission, it wasn't long before he stepped into the room.
"Oh! Your Highness the Grand Duke!"
"...Cedric. It's been a while."
After exchanging greetings, I caught Cedric's gaze and tried to communicate the situation through sheer force of expression.
*Bianca is asking me to come back to the Mansion of Light. Please — step in and take her home.*
Cedric looked at me blankly.
*Are you not seeing this?*
I tried again — a much more pointed look. Cedric glanced politely away and made his way to the sofa.
"It has been a while, Rebecca."
He settled across from me and sat quietly until the tea arrived, showing absolutely no indication of addressing anything at all.
*Did you forget why you came here? Did you actually forget?*
Tired of waiting, I spoke first.
"Cedric, you came to take Bianca home?"
"I did. She ran off mid-dinner saying she had something to ask you."
"Right. Well, then — perhaps we should get Bianca back to her meal—"
"Bianca."
He interrupted me and looked at the child instead.
"Did you get to ask the Grand Duchess your question?"
*He is not going to rescue me at all, is he.*
I watched with growing resignation as Bianca glanced between the two of us, then beamed.
"I did!"
Cedric cleared his throat in a way that meant nothing.
"And did you get an answer?"
"She was *just* about to answer when Your Highness arrived!" Bianca said, looking equal parts thrilled and calculating for someone her age. "But from what she said before... she mentioned that His Highness the Grand Duke wouldn't like it if she broke her promise. But you wouldn't mind, would you, Your Highness? You'd give permission, wouldn't you?"
*Did Cedric actually say something like that to her?*
I looked at him with blatantly confused eyes. He gazed serenely at a spot somewhere above my head.
And just like that, I understood exactly what he was doing.
A quiet snort escaped me before I could help it.
*Ah. So he's leaving the villain role to me.*
I shot him a look. He didn't react.
And honestly — as much as I resented it — I couldn't entirely argue with his logic.
*Between the two of us, I'm the one who actually suits the role.*
There was simply no getting around it. Looking at Bianca's upturned face, eyes bright with barely-contained hope, was genuinely one of the hardest things I'd had to do.
"Your Highness — can you come back to the Mansion of Light? Can you?"
Cedric watched me in perfect, unhelpful silence, as though he were waiting to see how I'd handle it.
*He's enjoying this. He is absolutely enjoying this.*
I let out a slow breath. Then I looked back at Bianca and gently parted my lips.
"...I'm sorry, Bianca. I think it's best for me to stay in the Dark Mansion a little longer."
The light in Bianca's eyes dimmed all at once. Her expression crumpled quietly.
"Again... it doesn't work out..."
I felt dreadful.
*You handed me this role and now I have to live with it.*
I threw a sharp look at Cedric. But when I saw his face — eyes lowered, expression unexpectedly subdued — I paused.
*Even he looks sorry.*
The edge of my frustration softened despite itself. I exhaled and reached up to smooth back the loose strands of Bianca's hair.
"But, Bianca — you are always welcome here. Any time you want to see me, you just come."
"...Okay."
"And you can sleep in the Grand Duchess's private guest room whenever you like."
"Really?!"
"Really. Actually — shall we pick a night soon and have a proper sleepover?"
"I *love* that! Yes, please, Your Highness!"
Just like that, the sunshine returned. Bianca burrowed back into my arms, and I held her — small and warm and squirrel-like — and thought that there were worse things than this.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a faint smile cross Cedric's lips.
The door opened. A household attendant stepped inside.
"A letter has arrived addressed to Your Highness the Grand Duchess."
Mina accepted it first, glancing at the seal. Her expression shifted almost immediately.
"Mina? What is it?"
"It's... Your Highness, it's a formal banquet invitation. From the Dmitri family."
"The Dmitri family."
My brows drew together slowly.
"Don't tell me — Camilla sent this?"
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