Meanwhile, the fifteen or so men who had rushed to the palace to see the Princess's face mounted their horses with grim expressions etched into their weathered features.
The subordinates' minds were troubled—though in a different way than their lord's.
From the moment they had entered the audience chamber, they had been seething with barely contained fury.
But the moment they caught sight of Chloe up close, every man among them stopped dead.
What is that delicate, enchanting creature who looks like a pure white snow cat?
Her silver hair carried a faint bluish tint—like the snow on a field at the break of dawn. When the sky first begins to lighten, and its pale blue light reflects upon the clean snow that has accumulated overnight, it becomes that precise, mysterious color.
Though it was clearly the same shade as the Emperor's hair, it seemed somehow more special on the Princess, who exuded a dreamy aura untouched by worldly corruption.
It was truly strange.
I had heard that the royal family of Arrental is steeped in luxury and hedonism.
So why didn't they sense any of that from this princess?
The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince—all of them wore their greed openly on their faces, as plainly as their jeweled crowns.
But Chloe showed no signs of such avarice whatsoever.
They opened their eyes wide with renewed suspicion.
But every time Chloe blinked her large, glassy eyes with that innocent expression, the subordinates felt their guards gradually dropping despite themselves.
Is it true that our lord fell in love with the Princess at first sight...?
Because Callius had a well-known weakness for cute things.
He had such a soft spot for adorable little animals that he had already rescued and nursed back to health several dying snow cats he'd found abandoned in the frozen wilderness.
No—actually, most of the Ronheim people shared this trait.
No matter how desperately hungry they became, the people of Ronheim never hunted small animals with fluffy white fur—snow hares, snow cats, and the like.
There were historical and environmental reasons for this, rooted in Ronheim's unique ecosystem, but the essential point was this: they held a deep cultural tradition of protecting small and vulnerable life.
For that reason, the hearts of the subordinates—which had been gradually softening toward the princess—froze solid once more at the mocking whispers of the Arrental nobles.
"Primitive people..."
"No better than slash-and-burn farmers..."
"Mountain bandits playing at nobility..."
The cruel words drifted through the audience chamber, spoken just loudly enough to be overheard.
Once again, the Princess no longer looked pretty to them.
Come to think of it, from the moment they had appeared, the Princess hadn't even looked at them directly—she had merely glanced in their direction with what seemed like distaste.
Their feelings had already been wounded by the Arrental nobles, so even such minor gestures seemed deliberately offensive to the subordinates.
Then, when Chloe answered Kavala's question about whether she agreed to the engagement, the discontent of the subordinates reached its peak.
"Yes. I agree."
It was a small voice, barely audible.
What does that half-hearted answer mean?
But seeing the back of Callius's head—their lord, honestly enduring this insult without complaint—they barely managed to swallow their anger.
If they found this situation so intolerable, how much more displeased must Callius be—the one actually getting married?
Yet he risked everything for the good of Ronheim.
At least, that was how it appeared to his subordinates.
Their hearts ached as they watched Callius kneel before Chloe during the ceremony.
In the midst of their fury, they failed to notice Chloe's bare, root-thin hand resting briefly on Callius's.
If they had calmed down enough to observe properly—if they had noticed that Chloe's arms, visible through the slightly lifted sleeves of her dress, were strangely, unnaturally thin—they might have guessed that Chloe, like Callius, was being mistreated.
However, the subordinates had become so hypersensitive from the prejudice of the Arrentals that their wariness blinded them to such details.
They glared at Chloe—especially when she had suddenly pulled her hand away from Callius's as if she were about to start a fight. They continued glaring until the engagement ceremony concluded and they filed out of the audience chamber.
And now, one by one, they mounted their horses and prepared to follow Callius with cold, hardened faces.
Is there any way to stop this ridiculous marriage?
With that thought weighing on everyone's mind, the men began to talk amongst themselves—
"I...!"
A faint voice, as soft as a mosquito's whine, drifted from somewhere nearby.
Callius and Brentian had already ridden ahead and vanished from sight. Alex, who was at the rear of the group and about to depart last, was the one who caught the small sound.
An unexpected face appeared beneath the source of those words.
It was Chloe.
"Princess? ...Aren't you Your Highness the Princess?"
Alex was flustered—he hadn't expected to see Chloe again. In his surprise, he addressed her without a proper title, then hurriedly corrected himself.
He frowned slightly, internally berating himself for his stupid slip of the tongue.
I wonder if I'll be punished for that.
Alex had been nitpicked by the Arrentals over trivial matters before and had suffered losses because of it. He was certain Chloe wouldn't let his mistake slide.
It was just his luck that he—the least diplomatic among them—was left to deal with Chloe when the resourceful Callius and quick-thinking Brentian were nowhere to be found.
Alex fidgeted nervously and rolled his eyes, dreading what was to come.
But Chloe wasn't upset at all.
She took a deep breath, her face slightly flushed as if she had been running, and then suddenly reached out her hand toward Alex.
"...?"
Alex stared blankly at the small, white fist—no larger than a child's.
Is she telling me to bash my head against her fist if I know I'm wrong?
Fortunately, she spoke before he could do anything foolish.
"You dropped this."
"Huh? What did you say?"
It wasn't that he didn't understand her words—he was simply unable to process the situation and asked without thinking.
But Chloe must have assumed her voice was too soft to be heard, because she spoke again, louder and clearer this time.
"This. I saw you accidentally drop it in the hallway a little while ago."
Only then did Alex notice the object in her outstretched hand: a bracelet made of twisted, multicolored threads.
It was very old—worn, faded, and dirty from years of constant wear—but it was unmistakably his bracelet.
"Ah...!"
He dismounted in a rush and politely accepted what Chloe offered him.
He felt slightly dizzy from the shock.
"Did you come all this way just to return this to me...?"
Then, unexpectedly, Chloe smiled.
It was a very bright, genuine smile.
"It's a precious item. I know because my friend has something similar."
Alex's mouth fell open.
He was surprised once by the sheer beauty of Chloe's smile—and then twice by the realization that it wasn't a smile of mockery or condescension, but one of pure, honest kindness.
And he was surprised a third and fourth time when he understood that Chloe seemed to know the meaning of this bracelet.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Don't mention it."
Chloe smiled as if she were genuinely delighted to have found its rightful owner.
It was truly a heart-stirringly beautiful smile.
Alex parted ways with Chloe without a proper goodbye. Maids soon came running and ushered her away with terrified expressions, as if they feared she would be punished for wandering off.
Alex tilted his head in puzzlement as he remounted his horse and spurred it onward to catch up with the others.
The bracelet Alex had dropped was an object called a Platus.
Platus means "a prayer for a precious person."
In Ronheim, there existed a cherished tradition of weaving bracelets from threads of various colors as gifts. Each bracelet carried prayers for the happiness, safety, and good fortune of a beloved person.
The custom originated from an old superstition: if you wear the bracelet on your wrist when leaving home and keep it with you until your safe return, you will always find your way back.
Alex's Platus bracelet had been a gift from his mother.
"Hey, there's no way the Princess of Arrental would have friends from Ronheim," Alex muttered to himself. "Still... it's fascinating that a Princess from a people who call us barbarians knows about our customs."
She had even chased him down to return it in person.
Chloe's bright smile still lingered vividly in Alex's mind.
"What? If she can speak so clearly, why did she mumble so much in the audience chamber? She obviously knows how to smile, yet she didn't smile even once when she saw our lord."
Had something suddenly changed her mind in the meantime?
Alex scratched his head, worried that Chloe might make an issue of his earlier rudeness later.
Still... regardless of her motives... I was grateful.
Even as he tried to maintain his suspicions, a small hope rose unbidden in his heart—a tentative wish that perhaps Chloe might actually be a good person.
Alex looked down at the Platus bracelet clutched in his hand, his expression a mixture of confusion and cautious wonder.
The first crack had appeared in the wall of mistrust—small as a thread, but threads can bind hearts together.
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