* * *

The ticket Aldin had secured turned out to be, fortunately or unfortunately, for a date after her appointment with the crown prince. It must have taken some effort to get such a hard-to-find ticket.

Violet buried her head in her pillow, recalling that night.

She had been restless and unable to sleep well these past few days.

If asked whether she liked Aldin, she couldn’t definitively say yes.

Nor did she dislike him. There was an attraction, but it was insufficient to label her feelings as anything more.

She wondered if she was being too indifferent.

Having often been told she was indifferent to those around her, it wouldn’t be surprising if this was another such instance. Yet, she hadn’t confided this worry to anyone.

High society was all too gossipy. Words flew lightly in social circles, and there was no one around her known for their discretion.

This was separate from whether Violet liked or trusted that person.

Unable to grasp her own feelings, Violet lay buried in her pillow all day. All this time, unbeknownst even to herself, had she been playing with Aldin’s feelings?

Was she giving him false hope? Like a true villainess…

Various concerns came to mind, but like with her ruminations on Rajaden, no clear conclusion was reached.

Once the worry started, endless thoughts flooded in.

Aldin’s words and actions came back to her, and she reevaluated her own responses.

Violet agonized over her many embarrassments.

Why did I act that way then, why did I say that? It must have seemed so clueless.

No matter how much she regretted it, the past was impossible to change.

“Maybe he doesn’t like me. Maybe I’m just being too self-conscious?”

To torment herself with such doubts all night might be offensive to him if he knew.

Thinking further didn’t lead to any resolution.

Above all, Aldin rarely showed his feelings. This was a reason why, in a different sense from Rajaden, Violet thought, ‘There’s no way he likes me.’

So, without a confession from the person himself, it would be premature to judge.

I shouldn’t unnecessarily distance myself.

That was the simple and clear conclusion Violet could reach, being someone who couldn’t quite grasp the nuances of human relationships or romantic feelings.

Yet, the unease didn’t easily fade away.

Still, she managed to go about her usual activities. Violet diligently prepared for her exhibition, painting and organizing her artwork, and assigning titles to each.

She thought it would be good to add descriptions to the works, but for the paintings she had completed long ago, she could barely remember her thoughts at the time, making it difficult to add anything.

While Violet was lost in her thoughts and coming to conclusions on her own, Roen ate alone in solitude.

This wasn’t a metaphorical expression—he literally had to silently consume cold meals by himself.

His younger sister, who usually approached him with unfounded familiarity, now wouldn’t come out of her room even when called, and his younger brother suddenly started acting mature and barely showed his face, responding indifferently to any question.

Waiting for his siblings meant his food was bound to get cold. It was inevitably a lonely and bitter time.

During this, Violet emerged from her room.

Recently getting a taste for exaggerated expressions of emotion, Roen greeted his sister too enthusiastically. Violet looked at Roen with a cool gaze, but he paid no mind to the iciness.

Only after receiving a disdainful look from Violet did Roen return to his usual expression.

“Right, um, what have you been up to these days?”

“Nothing in particular.”

Violet drew a line. Presuming her troubles were due to her issues with Cairn, Roen just said, “I see,” and did not probe further.

The conversation then shifted to another topic.

“His Highness has been acting strange lately.”

“His Highness?”

Under normal circumstances, Roen wouldn’t have addressed Rajaden formally in front of Violet. There was something different in the way Roen smirked this time.

A profound fatigue could be felt in his smile.

“I believe I asked once before, yet you told me there was nothing unusual.”

“He was a bit strange even then. But nothing compared to now.”

Violet’s eyes narrowed.

“…You lied.”

“It wasn’t on purpose! It seemed like you were starting to take an interest in that punk— um, I mean… in His Highness… so…”

“Then what, are you saying I’m allowed to take an interest now?”

“No. He’s just become so weird that I couldn’t not say anything.”

Roen, uncharacteristically raising his voice, then pressed his hands to his forehead in frustration.

Was it really that strange? Violet thought of Rajaden and soon understood.

She agreed that Rajaden’s behavior as of late was undeniably odd. The problem, if it could be called that, was his unending enactment of these mysterious actions.

Violet asked with a bit more caution.

If there was truly something amiss with the empire’s one and only crown prince, it was a serious matter.

“What kind of strange behavior?”

“Lately, he’s been acting overly familiar with me.”