"How have you been, Prince Antonio?" I greeted smoothly, inserting myself into the conversation between Mezlena and Antonio.

"Lilith?" Antonio blinked in surprise.

"It’s been a while since we met in the Witch's Forest. Congratulations on your entrance to the academy, albeit belatedly," I said with a polite smile.

"Ah, thank you," Antonio replied, nodding at my courteous words.

Ordinarily, someone of my status—a mere maid of a junior baron—would not dare to speak so casually to a prince. But I had a solid reason for doing so: I was one of Agnes’s closest friends. Given that anything Antonio did …