“I’m sorry for failing to see through your malice. But don't make the mistake of assuming I'll play the fool forever.”
“Isabel, I have no idea what went through your head every time you tried to hurt me. But honestly, it doesn't even matter anymore. Even if you truly did it all for my sake, I still couldn't forgive you. I'm not an idiot. You have no right to make decisions on my behalf, do you?”
“Scarlett…”
“I'm just… I'm so furious right now.”
“That of all people, I have to treat you—you, the one who was my friend—like this.”
I hated her, I hated this situation, and truth be told, I hated everything about it. Yet more than anything else, what enraged me most was myself—for letting things drag on until even venting like this couldn't soothe my anger.
Gritting my teeth, I ground out each word. I was never the neat, cool-headed sort who could effortlessly bottle up whatever emotion surged from within. I was just an ordinary person who craved someone's love and could hold a grudge against someone else. If only I truly possessed the kind of temperament that paid no mind to the eyes of others, would it not have been this agonizing?
Without realizing it, I bit down hard on my lip. Isabel, staring at me with a shell-shocked expression, burst into tears once more. Watching the pathetic spectacle, a sneer slipped past my lips.
It was self-derision.
“Isabel, would you please leave?”
“Scarlett, I—”
“Please, just go while I'm still asking nicely.”
“Scarlett, hear me out—”
“I said that's enough. Isabel, can't you see I'm barely holding myself back from shutting your mouth and throwing you out?”
At my words, Isabel's face contorted. I was not skilled at keeping my emotions in check. I was still too young for that.
In the end, all I wanted was for this self-loathing to stop by throwing her out. And for the two of us never, ever to cross paths again for the rest of our lives.
I walked toward the door and took hold of the handle. Right at that moment, her shrill, piercing voice struck my ears.
“You!”
I slowly turned my head. Behind me stood Isabel, glaring at me through a face drenched in tears. Because I had never seen her in such an agitated state, I furrowed my brow and turned fully toward her. In that brief span, Isabel spoke, her voice trembling violently.
“It never mattered to you anyway!”
“It didn't really matter to you, did it? You never loved them. Weren't they just people who casually drifted through your life?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“You never loved them! They were just ornaments to you! Those men you called your lovers, and Khalid too!”
“Isabel.”
“But that wasn't the case for me! It wasn't like that for me at all!”
What on earth was this girl babbling about now? Managing to steady my trembling lips, I stepped back toward her. Drowned in tears, she seemed not even to realize what words were spilling from her mouth.
This was a side of her I had never witnessed before. I had thought she only knew how to speak gracefully and softly. Yet here she was, screeching in pure venom.
Her expression looked as though she had just lost her fiancé to her friend. Why? Was this truly something so devastating? Shouldn't she be angry instead? Or perhaps sorrowful?
A twisted expression, eyes pouring forth tears. Isabel's face was steeped in a despair akin to a scholar whose life's work of several decades had just been thoroughly refuted. It was a face empty of any lingering attachment to the world, soaked in regret for what she had done, followed by grief, and finally despair once more.
Tears dripped relentlessly as she stared at me. Then, as my gaze bore into her, she stopped crying in sudden shock, like a child who abruptly realized something had gone horribly wrong. Facing my complicated gaze, she hastily wiped away her tears and parted her lips.
“I-I'm sorry.”
“I'm sorry, Scarlett.”
“I shouldn't have gotten angry like that. I'm sorry.”
Rather than an apology directed at me, it sounded more like an incantation she was whispering to herself. Watching her hurry off while muttering under her breath, I found myself struck by a complicated thought.
Perhaps the person I thought I knew was never real to begin with.
Silence settled over the room.
After Isabel left, Celine squeezed through the doorway before it could even shut, looking around with wide, anxious eyes. Judging by her hesitation, the bizarre tension lingering in the air clearly made her uncomfortable.
Isabel fleeing like a weeping tragic heroine, and me standing there with a frozen expression. Realizing things were off, Celine merely stood quietly beside the door without saying a word.
After a brief moment, I finally spoke.
“Let's go.”
My mind was such a tangled mess that I couldn't even make sense of my own thoughts. The lingering image of Isabel's retreating back—vanished without giving me even a moment to recover from seeing that side of her for the first time—left an unbearable discomfort in the corner of my heart.
In the end, I maintained total silence all the way down the corridor, burying the rising tide of confusion and unease deep in the back of my mind.
Quite some time passed after Isabel's visit, yet I heard nothing about her afterward. Whether those around me deliberately shielded my ears from news of her, or whether she had truly retreated from high society, I wasn't sure—though I suspected it was likely a bit of both.
Having heard that Isabel had come by, Violetta dropped by my room the very next day. But met with my unwavering stance that ‘nothing happened,’ she ultimately gave up on prying, and never brought up Isabel in front of me again.
And I, too, forced myself to banish Isabel from my thoughts.
In the meantime, I buried myself so deeply in work that I had no time to focus on anything else. I barely saw Khalid either, only crossing paths with him a few times in the palace corridors. On occasion, he would feign coincidence to hold my hand in the library, but honestly, that was hardly enough to satisfy lovers who had only just begun seeing each other.
Without any time to soothe my restless heart over Isabel, my days passed in ordinary routine.
Yet as if to comfort that lingering regret, an unexpected assignment landed in my lap.
“Capella?”
In the middle of such a busy stretch, the sudden dispatch order left me dazed. Sitting across from me, Senior Matilla nodded. Flustered by the unforeseen mission, I hastily set down the teacup in my hand onto the table.
Capella was a western port city in Winchester. It was the hub through which most of Winchester's salt trade passed, and simultaneously the center where the largest share of foreign commerce took place.
“Why there…?”
“It's nothing major. It's regarding the packed ice trade with Yula.”
Furthermore, Capella was the city separated from Yula by only a single strait. Only then did I grasp what Senior Matilla was referring to.
Though Yula was warm year-round, its lack of mages and alchemists meant its refrigeration techniques lagged far behind. Because of that, the demand for packed ice was immense. In other words, it was a massive market.
Yet Sierra had secured a monopoly trade agreement with Yula, snatching that market away. Even though Winchester was far better at producing and preserving packed ice, not to mention possessing richer resources.
Now, the market that had been lost right before our eyes was returning to our hands. It went without saying what an enormous opportunity and blessing the packed ice trade was for Winchester.
“The agreement with Yula has already concluded. We decided to conduct the trade at ninety-five percent of the price Sierra used to receive.”
“Is that really all right?”
“Of course. By Winchester's standards, that's still quite a handsome price for packed ice.”
I agreed with her assessment. With Winchester's high caliber of mages and alchemists, producing and storing packed ice was child's play. Naturally, when supply was abundant, prices dropped. In Yula, however, where supply could never meet demand, packed ice was practically worth its weight in gold.
“So, what am I supposed to do?”
“Ah, the packed ice trade will be concentrated in Capella. And serving as the intermediary Royal Merchant will be the Nilke Merchant Guild, as always.”
“Then do I just deliver the letter of authorization to the Nilke Merchant Guild and return with the signed treaty documents?”
“Yes. Everything has already been agreed upon anyway. It's purely a formality. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice have already prepared all the paperwork. I've finished reviewing it as well.”
“We're sending you there to give you a breather. Capella has lovely ocean views, so enjoy yourself.”
At Senior Matilla's words, I let out a light laugh. A breather? If you mean that, just give me actual leave. Chuckling, I rose from my seat.
Yet when Senior Matilla added another line watching me stand, I had no choice but to sit right back down.
“Make sure you enjoy some romance while you're at it, too.”
At her words, my jaw dropped. Seeing my blank stare, Senior Matilla burst into laughter. Then she tacked on one more thing.
“With His Grace, Duke Prodiad.”
“What do you mean by that?”
What did romance have to do with me going to Capella? As I fixed Senior Matilla with a gaze demanding an answer, an even wider grin spread across her face before she spoke.
“The 1st Knight Order has been assigned to escort you.”
What kind of utter nonsense was this? The 1st Knight Order carried out the most critical duties among all the Royal Knight Orders. Specifically, guarding the royal family.
So why on earth was the 1st Knight Order being sent on a mission with zero danger? Wondering if she had misspoken or if I had misheard, I asked again.
“Why?”
“Word has it—”
With an utterly bewildered look on my face, I waited for her answer. Finally, she continued.
“The moment the assignment was posted, the 1st Knight Order snatched it up at the speed of light.”
“Pardon?”
“Hmm, and His Majesty the King gave his permission as well.”
“That makes no sense.”
“The 1st Knight Order only escorts the royal family.”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Senior Matilla gave me a look that asked if I truly didn't understand.
Ah. Only then did the realization hit me. In Winchester, ‘royal family’ included blood relatives within four degrees of kinship to His Majesty the King. Which meant, speaking strictly in an official capacity, I fell right into that category as well.
Khalid had seized upon that very loophole. And His Majesty the King, for whatever reason, had approved it.
It was so sudden. Ugh, the rumors were going to flare up again. Duke Prodiad pulled strings just to be with Lady Dirnant, or that His Majesty granted permission, meaning the day their relationship became official wasn't far off… things like that.
Well, not that it actually mattered, but the gossip surrounding Isabel and me had only just begun to die down after a little over a week, only for this to happen. Caught between laughing and crying, my expression turned thoroughly conflicted.
Finding my face amusing, Senior Matilla chuckled and remarked, “The sea is the perfect place for a date, after all.”
“Senior.”
I shot her a slight glare, but she remained entirely unbothered. In the end, Senior Matilla never stopped laughing. As I hurried out of the room, her voice called after me once more.
“Have fun with the romance, and have a wonderful time!”
