Chapter 38
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Swallowing the question back down just as it was, Lena fell asleep. Wandering through a consciousness hazy as mist, she dreamed.
It was the royal palace with darkness settled over it. Lena was crouched in a corridor overlooking a solitary garden.
A grand banquet was being held in the palace, and guests from other nations were tasting the food and enjoying the festivities. Even if one stepped outside the banquet hall, it was customary to go out to the great garden beyond the main gate, so the chilly corridor, which one could only reach by deliberately finding and opening a secluded side door, was naturally deserted.
“What are you doing there?”
That was why Lena was so startled by the sudden voice speaking clumsy Aitalosian.
When she stood up and looked, it was a boy a little shorter than Lena.
Black hair covered his brow, and his sharp jaw and pale skin stood out even in the darkness.
Judging by his appearance, he was not of the Aitalosian royal house, and his accent confirmed it. He was likely one of the guests at the banquet who had lost his way.
“It is nothing…”
Lena mumbled vaguely.
Even if it was a banquet where everyone gathered to enjoy themselves, when so many noble figures were assembled, a power struggle naturally ensued.
Lena had neither the ability nor the qualifications to be present in that arena of competition.
Inside the banquet hall, the Second Prince and Third Prince flaunted their powerful connections and displayed their rivalry. The King of Aitalos was also busy gauging the wealth and military strength of other nations through the arrivals and words and actions of the foreign envoys.
The silent battle among the queens went without saying.
In such situations, even the young princesses and princes learned much.
For the first time in a while, the Fourth Queen had put a wig on Regnos, dressed him in a gown, and adorned him as the usual “Princess Lenasia.”
So it was only natural that Lena could not enter the banquet hall.
According to the Fourth Queen’s prior instructions, she was not to take a single step out of her quarters, but the palace, emptied of even the servants who had all flocked to attend the banquet, was lonely and frightening.
Of course, she could not go into the banquet hall, yet she also did not want to stray far from that place where she could feel warmth and liveliness, so she had been sitting secretly in this spot.
The face of the boy who had drawn near was revealed in the lamplight hanging from a pillar. Lenasia was momentarily entranced by the exceedingly pretty face, then grew frightened at the thought that he must be one of the guests.
‘What if I get caught?’
Just in case, she had dressed her outward appearance identically to Regnos inside the hall. But if the boy had exchanged words with Regnos, he might notice that her voice and aura were different.
“P-Please go back inside. This is not a place for guests.”
As Lena mumbled and turned her head away, the boy silently watched her for a moment before opening his mouth again in that clumsy tone.
“You speak differently than you did in the banquet hall.”
“…”
Her heart pounded.
That the crisis of being discovered, which had never once occurred in all these years, should come in this way.
It was already too late to regret loitering near the banquet hall.
She had to salvage the situation somehow, so it seemed best to naturally guide this boy to the guest quarters.
If he went back into the banquet hall as things were and found out that “Princess Lenasia” was both inside and outside, it would be very troublesome.
‘What should I do?’
What she had learned while living for years in the palace under a false identity was that it was precisely in times like this that she had to act smoothly. Lena recalled the guest list for this banquet in her head.
Though it was Regnos who was meant to attend the banquet, the strict Fourth Queen had naturally made Lena memorize the attendance list beforehand as well.
‘Ah.’
Now that she thought about it, the boy’s appearance matched that of the Prince of Taringia.
Taringia was a small nation, but it was a natural fortress with military potential, and even the Taringian language had been included in Lena’s curriculum.
“Everyone is… a little different when surrounded by people than when they are alone.”
She stumbled a little, but it was passably natural-sounding Taringian. The boy’s eyes widened slightly, as if he had not expected to hear it in a foreign land.
“…Is that so.”
The young Godfrid fell silent.
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