Estella knocked on the door of her father's study.
It had been three days since Alvin had submitted a request to the Royal Council to withdraw his motion to annul the engagement. The Royal Council accepted it and the engagement was formally restored. Based on the results of the Royal Council's review, it was informally decided through the baronial house that Millefeuille Elbach would be removed from the court and barred from participating in high society.
Estella's status had been restored; as a duke's daughter and as the Crown Prince's fiancée.
But the reason Estella had come to this study was to discuss her restored engagement.
"Come in." Duke Viktor's calm voice drifted through the door.
The study was immaculate. Bookshelves lined an entire wall and a heavy desk was in the center of the room. The afternoon light streaming through the window gently illuminated the room, which was steeped in the scent of ink.
Duke Viktor sat behind his desk. He pushed aside a stack of letters and looked at Estella.
"Have a seat."
Estella sat down on the chair and straightened her back.
"Father. I wish to speak with you regarding my engagement to His Highness Alvin."
Viktor said nothing and gestured for her to continue.
"The annulment has been withdrawn and my position has been restored. However, I wish to ask if maintaining this engagement is truly what's best for the ducal house. Please reconsider it for me." She chose her words carefully yet spoke frankly.
Viktor's expression didn't change. His gentle eyes watched his daughter in silence.
"Tell me your reasons."
"His Highness did not maintain this engagement in order to protect me. He withdrew the motion because it became clear that his own judgement had been mistaken. This engagement was built without trust from the very beginning. I do not believe that continuing a relationship that exists only in form would benefit the ducal house or myself."
Silence fell.
Viktor set down his pen and clasped his hands together on the desk.
"Are you saying this is what you want?"
"Yes."
"You don't want to just be protected. You wish to choose for yourself?"
Estella nodded.
Viktor said nothing for a long time. A bird chirped outside the window.
"Very well. I will handle the negotiations with the royal family. I will respect your wishes."
He spoke like the head of a ducal house, and her father at the same time.
Estella bowed her head deeply.
"Thank you, Father."
She returned to the academy the following morning.
Life was beginning to return to normal. Lectures. Assignments. Tea parties. Mille's name no longer came up in the students' conversations. Word had spread that she had retired to the baronial estate, and no one bothered to pry any further. Someone who had left the court lost their value as a topic of discussion.
But the aura around Estella wasn't the same as before.
The young ladies who had sided with Mille and kept their distance from Estella were now approaching her.
"Lady Estella, the hearing must have been such an ordeal for you."
"We were worried about you this entire time, Lady Estella."
Estella returned their words with a smile. The perfect smile of a duke's daughter.
But she didn't go further.
Among the ladies-in-waiting, a different conversation was taking place.
"Those young ladies may have changed their tune, but the duke's daughter isn't speaking to them the way she used to."
"Of course not. They sided with Millefeuille and shunned Lady Estella. The ducal house isn't about to forget that."
The young ladies who had turned their coats never regained the trust of the ducal house. Being unable to speak intimately with the duke's daughter at social gatherings meant a decline in one's social standing. That was a consequence they had brought upon themselves.
Afternoon. The academy gardens.
As Estella walked along the path beside the hedge, she saw Leonhardt standing ahead.
He wasn't carrying any administrative documents. That was unusual.
Estella stopped and curtsied.
"Your Highness."
"So formal. Can't you relax a little when it's just the two of us?"
Leonhardt stood with his arms folded, leaning against the hedge. Her lady-in-waiting waited at the entrance of the path. They were in a semi-private space at a corner of the garden.
"You are royalty and I am the daughter of a duke. I cannot speak informally towards you."
"That's my point."
Leonhardt let out a small sigh.
"I have something to report. Part of my brother's administrative duties have been officially transferred to me."
Estella stopped in her tracks.
"It was His Majesty's decision. My brother's questionable judgement was brought to the surface by this incident. His title as Crown Prince remains, but the scope of administrative work I handle has expanded."
Alvin's real authority had been further diminished.
Estella absorbed this in silence. She felt no sympathy for Alvin but a bitter aftertaste lingered at the pit of her stomach. Alvin wasn't a bad person. He was simply naive and too easily swayed by emotion. Even so, he could not shrink his responsibilities as the Crown Prince.
"And one more thing." Leonhardt's voice softened ever so slightly. A change so subtle that no one else would have noticed.
"Regarding your engagement. I heard that your father and the royal family have begun discussions."
"Yes. I asked for the reconsideration myself."
"I see."
Leonhardt kept his arms folded and looked up at the sky.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Were you going to cry in front of me as well when we first met?"
Estella thought for a moment.
This was not someone she could lie to. She recalled the moment she first felt that way, in the corridor, when he had asked, "Your tears... they were fake, weren't they?" When she admitted the lie. From that moment on, there had been no need to put on an act in front of this man.
"There was never any need to cry in front of you."
Leonhardt lowered his gaze from the sky and looked at Estella.
"Because you have always looked at facts from the beginning, Your Highness, instead of tears. There's no point in crying in front of someone who isn't moved by them."
"How rational."
"Yes. I am quite rational."
Silence fell, but it wasn't an awkward silence.
Leonhardt spoke, "You don't need to cry in front of me."
A moment of silence.
"...But if you're going to cry, make them real."
Estella's eyes widened.
She couldn't immediately process the meaning of those words. Something stirred in her heart. Not an act. Not a calculation. An emotion without a name.
She had never felt anything like it in her past life or this one.
"...I shall do my best." Her voice trembled slightly. She wasn't acting. The tremor was so small that it surprised Estella herself.
Leonhardt didn't say anything else. Only the corner of his mouth was lifted slightly. It was the same faint smile as when their eyes had first met in the garden but there was a warmth in it this time.
It had been a relationship that began with lies.
He had seen through her crocodile tears, and had joined hands even though he knew she was lying, and they collaborated under a false alliance.
After all of that, what existed here and now was not a lie.
Evening. After Estella returned to her room, her lady-in-waiting brought one final report.
"It seems Millefeuille departed for the baronial estate by carriage today."
Estella nodded.
Then her lady-in-waiting added, "A civil official in His Highness Leonhardt's administrative office mentioned that His Highness has been investigating whether this was all planned by Millefeuille's merchant biological father with the backing of Baron Elbach."
Estella's hand froze above her teacup.
Mille's adoption. She went from a common merchant house to a baronial house. This couldn't be explained by Millefeuille's ambitions alone.
She recalled Leonhardt mentioning that there was something unusual going on around her. Perhaps this was what he had meant.
But that was not Estella's problem for now.
Estella stood by the window and gazed at the evening sky.
She had merely stepped onto the same stage.
She had cried because Mille had cried. She used laws when they could protect her. She presented evidence when it was needed. She did nothing when she shouldn't press the issue.
That was all there was to it.
She had endured in her past life. She bowed her head to unreasonable demands, wept behind closed doors, and the next day stood behind the counter again with a smile.
In this life, she returned the favour in kind.
That was the only difference.
Estella looked at her reflection in the window. The face of a duke's daughter. The face of a woman carrying memories of a past life. And the face of a person who, beyond a trust that began with lies, had found a genuine emotion.
The fate of her engagement with Alvin was still undecided. She didn't know who was behind Millefeuille.
But for now, that was enough.
"I'll do my best." She repeated her own words quietly to herself, and laughed genuinely.