…
The feast continued, but I couldn't stop thinking about the maid and Lady Anna.
"Fabian," I whispered. "I need to go. I want to check on them."
"You wish to check on the woman who tried to use a clumsy maid to captivate the court?" he asked, his voice low and knowing.
"She wasn't trying to captivate anyone," I said. "She was just trying to help the maid. I just want to make sure she is okay."
He let out a small breath, shaking his head with a mixture of disbelief. "You truly do not see the stage, do you? However, you may excuse yourself. Adel is with you, right? Yet return soon."
I slipped away from the High Table with Lady Octavi, followed behind me. Adel met me at the edge of the pavilion, guided me out into the cool night air, away from the noise, toward the smaller Aurelius Guest Tent.
Adel held the flap open for me.
Inside, the maid was sitting on a stool, sobbing quietly. Lady Anna was pacing back and forth. She had removed the wine-soaked outer layer of her dress, leaving her in her white under-dress.
She didn't look scared when I entered. She looked furious.
When she was me, she stopped pacing. Her eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Are you here to brag?" She snapped, her voice trembling.
I blinked, confused by her hostility. "Brag? Why would I do that?"
"Do not play the fool, Lady Aurelia," Lady Anna hissed. "You won. You stole the moment. I tried to show them mercy, I tried to show them grace, and you… You just sat there and let me look like a fool before swooping in to save the day."
"I came because the floor was cold," I said simply.
I ignored her glare and walked past her to the maid. I crouched down and looked at the maid's scraped knees.
"Does it hurt?" I asked the maid softly.
The maid stared at me, too scared to speak."
I asked Adel to hand me the cream to reduce the pain. I applied it gently to her. "This will stop the stinging."
I stood up and turned back to Lady Anna. She was watching me with a look of utter confusion.
"And you, Lady Anna," I said. "You are shivering."
"I don't need your charity," Lady Anna said. "I know what you are doing. You are trying to show everyone that you are the 'better' person."
"I am not trying to show anyone anything," I said honestly. "There is no one here but us."
I asked Adel for a cloak to cover Lady Anna.
Adel handed me a warm, white woollen cloak. I stepped forward. Lady Anna flinched, as if she expected me to strike her, but I simply wrapped the cloak around her shoulders.
"There," I said as I tied the cloak securely. "It is cold tonight.
Lady Anna touched the soft wool. She looked at me, like she was searching for the malice, the scheme, the hidden insult.
"I don't understand you," Lady Anna whispered. "You should hate me. I… I tried to take the spotlight."
"The spotlight?" I tilted my head. "The lanterns are plenty bright enough for everyone… You should go back to your tent and rest…"
I turned to leave.
"Lady Aurelia," Anna called out.
I looked back.
She wasn't glaring anymore. "Thank you," she said stiffly.
"You're welcome." I smiled.
I slipped back out into the night.
Adel and Lady Octavi walked beside me as we headed back to the forest.
"My lady," Adel said. "What is that?"
"What?"
"You seem like a dull person, my lady," Lady Octavi said.
"A dull person?"
"Yes, as what was going on at the feast may be the crucial point from the book." Lady Octavi explained. "And you just saw it like a mere show, like what happens if Lady Anna and the maid are actually friends and they have been plotting it all along."
Adel added. "As you had said, my lady…'A Crown Prince to give a stranger the Royal Prize… He has to fall for her before he catches the stage.' What happens if that scene Lady Anna and the maid did was an attempt to make the Crown Prince fall to them?"
"Planned it?" I asked, stopping on the path. "Why would they plan to fall and ruin a dress?"
Adel sighed, exchanging a look with Lady Octav. "To gain sympathy, my lady. To make the Prince look at them. To make you look cruel by contrast. It is a common gambit in the court."
"I see…" I continued to walk. "However, let's discuss this after the feast. I also want to ask both of you about a quite interesting thought of mine after watching all of that."
I saw both of their faces, quietly curious about it. They exchanged a glance but nodded.
"As you wish, my lady," Adel said.
We returned to the feast. The atmosphere had relaxed since the scene and Duchess Valerie's arrival. Laughter floated from the East table, House Aemilia, and polite conversation hummed from the South. When I took my seat beside Fabian, he smiled with a genuine, warm expression that made my heart beat.
The rest of the evening, from the opening feast, passed in a blur of courses and polite nods. I played my role as the perfect betrothed, the embodiment of unity. Eventually, the Herald signalled the end of the feast. Fabian kissed my hand one last time, while his eyes promised a conversation for another day, and I was finally able to retreat to the safety of my family Pavilion.
…
Later that night, inside my private chamber within the pavilion, the air was thick with the scent of pine and burning wax.
I sat on the edge of my bed, still dressed in my white gown. Adel was busy hanging up my shawl, while Lady Octavi stood near the entrance flap, her armour removed, yet her sword still at her hip.
"So," Lady Octavi said, breaking the silence inside the chamber. "This 'interesting thought'. Is it a dangerous thought of my lady or just a passing curiosity?"
"It can be dangerous, or maybe it can be just a passing curiosity," I replied.
"So what is it, my lady?" Adel said.
"Okay, first, about the main character. In the book, the main character has never been described her appearance. However, if we connect it to my dream, the dream of my own death, the one who stole Fabian, is a red-haired woman…" I said.
"Is it Lady Anna, then?" Lady Octavi interjected, walking towards me.
"However…" I paused and took a deep breath, "What was the hair colour of the maid in the scene back then?" I asked, looking between them.
Lady Octavi paused, her eyes narrowing as she accessed her memory. "It was hard to tell in the shadow of the dais, but in the guest tent…"
"It was red," I finished for her.
I stood up and walked to the vanity mirror, looking at my own reflection. Instead, in the mirror, I was just seeing the memory of the two girls in the tent.
"Lady Anna has hair of deep crimson, like a rose," I whispered. "But the maid… Her hair was red, too, yet a different shade, yes. Lighter. But still red."
I turned back to them.
"The book didn't give a name. My dream didn't give a name. However, my dream showed a woman with red hair stole the Prince and stood aside from my death."
A chill went through the room.
"So," Lady Octavi said. "We do not have one suspect, my lady. Instead, we have two."
"If Lady Anna is just the distraction…" Adel whispered, her voice dropping to a dangerous low. "Then the maid could be the true danger."
"Or they are both innocent," I said, rubbing my temples. "Or they are working together, or we in here are just being so paranoid. I don't know anymore." I realised something. "Wait…" I paced back and forth. "Paragons… Nona has these paragons to bring back the timeline of the fate… These paragons, I don't know how many of them… As the paragons are trying to maintain the fate…"
"They could be manipulating Lady Anna and the maid for their own purposes," Adel finished my thought.
"No, not like that, Adel…" I shook my head, feeling a sense of unease creeping over me. "The book is being driven by one person, the main character… If this main character is actually in this area or in this world right now, the paragons should protect her, do they?"
"But they aren't protecting them," Lady Octavi pointed out, "If Lady Anna or the maid is the main character, they shouldn't be humiliated in front of the entire court, surely Fate or these paragons would have shielded them from such disgrace."
"Exactly," I whispered. "Fate didn't protect them; even the enforcers of fate didn't do it. Fate used them… The book… it never gave her a name. It was always written as 'I'. 'I walked into the room.' 'I felt the Prince's gaze.' 'I cried.' It's like this, "I" is the reader.'
I looked up to them. "But sometimes… sometimes it shifted. It would say, 'She is the one.' or 'She will save him.' It never used a name. Just pronouns. 'I' and 'She'. Placeholders." I said, my voice trembling as if I realised something that I shouldn't know, my eyes wide with a dawning horror. "What if there is no Main Character?"
Adel and Lady Octavi exchanged a confused look. "My lady?"
"Think about it," I said. "The placeholders that the book used 'I' and 'She' never reveal the name. When you read a book like that, who are the placeholders? It's the reader. It's anyone. It's just a hollow space."
"That's why the description was so vague," I realised. "That's why my dream only showed red hair, because that's the only trait the world decided on. But underneath the hair… It's just a hollow. It's just a role."
"Do you mean Lady Anna and the maid, trying to fulfil the role of the main character?" Lady Octavi asked.
"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "The main character's role isn't to be fulfilled. It's just a role to act." I said softly. "Gennaia told me about the Paragons; she said they exist to ensure the flow of fate. To make sure the book happens. So these paragons just need to act as the main character." I paused. "What if these paragons act as the main character, exchanging every time…"
"If it's the case, you mean this time, Lady Anna and the maid try to act as the main character, yet the next time, it will be different paragons, if we assume Lady Anna and the maid are paragons?" Lady Octavi asked.
"Precisely…" I said in a low tone.
"That's…actually…disturbing to think…" Adel said with a shiver. "My lady, your fight is against a ghost that can be anyone."
"If that's the case, my lady…needs to completely understand the surroundings… As I thought, we can just stop a person who drives the book, this main character, but after what you had said, we couldn't do that anymore." Lady Octavi explained with a look of concern on her face.
I stood there, realising the gravity of the situation. However, I realised there was something that had happened in the opening feast.
"In the opening feast, the fate had changed…" I said with a cold tone. "The scene of the maid and Lady Anna should have happened from the beginning to the end. However, they had been interrupted…" I took a deep breath. "By Duchess Valerie. How?"