Don't you remember? Duke Escliffe was the other person in the carriage accident," I explained.
"Oh, was he?"
"Yes," I said more impatiently than before, but continued. "Since then, we've become friends. So I prepared a gift."
"So you're giving gifts now?"
"We're close."
"Are you two dating?"
I almost scoffed. "…Don't you know there are other relationships between men and women other than romance?"
"No," Dorothea said firmly, as if the fact were indisputable. "Are you saying it's possible for men and women to be friends? That's ridiculous."
I didn't expect her to say something so cynical, so I was somewhat taken aback. "I don't know if I can quite say we're friends, but it's also the same with the Crown Prince."
"You're not acting virtuously!" Dorothea said angrily.
I looked at her in amazement. "Me?"
"If anyone heard, perhaps they might think you were in a relationship with both of them, or even promised marriage. Or sleeping with them."
I stared at her speechlessly, and it was a long while before I found the words to say.
"You know that's very rude, Dorothea?" I sputtered in indignance.
"Am I wrong?" she retorted, glaring at me balefully as if I were accusing her of doing something wrong. "You're going back and forth between the two men. No, you're a two-timer."
"You're misunderstanding. I'm just a friend of the Crown Prince, as well as the Duke. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't know what I've done to deserve to hear this from you. If anyone hears that, they'll think I'm leading on the both of them."
"I'm not the only one that would think so. Anyone would!" she bleated.
"But I'm acting with a clean conscience."
"Who would believe that?"
"So," I said sarcastically, "if my self-proclaimed 'best friend' doesn't believe me, then maybe someone else will?"
"What?"
"I'll ask Odeletta. Do I really look like that kind of woman?" I said in an emotionless voice, and then I brushed past Dorothea. I heard Dorothea chasing me from behind, but I ignored her and kept walking forward. This was not only an insult to me, but also to Xavier and Claude.
'Well, it's all about what you can see.'
I kept walking forward with a stiff face. I was waiting for Dorothea to become exhausted and to give up following me. I finally slowed down when I sensed that I lost my pursuer. At the same time, however, I accidentally bumped into someone in front of me.
"Ah…!"
I hit a man one-and-half head taller than Maristella's body. When my forehead hit someone's chest, I brought my hand to my head in embarrassment. My mouth opened automatically to apologize, when a familiar voice spoke above me.
"Ah. You must be more careful."
"…"
I raised my head in surprise. A familiar man was smiling down at me. A man whose smile was as sweet as cream.
"Duke Escliffe," I uttered.
It was Claude.
I stared up at him with a blank face, but then my thoughts were jerked by a shrill voice.
"Marie!" a voice cried from somewhere in the room.
It was Dorothea.
As I turned around in embarrassment, I saw Dorothea huffing and puffing angrily as she dashed towards me—it sounded like an exaggeration, but it wasn't. Claude watched Dorothea as she fumed, and he didn't hide his bewildered expression.
"Huh? What's going on?" he asked.
"Lady Dorothea said some unpleasant words that I didn't like. So I ditched her."
"But now you're caught." Claude didn't seem to be taking the situation as seriously as I did, but that was reasonable, since this wasn't his business in the first place.
"Can you guard me?" I asked.
"That's fine." He smiled for a moment, but then seemed curious about my answer. "What kind of unpleasant words did you hear?"
"She said that I was unvirtuous. I guess she thinks that I'm playing with both the Crown Prince and the Duke."
"…That's unpleasant," he replied after a moment.
The tone of Claude's voice had changed. I looked up at him, and I saw a terrifying scowl on his face. He noticed me looking at him, then he quickly rearranged his expression and smiled as if nothing had happened. But the difference between the two faces was so stark that I wondered what his real feelings were.
"You must have been upset to hear something so unpleasant," he said.
"It's an insult to both you and me. You and I are clearly close friends, nothing more, nothing less."
"…Yes," Claude said, the smile still on his face. "You're right."
"Anyway…I'll take care of this."
"Lady Maristella, I hope you won't take the hard path over the easy one."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It means that I can easily help you fight."
"What are you—"
"Marie!"
Before I could finish, Dorothea's voice rang shrilly in my ear. Since when did she reach my side?
I stared at her with an emotionless expression, then managed to gather myself. "What?" I said.
"Why did you go away!" she demanded.
"I was offended, so I didn't want to be with you. And I already came here with you to Escliffe Mansion."
"That's it? Aren't you going to be with me at the party today?"
"Do you really want to be with an unsophisticated friend?" I retorted.
Then, another voice interrupted the conversation. "That's right, Lady Dorothea," Claude said.
I looked at Claude beside me, completely taken aback, and Dorothea only seemed to realize his existence then. She looked even more embarrassed than I was. No, but how did Claude manage to hide his presence…?
"I wouldn't think you would associate yourself with someone who's not virtuous," he said.
"D-Duke Escliffe," Dorothea stammered.
"Or do you mean to say that you are equally as unvirtuous?" he suggested.
"Th-that doesn't matter, of course. Marie is my friend."
Claude's mouth twisted when he heard her response, and Dorothea flinched but did not speak.
"If you're a friend, then you shouldn't speak of such rudeness. Even more so if it's not true," he said.
"Are you on Marie's side?" Dorothea asked.
"If you're going to split this into sides—" Claude replied with a shrug, "—let's say yes."
"Ha!" Dorothea scoffed, then peered at him. "When did you become so close to Marie?"
"You don't have to know that," Claude said dismissively, which only made Dorothea fire back even harder.
"I know everything!"
"Really?"
"Yes!" she said in a loud voice, and then her expression soon turned triumphant. "You were involved in the carriage accident with Marie, right? You were the cause and she was the victim."
"…I'm afraid so."
"Wake you, Your Grace. Marie is playing around with you," Dorothea said.
Unbelievable. Claude and I made identical sounds of disbelief.
"Hm?"
"Hm?"
'She must be crazy,' I thought.
This was an all-time high, this! How could she even utter that!
'I shouldn't have accepted the deal.'
I accepted Countess Cornohen's proposal because I wanted to ease the burden on my parents, thinking the benefit would outweigh the cost, but this was too much. I couldn't believe Dorothea was treating me like I was some con-artist in the presence of someone else. I might go crazy from the injustice of it. If I ended up with an evil heart, it wouldn't be my fault!
"Well, I don't know," Claude said, but he still looked dumbfounded by Dorothea.
"Maybe she came near you at the carriage accident," Dorothea claimed.
Right. She wasn't even one of the parties involved there. I soon realized the most important and fundamental fact—that this was just Dorothea's nature.
'Ha.'
How long could I keep my promise with Countess Cornohen? This moment was a dangerously precarious situation.
"I hear that you have feelings for the Crown Prince," Claude suddenly said, and Dorothea's forehead crinkled.
"Yes, so?"
"You should hit His Highness carriage. Perhaps His Highness will fall in love with you at first sight."
She looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "What? What are you saying…?"
"What do I mean? It makes sense going by your logic." Claude continued with a cool smile. "You may be able to steal the Crown Prince's heart and even marry him. If it's by your logic."
"…"
"And I would be the one playing Lady Maristella…isn't that right?" Claude smiled, then turned towards me. Then, unexpectedly, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. The unexpected skin contact caused my eyes to grow as wide as dinner plates.
"Everyone who has seen Lady Maristella knows this at least a little, but she is quite the attractive and magnetic person. It's as hard getting out of a swamp."
"What are you…!"
"If that is playing around, then this is too, right, Lady Dorothea?"
It was a polite question, but Claude's expression was not. He looked at Dorothea with colder eyes than before.