IRTP 1

Chapter 1

Blair Merbis bit her lip, gazing out the window with anxious eyes.

Through the transparent glass, the rear garden was in full bloom with pink roses. In a few days, those roses were destined to become a splendid bouquet, placed in the hands of the newly selected crown princess.

‘Though of course, that won’t be me.’

The owner of the bouquet had been decided long ago.

Anais Brienne. She was the daughter of the highest-ranking ducal family in the Kingdom of Aeron and a woman of outstanding beauty, the one who would soon become crown princess.

“I say, has Her Majesty ever summoned us at such an early hour before?”

A brown-haired woman sitting on one side of the drawing room sofa, dressed lavishly since morning, grumbled.

“Well now. The crown princess selection is tomorrow—what reason could the queen’s court have to call all of us together?”

The woman across from her, who had been eating a galette topped with apple, replied. At that, the brown-haired woman spoke in a sharp voice.

“Not all of us. Anais didn’t come, did she? How irritating, really. Acting like she’s already crown princess or something.”

“You’d do well to refrain from such remarks, Lady Selina. We don’t even know what this is about yet.”

The blonde woman sitting in the most ornate chair at the center of the drawing room spoke in an elegant voice.

“Well, isn’t it obvious, Olivia? We’ve been called so they can decide how to handle us Frons, haven’t we?”

“……”

“There hasn’t even been an official announcement of who the crown princess is yet!”

Unlike the silent blonde Olivia, the woman who had been eating the galette cried out in a slightly agitated voice.

“You don’t need to say it to know. We were nothing but foils for that Anais woman from the very beginning. If that’s how it was going to be, why even select Frons at all? Don’t you agree, Blair? Say something, why don’t you.”

Selina spoke mockingly, twirling her luscious brown hair around her finger.

“Well, even so, they can’t very well not select Frons, can they.”

Blair answered flatly.

Frons. In the Kingdom of Aeron, there was a custom whereby a prince with succession rights had to take a crown princess before ascending the throne. To this end, several candidates for crown princess were selected to stay at the royal castle for a certain period, where their qualities were evaluated.

Those selected as crown princess candidates were called “Frons,” and they were objects of envy for noble ladies and objects of desire for men far and wide. For it meant they were talents fit to become crown princess—and indeed, queen of the kingdom itself.

As such, even if one was not ultimately chosen as crown princess, simply having been a Frons was enough to mark one as among the finest marriage prospects, and becoming a Frons was a great honor for one’s family.

‘Though I can’t imagine why that would be any honor for a family.’

Blair let out a small sigh.

All four people in this room, including herself, had been selected as Frons six months ago. And tomorrow, the official announcement would be made as to which lady had been chosen as crown princess.

Of course, there was no one who didn’t already know it was Anais.

“I suppose that’s true enough. Haah, I guess the crown princess seat is out for me, so I’ll settle for the eldest son of the Ollande ducal house. What about you, Blair?”

“Oh, well. I haven’t really given it much thought yet.”

“Have you? I thought you seemed so utterly uninterested in the crown princess position that I wondered if you had someone else in mind.”

Even at Selina’s probing question, Blair answered absentmindedly, her gaze fixed out the window. What concerned her right now was not such things.

The strange tension hanging over the royal castle. The situation of having all the Frons gathered together from early morning. And in the midst of it all, Anais Brienne, who had yet to appear. She had a bad feeling about this.

Just then, a commotion was heard outside the door.

“Her Majesty the Queen is entering.”

At the voice of the attendant outside the door, Blair turned toward the door with a tense face.

“We greet Her Majesty the Queen.”

“You are as beautiful as ever today.”

Amid the flurry of greetings pouring toward Queen Leah, Blair also quietly bowed her head. But the queen did not respond to anyone’s greeting.

Blair carefully studied the queen’s expression. The queen often kept her feelings hidden, making it hard to tell what she was thinking, but this time was different.

‘Why is she so pale? What on earth has happened?’

Queen Leah, visibly wan, slowly surveyed the four Frons gathered in the drawing room. Under her coldly sharpened gaze, no one dared to speak easily, and they merely exchanged glances.

How long had it been? The queen broke the silence and opened her heavy lips.

“I called you all here early, so it must have been sudden. I had something urgent to say, which is why I gathered you.”

The queen’s voice, always unwavering and stern, trembled faintly. At her ominous appearance, everyone held their breath and looked only at her.

Yet the queen could not easily continue, her lips moving several times before she finally uttered words that were hard to believe.

“Lady Anais Brienne…… met with misfortune last night.”

Her lowered gaze sank heavily. Blair and everyone else in the drawing room were struck silent with shock.

But that was only briefly—Selina asked in an agitated voice.

“Met with misfortune, Your Majesty? What do you mean……”

“It seems she ingested Robetain.”

“R-Robetain? That’s a poison—why would she……!”

Even Olivia, who almost never became agitated, brought a trembling hand to her mouth. Tilda, who had been eating the apple galette, was so shocked she could only blink.

“……Are you saying someone fed Lady Anais Robetain, Your Majesty?”

Blair, too, unable to believe the queen’s words, asked with a dazed expression. Queen Leah slowly nodded and answered.

“A detailed investigation will be needed to know for certain, but someone put Robetain into the water Lady Anais always drank.”

“Th-That can’t be. Who would do such a terrible thing…!”

“Then what is Lady Anais’s condition?”

“Surely not……”

Voices mixed with anxiety, fear, and bewilderment followed one after another. Blair unknowingly clasped her hands tightly together and prayed inwardly.

‘Please, let it not be that. Please.’

But the queen closed her eyes gently and shook her head.

“By the time she was found, it was already too late.”

Blair’s mind went blank. Anais Brienne was dead. Anais Brienne, who was to have been chosen as crown princess tomorrow, was dead. Why was it that uneasy premonitions were never wrong?

“Under normal circumstances, we would have officially announced tomorrow who the new crown princess would be.”

The queen paused and hesitated for a moment.

She seemed to be deliberating whether she should bother saying aloud the obvious fact that Anais was to have been the new crown princess. But she resolved to take the path of not saying unnecessary things.

“Since an unexpected accident like this has occurred, I will postpone the announcement for the time being.”

The queen firmly set her lips and added.

“And naturally, I will strengthen the castle’s security, but see to it that each of you takes special care for your own safety. It may be that someone is targeting the Frons.”

Having finished speaking, the queen left the drawing room with a dark expression. The remaining Frons each wore bewildered expressions.

“What in the world is going on. Poisoning, of all things.”

Selina murmured.

“Who could have done such a thing? To touch the Brienne ducal house—you’d have to have a death wish……”

At Tilda’s words, Olivia, who somehow looked uncomfortable, rose from her chair.

“I should be going now. Everyone, as Her Majesty said, please take care.”

Pale-faced, she left the drawing room as if fleeing. As soon as the door Olivia had opened and gone through closed, Selina narrowed her eyes and spoke.

“Hmm, Lady Olivia seems to have something she’s feeling guilty about.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

When Tilda asked, not understanding, Selina lowered her voice.

“As Lady Tilda said, who could possibly dare to touch the Brienne ducal house? At most, it would be someone like Lady Olivia’s father, the Marquess Lorenz.”

“Eeh? Surely not.”

“I’m saying it’s at least possible. Well, it wouldn’t be my house or Lady Tilda’s family. And Lady Blair’s household is…… even more out of the question.”

Selina’s consistently rude remarks were grating, but Blair did not react to them. It wasn’t as though what she said was wrong, and who had poisoned Anais was not important to Blair.

What mattered to her now was the fact that Anais, who was to have become crown princess, was dead—that fact itself.

“So what happens to us now?”

Blair spoke after a long while. At her sudden question, Selina looked at her with an expression of disbelief.

“What do you mean, what happens? We have to stay at the royal castle for now, of course. Anais’s matter is unfortunate, but the crown princess has to be selected again anyway, doesn’t she?”

On the lips of the woman saying it was unfortunate hung a faint smile, and desire glinted in her eyes. Feeling nausea rise in her stomach at that greedy look, Blair moved toward the drawing room door.

“Blair, even if you pretend otherwise, you actually want the crown princess seat, don’t you?”

From behind her, Selina’s taunting voice reached her ears.

To Selina, who was even waving her hand as if to say “let’s work together,” Blair gave no reply whatsoever and quickly returned to her room. Then, with a deep sigh, she threw herself onto the bed. Her wavy dark red hair scattered across the pure white quilt.

“Haah…… I’m doomed.”

Greed, my foot. It’s the exact opposite. Why do you think I’m playing this damned Frons role in the first place?

Blair had absolutely no intention of becoming crown princess. And she had even less intention of basking in the halo of being a Frons and becoming a top predator in the marriage market.

There was only one thing she wanted. To go to the annex on the west side of the royal castle—the place called the “Dry Garden.”