The Emperor's birthday banquet—one of the most dazzling celebrations in the Empire—was nearly upon them. Tailors from the manor's in-house dressmaker descended on Lia's enormous dressing room in a breathless flurry, measuring every inch of her and spreading out bolts of the finest silk and lace.
"My lady, this dress is going to be absolutely stunning! Every young gentleman in the ballroom will have eyes only for you."
Ruri's eyes sparkled as she smoothed the hem of the silver gown being fitted. Since returning from their travels, Lia had been radiating a livelier, more vibrant charm than ever before—and the social world had taken notice. The proof was right there on her vanity: a towering pile of ornate envelopes containing proposals and banquet-partner requests from distinguished families across the Empire.
"Ugh, just looking at all of them gives me a headache. They'd all lecture me about 'lacking refinement' the second I mentioned anything from our trip."
Lia shook her head at the glittering stack of letters. Just then, Ed approached with his characteristic measured step and offered her a warm cup of tea.
"In that case, my lady, shall I dispose of this tiresome mountain of paper on your behalf? They are, after all, the primary culprits clouding your eyes and ears."
His voice was as pleasant as ever, but the look he directed at the letters on the vanity was cold enough to suggest he'd happily feed every last one of them to the furnace.
Unaware of any of this, Lia swept her hair back and answered brightly.
"Yes, please! Thanks, Ed. Oh—and I've already decided on my partner for the banquet."
Ed's hands stilled almost imperceptibly as he tidied the tea service. A subtle tension settled over the room. Then Lia beamed and announced:
"I'm going with Jonny! He's my escort knight, so it's easy and comfortable, and there's no pressure. Plus, his uniform looks great—it'll match my dress perfectly!"
From the corner of the room, where she'd been polishing Lia's shoes, Ruri's head snapped up with a sharp little gasp. If Jonny—a knight of minor noble standing—were to stride into the ballroom as my lady's official partner, the attention it would draw was only natural. A flicker of longing, tenderness, and the quiet bitterness of knowing her place passed through Ruri's green eyes.
Ed's expression, meanwhile, lost its smile entirely for one unguarded moment before he carefully reassembled it. His blue eyes, however, had gone dangerously cold. He—a man of slave-born origins—could never presume to take Lia's hand and walk with her into an official imperial function. The fact that Jonny could claim that forbidden place so effortlessly, under the simple banner of "escort knight," stoked something sharp and ugly in Ed's chest.
"……Sir Jonny, you mean," Ed murmured quietly.
"A man already kept quite busy fulfilling his duties as a guard knight—I do wonder whether his shoulders are broad enough to bear the rather considerable honor of serving as my lady's *escort* as well."
"Oh, Jonny can handle it—he's dependable! Right, Ruri?"
"Ah—y-yes! Sir Jonny is very skilled and always so courteous……"
Ruri answered in a small, flustered voice, her cheeks going pink. Ed's sharp instincts caught every detail of her reaction. Ruri's carefully hidden feelings for Jonny. The fact that Jonny's presence was encroaching on what Ed considered his own territory. His mind was already turning, quietly and efficiently, working out exactly how to use all of it.
Once he'd reached a satisfactory conclusion, Ed fitted his most impeccable butler's smile into place and inclined his head toward Lia.
"Then I shall take *special* care to ensure Sir Jonny conducts himself in a manner befitting my lady's partner—managing his etiquette and movements with the utmost…… thoroughness."
Lia, blissfully oblivious, lit up at this. "Oh, wonderful—if Ed's handling it, it'll be perfect!" But behind that smile, Ed had already made a quiet, iron-cold resolution: Sir Jonny would not spend a single comfortable minute at Lia's side for the entire evening.
The kitchen incident faded into memory. The silver gown arrived. And Lia was ready to attend one of the grandest events in the Empire—the Emperor's birthday banquet.
By Lia's own choice, her official escort for the evening was her guard knight, Jonny. When he appeared before her in his perfectly pressed uniform, his warm brown hair neatly combed back, Lia smiled her usual sunny smile and rested her hand on his arm.
"Jonny, you look amazing—like an actual knight commander!"
"Thank you, my lady. You look exceptionally beautiful yourself this evening."
It was a perfectly loyal, perfectly uncomplicated exchange. But Ed, holding the carriage door open and watching from a few steps away, felt something in his expression go very, very still. Lia's pale fingers resting on Jonny's solid arm. The way Jonny's eyes moved to her. Each small detail fanned the ember of jealousy in Ed's chest.
He curled his fingers quietly at his side. The urge to physically remove that knight's arm from Lia's reach was immediate and vivid. But Ed was not a hound that ran wild on impulse. He was a precise, calculating butler. He glanced once more toward the back of the carriage, where Ruri stood fidgeting, straightening the hem of Lia's skirt while her eyes kept drifting helplessly back to Jonny.
Dark auburn hair. Green eyes full of quiet longing fixed on Jonny. The emotion in her gaze was unmistakably *adoration*—and seeing it confirmed again, a cool, elegant smile curved Ed's mouth.
*A maid and a knight……*
He had made up his mind. He would use Ruri's unrequited feelings to their fullest. The cleanest, most airtight way to remove Jonny from Lia's orbit was to tie him to someone else entirely.
The grand ballroom of the imperial palace blazed with jewel-bright chandeliers and the brilliant finery of the assembled nobility. In her silver gown, Lia stood out effortlessly—and at her side, crisp in his dress uniform, Jonny held his ground with quiet, steady confidence.
"Sir Jonny, relax a little. Your real job tonight is this—" Lia raised her fan to hide her mouth and whispered, "—keeping all those young gentlemen over there from circling in like sharks. You see them, don't you?"
She had a point. Several of the young heirs who'd sent proposals were already hovering at the edges of the room, watching for an opening.
"That kind of duty, I'm happy to perform, my lady. On my honor as a knight—thorough surveillance it is."
Jonny smiled and shifted just slightly forward, positioning himself between Lia and the room. He was, in fact, doing an excellent job of it—radiating just enough quiet authority that the would-be suitors kept their distance. With a handsome, capable knight standing guard, no one dared approach, and from the outside, Lia and Jonny looked every inch the perfect pair.
At that same moment, back at the manor, Ed set his plan in motion.
*I commend the effort of watching over the young gentlemen for my lady's sake, but……*
He had already arranged things so that Jonny would not be able to remain at Lia's side for long. First, he'd given the head butler some vague excuse about Jonny having forgotten something that needed to be brought to him—and before the old man could ask what it was or how Ed intended to get into the imperial palace, Ed had slipped out of the manor.
He then walked into the imperial banquet with perfect composure and located Jonny.
"Sir Jonny, Count Crimson is requesting your presence briefly on the north terrace. He wishes to review Lady Lia's schedule for tomorrow and coordinate the corresponding escort arrangements. This way, please."
"Ah—of course. My lady, I'll be right back."
"Sure! Take your time, Jonny!"
Using the Count as his cover, Ed smoothly separated Jonny from Lia. But when Ed led Jonny to the north terrace, there was no Count Crimson waiting there. Instead, standing in the lamplight—having been told by an imperial attendant that my lady needed her on an errand—was Ruri.
"Oh? Sir Jonny……? What are you doing here?"
"Ruri? Why are *you* here? Ed told me the Count was asking for me……"
While the two of them stood there in bewildered confusion, Ed watched from the shadows behind a distant column. He had arranged in advance for the door leading to the terrace to be quietly locked behind them—engineering the perfect conditions for the two of them to find themselves alone together.
"Oh—"
The sound of the lock clicking shut reached Jonny's ears. He could have broken the door down, but damaging imperial property would bring serious trouble down on the Crimson family name. That wasn't an option.
"……That butler."
Jonny let out a short, humorless laugh. The summons from the Count had been a fabrication. This was Ed's perfectly constructed trap—a clean, technically legal method of removing Jonny from Lia's side.
*Come to think of it—how did he even get into the imperial banquet?*
Security at the palace was no joke. Only those on the approved list—himself, the other escort knights, the coachman, Ruri accompanying my lady—were permitted entry. There was a method involving the family seal for urgent situations, but Ed wasn't the type to cause that kind of scene over something as petty as jealousy.
*A workaround, then?*
Had he slipped the guards some coin? Jonny filed the question away to raise later. For now, the more pressing matter—the one that actually befitted a knight—was calming down Ruri, who was clearly distressed about being locked out here.
"Sir Jonny, what do we do……? If it's my fault you're stuck here…… and your guard duties……"
Ruri was wringing her hands, her green eyes shining with unshed tears as she looked up at him.
Jonny looked at her and smiled, easy and unhurried.
"It's not your fault. When someone digs a trap this deliberate, there's no avoiding it. And don't worry about my lady—there are other knights from the Crimson household stationed around her. She's covered."
"But……"
"More importantly, your feet must be tired. Come sit down."
Jonny guided Ruri to a marble bench and settled in beside her. The faint scent of leather and warmth that drifted from him wrapped around her, and Ruri's heart began hammering so hard she was sure he could hear it. Her cheeks and the tips of her ears went redder than the roses decorating the ballroom inside.
Having delivered Ruri into that particular brand of sweet torment, Ed turned away and walked back toward the center of the ballroom, his pleasant smile perfectly in place.
He cast one last cold glance over his shoulder and thought, quietly:
*Your eyes are wasted on a poor maid, Sir Jonny. The place at my lady's side was always mine.*
While Ed made his way back into the ballroom, Jonny and Ruri spent a few awkward minutes on the locked terrace. A cool night breeze swept through, and Jonny, without a second thought, unclasped his knight's cape and draped it over Ruri's shoulders.
"Oh—Sir Jonny! You really don't have to—I'm just a maid……"
"Do maids not get cold? Just keep it on. It'll probably be a while before that door opens."
He laughed easily and gave the top of her head a light, careless pat. It was entirely without ulterior motive—but buried inside his enormous cape, Ruri's heart was pounding fit to burst. The feelings she had kept so carefully hidden, because of the distance between their stations, were quietly, helplessly blooming in the perfect little stage Ed had built for them.
Back inside the ballroom, Ed approached Lia with complete composure. Lia had a brief flicker of *wait, how did Ed get into the imperial banquet?*—and then immediately stopped caring and waved him over.
"Ed! Over here! Where's Jonny?"
"Hmm…… It seems the conversation is running long. Until Sir Jonny returns, allow me to remain at my lady's side."
Ed took the empty champagne flute from Lia's hand, replaced it with the sweet drink she preferred, and slipped naturally into the space Jonny had left behind. The moment he was beside her, Lia launched happily into stories about the kitchen incident and their travels, and Ed listened—outwardly attentive, inwardly savoring every second of his monopoly on her voice. He had removed Jonny. He had turned Ruri's feelings into a tool and extended his reach across the board. Beneath the glittering lights of the imperial palace, Ed's precise, possessive jealousy gleamed quietly—elegant, thorough, and entirely satisfied with itself.