Following Madam's suggestion, Elliel and I left the inn, and wandered down the main street of the common district, which was carrying an already festive ambiance, while talking about random things.

"Charles and others are?" Elliel asked.

"Out there, at the roosterfighting event most likely,"

"Ah, that, it was today, wasn’t it?" I completely forgot about that. "

"I thought you too would be interested in that, roosterfighting".

"Hum, I know it’s still popular, but I don’t really see the appeal behind those activities." I can understand the fun, but I don’t see myself really partaking in it. "

"I see, that’s a very different opinion from Lord Anson."

At his mention, Elliel chuckled, "Well, I’m certainly not like him. He couldn’t hold himself, didn’t he, about the potential roosterfighting still has as an entertainment?"

"Yes, I was really surprised to see him so passionate about it."

I remember clearly that day, when Henri asked him for advice on his bet, I was expecting, well, something harsh given how much he made Shawn taste before Henri brought the matter to him. I really wasn’t him expecting to be this friendly when talked to.

"He really likes roosterfighting, and even though he will never admit it himself, I’m sure deep down, if it weren't for what had happened, I'm sure he would've loved working on making Ratfigthing more popular than it already were, too bad for him, it’s no longer possible now."

As we talked and wandered, we arrived at the Hazo, or at least what was left of it. The plaza it was in was very different from what it was the last time we stopped here when we just arrived in the city.

In every direction of the plaza, there were now people establishing their stalls, while some were already actively working behind them, and wandering around just like Elliel and I were crowds of people.

As I said, the Somaroha is a ducal holiday and festival of three days and three nights that takes place seven weeks after the end of the winter and is celebrated in honor of the already slowly establishing spring.

Well, that’s what it was two years ago, and now it’s no longer just that.

Two years ago, when the Hazo, the eternal representation of spring, whithered without much explanation, the festival was now both in honor of spring and of the tree as well, in the hope that one day it would once again bloom in its green leafy radiance and bestow upon the people the blessing its penumbra was rumored to grant.

So, most of what happens during the festival will now be concentrated here, around the Hazo.

Speaking of the Hazo, a large rectangular wooden platform was built around the said tree. Though it was only a guess, I think this thing would be a dancing, singing platform or something of that sort.

"It’s getting crowded, isn’t it?"

"And it’s only the beginning. I heard it is much worse on the third day. "

"Oh, is that so?" So, what should we d-" Just as I was about to ask my question, from not so far away, I caught sight of Nia, along with the other girls and little Finn, coming in our direction.

Though they first didn’t notice us, It didn’t take Nia long, after we noticed them, to notice our presence.

"Hi, Ei, It’s been a while. Elliel greeted Finn, delighted as always to see Elliel.

"Hi, everyone."

"Hi Ei, Hi An." the girls greeted.

While Finn and Ei were talking to each other, I approached Nia, noticing something different but not directly commenting. "Having fun?"

"Yes, I brought myself some clothes and other stuff." She said, pointing at the basket she was holding in her hands.

Looking up from having peeked at the basket’s content, I, as I stumbled upon her blue eyes, I found myself reaching for her face.

"Are those pierced?" I asked concerning the earrings she was wearing.

"No," She said, shaking her head negatively, "There is a clip, keeping it in place. How do you think it is? I have never worn earrings before. Does it suit me?"

"Yes, it looks great on-."

I stopped midway, noticing the stares that were on us; Elliel, Finn, but mostly the girl with Nia came.

As I looked around me, I also started to notice that we were starting to attract passerby'’s attention too, so to diffuse the situation, I said, "Anyway, so where you’re all going to now?"

We still have some stuff to buy, and then we will head back to the inn to prepare for tomorrow. And you two? "

"We were just... wandering around, right Ei?"

"Yes," he said, nodding.

"Can I go with you too?" Finn asked.

"Aren’t you tired? You’ve been out with them since early this morning. "

"Not at all," he said, energetically.

Since none of the girls voiced a word against it and, in fact, one of them came to Finn to retrieve the small basket he was carrying with him, Elliel said, "If they are okay with that, then."

"Well, why not? See you later at the inn, then," I said to the girls."

Except Nia, none of them answered. They just collectively hummed teasingly at me as they were leaving.

"So where are we going now?" Elliel asked.

I proposed looking at the one that joined us now. "I think I know a place. You aren’t in a hurry today, are you Ei?"

"No, I can stay till the end of the afternoon. I still have an appointment in the evening so.... Why do you ask?"

***

"There is no one," I said, contemplating the desert place.

"I think everyone is out there busy with the festival," Finn said, running toward the center of the empty field.

"An, this place is?" asked Elliel.

"I don’t know much about this place, but a week or so ago, I came here, and it was used by children as-"

"Found it!"

Finn shouted from the other side of the field.

"As a playground."

Finn then came back to us, carrying with him the ball we used to play with last time, with the only difference that this time, the thing was in a quite sorry state.

"Several strings are severed," Finn mumbled, disappointed.

The ball itself was made of clothing material, all put together by a net of string. A big part of that net was now severed, so the ball which in the state it is in now wouldn’t even qualify to be refered as such be called as one, it was more of just random piece of torned clothes messily put together.

"Finn, let me see it." I asked. He gave the ball to me. I immediately turned my back to them, and the next instant, when I turned around to face them, the net holding the clothes fabric was back in place.

"Ta dah!"

"How did you do that?" Finn asked, amazed.

It’s a secret. But if you teach Elliel how to play the game we played the last time with Rena, I will show you how I did it. "

Having convinced Finn, while looking at Elliel, I was welcomed by Elliel's eyes fixing me.

"Ei, does something matter?" ... Ei?"

"Erm,... Sorry you were saying? " He said, finally snapping back to reality.

"I was saying... are you okay?"

"I was just,... Say, An, did I-" He started, then stopped himself, puckering his lips so that no words would come out. "Sorry, forget about what I was about to say."

"You’re sure you’re okay?" You were—"

"No, it’s okay. I apologize for that. I’m fine. "

"Is that so?"

Since he didn’t want to explain, I didn’t press on it.

Motivated by the reward I had promised him, Finn cheerfully taught Elliel how the game in question worked, and soon the three of us started to practice it. I was afraid Elliel wouldn't be interested, but once he understood the rules and the concept behind it, he had, at least from what I could see, fun.

Soon, not even half an hour later, we started to be joined by random kids, and soon there were at least a dozen of them out there.

It was then that I and Elliel, just like last time, retreated to the spot where Nia and I were last time.

"Have you ever played something like that before?" I asked.

"No, in fact, it is my first time playing around with so many children. We don’t organize events like this in the castle.

"The castle, huh?"

Maybe believing that I was about to start a discussion on that particular subject, he immediately asked, "And you, did you have the opportunity to play something like this before?"

"No, last with Rena, literally our first time. I must say that neither of us really ever had that many people around to play with so... "

"You’ve always been around each other, weren’t you?"

"Us? Well, not always. She and I? We only met two-no, four years ago to be exact."

"That’s impressive."

"Which part?"

"The four-year part."

"You think so?"

"Yes, it." He nodded.

I wasn’t sure of the direction our conversation was taking, but a glance at him told me he seemed really interested in this particular topic.

"I really envy how well you two are getting along."

"Envy?"

"Yes, you're lucky, you know."

"Well, there are times when I think that all I did was waste her time. This was especially and indeniably true for these past two years. But then again, I often, especially as of late, find myself really thankful to have her around. " I confessed.

"She’s really precious to you," he mumbled.

This time, wanting to know the truth, I ventured, "Why this sudden interest in her and me?"

Taken aback by the question "For no particular reason," he muttered, clearly averting his gaze.

"You’re sure?" I asked suggestively.

"Okay, I admit," He took a moment to consider before revealing, shyly, "You see, there is a girl."

"A girl? You mean there is a girl you are close to or something along those lines? "

Nodding, he said, "The truth is that I have a fiancé."

What!

"Wait, what?! Like a fiance, a girl to whom you would marry? Not a girl friend or something like that? "

"A girl with whom I am engaged to."

Hum?!

"How? Aren’t you just thirteen? "

"Yes, and yet it's been two years since I was annouced to be fiancéed."

Announced.

From the way he made it sound, it was clear that this was obviously not the kind of engagement I first thought it was, but rather the other kind.

"How?"

Taking a deep breath, he started explaining, "Are you familiar with the Lawrence family of the Duchy of Tibencourt?"

I remembered old geopolitical knowledge from which I had long since drawn nothing.

"Isn’t that one of the Ducal Family of the Kingdom?"

With a nod, he confirmed, "Yes, it’s the ducal family of Tibencourt. How much do you know about their duchy situation? "

With the meager information I learned about the other duchies of the continent from the Shawn and the others, I said, "I know that out of all the duchies of the kingdom, Tibencourt is the one that suffered from the calamities passages."

"That is true, unlike this duchy, the damage caused by the calamities was beyond catastrophic, to the point where the only option that duchy had to keep itself afloat after the calamities was to seek assistance from the neighboring countries, which this duchy happens to be."

Looking at me in the eyes, he said, "You already know what my family name is, don’t you?"

"Yes,"

"Then, I think that pretty much explains it."

That sounded awfully more like an arranged and forced fiancée than anything else.

"Wait, that doesn’t still make sense; all they needed was help, didn't it?" Then why would you, a ducal prince, get fiancéed to someone for that? "

"Ah, maybe I should’ve explained more specifically. I was being too vague. All of this is all a mess of entanglement, and I don’t really know where to begin. It doesn’t bother you to listen to all of this? It will be long. "

"Please, I’d like to know."

"Okay, if I were to begin somewhere, it would be two years ago, when my father was approached by the Duke of Tibencourt during the congress that reunited the representatives of each noble faction across the continent."

From there, he narrated to me how he ended up in the situation he is in now.

Back then, two years ago, the duke of Tibencourt came to Elliel’s father with a request: a request for help for the entire restructuration of his duchy. Elliel didn’t go into detail about what the full content of their discussion was, but it’s just that back then there was not a single mention of arranged marriage yet.

It was only a few months later that the subject of arranged marriage came up. It was not something planned but rather an immediate reaction to something that came out of nowhere, the rise of the aristocracy.

The calamities having destroyed a lot in their path, many prominent names of the duchy, that had lost more to be able to rebuild, found themselves appearing on their side during the aristocrat's announcement, thus betraying both the duchy they formerly belonged to and the Church, the aristocracy's arch-nemesis.

The Tibencourt duchy had the highest number of church traitors among the nine duchies and across the continent.

It was then that the marriage proposition for the Ducal princess of Tibencourt was introduced to the Ducal family of Baeumont, a marriage that would seal in blood the debt the duchy of Tibencourt would have toward the duchy of Beaumont for a generation at least, and by the Aubrecht link to the Seven Great-noble families would be proof of non-trahison for the church, but--

"-Of course, it was, as I said, a proposition, not something that was forced on me. There were others the alternative to this." The ball flew and stopped close to us, the children, asking us to send it back from a distance. Elliel went to the ball and kicked it back toward the children. "But in the end, the choice was mine."

"Then you mean that..."

"I was the one that single-handedly agreed and triggered my own engagement to someone I was complete stranger to. " He laughed bitterly.

"Why did you do that?"

"Self-serving diligence maybe,... when I heard that with just a decision of mine I would be able to do that much, I immediately agreed without even thinking twice about the consequences it would have. "

"That sounds very much more selfless to me rather than self-serving."

"That’s not what I see, especially when what I did was force my expectations of myself onto others. I, no matter how you look at this, forced this onto her."

I don’t know why, but these sounded vaguely, if not obviously, familiar.

"I see. I think I kind of understand now."

"I’ve been trying, but I really don’t know how to face her, so in the end I-"

"Wait, wait a minute, where is that fiancé of yours now?"

"In the castle."

"Castle... You mean, your family castle? Here in Beaufort. "

"Euh, yes, our family castle. Oh, I haven’t mentioned it? She is here in Beaufort. It’s been almost three months already. She’s here to meet her infamous fiance for the first time.

"So you're saying you've been avoiding your fiance inside the same castle you've been living in for almost 3 months?"

He looked at me with puppy eyes and a helpless expression and nodded.

"How do you even do that?"

"The castle is large, and there are a lot of things I’m occupied with, so that easily keeps me away from her." He sighed loudly then asked, "What should I do, you think?"

Sighing back, I said, "I really don’t know what to say to you,... Why did you come to me with this? I mean, I know it was my question, but you did tell me everything because you wanted to, didn't you?

Isn't there someone more knowledgeable about this? I'm not sure... your father... or your mother maybe? "

Seeing the face he took when I mentioned both, I guessed, "Wait, you’ve been avoiding them too?" Or that they aren’t aware of how you feel about this. "

"I’m not avoiding them, precisely, but the subject in general, yes. I have a cousin I would’ve liked to talk about this with, but he’s away now. "

"So there is really no one else then... Well,..." I waved at him to approach. I said, "Come here. My advice will most likely suck, but at least I will listen to you like some sort of... big brother would."

He complied and came to leaned next to me against the dilapidated fence, "

So... tell me more about that girl, not what she is, who she is, what you know about her as a person.

You didn’t even tell me her name. You must at least know one thing or two about her, don’t you? "

"Of course I do, … Her name is Amelia…"

With this, he started to describe the said fiance to me. To be fair, I was expecting him to describe her with a few lines, such as what she looked like and how she behaved, but it came across to me that he knew more about her than I would’ve expected someone avoiding someone else would.

"She sounds like a decent person," I said after he finished his lengthy sololoquy

"...She is really a kind person. "

"You seem to know a lot about her for someone always running away from her. Is there a reason for that?"

"The truth is that we were exchanging letters before she came here mainly thanks to it that I started realizing her existence as an individual and not just a ducal princess."

"I see, so that’s why?"

"The more I speak, the more I sound ridiculous, don’t you think?" he said self-satirically.

I didn’t answer him. Instead, scratching my head over a particular detail, I asked, "Is this really all, I don’t know, I feel like there is something missing, but can’t put my finger on what?" Are you sure the reason you’ve been avoiding her was just what you previously cited? "

For a moment, I saw him averting his eyes, which immediately confirmed my suspicion.

"I can understand if you-"

"Actually, there is something else," he confessed, crouching down, leaning against the wall, hiding his face and revealing, "there is a particular reason why I accepted this engagement immediately."

"What is it?"

"My elder sister..."

"Your sister? What about her? "

Sighing as if about to say something painful to say, he said,"You see, the calamities shook and changed a lot of things on the continent, including tradition that had been held down for hundreds of years which in that time of crisis was more of an hidrance than it was helping. Truth is, If it weren’t for our engagement, My fiancé, as an only child, was promised to be allowed to ascend to the throne.

"

"You mean the custom of having only a male heir ascending to the head of a proeminent noble family..."

"-had been about to be abolished, many noblewoman having lost the head of their family. Something similar was happening even in high-ranking noble families across the kingdom, if not, in fact, across the continent. You see where I am coming at?"

"Something similar was about to happen here in Beaumont..."

"Exactly, when the duke of Tibencourt came to my father, it was both to request help but also to allow him to do something like simultaneously happen for both of their daughters in both duchies. Long story short, my position as heir of the Duchy was threatened by my sister. And to be honnest, I can but understand why many among the proeminent family of this duchy were favorable to that proposition.

After all, she’s really impressive, my sister.

He looked at me and said, "I think you now understand why when I was announced the proposition of engagement to the ducal princess, that would allow me to secure my position, I immediately jumped on it."

The last piece of the puzzle was here.

Now I could finally understand why he was feeling guilty about this.

What he felt himself guilty of was not just about robbing her of the choice of whom she would be engaged; it was robbing her of the opportunity to become a Duchess of her Duchy for his own personal gain that made him feel guilty.

That sounded like an awfully messy mess to be in.

And to be honest this whole mess brought me back to the time, I was involved something almost as messy as this.

The risk of dying put aside, life in the Iharana GreatForest isn't all that complicated, you kill or you get yourself killed.

Well, I was supposed to give advice here, so I guess that's what I will do.

"Hey, Elliel, would you believe me if I told you that Rena and I were from the start in a situation that was far more, well, similarly messy than yours?"

"Did you two really elope?"

"Eh? Wait! What? No, of course not. We aren’t--. "

"So it isn’t that." he said, sounding disappointed.

"Sorry to disappoint you. Well, where was I? Ah, right, I was saying that when she and I first met it was really awkward. Try to imagine the most awkward situation ever possible. That’s how awkward it was. At one point, I think she must have at least hated me to the core. I could’ve avoided talking to her, but I didn’t because I wanted to. I believe it is the case for you two, you want to talk to her but you are actively avoiding her, which when looking back, in a sense, was something my old self too did, but maybe because I lacked some screws, I settled it on merely two days, unlike you who procrastinated on it for months now." I said teasingly.

He nervously smiled.

"Elliel, to tell the truth, I don’t know what to say to you. I mean, from what I heard here, you’re avoiding because you're blaming yourself for having robbed her of the choice in this, but it’s not like you did that on purpose. We all make mistakes. On this, I think you’re both innocent, or at least if you’re not, you’re both culprits. Of course, I’m not forgetting the responsibility of your respective families on this, but it’s between the two of you now to settle this matter."

So here’s my piece of advice: "Just do it, talk to her. If you blame yourself for having robbed her of the choice, then propose to her to look for the answer together. I don’t know... something like that. It should work, I think"

"Doesn’t sound like very reliable advice," he commented.

"It may sound crude and raw, but at least that is better than continuously running away from her. Just go talk to her, and not in a noble and soporific way, but in a straight one, dive straight to the matter, that at least I believe should settle it once and for all. I won’t promise it will work, but if it does, it does. If it doesn’t, I know where to find me to punish me for this bad advice.

For more than one minute straight, silence took place between us. He just occasionally threw a stare in my direction, while most of the time looking at the children playing.

I’m starting to lose confidence here. Was my advice that bad? " I asked, poking at his shoulder.

As if snapped back to reality by my words, Elliel stuttered, "No, no, it’s not that. I’ll think about your suggestion. It was just that I was lost in shallow thoughts."

Hearing this, I remembered earlier the strange stare he threw at me.

Though I could guess what it was for, I still asked, "Say, Elliel, earlier, after I had talked to Finn, you wanted to say something to me but didn’t. Was it this?"

"Ah, that, no, it wasn’t... It was something else."

"Something else? What? Can you tell me?"

He looked at me as if expecting something, then, after a short while, announced, "No, but next time maybe."

"Next time?"

"Yes, next time."

"Then, I’ll be expecting to hear it next time. Oh, now that I think of it, I had something important to discuss with you about me and Rena. "

"What is it?"

It was that-hum? You know what, forget about it. " I smiled.

"That was on purpose, wasn’t it?"

"Of course not."

"Then tell me."

"Next time, maybe..."

"Dare to say that that one wasn’t on purpose."

"It absolutely wasn’t."

Later that day, Elliel, upon coming back to the inn, apologized to Shawn for this time he was sure he wouldn’t be able to be there for what he promised. Even though he didn’t specify why, I could tell it was because of the discussion we had earlier.