It was an ordinary, peaceful Sunday. After attending church services with her sister, Idyllia got into the carriage to return to the mansion. There were only three people in the carriage: her lady-in-waiting and her sister. Her sister had been grumbling the whole time, as there was no need for them to be so uptight. Despite being invited to an evening party at the royal palace, their father had turned her down of his own accord.

Idyllia listened for a while and then replied for the umpteenth time.

“Even though it’s called a royal banquet soirée, isn’t it an event hosted by a relative of the Fontana family, a marquis?”

The Fontana family was a family that had a long history of being self-dependent, making a living from their internal quarries. The Fontanas were the most prominent political rivals of the Leveaux family, their House.

The Fontanas and Leveaux feuded and hated each other for hundreds of years. -From one generation to the next.

“Father must have been worried. He couldn’t send you, the daughter of the head of the House of Leveaux, to such a place.”

“But His Royal Highness is there too!”

Her sister grimly gripped her favourite fan.

“I’ve only been able to count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen him since I first greeted him six months ago, you know?　His Royal Highness has repeatedly invited me to meet him, but because of Father’s hesitancy….” Beatrice, four years older than her sister, was now seventeen years old.

She was the proud daughter of the Leveaux family, with rich brunette hair and a gorgeous beauty similar to their late mother.

When Beatrice had attended a royal ball six months ago, her beauty had caught the crown prince’s eye, and he began to invite her to participate on any occasion. But their father remained cautious. This was because he was aware that the Crown Prince’s interest was not so different from that directed at the daughters of other houses.

“‘It must be a ploy. By limiting the opportunities to meet, he is waiting for the crown prince’s feelings for Sister to intensify.”

Beatrice opened and shut her fan in frustration at her sister’s observation.

“What if I miss an opportunity because he’s being too uptight?”

“It’s easy to lose interest in something that’s so easily acquired.”

“But this is no time to be complacent. The Fontanas have also brought a beautiful daughter from a distant relative to meet His Highness.”

“Don’t fret. The crown prince has close ties with the Leveaux family. No matter how beautiful she was, he would never fall for a daughter of the Fontana family.”

Beatrice sniffed, miffed.

“You don’t know anything about the hearts of men,” she said.

“Sister––”

Indeed, Idyllia did not understand the male mind.

As was usual for a daughter born into a prestigious family, women had surrounded her since birth. She had always been kept apart from the opposite sex.

But that was precisely why she couldn’t help wondering about her sister, who was so fruitlessly in love. Although her life should have been no different from Idyllia’s, Beatrice she had been enjoying that around the same age as Idyllia was now. Beatrice had savoured the love of many noblemen as if she were snacking on sweets.

That was how she arrived at her greatest conquest, the crown prince.

(It’s like magic to make someone you’ve spent all your life as a stranger fall in love with you. I can’t even imagine…) Idyllia herself had never been in love. Although she yearned for love as much as anyone else, her nannies and handmaids told her that her father would eventually find someone respectable for her and that she should fall in love with him.

Idyllia also believed it was fitting since she could weave such magic, unlike her sister.

(But to make Sister so upset… After all, his Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, must be a special person…) While she hesitated about what to say to her sister, Hannah, her lady-in-waiting, casually interrupted her.

“The Leveaux family crest is a beautiful rose, while the Fontana family crest is a wild eagle.”

The atmosphere was relaxing and at that moment… Suddenly, a huge shock hit the carriage.

“────…?”

The carriage’s body bounced up, and Idyllia, her sister and her lady-in-waiting lifted into the air before being slammed hard into their seats.

The three screams of the people echoed in tandem. The carriage, meanwhile, shuddered violently, making a grating sound as it scraped against the cobblestone road surface, and after skidding for a while, it came to a halt.

“…”

After a few moments of quietness, Idyllia woke up with a start, followed by her sister and Hannah groaning.

“What happened…?” She held her forehead and looked at the window, which had been struck open by the impact.

The curtains fluttering in the wind made it hard to see what was outside, but the carriage’s body leaned heavily.

“I wonder if the … wheels came off?” As if in response to Idyllia’s voice, someone opened the window curtains from the outside.