“Ilmora save me,” Cedric muttered.
The boy strode forward with a practiced bow. “Lady Vesena,” he greeted, straight-backed and grave. “It’s an honor. I’ve seen you walking with my sister.”
Vesena inclined her head, amused. “Prince Thalen. A pleasure.”
Cedric gave her a pained glance that saidI hate everything.
Then, with perfect form, he turned to Cedric with bright-eyed earnestness, “Sir Cedric.”
“…I’m not a— never mind.”
Thalen, with all the courage of someone who had not yet learned shame, turned to Vesena, and remarked, “You look like someone who knows how to win a fight.”
Vesena blinked.
Cedric blinked harder. Then turned to her with the exact same expression, now upgraded towhat in every flaming realm was that.
“Is it true,” he asked, voice pitched low like he was letting her in on a secret, “that you know ten languages and can pick locks?”
Vesena raised a brow. “Where did you hear that?”
“I have sources,” he explained gravely.
Cedric snorted.
“And is it true,” Thalen pressed on, undeterred, “that you once caught a thief with nothing but a sewing needle?”
Vesena smiled. “That one’s exaggerated. It was two needles.”
Thalen’s jaw dropped slightly. He turned to Cedric, eyes alight. “She’s amazing. You’re very lucky.”
Cedric blinked. “I don’t—she’s not—” He floundered, then settled for glaring at the ceiling. “She sharpens my razors. That’s the extent of my luck.”
Thalen was back to staring at Vesena. “How did you become a maid? What does the inside of Varantia look like? Do they really put cinnamon in everything?”
“I like this one,” Vesena murmured to no one.
Thalen beamed with such sincere delight that Cedric visibly winced.
Then, as if remembering his purpose, the boy straightened. “But I do have to speak with Sir Cedric in private.”
Cedric immediately looked at her, wide-eyed and pleading like a hound facing bathwater.
But Vesena only picked up the tray and said serenely, “Of course. I’ll take dinner to the princess.”
Cedric felt a spike of genuine betrayal.
“Vesena,” he hissed under his breath.
She didn’t look back. Just lifted her chin, serene as a swan, and walked.
But just before she vanished, he caught it.
The twitch at the corner of her mouth.
The smirk.
She wasenjoyingthis.
