Chapter One

As I opened the window, a light breeze brushed past my face. The sunrays beaming down shone with a bright intensity. Flowers were blooming en masse, their green leaves happily outstretched.

Girls of all ages were fond of this time of the year, when spring was transitioning into summer, since it brought the promise of a wonderful future when they’d take their first steps as new brides. Her Highness Princess Henriette, the youngest princess of our kingdom, Lagrange, would soon be married, and her wedding would certainly be festooned with those blessed fluttering feelings.

Or at least, we had thought it would be, until just a little while ago.

“This place...”

After disembarking from the carriage, we all gazed up in confusion at the building in front of us. Though the land it sat upon had a long history, the building itself was of a newer design, with fancy construction techniques and decorations that were popular just two hundred years ago. Thick, elliptical pillars lined the front, and the windows and roof were adorned with engravings. Above one of the third-floor windows was a smaller window—perhaps an attic?

The most striking things were the giant statues along the front facade. The majestic appearances of legendary deities greeted all those who visited. These were incredible works of art that looked like they could come to life at any second.

This was one of the many tourist locations in this city, so I’d known of it prior to my visit. The building was named the Parche Palace. It was on a smaller scale for a palace—about the size of a normal mansion. As one would expect, it once served as the residence for a noble named Parche. However, it was only called a palace because of how elegant the building was, and no actual emperor had ever lived in it.

At present, it belonged to the grand duke’s family, so the name was a bit more fitting now, but that family resided in the larger Casterna Palace, which was nearby—they most likely didn’t even use Parche Palace as a vacation home. It was also vaguely unfit to be a guest house, as it was smack-dab in the middle of the city. There were no walls or fences surrounding it, only a mere plaza that led straight to the road. The neighborhood was filled with shops, hotels, and apartment buildings, and an appetizing scent wafted by