Just as Hisui was on the verge of grinding her teeth to pieces, the bathroom door opened with a creak.
Irene stepped out wrapped in lingering steam, with Heine following close behind, diligently helping dry her long hair.
The moment Irene noticed the extra girl in the room, her steps paused. After a brief moment of surprise, she gave a light nod and greeted Hisui calmly.
"We meet again, Princess."
And the instant Hisui saw Irene dressed like that, her mouth fell open and she completely lost the ability to speak.
'S-s-she... even Lady Irene too?!
Unforgivable! Are you people really not planning to show even the slightest restraint?!
I am Kabe's fiancée in name, and yet not one of you seems to take me seriously at all!'
Irene did not catch the complicated storm of emotions in Hisui's eyes.
After greeting her, she simply walked to a high-backed chair in the corner and sat down, allowing Heine to continue tending to her hair.
But the moment she sat down, she felt a completely undisguised gaze sweeping over her body.
Without even turning around, she warned in a flat voice,
"Move your filthy eyes elsewhere. Or I will tell Erza."
"Tch. You really call her by name often enough. Sounds pretty intimate to me."
Kabe clicked his tongue in disdain, but still shifted his gaze away with obvious reluctance, then turned back toward the still-silent Hisui.
"What is it, Your Highness?"
"...Lord Kabe, do you not feel like you owe me an explanation?"
"An explanation for what?"
Looking at Kabe's utterly baffled face, Hisui clenched her silver-white teeth and could no longer endure what she saw as his "playing dumb."
Her small fists tightened as she finally burst out.
"Stop pretending! Exactly how far are you planning to humiliate me?
We have already entered into a marriage agreement, and yet you still dare to be tangled up with other women right in front of me.
Is my status as a princess really that cheap in your eyes?!"
"Huh?!"
Three question marks seemed to pop over Kabe's head in succession. He genuinely could not understand which eye of Hisui's had seen him being tangled up with anyone.
Although he certainly was not a particularly faithful man, aside from Brandish, with whom he had only just made a joking arrangement, he had not even fully won over anyone else in the room yet.
"You seem to have misunderstood. I have not done anything to wrong you. At least not here in the capital."
"Then what about Miss Brandish? The two of you were lying on the same bed. And after that, you still expect to deny it?!"
Following the direction of Hisui's accusing finger, Kabe turned to look at Brandish, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed clutching a blanket, her eyelids drooping as if she might fall asleep at any second.
At once, his vision darkened.
"You bastard, are you questioning me?!
How long do you think it has even been since we got back from the palace?
In such a short amount of time, with my strength, how could I possibly have finished already?!"
As if he had just suffered the greatest slander in the world, Kabe jumped down from the bed with a red face and loudly defended himself.
For a moment, the whole room fell into total silence.
Everyone was rapidly trying to process the actual meaning of the words that had just come out of his mouth.
Hisui's face also turned red, then white, then red again, until she looked so mortified she wished she could bury her head straight into the floor.
"I-idiot! Is that really the important part?! I am asking why you and Brandish were on the same bed. Who cares how long you last?!"
"How is that not the same thing? If I really made a move, I would need at least three or four hours to be done."
"Moron! Stop talking to me about how long it takes! I do not want to know any of that at all!"
Hisui covered her ears in shame and fury, feeling as though her brain itself had been polluted.
She was a pure and proper princess, so why was she standing here discussing this kind of topic with a shameless pervert like him?!
Kabe crossed his arms and let out an irritated snort.
"Princess, even if we do have a marriage agreement now, that does not give you the right to slander me however you like.
I will remember what happened today. Tomorrow, I will report everything truthfully to His Majesty.
Then His Majesty can make the judgment and decide who is right and who is wrong."