Violin practice ended, and Roger chattered away for a good while. At lunch, we joined the twins in the garden for a game of tag.

Time flew as we chased each other around. The short hand of the slanted clock soon pointed to five, but neither Isabelle nor Mrs. Bacchus showed their faces.

Worried, Roger went to look for Mrs. Bacchus and returned with a downcast head. No matter what question he asked, she only repeated, “It’s fine.”

Isabelle was no different.

Unlike Roger, I couldn’t go into her room directly, so I peeked at her through the slightly ajar door. All she was doing was tending to flowers and cleaning up wilted leaves. I had no idea what she was feeling at the moment.

“Do you think they’re mad at each other?”

After hideandseek ended, I sat with Roger in the mansion’s backyard. Roger touched the flowers in the yard several times as if he liked them.

“They’ll probably sort it out. They’ve been friends since childhood.”

“I hope so.”

“Do you really care that much? It’s not your business.”

I looked at Roger, who responded brusquely.

“Roger, don’t you care?”

“I am a bit worried.”

“What are you worried about?”

“What if they fight and impulsively cancel our engagement? That would be annoying.”

Roger picked a flower and skillfully fashioned something.

With a few movements, he tied stem to stem and created a bracelet, placing it on my wrist. As I unconsciously extended my arm to wear the flower bracelet Roger made, I spotted Isabelle beyond the mansion’s window.

“Huh?”

Isabelle was on this floor. Currently, the only person who should be on this floor was Mrs. Bacchus.

“Hey, Lise. Don’t move.”

As I started to rise, Roger immediately grumbled. I abruptly raised my head and moved my gaze to catch sight of Isabelle walking down the hallway on this floor.

I tried to discern her expression, but the distance made it impossible.

Isabelle passed the fourth window but not the fifth. Between them was the room where Mrs. Bacchus stayed.

I abruptly stood up, ignoring Roger’s startled queries, and kept my eyes glued to the window.

Ten minutes passed, then thirty, and still Isabelle did not come out of the room.

“If it’s driving you crazy, why don’t you go check?”

Roger, who was fiddling with my wrist, yawned and suggested out of boredom.

“It’s not a good idea to interfere in their conversation.”

“Then eavesdrop secretly.”

Was he serious?

“Are you insane?”

Roger, who couldn’t lie in front of Mrs. Bacchus, was now suggesting eavesdropping. And yet, he looked as audacious as ever.

It had only been a few weeks since I taught Roger how to lie… It seems I taught hunting skills to a tiger cub.

Both Roger and his eavesdropping suggestion intrigued me, but it was problematic.

Just a few days ago, the angry Isabelle had calmed down, and now I was on the verge of making another blunder. If I got caught eavesdropping, Isabelle might actually kick me out of the mansion this time.

“Forget it. I won’t do something that stupid.”

As I sat back down, Roger chuckled as if satisfied.

“You hesitated, though.”

“Still better than you. Let’s go back inside. If we stay here, we’ll just keep staring at the window.”

Back from school, Felicia and Bernard included, we sat on the sofa and played a board game. Isabelle had entered Mrs. Bacchus’ room and had not come out.

After the board game, Roger told stories about traveling to the neighboring continent with his father when he was young. Still, Isabelle did not come out of Mrs. Bacchus’ room.

Even after a long time playing, and my siblings retired to their rooms, and Roger and I began a game of chess, Isabelle remained in Mrs. Bacchus’ room.

Judging by the lack of raised voices, they didn’t seem to be fighting. So, what were they talking about? The sunset had long faded.

“Ah, let’s start over.”
Roger flipped the chessboard. The attention that had been focused on him by Isabelle and Mrs. Bacchus during the chess game was now divided.

Only a few moves into checkmate, Roger scowled, perhaps his pride was wounded. It was understandable, considering they had been playing chess for less than an hour.

“Does it make sense to lose three games already? Are you hiding a game record under there?”

Roger found it suspicious that he was checkmated faster than before.

“Roger, your problem starts with the opening. It’s good that your pieces move forward first, but you keep failing to go as far as you can in one move. Hence, the pieces block each other’s paths.”

When I advised, Roger didn’t seem to listen and glared at the chess pieces.

“Do you think glaring will give you the answer?”

“Be quiet for a second.”

Still, Roger’s chess skills were not utterly terrible.

He was good compared to his peers, and he had even troubled me before. Of course, that was in the past; he couldn’t even come close now.

‘I guess he can’t compete with me anymore.’

Learning from Duke Fenton and studying chess alone for the past few days must have paid off.

However, utilizing pawns was still challenging for me.