"Isabel... do you like Iver?"
Shafiya asked seriously.
For the first time, Shafiya did not address Isabel as Princess.
Because at that moment, she regarded Isabel as her junior... and even as her own child.
Isabel keenly sensed this as well.
She gently closed her eyes, caressed her chest, and said softly with her eyes shut, "Yes."
The memories of the past flowed through Isabel's heart. Just thinking about them warmed her.
"When... did it begin?"
Shafiya asked in a low voice.
Hearing this, Isabel paused slightly and widened her eyes.
...That's right.
Come to think of it, when had she fallen in love with Iver...?
Was it when he rescued her from the succubus's control? Was it when he helped her through the ordeal of Grandmother's death?
Was it because he had resolved the death curse that had plagued the royal family for over a decade? Or because he had changed her personality and helped her make friends...
...No. None of those.
Isabel remembered the magical painting she had drawn for Iver.
She had already fallen in love with him long before those events. She simply had not realized it herself at the time...
—Now that she thought about it carefully, the moment she had etched his name deep into her heart, never to forget it again... had been at the very beginning.
It was during that first Promotion Ritual... when no one believed she could make it through safely, and even Teacher Yanis had only wanted to give her the experience of failure.
Yet he had praised her from the bottom of his heart, saying, "It's all thanks to you," and, "Amazing."
Without the slightest hesitation, he had earnestly declared, "I will save Avalon and this world from danger"—such cool words.
When she had said, "You don't have