THE PRINCES.

On the day Yvette was leaving to go to tea with Louise, Claude had a sudden coughing fit.

Yvette entered the carriage with a bright smile on her face, and it lasted all the way until she arrived at the Allain estate. It didn't look as extravagant as the Olivier estate, but it seemed a couple levels higher than the Decaux's.

She was led into the house by a maid and brought up to the drawing room, where Louise was already seated with a patient smile on her face.

Yvette took a seat opposite her and waited for her to speak, eyeing the small sandwiches and other snacks laid out on the table between them.

"Thank you for accepting my invitation, Miss Decaux."

"It was an honour to be invited, Miss Allain, though I have to admit I was a bit surprised I was invited in the first place."

Louise took a slow sip of her tea. Yvette wondered if she was increasing the suspense on purpose.

"I'm merely... checking on my competition." Louise said.

Yvette blinked. She only spoke to Leon for like a second and she was already considered competition? How fierce.

"Competition? In what?" Yvette feigned confusion.

"For Prince Leon's affections!" Louise huffed, as if Yvette was stupid. "Any woman with your... beauty, I consider an obstacle. Don't worry, I won't do anything untoward, I just like to know who I'm competing with, and I'd like to ascertain your intentions as well. If you're just in it for the prestige of being the queen, then you are unworthy to be my opponent."

Yvette was a bit taken aback. She knew that Louise was genuinely in love with Leon, but her... drive? It surprised her a little. Louise wasn't going to do anything like get rid of her competition or intimidate them until they withdrew, she just wanted to make sure they weren't chasing after Leon for wrong reasons. It was sweet in a really strange way.

She could kind of get why Leon would be annoyed by this behaviour, though. He was probably irritated by how stubborn she was. That night on the balcony, he also looked distinctly embarrassed, like he thought Louise was acting in a way that was shameful.

"But... I'm not interested in the crown prince."

Louise gasped, as if she couldn't imagine a world where someone would be uninterested in Leon. "Are you sure?"

Yvette nodded. "Yes. He's quite handsome, I'll admit, but I do not know him at all. And I usually like to get to know someone before I invest my feelings in them. Besides, I'm really not at all interested in being the future queen."

As Yvette sipped on her own cup of tea, she watched as Louise's face seemed to cycle through a myriad of different emotions, before she eventually landed on something that looked a cross between relieved and also somewhat offended.

Yvette resisted the urge to snort into her cup. It was clearly a good thing that Louise had less competition, but she actually seemed to be bothered on Leon's behalf that Yvette showed no interest in him.

Either way, now that Louise knew Yvette wouldn't be an obstacle on her path to becoming the next queen, they wrapped up their tea quickly and Yvette was soon on her way out.

She had only just made it out the door when she saw another carriage pulling up the path. Whoever it was she was expecting to see, it was not Leon, and following behind him, the blonde man she spoke to at the ball.

They all stopped when they noticed each other.

"You." Leon said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at Yvette. "What are you doing here?"

Yvette smiled placidly. "Miss Allain invited me over for some tea. She thought I would be another one of your suitors, so I cleared up the misunderstanding with her and informed her that I have no interest in you whatsoever. Good day."

She quickly made her way back to her own carriage and got in, not bothering to wait around to see what expression Leon was making. She did end up turning back though, once the horses took off, to get another good look at the blonde man who was with Leon.

Now that she thought about it, there were actually some similarities between the two of them. They both seemed to share the same jawline and they both had yellow eyes. Brothers, maybe?

Having come to that conclusion, Yvette then remembered that Leon, despite being the crown prince, was actually the younger of the king's two sons. His first born, Simon, while an unparalleled swordsman, had a rocky reputation. He was known to be unsocial and people were naturally scared off by the stony expression on his face. It was rumoured that the king thought he didn't posses the necessary qualities he wanted in an heir, so he made his second born, Leon, the crown prince instead.

Odd... In the flashes that Yvette got of Yvette Decaux's original future, there was not one mention of Simon. After she married Leon as his second wife, there was no talk or sight of Simon.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt that there had probably been some kind of coup. Either Simon himself or one of Simon's followers had attacked Leon, intending to kill him, only for Yvette to have saved him in the woods. When Leon returned alive, he probably then took his rightful place back on the throne, and... likely killed Simon in the process.

Yvette thought it was a bit of a shame. If she were to pick between Leon and Simon, she'd definitely choose Simon.