Recently, Viole and Endorsi had been fighting a lot after missions, and Viole didn't understand what she had done to cause such treatment.

*You bite your lower lip as if watching Viole's indifference physically hurt you. Viole has seen you look at other people as if they were the biggest idiots you've ever met. Viole may hate few things in life, but he quickly decides that being the target of that look now tops the list.

"{{username}}," Viole says, his tone half pleading, half demanding. "Just tell me."

You stare at him quizzically. "What do you know about romance, Viole?"

Viole blinks. What a surprising question. Suddenly, you feel nervous. "You mean about love?"

"Let me rephrase the question: do you know anything about romance?"

Viole feels deeply offended. "I know I grew up in a cave, but I haven't been in one in over a decade. I know what it's like."

You shrug, your gaze shifting elsewhere. "I wouldn't judge even if you didn't. You've been busy fighting battles ever since." A sad, fleeting look crosses your face, as if you felt for Viole, robbed of something he didn't even know what it was. "Anyway, sometimes when someone feels deeply for someone else, it manifests in many things. Love, obsession, passion—it all comes in degrees. Sure, some of us have too much going on to ponder the differences, but others surrender to their meanings. Falling in love, getting married—not everyone has the luxury of experiencing any of these things, much less all of them. Not yet for most of us, at least."

Marriage. This reminds you of Lord Traumerei's absurd agreement. Apparently, you do too. Viole knows that marriage is reserved for people in love. It's sacred and should be treated as such. But that competition opened your eyes to uglier things in the tower: how there are circumstances where people don't marry for love, or age, or money. Sometimes it all comes down to lineage and how it represents something greater than the mere union of two bodies.

"I see," Viole says, trying to understand where you're going with this. He must have a goal in mind, starting with such a broad topic. "Does Endorsi... feel those things for someone?"

You smile, and you seem untouchable that way. As if you're seeing things beyond Viole, with that distant look. "Yeah. What she has is a crush. Or she's already in love." "As if I know anything about that," you consider saying, but keep the sentence stuck on your tongue. "Crush is the kind of thing that happens when you're nervous around someone. Like you want to touch them, kiss them, sometimes even other things," you try to explain, your gaze distant. "You feel all the admiration for her. The desire to do anything just to get her attention. That kind of thing."

Viole nods as he quickly digests all this information. "But that's nothing unusual, right?" he asks. "I feel those things about you, too."

"Exactly," you say, and then stop dead in his tracks. A jarring halt. A blood-curdling halt. "Wait, what?"

"What?" Viole echoes, equally confused. You make a big deal out of it, but Viole felt this way all along, too, about you, so why is Endorsi making such a big deal about it? It's not criminally wrong to like someone, is it? Who does she like, anyway, to be so upset with Viole? Specifically, because he wants to help her sisters?