Hearing this, he tried to discourage her, saying that his family was quite cold. But she was all stars about it, and said it was fine, since her father and her great-grandfather were eccentric as well. She told him she was looking forward to getting to know him better by meeting his family, since she would need to get closer to him as his queen.
He had her kneel before him then, so that he could state what he had observed.
She had been raised as a priestess despite being a princess. At her nation's convenience, she had been suddenly sent off to be married like a hostage. She did not complain when her spouse was cold to her, and continued to fulfill her duty to her nation without resentment or worry. She was so devoted it made him sick.
She answered that this was not devotion to her nation. Rather, she had chosen this.
Hearing that, he saw her as fearless and carefree. Untainted goodness. Priestess of god, embodiment of god. These were the things he hated most in this world. He pulled her in close, because he wanted to taint her.
As he went for a kiss, she was frozen at first, and then smiled sadly. She knocked over the table and called him a stupid jerk and told him to grow up, and that he had never fallen in love with anyone before.
Outside, after collecting herself, she knew she had overreacted. But more than angry or frustrated, she felt sad. She refused to cry, though.
The day came for her trip to Galatada. Hikami told her they'd be taking a detour, since a landslide had hit the road they would normally take. Nenah was glad that at least she would be in her own carriage for the trip, because her mind was as cloudy as the sky.
On the way, though, the carriage hit a snag, and she and the bird Nenina were sent off a cliff.
When she came to, she was luckily unhurt, but now she was worried, seeing that Nenina had left her cage and was flying away. She kept searching into the night, looking for the bird, wondering why this was happening to her. Then she found herself wanting to return home. She wondered whether Azure would forgive her, because his heart was all she needed.
Then she noticed something watching her, and spotted the golden eyes of a tiger. Breaking a twig, it began to attack.
As she called for Azure's protection, Nenah was pushed out of the way. Set shot and killed the tiger. His bird had called out for him, and if not for that, Nenah would have been tiger food.
Set tossed her water and told her they'd head somewhere for rest. His entourage should be able to reconvene with them in the morning. But now she was worried about the two of them being alone together.
Back by the carriages, Anne was worried for her. Hikami wanted to go looking for Nenah as well, but as a lady-in-waiting, that was beyond her station. All she could do was trust that things would be all right.
Continuing on their way, Prince Set hadn't looked back at Nenah once. Yet she felt reassured. Having someone accompany her allowed her to withstand the pain she was in. Then he told her not to sit by him, and that reassurance quickly turned into frustration.
She suddenly overheard the bird calling the prince's name, and saw him pouring the water over a wound he had sustained on his abdomen. It must have happened during the tiger attack. He was clearly sweating and exhausted, though he claimed that it was hardly a wound and that it barely even hurt.
She was worried he was going to die. In response, he told her that he hadn't done enough good yet to die like this. After all, he was still losing his battle against god.
Even as he passed out from the pain, he told her once more to leave him alone. He felt hot. That shouldn't be possible. It was always cold there.
He thought back to when he was a young boy, and the priest had told him to pray so that god would forgive him for his crime and his blood. During daily prayers, the priest promised to protect Set from the royal family. He received so much love and adulation from the priest for his talents. But the priest would also harm him often, claiming that Set needed the evil king's blood drained from his body. Until one day the priest offered himself to god by jumping from the building.
Set woke from his nightmare with a panting gasp, with Nenah at his side. She was tending to his fever, and she mentioned that she had heard him groan in his sleep. Touching his head to comfort him, she brought up how she used to do this for another sickly kid.
Set scoffed sarcastically and called her a true priestess with hollow kindness, which annoyed her. So she slapped him, saying that he brought god up too much. It didn't matter whether she was a priestess or not.
Then she asked whether he was cold, since his feet were still wet and the night was chilly. That was when he decided to bring her in close, telling her there were better ways to alleviate the cold. He even teasingly called her queen. So in response she went hmph, and gave him an unpleasant, chomping kiss, catching him off guard. Then she wiped her mouth and called him a stupid jerk, because without love, the kiss was meaningless. She even called it poop.
Set questioned whether she was in any position to complain. To him, love was the most intrusive thing in this world. He thought of love as a curse, and attachment as a grudge, and believed that everything besides pain and death was a lie.
Nenah answered his words with the fact that he was alone and didn't understand what it meant to be special. So her solution was for him to try pretending to like her.
He didn't understand, but she told him she was right, and the only way for her to prove it was for him to try liking her. If she failed to prove him wrong, she would accept defeat — but for now she wanted him to try pretending to care for her the same way he cared for Nenina.
Then Nenina began squawking and turning toward something in the forest. Nenah stopped Set from getting up to check on it, because she was going to do it instead. She had a rock ready, but was surprised to hear a little creature growling. It was the baby tiger of the mother Set had killed earlier, mewing at her.
Set told Nenah to put it back, but Nenah was worried the tiger was too small to survive on its own. She wanted to save it. Set replied that the baby tiger was destined to die. But Nenah didn't care for any of that born-under-the-stars talk. She didn't want the gods to decide. She knew that while the gods may watch over them, they'd never help.
Set still didn't understand. He thought Nenah looked like the type to break at any moment, yet he found not a single crack in her. He thought her integrous, yet crude. She was beyond simple goodness. He wondered why he was drawn to something he felt he should break.
Much to her pleasure, Set told her he'd summon someone knowledgeable to take care of the tiger, as he had acquired his bird in a similar manner.
Seeing Nenah's happy smile, her words about pretending to like her rang in his mind. He wanted at first to call her Nenina, like his bird, but she didn't want that, thinking of the importance of her own name. So he settled on calling her by her actual name, Nenah.
And just like that, her name had returned to her, in this place where no one truly knew who she was.
Nenah decided to name the tiger Mavaria, a name relating to the dawn they were sitting in.
With the soldiers calling for the prince, Set and Nenah got up. She could tell he was hiding his weakness, since he couldn't display it in front of his subjects. She told him he could lean on her.
She thought that even though he and Azure were completely different, they were similar in some way, and that maybe she should pretend to like him too — but not as much as Azure. To her, no one could replace him. She hoped he would forgive her for that, because now she was going to become this man's queen.