It wasn’t as if she was asking to meet him outside the castle, but his living so far away in Hawaii made it impossible for them ever to meet outside, and just the idea that he might come back to Japan, and be somewhere nearby, made her happy. But Rion shook his head. ‘No, I’m not going back,’ he said. ‘My mum was only in Hawaii for two days, and then said she had to go home. She said she was busy.’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘Um. Let’s eat,’ Rion said. He’d brought a cake knife to cut it into slices. As he unpacked it, Kokoro considered something.

Rion’s mother had brought the cake, but hadn’t stayed to actually eat it with her son.

Maybe she thought he’d share it with his friends. But it was Christmas, and the other kids in the dorm would have gone back home to their families. That must be what Rion meant when he’d said so emphatically, I’m not going back.

Kokoro remembered that it was Rion who’d come up with the suggestion to have a Christmas party in the castle, saying that he’d bring a cake.

What was he feeling when he made that suggestion?

She recalled his voice. The words Rion had spoken to the Wolf Queen. My school isn’t Yukishina No. 5, and yet here I am. Why did you summon someone like me?

And the Wolf Queen’s response: But you badly wanted to go, didn’t you? To the public junior high in your area?

What did that mean? Going to school in Hawaii – just the sound of it made them single him out as wealthy. It’s not that great, he’d told them.

‘Hey, let’s invite the Wolf Queen, too. Wolf Queeeeen,’ he called, slicing into the cake. He put the knife down. ‘I can’t cut even slices. One of the girls have a go.’

Ureshino said, ‘Kokoro should do it. She peeled an apple for me once. She’ll be good at it.’

‘Eh? I’ve no idea if I can do it properly.’ Kokoro smiled wryly as she remembered what trouble peeling an apple had led to. But she was happy to be asked to be in charge of the cake.

‘You called?’ a light voice spoke, and the Wolf Queen materialized.

‘We have cake,’ Rion said. ‘But can you even eat it with that mask on? Do you ever actually eat?’

The Wolf Queen moved her head slowly to the side and studied the homemade cake, chiffon with ripples of icing on the top. The tableau was surreal, but the combination of her dreamlike dress and mask, and the sugary cake, seemed to work together somehow. She finally answered.

‘I won’t eat it here.’ She lifted her head slowly at Rion. ‘If you cut me a slice, I’ll take it back with me.’