Although the waterway was shallow, it was deep enough to soak up to the calves, so Hades’ clothes were getting soaked. But he didn’t care and splashed across the waterway, immediately reaching the opposite side where Latifa was.

Both Yanan and Lukwan looked at him with surprised rabbit eyes but said nothing.

Only Latifa smiled and teased Hades.

“You could have just come around, but doing that will get your clothes all wet!”

“How could I dare to keep my Frau waiting.”

Hades approached her with a sly smile. He looked at the lavishly adorned Latifa with a satisfied smile.

“You look quite presentable.”

“Pretending to be a goddess, I’m dying of embarrassment. I should have persuaded Caesar to come along. Then people would only look at Caesar.”

As Latifa grumbled, Hades chuckled and played with a strand of hair that had slipped out of her updo.

“It’s only punishment when you dislike it yourself.”

“What a clever punishment. But I’ve been like this all morning, so I’m getting used to it now and it’s fine.”

“Fine, you say?”

At the word ‘fine’, Hades’ eyebrow rose playfully.

Sensing something ominous in that expression, Latifa quickly tried to change her words.

“Ah, no. Not fine at all! Eek!”

Indeed, the ominous feeling was not wrong. Because Hades immediately picked her up in a princess carry.

“Hey, Sister Yanan. Is this perhaps… Amor…?”

“Shh. Lukwan. If you have any sense, let’s get out of here.”

Whispering something, Yanan and Lukwan scattered in opposite directions and hid themselves.

“Yanan! We, we were supposed to go together! Wait!”

Surprised by Yanan’s sudden flight, Latifa called out to her in confusion, but Yanan just nodded kindly and disappeared.

“Carrying you around like this will make you think it’s more of a punishment, right?”

“Aaah! Grand General Hades! Put me down! How can someone of your rank be so unreasonable?!”

“I’ve gone mad.”

“I know you’re not mad!”

Helplessly embraced by Hades, Latifa blushed and beat his chest.

“True. But others think I’m mad. I have to live up to their expectations.”

“Do you know you really have a bad personality?!”

“Oh, where else can you find someone as good-natured as me?”

Hades took another big step towards the waterway. As the splashing sound and her body swayed, Latifa clung tightly to his neck with a tearful face.

“Eek!”

“It’s not deep enough to drown in. Stop exaggerating.”

Carrying Latifa, Hades crossed the waterway and walked out to the opposite corridor.

“Put me down, Grand General Hades!”

“If you dislike this, from now on, know that your life is precious and act wisely.”

‘Right. This was the punishment for keeping the encounter with the assailant a secret.’

No matter how much it was a punishment, what’s embarrassing is embarrassing.

Wearing fancy clothes with jeweled accessories, flowers all over, and now being held in Hades’ arms – it was quite a spectacle.

“The north of the estate has many waterways and waterfronts, so it’s a bit cool. It’s perfect for idling away to escape the heat, so we need to patrol occasionally to see if there are any slackers.”

“Ugh. You usually walk so fast, why are you walking so slowly now?”

“That can’t be. It’s your imagination.”

Hades walked around the open estate with a smirk. All the passing servants bowed to them with startled expressions.

“Really, walking around like this in front of others, I’m dying of embarrassment.”

“It will become routine from now on.”

“What did you say?”

“Hmm.”

As they bickered while passing by, the servants whispered and smiled.

“Looks like Amor, doesn’t it?”

“Ignis and Kalende, and Amor.”

“It feels good to see Caleb’s estate lively like in the old days.”

The people who remembered Hades always wearing a sullen expression and just shouting in Caleb’s estate looked at them fondly and returned to their work.

But their peace did not last long.

**

The Grand Bazaar’s palace harem.

To enter there, one had to pass through a total of seven doors. Unlike the first door which was large and ornate, the seventh door had a modest wooden door compared to the enormous and splendid size of the palace.

This was partly to block men from entering as the harem was off-limits to males, but it was also the wisdom of ancestors to make the sultans wary of their concubines.

With a smaller door, the size of the gift carts the sultan could send to his concubines could be reduced, and passing through the small, petty door of the harem was intended to instill humility in the sultan.

And now, as soon as he passed through the small seventh wooden door, the current Sultan, Rashid Basili, sighed deeply and instructed the maids.

“Take good care of Iota. She likes sweets, so I’ll send some southern Acacia honey. Tell her not to hesitate to let me know if she needs anything.”

“Yes, Sultan. But Iota always cares more for Prince Tarek than for herself.”

Iota’s head maid said politely while seeing the Sultan off.

At those words, Rashid nodded while stroking his beard.

“I see. I’ll send the same to Tarek as well. Still, tell Iota that the boy has the strength of a black bull, so he’ll overcome this well. Tell her not to harm her body.”

“May the desert god’s blessing be with the Sultan.”

Rashid slowly crossed the harem’s back garden and passed through the sixth and fifth doors guarded by maids in order.

And just as he was about to pass through the fourth door, he stopped his steps upon seeing a brown-haired woman feeding bread crumbs to silk carps in a small pond in the corner.

“Oh, Hagnu.”

The beautiful woman called Hagnu startled and quickly knelt to pay respects to the Sultan.

“Sultan. Are you on your way after meeting Iota?”

“Yes. You must have heard too. They say Tarek was injured by a lion. At Hades’ banquet.”

“I pray for the Prince’s swift recovery.”

“…Is that all you have to say?”

Hagnu was the Sultan’s third concubine, and among Rashid’s only three concubines, Hagnu was his sorest point.

“Yes, that is all.”

“Hades prepared quite an interesting play to push Ruhan forward. But injuring Tarek is a separate issue. With Iota’s request as well, I cannot just quietly cover this up.”

“I understand.”

Hagnu smiled politely and removed the light cream-colored thin veil she was wearing.

And as she wrapped it around Rashid’s wrist, tying a pretty knot, she spoke to the Sultan.

“My Sultan. Please understand Iota’s heart that cherishes Prince Tarek. Loving one’s child is a mother’s instinct, so not just Iota, but everyone thinks of their children so dearly.”

“You speak much less than Iota, but every word you utter is full of wisdom.”

Rashid inhaled deeply the strong jasmine scent emanating from the veil on his wrist and smiled with satisfaction.

But unlike with Iota, he did not hold her hand or touch her cheek.

He simply inhaled the strong jasmine scent and leisurely left the harem.

“Hades… Ruhan…”

Hagnu murmured the nostalgic names as she watched Rashid’s retreating figure.

“I hope Iota doesn’t harm those children…”

**

Hades and Latifa were sitting in a large library-like room, heads together over a scroll.

They were in the process of formally drafting a contract regarding Latifa becoming a Frau. However, the process was not going smoothly, and the reason was Hades.

“Don’t you think the duration is too unconscionable?!”

“The original purpose of bringing you here was that. So it’s an appropriate period.”

“How do you know when Prince Ruhan will become Sultan?!”

“Hmm. Someday.”

“You’re so detailed about everything else, why is this so vague?! It’s fraud! You’re committing fraud again, aren’t you?!”

At the word fraud, Hades shook his head with his arms crossed.

“Fraud? From the beginning, I brought you with the intention of using your abilities to make Ruhan the Sultan.”

“When is the next Sultan decided anyway?”

“Tsk. How dare you mention the day the next Sultan is decided, how blasphemous.”

What am I supposed to do?

It was maddening that Hades wouldn’t tell her exactly how long she had to be a Frau. Latifa buried her head on the desk and groaned.

The desert fox in her arms licked her hand with its tongue to comfort her. And Caesar, who was lying stretched out in a corner of the library, also growled and asked.

[Does that guy bother you? Just say the word and I can bite him in an instant.]

Caesar, with a scar on his face, looked even more ferocious, but he wandered freely around the east annex where Latifa and Hades were, without chains or a cage, never harming people.

‘No. Please let it go, Caesar.’

[Humans are complicated. If you don’t like something, you should just bite right away.]

‘You have a very similar way of thinking to this man.’

[Hmph. It’s insulting to be compared to a human.]

Caesar grumbled discontentedly and then sauntered out of the library. Latifa continued to mutter with a gloomy expression.

“I can’t live in the Grand Bazaar forever.”

“…”

“I’m going back to the Empire. I have to go back.”

“The Empire no longer exists. It’s all destroyed.”

Latifa’s lips pouted, annoyed at Hades’ resolute statement about someone else’s homeland being ruined.

“…I don’t fit in here. People may find me interesting and like me now, but it won’t last forever.”

“I’m curious about something.”

“What?”

“Why do you keep putting yourself down?”

At Hades’ words, Latifa let out a small sigh.

“Grand General. Not everyone is as great and wonderful as you.”

“That’s true.”

“You’re not even denying it.”

“Compared to my abilities, yours are quite lacking, but they’re not that bad.”

“You mean talking to animals? That still feels more like luck than an ability, so I’m not sure.”

“If you say that’s your only value, then I have nothing more to say.”

Tired from drafting the contract, Latifa took a honey-soaked date pastry from the snack plate beside her and bit into it.

Along with the intense sweetness, the savory taste of bread and milk blended together. Although she still couldn’t handle spicy food, she had somewhat adapted to the desert cuisine.

Should it be called adaptation? In fact, there were many things that tasted better than the Empire’s food. Unlike the Empire’s cuisine which mostly consisted of grilling or frying, the desert had dishes prepared in a variety of ways.

“Delicious…”

“What is?”

“This. Oh, that’s delicious too.”

As Latifa pointed to the snacks on the tray, Hades put one in his mouth and frowned.

“Too sweet. I can’t tell the difference between a 5-year-old child and you, liking such artificial sweetness.”

“It’s delicious because it’s sweet.”

“If you keep eating only these, you’ll become like the pig princess.”

“What?”

“There’s one fat and ill-mannered pig princess in the harem palace. No, never mind. Even mentioning her irritates me.”

“If she’s a princess, she must be Prince Ruhan’s sibling, right?”

“Half-sister. She’s also born from a concubine.”

“The Sultan must have many concubines.”

“Three.”

Hades frowned, showing he didn’t want to talk about it.

‘Three isn’t that many. In the Empire, there were countless concubines.’

As Latifa briefly recalled the old imperial palace, Lukwan hurriedly entered the library and knelt on one knee.

“Lord Hades! A summons has been issued by the Sultan!”

“A summons?”

Latifa tilted her head at the unfamiliar word, repeating it.

Unlike his confident attitude from before, Lukwan looked terrified, his face pale. He continued with a trembling voice.

“The summons is not for Lord Hades, but for Lord Hades’ Frau. You are to enter the palace immediately to stand trial for the crime of attempted regicide.”

“Tr-trial?!”

At the shocking news that she had to stand trial, Latifa froze with her eyes wide open.

“Hmph. The notice came too late.”

But only Hades seemed to have expected this, merely snorting lightly.