“Let’s go out a bit later today.”

Kalos had always gone out at exactly the same time, as if measured with a ruler, without a single deviation.

If Abel was being lazy and dawdling, Kalos would drag him out forcibly, even if he had to grab him by the collar.

“What?”

Hearing such words, Abel asked in bewilderment.

“Go out later? Why suddenly? Did something happen?”

Kalos hesitated whether to tell the truth or not, then opened his lips.

“I have an appointment.”

“What appointment? Who are you meeting?”

It would have been better if he had just let it go, but Abel annoyingly pressed for details.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.

No. Since we’re living in the same castle, he would find out eventually anyway. Hiding it would be pointless.

“Could it be you have an appointment with that woman?”

Besides, he figured it out right away even without me saying anything.

“Yes. We agreed to have dinner together.”

“Hmm? Suddenly dinner?”

“It’s not sudden. Before you came, we always had dinner together.”

“Oh ho.”

As Abel’s eyes sparkled with interest, Kalos added:

“If I want to make the flower bloom, I need to get closer to that woman, so we just had dinner together. Don’t make any strange misunderstandings.”

Abel grinned.

“I didn’t say anything, why are you making excuses?”

“…”

Kalos, at a loss for words, closed his mouth.

Abel put his hands behind his back and leaned his upper body towards Kalos.

“Usually in cases like this, they say it’s because there’s something to feel guilty about… Could it be the same for you?”

Kalos frowned deeply and pushed away the unlucky face with his palm.

“Stop talking nonsense. Let’s meet at the castle’s main gate in two hours. Don’t be late.”

And as he was heading towards the dining hall to have dinner with Irene, Abel followed him, tagging along.

At first, he thought it was because their paths were similar, but Abel followed him all the way to the entrance of the dining hall.

Kalos turned to Abel with a furrowed brow.

“How far do you plan to follow me?”

Abel shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not following you, I’m also going to the dining hall.”

“Why to the dining hall?”

“Why else? To have dinner.”

Kalos asked incredulously.

“Since when did you start eating dinner?”

Abel put his hands behind his head and answered in a light tone.

“I’m going to start from today. That way, I can also get closer to that woman, like you.”

Kalos chuckled at the brazen yet absurd answer.

Although he had known Abel for well over a hundred years, it was still difficult to guess what he was thinking.

“Why are you trying so hard to get close to that woman?”

“My, my. I can’t believe you still don’t know me like this.”

Abel clicked his tongue as if quite regretful, then said, raising one hand to his chest and the other in the air:

“Let me make this clear once and for all. My goal is to get close to all the women in this world.”

“…”

He thought Abel was going to say something grand with that pose, but it was just useless nonsense that didn’t need to be heard.

As he was about to ignore him and leave, Abel grabbed his shoulder.

“Besides, since I won the bet, you can’t stop me, right?”

Bet?

“We made a bet about whether that woman wants to get close to me or not, remember?”

Now that he mentioned it, we did make such a bet.

Belatedly recalling this fact, Kalos frowned.

Abel put his hands on his hips and smiled triumphantly.

“If I won that bet, you agreed not to interfere anymore, so you can’t stop me. Kalos.”

*

“Welcome.”

Why is that man here?

Irene, who had dressed up prettily and come down to the dining hall, blinked her eyes wide when she saw Abel waving cheerfully while sitting next to Kalos.

Then she rolled her eyes to look at Kalos.

“…”

Kalos also seemed displeased with the situation, frowning.

But the fact that he wasn’t chasing Abel away meant he couldn’t do so, right?

“…”

Irene let out a deep sigh inwardly.

She thought she would be having dinner alone with Kalos, but the fact that Abel was joining them made her disappointment swell up like a balloon filled with air.

…Wait a minute. Why am I disappointed?

It was strange that I expected dinner with Kalos in the first place.

In the past, it was a place I wanted to avoid so much, but now why…

It feels like I know the reason, but I don’t.

“But what’s this? Why are you so pretty today?”

Irene, who had been floundering in questions, looked at Abel as he whistled.

Abel smiled brightly and said:

“For a moment, I thought a doll was walking in. I knew you were beautiful from the first time I saw you, but you’re even prettier all dressed up like this.”

Abel turned to Kalos.

“You think so too, right, Kalos?”

I wonder how he will answer.

Irene waited for Kalos’s answer, clutching her pounding heart tightly.

Kalos briefly looked Irene up and down, then picked up a wine glass.

“You look pretty.”

Although the answer was so dry that it was questionable whether he meant it sincerely, Irene’s spirits deflated.

Irene comforted herself, saying she should be satisfied with Kalos calling her pretty.

*

The dinner ended uneventfully, without any unexpected situations like during teatime.

Still, it’s uncomfortable to keep having dinner with Abel.

Surely Abel won’t join every dinner from now on, right?

Irene worried, but it was unnecessary concern.

“I have some business, so it seems I won’t be able to have dinner together for a while.”

The dinner meetings disappeared altogether.

Irene was perplexed and disappointed that his words changed just a day after agreeing to have dinner together from now on, but she tried her best not to show it and answered calmly.

“I see.”

Irene thought she had hidden her emotions well enough, but sadly, Kalos could clearly see that she was disappointed.

“…”

I didn’t want to do this either.

It seems Abel will intervene and cause trouble every dinner time.

The later we go out, the less time we have to repair the barrier.

Yesterday, we had to return early because Abel was tired from the continuous drain of energy, but we can’t do that from now on.

Setting aside the delay in repairing the barrier…

There was also a chance that Abel might encounter the delegation sent from the temple, so we needed to finish repairing the barrier quickly and send Abel back.

If worse comes to worst, I’ll just send him back and finish the repairs myself.

…But first, my strength needs to return.

“…”

Kalos’s gaze lingered briefly on his left leg before moving back to Irene.

Perhaps taking that gaze negatively, Irene smiled faintly and said:

“I’m really fine, so don’t worry.”

Is it my imagination that it sounds like she’s saying she’s not fine at all, so please worry about her?

Kalos wrinkled the bridge of his nose.

Honestly, there was no need to care whether Irene was disappointed or not.

It wasn’t like Kalos to care about such things in the first place.

“…”

Even though he thought he should ignore it, he couldn’t because it kept bothering him.

Then the problem should be solved.

Kalos looked down at Irene silently for a while, then said:

“Breakfast is possible.”

“Pardon?”

As Irene asked, not understanding his words, Kalos kindly added an explanation.

“We can have breakfast together.”

“Ah.”

Finally understanding what Kalos meant, Irene’s eyes widened briefly before curving prettily like crescent moons.

“Then let’s have breakfast together.”

…She’s pretty.

Irene thought Kalos’s answer in the dining hall lacked sincerity, but that wasn’t the case.

He had answered sincerely.

However, the reason his answer was dry was because he was annoyed at Abel showing interest in Irene.

Why did she dress up so prettily today?

Who was she trying to impress?

The possibility that it might be Abel…

The reason her eyes trembled every time she looked at Abel might not be fear, but excitement…

Feeling strange and unfamiliar with himself for having such thoughts…

So, so…

“What’s wrong, Your Grace?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Kalos rubbed his face dry, then turned around.

“I’ll be going now. I’ll escort you to your bedroom.”

*

Upon returning to the Crown Prince’s palace, Jerdin immediately wrote a letter to send to Kalos.

Since it had to be tied to the leg of a messenger bird, he couldn’t write at length and only briefly explained the situation.

[…As soon as Her Majesty selects the fake culprit, I will inform you immediately.]

By the way, if the Master finds out that Her Majesty has intervened in this incident, he’ll be furious, right?

Jerdin thought it was fortunate that he wasn’t there, while also worrying about how to apologize to Kalos when they meet later.

For now, it’s a relief that we won’t meet for a while.

“Ah, Her Majesty said she was planning to invite Irene to the New Year’s Festival party.”

Then it seems I’ll be meeting the Master soon…

No, will Kalos even come to the New Year’s Festival party in the first place?

“He probably won’t come.”

Kalos didn’t even show his face at the Empire’s Founding Day celebration or the Emperor’s birthday party, only sending gifts…

“I’m not sure.”

If Jerdin had hoped for Kalos to stop the Empress, Kalos would have directly mentioned that part.

But Kalos didn’t say anything, and even when that matter was brought up, he spoke to Jerdin as if to say, “How could someone like you stop the Empress?”

And he told me to do what I could do.

“This is what I can do now, Master.”

Kalos was precious to Jerdin, but so was the Empress.

She was his only mother, after all.

It was one of the reasons why he couldn’t firmly stop her even though he thought her actions were excessive.

“I feel like a shrimp caught between fighting whales.”

I might die with my back broken at this rate.

A lonely smile hung on his thin lips.

Jerdin carefully folded the letter, tied it to the messenger bird’s leg, and sent it flying out the window.

The specially trained messenger bird circled the highest tower of the Imperial Palace three times to signal that it was an ally, then flew towards the castle walls.

Just as it was about to cross over the castle walls of the Imperial Palace.

Whoosh, thwack-!

An arrow flew from somewhere and precisely pierced the messenger bird’s body.

The lifeless messenger bird fell limply to the ground.

The man who approached it had a bow in his hand.

“…May you rest in peace.”

The man briefly mourned the messenger bird’s death and retrieved the letter.

And the place the man headed to was the Empress’s palace.

The Empress read the contents of the letter the man brought and sneered softly.

“Really now. Although I begged you so much to trust this mother, in the end you do such useless things, Jerdin.”

How could he not understand his mother’s heart like this?

It’s so disappointing that you don’t understand your mother’s heart trying to protect the Imperial Family, the Empire, and even you.

Well, I suppose you can be like that because you don’t know anything.

You can be like that because you don’t know what terrible things will happen if the Empire’s guardian disappears.

“…”

The Empress threw the letter into the fireplace without even reading it.

Whoosh, the thin paper turned into black ashes and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The Empress, who had been watching this scene, turned to the man who had brought the letter.

“Please continue to monitor that child well so he doesn’t do any more useless things, Lord Raymon.”