Cassandra was summoned to the couple’s room of the villa in the middle of the night.

“Remarkable! To think this is the work of a young lady barely twenty…! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have found it hard to believe.”

The dark mage marveled as he flipped over the cockroach flattened like a fossil on the floor with the toe of his black shoe.

The cockroach’s insides were empty, as if it had been just a shell from the start.

Next to the insect, my black shoe print was clearly imprinted. To be precise, it was the mayflies that had burst out of the cockroach and been crushed to death.

“Yes. I’m surprised too, Cassandra.”

I issued a warning to the admiring dark mage.

“You boasted about setting up a magic barrier to prevent even a single ant from entering the room. Yet such a large cockroach got in? I’m the one who finds it hard to believe this is the work of the empire’s greatest dark mage.”

The dark mage bowed his head deeply.

But the knight commander raised his head and slowly stroked his chin, glaring at me.

“I find Your Highness’s footprint more surprising than that. How did you manage to crush the flying insects so uniformly? Why are they called flying insects? Because they fly, right? How did you not miss a single one? Hmm.”

A sharp glint like a sword flashed in Leo’s slate-gray eyes as he alternated looking at me and my footprint.

Hmm. That look. That sideways questioning tone. Isn’t that what Grandfather, the imperial palace’s chief investigator, often used when interrogating suspects?

“How could the mayflies that burst out of the cockroach be crushed so densely! So surprisingly uniformly without even a chance to fly? Did Your Highness use time magic to crush them to death?”

“Leo. Drop that shoddy guided interrogation. This is your Empress.”

The Grand Duke rebuked coldly, but Leo seemed determined and dug in even deeper.

“Could I, who have been training with real swords since the age of seven, create such uniform footprints? No! Then how was it possible for Your Highness? Answer me, Your Highness.”

Commander Leo raised his right index finger to point straight at me. His narrowed slate-gray eyes were quite prickly.

This persistent and sharp fellow. His voice is especially loud today.

The way to shut up someone who speaks loudly is to speak even louder.

“Look here, Commander. What you should be focusing on right now is not my footprint, but finding out who sent those insects as a spy.”

“Of course, it was the saint candidate-”

“Right. ‘That’ saint candidate and I are scheduled to treat the domain’s people for the last time tomorrow at Collina Rosa. Then you’ll need to perform your guard duties without any gaps. Can I really feel at ease?”

Instead of raising my voice, I silenced Leo with stern condescension and words of caution. After all, I’m in a position equivalent to his direct superior right now.

“Commander. Surely you’re not being careless, thinking the saint candidate will cease her offensive with mere insect espionage?”

The investigator lookalike flinched and moved his lips to counterattack.

But Leo’s lips immediately froze under the cold killing intent emanating from the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke approached me and kissed the back of my hand, smiling brightly.

“Bi. Don’t worry. Tomorrow, I will personally guard you all day. I cannot entrust your safety to someone who lets their guard be breached by mere cockroaches.”

Fortunately, the Grand Duke seemed to have judged that my security issue was far more important than the uniform mayfly footprints.

Commander Leo’s slate-gray moist eyes caused an earthquake, half filled with sorrow and half with indignation. I had won.

I let out a sigh of relief.

This is why internal enemies are more frightening. At least you can be wary of external enemies like Karina in advance. When someone close like Leo strikes suddenly, you can easily receive a fatal blow.

It’s not that I won’t confess to the Grand Duke about who I am. I will tell him. I’ve decided that. But not tonight, later.

Maybe tomorrow. Hopefully, sometime further in the future…

*

The next morning.

[Airy wants to go too. Take Airy with you!]

Airy, who had puffed up her fluffy cabbage cloud hair twice as much in upset, pulled on my head as I was getting into the carriage waiting in front of the villa, throwing a tantrum.

“Airy. Rest well today. You’ve poured too much of your power into me.”

Worried that I might fall ill again from overexertion, Airy had pumped out energy to the point of straining herself and blown it into me as soon as the sun rose.

[Yuriella is mean!]

If she were this upset before, several chandeliers in the reception room would have been broken. Seeing that they only shook slightly shows how much energy she had poured into me.

[You’re taking the flea-bitten cat too!]

Airy glared fiercely at Nero, who had collapsed comfortably into my arms.

– Meow.

Nero turned his head towards Airy and stuck out his pink tongue, licking around his mouth. It seemed like he was taunting Airy on purpose. Or am I imagining things?

“Don’t worry, fragment of wind. I will protect my wife. You rest well at home as Bi said.”

The Grand Duke peeled Airy off my hair and flung her into the air as if throwing her away.

“Let’s go, Bi.”

When our eyes met, the Grand Duke smoothed out his scowling expression and smiled as if about to melt, extending his hand.

But the Grand Duke’s large hand touched not my hand, but the blue-green turtle shell that had somehow crawled onto the back of my hand.

“Huh?”

That’s strange. I didn’t even feel it tickle. When did this little one climb up to the back of my hand?

– Swoosh.

Before I could stop it, the transparent blade of the ice sword revealed itself. The Grand Duke swung Iello, the holy sword, towards the small turtle with killing intent, as if he had discovered a large monster.

The Archmage hurriedly summoned Gaius, the earth sword, to deflect the ice sword. The turtle leapt nimbly to avoid it and landed on my shoulder.

“Your Grace! You could have hurt Her Highness!”

The Archmage pointed at my hand with the tip of the earth sword, angry.

“That would have been the case with your inadequate skills.”

The Grand Duke snorted and put away the ice sword, pointing at the back of my hand.

A thin ice barrier had already been placed over my hand and entire body. It seems he had protected me with the power of ice simultaneously with drawing his sword.

When his large hand covered the back of my hand, the ice barrier surrounding me scattered into silver powder in the air, twinkling like stars.

“There was something strange attached.”

The Grand Duke peeled the turtle off my shoulder and flung it into the air where he had thrown Airy earlier, with ten times more force.

“Oh! If it gets hurt-”

My concern was unfounded.

The turtle thrown into the air swam gracefully and elegantly through the air with its small four legs, floating side by side next to the thoroughly irritated Airy.

The Grand Duke glared sharply at the turtle while dusting off the back of my hand and shoulder.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s a spirit completely unfit for the title of earth sword. Does even the rudeness and lack of manners resemble its master?”

That turtle is the small spirit of the holy sword Gaius?

[Master of Iello. To draw your sword knowing who I am. You should learn again about the manners and dignity befitting the master of a holy sword. And Airy. How about adopting behavior appropriate for your age? I can hardly believe we are the same age. Tsk tsk.]

The small earth spirit scolded Airy and the Grand Duke simultaneously.

Airy narrowed her triangular eyes fiercely.

[You’re the one without manners, Gaius. Climbing onto Yuriella’s hand without permission. How rude and ill-mannered. You should be ashamed!]

“Airy. Even you can speak sensibly sometimes.”

The Grand Duke smiled with satisfaction as he grabbed Nero, whom I was holding, by the scruff of the neck and put him in the cage held out by the butler.

– Meow! Meow! Meow!

Nero clawed at the cage bars with his fluffy front paws, hissing.

“He seems like he’ll be a disturbance to Bi, so we should leave him at home.”

“No, I’m fine with-”

“It’s not fine. If the cat wanders around the treatment tent, it will disturb the patients. This is safer for Nero too.”

The Grand Duke gestured to the butler to quickly take away the cat cage.

I looked up and waved to Gaius floating in the air, greeting him.

“Hello, Gaius. Nice to meet you. I’m Yuriella.”

Gaius swam quickly through the air as if swimming with four legs and met my gaze.

[It’s nice to meet you again.]

“Again? Have we met before?”

[Does the name Popo ring a bell?]

“Popo…? Popo! Are you really Popo?”

My voice burst out loudly without meaning to, and I quickly covered my mouth with both hands, eyes wide open. Popo, he says.

The name I gave to the small turtle I rescued when I was young. Popo, my first and last animal friend.

“That’s right, Your Highness. Gaius is that child.”

“Popo was the earth spirit?”

“You seem quite close, judging by how happy you are to see each other, Bi?”

Along with a gravelly voice, the Grand Duke’s large hand wrapped around my shoulder.

“Oh, well…”

I was momentarily flustered since I had met Popo when I was Solas, but thankfully the Archmage answered for me.

“Her Highness was the kind person who temporarily cared for Gaius when he ran away from home.”

Gaius bowed his small head to me respectfully.

[Thanks to you rescuing me from those troublemaking children back then, I was safe. I’m sorry I couldn’t reveal my identity and thank you properly.]

“I see. I’m sorry too. I didn’t know you were the earth spirit and gave you the name Popo… Back then, you looked just like poop from a bear with a stomachache… I’m really sorry. I’ll never call you Popo again.”

[Popo? Poop? Hahaha! Gaius is called Popo! Poop!]

As Airy burst into laughter holding her stomach, the dignified earth spirit shuddered his shell as if ashamed.

[Popo is a name allowed only to Yuriella, my lifesaver!]

“Thank you, Popo. But you’re the earth spirit, so why did you just let those little kids beat you up back then? You were quite hurt.”

[Well… that…]

The Archmage explained on behalf of the embarrassed Gaius.

“Well, everyone goes through that kind of phase at some point, right? The storm and stress period, you could say. Rebelling, going astray, not caring what happens. Gaius was like that then. What’s the point of living forever, I don’t even have cool wings. What’s the point of not getting hurt or sick, I don’t have a single friend to play with.”

[Enough! Enouuugh!]

Popo tucked his head into his shell, seemingly embarrassed.

“Tsk tsk. Perpetual adolescence since the beginning of time. Airy, Popo, all the holy sword spirits are alike in their immaturity and lack of growth.”

As the Grand Duke shook his head, the Archmage let out a sharp jab.

“Come to think of it, among the holy sword masters, you’re the only one who hasn’t met your spirit. How mature and well-grown the ice spirit is, I’d have nothing more to wish for if I could see it before I die.”

The Grand Duke gritted his teeth at the sarcastic remark.

Feeling the cold aura of ice suddenly spreading strongly, I quickly wrapped my arms around the Grand Duke’s thick body and hugged him tightly.

The sparkling green aura of healing flowing from my body enveloped the Grand Duke’s entire body.

“No, you shouldn’t use your energy recklessly. The effects of yesterday’s acupuncture will be nullified. If your energy gets twisted wrong, your body will be harmed even more.”

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any particular abnormality.

[Yuriella, you should conserve your energy and get away from the Grand Duke right now. The energy I gave you isn’t an endlessly gushing spring.]

“Ah, sorry. Airy. I didn’t think of that.”

As I withdrew my energy and loosened my arms that had been hugging the Grand Duke, this time he embraced me as if trapping me in his arms and put me in the carriage.

Even after getting in the carriage, the Grand Duke didn’t let me down but sat me on his lap and quietly held my hand, not letting go.

I squirmed to get down, but the Grand Duke pulled me in closer.

“Did you know about Popo? I’m so surprised that Popo was the small spirit of the holy sword Gaius.”

Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat and twisted my body again, but the two arms holding me firmly didn’t budge at all.

“What’s so surprising about that insignificant spirit? The only surprising thing to me is you alone.”

If there were a magic tool to measure the temperature of gazes, it might have melted from the heat of the Grand Duke’s eyes. For no reason, even my earlobes felt hot and flushed.

“Um. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t cross the line?”

“I’m not crossing the line, I’m working hard to ‘protect’ it. You.”

“Um. I can protect myself just fine, Your Grace.”

“I’m protecting myself.”

“Pardon?”

“Protecting you is protecting myself.”

The Grand Duke pulled my right hand and removed the long lace glove.

“I just can’t feel at ease. You keep getting hurt every time I take my eyes off you for a moment.”

The Grand Duke’s calloused fingertip gently stroked the blister between my thumb and index finger from holding the sword, and slowly traced over my palm where the unhealed scar of the oath remained.

Deep wrinkles formed between the Grand Duke’s brows, and a low sigh escaped his lips.

I was the one who got hurt.

It’s already healing.

Why does the Grand Duke look more pained than me?

“Please don’t get hurt. Don’t be in pain.”

The shadow cast under his lowered silver eyelashes trembled finely.

Swallowing and raising his eyes, the Grand Duke’s expression seemed to swirl with some intense emotion.

“For my sake. I can’t bear it anymore now.”