I. I…….

“…….”

I froze.

My whole body stiffened. My lips, vocal cords, eyelids, and cheeks wouldn’t move at all.

The only movement in my body was my hair swaying in the river breeze. I couldn’t even feel the sensation of hair tickling my cheeks.

The Grand Duke awkwardly smiled as he tucked my hair behind my ear.

“Was it such a shocking confession that you can’t even blink?”

“…….”

“Hmm. I thought I had expressed my feelings sufficiently, no, even excessively. Now I’m the one who’s more shocked?”

“…….”

I could see a spasm in the corners of his mouth as he tried to maintain a smile. I wished my sight had frozen solid too.

‘Ah……! What should I do……!’

I wanted to look away, but my eyes seemed frozen too, unable to move from his beautiful blue eyes that were trembling slightly.

What should I do? What should I do……?

It wasn’t my first confession.

The night before my execution, when the Emperor confessed, my mouth and vocal cords immediately cursed him as a madman, and my eyelids and eyes glared up and down at Justin like spoiled food spit out.

I hit him with my fist and kicked him really hard.

Why am I paralyzed and unable to move at the Grand Duke’s confession?

The Grand Duke sighed deeply and pleaded:

“Yuriella. Please, at least blink. And breathe a little.”

I exhaled with all my might.

“Hoo……ah!”

Fortunately, my eyelids blinked when I exhaled. My stiff cheeks could move too.

As my stiff neck loosened, my rigid spine and tense abdominal muscles relaxed, and my body went limp like a wet cotton ball.

“Yuriella……!”

The Grand Duke quickly pulled me close, wrapping his arm around me so I could lean comfortably.

“Ah……. Really shocking……, truly surprised……, really don’t know what to…….”

Now my voice was coming out too. It was hoarse, cracked, and the context was a mess, but at least conversation was possible.

“I’m sorry……. I didn’t know you’d be so surprised.”

The Grand Duke stroked my arm downwards to calm me, with a dejected look on his face.

I could now move my eyes, but I fixed my gaze on the toe of my shoe and steadied my breathing. For some reason, my nose started to sting.

“So this is what……a sincere confession is like.”

It was my first time. The first time I had been hit so directly and squarely by someone’s sincerity.

It was frightening. And…….

It was moving.

“Thank you.”

At my words, I felt the Grand Duke’s large body tremble slightly.

“Hoo.”

His shallow sigh settled on the crown of my head.

“I don’t want to hear the next words. Usually, what comes after ‘thank you’ is often ‘but’.”

“…….”

It wasn’t that my mouth had frozen again.

But I couldn’t say anything. Because my next words were going to start with ‘but’.

“Hoo.”

Again, his sigh tickled the top of my head as it passed by.

Whether I stayed silent or started with ‘but’, it seemed the Grand Duke’s response was the same sigh.

“I’m sorry……. I’ve ruined today’s scenery, haven’t I?”

I heard that ‘I’m sorry’ is the one thing you should never say to a man who has just confessed.

I couldn’t stay silent or lie after receiving such a sincere confession.

“I’m sorry. ……But I won’t be……in the scenery you’ll encounter in the future. Save those precious scenes……for the real future Grand Duchess.”

I pulled out a tiny piece of my heart that I could show him.

“Please forget today’s scenery. I’ll……keep it for myself alone.”

“Yuriella…….”

“It will be remembered as the best scene of my life, unforgettable even when I’m an old granny. I’ll treasure it in my heart’s treasure box forever. Whenever tough times come, I’ll take it out and find comfort…… A lot of comfort…….”

Frost rose and knelt on one knee in front of me, placing both hands on my knees.

The wind blowing from the river caressed his silver hair as it passed by.

His bright blue eyes gazed only at me.

My mouth went dry.

“If there’s something lacking in me, no, I’m full of flaws. I’ll fix them. Teach me. I’m a quick learner.”

If only he were a man with many shortcomings.

If he were a naive country bumpkin who’d get swindled if let out in the world, or a hunter with such poor archery skills he couldn’t even catch a rabbit, a man I’d have to support.

Then I could make a flimsy excuse that I couldn’t leave because I was too worried, and stay by his side.

“Solas, and I…… Just let us pass by.”

Every moment of my life had been a battle. And I could instinctively sense that this was the most critical battle of my life.

I learned for the first time that the blood shed when hearts clash is more painful than when swords clash.

“Yuriella.”

“Don’t give your heart to a fleeting relationship. As time passes, those feelings will……flow away and disappear like that river. Nothing in this world is eternal, Your Highness.”

“If that were possible……I wouldn’t be kneeling and begging like this. Can you do that?”

“To me, Your Highness is the lord to whom I pledge my loyalty. There is no other meaning beyond that.”

Blood flows from his heart, pierced by my answer.

Though the pain piercing my heart was more intense than being bitten by a demon’s venomous fangs, I didn’t stop cutting his heart.

This was a battle I had to win.

For him. To protect the meaning given to my new life.

“…….”

Now that my frozen mouth had thawed, the Grand Duke sank into deep silence and said nothing more.

I turned my head and fixed my gaze on the scenery he had wanted to show me.

The river, shaded by lush green aquatic plants and trees that had been dry all winter, sparkled as it reflected the sunlight.

The sounds of birds, alternating between distant and near, and the sounds of insects seeped into my heart.

I felt sad, thinking that perhaps this scenery of today might not always be just a happy memory when I recalled it.

*

Leo entered the dimly lit office, pulled back the tightly closed curtains, and opened the windows wide to ventilate.

“Don’t tell me you were rejected?”

The late afternoon sun, the color of kumquats, poured over the large back hunched over massive piles of documents on the huge desk, motionless with arms propped up.

Frost, as if he had used up a year’s worth of energy confessing by the river, barely turned his head towards Leo.

“Leo. How did you not die after being kicked away twenty-two times by Frida? How could you propose for the twenty-third time? Is there perhaps a serious mental problem with my Knight Commander?”

“Pardon?”

“I heard there’s a mental illness where the heart is as unfeeling as a hard rock, unable to feel emotional pain. Ask Herbeo for a diagnosis. You don’t seem normal.”

Leo shook his head and placed a glass of cold water with ice in front of Frost.

“Your Highness seems to be the one who needs Herbeo. It’s called lovesickness, a condition of being unable to forget someone you love.”

Frost sighed deeply and buried his face on the desk again.

“Did you confess properly?”

Frost nodded with his face still buried.

“If you did it properly, she must have said ‘thank you’.”

“Oh dear. Was the next word ‘but’?”

“She said she was sorry. She also said not to give my heart to a fleeting relationship. That as time passes, those feelings will flow away like the river…… That nothing in this world is eternal.”

Leo, unable to even utter an ‘oh dear’, just closed his mouth.

Frost exhaled a sigh heavy enough to sink the desk.

“How many times would it take? Could I laugh on the twenty-third try after being rejected twenty-two times like you?”

Leo stroked his chin and shook his head firmly.

“No. You and I are different, Your Highness.”

Frost barely turned his head to look up at Leo.

“I may have this face and this body. But Your Highness has that face and that body. You’re the master of the North, and the owner of Ielro, one of the four sacred swords protecting the Empire.”

Frost’s furrowed brow smoothed out slightly.

“You mean I could laugh on the eleventh try after being rejected ten times?”

“No. It means that if you were rejected despite having such abundant excellent qualities, the chances of success even on the twenty-third attempt are very slim.”

Frost, seemingly lacking the energy to get angry, slowly lowered his hand and spread the chill of ice across the entire library floor.

Leo brushed off the frost and thin ice that climbed up from his feet to cover his Knight Commander insignia, as if dusting off dirt.

The frost and ice, as lifeless as their master, crumbled easily like sugar crystals and fell off.

“Your Highness. May I speak a word as a friend of 20 years, not as a superior and subordinate?”

“No. Not allowed.”

“Tsk. Frost Ielheim. Instead of moping around, go and confront her. Don’t you know repeated exposure is the basics of courtship? That handsome face was given to you by your parents to use at times like this.”

The Grand Duke’s eyes rolled to the side, as if lacking confidence.

“Can I have a chance with just this face?”

“Don’t just use the straightforward approach, try flanking too! Lady Yuriella’s new father is also at the Imperial Palace, so ask for help!”

Frost’s face became even more gloomy.

“My father-in-law dislikes me. I’m surrounded by enemies. Even Aerie and Popo only support the Archmage.”

“Isn’t Her Highness soft on small and weak things? Pretend you’ll die if she doesn’t accept you.”

“I might really die if she leaves.”

Frost buried his face again and groaned.

“Then there’s no help for it. Later, don’t have a heart attack when you see Lady Yuriella’s name on wedding invitations sent by the Emperor or Archmage.”

“What!”

Frost stood up indignantly. His blue eyes, which had been dull and unfocused, now blazed.

“Why would my wife’s name be on their wedding invitations? Yuriella Ielheim is the Grand Duchess of the North, recognized by heaven and law!”

“Yet you’ll let her be taken by some random guy?”

“I absolutely won’t let her be taken.”

“Will you cling on even if you’re rejected ten or a hundred times?”

“Even if I’m rejected a hundred or a thousand times, I’ll cling on.”

“Are you confident you can win?”

“I don’t calculate odds before going into battle.”

“Then what are you hesitating for? March forth, soldier!”

Leo extended his arm wide, pointing sharply at the exit door.

Frost walked towards the door combatively, tilting his head slightly. Something about this conversation bothered him, but the urgency of the battle to win his wife’s heart took precedence, so he just strode forward forcefully.

Leo quickly covered his mouth with both hands to stifle his laughter. His lord, who was fun to tease, took quite a while to get over it once his feelings were hurt.

“Ah. Thanks to Her Highness, I get to see the stars, really. Hehehe.”

Leo wiped the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes and went out to the terrace.

Looking down, he saw his friend of 20 years walking, almost running, towards his first love sitting on the garden swing.

As the Grand Duke approached, a faint smile appeared on the Grand Duchess’s lips. Her red eyes sparkled with light.

As his wife smiled, the Grand Duke also smiled sheepishly and gently pushed the swing.

Leo’s expression slowly darkened as he watched his friend gazing dazzlingly at his wife, her hair fluttering in the breaking sunlight.

It’s a big problem that he’s starting to like Her Highness more and more.

She’s his lord’s first love. And while he greatly hopes she’ll become his last love too…….

Leo unfolded a note from an information guild member he took out of his pocket and let out a long sigh.

The Archmage met a wanted former Imperial Knight in Her Highness’s form. That was probably done on Her Highness’s behalf.

That wanted man is Commander Solas’s subordinate, and his movements in Colina Rosa overlapped with Her Highness’s. His looking after the families of old colleagues and searching for the whereabouts of Solas’s subordinates hunted by the Imperial family is likely not just his own idea.

It was a strange relationship connected by unknown links.

[I saw it. Commander Solas Moretti saved me. He took the assassin’s dagger and stabbed him in an instant.]

At that time, I thought Her Highness had seen an illusion out of fear.

[It was Solas Moretti who killed the assassin and saved me. That’s the truth I know.]

‘Solas and Her Highness. What connection could there be between the Imperial Knight Commander and the dancer from the North……?’

Leo picked up the guild member’s note he was about to place on top of the pile of reports and put it back in his pocket.

‘That’s right. Not yet. After investigating a bit more.’

Leo’s gaze turned to his old friend who had only his wife in his eyes.

His friend who had bravely jumped into the world’s most difficult battlefield seemed to need more time.