Kasallin had to make a concerted effort not to stare too closely at his face.

He added, as if offering an explanation.

“Of course, you may refuse if you’re not inclined. I only mean that I’d like it if you relied on me a bit more.”

“I understand. I fully grasp your sentiment. But how should I take the fact that, while I was bedridden, you handled all the major matters without consulting me?”

“For similar reasons. Halting diplomatic ties with the Kan Kingdom. Punishing the criminals. The imperial trial. I judged these matters too mentally taxing for you right now, so I took care of them before you awoke.”

Mentally taxing matters.

His words were half understandable, half not.

“Your Majesty, before I am Kasallin, I am the Empress of this nation. If you think of me as such, whether it’s mentally burdensome or not, you should have set aside personal matters and collaborated with me.”

“You’re right. But.”

Parnes, uncharacteristically hesitant for a moment, continued with a more serious expression than ever.

“When I look at you, I can no longer exclude personal feelings.”

Kasallin’s eyes widened slightly.

“But before…”

“Yes. When we married, I said I would never see you as anything other than the Empress of the Renel Empire or a public partner. But my thoughts have changed.”

“Your thoughts have changed?”

Parnes crossed the marble floor, shaded as the sun hid perfectly behind a cloud.

Coming closer, he raised a hand to caress Kasallin’s cheek, as if handling something immensely precious.

The expression on Parnes’ face as he looked at her was too complex to be described with any words.

It was an expression the old him, who had said no other emotions would interfere between us and shouldn’t, would never have made.

“To treat you only as the Empress, you have become far too precious to me.”

“What?”

Her mind felt as if it were going blank.

Kasallin couldn’t comprehend his words, yet her heart, reacting fiercely as if it had been waiting, could not be restrained.

“Your Majesty, those words…”

“Your Majesty, the Empress. Sir Leon has arrived.”

Kasallin’s unfinished question faded weakly at the sound of a servant’s voice slipping through the door.

Parnes, as if nothing had happened moments before, led Kasallin to the next room.

“He must have come to prescribe medicine. Let’s go.”

“Ah… yes.”

To treat her only as the Empress, she had become too precious.

Kasallin mulled over his words in her heart several times as she thought.

If Sir Leon hadn’t arrived at that moment, would she have honestly asked him?

Do you, perhaps, like me?

Is there even the slightest chance that we could share the same feelings?

While Parnes was presiding over the imperial council, Kasallin stepped into the study after a long absence.

Nigel, Logia, and Lady Dawson greeted her with bright faces.

“We greet Your Majesty, the Empress. It’s a relief to see your complexion looking much brighter.”

“Good morning. Your faces look radiant as well.”

“Shall I bring a refreshing glass of fruit tea?”

Kasallin sat at her desk and replied that she’d appreciate it.

As Lady Dawson left to fetch the fruit tea, Nigel, who had been standing stiffly for some reason, glanced cautiously at Kasallin.

Kasallin quickly noticed he had something to say.

“Do you have something to tell me, Sir Nigel?”

“What?”

Kasallin let out a small laugh at his overly startled reaction.

“What’s with you all of a sudden? You were fine this morning.”

“Ah… well, I mean. After breakfast, did His Majesty, the Emperor, say anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, for instance, that he doesn’t like Nigel Ludwig, or that if he finds one fault, he won’t let it slide, or that he’ll lock me up. Did he say anything like that?”

Instead of answering, Kasallin furrowed her brow.

“Why would His Majesty say such things? You really have an odd side, don’t you?”

“Well, as expected, right? It must just be my imagination, right?”

Nigel let out a sheepish laugh, brushing his chest in relief, then placed a few documents in front of Kasallin.

His face, as if the playful exchange had never happened, had already turned serious.

“These are the records of the handling of the traitor forces, including Katarina Rudo and Isabella Rudo.”

“So, His Majesty Parnes took care of this while I was bedridden.”

Kasallin picked up the documents.

The contents were straightforward.

In summary, Katarina Rudo and Isabella Rudo were sent to a detention facility in the far west for life imprisonment.

The remaining nobles who participated in the plot were stripped of their titles and exiled from the Renel Empire.

Kasallin tilted her head. She didn’t know about other things, but Parnes was unforgiving when it came to actions challenging the imperial authority.

For someone like him to impose relatively clean punishments like life imprisonment and exile, and to quietly wrap things up, was unexpected.

“Was there anything else notable besides this?”

“There was some trouble with the Kan royal family.”

“The Kan royal family? Why?”

“I don’t know the details since it’s a foreign nation, but it seems the Queen Dowager Nibia Riche, the mother of the king, has started a regency.”

Kasallin paused, her hand holding the teacup frozen in midair. Her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

“With Shallen’s personality, he wouldn’t allow a regency. Is his condition so poor that the Queen Dowager had to step in for state affairs?”

“It seems so. Most of the loyal noble vassals have turned their backs on him, so it’s clear he’s making pathetic moves. Taking advantage of that, Princess Rilen has returned from her studies abroad.”

“Princess Rilen has returned to the royal family?”

“Yes. So, things seem quite chaotic.”

“That makes sense. There’s a considerable faction among the old nobles supporting Princess Rilen. If so, the power struggle between Princess Rilen and Shallen will likely intensify.”

From what Kasallin remembered, Princess Rilen had been an ambitious and diligent person since childhood.

If she had been born a prince, Shallen would have long been pushed out of the succession race.

“Princess Rilen won’t miss this opportunity. She’ll find a justification to decisively bring down Shallen and seize the throne.”

“It’s probably fortunate for the king that Queen Rose is pregnant.”

“More than just fortunate, the child in Queen Rose’s womb is likely Shallen’s only hope right now.”

Rose must be under immense stress and pressure right now.

Shallen would surely be pressuring her to give birth to a healthy prince.

In a royal court dominated by Nibia and Princess Rilen, she likely has no one to open her heart to.

But that was now her own matter to handle.

They could no longer be called sisters. There was no reason to care for her anymore.

“By the way… this arrived this morning.”

Lost in thought, Kasallin snapped back to reality as Nigel cautiously handed her a letter.

Just as she was about to ask why he hesitated, her eyes caught the all-too-familiar handwriting on the envelope.

“It’s a letter from the King of the Kan Kingdom.”

Nigel spoke quietly, gauging her reaction.

Upon hearing this, Kasallin was seized by an urge to burn the letter immediately.

But setting aside personal feelings, discarding a letter from a foreign king without reading it was not something an empress should do.

Kasallin sighed and picked up the letter opener.

“It’s probably an apology letter. You said it arrived this morning?”

“Yes. But there’s something peculiar.”

“Peculiar?”

“Normally, letters between nations are carried by official messengers, aren’t they? But this one came via carrier pigeon.”

Shallen had always used his personal pigeon for private letters.

Kasallin felt an ominous premonition. She carefully opened the envelope with the knife and read the contents.

“This…”

As her eyes moved downward, her composed expression narrowed with displeasure.

She had initially hoped it was a formal apology from the monarch of the Kan Kingdom to the Renel Empire, but it wasn’t.

The letter was filled from start to finish with Shallen’s foolish pleas to Kasallin.

Saying he realized many things after parting with her. Asking her to think of him just once upon reading this letter.

Claiming he sincerely regretted all his past actions.

There wasn’t a single line expressing concern for the fragile relationship between the two nations or an apology to Parnes.

“Now I understand why he sent it via carrier pigeon.”

He must have been worried that if sent through a person, the letter might accidentally reach Parnes.

He knew the letter’s contents were inappropriate for anyone else to see.

Kasallin stood up, holding the letter in one hand.

As she headed toward the fireplace, her steps stopped at the sound of a knock from outside.

“Your Majesty, the Empress. His Majesty, the Emperor, has arrived.”

“Oh, tell him to come in.”

It seemed the imperial council had already ended.

Kasallin absentmindedly placed the letter in a nearby drawer.

Then she moved toward the door to greet him.

As Parnes entered the room, his sharp gaze lingered briefly on the drawer where a white paper was sticking out.

“Welcome. Have you finished your morning schedule?”

Parnes smoothly shifted his gaze to Kasallin’s face.

With a nod, his usual smile spread across his face.

“Yes. It’s nice weather, so I thought we could have a meal together.”

“That sounds good. I’ll get ready quickly.”

“Take your time.”

As she went into the inner room, he turned his now-unsmiling face elsewhere.

The edge of the letter’s envelope fluttered in the breeze.