Despite having informed him she’d be away until noon, the urgency in his call meant something unpleasant had happened.

Kasalyn apologized to Parnes for leaving and turned around.

She couldn’t see his expression clearly as it was shaded by the tree against the sun, but he remained standing there while she ran away.

Kasalyn entered the drawing room, calming her breath with a deep sigh.

There, Rose was half-leaning on Challen, sobbing.

“I heard you were looking for me. What’s the matter?”

Rose just kept her head down, shedding tears.

Challen, comforting his wife, sent a look of rebuke towards Kasalyn, standing like a screen at the entrance.

“Do you really not know?”

“If you summoned someone in a hurry who was legitimately on leave for the morning, please don’t scold them without explanation.”

“Rose’s engagement ring has disappeared.”
Challen spoke with an unnaturally calm voice about his wife’s precious engagement ring being missing.

“The engagement ring…?”

“Yes, the one you were responsible for keeping safe.”

“If it’s that ring, I locked it in a sturdy jewel case that wouldn’t break even if the ceiling collapsed. Unless a ghost took it, it’s impossible for it to just disappear.”

Kasalyn’s eyes narrowed as she spoke, suddenly realizing something.

The subtle traces she had felt each morning, as if someone had secretly visited her room.

The slightly disturbed objects in the room that one wouldn’t notice without close inspection.

‘Could it be a thief targeting the engagement ring?’

But there were too many inconsistencies.

The Lernel Palace had tight security, making it impossible for a thief to wander freely, and if there were any suspicious person, the soldiers would have caused an uproar by now.

This implied the intruder had enough trust and reputation not to be suspected, even if they roamed around late at night.

“Your expression suggests you’re guilty. Do you now understand the mistake you’ve made?”

Challen seized the moment to scold Kasalyn.

He was unusually triumphant today, as if enjoying reprimanding Kasalyn like a child being punished.

“As you know, the engagement ring is a royal treasure. Find it by midnight today, at all costs. Understood?”

“Sorry, but that’s realistically impossible. I need time to organize a search team; please wait.”

“Is that an attitude of someone who’s made a mistake? Daring to ask the king to wait with wide eyes? Impossible? Don’t you see the queen is upset?”

Sweat trickled from her tightly clenched fists beneath her skirt.

Already strained from not drinking a sip of water or barely sleeping due to her heightened nerves, Kasalyn felt dizzy from Challen’s scolding.

Desperately fighting off dizziness, she nodded.

“Alright. I’ll go and search right now.”

“That’s more like it. Bring it to my room by midnight. The queen will be asleep by then. You may leave now.”

Kasalyn knew it was impossible to find the mysteriously vanished ring in a day, but she couldn’t stop.

Returning empty-handed would only make Rose cry more, and Challen would pour more blame on her.

Kasalyn employed every means to search, asking soldiers for help and scurrying around the palace, but to no avail.

To make matters worse, rain began to drizzle from the sky.

She had anticipated this from the start.

Challen’s behavior wasn’t out of genuine desire to find the ring but to punish her.

To make her realize her fault by wandering all day for a ring that couldn’t be found.

「Is Challen Riche troubling you?」

Parnes’ words from the morning crossed her mind.

He had been different from his usual aloof and gruff demeanor.

Kasalyn momentarily touched her lips where Parnes’ fingers had been, now drenched in the cold rain.

Just as she watched the raindrops fall and ripple in a puddle.

“Here I thought a little puppy was yapping and tearing up the garden, but it was you.”

A large, warm coat was draped over her drenched head.

Kasalyn lifted her frozen head.
“Why are you out here like this?”

In an instant, Kasalyn’s rain-soaked body was embraced into his arms.

A warm and comforting energy slowly seeped in, shielding Kasalyn’s head from the rain.

It was because he, like a giant steadfast tree, held her quietly yet intensely in his embrace.

“Your Majesty, you’ll catch a cold because of me.”

“Emperors don’t catch colds.”

“……Tch. Where’s that even a thing?”

Kasalyn found herself laughing involuntarily.

Thus, the two shared a faint warmth in the rain, watched from a distance by a man.

“……What’s that?”

It was Challen.

He held two umbrellas in his hand, but realized it was too late to use them now.