“Don’t you know what lapis lazuli means in the Lernel Empire?”

Casaline narrowed her eyes quietly, puzzled by his excited questioning.

“Yes, I don’t know. Is there a problem with that?”

“Truly astounding.”

“If you’re done looking, may I have it back? I need to take it to the ball next week.”

Chalen returned the hair accessory almost throwing it back.

He looked at it discontentedly in Casaline’s hand and then began muttering to himself.

“Next week’s ball… Could it be…”

“If you have no further business, please leave. I need to change and go to the queen.”

Lost in his thoughts, Chalen slowly turned his back, narrowing his eyes at Casaline.

“Do you think only Emperor Parnes went searching for you during the hunting competition?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I too searched for you throughout that night. I, the King of the Khan Kingdom, got soaked in the rain and stumbled in the mud looking for you.”

Casaline grimaced. So what?

Was he saying he had a hard time and wanted some acknowledgment?

“You shouldn’t have troubled yourself. What if something had happened to you, someone carrying the future of millions in the Khan Kingdom?”

“Is that all you have to say?”

“What else should I say?”

Chalen clicked his tongue and turned away.

“I was a fool to have felt sorry for you even for a moment.”

Watching his retreating figure, Casaline felt an inexplicable ominous sensation envelop her, but dismissed it as a mere mood, probably due to lingering effects of her cold.

“Your Majesty!”

Walking down the corridor, Rose happily waved her hand at Chalen, who was approaching from the opposite side.

“Good timing. If you haven’t eaten yet, join me for…”

Instead of his usual smile, Chalen passed by Rose without a word.

He muttered to himself, his face contorted with frustration.

Startled, Rose followed him.

“Your Majesty?”

Entering a nearby room, Chalen leaned on a desk, taking deep breaths. Suddenly, he swept the items off the desk in anger.

“Not knowing the meaning of that lapis lazuli? Ridiculous!”

A glass lamp shattered, and black ink from a bottle stained the floor.

Frightened, Rose gasped.

Chalen, always gentle and generous, was furious for the first time.

“Your Majesty. What happened? Tell me.”

“It’s about Casaline.”

“…Why Casaline?”

“I think she’s lost her senses to Emperor Parnes. Soon she might even offer herself as his concubine. I’m seriously worried her actions might tarnish our royal family’s honor.”

Rose’s eyes flickered.

She had been worried about Chalen’s apparent jealousy over Casaline’s closeness to Parnes.

‘Was he just angry fearing betrayal to the royal family?’

‘Right. Chalen wouldn’t harbor other feelings for Casaline now.’

Her face lit up with faint relief and a glimmer of hope.

She nodded calmly, understandingly, and naturally took Chalen’s hand.

“I too have been worried about Casaline lately. Why doesn’t she understand your feelings?”

“Did the queen also think so?”
“Yes. In fact, since we arrived in the Lernel Empire, she has been neglecting the tasks I asked her to do, and she disappears whenever she gets a chance. I thought she might need a break and tried to understand, but I was troubled because it seemed like she had changed.”

Rose sighed with worry, and Chalen shook his head in disbelief.

“You should have told me whenever such a thing happened. I had no idea she was so obstinate.”

“I was afraid she might dislike me. I’m sorry. Maybe I’m not fit to be a queen.”

“What are you talking about? Where else can you find such a kind, loving woman who knows how to make her husband happy? No matter what anyone says, you are my eternal queen.”

“Really? Do you really love only Rose forever?”

“Of course. It hurts to repeat myself.”

Chalen humored Rose’s coquettish behavior, glancing out the window.

Far away, Emperor Parnes and Duke Ludwig were talking seriously as they walked somewhere.

Suddenly, Chalen, with a firm resolve, detached himself from Rose and said,

“Then the queen must promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“No matter what decision I make in the future, you will respect and follow me. You’re generous enough to do that, right?”

Without a moment’s hesitation and with a heart full of joy, Rose nodded.

Unaware that her small nod would bring about a huge storm in the distant future.

“Your Majesty. A visitor requests an audience.”

Rose was at her dressing table, tidying her hair for dinner with Chalen, when a maid unexpectedly informed her.

Assuming it was one of the noblewomen she met at the last party, Rose waved her hand without even looking at the maid.

“Is it those ladies? Tell them I’m asleep and send them away.”

“No, it’s the temporary gamekeeper who has been managing the royal hunting ground and forest since recently. He says he has a brief report about the last hunting competition and asks for a moment of your time.”

The gamekeeper.

At the mention of that word, Rose’s fingers stopped curling her hair.

The memory of her sister slipping down a ravine during the hunting competition flashed through her mind.