“Ludwick.”

“Ah… Yes! Your Majesty. Please command me.”

Ludwick, who had been frozen in shock and was about to turn into a stone, quickly came to his senses and hurried over.

Parnes tossed the menacing-looking sword he had been holding in his hand and said,

“We’ll end today’s training early. Go to the kitchen and tell them to prepare a generous breakfast.”

“This is unusual. Haven’t you always tortured your poor stomach by making do with coffee for breakfast?”

Duke Ludwick asked in surprise, maintaining his manners while subtly saying what needed to be said.

Parnes glared at the aged advisor with his jaw clenched.

“When did I say I was eating?”

“Pardon? Then for whom…”

Duke Ludwick turned his head, following his lord’s gaze.

Parnes unable to take his eyes off Casalin’s thin face, and Casalin looking up at Parnes with a puzzled expression.

Duke Ludwick slowly looked back and forth between the two, then bowed his head with an indecipherable smile.

“I understand perfectly, Your Majesty. I will hurry and make all the preparations for an intimate meal.”

“…I should have beheaded that fellow long ago.”

Parnes clicked his tongue as he watched Duke Ludwick disappear somewhere with a slightly more excited gait than usual.

“What were you two talking about just now?”

“What do you think?”

Parnes replied in a voice so indifferent it almost sounded harsh, while gently grasping Casalin’s delicate wrist.

“I’m trying to feed you. It’s quite irritating to see you running around everywhere with that pale face.”

“Why would you do such a thing for someone like me…”

That’s right.

It shouldn’t matter to me whether you starve to death in the middle of the street or collapse from nervous exhaustion.

Just, if those white cheeks could become plump, and that face could blush healthily with a bright smile.

And wanting to see that up close.

It must be proof that something’s wrong with my head.

.

.

.

Casalin silently followed behind Parnes.

As they entered a walking path lined sparsely with pale olive trees, the surroundings grew quiet.

The only sounds were their footsteps and the rustling of dense leaves in the wind.

“By the way, didn’t you come looking for me because you had something to say?”

Parnes, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke as if he had just remembered.

His face was still facing forward, so it was impossible to know what expression he wore.

“No. I was just passing by when I heard the ladies’ excited voices, and I unknowingly stopped in my tracks.”

Casalin decided not to mention the strange gazes he had been feeling these past few days.

It could simply be his imagination, and above all, Parnes was an emperor with many responsibilities and concerns.

He couldn’t burden those already heavy shoulders with needless worry by complaining, “Someone seems to be sneaking into my room and doing suspicious things, but I have no proof and I’m just anxious.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Yes.”

Parnes, who had been walking unusually slowly today, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Casalin, who had been following behind while watching Parnes’ large feet that seemed almost twice the size of his own, bumped his forehead against Parnes’ back.

As he straightened his wobbling body and looked up, there was Parnes looking down at him with a somewhat displeased expression.

“You’re lying again.”

“Pardon?”

“You have a habit of looking at the ground whenever you lie. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Do I really?”

How did he know about a habit that even Casalin himself wasn’t aware of?

As he was fidgeting with his hair, feeling awkward, that’s when it happened.

Parnes slowly reached out into the air, then hesitantly touched Casalin’s cheek as if struggling with some serious inner conflict.

As if Casalin’s cheek were some sacred treasure that shouldn’t be touched.

He slowly moved his fingertips along Casalin’s jaw, which had become noticeably thinner compared to when he first came to the Renel Empire.

During this time, Parnes was so still he seemed to barely breathe.

Except for his eyes, which were turbulent with an unidentifiable emotion.

“Is Shalen Riche giving you a hard time?”

Casalin’s eyes gradually widened.

By now, Parnes’ fingertips had reached the corner of Casalin’s lips, but they finally withdrew without crossing the line.

The inside of Casalin’s mouth felt hot as if he had swallowed flames.

He needed to say something, to answer.

As Casalin’s lips trembled without forming words, Parnes whispered in a surprisingly gentle voice.

“If you don’t want to speak, it’s alright to remain silent.”

“Didn’t Your Majesty dislike it most when silence was used in place of an answer to a question?”

“I do dislike it. But you’re fine.”

Casalin wanted to ask why.

What did it mean that while he disliked everything else, Casalin was somehow okay?

Though the words didn’t come out as sound, Parnes saw Casalin’s lips move slightly as if asking something and nodded slightly.

“You ask the obvious. Even though you yourself wrapped cloth around my wounds without a word.”

Looking back, he had always been nearby.

Whenever Casalin was upset because of Shalen, who demanded he forget the past while carelessly reopening his emotional wounds, Parnes was always right there beside him.

He noticed before anyone else, and without prying into what was wrong, he silently stood by.

Like that large flowering tree in the secret garden where they first met.

How could Casalin not think fondly of someone who, without a word and pretending to be indifferent, willingly provided cool shade?

His calm gaze that seemed to see right through to one’s innermost thoughts, and his words that subtly checked on one’s mood, had a strange power to strangely stir a person’s heart.

For some unknown reason, only he could make Casalin feel this way.

Casalin was so unfamiliar and surprised with himself for being captivated by such strange emotions in front of the emperor, whom he normally wouldn’t dare to even make eye contact with.

“Young lady Casalin! Y-You were here!”

Just as Casalin was struggling to respond, Rogia came running from afar with a face flushed from the heat and stopped in front of her.

Normally, she would have frozen upon seeing Parnes, but she seemed to have urgent news at a glance.

“Lady Rogia. Is something the matter?”

“W-Well. His Majesty the King has been looking for you for an hour now. His expression didn’t look good, I think you should hurry and go see him.”

Even though Casalin had clearly said in advance that she would be away until noon, the fact that he was urgently looking for her meant that something not so good had happened.

Casalin apologized to Parnes, saying she should go, and turned around.

As the sun was behind him and he was in the shade of a tree, she couldn’t see his expression clearly. However, he remained standing in the same spot even as she ran far away.

Casalin calmed her breath, which had risen to the top of her throat, with one deep inhale, and opened the door to the reception room.

There, Rose was sniffling while half-leaning on Shalen.

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

Rose just kept shedding tears with her head bowed.

Shalen, while continuously patting his wife’s back, sent reproachful glances generously towards Casalin, who stood like a folding screen at the entrance.

“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“If you’ve urgently called someone who was attending to other matters after properly taking the morning off, please explain without immediately rebuking.”

“Rose’s engagement ring has disappeared.”

Shalen spoke in a voice that was too calm for his wife’s precious engagement ring to have gone missing.

“The engagement ring…?”

“Yes. The ring that you were responsible for keeping on her behalf.”

“If it’s that one, I even put it in a sturdy jewel box that wouldn’t break even if the ceiling collapsed and locked it with a padlock. Unless a ghost took it, there’s no way it could have disappeared.”

Casalin stopped mid-sentence and narrowed her eyes.

The traces of someone sneaking in that she had felt every morning for the past few days.

The items in the room that were slightly disturbed, barely noticeable unless looked at closely.

‘Could it have been a thief aiming for the engagement ring?’

But there were more than one or two strange points.

The Renel Imperial Palace had tight security, making it impossible for thieves to roam freely, and if there had been a suspicious person, there would have been an uproar among the soldiers long ago.

Then, it must be someone trusted enough not to raise suspicion even if wandering around here and there in the late dawn.

“Judging by your expression, it seems you have something to feel guilty about. Do you now understand what mistake you’ve made?”

Shalen didn’t miss the opportunity to scold Casalin.

He seemed unusually triumphant today. It looked as if he was enjoying scolding Casalin like a child being punished.

“As you well know, the engagement ring is a royal treasure. Make sure to find it by midnight today, no matter what. Understood?”

“I’m sorry, but that’s realistically impossible. It will take time to organize a search team, so please wait a bit.”

“Is that the attitude of someone who’s made a mistake? You dare to stare with wide eyes and ask me to wait when the King is giving an order? Impossible? Can’t you see how upset the Queen is?”

Cold sweat seeped through her tightly clenched fist under her skirt.

She hadn’t been able to swallow even a sip of water since last night due to her frayed nerves, and she had barely slept. Now, being scolded by Shalen on top of that, her head felt like it was spinning.

Casalin desperately fought off the dizziness and nodded.

“…I understand. I’ll go out and look for it right away.”

“Now that’s an answer I like to hear. Find it by midnight today and bring it to my room. The Queen should be sleeping early by that time. You may leave now.”

Even though she knew it was impossible to find a ring that had disappeared like the wind in just one day without anyone knowing, Casalin couldn’t stop her feet.

If she returned empty-handed, Rose would cry even more loudly, and Shalen would pity his wife and pour out more criticism.

Casalin began to make inquiries using every means at her disposal.

She asked for help from the soldiers and ran around every corner of the palace trying to find any trace, but as expected, there was no result.

To make matters worse, it started to drizzle from the sky.

In fact, she had expected this from the beginning.

That the reason Shalen was doing this was not because he sincerely wanted to find the ring, but to punish her.

To make her wander all day looking for a ring that couldn’t possibly be found, to make her acutely realize what her mistake was.

“Is Shalen Riche giving you a hard time?”

The words Parnes had said in the morning flashed through her mind.

It was somehow quite different from his usual self, who always claimed to be indifferent to worldly matters and was just brusque.

For a moment, Casalin touched the area around her lips where Parnes’ fingertips had touched, with her hand soaked in cold rainwater.

Just as a water droplet that had formed between her lips and fingers fell and drew concentric circles on a puddle.

“I heard a little puppy was whimpering and rummaging through the garden, so I came to see what was bothering me.”

A large, warm coat was draped over her head, which was soaked from the rain.

Casalin raised her head, frozen from the cold.

“Why are you doing this here?”

Her rain-soaked body was instantly embraced in his arms.

As a cozy and warm feeling slowly seeped in, rain no longer fell on Casalin’s head.

It was because he, like a giant flowering tree stubbornly standing in one place, was quietly but intensely hugging her.

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

“Emperors don’t catch colds.”

“…Tch. Is there such a thing?”

Casalin unknowingly laughed foolishly.

As the two shared a faint warmth in the rain, a man was watching them from a distance.

“…What is that?”

It was Shalen.