“……Hmm.”

Today, Rasilia slept deeply.

Rasilia opened her eyes feeling refreshed for the first time in a while. The sun was clear, and the room was cozy.

These days, since there was no need to light the fireplace in the warm season, the dawn felt slightly chilly. However, today was not like that at all.

The morning was unusually refreshing.

Rasilia stretched pleasantly. Then she discovered something twinkling beside the bed.

“Hmm? What’s that?”

Removing the blanket that obstructed her view, she could clearly see the twinkling object.

It was the Emperor’s golden hair.

“……Hmm?”

That meant the Emperor, seated on the floor with only his head resting on the edge of her bed, was asleep.

“Why……. Ah, the Blue Moon.”

They had ended up sleeping in the same room. Rasilia naturally thought that she would watch over the suffering Emperor with the shadow knights, just like the night before.

But she had fallen asleep waiting for the Emperor, and…

‘…So he just slept beside me?’

It was something she couldn’t quite understand. The Blue Moon had definitely appeared the night before.

Rasilia quietly approached the Emperor.

There were no signs of bones protruding and then retracting, no traces of blood.

Instead, he was impeccably dressed. She couldn’t understand why he was sitting on the floor in such uncomfortable posture with those clothes.

‘Something is strange…….’

Rasilia tilted her head.

‘What happened while I was asleep?’

But his sleeping face was just beautiful.

Initially, she was looking for traces of last night, but now she was just staring at him without a purpose.

‘…Humans.’

Staring at the Emperor’s face, she nearly forgot how time flew by. Even she, known as the prophetess, was captivated by beauty. Rasilia smirked at the irony.

‘At this rate, I’ll forget why mirrors are not permitted in the prophetess’s room.’

It meant to be wary of what meets the eye. Eyes could easily be deceived. A prophetess had the duty to see not just what was visible, but the truth beyond.

“……Anyway, time to wake him up.”

The Emperor was still deeply asleep. There was no telling how long he had been like that, but continuing to rest in that position would cause pain all over his body.

Rasilia got off the bed and pushed the Emperor up with her shoulder. Holding him in her arms to lift him to the bed was out of the question, so pushing was the best option.

“Ugh,”

She tried her best, but lifting the Emperor to the bed was impossible.

Quickly giving up on the impossible task, Rasilia instead laid the Emperor down on the floor.

She placed a pillow under his head and covered him with a blanket.

It felt like she had done all she could.

As Rasilia turned to change into a day dress before the maids arrived, she heard:

“The blanket’s not completely covering. This side.”

“……?”

The Emperor was looking at her with clear eyes, as if he had never been asleep.

Tap, his finger tapped the floor.

“……So?”

“I thought you might want to cover it again.”

Rasilia’s eyes became a bit frightening.

“So?”

“I’m telling you not to leave.”

“…….”

“……Seems like you don’t like that.”

The Emperor got up.

It was impossible to tell that he had just been fast asleep.

“Were you pretending to be asleep?”

When Rasilia asked with a chilly voice, his golden eyes flickered slightly.

“……A little.”

“What was the reason? Were you watching what I was doing?”

“No, I didn’t think that way.”

When Rasilia remained still with an ‘I don’t believe you’ expression, Rascal hurriedly explained.

“I was actually asleep. When you woke up, I woke up too. But…”

“But?”

“You kept looking at me.”

“Is that why you pretended to be asleep?”

“I didn’t think you disliked it.”

“……?”

The Emperor’s response was very surprising. Rasilia was momentarily startled by the unexpected answer.

“You never looked at me like that when I was awake. You never covered me with a blanket or anything like that. So.”

“So……?”

“It was nice.”

“…….”

Rasilia involuntarily scowled. Not because she disliked it, but because she was flustered.

‘Over such a trivial thing…’
So, the words that I liked such trivial things and pretended to be asleep were unfamiliar.

I knew that in Bluemoon, the instinct for companionship becomes stronger. I saw with my own eyes how desperate the presence of a companion is to the blood of the devil.

“But this is… different.”

There was no room for feelings or intentions in that instinct. It was literally an uncontrollable instinct.

The words now that the Emperor likes trivial things sounded a bit different from the instinct of Bluemoon. How, how much, and why it was different, even though Rasilia didn’t know exactly, she felt strangely uncomfortable.

“That’s… right.”

“Do you hate it when I talk with my eyes open?”

The Emperor asked with a slightly stiff face.

Perhaps because of those words, that expression now seemed to be one that was carefully watching my mood.

“It’s not necessarily like that.”

Rasilia struggled to calm down her quivering feelings.