“No, Anthony von Raymond barely leaves his mansion and doesn’t reveal himself.”

Carson briefly touched his glass and sank into thought. Who could be the daring person to bring the former empress, who had moved to the border, here to hide her?

“Our former empress has a grandson there.”

Originally, the empress had two daughters, but she lost the younger one during the rebellion. And the elder daughter had already become the mistress of the Paddleton Marquis family and was living outside the palace, far away in a distant city.

“We’ve naturally placed someone there.”

“If someone is determined to hide, finding them won’t be easy.”

“……”

“But it’s different with objects.”

“Objects?”

“Our former empress, you see. She was a high noble from birth. Even if there was only a thin piece of paper under her pillow, it would bother her so much that she wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
In response to the abrupt remark, Noah raised his eyebrows.

“There’s one thing that our former empress, who is so sensitive, can never quit.”

The empress only drank particularly red barbarian mountain wine among various wines.

Whenever Carson sought the empress, she was always drinking that wine. A stunning time follower.

“I can endure for a day or two.”

“Ah….”

Only then did Noah understand the emperor’s words.

“Inspect everything entering the house of Manusute and his adopted family, Anthony von Raymond, and the residence of Lady Paddleton.”

“Understood.”

“The price of a box of that wine is enough to buy a top-grade warhorse, so it won’t be easy to continue hiding it.”

“I’ll expand the search range. Someone else might have lent a hand.”

“Good.”

Noah, who had urgent matters to attend to, quickly left the place.

Night had also arrived at the imperial palace. Instead of going straight to bed, Carson walked to the window.

The silence was so profound that the sound of ice clinking in the glass could be heard loudly.

The scenery he gazed at outside the window somehow brought comforting peace to Carson, similar to what Ines saw.

“I can wait. Ah, I can wait.”

After declaring that she would become the empress, Ines had not hesitated in her actions. She refrained from speaking when she had not yet received his proposal.

However, it was clear that Ines was making continuous efforts to come to him.

Uttering a soliloquy with no one to listen, he chuckled.

“There’s no one like him.”

Even so, Ines always came like a wave and disappeared like foam. Always so irresistibly beautiful that it made his heart ache.

Wanting to grasp her and confirm her true self in his hands, one side of his chest always tightened.

At that moment, a guard standing outside the door knocked on Carson’s door.

Carson hastily placed the glass he was holding on the window sill carelessly and rushed to the door. At the same time, he shouted outside.

“Let her in.”

Lately, Ines had almost not experienced seizures. However, there was no reason for a guard to urgently knock on the door at this hour unless it was that.

The door began to open, and Carson hurried to welcome Ines, expecting her to pour into his arms.

However, he could only come to a sudden stop in his place.

“Where… go out?”

Ines did not gasp for breath, nor did she rush in like she was going to collapse inside. Clad in a black robe turned inside out, she stepped inside calmly.

“No.”

“But why are you wearing a robe on this night?”

Ines looked up at Carson, who was standing in the attire of a knight once again today. It wasn’t easy to gather the courage to look at the man illuminated by the faint moonlight, appearing so beautiful.

He was still a man perfectly harmonizing with the moon.

His heart thumped, painfully pounding against his chest.
Ines barely caught her breath and, instead of answering his question, lowered the hood of her robe. The moment the hood slipped off her head, Carson took a sharp breath.

Above Ines’s head, the red jewel he had given her was securely in place. The vivid decoration, as if it had always belonged to Ines from the beginning, bloomed like a flower atop her head.

Carson closed his eyes in the overwhelming emotions that could not be precisely defined. And now, he recalled the beautiful mother he could only see in portraits.

“Your Majesty.”

Ines approached with a step and placed her hand on Carson’s arm. As her slightly chilly fingertips touched his body, Carson’s shoulders stiffened.

Whenever Ines came close, instead of the warm fragrance he could usually smell, an unfamiliar and distant scent approached first. Even with his eyes closed, Carson could sense everything about Ines.

“Your Majesty.”

Once again, that soft voice calling him, the breath slightly shorter than usual, the eyes looking at him with a tense expression, the hesitation felt in the slightly tightened hand.

All these things, which could be known even without seeing, made his breath quicken.

Carson barely opened his eyes and stared at Ines. Under normal circumstances, he might have made a light joke, but somehow, he couldn’t say anything now.

Once again, Ines was the one to break the silence that settled between them.

“I’ve come to return Your Majesty’s belongings and receive my item.”

Carson swallowed hard. And he gazed at her eyes endlessly. What could this woman be saying now?

“Tonight, please return my necklace.”