“Huh? No. What are you saying…!”

Barhan jumped up and shook his head. By the looks of it, he wasn’t lying.

“Then what? Is there a war? Or are monsters pouring in? Or is the imperial family pressuring you? Is there some disease spreading in the territory?”

“None of that. The North is more peaceful than ever right now.”

Well then, why on earth!

“Then why is my husband always working overtime?!”

I pounded on the desk, pouring out my frustration.

The day after I learned he was coming home at 4 AM.

To maintain marital loyalty, I tried staying up without sleeping to wait for Dante.

But in the end, around 3:30 AM, I succumbed to sleep.

When I opened my eyes, the sun was high and the spot next to me was already empty.

From the next day on, I didn’t bother trying to wait up.

He had worked overtime two days in a row, so surely he’d come home early to sleep, I thought.

But then, 4 AM.

The door opened and closed. I woke up to the bed shaking.

After paying attention to Dante for two days, my body seemed to naturally wake up at the slightest movement.

…It can’t be helped.

I woke up from sleep while Dante came home from work.

And before I could say anything, Dante crawled into bed and promptly fell into a deep sleep.

However, the problem was that this became routine.

The next day too.

And the day after that.

4 AM.

As if it was his set bedtime, Dante crawled into bed at dawn, and I woke up.

For someone from the new country who used to sleep early and wake up late, it was nothing short of torture.

Fluttering with resentment and fatigue, I glared at Barhan again, panting.

“Barhan. What exactly is my husband doing every night? Do you know?”

“Well… There shouldn’t be much to deal with urgently these days…”

Barhan tilted his head, trailing off.

If so, it’s even stranger.

No. Why is he working overtime when there’s nothing urgent to do? Sneaking in at 4 AM, and falling asleep as soon as he lies down, so exhausted.

There’s no choice.

If even Barhan, his closest aide, doesn’t know the reason, I’ll have to ask him directly.

I’ll watch for one more day, and if he comes in at 4 again today, I’ll ask him directly tomorrow.

That night.

In my dream, ‘Please water the second flower.’ appeared.

It was a scene of the male lead Dante and the female protagonist Flora digging at each other.

Flora waited every night with open eyes for Dante to come to the bedroom, and Dante entered the bedroom at dawn every day.

But timid Flora couldn’t ask Dante even once, ‘Why do you sleep at dawn?’, and instead dug the ground thinking, ‘Does he dislike me and come late because he doesn’t want to sleep with me…?’

Indeed. It was the mindset befitting a master of digging.

But sometimes, perfect digging can also become a key.

Digging and digging and digging until she finally completed an underground bunker, Flora eventually exploded with sorrow and apology that she could no longer hold back.

Faced with a tearful Flora, Dante hesitated, unable to answer.

I can’t describe how frustrating it was to watch this scene.

You’re supposed to answer quickly!

The longer the answer is delayed, the more human nature makes you think, ‘Look at this guy?’

Oh, this sweet potato of frustration! Master of sweet potatoes! Well-roasted chestnut sweet potato!

In the end, because of Dante who had no answer and no response, Flora is deeply hurt. So with tears in her eyes, she says this.

Surprisingly, ‘Your Grace’ was omitted at the end.

Haha. Why do the female and male leads always omit important words and build up unnecessary misunderstandings?

Hit, and strike.

Strike, and hit.

Between the two people throwing unwanted counterpunches, only the readers were dying.

Did the two end up using separate rooms as a result? Well, that wasn’t the case either.

It was thanks to a strange tradition of the North.

According to Northern tradition, married couples had to sleep together for at least a year.

Except for unavoidable circumstances like reconnaissance missions.

Whether it was the author’s grand plan to keep the sweet potato frustrating female and male leads together, or the imperial family’s grand plan obsessed with seeing descendants from the Richter family.

Thanks to this strange tradition that was clearly someone’s grand plan, the two always slept in the same bed while building up misunderstandings.

…No, but.

That’s not what’s important right now.

What’s important now is that Dante’s 4 AM bedtime would continue even after divorcing me and marrying the female lead.

Realizing this shocking fact, I grabbed my head and cried out.

“So why does he sleep so late?!”

That’s when it happened.

The scene swiftly changed, and the story unfolded from Dante’s perspective.

The starting point was my sleeping face.

Huh? Me?

His mind was filled with images of me being afraid.

Every time Dante lay down on the bed, it was the back of me pretending to sleep while holding my breath and curling up.

Dante silently stared at my back, then closed his eyes from a distance.

But neither I nor Dante could fall asleep for a long time.

From then on, Dante deliberately spent nights alone in his office.

And when I was completely asleep. That is, only at 4 AM did he carefully enter the bedroom and close his eyes.

He also left the room early in the morning so that I wouldn’t be startled to see him when I woke up.

“…Fool.”

I muttered blankly.

Fool, idiot.

How can you have such a fierce face and muscles, but such a gentle and kind heart?

What kind of soft tofu is this?

Is it a marshmallow? Crispy on the outside, but melting softly on the inside?!

Somehow it felt like a huge stone was pressing down on my chest.

I thought I was losing sleep because of Dante, but who would have thought it was the opposite?

Dante gave up sleep because of me. The image of me in the past, treating Dante like a monster and being afraid of him, was tormenting him.

With a deep sigh, I opened my eyes wide.

It was dark all around, and moonlight was seeping in through the window.

“…What time is it now?”

Half-asleep, I checked the clock to find it was 3 AM.

As expected, the spot next to me was empty.

Staring dazedly at the empty space, I suddenly got up.

Now that I know the truth, I can’t just sit still.

Surely, in the past, I would have been terrified at the mere sight of Dante’s shadow.

But not now, right?

Because I know that he’s crispy on the outside, but full of soft, moist chocolate on the inside like a marshmallow.

What’s Dante, I wouldn’t mind even if Dante’s grandfather slept next to me…

…No. That might be a bit of a problem.

Anyway!

I charged forward like an enraged bull that had spotted a red cloth.

My destination was Dante’s office, where he would be spending the night with nothing to do.

Inside the dark office.

Dante, sprawled in his chair, was reading a book.

No, it was closer to just ‘having it open’ rather than actually reading.

With eyes full of drowsiness, no text was properly registering.

Reading the same part for the 12th time, Dante frowned and muttered.

“…Who’s Ricardo?”

Ah, the protagonist.

His large hand simply closed the book. There was no point in reading more as nothing was sinking in anyway.

His drowsy blue eyes scanned the window once, then the clock once.

3:05 AM.

Should he go to the bedroom a bit earlier today?

Conflicted by the overwhelming sleepiness for a moment, he ran a hand over his face and shook his head as he leaned back in his chair.

He might just end up waking her if he went in early for no reason.

He didn’t want his wife to lose sleep because of him.

Of course, he also thought that she probably wouldn’t be uncomfortable sleeping with him anymore.