Ophelia thought as she looked at the old man who had come at her call. Idren wouldn’t like this.

He was the one who called for a doctor in Egelbamat, but he was also the one who prevented her from taking medicine.

Ophelia was agreeing with him because he had persuaded her with ‘evidence’ that his efforts were effective.

Of course, that path wasn’t peaceful.

Although stopping the medicine was by agreement, Ophelia had a few minor disputes with Idren afterward. Unable to sleep comfortably, her nerves were on edge, and trying not to let the other see her agitated state was tiring.

As that fatigue built up, it would occasionally overflow. Then Ophelia would feel like it was time to call a doctor again.

Idren would stop her each time – though it was more like soothing than stopping – and Ophelia would get irritated at him for not agreeing.

That day was the same. Seeing the side effects, Ophelia had spoken sharply to the man who was just offering her warm tea.

“Didn’t you call the doctor because you thought I was the problem anyway?”

She knew it was weak to deflect the topic like that.

Idren wasn’t trying to win against her, so there was nothing to gain by making him silent with sarcastic words.

But she had long since abandoned the gentle speech of considering others since her days as a princess. Ophelia was used to grabbing onto words to assert her opinion when talking to people.

Idren looked at her with his mouth tightly shut.

As he remained silent, Ophelia thought this time he would surely get angry.

Though he always seemed to be holding back when dealing with her, Idren wasn’t the type to let others treat him unfairly.

So this time he’ll get angry. After watching his reaction despite being the one who spoke first, Ophelia soon gave up.

Go ahead and get angry. I don’t know what to do anyway.

Sometimes she would retreat like that. It was easier to predict staying in familiar misery than stepping into unfamiliar territory.

But what came after the silence wasn’t “I can’t take it anymore” either.

“I didn’t call the doctor because I thought you had a problem.”

“Then why did you call him?”

Though it didn’t come out softly due to the attitude she had maintained until just now, it was actually something she had wanted to ask for a long time.

On the day she met Mahanas, Idren had said there was nothing wrong with her, who couldn’t control her impulses in an unladylike manner. He had said it was perfectly understandable that her memories were fragmented and that she was much more careless than others.

Yet when he left, he had prepared a doctor, so she couldn’t help but be concerned.

Maybe this man also thought I wasn’t in my right mind, and just said I was fine to soothe me.

She had been anxious about that but couldn’t bring herself to ask. She feared she would regret facing the truth if it was uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Idren didn’t change the attitude he had maintained that day.

He answered carefully avoiding the parts she might be sensitive about.

“I just hoped you wouldn’t be uncomfortable when I wasn’t around.”

And the man reached out his hand. Ophelia let him gently caress the back of her hand.

“…Why did you think I would be uncomfortable?”

“Well, I thought you might have trouble sleeping, like now.”

Matching her softened attitude, he lowered his voice even more gently and gently pulled her arm. Ophelia followed along with the man who was now acting quite like a lover.

“I thought you might get frustrated with no one to vent your anger to.”

“Normal people don’t seek doctors for that.”

“That differs from person to person.”

Idren seemed to truly believe that.

So Ophelia couldn’t tell the man hugging her as if he had never heard her irritation not to spout sophistry.

But she couldn’t just agree either.

“…If, as you say, there’s nothing wrong with me and you brought in a doctor for convenience, why don’t you let me take the medicine he gives?”

And Ophelia added, Don’t say it’s for my health. That excuse was tiresome, and she didn’t want to hear it because she couldn’t refute it.

It was an unfair rule, but Idren didn’t object. Fiddling with her hand, he said,

“There’s no need to take medicine.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re frustrated, it would be more relieving to vent to me, and as for sleepless nights, I can make efforts so you don’t have to toss and turn.”

Blinking at the unexpected answer, Ophelia tried to refute the man who casually said things that wouldn’t even get their costs back.

But Idren was a bit faster.

“If you want, I could even learn a lullaby.”

Being several years past coming of age, Ophelia didn’t want to fall asleep listening to a lullaby, even if sung by her husband, so she couldn’t pick at his words anymore.

After that day, the arguments about medicine and such came to a temporary end. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t find words to beat a lullaby.

Recalling the past conversation, Ophelia turned her attention back to the doctor in front of her.

The important thing was that Idren probably wouldn’t like what she was about to do.

It’s only for about a week anyway. Ophelia took a small breath. I can stop again after that.

As for calling the doctor, it would be fine as long as Idren didn’t find out. He had said he wouldn’t pry into things she was determined to hide.

He wasn’t the type of man to go back on his word, so even if things seemed a bit off, he wouldn’t go snooping around.

Having come to a conclusion, she opened her mouth.

“I’d like you to prescribe me some medicine.”

I don’t know what Ophelia is thinking.

Idren sighed deeply as he allocated the war reparations received from Brinwell according to their uses.

After returning from an outing, Ophelia suddenly said they should use separate rooms.

He couldn’t bring himself to object. It was because he hadn’t done anything particularly good.

One needs to have a leg to stand on to make unreasonable demands. All he could do for Ophelia was to try to curry favor.

Though it didn’t seem like he was very good at that either.

Before his gloom could escalate into questioning his own reason for existence, Idren turned another page of the document. It was a financial report from Galicia.

Although the governorship belonged to Ophelia, Galicia was still under royal jurisdiction, so monthly financial reports were submitted.

Of course, Ophelia didn’t write them herself; they were prepared and submitted by the governor’s residence steward along with Dahel.

Idren furrowed his brow as he flipped through the pages, checking for any notable changes.

There were traces of Ophelia disposing of assets.

Judging by the date stamped with the governor’s seal, it seemed to have been processed on the day of her outing.

Moreover, the scale wasn’t small either. It felt closer to liquidating assets rather than disposing of them for some minor expense.

To begin with, it’s not like she didn’t have cash, so there was no reason to liquidate assets even if she needed to spend money.

Did she find something she wanted? The thought suddenly occurred to him, but it didn’t seem to be the case no matter how he looked at it.

Even in her past life when she bought many expensive items, Ophelia had never really shown material desire. Idren doubted if she even properly remembered a few of the numerous jewels she had worn around her neck.

Normally, he would have just let such signs pass, but recently there have been quite a few things weighing on his mind.

Ophelia had agreed to love him, but she hadn’t promised him a future.

He wasn’t so blind as to forget the latter just because romance was sweet.

After glaring at the numbers written on the document for a moment, Idren put down the paper. He rang a bell to summon a servant and ordered,

“Tell Hazel Chesa that I’m looking for her.”

Hazel looked at the king who had called her out of the blue and hadn’t spoken for several minutes.

She wasn’t trying to have disrespectful thoughts, but she was beginning to suspect the purpose of this interview.

While not quite an extreme efficiency enthusiast, the king was a person who valued his time.

Like most royalty, he was the type to make others wait rather than waiting himself.

In other words, it was very awkward for her that he was being silent like this now.

Even trying to gauge if he was angry, there was no trace of regret on the man’s brow. As much as his personality wasn’t good, he didn’t particularly try to hide his sensitivity, so Hazel could accurately distinguish when he was in a good or bad mood.

But now it didn’t seem like that either.

Naturally, her thoughts drifted to her cousin who seemed to have fallen out of favor recently, but there hadn’t been any news lately. As she tended to pick up a lot of gossip around the palace, Hazel didn’t think anything major had happened without her knowledge.

Just as she was starting to feel antsy, the king spoke.

“Ophelia went out recently, didn’t she.”