Although it wasn’t wrong to say so, there was something unsatisfactory about agreeing. Ophelia snapped at the man who still hadn’t turned his head towards her.

“Are you really going to act this petty?”

“We lived together for three years, and you didn’t know? I’m originally petty.”

And Idren added in an even more subdued voice. Well, how could you know.

“Were you ever interested in me?”

His voice sounded as if she was a very bad person, grinding away at something of his.

But wasn’t it the same for him, not wanting attention? Ophelia remembered how he had completely excluded her from internal affairs.

Not long after they were married, Idren had handed over the port and nearby villa to her, saying,

“I’ll take care of the internal affairs, you just take care of your share of the land.”

And he had immediately added before she could say anything.

“I won’t interfere with whatever you do in there, so don’t worry about it.”

Of course, she wasn’t hurt by that. A husband with a faint presence was far better than one who meddled in every little thing.

After keeping their distance by mutual agreement like that – although there was no direct conversation about it, judging from his behavior so far, it was an agreement – now he’s pretending to be innocent.

Why didn’t she realize back then how childish this man was?

Annoyed, Ophelia sank into the chair. She took off her shoes and pulled up her knees. She was already tired, and it seemed better to just sleep.

She closed her eyes and snapped,

“Fine, it doesn’t matter if you’re the only one who knows something that wasn’t even certain.”

And the woman turned her body slightly, turning her back as if she wouldn’t listen to him anymore. Only then did Idren slightly turn his head to look at her.

Ophelia had her eyes closed with her brow slightly furrowed. A small crunching sound could be heard as if she was biting the candy in her mouth.

At that sound, Idren rolled the candy in his own mouth once and carefully asked.

“……How about we make a deal?”

Ophelia’s eyebrows twitched slightly. She asked in a somewhat softer voice.

“A deal?”

“Yes. Tell me why you took your life. Then I’ll tell you what I know.”

And Idren observed the woman who still had her eyes closed. He hoped Ophelia would welcome his proposal.

However, after a long silence, her response was a rejection.

“No.”

“……”

“Ask me something else instead. I’ll answer that.”

And Ophelia waited for a moment, but Idren didn’t revise the terms.

As she was extremely tired from not sleeping properly the night before, Ophelia didn’t wait for him long.

She bit and ate all the remaining candy and took a deep breath. The sunlight warmly enveloped her body.

When she opened her eyes again, the sunset was fading. Ophelia blinked, lying on her side. The red, flickering sunlight between the lowered curtains looked beautiful……

Wait, lying down?

Startled, she abruptly sat up. Something fell to the floor with a thud.

Ophelia realized that the garment with gold embroidery belonged to someone she knew. It was the outer garment Idren had been wearing.

As the outer garment that had clearly been covering her body fell, a chill came over her. Ophelia hugged herself. The clothes, which only focused on aesthetics, were too thin to provide any warmth.

While rubbing her exposed arms and looking around for a moment, Ophelia realized that she was not in the chair she had originally been in, but on the long chair opposite it. It seemed someone had moved her when she fell asleep.

It was then that the curtain behind her was drawn.

“Are you awake?”

Ophelia turned around at the familiar voice. A man in a simple shirt was looking down at her.

She nodded slowly, still not fully awake.

Idren looked at her hugging herself and his clothes on the floor, then strode over. He picked up the outer garment from the floor and grumbled.

“If you’re that cold, why don’t you at least cover yourself with the clothes?”

Ophelia couldn’t explain to him that she had just woken up and hadn’t intentionally discarded his clothes, but had dropped them while getting up. She was too tired for her mouth to work properly.

She mumbled the most concise word she could to explain her situation. It fell.

“……So you were waiting for someone to pick it up for you?”

Does this man get thorns in his mouth if he doesn’t say something stupid at least once a day?

Ophelia thought as she yawned. Meanwhile, Idren shook out the garment once and draped it over her shoulders.

“Just keep it on for now. I’ll find you new clothes when we get off the ship.”

Ophelia nodded halfheartedly at his words.

Idren looked down with troubled eyes at the woman who pulled the draped clothes a little closer, seemingly very cold. He wondered if he had been too hasty in bringing Ophelia along, carried away by emotions.

It was then that Ophelia, who had been nodding off a few times with her body curled up, asked.

“……Why are we on the ship for so long?”

And Ophelia yawned softly. She leaned her head against the soft black fabric.

In her past life, it hadn’t taken this long to cross the canal. They had first crossed over to Aglante’s land, then traveled by carriage to the nearby lord’s castle.

The man sitting next to her replied.

“We changed the destination. We decided to disembark at the dock near the lord’s castle.”

“Why?”

Idren did not say that he did so because he didn’t want to wake her. It was true that he had changed the schedule because of her alone, but somehow it felt unfair to say so to the person in question.

He made an arbitrary excuse.

“I thought it would be much more comfortable for you.”

It probably wasn’t.

While it might make sense when moving from Aglante to Reden, it was much better to use the canal briefly when going from Reden to Aglante. This was a fact she knew from using the canal in her past life.

But Ophelia did not expose his lie. There must have been some circumstances, and since she had slept comfortably because of it, she didn’t want to nitpick unnecessarily.

The man asked her as she blinked several times to chase away sleep.

“Are you not hungry?”

“I’m fine.”

“You didn’t even have a proper breakfast, did you? I can prepare a simple meal.”

“I don’t have an appetite since I just woke up.”

The man did not press her further. Thinking it was fortunate that he wasn’t being bothersome, Ophelia yawned once more. She asked the person sitting next to her.

“Where are the candies?”

Then the man went out beyond the curtain and came back after a moment with a bottle. Receiving it, Ophelia realized that only yellow candies remained.

“What is this?”

“I shared some with the knights.”

“My candies?”

“You said they were too sweet, didn’t you?”

And Idren nonchalantly added. The yellow ones are left.

Feeling annoyed at those words for no reason, Ophelia held the bottle back out to him. Never mind. I won’t eat them.

“Why are you like this again?”

“There must be a reason why only the yellow ones are left. Maybe they taste the worst.”

“That’s not it…!”

But the man couldn’t finish his sentence. Ophelia said one thing to the person who was acting exactly as he had said he was originally petty. You eat a lot of them.

It was then. A servant approached from beyond the curtain.

“Your Highness, we have arrived at the docking area. We will moor the ship.”

The man, who had been looking at her with wronged eyes until then, replied without even turning around. I see.

And he clutched the bottle of candies and snapped as if he was hurt.

“Is the color such a problem?”

Ophelia couldn’t tell the man, who was projecting emotions even onto candies, that she didn’t care about the color but just didn’t want to eat something that tasted bad. She didn’t have the chance as he disappeared beyond the curtain before she could open her mouth.

When the ship stopped and was moored at the dock, Ophelia drew back the curtain and went outside. Servants and knights were bustling about, packing luggage.

Even as they were carrying luggage or giving instructions, they would stop what they were doing and greet her first when they spotted her.

Ophelia passed indifferently through these overly polite people. They were Idren’s people anyway, not hers.

So they would turn on her if they knew she couldn’t be a fine wife to their master.

This was a fact she already knew from past experience.

Looking around with indifferent eyes, Ophelia spotted a familiar envelope on a small table. It was the envelope that had contained the candies.

Picking it up without thinking, Ophelia realized the envelope was heavier than she had expected.

It was strange, as she had clearly seen that only yellow candies remained. She opened the envelope.

Inside the envelope were several unopened bottles of candy. Yellow, red, light green, blue, bottles well-filled with candies of each color.

And she realized that there were also a few candies rolling around at the bottom of the envelope. They were light green and red candies.

Ophelia frowned as she realized that Idren had deliberately brought only the yellow candies to her. At this point, she wondered if something had been added to the yellow candies.

Ophelia raised her head and looked for the man who had lied. Idren was talking to someone on the deck.

It was just as she was about to go over there with the envelope of candies as evidence. Someone’s shout was heard.

“Is the princess of Reden here?”