At first, there was no response.

Idren knocked on the door a bit harder. Unable to hide his urgency, he called her name.

“Ophelia?”

She was already someone who had jumped from the balcony yesterday. Moreover, she had even chased out all the servants attending to her outside the room, so he couldn’t help but feel anxious.

Idren fidgeted his fingers nervously. It was then that a small voice was heard from beyond the door.

“…Come in.”

The subdued voice was completely cracked. The maid who Ophelia had chased out of the room must have heard that voice too, as she opened the door. Idren walked into the slightly dark bedroom of the princess. Despite the bright morning, Ophelia’s bedroom was subtly dark.

When the door closed behind him, Idren realized why. Wooden planks had been nailed over the balcony where sunlight should have been streaming in.

Idren hesitated at the two large boards crudely crossed over each other. It was an intention as violent as it was blatant.

What brought him back to reality from his frozen state was the other person’s voice.

“Why did you come?”

Only then regaining his sense of reality, Idren looked toward where the voice had come from. Ophelia was sitting on the bed, wearing plainer clothes than yesterday.

She nodded towards the chair beside the bed. After sitting down as instructed, Idren realized that her attitude was strangely poor. Ophelia had never indicated something in that manner before.

That wasn’t the only unfamiliar thing. The plain clothes without any common accessories, the tired and disheveled posture – all of it was something he was seeing for the first time.

The Ophelia he knew always maintained an upright posture. Wearing whatever was most valuable was a given.

When she looked down at something with a cold face, Idren sometimes wondered if his wife had actually been born in the midst of frost and north wind.

She had been someone without even an inch of error like that.

But in the shadowy room, Ophelia looked more fragile than ever before.

It was then that those dark blue eyes looked up at him.

“I asked why you came?”

The question with its raised end had now become sharp. Belatedly realizing that he hadn’t answered her question, Idren opened his mouth.

“Yesterday…”

“If it’s about that, forget it.”

Ophelia cut him off before he could finish. It was an irritated tone, but if one listened carefully, it was an answer that had just been carelessly passed over.

Despite coming to admit he was wrong, realizing that she didn’t even consider listening to an apology worth her time, as if she wasn’t holding yesterday’s incident in her heart at all, something welled up inside him. Idren frowned.

Strictly speaking, the criticism he had poured out yesterday was justified.

Yet such an indifferent attitude.

However, Ophelia’s question came faster than any words he could say about it.

“Do you know why this happened?”

It was a sentence without a proper subject, but Idren understood its meaning immediately.

‘This’ must refer to their regression to the past that had happened to them.

By now, Idren was fully aware that all of this was reality. The racing heartbeat on the day Ophelia fell from the balcony had made him realize the truth.

But if asked why this had happened to them, he too knew nothing. Idren shook his head. Ophelia let out a deep sigh.

“…I see.”

And Ophelia rubbed her face with both hands. Idren watched her bare face like a blank sheet and her irritated gestures. It was so unfamiliar to see her emotions exposed so plainly that he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Ophelia had never shown him such emotions before.

Suddenly, he thought that maybe she would answer his questions now. Idren’s lips moved slightly.

But once again, Ophelia was a little faster.

“If you have nothing more to say, could you leave? I’m tired.”

The person Idren met after leaving the room was Pennel, who had been waiting outside. As they walked down the corridor together, the knight spoke when there was no one around.

“Your Highness, may I ask just one thing?”

Idren nodded. However, even with permission granted, Pennel asked cautiously while gauging his reaction.

“Will you proceed with the marriage as planned?”

At those words, Idren stopped in the corridor.

With so much happening, he had momentarily forgotten that he and Ophelia were not yet married.

“Of course…”

He was about to say, of course we should.

But the words he had heard yesterday caught him.

“You’re the one who sent the marriage proposal to my father, not me, so how do you expect me to refuse?”

Hearing those words, Idren realized what he had missed.

If he was going to propose, he should have asked for Ophelia’s opinion first.

Of course, cases where personal feelings were considered in royal marriages were rare. The more that was attached to a name, the more people considered matching conditions important rather than hearts.

That’s why their families were so diverse.

While some couples were so close it was hard to believe their union was arranged, others couldn’t even properly manage their one lower body, bringing evidence of infidelity.

Knowing this fact, Idren hadn’t expected much from Ophelia after marriage. Believing that if he didn’t force anything, she would someday turn to him.

But if the truth was that he had buttoned the first button wrong from the start.

Realizing his hesitation, Pennel added.

“Well, it may be presumptuous of me to say, but the Princess of Reden seems to be a different person from who Your Highness knows.”

At those words, Idren realized why Pennel had brought up the marriage.

Originally, he at this time had been excited with expectations for the marriage. That was because the Princess of Reden he remembered was an honest and kind person.

But Pennel had expressed concern about him marrying someone he didn’t properly know.

Although it had a long history and possessed one of the three sacred objects, Reden was not a good country for a marriage alliance. Words of the Reden King’s excessive extravagance often reached beyond the borders.

Knowing that Pennel was taking a negative attitude solely out of concern for him, Idren had told him about Ophelia to reassure him.

After hearing about her character and his past memories, which were considerably gilded due to his personal fondness, Pennel had accepted the proposal. The reason being that even if political gains were given up, married life would not be unfortunate with such a person.

That’s why, when the married life he later encountered was different from what he had expected, Pennel was also the one who was most concerned.

“…I should have opposed it more strongly then.”

On a night spent on the battlefield, Pennel had said such words after drinking a lot.

“Then even if you couldn’t love her, you would have had someone you could rely on, Your Highness.”

Idren couldn’t refute those words.

But he couldn’t say he regretted marrying Ophelia either. Because if he hadn’t desired her, he wouldn’t have sat on the throne in the first place.

But this time, Pennel at least didn’t need to worry about him being disappointed.

He already knew how cold and insensitive Ophelia was.

Idren answered the knight who was looking at him with concerned eyes.

“I already know what kind of person she is.”

The knight looked at him with eyes doubting if he really knew properly, but didn’t add any more words.

It was just as they were turning a corner.

“Duke Consort.”

Idren narrowed his brows at the voice he had heard this morning as well.

“Prince Mahanas.”

A man with grayish hair and blue-green eyes was standing in front of him.

Although the overall color scheme was similar to Ophelia’s, the saturation and brightness were clearly different. The man raised the corners of his mouth.

Idren felt disgusted by that friendly smile. It was natural given what he knew about Ophelia’s relationship with her family.

Instead of smiling back, Idren hardened his face and said.

“The balcony of the Princess’s room is blocked. It looked so ugly it made people uncomfortable.”

The prince seemed a bit taken aback by his hostile attitude, but flexibly made an excuse.

“As you know, she did something dangerous yesterday, so it was blocked in haste out of urgency.”

“Even so, leaving the room in that state, wouldn’t even a sane person do something dangerous?”

If the balcony needed to be blocked, there were many other ways. They could have installed new hinges or changed the latch so the door only opened from the outside. Considering Ophelia’s status and aesthetics, those would have been much better methods.

Yet choosing such a crude method was likely meant to make someone feel threatened.

That someone probably wasn’t him, but rather because of that, Idren found the fact unpleasant.

In front of him, the King and Prince of Reden pretended to cherish Ophelia. The five-page letter full of affection for his daughter that the King of Reden had written was still kept on his desk.

Of course, the latter part of that letter said that because he cherished his daughter so much, he couldn’t give her away for just any bride price, but Idren hadn’t doubted those words. Because the Ophelia he knew was someone worth loving.

But now Idren knew. Ophelia did not have a good relationship with her family.

Idren, who passed by the prince without greeting, called the knight.

“Pennel.”

The knight, who had seen him sharpen his blade against the prince, answered tensely.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The wedding will proceed as scheduled.”

No matter how their situation had changed, Ophelia would marry him.

Because she needed this marriage.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.