Adel hoped her attitude seemed light enough. She wished he would laugh it off as if he had heard an amusing joke. However, Valentin simply stared at her with inscrutable eyes.

A faint blush crept onto Adel’s pale cheeks. She hastily changed the subject.

“And, there’s one more thing I wanted to ask. About Grita.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had made a mistake and turned deathly pale. It was such a sensitive topic, she had intended to ask in a gentler atmosphere…

But it was already too late. As she expected, Valentin smoothly lifted his lips, but his eyes weren’t smiling at all.

“What is it?”

She struggled for a while to choose words that would sound alright, but finally realizing that no matter how she phrased it, it would sound strange, she opened her mouth resignedly.

“About the attack on Grita. The nanny seemed to think it was the work of the ‘Dragon of Bitzleben’.”

“And?”

“Well… perhaps, though it’s unlikely.”

She swallowed the saliva pooled in her mouth. Glancing at Valentin, she saw his lips curve into an even more pronounced arc.

“What seems unlikely?”

“Surely, not really…”

“I haven’t said a word yet, Adel.”

He spoke in a clear voice, blinking his eyes slowly. Adel realized there was no way to hear the truth except by asking him more directly. She looked up at Valentin anxiously.

“The attack on the nanny… It wasn’t Your Highness’s doing, was it?”

She realized she was hoping for a ‘no’ answer more desperately than she had thought. Ever since realizing Valentin was the Dragon of Bitzleben, this had been her greatest fear.

If he was the monster that had harmed Grita, he was someone she should never trust. No matter how infatuated he pretended to be with her, no matter how much he lavished her with the warm affection she had so desperately wanted.

“Well.”

Valentin smiled, baring his teeth as if her question was very interesting. It was the coldest smile Adel had ever seen from him.

“What do you think?”

Adel pondered deeply. Only the ‘Shadow’ could break through Morig’s veil. But any powerful monster could cross through the pierced veil.

However, no monster had been seen wandering around. It was unnatural even considering that Ansgar Castle had few permanent residents compared to its size.

Monsters leave ‘ashes’ even when they die, and those ‘ashes’ must be reported to the district priest. There was a slight possibility that an inexperienced servant might have forgotten to report.

Above all, the biggest problem was that the curse was still in effect. This meant there was a high probability that the monster was still alive and roaming around this area. And in that case, most likely…

Adel met Valentin’s persistent gaze without avoiding it.

“I’ve heard that monsters obey your orders.”

He let out a short laugh, but it didn’t sound pleasant at all. Adel scraped together what little courage she had left.

“Did you ever order the monsters to harm Grita?”

“Valentin.”

“Yes?”

“I told you to call me by name if you don’t want to be suspected.”

“…”

“And what was it… Did I harm Adel’s nanny? To answer, no, I didn’t.”

“…Is that true?”

Adel hoped her voice didn’t sound too doubtful. But somehow, she felt she had failed from the moment she opened her mouth.

“The power of the curse that took Grita’s voice isn’t weakening. Is there a chance that other monsters roaming nearby might slip out of control? If there is even a slight possibility…”

“Adel.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know anything about it.”

His eyes, which had still held some warmth, sank coldly. He twisted his lips and spoke again.

“What’s important to me is that without discussing a single word properly, now you’re asking if I attacked your… nanny.”

“That’s…”

“If I had moved, I wouldn’t have bothered to leave her alive.”

Adel drew in a short breath. The calmness in his tone felt unbearably cold. She barely managed to part her frozen lips.

“I apologize if I offended you.”

“No one likes being suspected by their partner.”

“Pa-partner?”

“Then what did you think you were to me?”

“That’s…”

“Wow. Were you really planning to just give your body? Without giving any of your heart?”

As he spoke mischievously, Adel’s small face turned bright red.

“Where on earth do you learn to say such things?”

“Well.”

He grasped Adel’s chin and tilted his head slightly. He whispered softly into her ear.

“Do you know what kind of imagination I have every time I see you?”

“…”

“Come straight to the bedroom when the sun sets.”

“What, why…”

“Didn’t you want me to regain the memories of this ‘body’ as soon as possible? For that, frequent contact with someone close is necessary. For example, like a wife…”

Adel blinked. Contact with someone close was important? If that was true, why hadn’t he said so until now? Just as Adel raised her head quickly to ask again, he let go of her chin and stepped back.

Almost simultaneously, there was a knock at the door.

“Your Highness.”

Adel was startled by the vibration she felt from the door she had her back to. Valentin didn’t even bat an eye, so unlike her, he must have sensed someone coming this way for a while.

Adel glanced at Valentin and carefully opened the door. A maid with a face full of freckles carefully greeted her.

“What is it?”

“The seamstress has arrived. She’s downstairs, may I send her up now?”

“Ah… the seamstress.”

She had completely forgotten. Adel rolled her large eyes towards Valentin. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any intention of pressing her further. Pressing? She suddenly realized their positions had reversed and felt a bit flustered, then hurriedly opened the door while floundering more than necessary.

“Y-yes, tell her to come up.”

Adel sighed and quickly smoothed out the creases in her skirt. The only thing she could glean from this conversation was one thing: Valentin was being overly sensitive.

Anyway, Grita was slowly recovering. Even by the most conservative estimate, her voice would return within a month, so she could ask then what she had seen.

However, a week later from that day. Grita went missing.

From the very next day after the sixth Sabbath of winter, an unusually heavy snowfall hit the entire Bitzleben region, including Ansgar. Rivers froze over, and people were busy clearing snow that piled up to their waists.

Even coming and going within the castle was difficult. Let alone exchanges with nearby territories, even the merchants who used to visit every few days had completely stopped coming.

Considering the unavoidable circumstances in the north, the ‘Victory Banquet’ to be held in the capital was naturally postponed to spring. This news, delivered by carrier pigeon, gave at least a glimmer of hope to Adel, who had been full of worries.

‘Valentin’s etiquette wasn’t perfect yet anyway. We did need a bit more time.’

Adel stopped while walking down the corridor and looked out the window. Although they had barely managed to clear the snow from the castle’s inner courtyard and the residential areas where the domain’s people lived closely together, everywhere she looked was still a field of white snow.

Grita disappeared from the castle on the night just before the heavy snow fell. If Grita had really left the mansion on her own, she couldn’t have chosen a better time. But just in case…

“Your Highness.”

Adel barely shook off her thoughts. Holding the ledger she had been hugging to her chest more tightly, she nodded in response to the old butler’s greeting.

“Ah, Hermann. What is it?”

“As you ordered, we’ve gathered the vagrants from the streets in the grand banquet hall. Although Ansgar has fewer of such people compared to other domains…”

“Yes. Go on.”

“At this rate, food supplies will decrease rapidly. The problem is that no one can predict how long we can hold out.”

“…”

“The servants’ anxiety is snowballing.”

Hermann spat out the words as if looking at the snow-covered window was disgusting.

She opened the ledger she was holding and checked the food section. There were still enough sacks filled with jerky, potatoes, dried grains, and vegetables. The most worrying point, if anything, was that hay to feed the horses and cattle was becoming slightly scarce.

“Even if we continue like this, we stored enough food to last for another month. We’ll have to wait for the snow to melt as early spring will come if we hold out a bit longer.”

Hermann still didn’t seem to agree with Adel’s words, but he nodded silently. The fact that early spring would soon arrive was undeniable.

As Adel was carefully examining the ledger, she suddenly asked as if she had just remembered something.

“How is the progress with the knights clearing the snow all the way to Regenbach Forest?”