However, the Emperor alone continued to speak with a grin.

“Thanks to squeezing all the war reparations out of those thorn-in-my-side Baden people, my coffers will be quite full for the time being. The North must feel secure with such a talented person like you.”

The last words were spoken as if deliberately meant to be heard as praise. Valentin’s knights all bowed their heads in unison.

“Truly, you are the light of Ansgar.”

The Emperor smiled with satisfaction and waved his hand.

“You must all be tired from the long journey. I’ve unnecessarily kept people who are excessively fatigued. You may withdraw and rest now. We shall see each other at the evening banquet.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

As Valentin bowed his head according to protocol, the Emperor waved his hand as if he had received enough courtesy.

Then he abruptly turned around and led the nobles up the stairs with large strides.

As Adelheit straightened her slightly bent waist, the Emperor’s chamberlain immediately approached.

“Please board the carriage. His Majesty has instructed to provide you with a separate palace.”

“A separate palace?”

“Yes. Though not far in terms of location, it would be somewhat difficult to walk there.”

People hurriedly mounted horses and carriages again. Belying the chamberlain’s words that it was ‘not far’, they rode for quite a while.

“Here we are, we’ve arrived.”

The place where the carriage finally stopped was in front of a building that looked like a miniature version of the main palace.

In Frigma, besides the main palace, there were twelve more separate palaces, and among them, the lodging assigned to Ansgar was a building relatively close to the main palace.

Adelheit looked with admiring eyes at the luxurious garden attached to the separate palace, the training ground, and the knights’ quarters that could comfortably accommodate fifteen guards.

“This way, please.”

A servant who quickly attached himself as soon as they got off the carriage led the way. Adelheit saw Valentin being guided to a nearby room, and entered through the door opened by the servant.

The room was spacious and pleasant. The furniture was uniformly splendid, and soft sunlight poured in through the large window facing east.

“We greet Your Highness.”

The palace maids who were unpacking rushed to greet her politely upon seeing her.

It seemed that while they were held up by the Emperor, the luggage loaded on the baggage wagons had already arrived here.

“We will serve you wholeheartedly without any inconvenience from now on.”

“Lady attendant, please follow me. Your luggage has been unpacked in the adjacent room.”

Margaret, looking somewhat awkward with her own attending maid, quickly followed the maid’s urging and left the room.

In Ansgar, there was no distinction in status between a lady’s maid who attended to the mistress and a maid who did miscellaneous chores.

Because there was such a shortage of hands that rather than systematically assigning tasks, whoever was free at the time would take care of the work.

“Your Highness. Shall I prepare bath water for you?”

Adelheit quickly nodded at the perceptive maid’s suggestion. She had been feeling uncomfortable with dried sweat.

She wanted to throw off these dirty clothes as soon as possible.

“Please do.”

The maid immediately left the room and soon returned with servants carrying basins of boiling water.

The maids skillfully mixed the water from the basin with cold water from a kettle to fill the bathtub, then dropped dried flower petals and fragrant oils.

A pleasantly fresh fragrance spread through the air.

“It’s ready.”

Adelheit rejected the maids’ offers to help her undress, quickly took off her clothes and slid into the water.

As she immersed her body in the warm water, her nerves, which had been on edge from the long journey, settled down calmly.

“How’s the water temperature? I’ll float some more flower petals for you.”

“Please extend your elbow for a moment. I’ll scrub it with a loofah for you.”

The maids assigned solely for her bath service made gentle requests.

The southern culture of relying on servants’ hands for everything now felt unfamiliar. Of course, even when she lived in Laihenau, only Grita was the maid who volunteered to do such things for her.

‘Grita.’

Remembering the old nanny made one part of her heart sting.

Adelheit planned to do her best to find Grita’s whereabouts while staying in the capital.

There was a mercenary group in the capital with a dense information network throughout Denburg. Somehow, she might be able to get news through them.

With luck, it might even be possible to locate her.

‘She wouldn’t have gone back to Laihenau… So now the problem is how to contact the mercenary group. How can I get away from the imperial palace even for a moment?’

If the sly Yannik were here, he would have been a great help in such matters, but unfortunately, he was supposed to stay at the castle to receive education as the next butler.

It was hard to believe that such a mischievous fellow was the nephew of the strict Hermann.

While anxiously pondering, the maids gently massaged her shoulders, tense from stress, with hands coated in fragrant oil.

Adelheit sank slowly into the water, letting out a satisfied moan.

“Your hair is so beautiful.”

“And the color, how can it be like golden thread?”

“It matches perfectly with the Duke’s eye color.”

The maids lathered up plenty of soap bubbles and rubbed every corner of her hair, then rinsed it clean until no soap water came out. The uncomfortable feeling of not having washed properly for days was refreshingly washed away.

As she soaked her body languidly in the hot water, receiving such attentive care, sleep began to creep in.

“Are you awake?”

Adelheit, barely risen from a deep sleep, smiled sweetly at Valentin sitting by her bedside.

Having just woken up, she found it difficult to distinguish whether what she was seeing was a dream or reality.

Valentin made a sound as if his breath was momentarily caught, then leaned down to bury his forehead in the nape of her neck.

“That’s cheating.”

The veins on the back of his hand, gripping the sheet instead of her, stood out prominently. His voice, tinged with a strange patience, leaked out as if his longing had deepened at the familiar scent.

“Smiling like that right after waking up is too much.”

Though he tried to cover it with a sleepy smile, it couldn’t hide all the desire pooled inside.

Adelheit lightly stroked his spine, tense like a tightly drawn bowstring.

She felt his body stiffen. Eventually, Valentin lifted his head from her neck and murmured gloomily.

“Don’t tempt me. You haven’t even fully recovered from fatigue.”

“That’s… I didn’t intend to.”

“Sleep a bit more. I’ll stay by your side.”

Even while receiving such an outpouring of affection, she always wondered. If she didn’t resemble ‘that woman’, or if she didn’t remind him of ‘that woman’…

Would Valentin have still been this tender to her…

“Adel. What useless thoughts again.”

“…Can you read my mind now?”

“Of course not.”

“Then.”

“You’re biting your lip. It doesn’t seem like a good thought.”

He gently brushed her bitten lip with his thumb.

As if feeling the soft sensation, his fingers gradually moved to her cheek, ear, and neck. Her breath caught from the ticklish feeling.

While laughing, she suddenly realized that the surroundings were too dark.

“Wait a moment… What time is it now? This isn’t the time for this. We need to prepare to attend the banquet.”

“The banquet is over, Adel.”

“The, the banquet is over?”

It felt like ice water had been poured over her head in an instant.

She was startled and tried to get up from the bed, nearly headbutting Valentin’s chin.

He calmly settled Adel’s bewilderment.

“It’s okay to rest more. I told them that you couldn’t attend because you weren’t feeling well.”

“But, but was there no problem? I shouldn’t have dared to miss an event His Majesty was attending.”

“Don’t worry. I resolved everything well.”

“…Really?”

“What benefit would I gain by lying about this?”

He answered with a slight chuckle. Despite Valentin’s calm attitude, Adelheit’s uneasiness didn’t easily subside.

The Emperor was known to react most sensitively to situations where nobles showed defiance towards him.

‘Once wrongly stigmatized, he’s also famous for holding very long grudges.’

Therefore, it was absolutely necessary to attend invited banquets by any means possible.

If one failed to attend even once without a valid reason, accusations of harboring dirty schemes would immediately fly.

‘The Count of Laihenau always grumbled that His Majesty was excessively sensitive.’

She fidgeted with her hands under the blanket and said,

“He might have said it was fine in front of you, but His Majesty is not a generous person. Disadvantages might come later.”

“It won’t. After all, what the Emperor wanted to show the nobles was this body of mine.”

Valentin said, finding and tightly grasping her hand.

Indeed. Recalling how the two of them stood side by side today, it made sense that the Emperor would be particularly fond of Valentin.

The Emperor and Valentin looked like father and son beyond just being blood relatives.

While Crown Prince Mikhail standing nearby didn’t resemble the Emperor at all, Valentin was draped from head to toe in the symbols of the imperial family like a banner.

Moreover, the Emperor’s uncontrollable affection…

It occurred to her that the gossipmongers’ loose talk about Valentin possibly ousting Mikhail from the position of Crown Prince might not be mere exaggeration.

Adelheit chewed on her lip.

“Your lip again.”

“Ah…”

At his remark, she stopped biting her lip.

Valentin stroked her lip, indented with teeth marks, with his thumb. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

“That’s a really bad habit.”