The shop with a giant sign shaped like a candy, which would have surely brightened Yuan’s eyes if it were open, was firmly closed.

Since spring was approaching, it was clear that everyone had gathered to the land they had barely cultivated with their own hands.

The calm expression on Clad’s indifferent face was gradually filled with a sense of loss like a small boat that had drifted in.

To make matters worse, unexpectedly, dark clouds were rapidly approaching.

“It seems like it’s going to rain.”

Yuan spoke softly towards Clad, who seemed severely downcast.

Clad, too, was looking at the looming dark clouds. Maxim Kyeong gestured that he would prepare the carriage from a distance and quickly disappeared.
“It’s a good omen. I heard people have gone to plant crops, and rain would be a good thing, right?”

A good omen. Among the things written densely on the paper, it was an overly naive remark coming from someone who hadn’t done any of the items properly.

Clad, who was watching Yuan with a faint smile on her lips, soon pulled her arm, moving towards a gigantic but old and shabby antique shop visible across the street.

Entering the shop named [Rocksenhardt Objects], they unexpectedly encountered good fortune.

According to the shop’s unique way of selling items unrelated to the store’s name, there were more books than fancy antiques or unusual objects in this antique shop.

Yuan couldn’t get the ‘latest version’ of the Academy’s collection of medical papers she desired, but fortunately, she could find some books that were not several years old.

When Clad handed over a gold coin with a dissatisfied expression, the bent elderly man with a hunched back, who had been opening his eyes wide since they appeared, raised his head.

“How could I take money from Your Lordship? It’s nothing, but please accept it.”

“That’s enough.”

“Thanks to the grace of His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress, I was able to live this long… I’m just grateful, Your Highness Clad, the treasure of Uprises.”

The sound of the gold coin pouch that butler Gustaf had prepared stopped jingling.

From the rather shabby hands with more wrinkles in some places than others, a portrait of a young Clad from the time he was called “the young prince” unexpectedly appeared. The old man was holding it preciously.

“You have grown just like that. Beautiful and dignified. It’s like seeing the young days of Emperor Alexei.”

Syaah.

A downpour brought by the approaching dark clouds poured outside. The sound of raindrops tapping on the old window made the silence even deeper.

Yuan, who embraced the dusty books, alternated her gaze between the old man with a tender look as if looking at her grandson and the rhythmic drops of violet rain following the downpour.

“Having obtained a virtuous and beautiful vision, always be happy.”

Like a fading candlelight, the flickering voice turned into a warm light even for Yuan.

The old man, though old enough to sit and die with his eyes closed, still had a vibrant light of pure awe in his eyes.

Instead of the frozen Clad, Yuan bowed slightly, and holding dried meat and nameless fruits brought from another store instead of the refused gold coins, she came out.

“Please come again. Your Highness Prince, Your Highness Princess.”

The old man made his final farewell with a faint smile.

The couple stood side by side under the roof, unable to leave the front of the gigantic antique shop.
Yuan sighed as she saw Clad, dressed in a white dress like a girl going on a picnic, drenched under the roof for a moment.

“Monica put so much effort into dressing me up, and now I’m soaked.”

Clad, who seemed to be sinking from earlier, looked concernedly at him, and their eyes met.

It wasn’t her eyes that Clad’s eyes focused on; it was on the wet clothes. His eyes were darkened as he slowly scanned Clad’s clothes, which were soaked, revealing the lace-inserted sleeves with tightly buttoned pearl buttons on the worn-out book he held in his hands.

“Is it so unbearable to see me like this?”

With the decorated hair and the messy state of clothes, Clad always seemed dissatisfied with her appearance, and it probably wouldn’t be any different now.

Yuan, trying to get a better look at herself in the closed glass of the men’s store across the street, was suddenly pulled towards Clad by a force, standing lifelessly in front of him.

“Wait until the carriage comes. Don’t wander around anywhere as you please.”

Soon, a very warm heat reached her back. He untied the knot of the cloak he was wearing and put her into it, revealing the front of the cloak.

It seemed like they were sharing one cloak.

Yuan, standing dazed in his arms and feeling the raindrops falling through her wet clothes, was at a loss about his intentions.

“… Your Highness?”

“I asked the tailor not to make any white clothes.”

“Is there something wrong with these clothes? Is it strange?”

Yuan asked a bit sheepishly, but Clad didn’t respond.

However, as the night approached, between the rhythmic raindrops that couldn’t hide the sound of falling, his breath poured onto her forehead and nape of her neck, revealed by the wet clothes.

His eyes, which were focused on her wet clothes, were obscured, possibly by the hair that had been carefully arranged.

The sound of raindrops tapping on the window couldn’t hide the rhythmic breathing that poured onto her forehead and the nape of her neck.

In the rhythm that seemed to be regular and a bit rough, Yuan trembled, cautiously grabbing his arm that crossed her shoulders.

When his sturdy arm twitched, Yuan’s ears heated up.

A clear vibration from his warm body, closely attached to her wing bones, seemed to resonate through her chest or somewhere around her ribs.

Perhaps, or maybe since earlier, his heart, which had started beating like crazy, might have been touching her rib or chest as it approached her wing bones.

Yuan carefully released his warm arm and hugged the old and large book that he had been holding.

When Yuan finally removed his itching arm, it was when he started to press his lower body against her.

Fortunately, Clad stopped, standing a half step back and holding her waist without taking her out of his cloak.

“What should I give you? You gave me books and other things… I also want to give you something in return.”

“….”

“As Your Highness said, it’s still essentially Yours. I can’t call it a gift.”

Yuan asked, struggling to turn around.
Clad, without releasing the arm that crossed her wing bones, turned his head slightly and looked down at Yuan, who was holding him up. After the rain sound pierced the silence several times, a very faint whisper flowed from his lips.

“… Don’t die.”

The strong force that she could clearly feel in her large hand holding the umbrella handle tightened. Yuan looked into his dark, submerged eyes and saw a faint underground in the dimness.

“You can do anything, just don’t die.”

He murmured very quietly.