Clard habitually groped for the space beside him.

His eyes opened as he felt the slightly damp sheets, a few strands of black hair, the unusually disheveled spot under his fingertips, and the sensation of sunlight catching on long eyelashes.

“…What are you doing?”

Though he was the one startled to find he wasn’t alone upon waking, the small back crouched on the floor flinched and rose upwards as if caught doing something foolish.

Yuan, with her black hair neatly disheveled over a light green dress that dipped slightly to reveal white skin on her back, peeked back at him.

Clard squinted against the pouring sunlight and closely examined the items in her small hands.

She was holding something like a strange brush, slickly coated with oil.

“I asked what you’re doing. In someone else’s room.”

Yuan flinched like a child caught misbehaving, then turned her back again and busily moved her hands.

Clard’s eyebrows twisted askew.

His long legs escaped the gathered blankets and moved towards her.

Yuan became urgent, as if on a secret mission, and quickly fled to the door like a nimble squirrel.

Clard headed to where Yuan had been crouched and fidgeting.

“That rocking chair was creaking too much-.”

“…”

“Actually, I sat on it lightly this morning and was startled by how loud it was. I was afraid it might wake Your Highness. So…”

Yuan had oiled Clard’s rocking chair.

The influence of Butler Gustav was also a factor.

Whenever Clard lounged in the rocking chair, grating on his nerves, Butler Gustav would always lament, ‘My one wish is to oil that rocking chair someday.’

Because Clard didn’t like others touching his things, Gustav was always extremely careful in the bedroom and didn’t dare to touch it.

So Yuan had secretly taken action.

He neither scolded nor praised her, simply looking down at the legs of the rocking chair Yuan had oiled.

“I heard the former emperor had it made for you. Is that true? It must be a wonderful chair for you to keep it by your side.”

Yuan tried to lighten the mood with an awkward smile.

She passed behind him, who gave no particular response, and naturally stood by the window where sunlight poured in.

“It was bustling from early morning, and I saw two unfamiliar gardeners had come. They’re all busy planting flowers that bloom in summer when planted in winter. Can you see?”

Clard walked to the window without answering. The patches of melted snow in the garden had considerably receded, fully flaunting its original desolation.

“May I also share my opinions about the garden with those people? That is… if Your Highness permits.”

Yuan looked into his melancholy purple eyes and asked with courage.

Clard’s gaze shifted from the busy scene outside to her.

Hiding her nervous feelings and forcing her lips to stretch, his hand approached her.

“!”

For a moment, she instinctively hunched her shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut, then suddenly opened them wide as if trying to grasp the warmth that touched her forehead without malice and disappeared with a light tap.

Yuan clutched her forehead where the warmth had vanished with both hands.

Her gaze naturally flowed along the white fingers that had gently tapped her forehead and pulled away.

Though his hand had touched her forehead, her cheeks felt as if they were burning hot.

Though it was just a moment, her body stiffened as if struck by lightning.

“You don’t need to ask permission for things like that. There’s no need to get approval for every little thing.”

Her heart raced unnecessarily at his nonchalant answer.

It must be from nervousness. From nervousness.

Yuan watched Clard lounging in the rocking chair for a while, trying to act casual.

An unbearable ticklish feeling ran up her spine to the tips of her ears.

She wanted to say something.

She wanted to be sure that he didn’t dislike her that much.

A feeling like nausea surged up, wishing he would confirm just a little more that Yuan had a place here.

“There’s a dog that looks like a wolf in the west annex.”

“…”

“I heard its name is Oliver, and that it’s a dog Your Highness raised since childhood-”

“Hey.”

The peaceful and ticklish atmosphere instantly cooled.

Yuan, who had been trying to continue the conversation by rambling, held her breath with the question.

Clard continued speaking without opening his closed eyes.

“Don’t cross the line.”

There was no fierce emotion in his voice, nor any sign of excessively blaming her.

“…”

Yet that low voice, so close to being colorless without any discernible emotion, pricked Yuan’s tear ducts.

She had clearly felt they had gotten a bit closer.

As soon as she felt that, it seemed to have drifted far away in an instant.

“…Yes.”

Yuan barely managed to answer, swallowing her tears.

It was fortunate.

That Clard had his eyes closed.

That he didn’t see her foolish face, dejected after foolishly getting her hopes up again all by herself.

Only after Yuan had quietly left Clard’s bedroom for quite some time.

The rocking chair he had been lounging in slowly began to move.

The chair that had long cried out carrying its owner no longer cried.

Yuan, who had fled from Clard’s bedroom, holed up in her own ‘small laboratory’ all day.

She collected medicinal herbs that had grown like weeds in every corner of the garden, and occasionally gathered various things from the entrance of the White Forest with Clard’s permission. The regular visitor to this small laboratory was undoubtedly Henna.

“Tomorrow’s my payday! I’ll pay for all the medicine I’ve gotten so far tomorrow.”

“It’s fine, Henna. It’s not like it amounts to much.”

“Roksenhart is such a remote place that even a single cough medicine costs several times more than in other territories, my lady.”

“It’s my choice. I’ll be angry if you give me money.”

Henna opened her mouth as if to argue, then pressed her lips together as if suppressing them, and buried her small face affectionately on Yuan’s shoulder.

“Thank you, my lady. Thanks to the medicine you made, my younger siblings got through this winter safely without the usual persistent minor illnesses. The same goes for the other maids.”

Henna pulled out a tea pouch that she said her siblings made as a side job to sell at the market and shook it.

“It’s not high-grade enough for you to drink, my lady, but it’s a famous tea in this neighborhood. It’s called ‘Full Belly Tea’! My siblings really wanted to give you something…”

“Full Belly Tea?”

“There’s a strange grass that grows through the frozen ground even in winter. If you dry it and make it into tea bags like this, and brew tea with it, it makes you feel quite full. There’s no better tea for poor people to get through the winter. The flavor is surprisingly nutty and delicious.”

“Let’s try it-.”

Yuan’s face, which had been gloomy and downcast, sparkled with curiosity, and Henna eagerly brewed the tea.

Sitting at the small tea table and tasting it, indeed the nutty aroma had a depth that belied its cheap tea status. It even brought warmth to her stomach, which had skipped breakfast and lunch.

It was then that Henna, who had been closely observing Yuan’s satisfied face as she drank, broached the subject.

“My lady, did you have a fight with the master?”

“Ah.”

Yuan’s expression darkened again.

“No. We didn’t fight. I just asked His Highness a somewhat presumptuous question.”

Yuan knows better than to reveal matters between a couple to subordinates, as it would be unseemly for the nominal mistress of the house.

But in this isolated mansion, Yuan, in her ambiguous position of being neither royal nor noble, nor commoner, had only the people of this household to rely on.

Moreover, since Henna had been in this mansion since she was very young, Yuan felt that it might be alright to say this much.

“You are the master’s wife, my lady. How could there be a presumptuous question?”

Henna replied, sounding a bit angry.

Yuan looked at Henna, a little surprised by her reaction.

She felt that if she asked Henna about the mansion or Clard now, she might get any kind of answer.

“I still don’t know much about His Highness, or this mansion. Even about Oliver…”

“Ah.”

“It would be best to ask His Highness directly, but the situation doesn’t allow for it.”

“My lady.”

Henna’s eyes wavered intensely.

Henna put down the teapot she was holding on the table and stood before Yuan, folding her hands very politely.

“Henna?”

“I haven’t mentioned this until now.”

Henna looked directly at Yuan with eyes that had hardened as if she had made a firm decision.

“I am the granddaughter of Madam Margaret, who was Clard’s wet nurse.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you about the parts concerning the master’s former wife because the butler has strongly insisted on keeping silent about it… But now I want to tell you about Oliver and this mansion.”

Golden hair that shimmered as if melted gold. Amethyst-colored eyes like the work of a renowned craftsman. Features as if molded stitch by stitch by God himself.

The somewhat blank-faced First Prince, Clard Yufris, smiled as if the whole world brightened when he did.

“Brother-! I want to go too!”

“Hold my hand tight, Apollini!”

Especially when he was with his younger sister, Princess Apollini Yufris, who was four years his junior.

Beautiful appearance, benevolence that looked down upon others. The imperial couple, who possessed both, treasured these siblings like jewels.

Clard, in particular, was so brilliant that he took the Eucalorea, the academy entrance exam, at just seven years old, outperforming talented students to rank first.

Not only that, but he was also recognized for his talent to the extent that the academy’s swordsmanship instructor personally recommended early admission due to his innate physique and strength.

Naturally, the people loved Prince Clard Yufris.

For instance, portraits of the prince on his 10th birthday were re-copied by unknown artists and sold like hotcakes, and newspapers published on the prince’s birthday celebration sold out even with the printing presses running all day.

It was an era when it was natural for some to cherish a small portrait copied by a cheap unknown artist, and others to keep the prince’s face cut out from a newspaper, each in their own hearts.

However, those brilliant and peaceful days did not last long.

“Y-Your Highness! Your Highness!”

It was when Clard was giving his frail sister Apollini a piggyback ride around the garden of the First Prince’s palace.

When he was standing amidst the Bitochina flowers that his mother, Empress Eleonore, had specially brought into the garden to commemorate his 14th birthday.

His uncle, Marquis Mosan Lev, whom he had never seen in such a disheveled state, came running across the garden filled with purple.

“What’s the matter, Uncle?”

On a snowy day, in the Tibochia grandiflora flower bed.

That day when he was remembering his mother who had embraced him while gifting those flowers called ‘the flowers of glory’.

“Your Highness, Your Highness! This is no time for this!”

“Lower your voice. Apollini has just fallen asleep.”

“His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress have been gravely injured!”

The treasure of Yufris.

First Prince Clard Yufris was about to face a major turning point in his life.