The start of the territory inspection, which began with coachman Mr. Mazarin, Eddie Lev’s secretary Maxim, and five guards, was quite good.

Clard and Monica, who had dressed up in their finest, and Yuan, whom they had adorned with great care, made a beautifully matched pair.

The territory inspection was a simple and boring task of looking around Roxenhart’s farmland, commercial district, and residential areas, but it was also a time to show that the lord was alive and well and watching over them by driving carriages with the Roxenhart crest through large and small villages.

Clard looked at Yuan, who was sitting with her arms folded and her nose practically pressed against the window.

She had been in that state ever since they entered Central Roxenhart after passing through small villages.

“Is your eyesight bad?”

“It’s my first time seeing the territory like this.”

The woman heard Lancelot’s voice, who had boasted that he knew better than Clard, echoing in her ears.

A momentary bitterness settled at the corners of Clard’s mouth. To be so wide-eyed over a small city that couldn’t even compare to the capital.

“…But is it always this empty?”

“There must be something. It’s the central city of Roxenhart. You said you wanted to buy books, so I told them to go to the bookstore first. Just sit quietly.”

Clard spoke, recalling the list Yuan had written out all last evening of things she wanted to do when they went to the village.

With over thirty items densely written on the paper, was written at the very top, so that was what they intended to tackle first.

“We’ve arrived.”

Sir Maxim knocked on the carriage door from outside.

Soon, the deposed imperial couple emerged from the carriage bearing the Roxenhart crest. And their expressions simultaneously hardened.

“I told them to go to the bookstore.”

“This is the bookstore.”

The bookstore with the sign [Attic Bookstore] looked worse than an actual attic.

The small wooden door at the entrance was so covered in mold here and there that one didn’t even want to touch it, and through the glass window, the interior seemed to have more shriveled dried meat strewn about than books.

Clard quietly observed Yuan.

Yuan, who had expected a huge bookstore packed with books on all sides, was momentarily at a loss for words and could only stare blankly at a spider spinning its web in the corner.

Clard’s eyebrows twisted subtly.

“Is there a more proper bookstore?”

“I apologize, Your Highness. The situation is similar even if you go to other bookstores.”

Secretary Maxim replied calmly, inwardly admiring Clard’s noble face shining under the bright sun.

This was the largest city closest to the Black Mansion, which could be considered the headquarters of this territory.

Befitting its name as Central Roxenhart, this was a place where people at least didn’t reach the point of ‘dying’ of starvation.

To make a living, people in the commercial district didn’t specialize in selling just one item, but maintained their livelihood by selling books and dried meat simultaneously, like the [Attic Bookstore].

Even this was only possible because the Lev brothers had allowed practices that were originally illegal in other territories.

Clard fell silent upon seeing the situation of the territory that he had belatedly been informed about.

And when he met Yuan’s worried eyes, he somehow felt like the most useless person in the world.

“Um… Your Highness. We don’t have to buy books, we can go to the next place.”

Yuan whispered in a small voice, gently tugging on his arm out of sight.

Clard’s downcast gaze swept over the streets of the commercial district, where spring had just begun to settle, yet still had a desolate atmosphere.

“Let’s walk a bit. What you’re looking for is a book that every territory is obligated to supply from the imperial family, so it must be somewhere.”

Clard straightened his back and gestured with his chin for Secretary Maxim and the guards to stay back. Then he quietly pulled on Yuan’s arm.

“Your Highness?”

Soon, the deposed imperial couple blended into the crowd of people who were stealing glances at them.

The more they looked around, Central Roxenhart appeared more desolate and poorer than expected.

It looked like the capital of a defeated country swept by war, to the extent that one should be grateful for the few beggars in the square.

The old buildings were grand and splendid, but due to lack of maintenance, they were covered in dust and cobwebs, and naturally couldn’t compare to the always sparkling capital.

Reflecting the circumstances of people barely making ends meet, cafes with tables set outside and atmospheric restaurants were occupied not by customers, but by jerky and pickled foods left unsold from winter, waiting for buyers on chairs and tables.

It was natural, as there was no one with the leisure to enjoy a lazy afternoon tea time.

The hands of the clock on the distant church tower were already pointing to 4 o’clock.

Even restaurants that should have been busy preparing for the evening business had their lights out for a long time.

The shop with a giant candy-shaped sign that would have surely made Yuan’s eyes sparkle if it were open had its doors firmly shut.

With spring approaching, it was clear that everyone had flocked to the land they had painstakingly cultivated bit by bit throughout the winter with frozen hands.

A sense of dismay slowly crossed Clard’s indifferent face, which had been as calm as a tranquil lake, like a small sailboat pushed by the wind.

To make matters worse.

Unexpected dark clouds were rapidly rolling in.

“It looks like it’s going to rain.”

Yuan said softly to Clard, who seemed to be in quite a low mood.

Clard had also been looking at the incoming tide of dark clouds. In the distance, Sir Maxim made a gesture indicating he would prepare the carriage and quickly disappeared.

“It’s a good sign. They said everyone went to plant crops, so rain would be good, right?”

A good sign, she said. It was an excessively naive statement for someone who hadn’t been able to do even one thing properly from the long list written on the paper.

Clard, who had been looking at the faint smile on Yuan’s lips, soon pulled her arm and moved towards the huge but old and shabby antique shop visible across the street.

As soon as they entered the shop named [Roxenhart – Objet], an unexpected stroke of luck followed.

Following the method of this place, which sold items completely unrelated to the original name of the shop, this antique shop was also more densely packed with books than with stylish antiques or unique objects.

Yuan couldn’t get the ‘latest version’ of the Academy’s collection of research papers she wanted, but fortunately, she was able to obtain books that weren’t too many years out of date.

When Clard handed over a gold coin with a displeased expression, the short, stooped old man who had been staring at them with wide eyes since their appearance shook his head.

“How could I take money from the lord? Please accept this, though it’s not much.”

“That’s enough.”

“Thanks to the grace of the late Emperor and Empress, I’ve been able to live this much… I’m only grateful. Prince Clard, the treasure of Yufris.”

The jingling sound of the coin purse that butler Gustav had prepared for him stopped.

From the wrinkled old hand with more creases than smooth areas, a small childhood portrait of him from when he was once called that suddenly appeared. It was something the old man had been preciously holding to his chest.

“You’ve grown just as you were. Beautiful and gallant. It’s like seeing the young days of Emperor Alexei.”

Swoosh-.

The downpour brought by the dark clouds poured outside. The louder the sound of rain hitting the old windows became, the deeper the silence grew.

Yuan, hugging the dust-covered book, alternately looked at the old woman with an affectionate gaze as if looking at her own grandson and the violet eyes rippling to the rhythm of the falling raindrops.

“You’ve found a kind and beautiful Princess, so may you always be happy.”

The flickering voice, like a dying candle, also warmed Yuan with its light.

The old woman was so frail that one might believe she had died sitting if she just closed her eyes, but her eyes sparkled with the lively light of pure reverence itself.

Yuan bowed deeply on behalf of the stiffened Clard, and instead of the gold coin that the old woman refused, she placed an armful of dried meat and unknown fruits she had bought from other stores out of embarrassment on the counter before leaving.

“Please come again, Prince and Princess.”

The old woman offered a final greeting with a faint smile.

The couple stood side by side under the roof, unable to leave the front of that huge antique shop.

Yuan sighed as she saw her white dress, which she had adorned like a girl going on a picnic, become thoroughly soaked in the moment she absent-mindedly stepped out from under the roof.

‘Monica took such care in dressing me up, and now it’s all wet.’

As she glanced up at Clard, who had seemed downcast for a while, their eyes met directly.

Clard’s eyes, which had lowered to her wet clothes instead of her eyes, had darkened.

He slowly scanned the old book in her hand, the white sleeves with densely sewn lace and pearl buttons, and the clothes above that revealed her skin due to the rain. Then he hesitated and suddenly lifted his head towards the rainy sky.

‘Is it such an unsightly appearance?’

Her hair and clothes, which had been decorated in various ways, must be a mess.

He always seemed to disapprove of her appearance, so it would be no different now.

Yuan, who was about to take a step to get a better look at herself in the glass of the closed tailor shop across the street, was suddenly pulled by a force and helplessly found herself standing in front of Clard.

“Wait until the carriage comes. Don’t wander around on your own again.”

Soon after, a very warm sensation touched her back.

He untied the cloak he was wearing, pulled her into his embrace, and closed the front of the cloak.

They ended up sharing one cloak between the two of them.

Yuan, dazed in his embrace, was about to go cross-eyed trying to gauge his intentions through the falling raindrops.

“…Your Highness?”

“Call the dressmaker and tell them not to make white clothes.”

“Don’t you like this dress? Does it look strange?”

Yuan asked a bit dejectedly, but Clard didn’t answer.

Only as night was approaching.

His exhaled breath, which even the sound of falling raindrops couldn’t mask, poured onto her crown and the nape of her neck from very close.

At the breath that seemed steady yet somewhat rough, Yuan trembled and carefully grasped his arm across her shoulder.

When his firm arm flinched, Yuan’s ears grew hot.

A clear vibration transmitted from his warm body pressed against her shoulder blades.

No, perhaps it was her heart, which had started beating frantically earlier, moving to her shoulder blades and pounding somewhere on his solar plexus or chest.

Yuan carefully released his hot arm and tightly hugged the old, large book she had been holding under her arm.

She felt like she was dying from the ticklish, burning sensation wherever his breath poured.

“Your Highness.”

Yuan opened her ticklish mouth just as he started to distance his lower body from her, in contrast to their tightly pressed upper bodies.

Fortunately, Clard didn’t remove her from his cloak but stopped, pulling his waist back about half a step.

“Um, what should I give you? You bought me books and various things… I want to repay you somehow.”

“…”

“As you said. The West Annex is ultimately yours, so it can’t be called a gift.”

Yuan asked, struggling to turn her body.

Clard, without releasing his arm across her collarbone, only turned his head slightly to look down at Yuan, who was looking up at him.

After the sound of rain cut through the silence several times, a very low whisper flowed from his lips.

“…Don’t die.”

A strong force that Yuan could clearly feel entered the large hand gripping her shoulder. Yuan saw a deep underground in his darkly submerged eyes.

“You can do anything you want.”

He recited very calmly.

“Just don’t die.”