“How did you follow me… Coming down from the mountain is dangerous. Mother will worry.”

Arabel whispered in a gentle voice as she quickly stepped out of the castle gates. The round bundle she was holding tightly in her arms stirred slightly.

When dark eyes peeked out from between the blankets and looked up at Arabel, she stroked the moist nose with her finger.

“But being with you makes my heart feel like it’s working properly again. Thank you.”

When she fled from the Emperor’s bedroom, she thought her heart would burst.

When those red lips approached, not only did she not avoid them, she even closed her eyes herself…!

She almost forgot for a moment that she was conducting a healing experiment for His Majesty. Inside the bedroom, she paced back and forth and buried her face in the pillow, but her pounding heart wouldn’t calm down.

She came out to the garden to breathe some fresh air… and that’s when she discovered the small bundle rolling around under the willow tree.

“If we go into the mountains, your mother will smell you and come soon. Beasts can smell their companions or children and find them even from very far away. Your mother is probably already on her way to you.”

As she breathed in the chilly air of the late autumn night, her heart’s trembling finally began to stabilize.

I must never forget the reason I’m following His Majesty to the palace. I don’t belong in his world.

As Arabel hurried along with this determination, she failed to notice the dark shadow following her from behind.

Arabel, who had entered the forest, looked around wondering if the mother bear would appear, but there was still no sign of the bear.

“This could be dangerous if I’m not careful…”

Although the wolf pack had disappeared from the area due to the forest fire, she couldn’t let her guard down. Hungry carnivores were hiding everywhere in the forest.

As Arabel surveyed her surroundings, her eyes fell upon a treehouse built in a beech tree. It was a place made for village children to play, and fortunately, it hadn’t burned down as it was close to the village.

“Let’s wait there until your mother comes to get you.”

Arabel unwrapped the blanket and set the bear cub down on the grass. As she went to the beech tree and grabbed the rope ladder hanging down, the bear cub leaped onto her back.

“You’re really smart, aren’t you?”

At Arabel’s praise, the bear cub buried its head in her back and made a contented sound.

Arabel had been climbing high mountains and trees since she was young. Climbing up to the treehouse on the rope ladder was a very easy task for her.

Entering the treehouse, she found it piled high with leaves and straw, as if the children had been playing there even this evening. A small glass lamp filled with fireflies was even lighting up the interior cozily from a corner.

The bear cub climbed down from Arabel’s back and looked around the interior with curious eyes. It seemed like a space that would be cramped if three adults sat down, but it was enough for Arabel and the bear cub to stay in.

Arabel watched the scene fondly and dropped the fruits and walnuts she had brought in her pockets onto the floor. Then, thud, a sound of a branch breaking came from below, caused by something other than the wind.

Instinctively knowing it wasn’t its mother, the bear cub quickly jumped into Arabel’s arms. Two pairs of round eyes widened and stared into the darkness outside the wide-open door. Their hands tightly clasped, not letting go of each other.

Long bare feet appeared in front of the door first, then a tall man entered, stooping to pass through the low doorway.

“Y-Your Majesty…?”

Arabel’s voice trembled in disbelief.

If the fireflies hadn’t slightly illuminated his face, she might not have immediately recognized that the man who entered was the Emperor. He looked that tired and exhausted.

Wearing only pants, with his bandages unraveled, the Emperor standing at the door overlapped with the image of the black panther she had first met. Arabel placed the bear cub on the straw and stood up, approaching him.

“Are you alright?”

As she looked up at the Emperor with worried eyes, his long shadow fell over her round crown. His dimmed red eyes filled her clear gaze.

Thud, suddenly, the Emperor’s head buried into Arabel’s nape.

“Ah…!”

A surprised breath escaped between Arabel’s lips.

The Emperor’s bent back rose and fell repeatedly as he slowly inhaled. Her small hands, not knowing what to do, grasped at her dress skirt.

The Emperor, too, was clenching his fists at his sides until his knuckles turned white.

To avoid touching the woman’s body in front of him. To prevent himself from embracing her and trapping her in his arms. Knowing that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop.

He desperately tensed every muscle in his body while taking in the scent of her skin.

The movement of his sharp nose bridge and slightly rough lips pressed against her soft flesh was heartrending. It was as if he were a fish thrown out of water, struggling to breathe, to survive.

The Emperor’s parted lips desperately dug into Arabel’s nape, breathing as if it were the only space where he could breathe. Her tense shoulders relaxed, and her thin arms rose to carefully embrace his bent back.

“Nngh…”

A mournful sound of a wounded animal slowly flowed through his teeth.

As if soothing an injured beast, Arabel rose on her tiptoes and placed both hands on the Emperor’s shoulders. She brought her body closer to the Emperor to allow him to breathe.

Blood stained the Emperor’s fingernails as they dug deep into his clenched flesh.

How much time had passed? The Emperor’s head slowly lifted.

“I want to sleep.”

A tired, low baritone voice was heard.

His eyes, which had always confidently ruled the world, smiled sadly and asked,

“If I ask you to put me to sleep, would you mock me for being a weak Emperor?”

Arabel shook her head.

For some reason, her chest felt heavy and her vision blurred. But wanting to show that she was speaking the truth, she didn’t avoid his gaze and looked straight at him.

Arabel, sitting against the wall on the straw, stroked both the head of the bear cub sitting on one side and the Emperor’s head resting on her lap with each hand.

The Emperor’s eyelids slowly closed at the gentleness of the dry fingers combing through his sweat-dampened hair.

“When I was young and couldn’t sleep due to illness or nightmares, my mother would stroke my head like this. It would help me fall asleep again quickly.”

“It seems you have many memories with your mother. Didn’t you say before that you used to roam the mountains with her gathering herbs?”

As the Emperor spoke in a subdued voice, Arabel’s gaze shifted to the dark sky outside the open door.

Her mother, whom she had never doubted would always be there, left her and her family when she was nine years old.

“Don’t you resent your mother? She must have known better than anyone what kind of man your father was, yet she left you.”

The Emperor immediately regretted his words and closed his mouth in apology.

Without stopping the hand stroking the Emperor’s hair, Arabel answered softly.

“The time I spent with my mother was the happiest moment of my life. So… if I resented her, I’d be denying even those moments… That would be too sad, wouldn’t it?”

The Emperor’s red eyes stared at the fading fireflies in the corner.

“There was a time when I was excited just imagining that I might meet my mother again while traveling with my master. But I don’t think like that anymore.”

“Why not?”

“I was told my mother left the family because she could no longer endure the financial hardship since my healing ability hadn’t manifested. If she were to meet me now… I think she would only be more disappointed.”

The Emperor spoke up, moved by Arabel’s answer as she swallowed her sadness.

“You are more extraordinary than any healer. Didn’t you save the Emperor’s life? If you find your mother, tell her proudly. If she doesn’t believe you, bring her to the palace. I’ll tell her myself. No, I’ll award you the empire’s highest medal and title so that no one dares to speak nonsense to you.”

Grateful for the Emperor’s anger on her behalf, Arabel smiled gently. The Emperor, fighting his heavy eyelids, repeated in a somewhat drowsy voice, “I’ll make sure no one dares to climb over you carelessly.”

Arabel alternately looked down at the face of the baby bear curled up asleep beside her and the Emperor sleeping soundly with his head on her lap. The Emperor’s shoulders moved up and down rhythmically.

As her dry fingers carefully brushed back the Emperor’s bangs that had fallen below his eyes, a smile curved on the sleeping Emperor’s lips.

On this dark night with the fireflies in the glass jar disappearing one by one, the distant beautiful cries of owls and nightingales could be heard. Though it was surely a cold night, the treehouse was warm and cozy.

It was a night so beautiful and comforting that it almost brought tears to one’s eyes.

Chirp chirp,

The clear, cheerful sound of a whistling bird was heard outside the window. The late morning sunlight sneaking through the curtains tickled Arabel’s closed eyes.

Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, she sat up… Her round eyes opened even wider as she looked around.

It was her bedroom in the Laurel Lord’s castle. The place she had just woken up and was sitting on was not a pile of straw in a treehouse, but a soft bed draped with curtains.

Startled, she stood up, and the floor she stepped on was not hard wood, but a soft rug.

The baby bear that had been curled up asleep beside her, and the Emperor who had been sleeping soundly on her lap, were nowhere to be seen. Looking down, she saw that she was wearing clean pajamas, not the clothes she had worn to the forest.

‘Last night in the treehouse… It was all a dream…!’

It seems she had fallen asleep after treating the Emperor last evening and returning to her bedroom, unable to collect herself due to embarrassment.

Flush, Arabel’s cheeks turned as red as ripe apples. As if someone might see, she covered both cheeks with her hands and shook her head.

This is terrible. Now she’s even dreaming about His Majesty. And in that dream, he buried his face in her neck… and fell asleep using her lap as a pillow.

In fact, thinking about it, it’s an impossible thing. She thought only her heart was malfunctioning, racing whenever she saw the Emperor, but now it seems her head is affected too.

Wrapping the shawl placed on the chair next to her around her shoulders, Arabel hurriedly entered the bathroom.

She washed her face vigorously with cold water, trying to drive away last night’s dream from her mind. She washed away the Emperor’s body heat that still seemed to linger so vividly on her nape.

She still wasn’t used to someone changing her clothes and helping her bathe. Arabel quickly changed her clothes and left the bedroom before the head maid arrived. She thought she should take a walk and clear her mind in the cold air.

As she came out to the garden, she saw the Emperor walking towards her with a serious expression, engaged in conversation with his knights.

For a moment, she remembered last night’s dream. Though she had committed no crime, Arabel’s face turned red, and she hurriedly turned her body and walked away quickly from them.

How far had she come? The acacia tree next to the bronze fountain carved with dancing forest nymphs came into view. Arabel sat on the swing hanging from a long, sturdy branch and let out a long sigh of relief.

“I knew you were quick at climbing mountains, but I didn’t know your steps were this swift.”

A playful baritone voice was heard from behind. Startled, Arabel turned her head to look at the man approaching. The red eyes standing in front of Arabel asked pleasantly:

“Did you sleep well last night?”

“What? Yes… I slept well. Did Your Majesty also sleep peacefully?”

Feeling her face grow hot again, Arabel lowered her head and asked, to which the Emperor responded clearly.

“I slept very well for the first time in a long while.”

The toe of brown shoes entered her gaze, which was focused on a small flower petal on the grass. Long fingers gently lifted Arabel’s chin, and their eyes met, each face reflected in the other’s gaze.

“I noticed this in the cave before too. You sleep so deeply that you wouldn’t notice even if someone carried you away. You’re the type I have to be very careful about, lest someone takes you away.”

The kind eyes began to waver, lost in confusion and bewilderment. The Emperor, with a smile on his lips, lowered his head close enough to touch Arabel’s face. His red lips parted and whispered over her soft lips.

“Don’t worry about the baby bear. Its mother came at dawn and took it away.”