The party ended, and Evelia mechanically moved her legs as she stared intently at the night sky.

The brilliantly risen round moon was firmly guarding the center of the pitchblack darkness.

Staring blankly at the moon had become a habit since some day. It was something she looked at once or twice with the thought that it resembled someone, but it had become her sole hobby.

Now she didn’t know whether watching the moon was to soothe her longing for someone, or to satisfy herself. However, the unchanging fact was that her heart felt good whenever she looked at the moon.

“You look very tired.”

Suddenly, a deep voice resonated heavily through the settled darkness. Only then did Evelia slowly lower her head and turn her eyes toward the source of the sound.

“No, I’m not. Just, it seems that I’ve relaxed a bit.”

The nodding of her head was quite lively. She was a little tired, but she didn’t want to cause unnecessary worry.

It was her belief that she didn’t want to cause others more concern than necessary.

She had just managed to walk beside him, but still, he felt closer to the empire’s crown prince than a husband.

It hadn’t felt like there was such a barrier when attending the party together and meeting various people inside the banquet hall, but it started at some point.

Perhaps, after facing Lirelia.

The impudent woman’s words kept ringing in her ears. She knew it was said to hurt her. Knowing that, she couldn’t simply ignore it.

Because, to some extent, she found Lirelia’s confidence in speaking such insolent words convincing.

The source of her arrogant confidence was the Empress and the Crown Prince, the two who held power after the Emperor. Since they always cherished her, she may have regarded Evelia as a mere servant beneath her feet.

It was frustrating to think like that, but there was no choice. The only way she was allowed was to see Lirelia’s rude behavior and swallow it in silence.

It was unfair. The only thing she could do as the empress of the empire was to turn a blind eye to rudeness.

Perhaps that’s why she enjoyed staring blankly at the moon. At least, the round moon in the night sky neither ignored nor deceived her.

Instead, it willingly shone a bright light on her. The only time she felt treated fairly was when she looked at the moon.

Evelia lifted her head habitually again and tightly captured the beautifully rising moon in her eyes. Her mind quickly calmed down, and the distracting thoughts were swept away at once.

“You seem to like looking at the night sky.”

“Huh?”

“I remember when I went to find you the night I returned from the battlefield, you were looking at the night sky.”

“Oh…….”

Evelia blinked her eyes quietly. Was she doing that on the night he returned from the battlefield? She didn’t remember well.

Considering that it’s not even a distant memory and she’s this vague, his appearance must have been quite strong.

“Actually, I was looking at the moon.”

“The moon?”

“Yes.”

Evelia nodded quietly. She had never imagined that the day would come when she would talk to Liurian about her hobby, and it felt strange. But she didn’t want to stop speaking.

“When the moon is so clearly visible, it feels as if the moon is guarding the sky.”

“…….”

“And it seems to be leading the scattered stars, and above all, when I look at the moon…….”

Your Highness comes to mind. The aura shining brightly resembles Your Highness.
Swallowing words she couldn’t dare to say, she smiled lonesomely.

“Why do you stop speaking?”

Liurian, who was waiting for the rest, asked softly. But she still couldn’t tell the real reason.

“……Just looking at the moon makes me feel at ease.”

It was true that the distance between her and him had markedly narrowed compared to before, but there was still a thick wall between them. It was a wall that had been firmly built for too long, and it would not easily collapse. It was not a wall built by them alone.

Between him and her, there was the Empress, and there was Lirelia, and there was the Emperor. There were also the Garnet Duke’s family and the Caroline Duchess’s family.

Lirelia’s rude remarks that she had only lent him for one day were concealing the reality between him and her.

She had momentarily forgotten that evident fact due to his changed attitude. It made her heart feel so lonely.

Evelia quietly looked down and looked back at Liurian beside her. His dazzling beauty, holding the moonlight, was facing straight ahead, not her.

He was within reach. Although she was walking beside him, unable to take her eyes off the round moon, as if wishing to feel at ease for just a moment, he followed her silently and guarded her side.

But why did it feel so far away? Even though he continues to reach out to me, why does it only feel faint like a distant existence?

Their relationship has never been easy, and it might be even more difficult than I thought.