She wanted to relieve stress by stomping and trampling all the clothes into a tub, but the precious fabric couldn’t be damaged, so the handwashing took longer than expected.

Missing the time to hang out the laundry, Asha hurriedly picked up the basket and went outside.

As she was pegging Karaf’s clothes one by one on the washing line, she saw the sunset in the sky.

The laundry would not dry by today.

Asha, feeling anxious, tried to dry the laundry with the power of the wind but misjudged the strength and ended up blowing away Karaf’s nightgown far away.

“Ah……!”

As she reached out toward the fluttering gown, someone caught it.

Asha’s eyes widened slightly as she stood frozen.

The gown was swept away, revealing the elegant green knight captain uniform of the Cactus Knights.

Many golden badges and medals adorned the broad shoulders and chest area.

It was Duran.

But for some reason, he was avoiding Asha’s gaze, keeping his mouth tightly shut.

It seemed he was forcibly holding back laughter at her unintentional funny gesture just now.

Asha then came to her senses and spoke, her face blushing with embarrassment.

“……Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Duran handed over the gown.

Fortunately, it hadn’t fallen on the ground, so there was no need to wash it again, but it felt strange to receive the emperor’s pajamas from him.

Then Duran said,

“I never knew you would use the power of the wind for such a purpose.”

Asha’s face turned even redder.

Feeling a hint of teasing in his calm demeanor, she calmly retorted.

“You seem less vigilant than I thought, Sir Duran.”

“What?”

Asha pointed to her head, saying,

“You have a white hair. Did you know that?”

Now it was Duran’s turn to blush, as he hesitantly raised one hand above his head.

Her innocent, boyish reaction almost made Asha laugh.

Before regression, the Duran she remembered was a thorough man who would not miss a single detail.

It felt a bit refreshing to see this sloppy side of him.

Stammering, Duran explained,

“Our Dandelion family has… a lot of gray hair through generations. I don’t know why, but if left alone, it becomes entirely silver.”

“That’s truly like a dandelion and quite attractive. I’d like to see you become silverhaired sometime.”

When Asha jokingly mimicked a ‘whoosh’ blowing gesture, Duran’s face turned red, and he couldn’t lift his head.

Asha joked, but her mood strangely softened, and she smiled bitterly.

In a previous life, she never had a chance to have such a personal conversation with him.

To her, he was nothing more than a cruel man who came to capture her by the emperor’s order.

“…Sir Duran.”

Duran quickly raised his eyes to the solemn and dignified voice.

Asha stared at him intently and asked elegantly.

“Did His Majesty command you to watch me?”

Duran was slightly flustered. He hesitated and asked.

“Why do you think so?”

“Your reaction tells me it’s true.”

“…”

Duran’s face turned speechless. Perhaps he did not know the fact that she had realized he was watching her long ago.

During her work, Asha could feel Duran lurking around nearby from time to time.

Duran, befitting a knight’s commander, was skilled at hiding his presence, but Asha could detect him approaching nearby through the energy of the wind.

Even if the subtle flow of wind changed and someone stood like a rock without moving an inch, she could tell it was him without looking.

But Asha blinked at his unexpected words.

“…I’m sorry for not keeping my promise.”

His expression was emotionless, but his eyes were filled with regret.

Perhaps he was speaking about the day he first introduced the emperor, the day he couldn’t ask the emperor to leave the butterfly alone instead of catching it.

Asha turned her gaze and said.

“There’s no need to apologize. It was something I expected.”

“…”

“What did His Majesty ask you to find out about me?”

He was so flustered that he could not answer. Asha asked without any change in expression.

“Shall I recite it all from childhood? It’s an unfortunate past, so it might not be an interesting story.”

Since the emperor’s instructions included finding out about her childhood, Duran sighed.

“…When did you realize that you are a butterfly? I’ve heard that butterflies have different awakening conditions, and there are women who don’t know they are butterflies even as adults.”

As he said, a butterfly needed a certain ‘awakening condition’ to hatch from a cocoon.

If it did not awaken, a butterfly mark would not appear on the body, so there were many cases where the person did not know they were a butterfly.

Asha answered calmly with a somewhat wistful feeling.

“It’s a very old story. When the minority village where I lived was destroyed, I suddenly realized that I was a butterfly. I still remember it clearly. My awakening condition was ‘going to the brink of death’.”

At her words, Duran’s face hardened, and he closed his mouth. It was the most brutal condition he had ever heard of among the awakening conditions.

All butterflies go through all sorts of hardships and trials until they awaken as butterflies.

From their infancy, which is like a caterpillar to a butterfly, they had to survive harshly, and they received the final test to awaken from the cocoon.

That was the ‘awakening condition’.

Of course, not all awakening conditions were heinous, but since girls who experienced hardships and adversity were more likely to be butterflies, butterflies often came from commoners rather than nobles.

After the emperor’s enthronement, if a woman with a butterfly mark did not appear, they would call adult women to the imperial palace without regard to their status to hold a flower party to find a butterfly. This was the reason.

And in the case of Karaf, he had been holding the flower party for several years now, as he had not been able to find a butterfly.