The next morning.

The child rubbed her sleepy eyes with her right hand and pulled on her left hand, which was holding Lutis’s. It was a silent request to be picked up and carried because she was tired.

After spending all day yesterday on carriages and warp gates, and walking around late into the night to see the festival, it was understandable to be tired.

She must have been exhausted to have slept until morning without even sleep-talking after eating cotton candy and lying down in bed.

‘At this point, it’s not sleeping but more like passing out.’

Aeli rolled her eyes as she recalled the struggle to wake up the child who couldn’t easily get up in the morning.

Lutis was making eye contact with the child.

“Father, carry me…”

“…”

“Please hold me…”

When there was no response, the child tugged on Lutis’s hand a couple more times as if urging him.

Just as Lutis was about to bend down to pick up the child.

“It’s a shame you couldn’t stay another day, as there are still many places to show you in the territory.”

The viscount, who had come out of the castle to see them off, spoke.

Lutis glanced at the viscount and said.

“I came because I had something to confirm, so I can’t delay any longer. I’ll visit again when I have the chance.”

“I see. I hope you resolve whatever you came for successfully.”

“…”

As the viscount spoke with a kind smile, Lutis responded with silence.

Seeing his strangely uncomfortable expression, Aeli blinked quickly. She couldn’t understand why he had seemed unhappy since heading to Duran territory yesterday and was still so disgruntled.

Listening to the conversation, Aeli belatedly had another question and tilted her head while pressing her lips into a line.

‘Come to think of it, it’s strange since it’s not time for territory inspections yet.’

The Rattliff territory inspections usually took place twice a year, once in late spring and once in late autumn, each lasting 2 weeks.

Considering that other nobles rarely left their surrounding areas to take care of their territories, Rattliff staying in the capital was quite exceptional.

‘It’s natural that he can’t leave the capital as the Imperial Knights Commander, but still…’

Then again, even though an aide had come down to handle backed-up work, they had been away from the territory for 4 years due to the war. So Aeli concluded on her own that it wasn’t strange to visit in advance, nodding slightly.

Since there was no one to talk to except the child, coming to conclusions on her own after pondering was one of the new habits Aeli had developed lately.

“We’re leaving now.”

Lutis turned around, put the child in the carriage, and ordered the coachman to depart.

Unable to resolve the somewhat detached atmosphere, they were sent off by the viscount.

“Father, are you on bad terms with that mister?”

The child sat across from Lutis, swinging her legs as she asked. Having experienced motion sickness yesterday, she had eaten breakfast early and taken medicine, so she looked fairly fine.

At the child’s question, Lutis, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and eyes closed, slightly opened his eyelids and said.

“…Why do you think that?”

“Because, you were making a scary face.”

“…Was I scary?”

“Mm-hmm… I was okay, but the knight misters who came with us were scared.”

“They’ve all become lax so soon after returning.”

If you thought you heard a clicking of the tongue in between, it must have been your imagination.

Aeli looked back and forth between them with one hand on the child’s back. The reason she was deliberately maintaining contact with the child was that she couldn’t bear another solo race against a horse.

After a moment’s pause, Lutis opened his mouth again.

“The territory we’re leaving now is Viscount Duran’s domain. It’s a branch family of Marquis Alvarez, the empress’s maternal relatives.”

“Maternal relatives?”

“…It means the family the empress belonged to before marriage.”

“Ohh…”

Lutis’s next words were this: Since the emperor had shown interest in Aeli when he was still the crown prince, the empress, who was engaged at the time, probably didn’t view Aeli favorably.

Although the empress had never openly shown such feelings, Lutis, who married Aeli, couldn’t help but be wary of that side as well.

It seemed like Lutis had more to say, but he awkwardly cut himself off. The child, who had been nodding, narrowed her eyes.

“Why did you stop talking?”

“…I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did!”

As the child faced Lutis with a pouty expression, Lutis stared at her for a moment before slowly saying.

“I’ve been curious since before, but are you mispronouncing on purpose?”

“Why would I? …I’ve always talked like this.”

“Always.”

“Auways.”

Lutis looked like he wasn’t sure if this was the right pronunciation for a five-year-old. Aeli, who had also pondered this before, watched silently.

Since they didn’t know the details of young children’s development, they weren’t sure if her speech was slow or not.

Lutis said.

“Try saying this: al.”

“Au.”

“ways.”

“ways.”

“Always.”

“Auways.”

“…”

It was clear that her imperfect pronunciation wasn’t intentional.

As silence fell, the child slowly got up from her seat and moved to sit on Lutis’s side. Even though she had been told this side would make her motion sickness worse since it was facing backward, she pretended not to hear.

As the child reached out her arms, asking to be put on his lap because the swaying made her feel unwell, Lutis finally let out a small laugh.

“Don’t complain later if you feel sick and ask to stop the carriage.”

“Then you can just move me back to where I was sitting before…”

“This is the seat of honor, though.”

“But you’ll do it anyway.”

At this bold statement, Lutis seemed to be at a loss for words.

Yet he didn’t seem to dislike the warmth of the child snuggling up to him.

As the child settled in Lutis’s arms and looked out the carriage window at the rapidly passing scenery, it happened.

“Oh…!”

As if she had discovered something, the child’s eyes widened as she pointed out the window.

“I saw! The baby from yesterday was eating bread!”

“…You were definitely younger.”

“Eek… Anyway, it was a baby, right?”

“Alright, that’s enough. You should sleep now. We have quite a way to go before arriving, so it’s better to sleep before the medicine wears off.”

“…”

Lutis covered the child’s eyes, which were still a bit puffy from having just woken up, with his large hand as he spoke.

The child squirmed, trying to remove his hand, saying she was already wide awake, but she was no match for Lutis’s strength.

How long had they been like that?

“…”

– Oh my.

The child, who had been sleepy since before getting in the carriage, soon quieted down as if she had never been fussy and fell into dreamland.

Lutis, who had been quietly looking down at the child sleeping soundly against him, patted her small back and murmured softly.

“…She resembles her.”

But the already sleeping child couldn’t possibly hear those words.

– …

Aeli could only silently watch the hands overlapping on the small back.

It was just regrettable that she couldn’t touch them despite being so close.

“Wow, woah…”

It was several hours later, well past noon.

The child, who had slept deeply in the carriage without even eating lunch, opened her mouth at the sight of the duke’s castle before her.

Although the city residence was large, it was no comparison to what was in the territory.

While the exterior was somewhat plainer compared to the splendor of the residence in the capital, the sheer scale made it no less imposing. The grounds alone were more than twice as large, so it was natural.

Thinking it might even rival the imperial palace in size, Aeli bent down and said to the child.

– Adi. There’s a lake in the backyard of Rattliff’s ducal castle.

“A, a lake…?”

The child asked back, startled by Aeli’s words. It was an understandable reaction, as having a lake in the backyard of a house was impossible within the limited space of the capital.

Aeli didn’t mention that it would take a good ten minutes by carriage just to reach that backyard lake, and continued.

– Yes. Even though it’s autumn, it’s still warm during the day, so you could probably go boating too. Ask your father to take you later.

The scenery is very pretty. Although she had only been there once when she was engaged, Aeli was certain the child would like it too.

Since both the wedding and honeymoon had taken place in the capital, Aeli was actually a bit excited herself.

The Rattliff ducal castle, which she was seeing after a very long time, remained surprisingly unchanged.

The child, who had been hugging her rabbit doll tightly since getting out of the carriage, suddenly turned her head to look at Lutis. Lutis was in the middle of talking with the aide who had come out to greet them.

“Father!”

When the child called out, Lutis turned to look at her.

The child ran towards Lutis, waving her doll, and asked.

“Is there, is there a lake here?”

“There is one in the back. …But where did you hear about that?”

“No, um, that… I just knew?”

“…”

“…I wanna go play, I wanna ride a boat!”

Lutis looked down at the child with an expression that said he had a lot to say, but then shook his head.

He said the child had missed lunch because she was sleeping, so they should eat first, and it would be too late to go boating after that.

He also added that they hadn’t come here to play, but the already dejected child wasn’t listening.

The aide, who had been listening to the conversation, blinked slowly and opened his mouth.

“…Young master, you’ve grown so much.”

“Mm-hmm. Hello?”

“It’s an honor to see you again. The ducal territory is quite far from the capital, wasn’t it tiring to come all this way?”

“Ah! Um…”

“…?”

The child’s excited expression quickly turned glum, as if remembering her struggles with motion sickness.

The aide looked at the child with a questioning gaze.

Lutis was about to suggest they go inside as he looked down at the child and the aide.

“Well then, shall we go out now?”

The aide clapped his hands together and said with a faint smile.