Rinel had woken up before me.

But unlike usual when he would wake up alone, today he was beside me.

He greeted the morning with a smile in lieu of words.

Feeling a bit embarrassed thinking about him staring intently at my face from such a close distance, I wriggled my head and hips, stretching my back to put some distance between us.

A moaning sound then escaped his lips.

“Huhuhu, I thought I was going to die because my arm was numb.”

“…What?”

“Zelda, I thought my arm was going to die from numbness.”

Rinel wore a playful expression as he slowly folded his arm that had been stretched out on the pillow.

“Are, are you okay?”

I gently placed my hands on his strong arm, as if a cat raising its front paws, and asked.

“Ugh…? Don’t touch.”

He shuddered at my touch and scowled.

It was funny to see a man who could easily fling someone’s arm, leg, or even head into the air on the battlefield act so spoiled because of a little arm numbness.

“You should have woken me up earlier.”

“Do you think I didn’t wake you up?”

“Did I continue sleeping even after you tried to wake me up?”

“I thought you had died. You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I said.”

“Why didn’t you shake me awake?”

“Do you think I only shook you? Check your arm. There should be a few bruised spots.”

Despite knowing that Rinel was joking, I couldn’t help but examine my arm.

My skin was only paler because I had soaked in the bath for a long time last night, and there was no trace of him pinching me anywhere.

He then hesitantly began to speak, “You know…”

“I, I really slept soundly. How about you?”

“I, I slept coolly.”

“Wait and see. You’ll beg me to stay with you because you won’t be able to sleep alone in the summer.”

He spoke as if his low body temperature was something to brag about in the summer.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“Oh, and I ordered breakfast to be brought here. Is that okay?”

“To the bedroom?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Sharon or steward Styne must have come into the room while I was sleeping.

I felt a little embarrassed knowing that I was so deeply asleep that I didn’t even notice someone entering the room.

Especially since I was sleeping in Rinel’s arms.

I slowly got up.

When I tried to drink water, I saw that the water glass was on the bedside table on the side where Rinel was lying.

“Where are you going?”

He asked me with a hint of disappointment as I was about to leave the bed.

“I’m just going to get some water.”

As I walked around the bed post and towards where he was lying, he chuckled.

“You could have asked me.”

“That’s okay. I need to change my clothes anyway.”

As I replied to him, my eyes naturally fell on the marble floor.

My smile stiffened instantly.

Just a few steps away from the table where the glass of water was, I couldn’t move.

Rinel looked at me, rigid.

Then, tucking his arms behind his head, he glanced at the floor and spoke.

“Ah, I felt somewhat stifled as if I were pressuring my legs while sleeping.”

His towel from yesterday was spread on the marble floor.

His pajamas had only arrived from the palace after he fell asleep, so I let him sleep without disturbing him.

“So, now…”

I couldn’t finish my sentence and pointed at the blanket he was covering.

“What, you want me to fold the blanket?”

Rinel casually lifted the blanket he was covering.

After taking a brief look inside the blanket, he continued with an indifferent voice.

“It’s a little hard right now.”

“…Are you right now.”

“Yes, I’m naked.”

“When did you become naked?”

“Who has held me too tightly in their sleep since when?”

I had no idea.

I didn’t even feel it.

That he was naked.

That’s a bit… unfair…

No, no. What am I thinking right now?

I quickly shook my head to shake off strange thoughts.

Rinel looked at me with strange eyes and then said,

“Don’t worry.”

“What…?”

“We’re not going to eat breakfast like this.”

“!”

He stretched his long arm and handed me a glass of water on the table.

“Here, drink. You came all the way around because of this, right?”

I held the glass he handed me with a smirk and drank it all at once.

I’m not sure whether I took a shot because I was thirsty, or because I thought I would be thirsty if I didn’t.

“I’m finally entering the royal family.”

Catherine Callios stood in front of the large fulllength mirror in her room.

It was the day to try on the wedding dress for the upcoming wedding with the emperor.

The ceremony held with other concubines was annoying, but Catherine didn’t care much.

What mattered was that she was becoming Rinel’s woman again.

“That’s fine.”

After all, the three concubines are just her followers.

By tradition, the concubines of the Lapion royal family wear creamcolored dresses. Only the queen can wear a pure white wedding dress.

But Catherine didn’t care about that either.

“I just need to be more beautiful.”

Catherine was confident, thinking about the creamcolored wedding dress she entrusted to the top designer in the Lapion Empire.

Among this time’s concubines, only Catherine climbed to the first concubine position.

Originally, the first concubine position was only climbed by the concubine who gave birth to the prince, but since the previous emperor, it was changed to a position that can be climbed for political reasons or the emperor’s total love.

Catherine could become the first concubine thanks to the power of her father, Duke Ett Callios.

It was also a benefit resulting from the fact that Emperor Rinel did not choose a Lapion native but a woman from another country as his empress.

However, Catherine herself never thought she was receiving a benefit.

After seeing Zelda from the Kingdom of Chateauneil at Emperor Rinel’s wedding, her desire for the position of queen grew even more.

“That nonentity is going to be the queen, isn’t she?”

Catherine was sure that she could easily seduce Rinel just by becoming a concubine, even without trying hard when she saw Zelda that day.

He would fall just from her seductive gestures.

“The position of queen was originally mine.”

So she had to get it back.

Catherine made up her mind.

The designer brought the dress to wear at the ceremony.

She wore a corset before trying on the wedding dress with the help of maids.

“My waist needs to go in more! You get that, you idiots!”

At her irritated command, three maids began to tighten the corset.

Catherine clenched her teeth, clung to the bedpost, and yelled at her maids.

“Tighten it more! More, more, more!”