Sitting in the shaking carriage and opening the bundle, I immediately corrected what I had said earlier.

“The butler isn’t that observant. Ugh, did they send it to bother me?”

The clothes the butler sent were a loose-fitting dress, precisely the type of dress I dislike.

“No, most of the casual wear I chose were pants! How did they manage to find and send me a skirt like this?”

Was it sent intentionally to annoy me? When I tried to wear it, my frustration reached its peak.

“Ugh, it’s even hard to put it on alone.”

After putting on the dress, I couldn’t button up the back because of the tight design around the shoulders. Usually, they make it more comfortable to fill up the chest area by designing it this way.

“That’s why I don’t wear skirts.”

After a fierce struggle, I put on the dress. However, without shorts or an underskirt, the chilly wind seeped through the inside of the skirt. I touched my legs, feeling strangely empty.

A rumor I had heard somewhere echoed in my ears.

“Don’t stay like this in such a place; go into the palace, put on a pretty dress, and decorate the royal palace.”

“I remembered it after a long time, teasing.”

It was the teasing Espen had done to me.

“Espen said a lot of mean things, but that comment was especially hurtful, so I remember it clearly.”

During the second battle, the monster I fought was none other than a tentacle-shaped creature.

Wrapped around a leg with venomous tentacles, I had to tear one side of my pants and wore them like that for over a month because of the continuously oozing wound.

Whether my appearance was pitiful or not, Espen teased me like that.

“It was really a wound to my heart. It felt like he was mocking me for being incompetent.”

Though I always acted elegant in front of people, at that time, I was just a princess who had recently emerged onto the battlefield. It was already heartbreaking and scary, and him mocking me like that made it even more painful.

“Espen was always cold to his comrades. Especially, to me.”

Those cold, silvery blue eyes that always looked at me with disdain were vivid in my memories. Since there were few people who looked at me with such eyes, it left a lasting impression.

Memories with Espen were filled with only bad memories. Always glaring at each other, mocking each other, and eventually, he even tried not to say a word to me.

“He probably hated the entire privileged class, not just me.”

Although I thought that he hated me as well, I always treated Espen coldly too. Thanks to that, our relationship was on the negative side.

Hating each other throughout the war…

Eventually, a mana explosion.

“There isn’t a single good memory until the end.”

Come to think of it, why did Espen suddenly cause a mana explosion?

“What did we talk about on the last day?”

Even when I thought back to the day Espen caused the mana explosion, I couldn’t recall any specific memories.

“The atmosphere in the unit wasn’t bad. On the contrary, there was hope inflated for the final battle.”
If we just drive out the different races beyond that mountain range, this land will now become a complete stronghold for humans. That’s why, even in fierce battles, the atmosphere was bright for me and my colleagues.

“On the last day, we talked about what we would do when the war ended. I said I would meet my fiancé, whom I had long postponed getting married to.”

What was Espen like that day?

After a moment of searching my memory, our last conversation came to mind.

“Marriage. I said I would go and get married.”

Moreover, it was an abrupt intrusion into a conversation between me and someone else. Espen, who seemed uninterested in me, suddenly asked if I was getting married.

“Thinking about it now, it was really strange.”

Were we that close that he would suddenly bring up the topic of marriage?

What reason could an acquaintance who wasn’t particularly close suddenly have to bring up marriage?

“…Could he really have liked me?”

After blankly thinking about it, I shook my head quickly.

“No! He really hated me a lot. He avoided me like I was filthy just by being around.”

Moreover, he disliked me from the beginning. Did he cause a mana explosion because he liked me?

“For Espen’s honor, it would be awkward to delude myself like that. No, really.”

But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no reason for Espen to save me other than that.

“It’s ridiculous. Truly ridiculous. But then why the hell is he saving me?”

I found clues to the complex problem entwined with my heart, but I couldn’t understand the motive of Espen, who carried out this enormous experiment!

“First, let’s ask Hadel if he’s ever heard the name Espen.”

Since it was a problem with no immediate answer, I decided to put it aside. There were many other questions I needed to solve, such as why the king and queen were following Espen’s orders and why they released an ice monster on Hadel’s territory.

“If there are no clues, I’ll have to go up to the capital and interrogate the king and queen.”

Just as I had almost organized my thoughts, the carriage slowly came to a stop.