The Adrian mansion in the capital, which they visited after 5 years, was almost unchanged from before.

“Welcome, master.”

Sebastian greeted the Adrian family members. It was a face he was seeing after exactly 5 years. Lucas waved his hand cheerfully.

“Sebastian! Long time no see! Have you been well?”

“Yes, young master Lucas. I’ve been well. Except for my back aching a bit when it rains.”

“I’ll get you some good medicine. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, young master.”

After a brief reunion, the family members headed to their respective rooms. Rosette ran happily to the maids who were welcoming her.

“Have you all been well?”

Except for Joan, Rosette’s personal maid, the other maids had stayed in the capital all along. Rosette called each of the maids she was seeing after a long time by name and asked how they had been.

“Oh right! I brought gifts too.”

She took out gifts from her bag and distributed them. Though the gifts Rosette had wrapped herself were crumpled, the maids found even that endearing.

After catching up, she enjoyed refreshments with the maids. The maids marveled at how much Rosette had grown in 5 years.

“You’ve really grown a lot. Before, you only came up to my waist.”

“Hmm, I wasn’t that short. I was taller than that.”

Rosette muttered, sounding a bit upset as she took a big bite of her favorite egg tart.

“But why am I still small? Both elder brother Lucas and elder sister Isabel are so tall.”

“You’ll grow soon too, young lady. For that, you need to eat well and sleep well, right?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Just then, another maid put some macarons on Rosette’s plate and whispered in amazement:

“Young lady, you seem to have become brighter in that time.”

“Really?”

Rosette twirled her hair, feeling embarrassed.

‘Have I changed a lot too?’

Come to think of it, she hadn’t been conscious of it before, but looking back now, she could feel that her personality had changed a lot from before.

When Rosette first came to the Adrian mansion, she was timid and intimidated. Rather than her innate personality, it was a character that had changed while staying at the Dallas household.

Having only heard harsh words from Baron Dallas and Elisha, a young child’s mind couldn’t endure it.

But the people of Adrian mansion, who noticed her wounds, took care of her warmly. The people of the territory were the same.

Thanks to their constant efforts, Rosette was able to love herself a bit more. Her personality became brighter too. She could joke around comfortably with Lucas, and laugh without being intimidated by Isabel’s blunt words.

She would even approach Daniel or Duke Adrian first to act coy.

It was the same now. She didn’t shy away from the maids she was seeing after a long time, but rather approached them first and even hugged them.

To the maids who remembered Rosette from 5 years ago, her change must have seemed even greater.

“It’s all thanks to you.”

Rosette mumbled, blushing. The maids laughed quietly as her expression was exactly the same as 5 years ago.

It was still a peaceful day.

That night, Pipi, who was settling on the pillow to sleep, suddenly flapped its wings happily.

Rosette, who was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep easily due to the change in sleeping place, suddenly sat up.

“Could it be…?”

That’s right! It’s Silver!

Hearing Pipi chirping excitedly, Rosette looked towards the window. A silver wolf entered through the terrace, then pushed open the slightly opened window with its nose and came in.

“Silver!”

Rosette cried out happily and spread her arms. Silver ran over in one breath and hugged her. The impact knocked Rosette backwards, but she just laughed.

Silver licked Rosette’s face here and there like a puppy.

“Ahaha, it tickles! Stop it!”

Rosette held the silver wolf’s face that she was seeing after a long time and examined it closely.

Familiars don’t grow or age. Pipi too had no change in appearance over the past 5 years.

So Silver too should have been exactly the same as before. But somehow it seemed to have become more majestic during that time.

“Have you been well?”

Silver howled, “Awoo.” Rosette was startled and grabbed Silver’s muzzle tightly.

“Don’t howl. But I’m glad you seem to have been well.”

Pipi landed on Silver’s head and acted familiar.

“Pipi is happy to see you too.”

“I’ve been well too, and so has Pipi.”

After briefly catching up, Rosette swallowed dry saliva as she looked at the necklace dangling from Silver’s neck.

Finally, she could meet Joshua, whom she had wanted to see for the past 5 years.

Well, rather than meeting, it was just conversing but…

‘Why am I so nervous?’

Feeling her mouth go dry, Rosette opened her lips.

“Um, Your Highness? Are you listening?”

The moment she heard that brief answer, Rosette was incredibly surprised. Pipi too was startled and chirped “Peep?”

‘It sounds like a different person!’

Joshua’s voice that she heard after 5 years had completely changed.

The Joshua’s voice Rosette knew was the voice of a young child. It was slightly high-pitched as his voice hadn’t broken yet, and somehow sounded light.

But the voice coming through the necklace was that of an adult whose voice had completely broken.

‘He’s 17 so of course he’s close to an adult, but it feels strange.’

Rosette had directly seen Daniel and Lucas’s voices change as they grew up.

The change in their voices was a bit surprising too, but since she saw them growing up right beside her, it wasn’t that shocking.

But Joshua was different.

‘I’m sure I’ve heard his previous voice before, so why is it so surprising?’

Surely the last voice she heard before dying was Joshua’s.

But was it because the emotion in the voice was different from then?

It felt like listening to someone else’s voice.

‘But the voice is nice.’

A honey-like beautiful voice. A voice that was neither low nor high. Listening to it made her feel like she would fall asleep naturally.

After hesitating, Rosette answered honestly.

“Your Highness’s voice sounds a bit unfamiliar.”

“Ah, that’s right! Her Majesty the Empress! Is Her Majesty well?”

“Alright?”

“Ah. I should go see Her Majesty sometime soon.”

“I hope she invites us soon.”

Rosette fidgeted with her fingers and carefully asked.

“Has Your Highness been well?”

Rosette had sent about five letters to Joshua during that time. There wasn’t much content, she just wrote about the three siblings’ or her own recent news, or introduced the Adrian territory.

Perhaps because they were trivial letters, she only received replies from Joshua twice. Even then, Joshua didn’t write about his own situation in the letters.

Although she knew it wasn’t something to feel upset about, Rosette felt a little disappointed. She also felt a bit resentful towards Joshua.

“Assassins?”

Rosette cried out without realizing.

She could almost see Joshua frowning in front of her. Rosette hunched her shoulders.

“I’m sorry.”

Joshua sneered.

Rosette, who had been hugging Silver’s neck until then, let go of her arms and slowly backed away. Silver whined as if denying it.

Rosette’s heart softened at the sight, and she buried her face in Silver’s neck again.

Then Joshua asked.

“Ah, that. Mrs. Noyer corrected me that ‘Your Highness’ is the correct form of address. She was really surprised when she found out I was calling you ‘Prince’.>

Rosette carefully asked, hearing a voice that seemed somewhat displeased.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Joshua paused for a moment.

“But that’s the correct form of address, isn’t it?”

“What’s strange about it?”

After being silent for a moment after those words, Joshua soon said as if he had made up his mind.

“What? But how…>

Joshua instructed, but Rosette still felt a bit reluctant. As if noticing her feelings, he asked.

“No, it’s not that I don’t like it… I just thought about what’s different between ‘Prince’ and ‘Your Highness’.”

Joshua muttered incomprehensibly and insisted till the end.

“Yes.”

“I understand, Prince.”

Only then did satisfaction seep into his voice.

“But why did you send Silver today?”