/
“I don’t have a fever.”
“Then how do you explain this?”
“It’s not a fever I have…”
I found myself trying to somehow explain but eventually sighed, shaking my head.
What’s done is done.
I don’t think I can.
His body is too mesmerizing, I can barely get the words out before my face burns up on its own!
“Oh, by the way, I can see you’re having a rough time, Your Highness.”
“Yes, if only someone had listened and taken their rest like they were told to, it’d be less hard on me, right?”
“Really, Your Highness?!”
At that, I got irritated and even forgot the people around us that were watching.
It was then Damian burst out laughing.
“After seeing you lose your temper like this, you don’t seem sick.”
“I did say I wasn’t sick from the start.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Damian raised his eyebrows slightly and suddenly drew his head closer to me.
“Anyway, I did have to endure tons of hardship. So, as a reward-”
Making eye contact with me, Damian then closed his eyes before asking.
“Please stroke my hair.”
…did something malfunction in that brain of his all of a sudden?
And most of all, here?
Aren’t people closely watching us?
“Your Highness, everyone’s watching us.”
“And what if they do?”
Shrugging shamelessly, he urged me again.
“Hurry up, you said I was having a hard time today.”
“Are you certain you’re not going to stroke my hair?”
Damian whined like a puppy begging its owner for a walk.
I was going to say something but quickly decided against it, shutting my mouth.
Arrrgh, that must have looked so stupid just now!
I glanced sideways at Damian.
He was still poking his head at me, eyes glistening.
…well, I was worried about Damian this time too.
He had a lot on his hands for the cleanup.
Besides, it’s not like I’ll lose my hand just from stroking his hair.
“….fine, fine.”
Feeling sympathetic, I brushed Damian’s hair.
Damian whispered a question to me.
“You don’t smell the sweat, right?”
“Would someone who’s currently brushing your hair, care about that?”
I smirked.
It felt strange.
Knowing that in front of me was someone like a beast who could tear through anything, had become as gentle as sheep.
At the time, I was mostly concentrating on the soft feel of his hair for the longest time when-
“W-Huh?”
A gargled voice rang out as if someone were choking them.
A man carrying bags of sand in his arms was looking this way, simply gobsmacked.
His eyes widened at what was happening.
‘Oh, who could that be?’
It was a knight who came down to Lebane with us.
I heard that he was a fairly loyal knight who cleansed beasts alongside Damian in the north.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Sacks of sand fell from the knight’s arms.
Damian shot a fierce look at the knight.
“What are you looking at?”
“I’m sorry!”
The knight who came to his senses immediately skedaddled.
I stared blankly at Damian, surprised at what had occurred.
Perhaps feeling my gaze, Damian changed his countenance and smiled sweetly.
“What’s wrong, Charlize?”
“Oh, nothing.”
How can someone just easily switch expressions like the flip of a palm?
Wow, just wow….
****
Time soon passed and the day finally came when Damian and Charlize would leave Lebane.
Crowds of people had gathered to say their farewells to the two.
“Thank you so much, Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”
“Saintess, please leave carefully!”
At that shout, Damian glanced sideways at Charlize.
Then he smiles wryly.
“Saintess?”
“Damian, be quiet!”
Charlize squinted her eyes and glared at him.
Damian teasingly shrugged.
“Charlize, are you going to keep getting angry in public?”
“Even though everyone is looking at you?” Damian added.
“Really…… this is…”
Readjusting her posture and taking a deep breath, Charlize calmed herself down.
He’s right.
She wasn’t ‘Charlize’ right now, she was the Crown Prince’s fiancee.
Also, rather embarrassingly…
‘….a Saintess.’
But if the title could give the people of Lebane hope, she could tolerate a little embarrassment.
Charlize glanced up and looked at the people.
Those eyes radiated trust toward her and Damian.
‘Countless people that believed in Damian and I are following us.’
It was the first time I had such an experience.
Filled with gratitude, Charlize bowed deeply toward the crowd.
“There must have been a lot of things we lacked, but everyone followed our instructions really well. Thank you.”
“I also express my deepest gratitude.”
Damian also erased the smile from his face and bowed deeply to the people.
The minds and hearts of the people were amazed and moved at the same time.
“No, how are you two bowing down to us!”
“If it weren’t for you two, Lebane would have suffered tremendously!”
“His Majesty may have turned from us but you two came to our aid.”
People scrambled to express their thanks.
There was not a single lie in the voices expressing gratitude.
Listening to the countless people, Damian and Charlize smiled heartfeltly.
I was jubilant.
****
As the crowd watched the two of them leave, they started whispering among themselves.
“Come to think of it, you said that Lady Charlize is his Highness’s fiancee, right?”
“Yes, what of it?”
“It’s a bit strange, I mean.”
The middle-aged man tilted his head and continued.
“Isn’t it common sense for the saintess who saved the south with the power of the divine beast to be crowned as the Crown Princess?”
“…I guess so?”
“In fact, isn’t it even stranger that she hasn’t been crowned as the Crown Princess till now? Don’t you think so?”
“Perhaps if someone wasn’t interfering in between…”
The people couldn’t hide their suspicious expressions.
They couldn’t say it out loud, but of course, there was only one person to be suspicious of.
It was the Emperor.
****
A few days later, at the Imperial palace.
The Empress was sitting alone in the large dining room.
It was because the Emperor had requested to hold dinner together for the first time in a long time.
But…
The Empress glanced up and looked at the clock hanging on the wall.
It is already eight o’clock in the evening.
It was quite late to have dinner.
Moreover, the appointed hour the Emperor and the Empress had originally scheduled for was seven o’clock in the evening.
That meant that the Emperor was already an hour late for this appointment.
“….er, Your Majesty, the Empress. Shall I send someone to the Imperial palace?”
“It’s all right.”
Head maid Hayden was restless and so she asked the Empress.
However, the Empress merely shook her head with a nonchalant expression.
“It’s not like the Emperor hasn’t done this once or twice.”
“But…”
Head maid Hayden, who was aggrieved for the Empress, was about to give a remark but refrained from doing so, biting her lip.
Because what the Empress said was true.
The alliance that was previously solid, was long gone after the passing of the former Duke of Rochester, the Empress’s father.
The current relationship between the Duke of Rochester and the Emperor was a far cry from the relationship the Empress had when she first got married.
It was now quite common for the Duke and the Emperor to bare their teeth and growl at each other during meetings.
And naturally, the gap between the Emperor and the Empress also widened.
Not only did they live separately, they had not even spoken a single word of kindness to each other for several years.
However, with the obligation to leave behind an heir, the martial duty would be scheduled for and they did so indifferently.
Yet, the two still had no children.
Everyone knew very well that the Emperor and Empress did not have conjugal affection for each other.
But…
‘The Empress is the mother of the empire, I didn’t expect the Emperor to make her wait this long.’
Any disrespect toward her Lady would not be welcomed.
Even more so when said Lady was someone she cherished as she had raised the Empress from a very young age.
Just when Head maid Hayden barely managed to stifle the bubbling rage inside her-
BOOM!!
There was the sound of a strong kick on the door.
Startled, Head maid Hayden lifted her gaze.
After a while, the Emperor appeared with thumping footsteps.
He was holding a crumpled evening newspaper in his hand.
“Empress, what the hell is the meaning of this?!”
The Emperor glared at the empress with eyes full of anger.
In contrast, the Empress had a composed expression throughout.
“I must return that question. Why are you incandescent?”
“Did you hear the commotion this article caused?!”
The Emperor slammed the newspaper down before the Empress’s face, making a loud banging noise.
The Empress looked down at the newspaper with an expressionless face.
In large letters, the headline read, <Saintess of the South Saves the City of Lebane!>.