When I stood frozen with tension, the door opened and soldiers rushed in.

“W-what’s happening?”

A thousand thoughts flashed through my mind in that moment.

Why had so many soldiers suddenly come to my room?

I quickly scanned their faces but recognized none of them.

“Am I being taken somewhere like this?”

With that thought, Ainberg’s face came to mind.

What would happen if something happened to me while you were away?

“W-wait a moment.”

I stretched my hand toward the direction where the soldiers stood.

“What’s the matter?”

“We bring a command from His Majesty the Emperor.”

At the stern and heavy voice, I slowly composed myself with proper etiquette.

But something strange happened.

At the mention that the Emperor had sent them, the tension that had risen to the top of my head slowly subsided.

Moreover, I felt my face flush with embarrassment at my earlier thoughts.

After quietly keeping my mouth shut and showing proper respect, a man standing inside stepped forward and held out an envelope to me.

“What is this?”

When I carefully received it, it had a weight too heavy to be just a letter, and its neat folding exuded an unusual aura.

“Then we shall take our leave.”

With that brief greeting, the soldiers left.

Even after they had gone, I stood motionless for a while, holding the envelope in my hand.

“Miss.”

It was Sabine’s voice that roused me from my frozen state.

“Yes.”

“Are you all right?”

“Y-yes, of course.”

“…Please sit here.”

“Yes, thank you.”

After taking a calm breath, I opened the sealed envelope.

Clean and powerful handwriting engraved on white paper. It was Ainberg’s letter.

<To my dear Lady Leonora Chadmon,

I worry that you might be disheartened by my sudden departure from the castle.

I hope you understand the weight I carry that forced me to undertake this demanding schedule.

I feel troubled for not being able to keep my promise to you.

I want to know how you spend your days during my absence, what interests you most.

From today, my only joy will be waiting for even a brief reply from you.

I hope the sincerity I send here soothes your disappointment.>

The letter ended with Ainberg’s signature.

“……”

Even after reading the short letter, I couldn’t take my eyes off the print.

It wasn’t because the content was moving, nor because I missed him.

Was having lunch together such a serious promise?

Enough to weigh on his mind and send a letter like this?

You’re really something. You have the talent to make me uncomfortable even from afar.

‘I feel strange.’

“Enough, what’s strange about it? He’s doing well, I see.”

I push away Ainberg’s voice with unnecessarily grumpy thoughts.

“Miss, are you all right?”

Just then, Sabine asked carefully.

“Hm?”

“No, you’re suddenly sweating so much.”

When I looked up at Sabine with a blank face, she wiped my forehead with a handkerchief.

“Oh my, Miss. You seem to have a fever.”

When I touched my forehead with my hand, I felt a slight warmth.

“I’m fine. Just a little… right now.”

I must have been angry enough for my body to heat up.

The heated emotion gathered in my solar plexus. It wasn’t sad or difficult or painful, but I couldn’t bear the discomfort in my heart.

The words he left for me seemed to be tearing through my otherwise orderly mind.

“Should I bring some fever reducer?”

“No, I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing’s wrong.”

I was trying to control my emotions by speaking more than necessary.

“Sigh.”

I put Ainberg’s letter down on my knee.

It was just one letter, but it felt as heavy as if ten books were placed on my knees.

“Sabine, I should write back, right?”

At my question, Sabine hesitated and couldn’t answer readily.

Why is she being uncharacteristically cautious?

“What do you think? Should I?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“…I’ve never written a letter like this before.”

“A letter like this?”

In other words, I’ve never written a letter to a man.

I swallowed this thought, unable to say it to Sabine.

“But Miss, why did His Majesty send a letter?”

Sabine asked me while subtly glancing toward the letter.

I handed the letter to her with dry eyes.

“Read it if you’re curious.”

“What? N-no, Miss.”

I didn’t intend to put Sabine in a difficult position.

I didn’t want to think of Ainberg’s letter as something secret, and I also wanted to escape from the emotions he left behind as quickly as possible.

“How could I dare to read His Majesty’s letter?”

Sabine waved her hands, her forehead turning red.

“It’s nothing special. Just—”

“……”

“A complaint. He said he didn’t want to go but had no choice. He wrote because he was afraid I’d be upset. Haha… something about the weight of being Emperor.”

You have to work even if you don’t want to, right?

Or you should have sent someone else.

You left so quickly, and now what’s all this about?

“Did he say he missed you, Miss?”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at Sabine.

“Do you have a tendency to push things in that direction?”

“It’s just that the only intuition I’ve developed from meeting various people is that kind.”

Teacher Sa, I’m sorry but you’re wrong today.

When I shook my head gently, Sabine tilted hers.

“That’s strange. Looking at your face, I was sure he had said something like that.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

“It turned red as if you had a fever.”

I snorted and closed my eyes.

“Not at all.”

Though I said that, I was actually in an anxious state, as if in the middle of a whirlpool.

‘Ainberg, you really.’

So this was the tender man he could be in front of someone he loved.

A person who knew how to write letters for the one waiting and express his feelings without reservation.

Without saying a single word like I miss you, I love you, I long for you, the sentences conveyed exactly how much he was thinking of me from far away.

Was it because I was receiving love meant for someone else through a borrowed body?

Even though I knew it wasn’t affection directed at me.

Why was I so uncomfortable?

‘But Miss, the more I hear about it, the stranger it seems.’

‘Yes, it’s strange, extremely strange.’

‘No, that’s not what I meant…… It seems like someone deliberately set out to torment you.’

‘Yes, they set out to torment me.’

‘If someone dislikes you, usually…… they don’t pay much attention to you. They don’t even want to think about you. In my opinion, there must have been some other reason. If not, perhaps there were unavoidable circumstances?’

‘Unavoidable circumstances?’

‘Yes, like the current situation between you and Her Majesty the Empress.’

‘……’

‘Something that made it impossible for him to do otherwise with the Empress…… that sort of thing.’

As I mulled over my conversation with Sabine, a thought suddenly became clear.

Something had definitely been strange, but there were things I hadn’t thought deeply about and had overlooked.

“……Miamo.”

“Yes?”

Right, I thought something was odd back then too.

“Sabine, I have a cat that I raised.”

“Ah.”

Sabine blinked a couple of times before asking me again.

“You mean the cat the Empress was taking care of, right?”

Miamo was extremely sensitive and wouldn’t let anyone near except me.

But when I went with Levi to get approval for our marriage, Miamo was clearly with the Emperor.

It was a cat that rarely even jumped onto my lap.

‘Come to think of it, when Miamo rushed toward me, he was the only one who remained composed.’

Well, he was someone who never showed much expression to begin with.

“Sabine, could you find out where Miamo is now?”

“Yes, Miss.”

Sabine was about to go outside but turned back with a worried voice.

“Miss, shall I bring a doctor as well?”

“It’s fine. Just bring me a cup of warm milk, would you?”

After Sabine left, I picked up the letter on the table again.

“Well, what’s the big deal about replying? I’ll just write it myself.”

I got up from my chair and came back with paper and a pen.

I boldly picked up the pen, but when I actually tried to write, I didn’t know what to say.

“……Hmm, To His Beloved Imperial Majesty. Is ‘beloved’ the right word to use here.”

I crossed it out with a line and tried again.

“To His Respected Imperial Majes- no, that’s not right, I don’t respect him?”

Writing a letter isn’t an easy task.

I can’t even write a single line.

I put the pen back down and leaned completely back in my chair.

‘It’s much harder than saying it out loud.’

Of course, there are advantages too.

You can say things in a letter that are difficult to say in person.

Perhaps this separation might be an opportunity.

If you had some circumstances, if there was a reason you had to turn away from me, I wanted to hear it now.

I calmed my mind and began to move the pen.