He found a towel and quickly heated it. For an Adam’s power, wetting or heating a towel was nothing. He mindlessly wiped between the child’s legs with the towel. Though Jeanne whimpered, she wasn’t startled.

After dressing her in pajamas, he finished wiping her face. Young Jeanne followed him like a mother. Cesare picked up his wife who didn’t see him as a man at all and went to the bed. Then he took out a doll from the drawer.

“Jeanne, look at this.”

It was a soldier doll. Jeanne, who had been staring dejectedly at the corner of the bed, looked at the doll her husband was holding. The brass doll wore a splendid uniform. Her husband moved the doll carrying a long gun.

Jeanne sat Cici, whom she had been preciously holding, on the bed. She recalled the story her husband had told her last night.

It was a love story about Princess Cici in a cloth dress and a prince who said she shone brighter than anyone.

The story that the prince had great power but it was useless without Cici, so he always had to hold Cici’s hand…… That story that floated in her mind for a long time would be a beautifully sparkling fragment even when she lost her love for her husband. 

 * * *

 A year passed. Jeanne was now nine years old. Though not much different from last year, Cesare said she seemed to have grown about a span taller.

Jeanne thought ‘Really?’ Then Cesare said he would record her height on one side of his office, made her stand against the wall, brought a stone and drew a line. Then he said:

‘I’ll measure once every month.’

He smiled. Jeanne stood on her tiptoes, wanting to grow taller quickly. Her husband pressed down on her head and whispered ‘We need to record it properly’ before kissing her cheek. Those were such days. Time was flowing peacefully like that. 

 One sunny afternoon, Cesare opened his lips. He said a dragon lived in the palace. Unbelievably, the dragon that had disappeared long ago showed itself again with the Emperor’s birth.

And in Triste, the Emperor’s personal territory…… Though Jeanne was curious about what the dragon looked like, she was secretly scared and couldn’t ask to see it.

Then one day, Cesare asked.

“Don’t you want to see our salamander?”

“Salamander? Do you have a salamander at your house, brother?”

“Not my house, but our house, Jeanne.”

Cesare narrowed his eyes at Jeanne, who still called the imperial palace ‘brother’s house.’ Being only nine years old, Cesare was more of a ‘kind brother’ than a husband to Jeanne. Though he knew this, he couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

They say a man and woman who meet too young and grow up together can’t develop romantic feelings. However, to Cesare, Jeanne was always his wife, and he had never defined her as anything else. He stared at the girl who was looking straight at him.

Though she was a year older, the girl who used to cling to his waist now reached near his solar plexus. Cesare led her without showing any further discomfort.

“Brother, are we riding horses today?”

“Yes.”

“I’m scared of horses. Can’t I just pet them?”

“We need to ride horses to get to where the salamander lives.”

“Can’t we walk?”

Jeanne whined. Cesare didn’t respond. This was his approach to her whining. He would listen to everything worth listening to. However, he remained coldly resolute about things he couldn’t give in to.

It was a kind of parenting guideline. Since he had to raise his young wife, he had studied quite a bit. Anyway, while Jeanne didn’t need to be good at everything, she also shouldn’t fear things she couldn’t do. Therefore, his principle was that even if she wasn’t good at horseback riding, she shouldn’t fear it.

“Count Spetunia really loved horseback riding.”

“Dad is Dad, and I am me.”

Jeanne replied with puffed cheeks, clearly angry. With her arms crossed, she showed no trace of the proper etiquette due to an Emperor, but Jeanne wasn’t someone who needed to show him such courtesy. He gently pinched his adorably angry wife’s cheek while thinking of Count Spetunia.

The Count was skilled in all physical activities. He had even taught him horseback riding. If told to ride a dragon, he would surely excel at that too. Moreover, all his ancestors were dragon riders.

So wouldn’t Jeanne have that blood in her as well?

……Such thoughts were immediately shattered.

“Jeanne, it’s alright. Brother is holding the reins.”

Cesare, who now used ‘I’ instead of the royal ‘We,’ was trying hard to comfort his wife who was crying and begging to get down. Having experienced a fall during riding lessons once, Jeanne seemed particularly afraid of getting on horses.

With no choice, Cesare mounted behind her and held her tiny body tightly.

“Hic. Huung…… I’m scared. I hate this. Let me down……”

“Shh— Jeanne. Lean back against brother.”

Cesare murmured lowly. Jeanne stopped crying and looked up at Cesare. He was holding young Jeanne tightly. She could feel his firm chest. It was as broad and firm as her father’s chest.

The thick scent of forest trees and subtle fragrance of lily of the valley enveloped her nose. Jeanne stopped crying and leaned against him.

The curves of his muscular body wrapped around her back and head. His composed low voice whispered for her to look ahead. Jeanne looked forward and felt the wind. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid anymore.

From then on, Jeanne gradually became less afraid of horseback riding. Though she didn’t like it, recalling the warm memory with her husband gave her courage. 

 * * *

 The dragon was a beast as big as a house. If asked whether it really looked like a salamander, well…… However, it was more mischievous and troublesome than expected. Its main diet was said to be large beasts like sheep or horses. Jeanne observed the dragon closely.

Its teeth, interlocked like saw blades, were terrifying like huge fangs. Also, its skin was dark red and cool like snake scales, and it was said many people wet themselves just from its appearance, but strangely, Jeanne preferred the dragon to horses. Though flying on the dragon was scary, petting its head was fun.

The dragon’s guard said it was because she was Adam’s companion. Cesare laughed at those words. But Jeanne truly thought the dragon was cute. Its eyes resembled a cat’s more than a snake’s, and its huge wings were even cute like a cat’s front paws.

However, horrifyingly, the dragon needed to regularly lap up the Emperor’s blood and flesh…… Jeanne was shocked by this, but Cesare seemed unbothered.

“……Doesn’t it hurt?”

Jeanne asked, watching her husband cut his forearm yet again today. Cesare only gave a faint smile. He offered his blood and flesh to the dragon as if it were natural.

“Brother.”

“Well. How simple would it be if all beasts could be tamed with blood and flesh?”

Cesare smiled at the question of whether it really had to eat blood and flesh. Jeanne tilted her head.

“……What does that mean?”

“If the world were full of beasts that could be tamed with my blood and flesh, I would gladly give even my internal organs. However……”

He closed his lips. The shadow cast on his pale face was deep. Jeanne stared at her husband silently.

Afterward, Cesare continued taking his young wife to see the dragon. Occasionally, Jeanne flew through the sky with her husband on the dragon. However, as time passed, she mostly just watched her husband flying in the sky.

Cesare sometimes gave her flowers and jewels. It wasn’t for any special day or meaning. He would just offer jewels as if picking up nice things while walking. Jeanne gladly accepted these items.

If her father had seen this, he would have had a worried expression, but at that time there were no elders in the court to sit the young couple down and lecture them.

Sometimes Beatrice, who acted as Jeanne’s governess, showed a worried face, but she wasn’t bold enough to interfere with the Emperor’s private gifts prepared with his young wife in mind.

Above all, even the Empress Dowager remained silent. In such a situation, a mere lady-in-waiting couldn’t say anything. Moreover, the Emperor tended to ignore whatever his mother said. This always worried Beatrice.

However, regardless of what the adults thought, the young imperial couple was very close. The Emperor treated his young wife like a sister but never forgot that she was his ‘wife.’ This was especially true when he sat his young wife down to discuss ‘succession.’

Beatrice thought perhaps they should be separated bit by bit. Though they were like close siblings, the court had clear laws and order. Cesare loved his wife too much.

A year ago. The day after the royal wedding.

After sleeping together with Jeanne once after some incident, the Emperor had continuously shared a room with her. Moreover, they were always together during meals. But what really shocked her was that the Emperor even served his wife’s meals.

Watching him cut boiled vegetables and grilled meat into bite-sized pieces and putting them in his wife’s mouth, he didn’t seem like the Emperor with his rough temperament at all. He was someone who would bare his teeth even at his mother the Empress Dowager.

But his wife was different. Was it because she was an Eve? But what’s not right isn’t right. Just as she was about to speak up with the heart of a loyal subject offering counsel, after much deliberation—

“No need to worry about it”

“What?”

“It’s going to end soon anyway.”