She was worried that if she said she was looking for a book about mages, it might come across as unpleasant to Killian, who was a mage himself.

“If it is difficult to answer, you need not.”

Killian read her hesitation and eased the pressure. Strangely, hearing that made her feel as though it was all right to be honest.

“It’s not that, it’s just…… the truth is, I was wondering if there might be a book about mages.”

Killian looked mildly surprised when Ines confided carefully.

“Mages…… you say.”

He blinked a couple of times and gave a low hum, repeating it as though to himself.

Ines studied his face while pretending not to, and found only surprise and mild bewilderment at the unexpected words. There was no displeasure.

“I thought it would be good to know a little more about…… you. About the Grand Duke. Since we are going to be husband and wife……”

Ines swallowed the title that had nearly slipped out and added the explanation like a defense. But the more she said, the more it sounded embarrassingly earnest, so she pressed her lips together and quietly dropped her gaze. Her ears felt oddly warm.

Perhaps a few blinks’ worth of time passed.

“……Ha ha.”

A laugh drifted through the air toward her.

Ines had been tracing the pattern on the floor with her eyes and looked up without meaning to. Then she stilled for just an instant. A smile like a clear early-summer day had settled over his strong yet graceful face.

“……”

Ines stared at Killian blankly, forgetting that her own face was flushed. He laughed softly for a moment longer, then curved his deep eyes gently.

“Really, you do keep surprising me, Your Highness.”

She did not know what about her had surprised him. But whatever it was, it was not unwelcome.

The simple fact that Killian was smiling because of her made her glad.

Killian gave another low hum and opened his mouth.

“If you wish to know about mages, books are one option, but there is another way.”

Ines blinked.

“Another way……?”

In the space between puzzlement and the dawning thought of could it be.

“Asking directly would be the most effective, wouldn’t it?”

Killian said lightly, dropping the words like a stone into water.

Her heart, which had been beating faster and faster from the moment he said another way, was now pounding so loudly it was almost embarrassing. Ines buried her face downward, certain her expression was hopelessly obvious, and prayed that Killian’s hearing, which was surely several times keener than any ordinary person’s, could not hear it.

“Ah, of course I am not insisting. If you would rather, a book……”

“No!”

Ines called out with more urgency than she had shown since arriving at Rupert Castle.

Only after blurting it out did she realize how excessive her reaction was, but what was done was done. She had no intention of taking it back anyway.

“I mean, if it is all right with you, I think that would be better……”

But regardless of that, she could do nothing about the face that had gone thoroughly red, and her voice trailed off.

The composure she had not lost even in front of the detestable Lena crumbled helplessly at a single sentence from Killian, like silk in the wind.

“Ha ha. Then let’s do that.”

“……”

Ines fidgeted with the hands resting neatly on her deep green dress and nodded. Killian laughed again.

He tapped his thigh as though thinking something over, then called to her softly.

“Your Highness.”

“……Yes.”

“Before I tell you about myself, there is something I would like to ask of you. Will you hear it?”

……A request?

That single word was enough to lift the gaze Ines had been keeping lowered, having accumulated a fair amount of embarrassment in the past hour.

“Please go ahead, Grand Duke.”

Forgetting that she had been keeping her eyes down out of shyness, Ines looked at Killian. For just a moment, she had the impression that his steady eyes gave a faint ripple.

“Grand Duke?”

Her heart lifting at the word request, the first he had ever offered her, Ines called his name with a hint of curiosity.

“……Ah.”

Killian let out a short breath. He seemed, oddly, a little flustered.

“Ha ha……”

His expression, which had been difficult to read, gave way to something between a sigh and a laugh. He looked mildly sheepish, or perhaps caught off guard.

But only for a moment. Soon Killian’s characteristic calm and unhurried manner settled back around him.

“Hmm. I think I might feel a little stung if you refuse now……”

It was a puzzling thing to say.

Just as Ines was about to ask what he meant, Killian opened his mouth with an expression that was oddly pleased. She had no chance to wonder.

“Would you call me Killian from now on?”

The voice that slipped into her ear made Ines’s eyes go wide. She replayed it to make sure she had not misheard, and what she had heard did not change. Killian added one more sentence.

“And I would like to ask your permission to use your name as well.”

His low, gentle voice seemed to drift on a soft breeze and brush across her whole body.

Only then did Ines fully grasp that he was suggesting they call each other by name.

Her face understood before her words did.

“……You have my permission.”

……Killian. The name that followed the thoroughly flushed answer was barely a whisper, but it was enough to find its way to its owner.

Killian laughed quietly in return.

“Thank you, Ines.”

The name he spoke was unbearably sweet.

* * *

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

……Sleep well, Killian.

At the hesitant, near-whispered farewell, Killian laughed softly.

“Sweet dreams, Ines.”

Her name, spoken low and gently, seemed almost like a response to the name she had added.

Ines did not refuse Killian’s suggestion that she go in first, and stepped into her room. The moment the door closed, she leaned against the wall.

She slid down it almost immediately, because the heart that had been making a racket from the library all through dinner and back to her room now felt a little too much to bear.

“Haah……”

Ines let out the breath she had been holding. It broke apart, tangled with bewilderment and surprise, tension and excitement.

Thud, thud, thud.

In the quiet, a pulse like a vibration filled her whole body.

This heavy yet weightless sound was not something she could slow at will, even as its owner.

All Ines could do was breathe out in small puffs, trying to release the excitement she was brimming with.

“You need to be up early tomorrow morning, so please try to sleep as soon as you can!”

“I will. You go to bed quickly too.”

“Yes!”

Cecile smiled shyly and closed the door quietly, in contrast to her bright voice.

Shh.

Ines watched the closed door for a moment, then sat on the edge of the bed.

She reached out and turned off the lamp, and darkness came at once, but only briefly. Moonlight poured through the window where she had deliberately left only a thin curtain drawn, brightening her view.

Rustle.

Ines slowly lay down on the bed. She shifted until she was lying straight and rested her hands on her stomach.

“……”

She had told Cecile she would sleep early, but strangely, her eyelids felt light.

The reason came to her without much thought. Someone had been circling in her head since her bath.

“……Killian.”

Ines murmured the name she had been secretly whispering to herself on sleepless nights since her return. The difference from before was that the more she said his name, the more complicated her feelings became.

In truth, today had been so unreal that she had caught herself wondering, foolishly, whether it might be a dream.

And no wonder. She had spent hours talking with Killian, and they had even shared a meal together before the wedding.

Of course, the most astonishing thing of all was that she had been given the right to call him by his name. And it had been Killian who asked first.

‘Originally, it was more than two years into the marriage before we called each other by name……’

The greatest reason for that distance had probably been the fact that Ines was the Emperor’s daughter. No matter that she was his wife, she would have been someone Killian could not help but be guarded around.

So was the current situation a bad thing? Of course not. Badly enough that her face had gone embarrassingly red. But the contrast with her past life was something she could not quite stop noticing.

What had she done to make Killian different?

‘Was it the matter of the imperial soldiers?’

Had telling him that a sorcerer was hidden among them and would cause trouble for Rupert lowered his guard toward her a little?

She thought it over further, but that was the only plausible reason she could find. And it was a good sign.

‘……Then maybe we can grow a little closer this time.’

If being of use to Rupert could earn her Killian’s warm voice and warm eyes, Ines would do anything.

That was also the purpose of the second chance she had been given.

“……”

Shameless as it was, Ines still loved Killian.