Lacy was at a loss for words.

His face, this close — those blue eyes and the damp brown hair catching the sunlight, glinting brighter than usual.

No. Get it together.

“I’m perfectly fine now, so don’t say things like that.”

“Is that so? What a shame. So you’re a wife who only sleeps in my arms when she’s ill.”

Watching her look straight at him and answer like that — Rafez found himself smiling all the more.

“……What exactly is a shame?”

“I’m not sure myself. Think it over and let me know.”

“Felista.”

He hadn’t known until now how striking his own name could sound — from those small, flushed lips. Had Felista always been such a compelling name?

Rafez found himself growing more and more captivated by Lacy — alive, moving, right here before him. He wanted to keep looking at her. To take in more of her.

This feeling — how to describe it. Like reading a book I can’t put down.

While Rafez looked at Lacy with a smile playing at his lips, Lacy’s eyes looking back at him were growing sharper by the moment.

She had absolutely no idea what he was saying or what he was thinking.

“Are you saying you want me to keep being ill?”

“Ah — if that’s how it came across, I’m sorry. I’m not entirely sure myself, but it wasn’t quite that I want you to be ill, or anything like that.”

“Are you even aware of what you’re saying right now?”

“Probably?”

Lacy was beginning to get genuinely annoyed. There was no getting through to him.

She hadn’t known Rafez was this impossible — this nonsensical, this prone to teasing, just strange in his own way.

“Never mind.”

“Lennon.”

Rafez called after her — but Lacy climbed out of bed and walked out of the room without another word. Only then did the smile fade from Rafez’s lips.

“……Did I do something wrong?”

Meanwhile, coming out of the room and down the stairs, Lacy came face to face with an unexpected figure.

“Oh — Your Highness the Grand Duchess! It’s been a while!”

“Why is she——”

It was Mary. And behind her stood the Count of Valerian.

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess, are you feeling well?”

Karin, standing beside her, asked after Lacy as well. Lacy gave a nod, but her eyes remained fixed on Mary.

“Feeling well — are you unwell?”

“……It’s nothing serious.”

“I was worried for a moment — I thought Lacy was ill too. Father said he was coming to the Grand Duchy, so I tagged along. I have some memories of visiting here before, and I wanted to see how Rafez was getting on.”

“I greet Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”

The Count of Valerian, standing beside Mary, greeted Lacy at last.

The same golden hair as Mary, a warm and open smile, a man who bowed with composed courtesy. The head of House Valerian — as good as House Felista’s right hand. Someone close not only to Louis, but to Rafez as well.

He moved toward Louis as the former Grand Duke came slowly out, leaning on his cane. Louis’s face brightened the moment he saw the Count and Mary.

“Dan, you’ve come. And Mary — it’s been a while.”

“Father, it has been, hasn’t it? I’m sorry it took me so long to visit — I’ve missed you. And when I heard Rafez had come down to the Grand Duchy, I had to come too!”

“Yes, yes — well done. Rafez should be upstairs, go on up.”

To Louis’s eyes, Lacy standing there among them seemed not to exist at all.

* * *

Knock knock.

Rafez was in the middle of changing clothes.

He had been planning to finish dressing and head downstairs. Was it Karin? Lacy coming back up was hardly likely.

Rafez fastened the last button and looked toward the door.

“Come in.”

Click.

“Rafez!”

The door flew open almost before the words left his mouth, and Mary came bounding in. The last person he had expected.

“Mary?”

“Good morning! The weather here is just wonderful!”

Whoosh——

Mary swept past a flustered Rafez, made a full circle of the room, and threw open the curtains at the window first thing.

“Look at this sunlight! It’s wonderful, it really is. You came to recuperate, right? I don’t blame you.”

“No — Mary, how did you get here? What are you doing here?”

“How did I get here — Father comes to the Grand Duchy sometimes, you know. I came with him! I’d been wanting to visit again, and I wanted to see the Former Grand Duke, and see you too. Wasn’t it a great idea?”

She had barely set foot inside before she was chattering away, filling the room with noise — and somehow all coherent thought seemed to vanish from Rafez’s head at once.

He collected himself and asked again.

“You came with the Count?”

“Yes — Father’s probably talking with him right now.”

Having confirmed the facts, Rafez turned to leave — but Mary caught his arm.

“Where are you going?”

“I should go say hello. Ah — and did you see the Grand Duchess?”

“The Grand Duchess? Yes, I saw her. We greeted each other. But you have to spend some time with me, Rafez.”

“You show up out of nowhere and want me to entertain you — what are you talking about? I don’t have time for that. And you — get out of this room.”

Rafez shook off Mary’s hand and left the room first.

Left alone, Mary looked around the room once more. Something felt off.

“Miss Valerian, please come out now. This is the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess’s bedchamber.”

Karin had appeared at some point and was waiting outside the open door.

The couple’s bedchamber?

“The Grand Duchess uses this room as well?”

“Yes, she does. So please, come out now.”

At Karin’s prompting, Mary had no choice but to step out. Karin closed the door behind her.

Mary already knew that back at the capital estate, Rafez and Lacy kept separate rooms — and that Lacy used a guest room rather than the Grand Duchess’s quarters.

And yet here they were sharing a room?

“……My instincts weren’t wrong after all.”

* * *

“How are you feeling, Your Highness?”

“I’m all right. Seeing my son after so long makes me want to leap up and run around — but I suppose I’d better hold myself back.”

“Ha ha — is that so, Your Highness.”

Dan helped Louis along and they settled into the sitting room.

“Of course. He’s the only son I have left now. And speaking of — Mary, it’s been a while since I’ve seen her. She’s grown even lovelier, hasn’t she? Isn’t she at the age for marriage?”

“Well — there would need to be a suitable match first.”

At that, both Louis and Dan fell quiet for a moment.

The marriage between Rafez and Lacy — arranged by the Emperor — had set more than one or two things askew.

“……It seems the Imperial family will be purchasing additional arms. The smaller skirmishes along the borders haven’t let up.”

It was Dan who spoke again. Louis gave a slow nod in agreement.

“Yes — who knows when the border regions will ever be quiet. Either way, it works in our favor.”

“The Emperor must be having quite a difficult time of it as well. The long war has strained the Imperial treasury considerably — and losing the Crown Prince on top of that. When you think of it that way, His Highness the Grand Duke coming back alive was truly a great stroke of fortune.”

The war between the empire and the kingdom had begun when Rafez was still a child. In an effort to end it, the Imperial family had sent even the Crown Prince — but the Crown Prince had ultimately lost his life on the battlefield. After that, once Rafez graduated from the academy, the Emperor had sent him to the front as well.

There had been days back then when Louis didn’t know how to get through them — terrified that Rafez would come home a corpse, just like the Crown Prince.

Fortunately, Rafez had returned from the long war having won one major victory after another. Thanks to that, the war had largely come to an end — with only small skirmishes continuing along the border regions now.

“How much iron is said to remain in the mines?”

“That will need to be re-examined, I’m afraid.”

“Yes — have it looked into, and we’ll need to increase weapons production. The fighting will continue for the foreseeable future.”

“Do you believe a larger war may break out again?”

“It won’t end until one of us — the empire or the kingdom — ceases to exist.”

Louis seemed certain of it.

The current Emperor and the king of the kingdom were not on good terms. Thinking of the Emperor, Louis felt a laugh rise in him. Facing the king as an enemy beyond the empire’s borders, and House Felista as an enemy within — the Emperor was living quite an anxious life himself.

“But if war breaks out again, then His Highness the Grand Duke would once more——”

“Yes — the Emperor would use Rafez again. We must build our strength before that happens. So that Rafez never has to set foot on a battlefield again.”

This was Louis’s firm resolve.

He had been brought low by poison and had since passed on his title, spending his days recovering in the Grand Duchy — but he had not the slightest intention of returning to those hellish days of sending Rafez off to war.

Even at the cost of his own life, he would protect Rafez.

Dan gave a nod as well.

“Dan — do you trust Rafez?”

“Pardon? Well, of course——”

“Then what would you say to bringing Mary in as his mistress?”

“Pardon?”

Dan asked again in surprise. But thinking it over, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Mary had always been the one he had in mind as Rafez’s match. That thought had come to nothing when Lacy became Grand Duchess — and yet he hadn’t stopped Mary from coming and going at the Grand Ducal house.

“Even if she starts as a mistress, everyone will know she’s the one with real influence. And if Mary were to bear an heir — I would personally step in and see to it that she is made Grand Duchess.”

It was a tempting offer. Louis was a man who kept his word.

And seeing how Louis had treated Lacy just a short while ago — it was entirely within the realm of possibility.

After a moment’s thought, Dan gave a nod.