“…I’m fine!”

But Iella didn’t cry. She deliberately smiled more broadly. There was no reason to cry when all that remained was returning home.

“I met Ailexia. I’ll be able to return soon. Then I won’t have to go through these awkward situations anymore.”

“You met that woman?”

Aster, who had been smiling back quietly, suddenly stiffened his face and asked again. Since she hadn’t explained that part yet, Iella quickly added an explanation.

“Yes. Remember that alley where we met in the city district? I met her further inside that alley that day. We confirmed that our bodies had been switched, and she agreed to bring what’s needed to put everything back in place.”

But despite her explanation, Aster’s face hardly relaxed. He seemed to be deeply contemplating something, only emerging from his thoughts after Iella called him several times.

He warned her while staring intently at her face.

“Don’t trust her too much. She’s selfish and does whatever she wants. Who knows what schemes she might be plotting behind your back.”

“…Would she have a reason to plot anything? There would be many more limitations in my body than living in the secondary palace.”

In a viscount’s daughter’s body, she couldn’t indulge in the luxuries she freely enjoyed under the Grand Duke’s patronage, nor could she satisfy her instinct for pleasure that she resolved through her harem.

Though she understood what Aster was worried about and shared his assessment of her character, Iella thought that the body-switching situation didn’t provide much advantage to Ailexia.

If Ailexia could give up all those things and live without them, she would have left the secondary palace long ago.

“Ailexia was also eager to return to her original body. Isn’t that because she also thinks staying in the secondary palace is better for her?”

“……You never know.”

However, Aster still looked quite displeased. Having directly experienced and witnessed Ailexia’s dirty, vile, and selfish nature, he couldn’t help but remain uneasy.

After all, wasn’t she a woman who acted on things that normal people wouldn’t even consider?

‘How did their bodies switch in the first place when Iella and that woman have never met before?’

He found everything suspicious.

He had heard from Iella about the soul exchange and that this situation occurred because their eye colors were similar, but his doubts didn’t disappear. Rather, they deepened.

How did a woman who had never had any contact with Iella know that her eye color was similar to her own?

At that moment, as if to reassure him, Iella said:

“I’ve made arrangements to track her location. The problem is that the person who can use it isn’t contactable right now….”

“Who is that?”

“Hmm, remember I said there were two people helping me? One of them is someone who follows my father.”

Someone who follows Viscount Shua and knows about Iella’s situation. Instantly, one person crossed Aster’s mind.

The man who had confirmed the truth to him.

“Nix?”

“You know Nix?”

Iella, who had been struggling with whether she should mention Nix’s name and how to explain him, widened her eyes as big as lanterns. She couldn’t even begin to guess how Aster knew him.

But soon, she opened her eyes wide for a different reason when she heard what he said next.

“He came to find me. Said he was sent by the viscount.”

“When? When was that?”

“Not long ago. Before I came to the secondary palace yesterday.”

Iella plopped back down on the bed after half-rising. While she was relieved that nothing serious had happened, she wondered why he hadn’t contacted her.

“What did you talk about?”

“Just, he helped me confirm what I was suspecting. That you were in Ailexia’s body. And…, ah. So that’s what he meant.”

“Huh? What?”

“He said to me at the end, ‘As a liaison to the truth, I ask for your cooperation for the time being.'”

After briefly explaining the essentials, he got up.

Eventually, after searching inside his coat hanging on the chair, he brought a small flute. It was familiar to her.

“……This!”

“He gave it to me, saying to use it if I needed to contact him. But he earnestly requested that it only be used at the duke’s townhouse, and absolutely not in the imperial palace.”

“Only at the townhouse?”

“Yes. He said I would understand how to use it when facing the truth, but I guess he meant I should hear it from you.”

Iella easily understood Nix’s intentions.

He had anticipated that if Aster, who knew the truth, came to find her, they would talk about what had happened, and in the process, a situation would arise where she would mention Nix, one of her only two helpers. Just like now.

Even if the anticipated situation didn’t unfold, there was no particular loss. After all, to make the sound that calls the messenger bird with Nix’s flute, one couldn’t just blow into it normally.

Aster would never be able to use the flute.

‘He made it so complicated.’

That was typical of Nix, but… Thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to make things a bit simpler, Iella examined the flute from different angles.

Judging by how Nix had deliberately mentioned the usage method, he must have wanted Aster to show the flute to her, so there might be another device or message left.

‘…A note?’

As expected. Her guess was correct as there was something inside the flute. Fortunately, it was easy to find thanks to the way it had been placed.

Iella took it out and unfolded it. Inside was something briefly written. It was the moment when her thought of “Why make it so easy if Aster found it first?” was resolved. The handwriting was still terrible, looking either like a pattern or a drawing. However, as if considering her, it was written only with words that she had somewhat learned to recognize through their note exchanges, so Iella could stumble through and confirm the contents.

{ Contact impossible due to surveillance, tracking the body, contact through the north. }

‘Surveillance? By whom?’

She understood all the other content, but only that part didn’t make sense.

Judging by how he had been freely coming and going until now, the subject of surveillance he mentioned couldn’t be Ailexia. So if it was himself, who would be watching Nix, and why?

It was an answer that wouldn’t come from immediate contemplation. Iella put the thought aside for now. In any case, she had learned a way to keep in contact, and that was enough.

“What will you do now?”

At that moment, Aster’s voice was heard. When she lifted her gaze from the note, she saw him with a solemn expression.

“What I said about coming to get you wasn’t just talk. The same goes for asking to help.”

“Aster.”

“At first, I was planning to persuade you and take you out of the secondary palace, but now I know you have your own plan. I want to help with that.”

It was a sincere statement without a trace of falsehood. Iella hesitated for a moment before parting her lips.

“I’ve already troubled you enough. The plan only needs to be executed now, so there’s nothing more to prepare. But even though it’s shameless of me to ask, would you occasionally relay messages to Nix for me? I think that would be enough.”

“Still. You never know what might happen. That woman can’t be trusted, and moreover…, something like yesterday could happen again while you’re waiting for her.”

“That……”

Iella’s voice trailed off. She couldn’t firmly say that it wouldn’t happen again. After all, yesterday’s situation had been too sudden even for her.

However, even if such a thing were to happen again, she had no intention of asking Aster for help. This was something she couldn’t rely on his kindness for.

“You just need to be careful until the swordsmanship tournament. Yesterday…, because you helped me, I should be fine at least until then. That’s why the fever has gone down and my mind is clear, right?”

“……What if it’s not okay? What if that situation happens in front of Prince Bledin or the Grand Duke?”

Iella inwardly flinched. The situations where she had lost consciousness or control of the body after entering Ailexia’s body had been exactly in front of those two people he mentioned.

Although Aster wouldn’t know that fact, she couldn’t make another assertion in response to his sharp question.

Looking at her with lowered eyes, Aster slowly parted his lips.

“Why not me?”

Iella couldn’t immediately understand what he meant. Or even what he had said.

“Why can’t I be by your side?”

“What, what do you…?”

“Even if you don’t remember it, it’s an awkward situation in itself. Especially when you open your eyes the next day. Even earlier…”

“You were awake?”

A blush spread across Iella’s face. She thought he had been asleep, but he knew everything! Her silent screaming, her pulling up the blanket to cover his body out of embarrassment—everything!

Aster, directly facing her as she turned red, slowly brought their interlocked hands up and pressed his lips against the back of her hand.

The thought of other men seeing her like this made the ugly jealousy he had barely suppressed boil up again from the depths of his silver eyes.

“If you’re embarrassed because you know me, just think of me as a man from the harem. As a stranger.”

“That’s impossible!”

“I know. You’d be even more conscious of me.”

He abruptly pulled the hand he had been pressing his lips against. Iella’s body was dragged along and landed on top of him as he fell backward.

As Iella froze in surprise, Aster’s hand approached her neck. His thumb caressed the red mark he had made on her collarbone the night before.

At the sensual touch, Iella held her breath.

“That’s what I want.”

“……”

“This is my way of saying I won’t let any other man have you.”

Aster’s head tilted slowly. Iella reflexively squeezed her eyes shut. Then a small laugh tickled her ear, followed by hot breath.

“You need to breathe.”