“You’re late, Asha.”

Staring directly at his gently curving eye corners, Iella lightly clenched and unclenched her slightly tense hand.

Then she put on the smile that Ailexia typically wore.

“I believe I told you I wouldn’t come, but it seems you didn’t listen at all. I was just doing the same.”

“Sit down first.”

Despite Iella’s sharp response, Helios’s expression didn’t change. Instead, he naturally brushed off her words with a smile and nodded toward the empty seat on his right.

Iella considered shooting back one more retort but eventually pressed her lips tightly together and sat down. It seemed like he would dismiss anything she said with that attitude.

‘Don’t provoke him too much, but don’t be so quiet as to arouse suspicion either.’

Iella confirmed with a sidelong glance that he also came over and sat in his seat, then directed her gaze forward.

Indeed, as expected of the imperial family’s seats, it was truly the best spot. The arena where the competitions were taking place was clearly visible at a glance.

‘So this goes on for ten days?’

If the festival periods before and after were included, it would be about fifteen days, but that included the street festivals and the banquets held after the tournament. The officially announced swordsmanship tournament period was a total of ten days.

And for those ten days, more than half of each day was completely filled with matches.

Despite having already gone through first and second preliminary competitions, there were so many participants every time, and the number increased each year, so that much time was necessary.

‘The first day starts right after the opening ceremony with preliminaries for up to five days, followed immediately by the main tournament for three days, then selecting 14 people, resting for a day, and holding the final match on the last day.’

It was a systematic schedule to the point of being tight, but not overly burdensome. This was because each knight only competed once in the preliminaries, and the brackets were arranged so that they could rest at least one day before the main tournament.

The problem wasn’t the knights participating in the tournament but Iella.

‘Surely we won’t be coming to watch for all ten days?’

Iella glanced at Helios again, pretending to adjust her hair.

He was watching the match with an expressionless face while tilting a crystal wine glass. He seemed to have a hint of boredom. It was impossible to gauge what he was thinking.

Terrified at the thought of spending more than half of each day with him throughout the tournament, Iella cleared her throat softly and opened her mouth.

“You’ve been staring so intensely since earlier.”

At that moment, Helios, who had been slowly turning his wine glass and letting out a bland laugh, turned his chin-resting head toward her. Caught off guard by the sudden remark, Iella momentarily forgot what she was about to say and quickly made up an excuse.

“……I was just looking because you seemed bored.”

Iella tightly gripped the right armrest with her hand to hide her agitation. Thanks to her body blocking it, it wasn’t visible to Helios.

“Are you showing interest in me?”

“It’s not interest.”

“Then, affection?”

At his slyly curling lips, Iella pressed her lips tightly together. Then she took a deep breath. She calmed her mind to avoid being easily swayed by him.

“We’re not in that kind of relationship, are we? Do you want us to be?”

“Hmm.”

Instead of answering, Helios gave her an inscrutable look. It seemed as if he was seeing right through her, so Iella turned her eyes toward the arena.

Since he had started calling her Asha, he occasionally looked at her with eyes that seemed to know everything.

For some reason, Iella found that gaze uncomfortable. She couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason.

She just had the absurd feeling that he knew something she didn’t.

“What about you, Asha?”

“Pardon?”

At this question that seemed to cut off both the beginning and end, Iella turned her head back to him. Although she asked for clarification, he simply looked at her quietly, waiting for an answer.

‘Surely…, he’s not asking if I want affection?’

Looking into those red eyes focused solely on her, such a thought unconsciously crossed her mind. As soon as it did, she quickly dismissed it as an absurd delusion.

“I’m not particularly bored.”

Iella hastily chose a different interpretation for his question. Since she had mentioned that the match looked boring to him, this wouldn’t seem strange.

However, at the small chuckle that escaped, her face flushed before she could even be conscious of it. Iella attributed this to being played by his teasing.

“Have you heard that Duke Calver is participating?”

After a moment of silence, Helios spoke again. Feeling his gaze fixed on her from the side, Iella held her head even more stiffly.

For some reason, she felt she shouldn’t turn to look at him now. It was as if she might see something she couldn’t handle.

“I have heard. There’s a lot of criticism too.”

“That’s because it’s a stupid act that won’t benefit anyone.”

Her throat felt dry under his gaze, which was hotter than the sunlight beating down on the arena. Iella poured water from the pitcher prepared beside her into a glass and brought it to her lips.

“Asha, do you know why he’s participating?”

“How would I know that?”

She responded to his sudden interrogation without showing much agitation, then tilted the water glass.

“The duke slept with you before submitting the list.”

“—Cough!”

And with that, she choked.

Her entire body shook with coughs that wouldn’t stop even when she covered her mouth. As Iella bent forward and stretched her arm to place the water glass on the table, someone took the glass from her hand.

“Oh my.”

There was no need to specify who it was. Only Helios and she were present in this place. She simply didn’t want to acknowledge it. Because she felt his hand gently stroking her back as if to soothe her.

“I’m, cough, ugh.”

“I understand, so stop coughing first and then talk.”

Iella had much to say. What was with this person who claimed to understand yet gently took her hand when she waved it to tell him to remove his hand?

But as he said, stopping the cough was the priority now. Fortunately, when she closed her eyes and focused only on that, her shaking body soon calmed down and gradually the coughing subsided.

“…Now, I’m fine.”

Iella took a deep breath in and out and raised her head. However, the words she was about to say to push him away were awkwardly cut off, and she froze.

Helios was kneeling on one knee in front of her. He had been stroking her back in that position.

“……”

“Are you really alright?”

It was a situation she hadn’t even considered. She had been preoccupied with coughing, but no, she simply couldn’t have imagined him doing this. Wasn’t he the Empire’s supreme authority, existing at the pinnacle above all others?

He had no reason or need to lower himself to anyone. His knees even less so. The knees of the sovereign who ruled a nation were the most valuable of all.

“Asha?”

When Iella remained silent without uttering a word, he slightly frowned and moved his hand from stroking her back to gently cup her cheek. Startled by the sudden contact, Iella flinched.

Only then did she realize that not only his posture but also the distance between him and her had become considerably closer.

“I’m, fine……”

She stammered, moving her neck that had stiffened with tension. However, the red eyes still examined her.

Slowly rising with unfamiliar concern, they finally met her eyes.

“Ugh……”

At that moment, Iella quickly suppressed the sound that was about to escape through her lips. However, she couldn’t stop her body from tensing up or her fingers from curling and scratching at her dress with a twitch.

A sensation, whether trembling or something else, spread from her throat to her heart.

It was because she witnessed, right before her eyes, Helios’s concerned gaze changing to something intense, with a strange desire underlying it.

Iella couldn’t move her body or speak, as if captured by him. Within those darkly sinking red eyes dwelled something whose depth couldn’t be carelessly measured. It seemed to be violently surging, as if about to burst at any moment.

“Asha……”

He cupped her cheek a little more and slowly rubbed near her eye with his thumb. Tears that had been hanging around her eyes from the continuous coughing spread across her tender skin, following his touch.

Helios stared persistently at her tear-moistened eyes as if coveting them. His voice sank deeply into the heat that immediately boiled up, as if he could no longer hold back with her right in front of him.

However, with a feeling like tearing off his own flesh, he removed his hand from her and clenched it tightly. Acting hastily before completely recognizing all of the girl would be like throwing thirteen years of patience into the mud.

“I’m glad you’re alright.”

Smiling as if nothing had happened, he stood up. As the distance between them widened, Iella finally breathed. It felt like turning away from right in front of a beast’s jaws.

“Watch the matches. I’ll be back soon.”

Whether it was consideration for her or for himself, Helios briefly left these words and immediately passed by Iella, exiting the place.

This was the first time he had left a space they shared first since he started calling Iella “Asha.”

‘What, what was that?’

But Iella didn’t notice this, being too flustered by the atmosphere just now. Her tensed body sank into the chair with a slump.