#11. Pain

What changes when you fall in love?

Unlike her initial nervousness, Karina’s relationship with Aidan remained largely unchanged. In fact, it became even harder to see Aidan’s face than before.

After the knights’ tournament, Aidan attended daily morning training sessions with the knights. The reason was that regular physical activity prevents the body from stiffening in urgent situations. The knights, having witnessed his skills firsthand during the tournament, became more favorable toward him than before. Some knights even approached Aidan directly, asking to learn swordsmanship from him.

Additionally, he attended policy meetings in the afternoons. While Lloyd had been participating in policy meetings and offering his opinions since the previous year, this was a first for Aidan. The Emperor had commanded both Lloyd and Aidan to attend policy meetings, but Aidan had avoided them. He seemed to think he would only embarrass himself there due to his lack of knowledge.

However, this time was different. Noticing how perceptions of Aidan had changed after the knights’ tournament, Karina asked Duke Hewitt to recommend to the Emperor that Aidan participate in policy meetings. Duke Hewitt convinced other ministers by citing Aidan’s recent changes, and together they informed the Emperor that they would like to consider His Highness Aidan’s opinions in policy meetings.

Thanks to this opportunity, Aidan agreed without hesitation.

“It’s truly amazing what changes occurred in such a short time. When His Highness proposed a solution for the border conflict with Italus today, I was genuinely impressed. Who would have thought they were crossing into the Griffith Empire’s territory to find drinking water due to Italus’s geographical issues? Everyone was amazed by his suggestion to exchange their unique minerals for the construction of waterways to direct water to their region. His Majesty has already sent envoys to Italus for negotiations.”

After Aidan’s first policy meeting, Duke Hewitt couldn’t stop praising him.

“That’s not all. He also informed us about a special herb from Mahasia Island that could be used to manufacture medicine for the plague spreading in the southern regions. All the ministers were amazed at how he knew such things.”

There were things Karina hadn’t expected. While geographical issues of other countries might be noticed by studying maps, how did he know about herbs effective against the plague?

“It’s truly a remarkable change. Or rather, he must have been naturally talented but hiding it all this time.”

Due to such his sudden changes, Duke Hewitt tried to understand it in his own way. The words “that’s definitely not it” reached the tip of her tongue but were swallowed back. In truth, she couldn’t believe in legitimacy or noble birth. The original ‘Aidan’ who supposedly possessed that noble legitimacy had only irritated Karina until the very end.

“It’s all thanks to Her Highness the Consort. His Highness has finally found his proper direction. It’s thanks to Her Highness’s good guidance by his side.”

Duke Hewitt rejoiced, crediting Karina for properly fulfilling her role as the prince’s consort. Not just Duke Hewitt, but most ministers thought similarly.

Karina herself didn’t think she had done much. The biggest factor was Aidan’s soul being switched. Though she had been advising him as he adjusted to this unfamiliar world, that was all. The massive amount of books he was reading through nights, the daily training with the knights — it was all purely his own effort.

“Your Highness, look at this. These are gifts from Princess Elena.”

Bernice entered carrying numerous items. The large box placed on the table contained tea leaves, each wrapped in filter paper. Bernice opened one and smelled it, her eyes widening.

“Wow, this is incredible!”

She urged Karina to come and smell it too. As she approached, Bernice handed her the tea leaves. Even without bringing it right up to her nose, just holding it near her face released a sweet fragrance.

“Doesn’t it smell like fruit? It’s so fascinating. How can tea leaves have such a sweet scent?”

Looking closely at the tea leaves on the filter paper after Bernice’s comment, Karina noticed orange particles mixed in. She suspected they might be dried fruit.

“There’s a letter here too.”

Bernice found an envelope tucked into one side of the box. The seal of Icinia was stamped on the sealed portion of the envelope.

“Read it quickly!”

Bernice’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. Opening the envelope revealed a small memo card the same size as the envelope.

[Thanks to Your Highness the Consort, my time in the Griffith Empire was enjoyable. I send this small token of gratitude. It’s tea made from golden fruit that only grows in the Icinian palace. I hope you enjoy it during your rest time with His Highness Aidan. —Elena]

“You must go to His Highness right away.”

Bernice said with a grin after reading the contents of the letter. She teasingly added that it had been several days since she’d seen His Highness’s face.

In the past, not seeing Aidan’s face for days or even a month would have been normal. They only barely saw each other’s faces during palace events. But now people were urging her to go see him just because they hadn’t met for a few days…

“I’ll send someone to His Highness’s palace right away. Make sure to at least have dinner together today. Even better if you spend the night together.”

When Karina slightly glared at the last comment, Bernice just smiled broadly.

*

“Welcome.”

When she arrived at Aidan’s palace, he greeted her warmly as he was conversing with Kai in the reception room.

“Then I shall take my leave.”

Kai bowed and turned to leave.

“If it’s because of me, you don’t have to.”

Karina stopped Kai, worried that she had interrupted their conversation. Kai turned back and smiled, saying it wasn’t so.

“I’ve already finished discussing everything I needed to with His Highness. So please don’t worry.”

After giving another polite bow, he left, leaving Karina alone with Aidan. Though she had come here, she didn’t know what to say. It was also their first meeting since agreeing to date.

“Why are you standing there? Sit down.”

Aidan offered the seat across from him. Though she sat as told, she still couldn’t find words to say. What did she usually talk about with this man? Until now, they had been busy preparing for consecutive events from banquets to the knights’ tournament.

“This is nice.”

Unlike Karina, who wasn’t properly looking at his face, Aidan was staring at her intensely, like she’s trying to bore holes in her face. Wondering what he suddenly found nice, she raised her head and their eyes met directly.

So that’s the expression he was wearing.

With a gentle smile on his lips, his face perfectly matched the saying that honey seemed to drip from his eyes.

“I wanted to see you since I couldn’t for the past few days.”

She hesitated at his straightforward expression of missing her. It was something she had never heard before. Perhaps that’s why her heart fluttered more easily.

“It’s amazing how just seeing your face makes me happy.”

Whether he’s aware of Karina’s wavering or not, Aidan continued speaking.

“It’s strange. Thinking that you’re definitely mine makes me even happier.”

“You say that, but you haven’t shown your face even once.”

After saying it, she felt it was unnecessary. Now it sounded too much like whining. She wasn’t particularly disappointed that Aidan hadn’t visited first. Since it had always been that way, she hadn’t even expected it.

“So you were waiting.”

“No!”

As expected, he would misunderstand like this. Though she quickly shook her head and denied it, Aidan was already smiling as if he knew everything.

“Really, I wasn’t…”

When she added one more denial out of frustration, Aidan burst into laughter.

“Don’t deny it so strongly. I might get hurt.”

Unlike his words, his face showed no sign of being hurt at all. He kept grinning as if something was incredibly amusing.

“It is surprising though. I thought it would be hard to see your face before I visited first. This damn palace… why is it so unnecessarily huge? I thought we might at least run into each other, but even that’s difficult.”

So he had hoped to run into her by chance. It was something that was nearly impossible within the imperial palace. As he said, the palace was unnecessarily vast. Besides the main palace where the Emperor and Empress stayed, there were separate palaces for each prince and their consorts. With the addition of guest palaces where visitors mainly stayed, those residing in different palaces rarely encountered each other.

“What wind blew my consort here personally?”

Aidan asked with a grin. His tone suggested he knew Karina wouldn’t have sought him out without a reason. Indeed, that had been the case until now.

“Princess Elena sent a gift. She said it’s tea made from golden fruit that only grows in the Icinian palace. The scent is lovely, so I thought to drink it with Your Highness…”

Karina trailed off her explanation under his steady gaze. When their eyes met, Aidan deliberately made a long “hmm” sound.

“You came all this way just to drink tea together?”

“Well…”

Seeing Aidan’s smiling face left her speechless. He was right. There was no real need for her to come here. She could have just sent the tea with a servant. In the past, she would have definitely done that.

“Actually, you wanted to see me, right?”

Aidan asked with a confident smile.

“No.”

Though she answered firmly, her heart had already started pounding. Why did this heart of hers keep acting up so randomly these days? Right now, it was just because Aidan was saying nonsense, so it was ridiculous… Though she tried to make excuses to herself, it wasn’t a particularly convincing reason.