“Just as you identified, the culprit was a kitchen maid, Sara Johnson. By now, she must be having a dreadful time in the underground prison.”

“……Did I identify someone?”

“Yes, you did, my lady. That is how it came to be.”

As though that was all there was to it, Sisein gave a nod.

There was a result but no cause. No additional explanation was offered. Yet Irena did not ask for one.

‘This is not something I should be dealing with.’

Sisein was not waiting for her anyway.

“You need not overthink it. It is a fact that thanks to your efforts, we were able to catch the culprit. Letting the evidence seep into the carpet was truly a brilliant idea.”

Irena stole a glance at Ikart. When their eyes met, the way he softly folded the corners of his eyes and smoothly drew up the line of his thin lips was nothing short of masterful.

“Ahem, ahem!”

At Sisein’s dry cough, she snapped back to her senses.

“……In consideration of the gravity of the attempted assassination of His Highness the Crown Prince and the honor of your ladyship, a gag order has been issued by His Majesty the Emperor’s command, but the compensation for damages will not leave you feeling shortchanged.”

While Irena had been asleep, the chaotic situation had been neatly resolved.

Whose effort that was could be determined by finding the pair of eyes in this room that had gone completely dead.

“Furthermore, your ladyship’s exceptional skill in pharmaceuticals and your frail physical condition have been kept secret. The only ones who know of these facts are the four of us here, so if you have any doubts, you may simply cut off Norman’s head over there.”

“Huh? Why me of all people……”

Sisein, having finished his report, snapped the document folder shut with a sharp sound.

In those mineral-cold eyes, only layers upon layers of fatigue were stacked, and there appeared to be no room for the kindness of adding further explanation for her benefit.

In other words, it had been neatly covered up.

“Additionally, the Walterburg family’s carriage is waiting below.”

It was at that moment.

“Sisein Reto.”

Ikart, who had not stopped Sisein from saying whatever confidential matters he pleased, called to him in a low voice.

In an instant, the air grew cold and heavy.

“Mind your tongue.”

The muscles in Ikart’s jaw bulged. His refusal to hide his displeasure made his already sharp impression all the more cutting.

It was a smiling face, but that it was no simple smile was something Irena now understood.

“My apologies.”

Sisein stepped back with an expression that was not sorry in the least.

Irena realized what she needed to do.

“It seems it is time for me to return.”

Sisein, who promptly replied that he would make preparations, gave a quiet bow. Then he gathered up the sprawled Norman and disappeared.

His skill at striking and retreating was something else entirely.

“Ha.”

An irritated exhale burst from Ikart’s lips.

Irena, who had been reading the room in the quiet air after the storm had swept through, carefully slipped her feet out from under the covers. She too wanted to leave.

“I……”

“Stay still.”

It was a suppressed voice, bitten out as though chewing on the words.

He covered his eyes and let out a sigh, then circled around the bed and came closer before dropping to one knee without hesitation.

“Wh, what are you doing?”

“Your feet are cold.”

From somewhere, Ikart’s hands held a pair of fluffy slippers, adorably small in his grasp. Contrasted against his large hands, they looked as tiny and cute as baby slippers.

“……”

“……”

‘He wants me to put them on, I suppose.’

When Irena fidgeted her toes for no particular reason, he carefully wrapped his hand around her ankle.

‘I might get burned……’

The point of contact was so warm that her foot instinctively flinched back.

The heat lingered at her toes, yet it was as though a bloom of warmth was flowering on her cheeks.

Pretending not to notice the strange sensation for no good reason, Irena’s gaze drifted upward.

“……”

The golden hair, symbol of the imperial family. Could there be anyone else whom this color suited more than this man.

Irena asked in a passing tone.

“……Are you angry?”

“……”

After a stretch of silence, he tilted his head up at an angle. The gaze looking up at her was intense.

“……”

Ikart, who had been staring wordlessly for a long while, slowly opened his mouth.

“I wanted to tell you confidently that you do not have to go back.”

Something unidentifiable was pressed down firmly within the weight of his low voice. What on earth could it be.

“I wanted to play it cool and say that no one is forcing you, so you are welcome to rest here comfortably……”

“……”

“I am angry because I cannot do that.”

Irena could not understand it. It was because one corner of the sharp eyes belonging to the man who said such things looked sorrowful.

‘Sorrowful? This strong man?’

What a ridiculous notion. And even if it were true, what did that have to do with her.

Worry is the exclusive privilege of those who have the right to it. His sorrow and his questions were not hers to carry.

‘I must have gone a little strange in the head from being in this odd place with a suspicious man.’

“My father……”

It was a word she had spat out reflexively to cut off her thoughts. But what followed was not difficult.

“……The Duke is a tenacious and vicious man, so if the livestock he raised so carefully does not return, he will turn Your Highness into a thief if he must, just to get it back.”

“Irena.”

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

As though to say that this was as far as the two of them went, Irena’s lips were resolute.

“Please do not call me that. We have not shared anything with each other.”

She did not want to be swept up by the atmosphere and create a relationship she could not handle.

“I may be a blemish on the duke’s family, but I am not so terrible as to make an innocent person out to be a thief. Please at least allow me that much.”

“……”

Right on cue, Sisein returned with the maids.

While the stiffly tense maids washed and dressed Irena, the two of them each sank into their own thoughts.

Before long, the maids fled the room as if running away, and an awkward silence lingered for a while in the space left with only the two of them.

‘Yes, this much is just right.’

Irena stood before the door, took a shallow breath, and chose her parting words. Appropriately cool, polite, but with no suggestion of a next time.

“Your Highness, thank you for your consideration……”

It was just as she opened her mouth. A heavy sensation settled over her shoulders.

“Wear this on your way out, Miss Irena.”

The man’s scent rolled in along with warmth. It was a fragrance like sunlight on a dry summer day.

“I am not so terrible as to turn a blind eye to someone shivering in the cold. Please allow me at least this much.”

Returning her own words back to her, Ikart smiled crookedly.

“Between the two of us, surely this much is acceptable to share.”

“……”

“That look in your eyes is asking what kind of relationship we have. As I said before, we have shared quite a great deal.”

His manner was elegant, but his gaze was domineering. The emotions pressed down and packed tightly sparked and crackled within the red flames of his eyes.

“A bed, for instance.”

One of those sparks flew toward Irena as well. A flame that had found its place somewhere within her flustered composure quickly blazed up.

“A deep night, for instance.”

Ikart pressed his lips down onto the back of her hand. A burning heat spread across the place where skin met skin, as though branded by a hot iron.

Before she could pull her hand away in surprise, Ikart set it down gracefully.

“Next time, let us share something deeper and more intense than that. Miss Irena Walterburg.”

* * *

As the carriage bearing the family crest departed the Crown Prince’s castle. In the deepest part of the imperial palace. The mistress of the greenhouse was enjoying her teatime.

“Th, the Crown Prince does look a little gaunt, but he did not appear to be in critical condition as the rumors suggested. A, and the lady did not appear to have any sort of d, disability, hii— I beg your pardon. She did not appear to be uncomfortable in any particular way.”

The maid lying flat on the stone floor trembled violently. She was the one who had been in the Crown Prince’s bedchamber until just moments ago.

The maid had not been in the imperial palace long and was pouring all her energy into adapting.

Sara Johnson from the neighboring room, with whom she had grown quite close, had said ‘You look smart, can you do what I tell you?’ and she had fallen for it completely, only to be assigned to the cursed Crown Prince’s castle.

She had thought it was a golden opportunity, but it turned out to be a pile of dung. She cursed inwardly as she chewed on the thought, but what could she do.

She was making full use of her greatest talent, her remarkable adaptability, when a strange rumor suddenly began to circulate.

[They say poison was found in the Crown Prince’s tea!]

[So apparently he can’t take a single step out of his room and is languishing away!]

[And the culprit is supposedly that half-blooded lady!]

[But has anyone seen Sara? Where did she go when everyone’s so busy]

The ominous atmosphere had her frozen stiff, doing nothing but reading the room.

And then, the frightening and fastidious Sir Sisein had singled her out and taken her to the Crown Prince’s room.

“You must not breathe a word of what you see here to anyone.”

Along with that added warning, a chilling gaze had seemed to pierce straight through her soul. As though he had anticipated this very moment.

The maid lying flat on the stone floor of the Empress Consort’s greenhouse felt as though she were trapped in an eternity compressed into a single instant.

The flow of time grew hazy and her breathing quickened.

“You wretch! Do you know what happens to those who speak falsehoods!”

The Count, the Empress Consort’s teatime guest, made his threat. The maid answered quickly.

“I, it is the truth! I have not told a single lie. They really did both look fi, fine, and neither of them appeared to have anything particularly wrong with them. Please believe me!”

Desperation was woven into her tearful voice.

It was because the memory of the frightening men who had stormed into the kitchen the day before and dragged Sara Johnson away savagely had come to mind.

Sara Johnson had wailed like a terrified beast. The piercing screams would not leave her, and she had not slept a wink the night before.