“Your Highness. May I use my full strength now?”

I hadn’t expected an answer, but if Ian had made even a small sound of acknowledgment in his sleep, I would have used all my strength to escape from his embrace. However, the answer Ian gave was completely different from what I’d anticipated.

“Don’t… go.”

“……”

I froze with my hand on Ian’s arm as I tried to remove it. Ian was speaking to someone in such a desperate voice.

“Don’t go……”

“……”

“Please…… I was wrong……”

Even in the darkness where I couldn’t see anything, I could tell how much Ian was suffering. His previously steady breathing had changed to gasps that seemed like he might collapse at any moment.

“Your Highness.”

So I felt around until I found Ian’s hand. Finding it clutching his chest, I silently grasped it tightly. The trembling in Ian’s hand was transmitted directly to mine as he gripped with such force.

“It’s okay.”

“Ugh……”

“It’s okay. It’s all right.”

I squeezed Ian’s hand harder, hoping that he wouldn’t hurt himself more as he suffered in his dream.

“I’m right here.”

“……Haa.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay right here, Your Highness.”

This was the first time I’d seen Ian in such distress. He always wore a smiling face in front of me, so I held his hand tightly and waited for his breathing to calm down.

This seemed to be all I could do for Ian right now. And so I remained like that for a long while.

***

“……Ah.”

When I opened my eyes, dawn was just breaking, with a bluish light filtering through the windows. The fulfilling sensation of waking up after a deep sleep in a soft bed. I felt refreshed for the first time in ages and even stretched contentedly, feeling great.

But satisfaction was quickly followed by bewilderment. I clearly remembered supporting a completely drunk Ian to his bedroom after the banquet that ended past midnight, getting caught in Ian’s arms, and then holding and comforting his hand as he suffered through a nightmare and then……

“Aaaah!”

With a scream, I bolted upright. Experiencing firsthand how a person can spring up like a coil when startled, I looked around in confusion.

“This is crazy……”

The scene before me was unmistakably Ian’s bedroom. Did I really sleep in Ian’s bed with him last night?

I hurriedly bowed my head to check my clothes and breathed a sigh of relief to find I was still wearing the coat and dress I had on yesterday. Thankfully, there had been no unseemly incident with Ian. As I was feeling relieved about this, I heard the sound of water.

“……”

The clear sound of water coming from the bathroom. The only person who could be washing up in the bathroom attached to this bedroom was Ian. Looking at the clock, it was past 7 AM. This was exactly when Ian would be returning from his morning exercise and washing up, following his daily routine.

“What should I do?”

Should I run out quickly? Or should I apologize profusely?

“Gulp.”

In this tense situation, my mouth went dry, and I unconsciously swallowed. Wait, yesterday the Chief Chamberlain clearly saw me rolling around(?) in bed with Ian, and there were knights standing guard outside the bedroom!

That meant at least three people knew that I had entered Ian’s bedroom supporting him and hadn’t come out all night.

And if the knights on duty had passed this information during their shift change, I became dizzy thinking about how many people might know that I hadn’t left Ian’s bedroom.

My head was already starting to ache thinking about how to explain this situation. Oh, yes, I did sleep in the same bed as the completely drunk Crown Prince in his bedroom. But nothing happened, really!

Please believe me, really. How many people would believe me if I said that? I wouldn’t even believe myself. That’s crazy.

Experiencing this situation for the first time in my life, my mind turned blank as paper, and with my feet on the floor and my backside on the bed, unable to decide what to do, the sound of water from the bathroom suddenly stopped.

“……”

Silence followed. I felt my heart fluttering like a live fish as I stretched my neck to look at the bathroom door. After what seemed like an eternity, as I stared at the bathroom door without even blinking from the tension, the door slowly and very cautiously began to open bit by bit.

And then I made direct eye contact with Ian, who was peeking out from the bathroom with just his head showing, looking toward the bed.

“……”

“……”

Awkward silence.

With no chance to avoid it, our eyes had met, and it was awkward to look away first, so I had no choice but to stare blankly at Ian.

And it seemed Ian felt the same way, as he stood there staring at me blankly with a towel draped over his head, apparently forgetting to dry himself.

“Um……”

“Well……”

Unable to bear it any longer, I opened my mouth to say something, but somehow Ian spoke at exactly the same timing. As a result, we both stopped what we were about to say, and I decided to just blurt something out before another awkward silence could settle in the bedroom and make the atmosphere truly strange.

“Good morning, Your Highness!”

First strike wins—that’s an eternal truth. With this in mind, I continued speaking with the brightest voice and smile I could muster while stretching, pushing forward to prevent Ian from having time to think deeply about the current situation.

“Wow! Yesterday I supported Your Highness here and thought I’d rest just a moment before leaving, but I ended up falling asleep!”

“……Huh?”

“Haha, expensive beds really are nice. My body feels so refreshed—I really slept well!”

“Is that so? That’s… fortunate.”

“Did you just come back from your morning exercise? How’s your hangover?”

“Oh, I’m fine.”

“I see! Then I’ll be going now to prepare for work, Your Highness!”

“……R-right.”

Rising from the bed as naturally as I could, I managed to escape from Ian’s bedroom, my limbs feeling stiff and creaky.

“Phew……”

Fortunately, there was no one in the corridor, allowing me to collapse onto the floor and breathe a sigh of relief while clutching my heart that felt like it might burst.

“I handled that well. It was natural.”

I muttered as if hypnotizing myself, but natural my *ss. I think my arms and legs were moving together as I walked from the bed to the bedroom door. I sat in the corridor with my face in my hands.

I would have to see Ian in the office in at least an hour—would I be able to face him with a normal expression?

“Why did I fall asleep there!”

***

“……”

My head feels like it’s about to split open. The Northern nobles who kept pouring me drinks saying “the night is long” clearly had no concept of moderation.

I must have been so drunk that I can’t remember how I got back, but thanks to over ten years of waking up at 4 AM for morning training, my eyes opened automatically.

On a day like this, I could have just pretended not to notice and slept until morning. I sighed deeply at my inconveniently honest body rhythm and tried to get up, but my arm felt stiff.

“……?”

I turned my head at the strange feeling and nearly screamed in shock. Ilena was sleeping with her head on my arm. The sight was so shocking that I closed my eyes. This is a dream. It must be a dream. I seem to have drunk a lot yesterday. This couldn’t possibly be real.

“Mmm……”

But the next moment, I almost stopped breathing when Ilena’s leg came up onto my abdomen. This weight. This wasn’t a dream but reality.

Right now, Ilena was in a deep sleep with her leg on my stomach, her face buried in my chest, still wearing the hair ornament, earrings, and necklace I had given her yesterday without even removing them.

Rustle.

Every time Ilena shifted slightly, the sound of her dress brushing against the blanket echoed clearly. At that sound, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized I hadn’t done anything to Ilena while drunk.

Relief that despite drinking heavily, I hadn’t behaved like a complete scoundrel. And somehow, along with that came a feeling of disappointment.

Disappointment?

For a moment, wondering what I was thinking, I slapped my cheek hard. The stinging pain seemed to bring my wandering mind back.

Trying to carefully remove my arm that Ilena was using as a pillow to prevent an awkward situation when she woke up, cold sweat ran down my spine.

Just a little more, just a little more and I’d succeed. Trembling with fear that Ilena might wake up, I finally managed to successfully remove my arm by carefully supporting her head with my hand.

Gaining confidence after successfully removing my arm, I immediately tried to remove Ilena’s leg from my stomach but froze.

I could clearly see Ilena’s snow-white leg exposed where her dress had rolled up. Only after carefully pulling down the rolled-up dress to cover her leg did I succeed in removing her leg.

“Haa……”

It was just removing an arm and a leg, but I felt as breathless as if I’d run a hundred laps around the training ground, so I sighed.

How did this situation occur? Let me think calmly.

Yesterday, I clearly remember Marquis Karmel planting his forehead on the table at the end. After that, my memory is gone.

No matter how hard I wracked my brain, the memories lost to hard liquor refused to return. Finally, I decided to pull the bell cord beside the bed to call the Chief Chamberlain, who would remember this situation.

While waiting for the Chief Chamberlain, I realized that speaking in the bedroom might wake Ilena, so I eventually left the bedroom.

“……?”

Then I noticed with surprise that there were no knights standing guard outside the bedroom. As I was feeling puzzled, I saw the Chief Chamberlain walking from the end of the corridor.

“Ethan. Why are there no knights outside my bedroom?”

“I had them stand down, sir.”

“Why?”

“Well, naturally…… Your Highness. Don’t tell me nothing happened between you and aide Weiana.”

“Why should anything have happened?”

The Chief Chamberlain, who had been summoned by my call in the early dawn, looked at me with somewhat pitying eyes as I asked this.

“Even though aide Weiana personally supported Your Highness, who was completely drunk, all the way to your bedroom?”

“So what? Wait, where were the knights and attendants in the first place?”

“I had everyone stand down based on aide Weiana’s message that Your Highness was drunk and returning in an hour, so the bedroom should be prepared for you to go straight to sleep comfortably upon your return.”

“……So why?”

“Well, everyone in the Crown Prince’s Palace knows that you two are in a serious relationship, so isn’t it natural?”

“……What?”