Seeing Isabella hesitate like that, the maids asked whether something was the matter. She came back to herself and shook her head, telling them it was nothing.

“……”

Should she have chosen the same path as before? Not rushed into the marriage, kept refusing the endless stream of proposals, gone about things the same way she had in her past life? But if she had, her father’s life would have been in danger. Just the thought of Henry, found in that cramped study with a blade through his throat, made her body tremble as though she had been stripped bare and thrown out into the dead of winter.

No. This is better. She would be leaving in a year anyway. And when she did, she could save everyone’s lives. Her father’s. Declen’s. If she could save the two of them by sacrificing her own life, she had to endure whatever hardship came her way.

And yet. She had made up her mind. So why did it already feel this hard? Was it because everything was so tangled up? Nothing had even properly begun yet.

Knock knock. She was letting out one sigh after another when she heard a knock at the door. Her body went still for a brief moment, then she assumed the maids must have left something behind and parted her lips to call out a small invitation to enter.

“Isabella.”

But it was not the maids who opened the door and stepped inside.

“I was worried you might be hungry, so I brought a few things to eat.”

She turned at the sudden sound of Declen’s voice and found him walking into the bedchamber carrying a large tray.

“……”

And in nothing but a simple nightgown, at that. He surely had indoor clothes on beneath it, but the sight of him so utterly at ease sent a brief wave of dizziness through Isabella. She had never seen him like this before. He had never once let his guard down in front of her, not even for a moment.

“You hardly ate anything at the banquet, did you?”

“I’m not all that hungry.”

“Even so, please have a little. You’ve been tense all day. You need to eat something.”

Even after Isabella said she was not hungry, he walked in without hesitation and began setting things down on the table in the bedchamber one by one. Small rolls of bread, warm and soft-looking, soup, and fruit cut into neat pieces. Declen filled the table with them and met Isabella’s eyes.

“That’s far too much.”

The variety and quantity were far beyond what anyone would bring simply to get her to eat. How was she supposed to get through all of this?

“You only need to eat as much as you like. You don’t eat much, so finishing it all would upset your stomach.”

She had no particular desire to refuse his kindness, so she moved toward him. She had not eaten anything, and she was hungry, that much was true. But the tableware was set in pairs, which meant he intended to eat with her. Should she turn that down? Since when had they eaten together? Then a strange detail in what he had said came back to her.

“Did I ever tell you I don’t eat much?”

Isabella did not eat much. There was no particular reason for it. She simply disliked the heavy, bloated feeling of being too full, so she had always eaten small amounts until it became habit. But had she ever told Declen that? They had never once shared a meal together.

“……”

“Your Grace?”

“I heard it from one of the Piper barony’s maids. That you eat very little.”

“Ah, I see.”

The maids who knew her eating habits well would have said exactly that, so Isabella nodded without further suspicion. Besides, she had already missed the moment to say she would eat alone, and so she had no choice but to sit across from him.

“Please eat while it’s warm. You’ll sleep better that way.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

She resigned herself to it and picked up the neatly placed spoon, lifting a little of the soup in front of her and bringing it to her lips. Even after soaking in hot water, her body had felt chilled through, and the soup alone seemed to warm her. Or perhaps not. Perhaps it was the man sitting across from her. She lifted her downcast eyes and glanced at him, and he too was slowly lifting his spoon and bringing the soup to his lips.

They had never sat across from each other like this and shared a meal in the past. They had always eaten separately. Whether he had never intended to acknowledge her as his grand duchess, she could not say, but after the wedding she had almost never seen Declen’s face. By the time she woke and rose, he had already left for the imperial palace or the temple, and if not that, he never emerged from the training grounds or his study.

He would eat when she was absent, or take his meals in his study as a matter of course. It had not taken her long to realize it. So Isabella had always eaten late. She thought that if she did, he would at least take a proper meal in the dining room.

“Isabella.”

“Yes.”

Declen had been eating in silence for a long while when he called her name. She quietly raised her head and met a pair of red eyes.

Red eyes. Those red eyes that had always looked at her as though they hated her. But those red eyes she had loved so deeply. Those red eyes she had desperately longed to see look at her with warmth someday. And red blood. The red blood that had poured endlessly from him as he lay dying.

The scene she never wanted to recall rose up before her, and she quickly bowed her head. Don’t think about it. He’s still alive. He didn’t die. That time won’t come again. I’m going to protect him. He protected me and died for it, so now it’s my turn.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine. Please, go ahead.”

“What’s wrong? I’ll send for your physician.”

“I’m fine.”

He looked ready to call someone at any moment, and Isabella stopped him in a hurry. A physician at this hour of the night. That physician had disliked her too. She had no desire to drag someone out of their rest and make them examine her.

“Even so, wouldn’t it be better to have yourself examined?”

“I really am fine. I’m just tired.”

Today’s banquet made for a very convenient excuse. Whatever she did, she could blame it on exhaustion, and he would let it go without knowing a thing.

“I’m sorry. But you haven’t eaten anything all day, so you must have at least this much.”

“Thank you. I will.”

She offered her thanks without resistance, and he seemed to find that unexpected. Declen went still. His reaction made her feel oddly self-conscious for no reason. Should she not have thanked him? But she was grateful, and that was that.

She thought about saying something to break the long silence that followed, then gave up on the idea. Some time passed. Declen spoke first.

“Isabella.”

“Yes.”

“If you happen to have time tomorrow……”

“I was thinking of going to the temple tomorrow.”

“The temple?”

“Yes.”

Isabella nodded at Declen’s question.

“I need to see Reymon.”

The hand stirring the soup went still. The clinking of cutlery fell silent along with it, but Isabella spoke on, unbothered by the quiet.

“There are things I need to ask him, and things I need to hear.”

“You want to see him. The high priest.”

“Yes.”

She had to meet Reymon and hear what he had to say. How a low-ranking priest had become the high priest. How he remembered the past. What the meaning was behind what he had said. She needed to hear it all. He had told her to come to the temple soon, so he would tell her everything.

“……”

“Will Your Grace be going to the imperial pal……”

“No. I was also planning to go to the temple. Shall we go together, then?”

Isabella slowly nodded at Declen’s quiet suggestion. If she was going anyway, it was better to go at once. Thinking that, she tore off a small piece of bread, put it in her mouth, and chewed. The awkward silence that stretched on made her look up.

“Your Gra……”

“Isabella.”

“……”

“You don’t need to be so guarded around me.”

Right. She had never thought Declen wouldn’t notice. Declen Clerc was the captain of the Holy Knights, favored by Avilion, and the head of the imperial guard who carried out whatever the emperor commanded by any means necessary. He could close that large hand around her throat in an instant, and Isabella would die without being able to resist.

Everyone respected and admired him, but he was ruthless, cruel, and merciless without a shred of pity. No one was unaware of that. But because the sharp edge of that sword had never been turned on them, they liked and respected this man. Isabella was different. How could she not be guarded around someone like this? On top of that, she still did not know why he had saved her and died for it in the past.

In a situation full of nothing but questions, she had to be careful about even the smallest thing. She would not get a second chance.

“And I came to give you this.”

After watching Isabella for a long while without her guard dropping in the slightest, Declen held something out to her.

“This is……”

“The contract you wanted.”

The contract you wanted. The taste of the soup slowly sliding down her throat disappeared. She forced down everything left in her mouth as though swallowing tasteless water, and accepted the large envelope that came toward her.

“I included all the conditions you mentioned.”

“Thank you.”

She opened the envelope with an awkward hand and saw Declen’s neat handwriting filling a sheet of white paper densely.

“Check that nothing is missing, and sign at the bottom.”

The fountain pen that came forward then unsettled her. Once she signed this document, her marriage to him would truly begin again. For less than a year, of course. Isabella was reading through the clauses listing the conditions she had stated when she suddenly spoke.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes, Isabella.”

“Do you have no conditions of your own?”

“Conditions?”

“Yes.”

She nodded. The conditions were not many, so the contract he had presented was simpler than she had expected. A few conditions, a statement pledging to uphold them, Declen’s signature, and a blank signature line waiting for Isabella’s name. Looking at his neat handwriting and signature, she realized it. This contract contained only Isabella’s conditions. Not a single one of Declen’s.

“Was I supposed to include conditions of my own?”