“……”

It was the first time she was looking at his face in such detail since meeting him again. From his fine-textured skin to his long, thin eyelashes. Mel greedily looked at the adult Genoa’s face over and over again.

‘That feeling I remember is completely gone.’

Genoa Ivanstein. When this great and dangerous man was still a boy.

Back then, Genoa was, how to say, solid but with a slight gap. A small crevice left minutely on the not yet fully ripened surface. Mel was like a small speck of dust that had briefly stayed in that gap.

Now grown into a perfect adult man, Genoa no longer showed even such a gap. During the years she didn’t know about, he seemed to have become harder and thicker, filling even the gap where she had briefly stayed.

Mel poked Genoa’s cheek with her finger. She felt the soft and firm skin from the tip of her finger. The Duke of Ivanstein was not someone who would fall asleep defenseless in front of her, but Genoa often enjoyed a deep sleep beside her.

Perhaps that’s why. A bit of courage welled up.

“Young master.”

The old form of address that escaped her lips felt unfamiliar. The man before her eyes was the Duke of Ivanstein, but sleeping like this, he seemed like her former master. Even though no trace of his past appearance remained, old memories kept coming back.

“Mel.”

The soft voice that always responded when she called Genoa. Perhaps she missed the name she would never hear from his lips again.

“I didn’t betray you.”

She gently made a confession that Genoa couldn’t hear.

“I don’t know why you left with such a misunderstanding, but it wasn’t me.”

The only reason she could endure in that cold and frightening place was because of Genoa alone. The reason she didn’t run away even though she could have was also because of Genoa. That’s why Mel felt wronged by the misunderstanding Genoa must be harboring now. If given the chance to explain, she wanted to clear things up. But she couldn’t.

‘It’s pointless.’

If he discovered her identity, she would die before she could clear up the misunderstanding.

For a moment, overwhelmed by old memories, she made a mistake. After all, this man, both then and now, only saw her as an object to be used. There’s no way a master would give sincerity to a slave.

This feeling she now has for Genoa must be just because of the goodwill she harbored alone, not knowing any better when she was young. Back then, Mel was easily moved by even small kindnesses from others because of her use value. It was even more so because it changed her quality of life.

Whether he misunderstood or not, what did it matter? It was pointless for Mel, who now faced Genoa in the position of a princess.

Thinking this, Mel took her eyes off Genoa. And she decided to think about the practical things she needed right now.

“Where should I sleep?”

She thought about sleeping on the sofa, but there was a slight chill in the room. There was no firewood to light the fireplace, and blankets were only on the bed. Sleeping on the sofa like this would be perfect for catching a cold.

It would be nice if there was a small blanket, but looking around, nothing like that was prepared. It was too late to request one from a maid, so Mel stared intently at the blanket she had just covered Genoa with. Fortunately, the blanket was quite large, fitting the size of the wide bed.

“It should be okay to share the blanket just a little, right? After all, I’m a princess now……”

Mel rationalized to herself as she slightly pulled at the edge of the blanket.

Her options did not include lying down to sleep on the same bed as Genoa. Thinking that surely the Duke of Ivanstein wouldn’t get angry just for sharing a blanket, that is.

Mel lay down on the floor right below the bed and covered herself with the blanket she pulled. Only after confirming that Genoa’s body didn’t slip out from under the blanket could Mel finally fall asleep.

However, Mel, who was a slave to her bones, failed to realize that catching a cold by sleeping on the sofa would have been more princess-like.

* * *

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Who was it that said waking up to the sound of birds was the most perfect start to a day? Genoa had only encountered sentences about perfect mornings in books. That if you greet an exceptionally good morning, your mind becomes clear and your whole body becomes energetic.

Genoa knew this fact simply as a part of knowledge. Even before his severe insomnia began, he had no memory of sleeping peacefully due to the diligent assassination attempts of his brothers.

“……”

Genoa, right now, lifted his eyelids feeling the softness of the blanket, just like the sentence in the book. Blink. And once more, blink. It took quite a while for his slowly blinking eyes to grasp the pattern of the unfamiliar ceiling.

Where is this? He thought hazily with a mind not yet fully awake. The head that no longer throbbed and the focus that came easily without much effort felt unfamiliar.

Raising his upper body, Genoa looked around with a clearer view.

‘Is this the princess’s room?’

He pondered why he had greeted a perfect morning in the princess’s room. When he was facing the princess in this room earlier, it was moonlight, not sunlight, that was softly shining through that window.

Chirp, chirp, chirp.

The bird sounds he had just heard now seemed loud, seemingly newly announcing that it was morning. It was really morning. Morning had come without him even seeing the usual dawn twilight.

“……Huh.”

A sigh escaped between Genoa’s lips. He brushed his disheveled hair with one hand and retraced his memories.

The princess’s flushed face came to mind first. The princess was beneath him, and he was about to do something while looking at her. From that point, his memory became hazy. Then Genoa’s eyes fell on the stew bowl placed on the table.

‘I was watching the princess eat stew.’

Even what he had been thinking at that moment was now blurry. He guessed that he might have fallen asleep at that moment. But if so, it didn’t explain why the image of the princess lying beneath him was so vividly imprinted in his mind.

He finally decided to get up from the bed, shaking his head. He thought he should first find the princess who wasn’t visible in the room, and then ask about last night’s events.

So he lowered his feet to the floor beneath the bed…

Squish.

“Hm?”

He felt something soft and squishy being stepped on. He had expected it to be the floor, but the unexpected sensation was tremendous.

“Uuugh.”

Moreover, a pained groan was heard from under his foot. For a moment, just a brief moment, Genoa couldn’t bring himself to look down. In a situation where he couldn’t put more weight on his foot, nor could he remove it, he slowly looked down beneath the bed.

“……”

Princess.

The identity of the soft thing he had stepped on was the princess. The treasure of Reibritton. The princess with all sorts of grand titles attached to her name. She was now sleeping under Genoa’s foot, groaning with a pained expression.

“Am I stepping on the princess right now?”

For Genoa, who surprisingly had a normal way of thinking, this situation was very confusing. Why on earth was the princess lying under his feet, that is, on the floor beneath the bed?

Is she dead? He thought, but the princess was furrowing her brow and letting out painful groans.

Then is this a dream? But for him, a severe insomniac, to have slept so soundly didn’t make sense.

Then why is the princess here like this? Did I try to kill her? His thoughts continued abnormally in his subconscious.

At that moment, knock knock knock, a neat knocking sound was heard at the door. When there was no answer from inside, the door opened carefully, and Bane stepped into the room.

“My lord, are you perhaps here……”

Bane’s eyes met Genoa’s, who was trampling on the princess with his foot.

“……”

“……”

Bane and Genoa were silent for a moment. It was quite a while later when shock spread across Bane’s face, which had frozen in the same expression as when he first entered the room.

He asked with a pale face.

“Did you kill her?”

“Of course not.”

Genoa answered in a bewildered voice, but it wasn’t just his imagination that his gaze wavering slightly as he looked back at the princess.

“My lord, first, your foot that’s stepping on the princess……”

“Ah.”

Genoa seemed to have just realized that he had been continuously stepping on the princess. As he hurriedly removed his foot, the princess’s face, which had been contorted in pain, finally relaxed.

“……Hmm.”

A satisfied breath escaped between the princess’s lips. She was truly sleeping well. On the floor.

“……”

“……”

Looking at the princess like this, Bane and Genoa couldn’t say anything for a while. Not a word.