After attending Hilda’s wedding, it became the second month of Solsita. It was the height of summer.

During this time, the priest Noah left Khalid again. He left a message for Duke Khalid to write lots of poetry until his return.

As it was the season when magical beasts were laying eggs, the knights’ Huran preparations were also reaching their final stages. By the end of this summer, the mother beasts would finish laying their eggs completely, and the knights would need to climb the Dorbas Mountains to find the beasts’ nesting grounds, break the eggs, and place the Huran.

Kaiden, who had become Duke Khalid, naturally had to command this operation. If it was delayed, it would become very difficult to stop the hordes of magical beasts that would hatch from mid-autumn and come down hungry in winter.

Above all, since Kaiden had overall command authority as Duke Khalid, he had the responsibility of checking the Huran placement for the entire northern region. Thanks to conferring with the northern lords since early summer about which directions and how much Huran to place in each territory, that was now falling into place.

Meanwhile, Dana managed the castle and territory affairs as usual. While before she had overseen Khalid with temporary authority from the king, now she was managing the castle and territory affairs as proxy for the Duke of Khalid, who was busy preparing for Huran placement.

Mr. Belver, the butler in charge of castle management, came and went from Dana’s study several times to prepare for autumn. Decisions had to be made about how to replace the castle’s curtains and carpets in preparation for when the cold wind would blow during autumn, and how to handle the bedding in the bedrooms. Belver was particularly thorough in checking and reporting whether the fuel supply for heating would be adequate.

In terms of territory management, the territory administrators were moving busily as they made their rounds. First, they had to check how the territory’s people were preparing for next month’s Solsita festival, and before the autumn harvest season, they needed to finish installing defense facilities at each territory mill to prepare against plundering. Above all, they had to manage the millers in charge of grinding flour in advance to prevent them from pulling tricks to pocket grain and milling fees in autumn.

The territory’s administrators sent carrier pigeons multiple times and sometimes visited Eluan Castle directly to report on these matters to Dana and receive approval.

Though they were both diligently fulfilling their duties as Duke and Duchess of Khalid, there was no special change in their most important relationship as husband and wife.

After returning from Hilda’s wedding, Dana and Kaiden began calling each other by name. However, nothing else had changed. They still used separate bedrooms and talked about insignificant daily routines during breakfast.

And Dana moved the black keyed instrument from the music room to her personal hobby room. While moving it, she replaced the chair that had required sitting right next to Kaiden with a slightly longer one. Thanks to this, now she could sit together when Kaiden played the keys. Of course, keeping some distance.

From the perspective of the heated man, it wasn’t much of a difference, but from the perspective of the woman who didn’t know his feelings, it felt like an appropriate minimum distance that wouldn’t cross the line of propriety.

Mrs. Moyer, the head maid, asked for her opinion about bringing in a new instrument in a bright color that would match the hobby room’s atmosphere well, but Dana shook her head.

And so the black instrument was placed in the white space that had small desks, sofas for sitting and resting, and embroidery frames. It settled in place, radiating presence as if embedded there alone.