“It was traveling, Rose.”

“Was it. So the unauthorized journey you took without your parents’ permission, as an heir no less, is that finished now, Jade?”

“More or less. Or maybe not.”

Jade answered absently and watched Rose undress, the way a creature native to the springs might watch a new visitor out of idle curiosity.

Even having grown into a fully adult man, his gaze looked much the same as it had in his boyhood. A flat, disinterested look, entirely devoid of anything calculating.

Rose herself felt no discomfort under his eyes. No more than she would feel discomfort under the gaze of the animals that wandered through the forest.

Before long, Rose was down to her chemise. She wrapped a towel over it and stepped into the water. The hem of the thick wheat-colored linen underdress darkened as it soaked through.

“Haah……”

She settled at the edge where the water came up to her waist, cupped both hands, and splashed the warm water over her face.

The spring water was nearly opaque. A milky white swirled with faint blues and emerald greens and a sunset pink, rippling together like an aurora. Simply looking at it was enough to ease the tension from her body.

Warm……

Rose closed her eyes and savored the feeling of her weary body and mind beginning to mend.

The ancient, mysterious power held within the spring water worked its effect without restraint. The warm water seemed to rinse away fatigue the way it might rinse away dust.

A time to sink into pleasant, unguarded ease. A time to set aside the noise of her family and focus entirely on recovery. No need to bristle like a hedgehog with every spine raised in vigilance……

She felt utterly comfortable. Utterly at peace.

“Rose.”

Perhaps even more so than inside the walls of Melos Castle.

“Hey.”

This place was truly, genuinely restful……

“Rosemaria Ordo. Roooosemariaaaa.”

“What!”

Her rest disturbed, Rose snapped her eyes open and barked. The pleasant warmth that had been spreading across her cheeks flared hot all at once. Jade lifted the corner of his mouth, looking entertained.

“What is it?”

Rose glared at him with the whites of her eyes showing.

“Do you have any candy?”

He swept his wet hair back again and asked with casual arrogance.

Candy, out of nowhere?

She ought to snap at him for asking something so absurd……

But she happened to have some. Sitting right there in the saddlebag hanging from her horse was a pouch of Karshi candy, Melos’s most beloved local specialty.

“What if I do?”

Rose twitched one eyebrow.

A nose like a dog’s. Maybe she should start calling him a baboon gorilla.

“What do you have?”

She leaned back with equal arrogance, chin lifted, looking down at him along the line of her nose.

Time to negotiate.

The two of them had been trading in small, secret exchanges at Hilude hot springs since they were children.

It had started at their second meeting here, hadn’t it?

A single piece of candy Rose happened to pull out and eat had sparked it, and from there they had fallen into the habit of trading odds and ends. Sometimes a pinch of medicinal herbs for a wound. Sometimes a small illustrated postcard.

Young Rose had even found herself quietly wondering, on her way to the springs, what Jade might have with him today. Exchanging the belongings of two such distinct households had been genuinely interesting.

“Hmm.”

Jade appeared to think for a moment, his well-shaped lips pressing slightly together.

Then he spread his left hand open and extended it forward, turning the back of his hand toward her.

“Pick one.”

Rings on his long, clean-lined fingers.

Rings.

Gemstone rings in different colors glittered on his index finger, middle finger, and little finger.

“Oh.”

Something lit up in Rose’s eyes.

He was serious? He was offering a ring in exchange for candy?

Karshi candy was no cheap thing, of course. It was a luxury confection that even Camelot’s gorillas went weak for.

Made from the finest Hailion birch syrup and Melos-grown Karshi mint leaves, crafted by Ordo’s own closely guarded recipe, the treat was popular for more than one reason.

It was widely rumored to be good not only for fatigue but for stamina as well. There had even been a period when the men of House Ordo had stripped every Karshi tree in the area bare, leaving the forest denuded.

Still, the rings Jade was showing her didn’t look like cheap accessories either. They appeared to be genuinely fine pieces.

So the rumors about Camelot’s smelting and metalwork were true. Had he made them himself? She felt a pang of genuine envy at their craftsmanship.

“Hmm.”

Rose studied his fingers and ran her tongue lightly over her lips.

On his long, thick fingers: a heavy platinum band with a beautiful engraved pattern that suited them well, a ring made of layered steel silver and gemstones joined in a cross formation, and……

“The one on your little finger.”

She chose without hesitation.

The ring on his little finger had caught her eye immediately. A transparent rose-colored gemstone at the center, surrounded by small green and yellow stones set like petals in bloom.

Crystal, perhaps? The main stone was large and somewhat lavish, but it harmonized beautifully with the accent stones and gave the whole piece an elegant air.

It would suit her hair and eye color, too. And a ring sized for a man’s little finger would fit a woman’s finger easily enough.

“This one appeals to you?”

Jade folded his other four fingers inward and smiled.

Even through the hazy steam, the gemstones’ brilliance was unmistakable.

Surely they couldn’t be real stones? Sibell emeralds, yellow topaz or yellow diamonds, and even a rose diamond, all set together like that, the cost would be beyond imagining.

The rose diamond in particular, which caught the light and shifted between clear rose and pink depending on the angle, was not a stone one came across easily. Hadn’t it been said to be part of an empress’s trousseau? She had heard that even a fortune large enough to build a castle outright might not be enough to obtain one.

Then again, if he was telling her to pick freely, it couldn’t be something that precious……

“It’s all right.”

Rose gave a carefully measured nod.

“Good.”

Jade pulled the ring from his finger without a moment’s pause.

“Give me the candy.”

He held the ring out with a clean, unhesitating ease that left no room for second-guessing.

“Are you serious?”

Rose stared at his face and asked again.

They had traded with each other many times over the years. But they had never dealt in anything as valuable as a ring. Nor had either of them ever walked away with a clearly lopsided gain or loss.

It had always been snacks that would be eaten and gone, consumables that would be used up, small toys, things like that.

“Does a knight say something twice?”

Jade shrugged his eyebrows as though this were the most ordinary transaction in the world.

For a moment, their gazes met in quiet stillness. A calm standoff playing out on an unruffled surface.

“……Hand me the candy pouch, Terra.”

Rose made her decision. Eyes still fixed on the ring in Jade’s hand, she moved only her arm and held it out toward Terra.

Watching over the horses at the water’s edge, Terra startled and looked over at her.

“But Miss.”

“It’s fine.”

“……Understood.”

Terra was clearly unhappy, but as always, she followed Rose’s word without further argument.

Rummaging through the saddlebag, she produced a brown leather pouch about the size of a grown man’s fist.

“Here.”

Rose took the candy pouch, pinched the drawstring at the top, and dangled it in front of Jade’s eyes.

“Ring first.”

Handing over the candy and having him bolt would be a problem.

Jade looked at her in silence for a moment, then rose to his feet.

Shhhhh, water cascaded from his broad shoulders down to the surface in a rushing fall.

He waded through the spring toward her. In the deep center, the water reached his chest, then gradually grew shallow again.

The edge where Rose sat at ease was quite a shallow point. Jade’s lean waist emerged above the surface, and then, as he drew closer, his thighs came into view as well.

“Aaaugh!”

Terra’s sharp shriek rang out at that moment.

“My eyes! My eyes are rotting!”

Rose’s mouth fell slightly open, caught off guard.

Ah. Right.

She had been sensing something off for a while now.

“Miss! Please cover your eyes at once! Your noble eyes must be protected!”