This is how it came to this……

“My dear, canceling the trip so abruptly. Has something happened?”

“……Uh, after what happened yesterday, I think I’m not feeling very well. So can we go another time?”

“I see. I’ve heard it takes a full twenty days by carriage to reach the capital of the Empire from here. It would likely be too much.”

“You must have been looking forward to it. I’m sorry.”

“Not at all, my dear. Still, it’s a little disappointing not to go, so would you like to at least go out to the square together?”

“Sure, let’s do that. We can eat something good and buy whatever we need.”

And that was how it happened. He said it was only a little disappointing, but deep down, Aiden might have been far more let down than that.

‘But in the current situation, there’s nothing to be done. Even I hadn’t seen this coming.’

Truly, who could have known. Not only had I discovered I was reborn inside a novel, but my own husband had turned out to be the male lead of this world.

I exhaled quietly and kept walking.

Carriages could enter as far as the square, but the market was always so crowded it was the one place carriages couldn’t pass through. So walking was our only option.

Besides, seeing the warm, familiar faces of our kingdom’s people, so full of that neighborly K-citizen energy, lifted my spirits on its own.

This place had always been my favorite, overflowing with life and energy.

The problem, however, lay elsewhere.

“Princess Riel, congratulations on your wedding~! Congratulations to Dusik too!”

Turning my head, I saw Aunt Patricia from the dyeing workshop clapping her hands in front of a display stall piled with dyed fabrics.

“Thank you, Aunt Patricia.”

I walked over to her and smiled, folding my hands together. Aunt Patricia glanced back and forth between the two of us and added,

“I always knew it would come to this.”

“Did you. Haha.”

I said it with a slightly awkward laugh, and Aunt Patricia cast a sidelong glance at Aiden, whose expression had softened noticeably compared to before.

“Our princess really turned that block of wood Dusik into a proper person. Didn’t she?”

At Aunt Patricia’s words, Aiden gave a quiet nod, as though in full agreement.

Her words brought back the memory of the first time I had encountered Aiden, a year ago.

He had always stood on the shore with a blank face, staring out at the sea, radiating an overwhelming killing intent. But back then, he hadn’t known his own identity, and with his memories gone, he had been close to a blank slate.

Because escaped slaves from within the Kastua Empire occasionally caused disturbances, everyone in the kingdom, myself included, had assumed Aiden was a slave who had drifted ashore while trying to flee.

So all I had thought about was taming the man who radiated such fierce killing intent, driven by my pride as a princess, and I had pushed Aiden hard. And in the end, I had succeeded in making him mine.

But now, the tables had turned entirely.

‘You are a prince of the Kastua Empire, and the male lead of this world.’

‘I am the princess of a tiny kingdom that appears as nothing more than a speck on the full continental map, an extra who appears only briefly in the final illustration.’

The difference was truly between heaven and earth. A sigh nearly escaped me on its own. Lost in old thoughts, I stood there in a daze for a moment, when a nearby conversation caught my ear.

“I need to hang these dyed fabrics, but my arms are too short to reach the clothesline. Whatever shall I do……”

“Allow me. I’ll help you.”

“Would you really?”

What? Help with what? I had underestimated Aunt Patricia’s quickness. Before the two of them could finish their exchange, I cut in sharply with wide, sharp eyes.

“Aunt Patricia, I’m sorry, but that won’t work. Dusik has eczema on his hands right now.”

Stepping in front of Aiden to block him, I spoke, and she stared back at me with bewildered eyes. A genuine earthquake of the pupils. Under normal circumstances, I would have been the one saying ‘What are you doing, Dusik? Go help Aunt Patricia.’

“Hmm……? What kind of eczema?”

“Here, look at this. My ‘husband’ has eczema right here. You can see it, can’t you?”

I grabbed Aiden’s wrist, barely fitting in one hand, and pointed at his palm. But Aunt Patricia still looked unconvinced.

“Hmm…… Princess, all I can see are calluses……”

I let go of Aiden’s wrist, crossed my arms, and let out a firm huff.

“Regardless, that’s final! My husband is banned from anything involving water from now on.”

This big sister is going to make sure your hands never touch water again. I looked at Aiden and smiled with an expression that said, wasn’t that good of me?

Aunt Patricia seemed to read the situation in an instant and pivoted immediately.

“Oh my, how thoughtless of me. He’s the princess’s husband now, I can’t treat him the same as before. Of course not.”

“I don’t mind. Please feel free to treat me the same as always.”

“Absolutely not. I couldn’t possibly! Now, off you go, both of you! Have a wonderful time, you two~!”

Aiden stepped forward and said he was fine, but Aunt Patricia pushed us both away with firm, unyielding hands.

But thinking Aunt Patricia was the end of it turned out to be my mistake.

Moving away from the dyeing workshop, we were now passing in front of a weapons shop. This time, Blacksmith Uncle Philip, who called out “Dusik!” for some reason in a rush, asked him outright to help move some goods.

The people here still seemed unable to see Dusik as anything other than the outsider the kingdom had taken in. That was understandable, given that I had always been a princess who was exceptionally warm and unguarded with the kingdom’s people.

Despite my pointed looks telling him not to help, Aiden either didn’t notice or didn’t care, and readily helped Uncle Philip. And it didn’t stop there.

Every ten steps or so, stares and calls came pouring in.

“Dusik!”

“Dusik, help me with this!”

“Princess Riel, I need Dusik for a moment, could you spare him?”

I held it in and held it in until I finally exploded.

“Okay, enough! Everyone stop calling for Dusik! He’s my husband now. Do you understand?”

“Ah, haha. Right, of course……! I’m sorry! Princess!”

No matter how I thought about it, it was absurd. Even if I had put Aiden to work, was it really acceptable for everyone else to order him around so freely? I was about to grumble exactly that when the memory of my own misdeeds surfaced, unwanted.

“Here, let me put Dusik to work for you!”

“Any time you need an extra hand, just call for Dusik! Ahaha!”

Ugh! My hair practically stood on end. I was in the middle of clutching my head when,

“My dear.”

“Hm?”

Looking up, I saw Aiden’s smooth brow furrowed deeply. I stared at him, wondering what he was about to say.

“Ice cream. Would you like some?”

I had been craving something sweet just then…… but this out of nowhere?

***

Uncle Billybob at the ice cream shop was a low-level mage. He took the order and immediately began mixing milk, strawberries, and syrup together, then channeled his magic and conjured up a finished ice cream in an instant.

“Thank you for the treat.”

I licked at the strawberry ice cream Aiden had bought me, little by little. How did he even know my preference? The sweetness and coolness spread all the way to the top of my head, and the irritation I had been carrying melted away with surprising ease.

After today, it felt like the time had come to give Dusik a new name.

Besides, it wasn’t a name from this world. And on top of that, Dusik was the name I had given to a wolf I had raised thinking it was a puppy……

Gathering my courage, I asked him.

“Do you hate the name Dusik?”

“Hate it…… what do you mean by that?”

After a long while, Aiden looked at me with just a faint edge of killing intent in his eyes. The pressure radiating from him made me shrink instinctively, curling into myself.

“Well……”

Ugh. Why am I getting scared here.

“My dear.”

I fiddled with my fingertips and answered.

“It’s just, people keep calling for you from every direction……”

That wasn’t my place to say. I was the one who had let the merchants use Aiden however they pleased.

‘It wasn’t that I thought Aiden was a slave and worked him like one.’

There had been a separate reason I had given him things to do.

It was because of my father’s order that Aiden had to be tamed before he could stay in Martina with me, but I hadn’t wanted to force Aiden to adapt against his will.

I had wanted Aiden to be slowly absorbed into the people of the Martina Kingdom, to blend in naturally.

I stuck my lip out in a small pout, and he came to an abrupt stop, then fixed me with a quite serious expression.