After finishing dinner and returning to her room, Saena heard the familiar tap-tap sound again.

“Kyang!”

Along with Yolly’s familiar cry.

‘I didn’t expect a reply so quickly.’

Even after reading the note she sent, she thought he would reply the next day or just think “Ah, I see” and leave it at that.

[A pajama party, you mean a gathering where you stay up all night? In pajamas? May I ask where it’s being held?]

The series of questions seemed polite yet demanded answers.

[Saena, I want to sleep.

I wish you were by my side.]

And at this passage, Saena’s face somehow turned red.

‘No, this person. Isn’t he speaking too suggestively?’

He could say he wants to rest, or use many other expressions. But to say “I want to sleep”…

Am I the strange one for misinterpreting things?

[Does this mean I won’t see you until next week?

If you have time, I hope you’ll visit anytime before then. I can come to you if you prefer.]

Going from seeing each other once a week to not seeing each other at all made Saena feel somewhat empty. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly if it was emptiness or something else.

‘Hmm… Should I say I’ll come the day before?’

She was actually worried after hearing about how he couldn’t sleep at all due to the Guardian Spirit’s side effects. Though he said he could sleep briefly when holding her hand.

‘How can anyone live without sleep for 2 weeks. I should say I’ll visit before then.’

She thought this while overlooking the countless hours Constantine had lived that way without meeting her.

* * *

It’s a clear day.

Though the air was still cool, it was warm for winter.

Saena headed to the Duke’s mansion in the unmarked carriage Constantine usually sent.

It’s their first meeting since being in that kind of relationship. Thinking about it made her feel somewhat strange.

As if to show it wasn’t just her feeling special, the Duke was waiting at the portico instead of usual. Rather than Royter, he had come to greet her himself.

“…Duke?”

“I thought we agreed not to call me that.”

“……”

Constantine replied while naturally guiding her as she stepped down from the carriage. His relaxed lips seemed both smiling and not.

“I suppose I’ll have to wait until you call me by name?”

“That…”

Constantine stopped walking and looked down at her. Trapped between his towering presence and the actual wall, she felt the weight of his unwavering gaze and swallowed dryly.

“Co, Constantine…”

“Yes, Saena.”

His name from her lips, and her name flowing like a spring breeze from his mouth, seemed to tickle her ears.

“Saena.”

He called her name again.

His gradually lowering upper body cast a shadow, making her feel trapped.

“…Huh?”

When she came to her senses, they were no longer in the corridor.

Constantine had opened the nearest door, pushed her inside, and quickly cupped her cheeks.

“Mm, mmph?”

As she stumbled backward following his push, her back hit the wall. With her waist encircled and neck tilted back in an unbalanced posture, Saena grabbed his shoulders.

“Hah, mmn.”

His deeply probing tongue brushed against her soft palate, threatening to fill her throat. Apart from the tingling sensation from his urgent kiss, her heart trembled.

Saena gripped his sleeve tightly, trying to calm her shaking body, but her breathing only grew more rapid with each deep and intense breath that crashed into her.

As her blood flow increased, she felt her body becoming more and more liquid-like. If he hadn’t firmly held her waist, she might have slumped down by now.

“Haah…”

Their lips parted and heavy breaths burst forth. Still unable to gather her strength, Saena clung to him.

Feeling embarrassed at being the only one so affected, Saena lowered her head, pressing her forehead against his arm.

Constantine pressed his lips to the crown of her head in response.

Strange person… Strange man…

He looks more ascetic than anyone, yet he keeps swooping in like this and shaking her up.

“Saena.”

When he called her name near her ear, Saena flinched again. His low voice brushing past her ear felt overwhelmingly intense.

“Show me your face.”

“……”

“Do you hate me now for pouncing on you?”

“…That’s not it, just…”

“Just?”

Now her legs seemed to be regaining some strength.

“It’s, it’s just sudden.”

Saena gathered her strength and slowly raised her head.

Their gazes met at close range as he had been waiting, watching for her to lift her head. His lips curled slightly as he examined her flushed face.

“I’ll try to control myself.”

“……”

“Hearing my name come from your lips suddenly made it hard to hold back.”

After telling her to call him by name…?

“…Then will you do this every time I call your name?”

When Saena asked in surprise, Constantine chuckled.

“Should I?”

“……”

“Then you’ll probably keep your lips tightly sealed and not call me again, right?”

“……”

Constantine slowly smiled while stroking her soft cheek with his thumb.

“I’ll control myself, so please call me by name.”

“…Yes.”

They slowly separated and stood apart.

After fixing their smeared lip makeup and smoothing each other’s wrinkled clothes, they went outside.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter anyone while heading to the office. It would have been very embarrassing if they had met anyone, so that was lucky.

Though Royter had cleverly cleared everyone away beforehand, they couldn’t know that.

They sat at their respective desks and attended to their work in their usual pattern.

The Duke to his duties, Saena to her translation work.

Though she had trouble concentrating at first because of the earlier kiss, with effort she gradually became immersed.

Even so, her progress was just mediocre.

The paper was filled with scattered characters that had been sharply cut off and didn’t connect.

‘There are so many unfamiliar structures and ideographs.’

Arlesian interpretation wasn’t easy to begin with, but this gem was particularly difficult.

‘I really don’t understand.’

The broken interpretation didn’t make sense no matter how she tried to combine it. It was full of undiscovered grammar and ideographs.

When it’s like this, there’s really no solution…

Feeling her limitations, Saena sighed. If she had been at home, she would have already collapsed on her desk, kicking her feet while screaming “Aaargh–!”

Since she couldn’t do that here, Saena tried hard to endure. Even so, irritated scratching sounds leaked from the tip of her pen.

And in the quiet office, that sound quickly caught the Duke’s attention.

“Saena?”

“Y-yes?”

As she was approaching the conclusion that she probably couldn’t translate this well no matter how much she thought about it, Constantine’s call startled her.

Did her disappointment show on her face?

“You don’t need to stress yourself too much. Doing what you can is enough.”

“……”

“Shall we take a break?”

“Yes…”

Since she couldn’t see a way forward no matter how much she looked at it currently, Saena nodded dejectedly.

“Hmm, would you like to have some tea? Or shall we take a walk?”

After thinking for a moment, Saena chose the latter.

When her thoughts were blocked, moving her body often helped new ideas emerge.

“Come to think of it, you haven’t had a tour of the Kramer house yet. Well, shall we do that today?”

“Ah, really?”

A house tour. Exploring the historic mansion of an Oathkeeper was always a very interesting affair.

Saena brightened considerably and jumped to her feet.

Seeing her reaction, Constantine smiled broadly and led her along.

“Especially for you, I’ll show you something that can only be seen in the Kramer mansion.”

Wow. Even without looking in a mirror, Saena’s face must be incredibly radiant right now. Constantine’s expression was gentle as he gazed at her expectant face.

They went downstairs and left the building.

It seemed quite a distance, as Constantine made various conversations and frequently asked if her feet were hurting.

And then they arrived somewhere. They saw the entrance to what appeared to be some kind of annex building.

“……?”

But judging by its location and surroundings, it didn’t look like a guest annex. Yet it seemed too well-maintained to be an abandoned building.

Upon entering, the building’s purpose was quickly revealed.

“…This is…”

“It’s a columbarium building.”

She had followed along when he offered a house tour, but a columbarium building…?

Though it was completely incomprehensible, she waited, thinking there must be some reason.

“Actually, it’s a building that ‘pretends’ to be a columbarium.”

“…What?”

So these aren’t real urns? Saena looked around with surprised eyes.

“But why here…”

Not only was it questionable why they had built a fake columbarium, but why they had come here was even more puzzling.

But before she could finish speaking, she learned the reason.

Shhhrrrik–!

The Duke released his Guardian Spirit’s power in front of one of the walls inside the building. Black currents shot at the wall, and the shelf holding the urns lifted upward, revealing a passage.

“……”

Saena froze, both amazed and surprised.

My goodness… A door that opens with a Guardian Spirit’s power… This must be a space that absolutely no one but the Duke could enter.

Constantine took Saena’s hand as she stared with wide eyes.

The revealed passage had stairs leading underground, and when Constantine used his Guardian Spirit’s power once more, lights illuminated along the stairs.

Saena, surprised once again, followed the Duke down.

“Since only you can open it… it would be perfect for storing treasures.”

Though she meant it as a joke, Constantine chuckled and said,

“You figured it out?”

“Then, is it really a treasure vault?”

“Actually, rather than treasures, it’s more like… a storage place for items from the Arles-Promesa era.”

“Really?!”

What else could those be but treasures?

Saena increased her pace down the stairs, clutching her suddenly pounding heart. The initial uneasiness she felt about it being a tomb had long since disappeared.