As he wandered wherever his feet took him, he eventually passed through the forest maintained by the imperial family and reached the outskirts of the palace where few people ventured. Suddenly curious about a small light visible in the distance, he began to follow it.

‘An herb garden? Was there such a place in the palace?’

As he approached closer, an unexpected scene unfolded. To use a clichéd expression, it was like another world. Unlike the imperial palace adorned and glittering with gold, this was a feast of pale green.

When the wind blew, the fairly tall herbs swayed gently, and a refreshing herbal scent settled in the breeze and wafted subtly.

Seeing a narrow path for people to walk through between the densely planted herbs, he moved toward it as if enchanted. At the end of the path was a small wooden cabin. From inside came the sound of clattering and slight signs of someone’s presence.

‘What is this place?’

Normally he would have turned back indifferently, but with the influence of alcohol and a bit of curiosity, he carefully opened the old cabin door.

The small cabin’s interior was modest, with just a few practical pieces of furniture—a couple of worn drawers, a workbench, and a table—without any ornaments.

The rest of the empty space was filled with the rich scent of herbs. In this environment, Nian was grinding herbs she had diligently dried for about a week. She intended to make herb oil.

She already felt grateful for the scent that would comfort her for a long time once made.

When she first cultivated the herb garden, Azel had persistently tried to dissuade her. But from about two years ago, she seemed to have given up and no longer followed her.

Nian preferred being alone, so this was rather fortunate.

In the night that had grown deeper than expected, she moved her hands busily. After cutting the long stems with a sickle and chopping them into small pieces, she ground them with apparent skill.

She had injured her hands frequently at first, but now she had developed a knack for it and rarely got hurt. The work seemed to be progressing smoothly.

That is, until someone opened the door and entered her private space. Nian, seeing the unexpected visitor, accidentally cut her hand with the sickle she had been handling skillfully.

The Emperor. He had come.

Until the sickle she had dropped while cutting her hand fell to the floor with a clang, Nian remained frozen, staring at him.

How did he know about this place?

No, more importantly, why?

As Nian trembled slightly with overwhelming anxiety and stared endlessly at Dade, he gazed blankly at her for a moment before quickly approaching. Instinctively flinching, Nian stepped back.

However, the cabin was too small to escape. After just a few steps, Nian despaired as she felt the workbench behind her and realized she had nowhere else to retreat.

Dade, undeterred by her reaction, strode purposefully toward her. As he finally reached her feet and extended his hand toward her, Nian instinctively hunched her body tightly and squeezed her eyes shut.

In the suffocating tension, her legs felt weak, as if she might collapse at any moment. In that fleeting moment, she desperately prayed for time to stop.

What Dade unhesitatingly reached out and grabbed was her hand.

“?”

Surprised by the unexpected touch, Nian looked up to see Dade holding her hand, lifting it, and beginning to wrap it with a handkerchief.

“What.”

“Stay still.”

A trembling voice flowed involuntarily from Nian’s lips. Dade glanced at her and tightened his grip on her wrist.

Nian only then realized that blood was flowing from her hand. The cut seemed deeper than she thought, as blood that started from her raised hand was flowing down to her elbow. Nian watched him quietly with a dazed feeling.

After tightly binding the handkerchief, Dade continued to hold her slightly trembling hand for a long time, only releasing it after the bleeding stopped.

Nian could only stare at him blankly, lost in thought. Then suddenly realizing this was the first time they had held hands, she involuntarily burst into laughter.

Holding her husband’s hand for the first time in five years…… Haha.

As Nian laughed as if in disbelief, Dade slightly furrowed his brows and asked.

“What’s so funny?”

At his words, she quickly erased her smile and lowered her head deeply.

What should she say?

Should she ask how he’s been?

Or ask what brings him here?

Or perhaps, should she pour out her resentment for his indifference all this time?

While Nian was contemplating what to say, she finally collapsed, her barely supporting legs giving way, upon hearing his next words.

“I didn’t know a place like this existed. Which palace do you belong to?”

At first, it took her a while to understand what he meant.

Perhaps…… could he be pretending? Nian examined him, but there was no deception anywhere in his eyes. He truly did not remember her.

Understanding his words, her heart, which had been beating rapidly with tension, felt as if it had instantly turned cold. She felt utterly pathetic and miserable for having worried about what to say.

Of course, she had only met him three times in the eight years since coming to the palace. The night they discussed breaking off the engagement, their wedding, and the first ball afterward.

At those times, unlike now, she always had the appearance of a magnificent Empress. She had adorned herself with heavy makeup and glittering accessories.

However, even excluding the three years of engagement, she had lived as his companion for a full five years. Five years. A long enough time to remember even nameless wildflowers along a walking path if they remained unchanged in their place.

For a moment, she felt tears might come from her bitter feelings, but fortunately, they didn’t. That was truly fortunate.

It would have been too unfair to shed tears over someone who had completely forgotten her and couldn’t even remember her.

Forgotten? No, actually, perhaps it wasn’t that he had forgotten but that he had never remembered in the first place. For him, I was never a companion, not even for a moment. So there was no need to feel newly disappointed.

During that brief silence, invisible emotions that seemed about to burst forth tangled chaotically inside her, painfully churning.

As always, the feelings she couldn’t express were all too familiar to her, so she simply turned away calmly.

“I am a person of the East Palace.”

Nian’s words after a long pause were composed without any emotion, but they were intensely cold.

“East Palace? You’re the Empress’s person?”

“……”

“An herb specialist? How convenient. Could I ask for some herbal tea good for insomnia as payment for treatment?”

At his words, Nian silently took out some herbal tea leaves from a corner of the workbench. She skillfully heated water over the fire and steeped the herb leaves. Dade, who had been watching her from his chair, spoke again with curiosity.

“What are you doing at this hour?”

“I was working because these must be processed within days after drying to preserve their fragrance.”

Nian answered dryly as she stirred the tea leaves.

“I see you already know who I am.”

“Among the people of the East Palace, there is no one who doesn’t know Your Majesty.”

Dade glanced at Nian making the herbal tea and could finally see her face clearly.

At first, he couldn’t see because she kept her head down, and when he was stopping the bleeding, he was too focused on that to look properly.

She steeped the tea leaves with an expressionless face. Dade couldn’t take his eyes off her profile. He stared intently at her until she poured the tea, handed it to him, and stood by the door after bowing.

Dade and Nian’s gazes met. An inexplicable, strange energy spread between them. Finally, as if uncomfortable with his stare, Nian slightly bowed her head to avoid his gaze and spoke.

“I’ll take my leave now. Please drink and go.”

As Nian made a respectful but emotionless farewell and bowed her head to leave, Dade, finally coming to his senses, smiled with a “hmph.”

How could he not?

From the moment he saw her sparkling eyes, small plump red lips, and long white neck as she steeped the tea leaves, he had been staring blankly at her. It was quite amusing. But contrary to his amused mind, his body moved before he could stop himself and grabbed her as she tried to leave. Nian’s body turned sharply as her wrist was caught.

Nian was startled when her body was turned by the force pulling her wrist as she tried to leave the cabin. Before her stood Dade. Her dark eyes, like the night sky, reflected his blue eyes like the moon.

“Do you need something else?”

she asked.

“Something I need.”

When Dade trailed off, Nian coldly asked again. She wanted to leave this place quickly. The uninvited guest who had invaded her secret space that had become her sanctuary made her extremely uncomfortable.

“If you do, please say so. I’ll prepare it.”

At Nian’s words, his eyes grew even darker.

“Really…?”

Dade uttered lightly.

That’s when it happened. He pulled on Nian’s wrist that he was holding and embraced her. Nian’s petite body fit perfectly into Dade’s arms.

Before Nian could react to his unexpected action, he lowered his head and lightly kissed the area around her neck. Then he whispered softly in her ear.

“What do you think a man who has spent many lonely nights estranged from the Empress would need?”

“!”

Dade gave another light kiss on her earlobe before releasing her. She seemed quite shocked and froze in place.

“Even if there was something, it’s not something you, the Empress’s person, could provide, so you may leave now.”

Dade said mischievously as he turned around. It was quite a while before Nian left the cabin. When she finally exited, her face was pale, and her eyes trembled.

‘I must be crazy.’

That was Dade’s first thought after Nian left. Was it the alcohol and the dreamlike intoxication of being in an unfamiliar place? Without realizing it, he had grabbed her and buried his face in her neck, which had looked tempting from the first moment he saw her.

Although he was curious about her because she treated him coldly, unlike any woman he had known before—no, beyond coldness, it felt almost like hostility—she was the Empress’s person.

Kissing the neck of the Empress’s lady-in-waiting—if the Empress Dowager had seen it, she would have collapsed on the spot.