“Is the cloak perhaps too heavy for you?”

“No, not particularly….”

“I’m glad.”

“…….”

Walking through the central garden under the Saranthum king’s escort, Riella was lost in momentary confusion.

Itanas was kind. Yes. His behavior toward her was very gentle and gentlemanly. She read in an etiquette book in the residence library that a gentleman is one who considers and protects a lady’s feelings, and his attitude now was exactly that. So much so that she could not even recall the menace she felt when she first saw him.

Not only that. He did not seem cruel, violent, or savage, to the point that the epithet of arrogant sl*ughter-maniac felt like someone else’s bad name pinned on him instead. She even wondered whether he might not t*rture or persecute her, someone he could not help but suspect of being the Holy Kingdom’s lackey.

‘Earlier, when he spoke with the high priest, he seemed to dislike the Holy Kingdom people, though….’

Was that a mistake? She felt a chill in her chest sensing a cold blade in his tone toward Valencio, yet not a trace of that cold remained in the voice he used with her.

Might Valencio have made some blunder behind the scenes? That strict disciplinarian?

The man’s bewildering courtesy did not end there.

“Your hands are cold. It will be colder here than where you were, so I will tell them to take care with the heating.”

He said this while quietly rubbing her clasped hand. Because his hand was so large, merely moving his thumb a little could explore every part of the back of Riella’s hand.

“Warm bedding should be prepared as well, but if you feel chilly in your sleep, tell me without hesitation. Whether it is more fire or more blankets, there are ways.”

“I’m fine.”

Afraid of what might happen if she left him to talk alone, Riella barely managed her reply, then bit her lip. She was shoving the words that tried to squeeze out of her throat back down into the depths of her heart.

I’m used to sleeping somewhere cold. She nearly confessed that truth without meaning to.

‘I have to stay alert. He might be deliberately trying to put me at ease.’

Wasn’t it a ploy to bewitch her with his looks and melt her heart with his words, then dig out the Holy Kingdom’s secrets and schemes from her while she was off guard? Rubbing her hand might be to check how much flesh she carried, and under the pretext of kindness he might stoke the fire too high, then, pretending it was an accident, quietly do away with her.

It was hard to call that absurd imagining… How much must the Saranthumians hate the Holy Kingdom?

That was how dangerous the man’s kindness was. She had more than one or two secrets she must never reveal, yet it kept tapping at the bolt on her heart.

Riella steadied her breathing where Itanas could not see.

‘I am His Holiness’s precious daughter.’

A daughter so precious that if mishandled, the Holy Emperor would come running at once to protest. A daughter unknown even in the Holy Kingdom because he hid her away, fearing she would wear out if shown to others. But a daughter who gained the love of the entire church upon awakening as a saintess.

Chewing over her cover story, Riella raised both corners of her mouth toward Itanas.

“Smile freely, and even rub your body against him. Fortunately, with this face and body, enchanting irrational barbarians is nothing, so make good use of what you have.”

She was following one of the pieces of advice Valencio gave while disciplining her after the political marriage was decided. She wore a veil, but perhaps because of the closeness, Itanas kept acting like he could see her face all along.

Sure enough, sensing her gaze, Itanas’s golden eyes looked down at her.

Riella smiled even more brightly. She crinkled her eyes and lifted the corners of her mouth higher. She hoped the smile could be seen clearly even beyond the veil, so much that the cheeks filled out since she was allowed to eat freely after Saranthum was decided, to avoid looking shabby, pushed up plumply. Her raised eyelids slightly distorted the bottom of her vision.

“W-Words alone, ahem, already feel warm to me.”

Perhaps because her voice rang like a baby goat’s m*an, her cheeks stung and the movement of her muscles was so awkward that Riella regretted doing something pointless. What favor could she win with such forced behavior? Even so, she kept smiling with effort. The corners of her mouth seemed to tremble in the end, but having started, quitting carelessly would only be more awkward.

But no reaction surfaced from Itanas right away, and after the silence continued amid Riella’s terrible doubt,

“…I am glad to hear that.”

Was Valencio right?

A smile spread across Itanas’s face like ripples as he gazed down at her.

His mouth stretched long, his eyes narrowed.

A smile that made his sculpted face even more bewitching.

It was exactly the face from when he first met her. No, whenever he dealt with Riella, Itanas wore such a gentle smile all along.

Just like how a man who must be used to cold things worried over her cold hand and poured out kind words throughout.

Riella’s heart felt like it floated in the air, a strange buoyancy. Her pulse quickened, and her cheeks burned for no reason. She was the one trying to win his favor with a smile, yet she was the victim of her own scheme.

‘Mustn’t be b-bewitched, thoough.’

She could not know what scheme he might be hiding.

He was the Holy Kingdom’s enemy, and this marriage, she was told, was a ruse for the glory of Rem.

While Riella composed her confusion, they arrived before a building before she knew it. When the man’s head turned toward the building ahead of them, not toward her, Riella felt she could finally breathe a little.

D-Dangerous. Emotionally, it felt like her soul was bound by him.

“This is the Autumn Palace where you will be staying.”

“Ah….”

When she lifted her gaze, which followed his away from her, a splendid structure filled her view.

The Autumn Palace. True to a name signifying the season of abundance, the entrance facade, decorated with tile mosaics capturing the red of maple leaves and the gold of harvest wheat fields, first flaunted its presence. The dome-shaped roof was the same. Its warm-toned splendor, in contrast to the pale early-winter sky, glittered dazzlingly in the afternoon sun. On top of that, the roof edges and window frames were all gilded and adorned with amber, making it a building that flaunted royal wealth to the extreme.

Its size was perhaps comparable to a scripture hall where dawn services for clergy were held in the Holy Kingdom. Describing it as modest would fit its scale, but the ornamentation was so splendid that its presence was tremendous.

Riella’s reddish eyes widened on their own.

‘They definitely said that without Sevniel’s blessing, there would be nothing to see and it would all be tacky and shabby….’

Since the Saranthumians lacked the blessing of the angel who governs art, disparaging words saying their culture could not have strayed far from barbaric habits circled in Riella’s ears for the past three months.

But seeing a dazzling building that decorated even its rain gutters with gold and jewels, those words were completely wrong. Come to think of it, the whole way from the city gate to here, she could not recall once getting the impression that the decoration was austere or crude. This, even though what Riella grew up seeing was the Holy Kingdom’s scenery, where the continent’s cultures, called the Holy Alliance, were all gathered.

All her attention was fixed on Itanas, so she could not remember well how she got here, but….

‘Is the place the delegation went to this splendid too?’

Unable even to pretend otherwise, Riella surveyed every corner of the Autumn Palace for a while with her mouth slightly open.

After giving her enough time to take it in, Itanas slowly continued his explanation.

“It is where the mistress of the royal house has stayed for generations. In Saranthum, couples keep separate bedrooms, but the husband generally visits the wife’s room, so I too will be staying here often.”

The husband goes to the wife’s room and sleeps….

Chewing on that meaning, the conversation from before at the gate came mushrooming back. Talk about her residence, about the bridal chamber, about whether it was any blemish to use the same building since they would marry anyway….

Suddenly, tension settled on Riella’s face. No, would it be more accurate to say it flushed red?

“The v*lva, where menstrual blood flows out. That is where the husband’s p*nis goes in.”