With not just one or two documents to fix, the plan to finish work before evening was as good as gone.

“Since I’ve already brought the carriage, take me to Senior Terence’s house. It looks like we’ll need to put our heads together and pull an all-nighter.”

“Are you boldly saying you’ll spend the night at another man’s house right now?”

Count Kent swallowed the follow-up words “Just who are you trying to kill?” thinking they were too low even for him.

“What other man? It’s not like it’s the first or second time I’m staying up all night with people from the same department when work piles up. I can’t tell someone with a broken leg to come and go, so isn’t it right for me to go?”

“That’s true, but.”

Count Kent lightly pinched Elia’s cheek with the fingers already resting there.

“Considering the aftermath, it would be better if I brought Financial Administrator Terence Morris to the imperial palace instead.”

“I already feel bad making a patient work, and now you want to drag him around here and there? And am I a child? Let go of me.”

Elia slapped Count Kent’s hand that was pinching her cheek. At the quite firm impact, a crisp sound came from the hand that was hit.

“Considering travel time, it’s fastest for me to go to Senior’s house. So please, Count. If work gets held up, you can’t go home either, right? If that happens, would the countess be pleased with your patience?”

“That……”

Sister Lily~ hates overnight stays the most~.

Elia’s expression as she hummed and added a tune while being sarcastic was annoying enough that Count Kent wanted to punch her from his perspective.

If it were when they were young, he would have pulled her cheeks until they turned red when she was so openly sarcastic like that.

But now he couldn’t do that to a grown lady, and he couldn’t even imagine how tremendous the aftermath would be if he carelessly did such a thing.

“…… If I take you there, can you finish before today ends?”

“I can’t guarantee it. I’ll try to match what needs to go out tomorrow morning first.”

“Is it impossible to finish before dinner time?”

“Are you joking? Do you think I have about ten hands or something?”

“Then I’ll…… ah, no. It seems impossible after all.”

Count Kent stopped mid-sentence and shook his head. It was Casiel who had sent him, not trusting even the knights, telling him to bring Elia back not too late.

Even if it was because work was piled up, not only could he not bring her back on time, but he would let her spend the night at another man’s house?

He had already gotten on the emperor’s bad side after the contraceptive incident, so he had no desire whatsoever to be hated more by the emperor.

“Let’s go to our house.”

“Huh?”

“Rather than suddenly barging into a patient’s house and imposing, it would be better to bring the patient to our nearby house and work there. You go to our house first by carriage.”

“But that would be inconvenient for Senior.”

“Barging into a patient’s house or this, from my perspective, it’s the same thing.”

“No, the situations are different. The intensity of inconvenience is different. Working in your own bed versus being dragged to your boss’s house to work—would that be the same?”

Elia wasn’t built that way, so she would sometimes be stubborn about points she was fixated on.

“Besides, even if I don’t know, if another person suddenly barges in, how awkward would Sister Lily be again?”

As the counterarguments grew longer, Count Kent’s irritation level reached its peak.

The count, who had been suffering from pressure from his supreme boss, guilt toward Elia, and burden about work, couldn’t hold back anymore when even Lilias was mentioned and burst out shouting.

“Just! You don’t need to worry about my wife too, so stay quietly at my house until I come back!”

Count Kent had no idea that his shout that resonated through the wide space deepened someone’s misunderstanding.

⁕⁕⁕

When she married the man named Rowell Kent, Lilias had to prepare herself considerably.

Marrying a high minister of the empire was a matter of a different dimension from simply marrying the man she loved.

She had to calmly accept the big and small affairs of social circles, managing the huge mansion was also the mistress’s job, and she had to smoothly handle the endless stream of guests for her husband who did great work.

So something like her husband suddenly bringing guests today was no big deal for Lilias.

“Sorry, Sister. I wasn’t planning to bring people here. But Brother insisted on coming here while even raising his voice.”

What made Lilias more concerned than the knights bustling about carrying boxes of documents was the content of what Elia said.

“He raised his voice? At you?”

At the voice that immediately turned cold, Elia quickly waved her hands.

“I immediately shouted back even louder, so don’t say anything to Brother about that.”

“…… Whether I say something or not, I’ll decide after hearing the details. Didn’t that person come with you?”

“Brother Rowell will be back soon with one person. He’s a senior from the finance department who works with me……”

Elia explained the circumstances of the sudden intrusion while following Lilias to the reception room. Lilias nodded after hearing Elia’s words.

“I see. Though Rowell was wrong to raise his voice, I also think it’s right to work at our house rather than at Financial Administrator Terence Morris’s house.”

“But I was worried it might be a burden to you…… The senior probably wouldn’t be comfortable either.”

“What burden would there be for me? I just need to give up some space and provide meals, that’s all.”

White, long fingers gently cupped Elia’s face.

“You’re not someone who needs to put me on edge and play mind games with me like certain people, so don’t think that way. By the way, are you eating properly? Why are you so thin? It’s still before evening, right?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Should we eat before the person you’ll work with comes?”

Before Elia could answer anything, Lilias pulled Elia’s hand.

Elia, who was already thin but whom she met for the first time in a while after being confined in the imperial palace, had become half her face.

‘That damn emperor.’

Though she was smiling kindly toward Elia, Lilias inwardly gritted her teeth at the thin wrist she grasped.

If you’re going to confine a child, at least feed her well. What kind of human appearance is this?

While resolving to feed her plenty of things she liked since she was here anyway, she was about to call over a passing maid when Elia stopped her.

“I’m grateful, but I’m not hungry yet. And I really have a lot of work to do, so I can’t allocate much time for meals.”

There was a pile of documents that needed to be delivered to ships docking at the port tomorrow morning. To meet the deadline, there was barely time to breathe, let alone eat.

“I’ll tell you when I get hungry. I’ll quietly do urgent things first before Senior comes, so Sister, don’t worry about me and rest.”

Lilias’s heart, which had been upset about Elia’s missing squishy cheeks, burst at her words that she wouldn’t eat.

Why was such a young person so stubbornly old-fashioned, as if an old man had settled in her stomach?

Elia’s inner thoughts were obvious.

Being confined in the emperor’s bedroom was too hard and suffocating, so she probably insisted on working because she wanted to breathe, and now that she saw the urgent work with her own eyes, she became anxious.

Even so, she should know how to be somewhat clever.

Anyway, she was the type who suffered unnecessarily because she didn’t know how to use her wits.

That might be a plus factor in others’ eyes, but it was a problem because she herself was struggling and her body was wearing down.

Lilias’s eyes were serious as she watched the slender back entering the reception room.

Both the thin body that seemed ready to collapse at any moment and the gaunt, pale complexion made Lilias’s heart uncomfortable.

Even after Count Kent brought Financial Administrator Terence Morris into the reception room, even after refreshments were brought to the reception room once, Lilias’s anguish continued until late at night.

Her concern that something really big would happen if Elia was left as she was continued until the emperor quietly set foot in the count’s residence when midnight was approaching.

“I apologize for the intrusion at such a late hour.”

Casiel, who had suddenly come and literally committed an intrusion, briefly restrained the flustered employees of the count’s residence.

“I didn’t come to cause a commotion, so there’s no need for everyone to be so busy. The person the count sent said there were documents urgently needed tomorrow morning. Since I have to give final approval anyway, I thought it would be faster for me to come here rather than having documents go back and forth to the imperial palace.”

Lies.

He came to catch her because he couldn’t stand being apart for just one day.

Lilias cursed the emperor with her eyes.

Of course, since she was someone who knew how to make rational judgments, she didn’t forget to bow her head deeply to hide her dangerous gaze.

“Where is she now?”

At the question thrown over her deeply bowed head, Lilias bowed her waist slightly more. Though the subject was omitted, it was obvious who the question referred to.