Elia was keenly experiencing what it felt like to sit on a bed of thorns.

The carriage engraved with the blooming gladiolus pattern, the symbol of the count’s family, was spacious, comfortable, and pleasant.

However, holding documents with one arm while having one hand firmly held by someone was an uncomfortable posture no matter what.

Elia bit her lips while watching Casiel, who hadn’t given her a single glance since boarding the carriage.

Her decision not to return to the imperial palace and to finish her work was half due to responsibility and duty toward work, half due to defiance against Casiel.

From the moment she told Count Kent she would go to Terence’s house instead of going to the imperial palace, Elia had been inwardly worrying about what excuse she would make when she met Casiel again.

After a brief moment of thought, Elia came to a cynical conclusion: Casiel would strip off her clothes before she could even make an excuse, so there was no point in preparing one.

But this situation where she didn’t need to make excuses in a different sense was unexpected.

The emperor wasn’t interrogating her, wasn’t trying to take her body, and was maintaining silence!

It was fortunate that the situation she had worried about didn’t happen, but this was uncomfortable in its own way.

Could this possibly be a new type of pressure tactic?

Without saying anything, just firmly holding her hand, with his head completely fixed outside the car window, Casiel didn’t move.

His appearance of not moving even a bit until they reached halfway to their destination was truly admirable, but for someone who had to endure suffocating silence in one space, that admirableness was torture.

“Your Majesty……”

Finally, Elia raised a white flag and opened her mouth when the port became visible in the distance.

Casiel, who had been looking outside with an expression as if some tremendously serious incident was happening outside the car window, quickly turned his head.

“What?”

“…… Don’t you need to check the documents?”

“I’m sure you did well on your own.”

Though she had tried to squeeze out business to break the silence, his attitude of making Elia’s efforts futile with a single word was truly……

‘No, Elia Weiss, such thoughts are insubordination.’

Though she was being treated in a way that wouldn’t be enough even if she cursed, Elia, who was a sincere civil servant to her bones, tried to suppress the colorful curses rising in her chest.

Casiel, who had been staring at the clear brown eyes that were dizzily swaying between the urge to curse immediately and a civil servant’s duty, asked casually.

“Was the work very difficult?”

“…… Well, work is always busy. Emergency situations where personnel suddenly disappear like this time are rare.”

“The finance minister sent his son with a letter desperately appealing for personnel reinforcement.”

“Ah…… Is the finance minister still unwell?”

“Since he’s getting on in years, he probably isn’t like before. But when he said he would work, his family persuaded him to lie in bed, so Viscount Zeke, his son, came to plead.”

“Elderly people don’t recover like before once they collapse…… Their family members must be very worried.”

“Yes. That’s probably the case. But what do you think?”

“Pardon? About what……”

“Would you also like to supplement personnel?”

Ah, that topic. Elia hesitated a bit before answering.

“That’s…… of course.”

Nodding her small head up and down, Elia quickly added.

“Currently, Aprion’s administrative employment examination is too difficult to recruit many talented people. Of course, gauging capable people is also important work, but how many people are skilled from the beginning?”

Casiel slightly turned his body toward her. Since it looked like he would listen to her words, Elia swallowed once and continued.

“I think it’s also important work for the future to discover and nurture people who show potential even if they’re somewhat below current standards.”

“But you yourself passed that difficult exam with the highest score, didn’t you?”

“Just as I’m strong in accounting but have other weaknesses, there might be people who are somewhat weak in accounting but have persistence or exceptionally good memory.”

Elia inwardly thought this was the opportunity.

Her words were right—the number of administrators currently working in the imperial palace was far too few.

She agreed with the principle of hiring only capable people. But if the capable people who entered the imperial palace all complained of chronic muscle pain, neuralgia, as well as vision deterioration and lack of stamina, wouldn’t that be a structural problem itself?

“Immediately dramatically increasing personnel would have practical problems. But it would also be a good supplementary measure to give responsible people the authority to select personnel to assist them while keeping capable people as supervisors.”

Elia’s voice, as she brought out thoughts she had kept inside, was getting louder without her realizing it.

When she became absorbed in her story and even brought up stories about systems from the time of the great-great-great-grandfather emperor that remained in old texts, Elia quickly closed her mouth, thinking ‘Oh no.’

Only then did she notice that Casiel’s lips were slightly curved upward.

Was I too presumptuous?

She tried to shrink back belatedly, but it wasn’t easy since one hand was held hostage by Casiel.

“Looking closely,”

Casiel opened his smooth lips while subtly adding strength to the grip holding Elia’s hand.

“You’re quite timid yet you say everything you want to say.”

“I’m, I’m sorry……”

“You’re cautious yet passionate about righteous words.”

“……”

Elia slyly rolled her eyes to look at distant mountains.

The situation had become different from when she first boarded the carriage. Elia was the one deliberately looking away at distant places, and Casiel was the one observing such Elia.

What hadn’t changed was that Elia’s hand was still firmly held in Casiel’s grip.

Between the hands that had been held for over an hour, sweat was already seeping out moistly.

⁕⁕⁕

— Your Majesty. In Your Majesty’s eyes, does Elia look happy right now?

Recalling the words Lilias Kent had delivered with an earnest face, Casiel looked down at Elia’s small head.

Her face, busy rolling her eyes to avoid his gaze, looked particularly young today.

Though she had long passed adulthood, looking at her face alone, she still seemed like a young girl.

While feeling like a beast for being aroused by that young-looking appearance, he kept wanting to give in to that emotion.

It was an isolated space called a carriage, and the sweet body he had tasted countless times was right in front of his nose.

If he just pulled the hand he was firmly holding once, he could immediately embrace the warm, soft body.

Though he hadn’t held her in his arms for just one day, the accumulated desire writhed as if it would burst the moment he saw Elia.

He wanted to lay that body down immediately, tear off her clothes, bite the pure white skin and leave marks. He wanted to forcibly squeeze into the small, warm, struggling body.

He knew guaranteed ecstasy awaited if he forcibly pushed himself into the moistly wet inside, occupying it like territory. But then Elia would burst into tears again.

Casiel bit the inside of his mouth and recalled Lilias’s words.

— Though the method is different from what I thought, in the end, don’t both Your Majesty and I want Elia to be happy?

When he irritably threw out the question of what he should do then, Lilias answered with a gentle smile.

— Even if it’s just for one day, please don’t spend time in bed, but hold hands and walk slowly on the streets.

He couldn’t just ignore those metaphorical words because he remembered Count Kent saying similar things.

Something about wanting romance where they strolled through gardens side by side, carefully held hands, and confessed.

It was a picture so trivial and excessively girlish that just thinking about it made him feel ticklish.

However.

Casiel stared quietly at Elia’s smooth white cheek.

If that cheek turned red for reasons other than pain or forcibly given pleasure. Then what would that feel like?

“…… Later.”

“Yes?”

“After finishing all the work that needs to be confirmed, instead of returning to the imperial palace immediately, how about we look around the port area?”

At the words his lips had uttered after wavering several times, Elia’s eyes widened like a squirrel discovering acorns it had buried and forgotten after the season passed.

“Are you talking about an inspection?”

“Something like that.”

“Ah…… Well, since it’s rare to come to the Burnett Port area, it would be good to look around while you’re here.”

“Right. So……”

“Then should I return first after work is finished?”

It was an answer without even a grain of tact that a crow might have carried away.

Casiel had to struggle to forcibly smooth out his face that was about to crumple.

“How are you going to return alone?”

“Well…… somehow?”

“……”

“Is it because of the carriage? Your Majesty can use this carriage and I can rent another one. There are quite a few places that rent carriages near the port.”

Though he had tried to endure it, a vein popped out on Casiel’s forehead.

“…… It’s not about renting a carriage, but it’s dangerous for a woman to wander around alone in a big port like Burnett.”

“As for safety issues, Your Majesty should be more careful than me…… Ah, the escort knights are following, right?”

The conversation that circled around without reaching the core made Casiel’s expression even more fierce, while Elia, knowing nothing, sweated nervously thinking why His Majesty’s expression was like that.