˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A few days later, Andrea discovered, to his surprise, that the colored pencil set had finally been opened and put to use.

Scratch, scratch.

Riley was holding the colored pencils with the guileless ease of a child, filling in color over her drawing.

Curiosity stirred, and Andrea walked over and asked.

“What are you doing?”

Riley spun around with a look of excitement and announced.

“Your Highness, I have found employment!”

“What, employment?”

His eyebrows shot up and he stared at her in disbelief. Where on earth had the crown princess of a kingdom gone and found employment?

She caught his bewildered expression and rushed to add, clearly worried about being scolded.

“Well, not employment exactly…… the truth is, I have opened a small publishing house! Hehe.”

“What?”

That was hardly ordinary either.

She scratched her head with a sheepish air, but could not quite hide the proud smile on her face.

“It is a ‘wholesome’ publishing house, mainly serializing literature like essays and fairy tales, and it is a modest little operation with one writer, one illustrator, and one editor. The illustrator is me, eek!”

“……”

Watching Riley cup her own cheeks and squeal, Andrea felt a helpless exasperation wash over him.

No wonder she had been going outside the palace more often lately.

She had been hunched over her desk until late every night after coming back, and he had wondered what she was up to. So this was what she had been plotting.

“I thought it would be nice to have works that ordinary children and adults alike could read, published on a regular basis.”

She looked down at the colored pencil in her hand and added something, wearing a faintly wistful expression.

“Of course, coloring the drawings will not mean the colors get printed, but I plan to collect the original drafts separately and have them bound into a book. If we ever have a child, I can give them the originals as a gift.”

Riley smiled, her cheeks flushing apple-red.

How could anyone scold her, with her endless curiosity and her endless list of things she wanted to try? How could anyone not love her?

Andrea drew a breath and asked.

“Have you no interest in entering the Royal Arts Institute and learning to paint properly, even now?”

Bellon had secured a position there as administrative director, and with Parnelli gone, she could receive instruction from the masters without watching over her shoulder for anyone.

But Riley’s expression went flat with undisguised reluctance.

“No, watercolors and oils and that sort of refined painting are honestly not suited to me. I was already corrupted at the Minerve.”

“……”

“I like drawing practical illustrations. The kind where you can feel the readers’ response directly.”

In short, she meant illustrations and cartoons.

She was happier not being called an artist, if it meant more people could see her work, feel something from it, and cheer for it freely.

“Response……”

Given the choice between the response of nobles and the response of the public, she had clearly chosen the latter.

Riley added with her usual boldness.

“So I would like to get back into press illustrations and editorial cartoons once my thinking has matured a little more. For now, I am building my experience drawing fairy tales.”

Andrea had been listening in silence, and then asked something that seemed to come from a slightly different direction.

“That…… the paints you received from Jayden a long time ago. You have not opened them yet, have you?”

Riley was curious how he knew about Jayden’s gift, but the intent behind the question was more puzzling, so she answered first.

“Those…… I have not used them yet, but I imagine the day will come eventually, once I am more active in my work.”

With that, Riley began filling in the sketch with her colored pencils.

With every stroke of innocent color laid onto the paper, a look of quiet triumph spread slowly across Andrea’s face.

He touched the corner of his rising mouth, then gestured toward the colored pencil set and asked.

“What are those?”

“Ah.”

He was genuinely curious what Riley would say about them.

She did not answer right away.

She held the slightly worn pencil against her chin and stared ahead with the distant look of someone reaching back into a very old memory. Then a slow, warm smile began to bloom at the corners of her mouth.

“A very long time ago, a wonderful knight gave them to me as a gift, so I kept them put away because I did not want them to wear down. But now it is time to use them.”

Andrea put on a show of jealousy and pressed further.

“How wonderful was he?”

“My memory is hazy. He was certainly not as wonderful as Your Highness, but to my young eyes at the time, he seemed like the most wonderful person in the world.”

Riley had fully expected her jealous husband to sulk, so she could only stare in puzzlement as a deeply satisfied smile spread across Andrea’s face.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

After that, Riley’s double life kept her quite busy.

By day she fulfilled her duties as crown princess, and by night she quietly raced against deadlines.

Of course, no one outside of her attending maid and Andrea knew that Riley was moonlighting as an illustrator.

Tonight was no different. Riley sat in her study, heavy with the smell of ink, dark circles under her eyes as she colored the final manuscript.

“Haaah.”

She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and kept working.

Bringing joy to the children of the kingdom, giving them something to dream and hope for, that was her pride as an illustrator.

That pride was what carried her through the grueling deadlines that came around every week.

Scratch, scratch.

The final pen stroke done, Riley threw both arms in the air and cried out.

“Yes! Deadline done!”

At that, a figure stretched out on the sofa behind her rustled the newspaper off its face and sat up.

“Done, you say?”

The disheveled hair and cracked voice were enough to be alarming. The eyes were bright with how long he had been waiting, and Riley shrank her shoulders.

Even so, she could not hide the full, glowing sense of accomplishment.

“Yes, the final draft is finished! Eek, I am so happy. The fan letters from the children are going to pour in again after this installment!”

Receiving the guileless fan letters from ordinary children made her just as happy as the quiet, private admiration she had once received from noble ladies.

But before Riley could finish chattering, she was lifted off the ground.

Andrea, wearing only a loosely draped robe, scooped her up and began carrying her toward the bedroom.

He grumbled in a low, thick voice.

“Hah…… every deadline, I suffer more than you do. Having to live like this every single time.”

Andrea shook his head.

“……”

He was not wrong, and she had been feeling guilty about it lately.

Because Riley kept refusing to come to bed on account of her deadline, Andrea had ended up spending most of his time sprawled in her study alongside her.

He would sit beside her and fidget with her hair, or press kisses to the sensitive back of her neck and pester her, or if nothing else, sharpen her colored pencils for her while he waited with patience.

The truth was, having him come and hover beside her had made the deadline harder to meet.

One look at those needlessly smoldering eyes and that handsome face, and she could not understand why she was hunched over a drawing when she had a husband like this.

In the end, Riley decided that instead of scolding Andrea for sweeping her up the moment she finished, she would reward him.

She looped her arms around his neck with a playful air and dipped her head to give a small lick to the firm n*pple visible through the open robe.

Andrea’s body tensed in an instant, something tightening all through him.

Something inside his trousers began to swell with alarming speed, lifting the smooth fabric.

Riley swallowed when she saw that Andrea’s eyes had already gone dark looking down at his shameless wife.

The deadline was done, but this night did not look like it would end easily.

The two of them stepped into the bedroom, and the maids quickly withdrew.

Whatever this deadline was, after the crown princess finished crying out that it was done, the two of them had been known to not emerge from the bedroom for up to three days.

The maids who knew this felt their cheeks go as red as ripe apples.

— THE END