Let’s take it slow, not rush. That was also a phrase Raul chanted to himself.

As soon as they arrived at the office, Kareina rattled off information about the drought, and after sitting down, she didn’t open her mouth once—it was clear even to his eyes that she had truly come only to work.

Still, this wasn’t bad either. Just watching her sitting beside him, completely concentrated, seemed like quite a decent gain.

Her slightly furrowed brows, her pressed lips, her fingers habitually rubbing the pen holder—all of it was quite satisfying to his eyes.

A certain amount of time had passed, satisfying for different reasons, when the chief chamberlain approached and broke the silence.

“Your Majesty, it’s time for your examination. Shall I have the imperial physician come in?”

“Now?”

What a clueless fool. Raul cursed inwardly and glanced to the side. As if the chief chamberlain’s words were a signal, Kareina raised her eyes to check the clock on the wall.

“Ah, the time already……”

She muttered and turned her head toward Raul.

“Your Majesty. Please have the imperial physician come in. I’ll take my leave now.”

“It’s a simple examination. It’ll be over quickly, so just stay.”

“But you’ll be uncomfortable if I’m here during the examination.”

“What’s there to be uncomfortable about?”

Raul grabbed the arm of the person trying to stand and sat her back down, then signaled to the chief chamberlain. This time, the chief chamberlain, understanding his intent well, immediately let the imperial physician in.

The imperial physician looked slightly surprised to see the Empress sitting in the office, but soon put on the stiff expression characteristic of medical professionals and bowed his head.

“Then I’ll examine you briefly, Your Majesty the Emperor.”

“Finish as quickly as possible.”

Raul answered somewhat irritably and unfastened his shirt buttons with practiced gestures. As he pushed back his clothes and revealed his upper body, Kareina, who had been looking his way, quickly turned her head.

“Hmm. The wound is healing well. Nothing to worry about, Your Majesty.”

“I know.”

“Have any new memories surfaced? Anything at all, whether about Her Majesty the Empress or anything else?”

“Hmm…… well.”

There doesn’t seem to be anything newly added. Still, while furrowing his brow to show minimum sincerity, Kareina’s head turned slightly forward again. Just as her long eyelashes trembled, as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to look at his undressed body, her face smiling faintly flashed through Raul’s mind. And her clear eyes blinking at him several times, red cheeks, and pale exposed neck.

What on earth is this……

“Something came to mind. Though I don’t know what.”

“You remembered something?”

The imperial physician spoke in a surprised voice.

“That’s truly fortunate. The medicine must be working! Even if it’s just fragmentary pieces, memories gradually returning is a good sign.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, at this rate, the memory loss might end as a short-term symptom. Then Your Majesty will also end your hardship and everything will return to its place.”

“When do you think I’ll fully recover?”

“Well. Once memories start returning, they’ll pour out uncontrollably. If you’re lucky, within a month or two.”

That’s not bad. Though it bothers him that he’ll have to host the New Year festival in an incomplete state.

Having put his shirt back on, Raul plopped down in his seat. Kareina was still focused on the report in front of her. However, she had put so much strength into the hand holding the pen that all her fingertips had turned white.

“Kareina?”

When he called, she was startled and opened her eyes wide.

“Ah, Your Majesty.”

“What were you thinking about to be surprised by me calling your name?”

It’s nothing. Kareina shook her head, paused blankly, then opened her mouth.

“About the irrigation facility restoration status in Niyev, Your Majesty. Can I receive it today?”

“Why suddenly?”

“I just want to finish the headache-inducing work quickly.”

Raul sent a suspicious look at her sudden strangeness, but Kareina repeated her existing claim that she simply wanted to handle the given work quickly if possible. Even adding a request.

Though it felt unsettling, there seemed no reason to refuse and hold her back.

“I’ll send the materials to your palace.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Kareina smiled even more faintly than the smile in the memory that had flashed by.

Returning to her quarters, Kareina devoted herself to work without even sleeping. Within a few days, flower baskets sent by Raul piled up filling the room at her palace, and an equal amount of paper stacks piled up beside them.

Raul, hearing the news, furrowed his brow.

He hadn’t asked her to work to exploit her like this. Seeing her work as if there were no tomorrow, he was starting to regret it.

“This is a bit different from what I thought.”

When he muttered dissatisfiedly, the chief chamberlain picked up the conversation.

“Are you speaking of Her Majesty the Empress? Well, I heard she stayed up almost all night yesterday too. What could she be so diligent about?”

“Yesterday too? The night before that, the lights in her quarters wouldn’t go out either.”

At this point, health deterioration was becoming a concern.

In fact, Kareina didn’t even come to the Emperor’s palace, saying she was ill. He sent the imperial physician to the Empress’s palace, but fortunately the result came back that there was nothing seriously wrong.

Though it was reassuring that she wasn’t sick, Raul felt uneasy in one corner of his heart. If it were up to him, he wanted to stay attached to the Empress’s palace every day, but he too had not a speck of leisure with the work piling up and people to meet before the New Year festival.

Instead, Raul didn’t forget to send large flower baskets and gifts to the Empress’s palace every day.

“Did the Empress like them?”

“She didn’t smile, but…… she told us to put them on the shelf, so we left them there. She had the maids put away the dresses.”

Though it seemed an ambiguous response to call it liking, it wasn’t bad.

Feeling slightly better, Raul then ordered to let in several nobles who had come to have an audience with him. He seemed to be quite a powerful monarch, as inquiries from subjects wanting to visit as soon as he woke kept lining up.

Still, since he couldn’t let them catch on to his lost memory, permission was only granted after perfectly memorizing the family trees of Tirantus’s major houses, each family’s emblems, and even the latest issues. Today was the first audience day.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty!”

“I heard about the accident and was so worried I couldn’t sleep at all. Here, please look at how sunken my cheeks are.”

His subjects seemed to be an exaggerating bunch. Still, having perfectly matched the faces and names he’d seen in portraits in his mind, he smiled benevolently, satisfied with himself.

“Thank you all for coming. Fortunately, my body is healthy without any ailments, so you all just need to focus on state affairs now.”

“Of course, Your Majesty. We’re making every effort not only in preparing for the New Year festival but also to find the culprit of the bombing incident.”

“The bombing incident? Did you find a suspect?”

His ears perked up. Raul was naturally very concerned about the explosion accident that had made him this way. That his mood was uncomfortable thanks to the culprit who hadn’t been found yet was a bonus.

However, the words that came from the nobles’ mouths next only scratched Raul’s mood more sharply.

Though over twenty days had passed since the accident, not only was there no culprit, but not even one decisive clue had properly emerged.

What the incompetent officials made a scapegoat instead was the Empress. It was a groundless slander that since the accident location was in the Niyev region, it must be related to the Empress in some way.

“Doesn’t Her Majesty the Empress originally throw herself into anything related to Niyev?”

“Still, she is the Empress. How about Your Majesty personally holding her accountable? Even if you punish her for this matter, we simply agree.”

Just as Raul was about to explode in anger at the nobles casually criticizing Kareina, the chief chamberlain stepped forward and sorted out the situation. Only after sending the nobles out did the chief chamberlain exhale deeply with an expression of relief.

“I apologize, Your Majesty. But if rumors spread that Your Majesty has changed, it would have been more troublesome…… I had no choice.”

“I know. I know too, but just how far has the imperial authority fallen for them to casually discuss holding the Empress accountable?”

Raul covered his face with both hands. He had already heard that relations with the Empress were bad.

Nevertheless, feeling devastated that insults about the Empress came so casually even from the nobles’ mouths. He could also tell that what had fallen to the ground wasn’t the imperial authority but the Empress alone.

Just how had Kareina endured all this?

“I must stop by the Empress’s palace this afternoon.”

“But there’s still the audience schedule remaining…… Understood, Your Majesty.”

The chief chamberlain, flinching at the gaze that had become not just dark but murderous, backed down.

Raul hurriedly recalled Kareina’s smile to calm his disheveled mind.

“Send more flowers. Select only ones more splendid and larger than what was sent this morning.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The chief chamberlain, answering soullessly, hurried out of the office. Raul also tried to fill his mind with the hope that the Empress would be happy seeing the flowers.

The flowers that came once a day started increasing in size three days ago, and now even the frequency had jumped up.

Today, as soon as she opened her eyes in the morning, the bedside was full of yellow dahlias, and at lunchtime, six vases came trailing up along with the meal.

Thanks to the owner not touching them, the flowers kept their places. Thanks to this, the room was being covered in colorful hues reminiscent of a midsummer flower garden.

Kareina walked avoiding the flowers on the floor and opened the drawer of the table beside the bed. Then she dropped a pair of sapphire earrings that had just arrived onto the pile of jewels. The earrings disappeared into the drawer with a clinking sound.

It’ll be convenient when I have to return them if I gather them in one place.

Muttering, Kareina returned to the desk, again avoiding the vases scattered on the floor.

What she was obsessing over these days was relief measures for drought damage. Though it was originally a dry season that occurred every few years, the damage was more severe since it was a drought that began amid the evident damage of war.

What’s especially problematic was that the imperial family had sold off the dams and lakes it owned to private parties in the late Niyev period. The wealthy who held water in their hands were generating enormous profits taking advantage of the drought.

I should have stopped them from selling even water, if nothing else. Kareina, blaming herself, raised her head at the sound of knocking.

“What is it?”

“Count Puerco requests an audience.”

“Oh my, it’s been a while. Your Majesty the Empress.”

Puerco, who owned the most lakes and dams in the Niyev region, thrust in his greasy face.