Whether it was from spending the whole day wandering the market, Lysiana began to nod off in the middle of her foot soak.

“Lysiana. Please sleep in the bed.”

“Mmm……. Yes…….”

Thear tried to rouse her, but the drowsiness refused to lift and she remained half-asleep.

No help for it.

Thear wiped her fingers, stained pink from all the raspberries she had eagerly eaten, and scooped her up to carry her to bed.

He tucked the blanket neatly around her and pressed a soft kiss to her round forehead. He had just tossed another log into the fireplace to warm the air when.

“Your Lordship. It’s Bennet.”

Bennet came looking for him.

Thear slipped quietly out of the bedroom so as not to wake Lysiana.

“What is it?”

He asked, pulling the door shut behind him. Bennet’s expression was stiff in a way it usually wasn’t.

“Earlier today I asked my lady why she never replied to your letters.”

“……Why would you do that?”

Thear’s brow furrowed the moment Lysiana was mentioned.

“Something didn’t sit right with me.”

Lysiana’s words had prompted Bennet to look into the whereabouts of a certain letter. He had first questioned the household staff at the manor, but not one of them admitted to receiving it.

He had also considered the possibility that someone had hidden it out of malice.

However, he reasoned that no matter how much they had disregarded Lysiana, none of them would have dared to do anything with a letter sent by Thear himself.

“……So I had the knights trace the route the messenger would have taken…….”

The knights had found the body of the messenger who had been carrying Thear’s letter, at the edge of a forest.

The body had been stripped bare and the face mutilated. A deliberate effort to prevent identification.

“Apparently he had been buried shallow, to delay discovery.”

“Someone intercepted the information along the way.”

“I think we should return to the main estate as soon as possible.”

Bennet added with an edge of urgency. He appeared to have Thear’s missing cousin in mind.

Thear fell into thought.

Neils was a rural village tucked away in a remote corner of the territory. The roads leading to the capital were few, and any trouble that arose during the journey would not be easy to handle.

In short, it was exactly the kind of place where one could easily be cut off if caught off guard.

If the missing letter had fallen into his cousin’s hands, there was a good chance their location had already been exposed.

It was better to move quickly to the capital and trace things back from there, rather than lingering and giving the other side time to regroup.

Lysiana’s dizziness seems to have improved quite a bit, so it should be fine.

The reason Thear had needed to send Lysiana to Neils was his uncle.

After the previous Marquis of Havertz, that is, Thear’s father and his half-brothers, lost their lives in a sudden accident.

His uncle had refused to recognize Thear’s right of succession as an illegitimate son and declared himself the rightful head of the Havertz family.

But the king overturned that.

The king had long wanted to dissolve the parliament, which had formed a solid bloc centered around the old nobility in order to strengthen royal authority. The means the king chose to achieve this was the rising class of new nobility.

The plan was to draw them in with the enticing promise of a revolution that would shatter the stagnant traditions of the old aristocracy, and use their considerable financial power to bring parliament down.

The king put Thear forward as the key piece in this scheme. The half-blooded scion of the storied Havertz family. A cast-off child. A half-wit…….

By recognizing an illegitimate son as head of the family, the king aimed to fracture the deeply rooted traditions of the old nobility, and hoped that new noble factions would form around Thear, drawn to his youth and the revolutionary symbolism of his origins.

Thear had stepped willingly onto the board the king had laid out.

At first it had been nothing more than a petty desire to spite the family that had oppressed him. But after he gained Lysiana, he needed power, honor, and authority for her sake. He had worried that his own disgrace would become hers.

But his uncle refused to the very end to acknowledge Thear’s existence. He eventually stirred up a conflict within the Havertz territory, and the situation reached a point where Thear had to move personally.

Knowing that his uncle’s specialty was underhanded scheming aimed at weak points, Thear had sent Lysiana to Neils as a precaution, certain that his uncle would have no reach that far.

He had suppressed the conflict swiftly and thrown his uncle and the man’s family into prison, but he had lost track of his uncle’s second son, his cousin Ryle.

He had tried to trace Ryle’s whereabouts afterward, but the trail had gone cold, and the possibility that Ryle was hastily assembling forces for an attack could not be ruled out.

“There’s no choice. We move at first light.”

“I’ll pass the word immediately.”

To keep the knights’ morale up, Thear promised them a long leave and generous compensation upon reaching the capital.

* * *

Lysiana woke early in the morning and noticed the absence of Thear’s warmth beside her. On top of that, the villa seemed oddly busy.

She opened the window and looked out to find the front gates standing wide open. And the village merchant she had glimpsed briefly the day before was moving briskly in and out of the estate, leading a mule and a small cart.

What on earth did he buy so much of?

Lysiana tilted her head, thinking back on Thear’s free spending the day before. She pulled the bell cord to wash up, and a maid arrived faster than usual.

“You’ve risen, ma’am.”

“I should go out. Where is Thear?”

“He is outside with the knights, checking the supplies.”

Lysiana asked with a touch of poise, and the maid answered respectfully. She then helped Lysiana get ready with quick, practiced hands.

Since Thear’s return, something had happened, and the maids’ manner had become noticeably more deferential.

Several of them had even prostrated themselves before Lysiana and apologized for their careless behavior up until then.

‘I will take care of this matter properly.’

She had taken it for passing words, but Thear had kept his promise.

“Ma’am. Which dress would you like?”

“Neither of them.”

Lysiana frowned at the dark, drab dresses the maids had brought out.

Thear always told her she looked beautiful whenever she wore bright, vivid colors. Thanks to that, Lysiana’s own taste had been growing steadily more colorful.

“I’d like something brighter.”

“I beg your pardon, ma’am. The master has said we are departing for the capital today. It is a long journey, so perhaps this dress would be more suitable…….”

The maid trailed off with a look of difficulty. Before Thear’s arrival she would have simply picked a dress and handed it over without a word, but now she was clearly trying to read Lysiana’s mood.

Since she didn’t seem to be trying to make Lysiana unhappy, Lysiana gave in without a fuss.

“Then the one on the left.”

Still wanting to look at least a little pretty for Thear, she chose an ivory blouse and a soft brown dress over the dull green.

She braided her hair and pinned it up elegantly, then added simple pearl earrings, and even the modest outfit looked quite refined.

She applied a light rose tint to her lips herself, and only then stepped out of the room.

She crossed the bustling hall and went out through the entrance, where she spotted Thear’s back. He stood with a serious expression, looking over documents and issuing instructions to Bennet and a knight.

Not wanting to interrupt, Lysiana stopped a few steps away and waited for him to notice her on his own.

Bennet glanced around and spotted her, and at that, Thear’s gaze instinctively followed to where she stood.

“Lysiana.”

The stern expression he had worn until a moment ago softened at once.

He handed the documents off to Bennet without ceremony and came up the steps in long strides to stand before her.

“Did you sleep well?”

He drew her lightly by the waist and asked warmly.

“Yes. You were up early.”

“There was something to take care of. I’m sorry for leaving you alone this morning.”

There was nothing to apologize for, yet Thear apologized anyway. Then he looked quietly at her lips and pressed a brief kiss to the corner of her mouth.

Lysiana gave a small laugh at his endearing habit.

“If you’re busy, it can’t be helped. But I heard from the maid that we’re leaving today.”

“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”

“I was surprised to hear we’re leaving so suddenly. Nothing is wrong, is it?”

“Not at all. I’ve simply been worried about leaving the capital unattended for so long.”

“……Ah, I see.”

Is it because of me? Lysiana swallowed the question before it could come out.

There was no reason it would be, but the thought that Thear might find her a burden was enough to make her chest ache.

Whether she meant to or not, she didn’t want to be in his way.

“It was a sudden decision, so I couldn’t tell you in advance. I had hoped to wait until you were fully recovered before we set off…….”

“I’m fine now.”

“It’s a five-day journey to the capital. I plan to move as quickly as possible, so it may be a somewhat tiring trip for you.”

At Thear’s concern, Lysiana took his hand in both of hers and brought it to her cheek.

“You’ll be with me, won’t you?”

“……Yes.”

“Then I’ll be fine.”

Lysiana smiled brightly, and Thear smiled back.

They sat across from each other for a simple breakfast, then boarded the carriage without delay.

The carriage set off along the edge of the village they had seen the day before and began to leave Neils behind. Lysiana pressed herself close to the window and poured out her admiration at the scenery rushing past outside.

Whenever she shared her running commentary on the passing landscape, Thear listened without the slightest sign of impatience.

“It’s a field of flowers. The scent is drifting all the way in here.”