“There you go again with the pretty face trick. I really cannot let my guard down.”

At the gruff words, Belina let out a small laugh. But Kailos, whom she had expected to laugh along, wore an unexpectedly dissatisfied expression.

“But you… why are you speaking formally again?”

“Pardon?”

“It feels distant. I thought we agreed to go back to speaking comfortably.”

“Oh…”

She had wondered what he meant, and it turned out he was unhappy that she had switched back to formal speech after using informal speech right after recovering her memories. But instead of answering, Belina hesitated for a moment.

“Actually, this is something I have been meaning to say for a while.”

When she opened her mouth carefully, Kailos suddenly looked at her with tension, the way he had that day when he had been caught staring at her chest. She could not understand why he was reacting like that when she had not even said anything yet, but it did seem like it was about time she brought it up.

“You are the Emperor. Not a rebel force or a mercenary band.”

“That… is true?”

“So I thought it might be better if you conducted yourself in a manner befitting an Emperor.”

“…Such as?”

“For a start, it would be better if you did not use profanity.”

At that, Kailos closed his mouth. Belina hesitated for a long moment, then seemed to make up her mind and spoke.

“Words like… d*mn, sh*t, bastard, *ss, c*ck. That sort of thing.”

“……”

“…Things like that.”

Kailos’s eyes went wide, clearly not having expected her to give actual examples. He sat stunned for a long moment before he managed to collect himself and speak.

“Hearing those words from your mouth is quite a shock.”

“It will be more of a shock when a child picks them up later.”

“……”

“And the Emperor and Empress… usually speak formally to each other.”

Even though she had risen to the position of Empress, she had been living at the mercy of a usurper, and so she had never raised the issue of his manner of speaking or how he addressed her. But now she could stand at his side without shame, so she ought to say what needed to be said.

“It is not that I should speak casually. It is proper etiquette for you to speak formally to me.”

“…You only say things I cannot argue with.”

Kailos ruffled his own hair with a look of exasperation, but at the same time he seemed oddly pleased. He stole a glance at her and gave a small cough.

“The, the swearing is from when I was with the mercenary band. They kept nagging me not to act like a prince. Back then, Sir Laurentz was worse than me.”

“But Sir Laurentz does not do it anymore now…”

“……”

“……”

“I will work on it.”

At those final words, Belina broke into a wide smile. Kailos looked at her with a sulky expression, then opened his mouth again.

“But the way we talk… can we not just speak casually when it is just the two of us?”

“Does it bother you that much?”

“I will do it your way in front of others. But if we do it even when we are alone, it feels like… drawing a line between us for no reason.”

The pouty tone made her laugh despite herself. Belina pretended to think it over for a moment, then kissed him on the lips.

“All right. Let us do that.”

“There it is again, the pretty face trick.”

Kailos muttered quietly as their lips parted, then leaned down again and pressed his lips to hers. Belina gladly pulled him close by the neck. In the long kiss, there was no trace of worry or unease. There was only love for a longtime companion.

* * *

Not long after news of Edwin’s execution came, Lucian’s sentence was carried out. Count Markovhar, known as the owner of the magic stone mine and a man of great wealth, was dragged to the gallows with a chain around his neck like a dog’s leash.

Some gossips loudly declared that the Count’s wretched state was the Emperor’s declaration of war against black magic. The sight of Lucian being dragged away like a dog through the crowd was recorded by countless brushes and pens, and kept the streets buzzing for some time.

After that, peaceful days continued without interruption. Both of them were busy every day as Emperor and Empress, but they still took walks together in the rear garden from time to time.

Unlike before, when she had remembered nothing, the rear garden she returned to was a place filled with memories of him. The large tree shade in front of Bluebell Palace where they had read books together, the lake where they had floated leaf boats and splashed in the water, the clover patch where they had made flower rings, the old glass greenhouse where they had secretly practiced social dancing, the maze garden.

Now that Belina remembered those days in detail, she and Kailos occasionally got into something that was not quite an argument. Such as how many times Belina had stepped on Kailos’s feet when they first practiced the waltz.

“It was twice.”

“It was four times. And one of those times you stepped on me with your heel.”

“Your memory is old.”

Of course, since Belina maintained that those days felt like yesterday, the conclusion was always that her memory was the correct one, but honestly, this time Kailos was right. It had been four times.

“…No matter how I think about it, it was four times.”

Kailos muttered under his breath and moved along. Belina pretended not to hear and looked off at the distant hills, absently touching her stomach.

After strolling through the garden for a while, the two of them rested for a moment in the shade of the tree in front of Bluebell Palace. Belina leaned her head against Kailos’s shoulder, the way she always had. Instead of puffing himself up, Kailos tilted his shoulder to make it easier for her to lean on.

“…Want a cookie?”

“Sure.”

When Kailos nodded, Belina took out the cookies she had brought along. Whenever they came to the rear garden, they would often eat snacks under the tree shade the way they had as children, and at those times they would share memories that came to mind out of nowhere.

“Do you remember how the snacks kept getting bigger? Back then.”

Kailos, who had been wiping the crumbs from the corner of Belina’s mouth, spoke as though something had just occurred to him. The snacks Belina had first brought had come from her own portion, so there had not been very much, but at some point there was more than enough for the two of them to share. At the time he had simply assumed the portions grew as Belina got older, but.

“Now that I think about it, I think they added more because they knew we were sharing.”

“That could be.”

Belina touched her stomach and thought of the faces of the old maids. The ones who had been uncomfortable around her and yet looked after her with quiet care. Where they had gone after leaving the palace, what they were doing. Whether they were safe.

“…Do you want to meet them and ask?”

“What?”

The sudden question made Belina sit up straight in surprise. Kailos kissed her parted lips a couple of times and grinned. Belina asked quickly.

“You found them? Where?”

“They were both in the countryside, so it took a little time. Marien had been living at a convent, and Cecile seems to have married again.”

“…Like me?”

“……”

The words slipped out before she could stop them, and Kailos narrowed his eyes. Belina shifted her gaze awkwardly and leaned against him. A small cough sounded.

“They should arrive at the imperial palace tomorrow. If you would rather not meet them, I can just tell them to enjoy a visit to the capital after all this time.”

“I want to meet them.”

Belina spoke the moment Kailos finished. She had vaguely assumed that once the truth came to light, the search would naturally have been called off, so it felt like an unexpected gift.

“Actually, Kailos, I have something to tell you too…”

She had a piece of news that felt just as much like a gift. The palace physician who had come that morning had been the one to tell her. She had asked the physician to keep quiet because she wanted to tell Kailos herself, and yet she had been itching to bring it up all day.

“What is it?”

Kailos waited for her words with a slightly tense expression. She could not understand why he always tensed up when she said she had something to tell him, but she took his hand firmly and brought it to her lower abdomen.

“Wait, you cannot just use the pretty face trick out here in the open…”

Kailos startled and glanced around, then suddenly fell silent. He sat frozen, blinking a couple of times, and then seemed to grasp the meaning, and leaped to his feet.

“Really, is it really true?”

“Seraphine told me this morning.”

At those words, Kailos quickly scooped Belina up into his arms. Her body lifted off the ground in an instant, and she hurriedly stopped him in alarm.

“No. It is still early… she said to be careful.”

Kailos, who had been on the verge of spinning her around, quickly set her back down. Then he immediately took off the jacket he was wearing and draped it over her shoulders.

“Sorry. Are you all right? Are you c-cold? Should we go inside? And, morning sickness, do you have…”

“I am fine.”

Watching him flustered and at a loss, Belina laughed without meaning to. Kailos fussed and fidgeted for a long while, and only after she took his hand firmly did he take a deep breath and settle down. But he could not hide the overwhelmed catch in his breath or the trembling in his fingertips.

“…It does not feel real.”

“Then would you like to try counting backwards from a number?”

At Belina’s suggestion, Kailos burst into a hearty laugh and kissed her all over her face.

“Thank you, Belina.”

He lifted his head and cupped her face in his hands. Belina looked quietly back at his face. The face filled with a joy and elation that could not be greater.

“I love you.”

With every gust of wind, a faint scent of flowers brushed past, and the green leaves swayed with a clear, bright sound. In the shade of the great tree, they shared a long kiss. It was the season when new life stirs.

fin.

thank you so much for reading and supporting this novel! love, adeline.