Chapter 66

“Ahhh!”

Masetike’s scream echoed throughout the garden. Nearby, Pell’s sharp intake of breath could be faintly heard.

Masetike grabbed her hand, which was clutching his head tightly, and slowly lowered his body.

“First… just get down…”

His voice quivered with moisture. When she climbed down, his eyes were also glistening with tears.

“Hey… I’m sorry.”

When she opened her hand, a handful of his red hair was caught in her palm. She quickly shook it off and avoided his resentful gaze.

“Thank you, Head of the Office!”

“The hard work was done by this man here.”

“Thank you, Sir!”

“Sir…”

The innocent children were merely parroting her words, but Masetike rubbed his sore scalp with a bitter expression.

“There’s plenty of snacks in the Counseling Office, so come by anytime.”

“Yes!”

The children laughed brightly as they ran off.

“Lately, I’ve been wondering—did the Grievance Counseling Office change its name to the Grievance Resolution Office or something?”

“No? It’s still the Grievance Counseling Office.”

“Then when did you start solving problems instead of just listening to them?”

“…I don’t know. It just kind of happened because there wasn’t much work…”

She felt embarrassed. She already knew he found her recent comings and goings suspicious.

‘Lady Shaterian, the Counseling Office is a place to listen to grievances, not solve them.’

Eched had been right. The Counseling Office was, as its name suggested, a place for “counseling,” not “resolution.” But…

The seeds she had sown had grown into thick vines, completely blocking any escape routes.

‘Why do I keep making the same mistakes over and over again…?’

Regretting the mistakes she had made in her rush for results, she could only wipe her tears.

As she sobbed, Masetike patted her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

“You’ve managed to survive with such poor counseling skills.”

“Are you comforting me or insulting me?”

She swatted his hand away, scolding him to pick one or the other.

“Still, you really have worked hard…”

As expected, Pell was the only one who truly understood her.

Moved by his defense of her, she looked at him with teary eyes…

“Although it was you, Head of the Office, who drove away the clients.”

Of course.

She shot Pell a cold glare.

“Let’s just get back to work.”

After a brief break, it was time to return to their duties.

After a hectic day with barely any time to breathe, the workday finally ended.

As soon as she entered the Ducal Residence, she collapsed onto a sofa in a corner of the first-floor hall, completely drained.

The sofa, which seemed newly acquired, was plush and had no sagging cushions.

‘Wait, was there always a sofa on the first floor?’

Oh, well. It didn’t matter. It was comfortable now, and that was all that mattered.

“Shaterian, you’ll catch a cold if you sleep here.”

A soft voice fell from above her head. The rustling of clothes accompanied the shadow that darkened her face.

Too tired to respond, she kept her eyes closed. A gentle hand brushed away the strands of hair tickling her cheek.

“Are you planning to sleep here?”

Still too lazy to reply, she turned her head away as if to avoid the question. A faint chuckle reached her ears.

Moments later, she heard him speaking to someone before feeling the presence settle beside her again.

This time, a warm, damp cloth touched her face.

When she opened her eyes slightly, she saw Eched with a cautious expression, carefully wiping her face.

Their eyes met. As he gently wiped under her eyes with the cloth, Eched spoke softly.

“You can’t sleep here.”

She hadn’t planned to sleep there anyway. She had just been resting for a moment, but being cared for like this…

There was no way to stop her face from heating up.

“Are you feeling unwell? Your face is suddenly red.”

“It’s… it’s just warm…”

She blamed the warm cloth. Eched, looking down at the cloth for a moment, nodded as if he understood.

“Next time, I’ll make it cooler.”

Next time? Was there going to be a next time…?

But she didn’t tell him not to do it again. She didn’t dislike being treated so preciously by Eched like this.

In fact… she liked it so much that she felt an urge to keep leaning on his hand.

Wanting to keep relying on him like this must have been because she had realized her feelings.

When people connect emotionally, they exchange feelings, saying, “I feel the same way about you.”

But the reason she couldn’t do that was the pang of guilt that clashed with her emotions.

The more emotions mixed, the murkier the color became. Like how mixing too many colors of paint eventually turned into a dull black.

“Shaterian.”

“Ah, I should take a bath.”

She abruptly stood up, avoiding Eched’s hand as he tried to help her up. Lost in her tangled thoughts, she unknowingly put up another wall.

Leaving behind a somewhat dejected-looking Eched, she headed to the bathroom to prepare for a bath.

There was nothing like a bath to clear one’s head, she thought, as she soaked in the hot water.

She hoped that the flowing water would wash away her cloudy emotions as well.

***

His arm felt light as he swung his sword. The blade aimed for gaps with precision greater than usual, his movements were relaxed, and his feet felt light as they pushed off the ground.

The Commander’s swordsmanship, which they often watched in awe, was even more impressive today, leaving their jaw slack in amazement.

“He’s flying… absolutely flying…”

One knight, shaken, shook his head in disbelief. The knight next to him nudged his side.

“He’s newly married, isn’t he? It’s his time to soar.”

“Ah, yes. It’s the prime of his life.”

“The prime indeed.”

The knights exchanged cheeky comments as they watched the newlywed Commander with amused expressions.

“There’s a rumor going around that the Head of the Office has also been in a good mood lately.”

“Newly married, newly married.”

“But the rumor says it’s not because of the Commander, but because of the former Head of the Counseling Office who recently returned.”

At this, the knights, who had been smiling warmly, froze. Then, they smacked the back of the knight who had spoken, shouting in disbelief.

“Where did you hear such nonsense?!”

“It’s true! They say the Head of the Office has been smiling a lot lately when she’s with the former Head of the Counseling Office.”

“Maybe she’s just smiling because she feels like it?”

“The fact that she’s smiling at all is unbelievable.”

That much was true, and the knights nodded in agreement.

“Maybe she was thinking about the Commander and just smiled. When I was newly married, I’d randomly smile just thinking about my wife.”

“If that were the case, there wouldn’t be rumors like this.”

The knights whispered among themselves, trying to make sense of the situation.

At that moment, the Commander suddenly stopped and turned his head.

Startled, the knights quickly stood at attention, but the Commander’s gaze was fixed beyond them, toward the entrance of the training grounds.

‘What’s going on?’

Their question was soon answered. The Head of the Counseling Office was visible, walking along the path to the Crown Prince’s palace.

The knights clicked their tongues in amazement.

How did he know to look in that direction? And from such a distance, no less.

The Head of the Counseling Office was walking with the returning staff member. The two walked shoulder to shoulder, chatting and laughing, their closeness evident.

As they gradually disappeared from view, the knights were puzzled by their superior’s reaction.

“Why don’t you just confirm it now?”

“What?”

“Head of the Office!”

One loud-mouthed knight called out to her, his voice booming enough to echo across the training grounds.

The Head of the Office stopped in her tracks. Even from a distance, her face clearly showed surprise.

“Uh…”

The knights, who had been skeptical of the rumors, fell silent at her reaction.

This wasn’t the response they had expected. They had assumed she would turn around, see the Commander, and greet him warmly.

After nodding briefly to the knights, the Head of the Office hurriedly disappeared down the garden path.

“See? I told you I was right.”

The knight who had started the rumor snorted. 

Did they see her flustered reaction just now?

“Did we make a big mistake?”

“All we did was call out to her.”

“Well, that’s true…”

The knights’ faces darkened. They glanced nervously at their superior, but his expressionless face offered no clues as to what he was thinking.

“Our Head of the Office wouldn’t do such a thing…”

One knight muttered, refusing to accept the situation. Surely there had been some misunderstanding.

The problem was that similar incidents began to occur more frequently.

Two days, three days, four days.

The Duchess of Astrea was avoiding the Duke of Astrea.

And so, a new rumor began circulating in the Imperial Palace.

“Why?”

The knights were deeply concerned. The couple didn’t seem to have fought, yet there was an odd distance between them, which left the knights pondering the issue even more seriously.

But no matter how much they racked their brains, they weren’t the involved parties, so there was no way they could reach a conclusion.

When the Commander of the Knights first seemed in low spirits, it was surprising. It made them realize that even he was human.

However, sparring with the Commander in a bad mood meant the knights bore the brunt of his frustrations.

The battered knights, on the verge of tears, went to seek out the Deputy Commander.