Theodor Joachim Lef (6)

But then why didn’t you make it obvious you were awake!

Alicia suppressed the emotions that surged up all at once.

It was not as though he had done anything bad.

If anything, the one closer to being in the wrong was herself, for fiddling with the face of someone who was asleep.

What she realized anew from Reichardt’s answer was that her heart beat faster when she looked at his face.

She felt relieved that, as he pretended to sleep, he had not seen her face in the dark night, grinning broadly while fiddling with her husband’s face.

“My heartbeat must have been loud. It’s loud even now.”

Alicia spoke resolutely.

She decided not to think about embarrassment.

“No. But where are you going?”

Reichardt spread a smile and pulled Alicia a little deeper into his arms.

With that, Alicia’s upper body was buried in the man’s embrace while the rest of her remained draped over the bed.

“…To drink water.”

Alicia hesitated slightly as she felt the warmth wrapping around her.

It was not a lie, but she had planned to drink water and also take a lap around.

In truth, she did not particularly want water.

She had woken suddenly from sleep, yet her mind was too wide awake, and she felt like she needed to run once.

Reichardt kissed Alicia’s cheek in his arms and rose.

“It’s here.”

Stepping down from the bed, he wrapped Alicia up tightly in a blanket.

Alicia, instantly surrounded by the blanket, wriggled, but Reichardt’s hands were extremely fast.

“I…”

“The air is cold, so you have to be careful.”

Reichardt said sternly and turned away.

“I’m very healthy.”

Alicia said firmly, buried in the blanket.

As if he had not heard, Reichardt poured water into a cup with a serious air.

Alicia stuck her shoulders and hands out from the blanket and tried to take the cup from Reichardt as he returned.

“It’s a recovery period, so you mustn’t overdo it.”

Back at the bed, Reichardt carefully tucked Alicia’s exposed shoulders and hands back into the blanket, then brought the cup to her lips.

As Alicia accepted the water and drank, her eyebrows twitched.

-I’m really healthy! Recovery is over!

Tilting and twitching her eyebrows was Reichardt’s habit.

It was how he subtly showed doubt or dissatisfaction.

Lately, it had become one of Alicia’s habits, too.

All at once, Alicia realized something.

She felt she understood why, these past few days, her eyes had been quietly opening between night and dawn.

Because of excessive overprotection, her recovery had ended and she had energy left over.

She wanted to go out and run around.

She wanted to sprint like a beast and beat down the hell beasts wherever she saw them.

“My recovery is over.”

After finishing the water, Alicia declared it.

“Just in case, you should still be careful. They say you have to be careful after giving birth.”

Reichardt acted as though anything would go wrong if even a single cold breeze touched Alicia.

He wrapped Alicia up tightly in a thin blanket and laid her down.

Over that, another warm blanket was placed.

“I’m really healthy. I think I could even run barefoot through the snow. I think I could jump down a twenty-step staircase in one go.”

Receiving Reichardt’s excessive overprotection, Alicia insisted in a strong tone.

“It’s still cold. You can’t run barefoot through the snow. You said you’d allow me to carry you outside the room until spring ends.”

Reichardt, having set the cup on the tea table, spoke in a polite voice.

He again arranged the canopy draped over the bed so no wind could seep in.

Alicia rolled her eyes and watched Reichardt moving busily.

These days, Reichardt was practically a mind reader.

Just by seeing Alicia’s violet eyes move, he had reached the point of guessing what she wanted.

“I want to go outside and play.”

Alicia muttered aloud so it could all be heard, with a wistful expression.

Tap.

Reichardt’s lips touched beside Alicia’s moving lips.

“I love you, Alicia.”

Reichardt confessed, spreading a deep smile.

Tap, tap.

Feeling the soft, ticklish touches against the corner of her mouth and her lips, Alicia realized something very serious had come upon her.

In the deep night, waking suddenly with her eyes a little swollen, Reichardt’s face—bare of any adornment—looked more splendid and lovable than ever.

A few strands of hair sticking out here and there added a different impression from usual.

“……”

Alicia blanked out in shock, thinking, ‘Is this what love is?’

“Sleep well.”

Reichardt whispered as he pulled Alicia into his arms.

While Alicia stared blankly at the face whispering tender words, Reichardt wrapped her up in blankets as though she were a newborn baby.

Pat, pat.

Even the gesture of patting her shoulder was like how one handled a child.

Ignoring the blankets wrapped around her, Alicia stretched a hand out and stroked Reichardt’s face.

Reichardt, who had been drifting back into sleep, looked at Alicia with a puzzled expression.

Tap.

Alicia moved, disregarding the blanket that tightly wrapped her.

Her lively lips overlapped Reichardt’s lips.

“I love you too, Rei.”

A sweet night was flowing by.

Morning at Tech House, the residence of the Grand Duchess of Tessen, was quiet.

On days when the Grand Duke left early, it was especially still.

It was because a strict order had been given to remain silent while caring for the Grand Duchess, who was in her postpartum recovery period.

When she was alone, Alicia ate a light breakfast and took a long time to drink tea.

“That’s too much.”

Gloom drifted over the face that set the teacup down.

“Your Highness?”

Connie, the Baroness of Rens, who had served Alicia tea and was on her way out, stopped her steps.

As Alicia became the Grand Duchess of Tessen, she was always relaxed, lively, and composed.

It was rare for such a Grand Duchess to roll a teacup in her hand in displeasure.

Alicia, lost in her soliloquy, did not hear Connie calling her.

“Haa, I want to go out and play…!”

Her earnest voice dripped with longing.

“……”

Alicia had shown a somewhat bold yet elegant and beautiful complaint.

Connie watched Alicia, briefly wondering if she had heard something wrong.

“I want to run around Mount Kaip like a beast…!”

Alicia shouted roughly in a lowered voice.

Connie, silent, recalled Alicia’s various specialties that she had pretended not to know.

She also gauged Alicia’s situation these days.

“Your Highness.”

After finishing her thoughts and words, Connie called Alicia again.

At the calm call, Alicia flinched slightly.

It was embarrassing that she had been lost in thought and talking to herself, not realizing someone was there.

But when she saw the Baroness of Rens looking at her kindly, rather than embarrassment, the truth she had kept pressed down inside came bursting out first.

“Connie.”

At Alicia’s call, Connie clasped her hands tightly, wearing an expression that said she understood everything.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

In Connie’s gentle voice, Alicia suddenly confessed.

“I… I want to ride a horse!”

Connie patted the small hands clasped tightly together and nodded.

“Ever since you had morning sickness, His Highness has not even let Your Highness feel the outside wind.”

At Connie’s soft words, Alicia felt as though she had heard a heavenly voice.

And so her true feelings poured out.

“I’ll only go out for ten minutes! I absolutely won’t run away. Please, just ten minutes!”

At the desperate plea, Connie gently patted Alicia’s hands.

“You may not.”

Her soft voice echoed elegantly.

“……”

Alicia was deeply shocked by the elegant yet ruthless refusal, then soon understood.

The Baroness of Rens was not her person, but Reichardt’s person.

Just because Connie had nodded a few times did not mean Alicia should blurt out her true feelings so readily.

As regret surged, Connie, with a respectful manner, asked for the seat beside her.

Alicia nodded and allowed Connie to sit beside her.

“Your Highness, you always fulfilled the role of Grand Duchess and did not show it, but you were an active person.”

At Connie’s words, Alicia recalled herself in her timid days and smiled faintly.

“Did I seem that way?”

“His Highness overprotects Your Highness.”

Alicia poured tea herself and offered Connie a cup.

“He does, doesn’t he. It looks that way to you too, Connie?”

It made her earlier resolve—not to blurt out her true feelings just because someone agreed with her a few times—seem pointless, and she replied happily to the appealing words.

“Of course. Not only I, but everyone in Tessen would think His Highness’s love and overprotection toward Your Highness are extraordinary.”

At the word “love” Connie uttered, Alicia unknowingly let out a broad smile.

“Is that so?”

“Is his love not excessive? His overprotection looks dangerous, even. But everyone fears His Highness, so they cannot say it.”

“No one says anything, so I wondered if I alone thought it was overprotection.”

Alicia erased her smile and tried to speak calmly.

“Look at how he limited the number of people and the time when meeting the envoys who came to congratulate the birth of His Highness Duke Lef. His Highness’s original plan was for Your Highness to sit on a bench and have curtains hung around you. He said it was not good to meet outsiders when your body was weak.”

Theodor received the title of Duke Lef.

The envoys who came to celebrate the duke’s birth held as noble a status as Theodor.

As it was a celebration, there were no sick people.

Moreover, they all had such high status that there was no need to worry about disease being carried.

“……”

Alicia realized she was being overprotected even more than she had thought.

“I waited to see if His Highness would speak of it himself, but it seems a stubborn person will not speak first. Your Highness, have you perhaps heard of His Highness’s mobi?”

Alicia slowly shook her head.

“No.”

Connie wore an expression as though she had expected that.

Sadness spread across her gentle face.

“There is no need to be so surprised at His Highness’s overprotection of Your Highness. I did not expect he would carry you until now after giving birth, but the overprotection itself is not surprising. His Highness’s birth mother fell ill during childbirth; after giving birth to His Highness, she was never able to leave her bed again.”

Alicia quietly looked at Connie, who paused her words.

A distant longing drifted over the baroness’s face, where sadness had spread.