Chapter 112

“Chancellor?”

Even as she went to see the Minister of Finance, she couldn’t help but bite her lip. This was clearly malice.

Not only did it belittle her competence at work, it was an absurd action carried out without her consent.

The Chancellor is a high position and therefore a target. It isn’t a post one attains merely by being good at practical tasks. Coldly put, Cornelia currently had no backers, no background, and no support faction to back a Chancellor’s seat.

“Of course I’ll be by her side.”

Vespera intended to publicly declare her support to keep her safe. She even considered bringing in the Archducal house. Separately, Vespera felt ashamed that she hadn’t noticed earlier. Even usually composed as she was, Cornelia didn’t know what to do this time. She thought it would be best to meet the Emperor alone at the imperial palace, but Cornelia stopped her.

“Let’s wait and see. See how things play out.”

Her gaze wavered, but in a short time she had astonishingly regained composure. Even on the battlefield, commanders who make decisions so quickly are rare. Yet she chose to calm herself as much as possible in this bolt-from-the-blue situation and look for the next strategy. She did not run away. She was young and inexperienced, and it was a difficult decision even for that, but Vespera trusted her despite the unease.

“How could I possibly assume something like that? How dare I even speak the Emperor’s name? Please don’t be too angry, Commander-General.”

Her wit did not end there.

Even at the precarious department heads’ meeting, she exposed that the Commander-General was the Crown Prince’s new lackey. He had always presented himself as easygoing, so he had never shown his hand before.

As her role changed, another side of her captivated him even more.

“Where did this come from…”

It had been a frequent thought lately. Aside from how lovable and good she was, her ways of handling things and her thinking, which he hadn’t seen before, felt unfamiliar and fascinating. She so effortlessly leapt beyond the empire’s common sense and conventions.

The same held true in romance.

“Duke, I think you should be a little more conscious of that.”

It was half-joking. But secretly he wanted her to be more aware of him as a man. What returned, however, was her provocation. When Cornelia kissed him first, he couldn’t pull himself together. Only the thought of duty as a noble, as a gentleman, that it was still too early, barely kept a hold on his reason.

He had intended a romantic atmosphere, but he never thought it would lead to a kiss at such a late hour.

“Vespera.”

But she so easily cut the reins of reason.

The moment his name came from her lips, the reins he had barely held unraveled. It was sweet. If not for her breath, so sweet it left her panting, he wouldn’t have been able to stop.

Aside from members of the Archducal house and the royal family, no one had ever called his name. Even the young ladies who had confessed their feelings until now had only addressed him by titles like Duke, Next Archduke.

How long had it been since someone addressed him by his raw name, without even the light honorific “sir”?

Hearing his name in the voice of someone he liked was overwhelmingly arousing.

“Cornelia Libertas.”

A little young lady from a fallen noble house whose name he hadn’t even known. A shiver ran through him. She treated him more comfortably than anyone, even though everyone else bowed before him. She sometimes called him by title, sometimes by name, but there was no falseness in sharing small daily things and pouring out worries.

It was joyful.

She was different from the young ladies who, entranced by his looks, would only blush or go stiff and be unable to speak. He liked dining together, holding hands, walking, leaving work together. Even without doing anything special, his heart filled with satisfaction unlike before.

“Are you very busy next week?”

The pace was unusual too. It had been only a few days since their first kiss, and she suggested taking a trip. Heat rose to his head in an instant. Instinctively, his mind screamed that he couldn’t let this chance slip. Forgetting even that he needed to answer the communication artifact, he ran straight to the Chancellery to see her.

‘Not good for the heart.’

His heart hadn’t stopped since the first kiss. All the way to the Libertas estate he was so conscious of not letting his nervousness show.

And then something truly bad for the heart happened.

“Did I tell you? I like swimming.”

When she came out all bundled in a beach towel, it was so cute he really hadn’t expected what awaited. He had often, guiltily, imagined deep romantic acts with her in his mind. But this was a completely different level.

‘…’

It was an outfit he’d never seen before. The top revealed cleavage and abdomen, and the bottoms were extremely short. Her snow-white thighs were exposed so much he didn’t know where to look. It was an embarrassingly scant outfit, as if the cloth was barely covering the important parts. It was truly shocking.

Even then, he felt he might go mad from the instinctive wandering of his gaze.

He glanced around to see if any servants remained, or if those bastards were there. If they were, he vowed to gouge out their eyes.

Again, this was truly the first time such a thing had happened.

There had been young ladies or noblewomen who threw themselves at him before. But this was the first time he’d seen someone toss off their clothes saying they’d go swimming.

“Did you see something bad? What’s wrong?”

But she didn’t understand the situation at all. Her innocent eyes asking made him feel guiltier, even as anger crept up.

“Has she been swimming like this all along? Does she not understand the seriousness of the situation?”

The thought that another man might have seen her made his blood boil. He had never heard of a noble young lady, a lady, behaving like this. How could this happen in broad daylight…? A mix of emotions overwhelmed him and he lost his temper. It was their first quarrel since they started dating.

“This is maddening.”

He seemed to say that a lot these days. He was crazy for liking her, and driving himself mad after quarreling with her. Leaving her pouting with a drooping face at the lodging, his own mood was depressed.

“It’s our first trip out.”

It was a schedule he had worked through the night to secure. He hadn’t expected this would happen within a day. He needed time for his body and mind to calm, so he decided to spend the day in his room pondering what to do.

But he didn’t sit for long and got up. Seeing the meal the steward had brought made him feel that way even more.

“I miss her.”

The joy they’d shared over a meal was so brief, yet he missed it. Her disappointed, depressed face kept appearing before his eyes. He thought this time he should be firm and let her know, but his resolve kept weakening.

“It’s absurd.”

He didn’t even know what it meant for his resolve to weaken, but thanks to her he was learning a new emotion. There was no one in her room. For a moment his heart sank.

“Did she return to the capital ahead of me?”

Rationally he knew that was unlikely, but he anxiously wondered if she’d left in a fit of anger at him. Her luggage still remained intact. He worried she might have gone out of the estate late at night. Sometimes she wandered around as if it meant nothing, even though she wasn’t particularly strong.

At that moment, he saw the sky beautifully studded with stars.

There was no special reason. He just felt he knew where she had gone. He turned straight toward the top of the estate. To his surprise, she was there. Her lying on the ground was unexpected, but she looked free and comfortable. Perhaps they had both intentionally hidden such sides to show only their best faces to each other.

“What a fool.”

Seeing an unexpected side didn’t cool his feelings. She barely knew him at all. Still, that fidgeting look was so cute he wanted to keep watching. She noticed he had come and got up. Seeing her face made him feel even more sorry about being angry at the beach.

“I’m sorry.”

Any firm stance vanished and an apology spilled out without hesitation. It was too precious to stay angry. He wanted to tell her the pants she was wearing now were cute. He still couldn’t accept her daytime outfit being seen by others, but rather than scold her he wanted to talk calmly. He wanted to hear her side.

“Vespera, aren’t you curious why I couldn’t accept your heart until now?”

He suddenly brought up a completely different topic. He knew she had avoided him for fear he might be in danger.

So when he accepted her confession, he took it to mean all those worries were resolved. The atmosphere at the time suggested that.

For him, that mattered. Better than fretting over what had already passed.

“Actually, I’m not from this world.”

But the story she told was long and contained information shocking enough to shake Vespera to his core.