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The moment I heard his sincerity, a tear rolled down from one of my eyes.

“What is that……”

I buried my face in my hands and cried.

In truth, some of what he said was an exaggeration. I didn’t fall into the Crown Prince’s trap because of Ren. It’s also partly my fault that the Crown Prince’s jealousy affected me; the moment I ruined the Crown Prince’s plans and drove Dorian away, I would have been on his execution list. But he didn’t seem to think that at all.

“Ria, look at me.”

Ren gently removed my hands that were covering my face. I saw his face wearing a soft smile.

“Don’t look.”

“Just look at me, okay?”

When I tried to cover my face again, he stopped me. At his gentle plea, I held back the tears streaming out and lifted my head.

“So, just this once, Ria, I can’t refuse your request. For the one who chose me, I can do anything. It seems you have to give in.”

His hand kept wiping away the tears flowing down my cheek.

“Stop crying. It hurts my heart.”

“Typical lovers don’t go this far.”

Ren took my hand and pressed it to his cheek.

“Typical lovers don’t abandon their world to choose their lover. And I don’t want to be ordinary for you. I always want to do my best.”

When I confirmed that his inner resolve, his heart, hadn’t crumbled at all, sadness and anger rapidly faded. The tension left my stiff body.

“Ah!”

Ren naturally supported me and pulled me into his arms. I leaned my body in, inhaling his clean, refreshing scent.

“Sorry for shouting.”

I felt embarrassed for getting angry and pressing him. Ren slowly patted my back.

“I’m the one who’s sorry for not telling you. I didn’t think you’d find out so quickly. If I had known… I might have acted the same as you.”

He held my face with both hands so it couldn’t escape and showered kisses here and there. My face must have been swollen, but I didn’t know what he found so pretty to give me a barrage of kisses.

“While you’re here, stay for dinner. I’d be very upset if I let you go like this.”

Having cried so much my stomach felt hollow, I nodded. He chuckled and told the butler to have dinner prepared in the room. Until then, he held me tightly and stroked my back.

“The Crown Prince isn’t budging at all—what should we do?”

Ren had even knelt for me, but with no result it made him more upset. Still, he didn’t mind.

“We’ll have to find another way.”

He said this as he moved a piece of finely sliced steak onto my plate. He didn’t take his eyes off me, saying I looked too thin, until I put the meat in my mouth.

“If I had told you, you wouldn’t have gone to the Crown Prince.”

It was a disaster born from our mutual lack of honesty.

“Nothing important happened. He was rude and said irritating things as always.”

The fact that I bowed my head in front of him, who had knelt for me, couldn’t be dismissed as mere whining.

“I’m curious about something. How did you find out the Crown Prince was the one behind the temple before I did?”

It had been a question nagging me ever since I heard his story from the Crown Prince.

“That’s…”

He said he had known since after Rio’s condition worsened, when the temple sent a junior priest.

“When the archducal house occasionally asked the temple for help, it was usually a senior priest who came, so I found it strange.”

A count’s house, though not as high as an archducal one, was still a high-ranking noble family. And as the Empire’s Chancellor, he was displeased that they sent a junior priest without properly looking into it, so he investigated. Then a new order appeared forbidding anyone except immediate family from receiving a priest’s treatment—and when he checked, it turned out to be the Crown Prince.

“He pulled a fast one. At that time, we hadn’t even made our relationship public.”

“Even if it was professional, everyone knew I was taking care of you. And he probably wanted to cut off any avenue for you to ask other department heads or acquaintances. There’s also Kiara, the minor marquise.”

That’s right. Even without Ren, people like the Aurelius marquis family or the Minister of Finance came to mind as those we could bluntly ask for help.

“His intimidation skills were top-notch. It wasn’t something he’d done just once or twice.”

Lorence knew Ren was not easily shaken, so he risked both Rio’s life and that of the empire’s citizens. He said that if he went to the Emperor, even in that instant of judgment he’d cut off the sacred power. For someone who had lived strictly by noble obligations, that would be intolerable.

“Honestly, nothing is more important than you. I was afraid my younger sibling’s condition would worsen; at that time I had no room to think about the empire’s people.”

He roughly brushed up his hair with a flushed face.

“Even I think I was insane.”

He let out a short laugh, and for some reason that didn’t look bad—it even looked handsome.

“I don’t want to sacrifice someone precious to me for the sake of others. I realized that recently.”

It felt good, but I wondered if it was right. It felt like I’d corrupted a loyal retainer of the Emperor… Yet just as he was my top priority, it was selfish but true that I wanted to be his top priority too.

“We’ll be fine for a while even without support. I met Nora, the priest.”

I summarized what had happened to Ren. He then asked me in detail about each and every part.

“I want to know everything that happened to you while I wasn’t there.”

“…Are you a possessive man?”

“You didn’t know?”

I took his arrogant look—chin raised and all—with a practiced ease.

“Being too possessive isn’t attractive.”

“That’s why I do it secretly. What you’ve seen is only a tiny part.”

I couldn’t resist. I cleared my throat a few times and returned to the original topic.

“So we’ll be fine for a while without a junior priest. We won’t call him for fear Rio might do something else. We need to find a way before it’s discovered that Nora is secretly treating Rio.”

I didn’t want him to be exiled or punished because of me. I couldn’t let his goodwill be turned back on him like that.

“Then cutting off treatment entirely might raise suspicion, so it’s better to space out the treatments as much as possible. After treatment, Nora should be able to examine Rio’s body immediately. We’ll need to cast detection magic in the room so artifacts or holy relics can’t be used.”

“Good.”

We discussed how to prepare going forward over dinner.

After that, the situation flowed with an odd calm. Lorence made no further contact nor took action. The temple’s orders weren’t lifted, and the strange curse on Rio remained. Only Nora’s secret treatments continued on days when we minimized visits from junior priests to deceive his eyes.

‘It’s nerve-wracking.’

I instinctively felt this period wouldn’t last long. The quiet made me more uneasy.

“Chancellor?”

I snapped back to attention and greeted Lucan, who had come for document approval.

“Description-wise, is something the matter?”

“No. Work, what work.”

I flipped through the papers he gave me, confirmed there was nothing abnormal, and stamped the Chancellery seal. Just then, my communication artifact buzzed.

Elysia Langford (Chancellery_Grade-2 member): Surely the other young ladies won’t harm you because of the engagement announcement… Don’t let that break your spirit! It’s hard to catch big fish!

Cornelia Libertas (Chancellor): It’s not like that, you know? Why are you so interested in personal life matters that aren’t even work-related?

Elysia Langford (Chancellery_Grade-2 member): Bureaucrats typically devote their full mental resources to things like this.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t felt any jealous pranks or threats from noblewomen or young ladies.

‘Did that threat really work?’

I recalled Ren’s fierce demeanor, how he swore he wouldn’t tolerate anyone tarnishing my honor. The dignity of the Next Archduke.

Of course, I also had no time to worry about such things. We were trying various methods, but there was no sharp solution.

‘Finding a senior priest secretly would be this difficult.’

It was even harder to persuade someone when I didn’t even know them by face. I didn’t meet them at all, and Ren said he was politely refused. The reason being they didn’t want to pick a fight with the future Emperor, the Crown Prince. According to Nora, he pretends to be upright but has long been one of the Crown Prince’s main financial backers. In short, everyone’s in cahoots except the Pope.

‘Birds of a feather flock together, I guess.’

If the senior priest was such a man, it would have been easy for him to unite with the Crown Prince.

‘Does Lemare just hand out sacred power to even these kinds of people as a senior priest? Ha, I really don’t understand.’

I sighed deeply from frustration and left work feeling drained.

After the engagement announcement, Ren no longer hid it and began commuting with me. He picked me up in the mornings and took me home in the evenings. If I didn’t work overtime, he didn’t either. Illya said the bureaucrats call this situation a ‘miracle of love.’ I felt embarrassed and couldn’t help blushing.

“How’s Rio?”

“He’s fine for now, but he’s anxious because Nora suspects the temple is watching him suspiciously. Maybe… we might have to give the Crown Prince what he wants.”

Could it be the Chancellor’s post. They might frame him with all sorts of charges and exile him… or force him to participate in various corrupt acts.

Just imagining it was horrific.

“I’ll never allow that.”

He squeezed my hand tightly. The warmth he conveyed recharged my will.

‘Yes, I have to do my best too.’

The carriage stopped, and holding his hand, we headed to the mansion. The butler and servants came out first and took Ren’s coat.

“A guest has arrived.”

“A guest?”

Did I have a noble so close as to visit my home? If they were friends, they wouldn’t be called guests.

I shrugged at Ren and headed to the parlor. There I confirmed the identity of an unexpected guest.

“Long time no see, Coco.”

The eldest, Olgard, smiled and waved at me.