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29.

"The First Empress has intervened."
"Yes... no matter what I do, only the Second Prince Jamoti appears."
A grumble escaped my lips unbidden.
I had been planning to strip away half of House of Jamoti's fortune with this.
'His Majesty the Emperor will be disappointed.'
That cunning man was always obsessed with fattening the imperial treasury.
All while quietly lining his own pockets.
"You didn't fail to anticipate this, did you, Rose?"
"That's true ‌enough."
The First Empress would never allow such a trivial ‌‌‌matter to blemish her own household.
Merely by having ‌‌‌‌‌the Second Prince Jamoti removed from the equation, she had likely shattered dozens of teacups by now in her fury.
"Once the report reaches His Majesty, another magnificent drama will unfold at the Rose Palace." ‌‌‌
"Yes. We'll need to keep the Second Prince's life intact."
I felt somewhat deflated, but Cassian Artez already wore an expression of indifference.
Was I the only one taking this seriously?
"I never had high expectations to begin with."
"...Please stop reading my mind, Your Highness."
"I thought you were the one ‌‌showing it to me?"
Cassian Artez spoke leisurely as he completed the final page of the ‌‌‌report.
"You never hide your expressions from me, Rose."
"...It's not just you, Your ‌‌‌Highness."
I attempted a ‌‌‌meaningless protest.
"Outside the Salice Territory, that is."
And that infuriatingly perceptive superior of mine never conceded a point.
Though if he did yield on something like this, it would be unsettling ‌‌in its own way.
"-More importantly, Rose."
We had defended against a major crisis and even ‌dealt a blow to our opponent.
Cassian Artez dismissed the "exhibition incident" with that single phrase.
I wasn't particularly disappointed either.
If ‌‌‌the First Empress were the sort to be eliminated so easily, the protagonists ‌‌‌in the original work wouldn't have suffered ‌‌nearly as much, no matter how cunning they were.
'At least the House of Jamoti's coffers are bleeding dry as we clean up this mess—that much is a gain.'
Squeezed by Princess Alexis Periander, then depleted by managing this affair.
The once-vast fortune of House of Jamoti was increasingly likely to run dry, and that alone was satisfying.
Perhaps the First Empress will finally stop wasting teacups.
"Yes." ‌‌‍‌
In any case, I offered a faint show of resistance in my response.
"Heh." ‌
"Your Highness seems quite happy just looking at my face."
"Now that you mention it, am I allowed to feel a bit hurt?" ‌‌‌
At Cassian Artez's quick reply, I deliberately furrowed my ‌brow even deeper.
That man.
"I brought you a story that Rose would absolutely love."
"...A story I would love, Your Highness?"
At his words, I tensed up ‌‌‌first.
Whenever he said things like that, it usually meant my salary would increase—in other words, my workload would skyrocket insanely.
"Don't be wary, Rose. This time I truly haven't deceived you."
So he's aware he's a con artist.
No matter what, I didn't want to be arrested for insulting the Royal Family, so I only answered weakly in my mind.
Of course, seeing that crooked smile on ‌‌‌‌Cassian Artez's ‌‌face, it seemed he'd read my thoughts again.
"I'm truly sorry, Rose—I was going to give you a vacation."
"...What?"
Did I just mishear something?
"Is 'vacation' perhaps some kind of task these days? Another word for gratitude, perhaps?"
"No, you heard correctly. Truth be told, I wanted to give it to you long ago. Though you clearly don't believe me." ‌
As Cassian Artez spoke, he didn't ‌miss a single expression of doubt crossing my face.
"Tomorrow starts the weekend, so would there be no weekend work and I could rest on Monday?"
When ‌‌I posed such a reasonable question, laughter burst from Cassian Artez's lips again. ‌‌‌
He signed the report one last time beneath his words, then covered it ‌‌‌before rising leisurely from his seat.
"No, I mean you ‌‌‌‌can rest all of next week."
An extended vacation...?
To me, who couldn't even take the summer and winter vacations everyone else enjoyed and was happy with just three days off by tacking onto the weekend...
He was giving me nine full days of vacation...?
Faced with such an impossible miracle from ‌‌Cassian Artez, I simply lost my words.
"I'm very much wanting to take back what I just said."
"You can't!"
I cried out urgently, desperate to secure my precious vacation.
If I rested now, I had no idea when I'd get another ‌‌chance like this.
"But why?"
Curious beyond measure about the reason for this absurd extended vacation, my wretched mouth moved of its own accord.
Cassian Artez ‌‌‌‌called an attendant and instructed him to deliver what we'd accomplished today to each department, then sat on the edge of my desk and stared at me intently.
"I thought you'd leave for home the moment I said it."
"What if something comes up that needs follow-up ‌‌and I end up having to come in during my vacation?"
"Then I'll handle it."
"...What?"
At his unexpected words, I stared at Cassian Artez ‌‌‌‌in disbelief.
Over the past year and more, there had never been a single holiday when Cassian Artez and I had overlapping days off.
"Does that mean you intend to work on your day off again, Your Highness?"
In truth, he did so almost constantly.
"It's not a holiday, Rose."
"...I beg your pardon?"
"I would be delighted if my beloved fiancée were expressing a desire to spend a vacation together."
"That's not it."
"How callous of you."
My reflexive answer drew only a smile from Cassian Artez, as always, without the slightest hint of disappointment.
"The timing simply worked out. Thanks to the Kingdom's delegation visit, most of the first half's diplomatic work was completed in the first quarter anyway."
"That's true enough."
Instead, I had volunteered for extended hours shuttling between Alexis Periander and Cassian Artez.
"And there's still time before the next audit, and the exhibition is proceeding smoothly, so I believe I can manage alone for about a week."
As he explained with such tenderness and methodical care, I gazed at Cassian Artez in silence for a moment.
"Why?"
He posed the question with a gentle smile.
"I worry you might be overexerting ‌‌yourself."
"That's something I'm always doing to you, Rose."
Cassian Artez said he possessed at least that much conscience, carefully smoothing the ends of my hair with his fingertips.
"Don't worry. Rest well. You ‌are my ‌‌precious aide, after all."
What on earth was ‌‌‌‌he?
More than when he called me his fiancée, adorning it with every conceivable flowery epithet his restless hands could conjure, it was now that I felt it.
This tender affection welling up within me.
And so I.
"I won't abandon my duties so easily, Your Highness."
I spoke to Cassian Artez with all the sincerity I could muster.
At my words, his hand, which had been smoothing my hair ‌‌as if by habit, paused briefly.
For a moment his eyes deepened, then regained their composure as he smiled.
"Yes, I'll try to understand it exactly as you mean it, Rose."
What other meaning could ‌‌‌there possibly be besides what I intended...?
Of course, my superior never read such thoughts.

*

On the fourth day of my precious vacation.
I, who had been lounging idly in my sweet home, found myself inexplicably eight hours ‌‌‌‌away from the ‌Capital City by carriage.
And moreover....
"Um, yes. Do you like the room?"
With Wilhelmina Lopez, the Duke's daughter.
"Oh, yes. Very much so."
"Of course you do. I took such care with the arrangements."
"Pardon?"
"It's nothing! Our villa is famous for its beauty—there's no way it could fail to please you!"
I heard every word ‌‌about how much care she'd taken.
I fumbled through my memories, trying to piece together how this had happened.
It must have been around midday, I think.
Delighted by my rare vacation, I had been voraciously devouring all the new novels I'd ‌‌‌accumulated and never gotten around to reading.
Naturally, I paid no attention to when the sun rose or ‌‌‌set.
I'd probably fallen asleep ‌‌‌long after dawn broke, and since there was nothing urgent, I'd planned to sleep well into the afternoon.
Joan, my maid, was conscientious, and knowing that I was actually quite lazy and happy with my reversed sleep schedule, she rarely woke me.
Though occasionally, if I slept too long, she would brew my favorite stew in ‌‌‌the ‌‌‌kitchen and gently rouse me with its delicious aroma.
But today, just an hour or two after I'd fallen asleep, Joan burst open my bedroom door and urgently woke me.
Saying we ‌‌‌‌‌had a visitor.
Yes, that very visitor.

'And here I am, the advisor and fiancée of the Second Prince, being so lazy!'

It was Wilhelmina Lopez.
Now that I thought about ‌‌it, I hadn't greeted Wilhelmina Lopez at the entrance—it seemed I'd met ‌‌‌her in a room instead....
"Are you still not fully awake? I thought you were fine since you woke up at mealtime earlier and ‌‌‌ate well."
The thought that one must eat properly during travel—whether it's airline food or otherwise—made me stop.
Even in my drowsy state, I retained the memory of diligently wielding my spoon.
"Are you very tired? Did I push you too hard by bringing ‌‌‌you here?"
As I was organizing my thoughts, Wilhelmina Lopez's dejected voice pierced my ears.
No, this won't do. I can't disappoint Wilma!
Smack!
To shake off the sleep, I raised my hand and slapped both my cheeks.
Wilma quickly grabbed my hand.
"What—what are you ‌‌doing!"
"I'm waking up—" ‌‌‌‌
"That's not the way to apologize! Do I really seem like such a terrible person to you?"
"That's not—"
"You said you've been so busy because of Cassian Artez, the Imperial Prince, that you finally took a long vacation, and you brought me along because you wanted to spend time together—and now ‌‌‌‌I've already hurt your feelings!"
No, that's not it at all, my lady.
For some reason, faced with that ‌‌desperate expression that looked ready to cry at any moment, I found it terribly difficult ‌to explain myself.

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