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Brought to ‌‌you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, ‌‌‌please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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82. ‌‌‌‌

The moment I boarded the train, I naturally withdrew ‌‌‌‌my notebook, but Cassian Artez covered ‌‌it with his hand.
"You're allowed to rest."
"...It's a habit."
"I've come to know quite well through this journey that you were doing this even before coming to my side."
Cassian Artez leaned his arm against the window frame, a ‌‌‌playful smile crossing his face.
"I've also come to understand how much ‌‌‌‌the Salice Barony and its surrounding residents adore Roselita." ‌‌
"Didn't you ‌‌‌notice they all treat me like a busybody?"
"You don't need to hide your embarrassment behind such words."
At Cassian Artez's observation, I was momentarily stunned before ‌‌‌‌nodding in ‌‌‌agreement.
"You're right. Uncle and Auntie have looked after ‌‌me since childhood, and whenever there's something delicious, they try to give me extra—they're all like family to me."
"I'll have to make more effort then."
He exhaled a shallow sigh.
Cassian Artez truly seemed reluctant to let me leave his side.
Of course, I understood.
'I also want to prevent Francis Ashwood from submitting his resignation.'
The prospect of losing five administrative officials as a result was simply horrifying to contemplate.
So I reassured Cassian Artez.
"Don't worry, ‌‌Your Highness."
"Hmm?"
Yet he already wore a worried expression.
"First of all, I still have far too much work remaining in the Capital City."
"...Yes."
"Even if I submit my resignation, I'll make sure to properly hand over my duties and find a successor! Your Highness's notorious reputation isn't as severe as it once was, after all."
Before that, I'd need to figure out how to counter the First Empress's interference.
I didn't consider Cassian Artez a bad superior—not the type who would ‌throw in his resignation without considering the consequences.
'The people of the Winter Palace are precious too.'
I spoke with all my heart, yet Cassian Artez's face filled only with petulance.
"You truly understand nothing."
"Pardon?"
What don't I understand?
You have to tell me so I can correct it!
I sent him such a look, but Cassian Artez merely exhaled a deep sigh.
"Even ‌‌‌‌when I tell you, you pretend not to understand at all.... Foolish Roselita."
Then he uttered a childish insult.
It seemed the Salice Barony had corrupted him with bad habits—this was serious.
'If he starts acting like our village folk, it'll be a real problem when we get to the Capital City.'
Please, do not abandon your cunning.
As I gazed at him with something like prayer, Cassian Artez grew even more exasperated ‌‌and pulled me into a tight embrace, obscuring my face.

*

Rarely did Cassian Artez's sullenness last so long, but I managed to soothe him by correcting how I addressed him and ceding my duties to him instead.
He had a tendency to seize all my work whenever his mood soured.
"You're truly cunning, aren't you."
"I don't believe that's something you should be saying."
And yet he'd forced me to correct how I addressed him once ‌‌‌more.
By now, some twelve hours had passed since the train's departure.
It was quite a long time, but the first-class compartment was hardly uncomfortable.
Neither ‌‌of us was particularly fussy ‌‌‌‌‌about sleeping arrangements either.
"Even though it's my second time, it's tedious."
Two years ago, when I'd traveled to the Capital City, I'd taken this same direct train.
Though that time, it had been third class.
"That's because you finished all the work Roselita Salice brought along before we returned ‌‌‌to the Salice Barony."
"Your Majesty did the same."
Speaking like this, I realized we both possessed rather melancholic habits.
As I was thinking this, Cassian Artez's eyes narrowed.
"So do you."
Watching me hastily correct myself, Cassian Artez ‌exhaled a sorrowful sigh.
I'd noticed his sighs had increased since our visit to the Salice Barony.
His emotional neediness seemed to have deepened as well.
Seeing my look of concern, Cassian Artez found it absurd and immediately rang for the Train Conductor.
He requested breakfast be prepared, then began speaking to me with a serious expression.
"Roselita Salice, I know we came on business.
"Yes."
"But there's hardly anyone in the Capital City who doesn't know we've been traveling alone ‌‌together for nearly two weeks, is there?"
"That's right?"
"And we're in love with each other?"
I nodded immediately at those words.
Just then, the Train Conductor rang the bell to announce breakfast ‌‌‌had arrived.
Cassian Artez stopped me from rising ‌and received the two trays himself, setting them on the table.
There was golden toast and a perfectly cooked sunny-side-up egg, tomato and sausage, some vegetables, and jam and butter.
While Cassian Artez steeped tea leaves in his own pot, he poured orange juice for me.
It seemed he remembered how I'd complained about the coffee being dreadfully tasteless on the journey to ‌‌the Salice Barony.
"So, Roselita Salice, if we're betrothed and have traveled together for two whole weeks, surely there should be some change between us, shouldn't there?"
Cassian Artez lightly cut my sausage with a knife as he spoke.
When I cut it, the meat always became tough and wouldn't separate cleanly, yet watching him do it so effortlessly, I remembered to answer him earnestly.
"So you're saying ‌‌it would look far more natural if I changed how I address you?"
"Exactly. They'll assume some progress has been made between us and think nothing of it."
Now that he mentioned it, I had to admit the logic was sound.
"So there's no problem ‌‌with me calling you Ian out of habit?"
"That's right. If your reluctance stems from that particular concern."
Yet even as Cassian Artez spoke, his face showed no relief whatsoever.
If anything, I sensed a quiet regret that he'd needed ‌‌to explain this much, ‌‌and it ‌‌‌‌made me melancholy too.
I'd never once heard him reproach me for failing at something.
I found myself thinking that when I returned to the Capital City, I should probably read some contract marriage novels and study the behavioral patterns involved.

*

Cassian Artez ‌‌‌‌drafted notes inside the train as it resumed its journey, while Roselita slept.
Around ten in the morning, the train that had been running smoothly suddenly came to ‌a halt.
The Train Conductor, who knew that Cassian Artez's party was aboard the first-class car, hurried over to explain the situation.
There was a problem with the axle that fixed the ‌wheels, so they'd stopped temporarily for safety.
It was better than an accident occurring, so I nodded, but their subsequent response bothered both of us.
After informing us, the Train Conductor's announcements as he made his rounds through the passenger cars went completely ‌‌unheard.
Just to be safe, Roselita Salice went as far as the third-class car to check on the passengers' condition, and found them merely anxious and uneasy.
Right there, she gave the crew a detailed explanation of the situation and suggested they install an amplification magic device if necessary.
She also made sure to help the crew inform passengers in each cabin.
The train resumed its journey three hours after it had stopped.
Cassian Artez forced her to rest after she'd been moving ceaselessly through all twelve cars. ‌‌‌
Of course, Roselita Salice ‌‌‌said ‌‌she was fine, but she was the one who'd completed a ten-day itinerary in five days and had been moving about without rest in the Salice Barony as well. ‌‌‌‌
Though admittedly she'd been more leisurely than ‌‌in the Capital City, long-distance travel itself was inherently exhausting.
Cassian Artez himself was accustomed to it—trained and experienced in frequent long-distance travel by various means—but she was an exception.
Fortunately, Roselita Salice had ‌‌the habit of falling asleep quickly when fatigue accumulated in her body, so once I draped a blanket over her ‌and covered her eyes, she soon fell into even breathing.
Cassian Artez organized the points he'd missed, closed his notebook, and gazed quietly at Roselita Salice's sleeping face.
Using the stories he'd heard in the Salice Barony as a shield, I was indulging my desires freely enough.
I was grateful that Roselita Salice didn't know what lay beneath.
If ‌‌‌she truly came to ‌‌realize it, the trouble would be mine alone.
So with her—perceptive of others' feelings yet seemingly indifferent, as if she'd built walls against his own—Cassian Artez could indulge his desires as he wished.
'It's not as though I'm asking anything of you.'
All the sulking, all the coaxing—it was merely taking one more step forward, relying on her indifference.
Even though he'd surely flee the moment she drew near.
Cassian Artez broke the promise Roselita Salice had made him and dredged up a memory from long ago.

'I want to live happily with my parents, just like this.'

The little lady who lingered longer in his embrace.
Reluctant to part, he had later feigned continued illness even after recovering, shrewdly extending their time together by ‌‌‌another week.
Though he had been treated as nonexistent within the Imperial Family as a child, he had believed he could become someone capable of fulfilling her wishes.
So before parting, he had ‌‌asked if there was anything she desired.
The answer that came back was a wish he could never grant, no matter how much he yearned to.
But if it was Roselita Salice's wish—she who had saved him—he had ‌‌‌‌to honor it.
Even beasts repay kindness; he could not repay her salvation with great misfortune instead of simple happiness.
'So if that's what you need, I'll accept it—just a little longer.'
He had wished for her to remain at his side.
Roselita truly never knew: he had been cunning then, and remained greedy ‌‌‌now.
He would genuinely try to let her go when the time came.
Even ‌‌‌‌as he thought this, Cassian Artez mocked himself.
He would surely whisper countless times—and continue to do so—masked as jest, begging her not to abandon him, not to leave, praying that day would never arrive.

*

For reasons I couldn't fathom, ‌‌‌sudden afternoon slumber sometimes felt sweeter than night's rest.
I slept soundly, reassured by the familiar touch of hands against my forehead and cheek.
Only Cassian Artez touched me this way, and if he was beside me, I would face no danger.
How long had ‌I slept?
Crash!
A thunderous sound jolted me awake, and the carriage lurched.
"...Ugh."
A groan near ‌‌‌‌my ear snapped my senses fully alert.
It was Cassian Artez's voice.
"...Ian!"
"You woke from sleep but didn't change ‌‌‌how you address me—I'm relieved my persuasion worked. Should I be pleased about that, or not?"
Cassian Artez held me close while spouting such nonsense.
As I hurried to ‌‌‌‌check his condition, he smiled reassuringly, caressing my ‌‌cheek.
"I'm fine. I protected the area where the aura collided."
"Truly?"
"You're welcome to undress me and verify."
Seeing him make such a jest meant this time he wasn't lying.
"Rather than that..."
"It seems to be a ‌‌derailment. There was no impact from colliding with anything."
Cassian Artez laughed and tapped my wrist.
The scroll in question hung there in miniaturized form, fashioned as a bracelet ‌‌‌charm.
"It seems to be connected to this, ‌‌‌doesn't it?"
At Cassian Artez's words, I nodded.
It was one of ‌the reasons we had shortened our schedule on the way here, and why Cassian Artez had insisted I rest without argument.

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