Late at night, in front of a luxurious inn in a city near the capital.
“Ah……”
Lumiere let out a small gasp as she reached for Axid’s hand after he stepped down from the carriage first.
Axid’s expression hardened instantly.
“If you don’t mind, may I take a look at your hand?”
“Pardon?”
“Please show it to me.”
When he insisted in a firm voice, she had no choice but to hold out her hand.
Her palm was noticeably swollen, and a purplish bruise had formed around her wrist.
It was nothing more than a bruise that would subside after a few days at most.
She hadn’t mentioned it because it wasn’t serious enough to make a fuss over, but under his grave gaze, she suddenly felt awkward.
She felt sorry and embarrassed for making him worry over something so insignificant.
“I’m fine. It’s not a serious injury, and this sort of thing will go away soon.”
When she smiled sheepishly, a faint crease appeared between Axid’s brows.
After quickly completing the check-in, he led her, who had been standing there awkwardly, to their room.
“Excuse me.”
After seating her on the bed, he began wrapping a bandage around her wrist.
His movements were careful, as though he were afraid of hurting her.
It only aches a little. It’s not like anything is broken…….
This was the first time in both her past and present lives that she had ever received such consideration.
“I’m really fine……”
She murmured awkwardly, and Axid replied in a restrained voice.
“…You are not fine.”
Not only had the esteemed Princess been humiliated in front of others, but she had also been injured.
How could that possibly be fine?
Even if he had no talent for understanding people’s hearts, he knew enough to realize that this was not something he could simply overlook.
Moreover, wasn’t the Duke of Trobitan the very man whose name had been linked to the Princess through rumors?
Yet seeing her force herself to smile made his mood sink endlessly.
He had thought of her as someone whose true feelings were impossible to read, but now he felt as though he had caught a glimpse of the delicate heart she concealed behind that composed smile.
He looked down at the Princess’s slender wrist with a somber gaze.
…Is it really right to take a Princess with so many wounds in her heart to the harsh and freezing North?
No matter how carefully he watched over her, life in the North, where resentment toward the Empire ran deep, would not be easy either.
With even greater care, he tied the final knot and rose from his seat.
“Then, please get some rest.”
After offering the brief farewell—
Just as he turned to leave the room, a soft voice came from behind him.
“…Grand Duke, you’re such a kind person.”
He stopped.
His body stiffened at the unexpected words.
He had merely done what anyone should have done.
And yet she called him kind.
“…I’m not particularly kind.”
His voice low and subdued, he quietly left the room.
She had called him kind, but he was not a man suited to such a description.
All his life, he had known nothing but the smell of blood and the act of cutting down monsters.
He had never learned how to share warmth with another person.
She said she had never been able to live like a human being for even a single day in the Imperial Palace, didn’t she?
What kind of life had someone lived if such a small gesture of consideration was enough to make her call him kind?
Suddenly, he remembered the man who had carelessly grabbed the Princess by the wrist.
I should have broken that man’s wrist.
He stared down at his own hand for a moment before slowly clenching and unclenching his fist.
As though regretting that he had let the man off so easily.
Just then, Kaiden, who had been waiting downstairs, approached him.
“Your Grace, how is Her Highness the Princess?”
“She should be careful for at least two weeks.”
The wrist that had been roughly grabbed was covered in bruises.
She herself had said it would heal in a few days, but given the Princess’s delicate skin, it would not be surprising if the bruising lasted longer.
Unlike the tough, weathered skin of Northerners, her hands were exceptionally soft and delicate.
“By the way, don’t you think her personality is quite something, despite how she looks?”
“…Who?”
Axid raised an eyebrow in confusion, and Kaiden gave a crooked grin.
“Her Highness the Princess. The face of that woman you saw her slap earlier looked absolutely terrible.”
He remembered the feel of the Princess’s soft, delicate hand from when he had first grabbed it.
“…It was the Princess’s hand that took the beating from that woman’s cheek.”
“…Pardon?”
Even if her hand had been a mess, could it really compare to the Princess’s palm, which had swollen so badly that even making a fist was difficult?
“Besides, the Princess could have had that woman executed on the spot for insulting the Imperial Family, but she didn’t.”
Judging by the way that woman had brazenly tattled in front of everyone, it was obvious how disrespectfully she must have treated the Princess.
And yet the Princess had forgiven her after nothing more than making her kneel.
Considering that insulting the Imperial Family was such a serious crime that an immediate execution could be ordered without even a trial, it had been an extraordinarily merciful decision.
How had someone with such a gentle heart managed to survive in a snake pit like the Imperial Palace?
As Axid’s expression grew increasingly serious, Kaiden stared at him with an uneasy look.
The journey to the North was exhausting.
No matter how much care she received, traveling long distances with such a frail body was difficult.
Especially since she was not accustomed to riding in carriages.
Her wrist had recovered enough that she could remove the bandage, but after suffering from motion sickness and aching muscles for days on end, she genuinely felt as though she might collapse.
But this suffering would soon be over.
Through the carriage window, Lumiere gazed at the approaching Grand Duke’s Castle with a look of relief.
A land covered in snow and ice throughout the year, where the cold was merciless.
The Grand Duke’s Castle, located at the heart of Winterheim, possessed a solid and imposing dignity befitting a stronghold that had endured for countless years in this rugged land.
For a brief moment, she was overwhelmed by strange emotions at returning to this place after turning back the long years of her life.
Then Lumiere quietly looked at the hand Axid extended toward her.
In her previous life, she had ridden in a separate carriage from him, and the moment the carriage door had opened after arriving, she had screamed.
“Princess, we have arrived at the castle, so please come outside……”
“N-No! Please, don’t kill me! Don’t come any closer……!”
Axid had silently waited outside the carriage.
Until the head maid, unable to bear watching any longer, had finally persuaded her to come out after a long time.
Remembering how she had humiliated him not only at the Imperial Palace but even at the Grand Duke’s Castle made her heart feel unbearably heavy.
What had she been so afraid of back then?
“…Princess?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
She came back to herself and gave him a bitter smile as she took his hand.
Just then, a middle-aged woman with brown hair and brown eyes approached them at a hurried pace.
“Your Grace, Your Highness the Princess, welcome.”
“It has been a long time, Head Maid. Has everything been well?”
“I apologize, Your Grace, but you must depart for the northern fortress immediately. A messenger arrived just moments ago. They say the situation on the battlefield has become urgent.”
At the Head Maid’s grim words, Axid nodded and fell silent for a moment.
Such incidents were common in the North, where monster attacks occurred almost without pause.
It was a situation he had expected.
“Princess, I would like to escort you personally, but it seems I must depart immediately.”
“I’ll be fine, so please come back safely without getting hurt.”
Axid reluctantly tore his gaze away from Lumiere, who was smiling softly despite her pale complexion.
“Take good care of the Princess.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“If anything happens to the Princess, no matter how insignificant, report it to me immediately. Understood?”
“I will keep that in mind, Your Grace.”
After repeatedly entrusting the Princess to the Head Maid, Axid turned away as though he could no longer afford to delay.
His movements were swift and orderly, befitting someone accustomed to heading straight to the battlefield without even taking time to rest.
“Your Highness the Princess, my name is Terra. I serve as the Head Maid. I will escort you inside.”
Lumiere quietly watched Axid’s back as he gradually disappeared into the distance before turning around.
Despite her polite tone, the Head Maid’s cold gaze made her wariness and rejection unmistakable.
Apparently, Lumiere would have to work hard if she wanted to earn the Head Maid’s trust.
It was not unexpected.
Considering the rumors surrounding her and the relationship between the two nations, this was only natural.
Still, Terra did not seem like a vile or malicious person.
“Could you show me to my bedroom first?”
“Yes. This way, please.”
Step, step.
Lumiere slowly looked around the interior of the main building as she followed the Head Maid.
Then a large, thick window at the end of the corridor caught her eye.
“……”
Beyond the glass was a quiet garden where bare trees stood silently.
It seemed as though she could see the back of a man who had once stood there until sunset, in the place that received sunlight for the longest time within the castle.
For a moment, she stopped walking, overcome by an inexplicable heaviness in her chest.
Then faint voices reached her ears, breaking her from her thoughts.
“…Fifteen gold coins for one pound of pepper? It was only ten gold coins until six months ago!”
“Do you think I want to raise the price? But the tolls and customs duties have increased far too much.”
“We’re not only buying pepper. Just the things we agreed to purchase this time alone……”
That voice……
“Your Highness?”
“Shh.”
Lumiere silenced the puzzled Head Maid before quietly peering into the reception room through its half-open door.
A plump body that seemed filled with greed, and a friendly-looking face.
It was a man she had seen countless times in her previous life.
“Tsk, tsk. What ignorant fools. They have no eye for quality, so they happily buy things that no one else would even pay money for.”
“We’re grateful to them. They pay a high price for things that are practically impossible to get rid of.”
“Hahaha! Indeed. Thanks to those idiots, people like us can make a living. We should be grateful.”
A scoundrel who pretended to be a good man to their faces while mocking the Grand Duchy behind their backs.
He was conducting a transaction with the Head Maid.
