“Umm, he is kind of a strange person.”

“Huh?”

Alexandra looked at Angelica with a strange face at her eye-opening remark. Her unrelaxed face twisted even more as Angelica continued.

“I thought he would be a scary person, but to my surprise, he talked normally with a lively expression. He knows about me, and I am curious about how he knows so much, but… I feel like I don’t know what’s going on inside him, so if we meet again… I don’t want to meet him because it was uncomfortable.”

The serious evaluation of Rael continued. Alexandra’s eyes widened at her words, but soon she burst out into laughter.

“Hahaha. You’re the first person to talk about Rael like that. Strange; uncomfortable… Pwahahaha!”

“You’re definitely… the first, Angelica. The first person to talk about Emperor Rael like that…”

Then Tiana pressed her hand against her lips to hold in a laugh. Such words could only come from Angelica. How could she talk about the Emperor like that? Rael, really? It really must have been a bad first impression.

In fact, Angelica’s first impression of Rael in the original story wasn’t that good either. He suddenly knew about her secret and said he had to propose to her, so that couldn’t have been good.

Even if it was a different first meeting from the original, it seemed to remain unchanged.  Tiana didn’t know what Rael was like, but it had been a random and strange meeting for Angelica.

After seeing Alexandra and Levisia laugh, Angelica, blanched, noticed how strange her words sounded, and said frantically,

“I’m s-s-s-sorry! I said some strange things about him in front of you two… I didn’t even realize.”

“It’s fine. It’s just between us three. And thank you for speaking honestly. Oh, but it would be a good idea to not say those things to anyone else. You know why, right?”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

She nodded at Alexandra’s advice. Tiana and Alexandra couldn’t care less what she said, but if others heard it, she’d be in big trouble.

What would happen if Rael heard her?

How would Rael react if he had heard her, now that Angelica knew he was interested in her? Tiana became even more curious at his reaction.

***

After the tea party ended, which had been more enjoyable than expected, Tiana returned to the grand duchy. Finally, it was dinnertime as a delicious smell was coming from the first-floor dining room. She was about to head upstairs to change close when Warren said,

“Ma’am, Lord Lucius has returned.”

“Oh, my. Really? That was faster than I thought.”

Tiana had assumed he would be late because he had gone on an inspection to Sinadelli. When she laughed out of joy, Warren replied,

“I guess the inspection finished earlier than I expected. He returned two hours ago, so right now he is in his office.”

“All right. I’ll go there after I change clothes. Please get dinner ready; I’ll come together with Lucius.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Tiana went up to her room on the second floor. Then, she called some maids so she could get changed into something a bit more comfortable. She changed quickly and washed her face lightly, which was covered in makeup. After wrapping herself in a shawl given by Inabel, she left the room.

Lucius’ office was on the third floor with her office. Ascending the stairs, she stood in front of the office door and knocked.

Knock knock.

“Lucius?”

She tilted her head as there was no answer even though she knocked and called his name. Was there no one inside? Hesitating for a moment, she carefully opened the door and entered.

“Oh…”

She found out why he hadn’t answered. At his desk in front of the window sat Lucius, leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed. As Tiana approached him closer, she could hear his breathing. He was sound asleep.

Carefully, as to not wake him, she looked down at his sleeping face. Perhaps the inspection trip had tired him out.

By the way, whose husband was this, sleeping so beautifully like this? In the morning, Lucius often woke up before her, so she rarely saw him sleeping. She was lucky to see him sleeping now.

She wanted to let him sleep more as there was still time. Slowly, she backed away, then cleaned up the documents splayed on the desk. These days, he had been busy with imperial palace stuff and Sinadelli stuff, so there were a bunch of documents piled up. Tiana moved carefully, without making a sound, to arrange them.

“Huh? This…”

Among the mess on the desk, one document caught her eye. Seeing Report on the Sinadelli Botanical Garden accident written on it sparked her curiosity, so she lifted it to get a closer look.

“Sinadelli Botanical Garden fire damage, restoration work…”

Specifics of the accident and the process of the restoration work were written in detail. Fortunately, things were going well.

“Here’s one more page.”

Feeling relieved, she was about to flip to the next page, but there was a sudden tugging feeling from behind her.

“Aggghh!”

“…Tiana!”

“L-L-Lucius?”

Feeling embarrassed at having been grabbed from behind and placed in his lap, she called his name without thinking. Lucius looked at her with dreamy eyes that’d just woken up. His hazy gold eyes gradually cleared up.