My Happy Marriage (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

  CHAPTER 3  

Night

Within the palace furnished for the emperor on the imperial grounds was a room known as the Dianthus Room.

While the emperor resided deep in the palace grounds in a place known as the Inner Palace, the Front Chambers, which was connected by a corridor to the busy offices of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, was a public building used for rituals and ceremonies. It also functioned as a state hall, similar to those found in Western countries.

The Dianthus Room was located in the Front Chambers and mainly used to hold meetings attended by the emperor concerning national politics.

The interior of the chamber was mostly decorated in Western style, with an imported long table and chairs placed in the middle, and a chandelier set with crystal beads for illumination. However, the fabric used in the cloth on the ceilings and walls, the curtains, and the tablecloth itself, were woven with a traditional Japanese pattern, bringing the Western and Japanese influences together into a brilliant and sophisticated coexistence.

The seats of the table, which could fit more than fifty people, were completely occupied by men in suits. Dozens of additional chairs had been set up against the walls of the room, and these were also filled by officials.

Sitting at the table were the heads of each ministry, though not all of them were present, while sitting in the chairs on the walls in addition were those heading important positions within the military or government.

At the head of the table sat a raised tatami throne with a folding screen at its back. In it sat Crown Prince Takaihito, who was currently serving as the emperor’s substitute.

This was not an official state meeting.

It was a special gathering for central government officials to exchange opinions with one another, as well as bring questions to the acting emperor, Takaihito. Sessions of this kind had been held multiple times since the emperor disappeared from the seat of honor.

An hour had already come and gone since the meeting had gotten underway, but like usual, they had no major progress to show for it.

Amidst the stagnant air of eau de cologne and cigars, it had fallen into awful disorder.

“Would you please provide us with an appropriate explanation—and please pardon my rudeness—as to why you allowed outsiders into the Imperial Palace, in addition to exposing your august self to danger, Your Highness?”

Speaking up with enough vigor to lift himself out of his chair was one of the ministers of state.

For this latest meeting, Takaihito was the only member of the imperial family in attendance. Therefore, the address “Your Highness” indicated him and him alone, but for this question, one of the other ministers protested before he could answer.

“His Highness has explained this many times at this point. I’d suggest you choose your words a bit more tactfully.”

“And I’ll ask you to quit your caviling. My question was directed at His Highness.”

“I’m saying that I don’t believe you should be questioning His Highness with such impertinence.”

“That’s the exact caviling I’m ta—”

“If you both are going to bicker with each other like children, I ask you find another place to do so.”

At the cold remark of Takakura, the young Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and aide to Takaihito, the middle-aged ministers, caught in a truly pointless and stupid quarrel, both glared at the man and fell silent.

The main topics for discussion were how to handle the emperor’s absence, and Takaihito’s almost entirely arbitrary decision to allow the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit to set up camp within the Imperial Palace grounds.

In regards to the latter, the individuals gathered here today were largely split into three camps.

The first was the faction that agreed with Takaihito’s decision. Then there was the group that opposed the decision, along with a collection of individuals who’d decided to calmly watch the other two confront each other. These were the three.

The group putting forward their objections to Takaihito’s decision—specifically setting up military camps in the palace grounds and tightening its defenses—were led by the Minister of the Navy. Takakura led those who acknowledged Takaihito’s abilities as the imperial heir apparent.

Thanks to the marvels of scientific advancement, there were already a fair number of ministers and bureaucrats who were skeptical of unscientific things like Gifts and Grotesqueries, including the Divine Revelation endowed to the emperor.

The accumulated disbelief was deepening the hostility and turmoil between these factions even further.

The Minister of the Navy represents everyone who holds esteem for science above all else.

Takaihito carefully looked down across the room.

The prime minister, leading all the ministers of state, protected his neutral position with a certain amount of distance from the conversation, and several others looked to be mimicking him.

“Lord Keeper Takakura, I’d ask you to keep your comments to a minimum. The role of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal is to attend to affairs at His Majesty’s side, not to comment on government matters, yes?”

The Minister of Education reclined against his chair back and voiced his opinion to Takakura while stroking his moustache, a smug grin on his face.

Takakura frowned at the man’s framing, which made it clear that he looked down on the position of Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.

“…I have no obligation to heed your own personal viewpoints, and I’ll ask that you save voicing any additional problems irrelevant to the purpose of this meeting for another time.”

A smile came to the Minister of Education’s lips as he looked sidelong at Takakura, who was maintaining as even a tone as he could.

“Being Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal at such a young age, and earning His Highness’s trust, well, it’s reasonable that it might make one a bit too proud.”

“…………”

“We cannot allow the grounds of the Imperial Palace to be treated like Your Highness’s personal property, this latest decision of yours included. The Imperial Palace grounds are meant to be for His Majesty the emperor’s purposes, and while you are indeed the crown prince, we cannot allow Your Highness to do whatever you please.”

The other officials who thought negatively of Takaihito’s decree along with the Minister of Education, like the Minister of the Navy and the Minister of the Imperial Household, both voiced their agreement with his opinion.

“Why, I myself am the Minister of the Imperial Household, and I wasn’t even consulted beforehand in regards to this latest development whatsoever. Saying that His Highness is treating the grounds like his personal property is absolutely the perfect way to describe it.”

The Minister of the Imperial Household sent a venomous look Takakura’s way.

Observing the atmosphere in the room, Takaihito let out a small sigh, thinking he may have gone a bit too far.

Waiting to use the opportunity provided by New Year’s, when the government’s activities lulled, he had forced through his plan to protect himself and Miyo Saimori simultaneously within the Imperial Palace grounds.

Although this resulted in the plan itself being successfully enacted, it also intensified backlash against him.

Takaihito would have liked to conscientiously get everyone’s approval beforehand if time permitted, but he couldn’t afford to be so laid-back.

As for the Minister of the Imperial Household, unlike Takakura, the man was a close adviser to the emperor. Therefore, as much command as he may have had over the Imperial Palace grounds, he wasn’t someone Takaihito could trust. He hadn’t planned on consulting with the minister from the start.

Takaihito could give the truth to him directly, but he wasn’t going to be convinced.

Furthermore, while Takaihito may have been performing duties in place of the sickly, bedridden emperor, he still lacked the authority of his father. Using the Imperial Palace grounds at his whims despite the lack of authority was likely another factor to the increased animosity.

What’s the right move here?

He couldn’t stand by and watch Takakura, who was young and widely opposed, bear the brunt of the officials’ criticisms.

Just as Takaihito thought this, the Minister of Finance raised his hand and began to speak.

“You both say as much, but His Majesty’s plan is very easy on the nation’s finances. If you wish to oppose it, I ask that you produce an alternative that also has light budgetary costs.”

The Minister of Finance pushed up his glasses before crossing his arms, a sour look on his face. The air was instantly sucked out of the room, and everyone went quiet.

Once the topic of money was brought into the equation, no one was able to object.

It was a development that had been repeated over and over during the past hour.

“By the way, is there any explanation as to why our information control has gotten so lax?”

The question brought up by the Minister of Foreign Affairs prompted the shoulders of a lean middle-aged man, shrinking back in his seat at the corner of the table, to tremble.

That man was the Minister of Communications. He was the highest authority in the Department of Communications and Transportation, controlling all work involving the postal service and information transmission.

He wiped the cold sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief and stood up weakly.

“R-regarding our control of information… We are diligently investigating the facts of the matter at this time…”

“You’re still at the preliminary stages? A rather incompetent response, isn’t it?”

“I—I am ashamed to say…”

“I don’t need your apology.”

Decisively dealt with, the Minister of Communications sagged his shoulders in dismay and returned to his seat.

A superficial look at the situation would imply that the Minister of Communications was the one who could most easily manipulate information restrictions for the Gifted Communion’s benefit.

However, Takaihito simply couldn’t see the man as being capable of such a bold act of betrayal.

I am certain the inept response to the situation is a plain lack of competency on the man’s part, as well.

In which case, who was the traitor who was allying with the Gifted Communion?

Were they mixed in among the men gathered here? Or were they hidden away somewhere else?

At the present moment, a definitive judgment seemed impossible.

“I very clearly understand all your views on the matter.”

When Takaihito began to speak, everyone who had gathered turned their eyes on him.

“I apologize for neglecting to give you a detailed explanation of my policy and pushing it forward without your consent.”

Everyone revealed their confusion and trepidation as the imperial heir bowed lightly.

A natural reaction. Though he may not have ascended to the throne yet, the crown prince was still unmistakably a descendent of God to the lords assembled before him now that the emperor was absent.

Normally, a man of his station would have avoided bowing in apology to those merely tasked with giving him advice on governmental matters. It was preposterous behavior, only barely able to be excused by the fact this wasn’t an officially sanctioned meeting.

Yet Takaihito wanted their understanding, even if it meant contradicting custom. Takaihito’s wholehearted intent to do so propelled him to this.

I constantly scorned my father as mediocre and banal, but I may be plunging straight down the path of a foolish ruler myself.

If he deprecated himself too much to the people, he would lose authority.

But he was at a crossroads. He needed to push through no matter what it took.

“I saw a possible future with my Divine Revelation. If I hadn’t taken those measures on the grounds, I would have been assassinated forthwith.”

“No…”

A bewildered hue came over the faces of everyone present; they couldn’t believe their ears.

But Takaihito was speaking the truth.

He had seen a number of uncertain and intermittent visions of the future as of late.

In the worst of these visions, he lost his life, and Miyo Saimori fell into the Gifted Communion’s hands. Following this, the Empire would be immediately overthrown.

He also saw a vision in which he was protected, but Miyo was stolen away, as well as a future where Miyo was protected, but he was assassinated.

In the former scenario, Miyo would be forced to obey the Gifted Communion and would use her Gift to bring the Empire into their hands, ultimately leading to Takaihito’s death.

In the latter scenario, in which Takaihito was assassinated, the reigning emperor would regain actual power and become a puppet of the Gifted Communion. The Empire’s steering wheel would pass completely into the Gifted Communion’s hands, and Kiyoka and the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit cooperating with him would protect Miyo, continuing to fight on alone, before ultimately being driven up against the wall, losing their lives.

Although he saw other futures with slightly different details, the outcomes of those were largely the same.

Thus, both he and Miyo would need to be protected. Yet because they were in separate locations, that meant one person would be defended at the expense of the other, or their protection would be spread equally thin.

Kiyoka Kudou was the key here—the place he could not defend would end up more vulnerable and be targeted in the event of an attack.

Out of all our soldiers, it is likely Kiyoka who Naoshi Usui fears the most. Though others may be insignificant to him, he has grown wary of attacking anywhere under Kiyoka’s protection.

While it would not have been strange for Usui to outwit Kiyoka with a Gift as powerful as his, Kiyoka’s abilities were so strong that there was a chance the commander could turn the tables on Usui.

In light of that, Takaihito had decided to place both himself and Miyo within Kiyoka’s reach.

As long as Kiyoka is in the Imperial Palace to protect us, we can hunker down like a snail curling up in its shell, forcing the Gifted Communion to avoid a direct confrontation with us.

Though this is merely conjecture, Takaihito added on a self-deprecating mental note.

Regardless, Usui wouldn’t attack them directly; he would strike at them via some roundabout means instead. This increased the probability that they could arrive at the future Takaihito had his sights on, while risking comparatively little amount of harm.

The crown prince loudly snapped his fan and looked over the room.

“The defenses of the Imperial Palace will be strengthened—at present, this alone remains unchanged. We shall focus our defenses on a single location. Otherwise, we’ll face death by a thousand cuts.”

“Nevertheless, I do not believe we should be bending so many customs, all to deal with some newly risen religious cult.”

The Minister of the Imperial Household was reluctant.

An unavoidable reaction. Preserving tranquility within the palace’s borders was among his duties. Though Takaihito understood this, he couldn’t cede any ground to the man.

The meeting continued for some time after that, but Takaihito had done what he’d come here to do, so his own perspective on the matter didn’t yield a single inch.

After finishing her bath, Miyo put on her haori coat over her nightwear to stave off the cold and went over to Hazuki’s room.

“It’s Miyo.”

“Come on in.”

She opened the sliding door to find everyone that Hazuki had invited was here.

First was Hazuki herself, and then Yurie. In addition, and most startling, was Takaihito, sitting as naturally as ever in the back of the room.

“P-pardon me…”

Why was the crown prince in Hazuki’s room? No, more pressingly, how was Miyo supposed to react in this situation?

“It’s a lovely night, isn’t it?” said Takaihito to her, his lips curled ever so slightly into a smile.

“Y-yes, it is. Er, um, g-good evening.”

This had to be her first time exchanging words with Takaihito since he had asked about the full details regarding Kiyoka’s collapse.

Although it may have been her second time talking to him, she didn’t feel any more accustomed to it.

“Good evening.”

His completely normal greeting only threw her into even further confusion.

Oh no, what am I supposed to do?!

Then Miyo remembered she was in her nightgown. Ashamed that she had committed an impolite blunder as a gentlewoman, she went red in the face.

“Don’t worry, Miyo, okay? Don’t freeze up, and come sit down.”

Hazuki lightly tapped on the floor cushion near her.

“But…”

“Look, see, no one’s worried about you being rude or anything, are they? C’mon, get over here.”

Overwhelmed by Hazuki’s assertion, she slowly entered the room and sat down on a cushion, her eyes cast slightly at the floor.

Hazuki checked to make sure all the seats in the room had been filled, and clearing her throat, began to speak.

“Now then, I have gathered us all here for one reason and one reason only. We’ve been given the wonderful chance to all live together under the same roof, so I thought we should have a nice fun chat, just between us girls. I’m calling it a ladies’ soiree!”

A fun event, very characteristic of Hazuki. Or so Miyo began to convince herself, before she began to have doubts, despite knowing how rude that was deep down.

“A ladies’ soiree…?”

There was clearly someone who was not a lady thrown into the mix. Though she agreed that his facial features were so beautifully sculpted it was hard to tell if he was a man or a woman. Still, there was no doubt that the term “lady” didn’t quite fit him.

Hazuki turned her eyes to the person in question without answering Miyo. Yurie chortled while looking at Miyo.

As for Takaihito himself—

“Please feel free to talk as much as you would like. Do not pay me any mind. I shall make my heart into a woman’s and exclusively focus on listening along. If that still would not suffice, you may refer to me as ‘Takako,’” he stated, looking wholly unperturbed.

Why had Hazuki called Takaihito here, too, when she had called this a “ladies’ soiree”? And why had Takaihito agreed to participate? Takako? Making his heart a woman’s? Just what in the world did he mean?

Left with even more questions, Miyo fell silent, not even knowing what part of it she should follow up on first.

“In other words, she’s Princess Takako, okay? She said so herself, so feel free to call her that, it’s fine. We do have one more person joining us though.”

Miyo cocked her head.

There were no extra floor cushions, and all the women she was close with who could visit a place like this appeared to be gathered here already.

Hazuki then brought out the vanity the room had been furnished with.

“I just have put this on!”

She slapped some sort of talisman on the back of the mirror.

Then the mirror began to cloud. The polished and lucent glass quickly hazed white, until finally, it naturally started to return to its former luster, starting from the bottom up.

However, the mirror that had definitely been reflecting the interior of their room a few minutes prior was now reflecting an entirely different backdrop. In its center was a face Miyo knew very well.

“Huh, Kaoruko…?”

Kaoruko wasn’t in their room, yet her face was clearly reflected in the freshly unclouded mirror. Her cheeks were somewhat flushed, and her eyes were bleary.

“It’s our extra participant, Kaoruko. Wait, now hold on. Are you drinking already?”

Hazuki introduced the woman with a smile but widened her eyes when she realized something was amiss.

“Yes, this is Jinnouchi. I’m already drinking!”

There was a sake carafe and sake cup partially in frame on the other side of the mirror. To make matters worse, while her speech was fluid and unimpaired, it seemed that she was already quite drunk, stretching up straight and giving an exaggerated salute with her reply.

Is it okay for her to do this while on duty…? was Miyo’s first thought, but Kaoruko had likely received time off for the occasion.

In which case, that would mean she was in her room at the military barracks.

“Honestly. We haven’t even poured a drop yet!”

Miyo looked behind Hazuki, who was pouting, to find alcohol, snacks, and treats for the occasion.

Hazuki had to be planning on bringing them out once the introductions were finished.

“Well, fine then. Anyway, Kaoruko Jinnouchi is joining, too. She’s unable to be here, so I sent out a familiar inviting her, and she replied with one of her own saying she wanted to join in. That’s why we’re using arts just to have her with us. Outside communication isn’t exactly the best idea since we’re in a barrier right now. But thanks to a good word on our behalf from Princess Takako here, we managed to get approval for it.”

Neither Hazuki nor Yurie seemed to be bothered in the slightest. Miyo, however, looked over at Takaihito in apprehension, feeling fidgety and restless.

While Kaoruko was wearing her military uniform, the front of her collar was slightly loose, and the hair she usually kept tied up tight was beginning to fray. On top of it all, perhaps because she was drunk, she didn’t seem to have noticed Takaihito’s presence, so she hadn’t even greeted him.

Though Miyo wasn’t one to talk because she was in her nightgown, a part of her was anxious that Kaoruko’s slightly unladylike behavior would offend Takaihito.

But maybe my fear is unfounded…

Takaihito didn’t reproach Kaoruko whatsoever, even wearing a smile on his face as Hazuki poured his cup.

It appeared she was safe to consider this as a causal and free-spirited get-together after all.

“Come now, Miyo, take this.”

Hazuki passed a glass to her that was filled to the brim with some sort of fruit juice.

“S-Sis, I should be the one pouring for you…”

“Please, it’s fine. I’m the hostess, aren’t I? Oh, right. You’re not allowed to have any alcohol, okay?”

Miyo didn’t care about not being allowed to drink, but she was confused about why she was the only one being treated this way. Hazuki picked up on her befuddlement, and her face suddenly grew serious.

“Kiyoka told me that whatever I do, I absolutely, absolutely, couldn’t give you any alcohol.”

“Kiyoka said that…?”

“Presumably because he doesn’t want anyone else to see his fiancée drunk. Sheesh, he may be my little brother, but he sure can drive me up the wall. By the way, I also informed Kiyoka about this ladies’ soiree of ours, but I didn’t mention anything about Princess Takako joining us.”

Hazuki shifted from exasperatedly shrugging her shoulders to flashing a devilish grin. At this, Takaihito also raised the corners of his lips ever so slightly and nodded.

“If Kiyoka knew about this situation, he’d be positively crimson with rage, I’m sure. Honestly, I never would have expected him to become such an intolerant man the instant he was betrothed.”

Yurie nodded up and down in agreement at Takaihito’s words, while Kaoruko also slammed her cup down on the table, and with a strangely loud voice shouted, “You’re absolutely right!”

Miyo purposefully avoided asking why exactly Kiyoka would have turned red with rage.

“However, I have previously spoken with Kiyoka about wishing to speak with you, so I am sure he would not object,” Takaihito said, looking at Miyo as he fully enjoyed himself.

Then she remembered.

She had indeed been told that Takaihito had something to discuss with her, and that she should obey whatever directions he had for her.

Though, she had never once thought it would produce an incomprehensible situation like this.

Miyo suddenly felt like she was facing down a tremendously important moment. Her mind trembled.

“I simply wished to know more about your nature. You do not need to be so nervous.”

“O-okay.”

Despite the stateliness to Takaihito’s tone, it also had a hint of levity. Miyo felt like the unapproachable aura around him had weakened slightly.

She wasn’t very confident she could stop her nerves, but she agreed for the time being.

After this, Hazuki had Yurie hold her cup up to pour her a drink, before she then held up a cup of her own to pour some liquor into.

“Now let the ladies’ soiree begin!”

Everyone took a drink from their cups after Hazuki’s opening remarks.

Miyo sipped her fruit juice. Its taste was reminiscent of the drink she’d had when she first spoke with Takaihito.

Unsurprisingly, Hazuki chattered the most that night. The next most talkative was Kaoruko. From there it went Takaihito, Yurie, and finally Miyo.

Incidentally, it wasn’t that she didn’t talk at all, but that she simply didn’t possess the conversational skills she would need to jump into a conversation involving so many people at once.

“With all the girls together like this, we’ve got to talk about love, right?” Hazuki declared, her cheeks slightly flushed and in high spirits. Miyo recalled that she could handle her liquor well, so she didn’t think she had brought the topic up on a drunken whim.

“Love! Screw love!”

As soon as the words left Hazuki’s mouth, Kaoruko shouted as she laid her face on the table and burst into tears.

“Oh my, Kaoruko. What’s wrong, dear?”

Miyo instinctively panicked at Hazuki’s attempt to dig deeper.

Until just a little while ago, Miyo and Kaoruko had essentially been romantic rivals. It wasn’t difficult for her to imagine that any topic that involved Kaoruko’s love affairs would center around Kiyoka.

No one was going to feel great about carelessly touching on such a topic at a time like this, and it was sure to ruin the mood.

Hazuki must have surmised the general details of the situation. Miyo found it difficult to understand why she would purposefully pry into things that would kick up discord.

“S-Sis, I don’t think…”

Miyo was afraid to butt into the topic herself like this, but it had to be done. When she mustered up courage to try criticizing Hazuki, an intensely serious expression instantly came to Hazuki’s face, and she looked back at Miyo.

“Now, now, why don’t we let her say her piece? Kaoruko jumped into the topic on her own, after all.”

That may have been true, but Hazuki was still the one who had suggested they talk about love in the first place. Miyo withdrew her argument, still feeling unsatisfied with the situation.

While this was going on, Kaoruko let out sniffles as complaints spilled from her mouth.

“I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know from the beginning. I knew that the commander never saw me as anything more than a colleague… Sniff. And I mean, I didn’t think that there’d be anything between us at this point anyway, but…”

“Indeed, that must have been quite painful.”

Takaihito chimed in with tepid acknowledgment in response to Kaoruko’s drunken confession.

Her line that she “didn’t think that there’d be anything between us at this point” made Miyo’s chest pound as she sat listening nearby.

The origin of Kaoruko’s jealousy had surely been the remnants of her past love.

It was true that love and romance fettered a person’s heart for a long time. When she thought about that, she could no longer keep her own heart at peace.

“Miss Miyo?”

A voice came from right beside her. She knew without even looking who the voice belonged to. It was Yurie.

“Is something the matter?”

Yurie’s steady words ever so slightly diluted the disquieting sensation spreading within Miyo’s chest.

“No…”

However, Miyo had no intentions of revealing her own fears, doubts, and anxieties to anyone else.

It may have been a good idea to consult Yurie and Hazuki, with their wealth of life experiences. She understood this, yet Miyo couldn’t clearly decide for herself what exactly, or how exactly, she should ask for their advice.

For starters, this was a problem concerning her own feelings and her relationship with Kiyoka. She felt bad about roping other people, family or otherwise, into worrying about such a thing.

Yurie smiled gently at Miyo as she swallowed her emotions.

“You really are a kind soul, Miss Miyo.”

“What? No, I wouldn’t say that.”

She wasn’t kind at all. She was simply cowardly. She couldn’t take the first step forward herself. Miyo knew her own flaws very well.

However, Yurie shook her head in denial.

“No. You are always so very kind, Miss Miyo. I noticed this from the moment you first arrived at that house. You are always sympathizing with people and considering their feelings. I know it.”

Was that really how it was?

From Miyo’s perspective, it seemed like she was only ever thinking about herself. Always afraid of being hurt.

…How pathetic.

Even now, she was merely dragging out the conclusion because she didn’t want to be hurt. Because she didn’t want to hurt someone, she was harming herself in the process.

That was why she wished to restrict her feelings for Kiyoka to the simply warm and undefined emotions they were now.

Conversely, Kaoruko’s own feelings, which she had confronted head-on, were such an honest and beautiful thing.

Because Miyo did nothing herself, it was impudent of her to even consider them romantic rivals. Not only could she not compete with Kaoruko, she couldn’t even stand in the same ring with her. And after she had so conceitedly reasoned with Kaoruko previously.

Miyo rubbed her now lukewarm glass in her hands.

“…I—”

“I know many of Miss Miyo’s best points. But the way you swallow the feelings in your heart like you’re doing now may be as much of a shortcoming as it is a strength.”

Miyo raised her head up at Yurie’s gently spoken yet scathing analysis.

“Please, Miss Miyo. All I ask is that you do as you like. I will always be on your side, and I will try to do whatever I can to help.

“Do as I like…?”

“Yes. I won’t tell you to lay absolutely everything bare. I simply ask that you remember that you have people to rely on for support, like Hazuki and myself.”

Was it truly okay for Miyo to reveal her doubts? Was it okay to rely on others? She still questioned if now was the right time. Could she really prioritize her own feelings?

Kaoruko’s voice jumped into Miyo’s ears as she sunk into her thoughts.

“Ish fine! I’ll just live fwor work inshtead! No romansh for me!”

Her articulation finally beginning to falter, Kaoruko shouted and put her face on the table. Not long afterward, they heard her breathing settle into a gentle rhythm.

“Kaoruko? Hellooo? Oh my, she’s clearly fallen asleep on us, hasn’t she?”

Hazuki called out to her in front of the mirror and waved her hand, but Kaoruko showed no signs of waking. Very little time had passed since their ladies’ soiree had gotten underway, and yet Kaoruko’s presence had come and gone like a rolling thunderstorm.

Wearing an exasperated grin, Hazuki poured more drink for Takaihito.

“I swear. She goes off on her own, then she immediately falls asleep. Kaoruko was a little out of control, wasn’t she?”

“I am sure she had built up quite a bit of emotional strain.”

Bringing his cup up to his brightly flushed lips, Takaihito smiled as well.

“Um, I know it’s a bit late to ask, but… Is this really okay? To drink alcohol like this?”

Miyo threw out the question during a lull in the conversation.

It had been on her mind the whole time. This was supposed to be a state of high alert, where they were preparing to endure an attack from the Gifted Communion and Naoshi Usui. While this didn’t necessarily apply to anyone in this room because they weren’t in the military, what if they got so drunk that they couldn’t respond to an emergency and found themselves in a life-or-death situation?

“It’s fine,” Takaihito said in answer to Miyo’s question. “We need to relax every once in a while. Furthermore, Usui will not be coming to make his move right now.”

“…Does that mean you have seen when exactly he will mount his attack, then?”

Miyo couldn’t stop herself from following up Takaihito’s confident declaration with another question.

If he understood that Usui wouldn’t be mounting his attack right now, then was there any need for them to be staying here in the palace?

She found herself sending a suspicious look in Takaihito’s direction.

However, the crown prince took her suspicions in stride.

“I do not know the definite point in time he will come. However, there is no snow this evening, yes?”

“Snow?”

Although the snow that had fallen on New Year’s Eve still lightly coated the ground, most of it had melted away in the days since. They hadn’t suffered any inclement weather since the start of their stay, so the ground was almost entirely free of white.

That aside, what exactly was the common thread between the weather and the Gifted Communion’s attack?

Miyo and Yurie exchanged puzzled glances while Hazuki calmly listened along.

“In my vision of the future, I saw a winter landscape where the snow was thick enough to bury a man’s foot.”

“A snowy landscape…”

Though it had taken a while, Miyo finally understood.

A snowy landscape—Takaihito didn’t say anything definitive beyond that, but she surmised that in the future he witnessed, it had been snowing while the events they were dreading came to pass. Both coexisting simultaneously.

Miyo’s attention naturally turned to the other side of the paper sliding screen.

There hadn’t been many clouds in the sky that afternoon, and there were no signs of the weather turning worse. There wasn’t any snow falling at the moment, either.

Prince Takaihito has seen that nothing will happen until an intense snowfall arrives, at the very least.

But a storm like that could come the next day, or the day after that.

Once the snow started falling, it would be too late to prepare, so she could understand why the Imperial Palace had already tightened up their defenses like this.

“My deepest apologies. It was thoughtless of me to ask that.”

Miyo apologized, ashamed at being slow on the uptake.

“It’s fine” was Takaihito’s reply once again. “I am unable to predict every future, and even if I were, I would be unable to describe all of them to you. Forgive me for my incompetence.”

“You’re not incompetent at all.”

It was said that Miyo could glimpse the future with her power of Dream Sight as well. However, she had never once done so, so it seemed impossible to her.

That was why Takaihito, who was actually able to divine the future and guide everyone, couldn’t possibly be incompetent.

At Miyo’s earnest declaration, what would count as a broad smile came to Takaihito’s face for the first time.

“Is that so? Hearing you say that does bring me confidence.”

“What’s this? Did Miyo showing up make even the crown prince lose some confidence in himself?”

Takaihito replied to Hazuki’s teasing with what seemed to be a delicate shake of his head.

“No… Though I do wonder whether or not I had had those types of human emotions. Perhaps I have been affected by His Majesty’s sense of danger.”

The reigning emperor feared the power of Dream Sight. This was because he saw its power to see both into the future and into the past as above that of Divine Revelation. As such, he’d crushed Sumi Usuba, the harbinger of a girl born with the Gift of Dream Sight.

Perhaps Takaihito had the same thoughts and felt the same emotions as his father.

“Though it is a possibility I would rather not contemplate.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s fine that way. I thought you were more likable in the old days, when you were more expressive.”

There was a heartfelt yearning for the past contained within Hazuki’s earnest words.

“I wonder.”

Wielding power was a difficult thing.

As long as one had it, no one would leave you to yourself, and if you couldn’t defend yourself, there was a chance you’d be abused for nefarious means regardless of your own intentions.

Miyo possessed the power of Dream Sight, but as she was unable to protect her own person, she entrusted everything to Kiyoka.

Takaihito, on the other hand, stifled his heart to protect both himself and the things he needed to defend. He was so magnificent that Miyo couldn’t possibly compare to him.

She could only feel pathetic at her incompetence, to the point where it depressed her.

“So, Miyo. We heard from Kaoruko, and now it’s your turn to talk.”

Hazuki cheerfully turned back to Miyo and lightened the mood of the room.

Miyo was flustered to suddenly be the focus of the conversation.

“T-talk? About me?”

“That’s right. Kaoruko’s drank herself to sleep at this point, so you’re the only one who can give us some talk about love to go with our drinks here.”

She was speechless. To think that her future sister-in-law would so flagrantly treat her romantic affairs as drinking entertainment.

And though it pained her to be unable to meet Hazuki’s expectations, Miyo didn’t have anything that she could talk about… Or at least, she tried to decline the invitation, but…

“So how far have you gone with that silly younger brother of mine?”

…Hazuki got one over on her.

By “how far have you gone” did she mean…?

“H-h-how far have w-we gone? Um, I couldn’t, no…”

Accidently responding to Hazuki’s comment, Miyo recalled the different episodes with Kiyoka that would answer the question and grew restless.

“You must’ve held hands, right? You’ve been hugging each other, too, right? From there, then…”

“No, um, that’s not…”

She couldn’t let Hazuki say anything more. Alarm bells were blaring in Miyo’s head.

But she had had no hope of worming her way out of this.

Miyo’s future sister-in-law gave her a look split three ways between amusement, beauty, and bawdiness, then giggled.

“Kissing, perhaps?”

Miyo thought she heard the explosion of a firecracker as her cheeks practically burst into flames.

“Oh my… For a stubborn, unsociable fuss, he’s surprisingly bold, isn’t he?”

Miyo could no longer look at Hazuki in the face of the woman’s teasing. She covered her face with both hands and tilted her head down.

There was no doubt that Kiyoka’s nose was itching right now.

“I see, it seems one cannot judge a book by its cover.”

Curiously, Takaihito was also nodding in agreement. Yurie said, “My, my,” with her hand placed up to her mouth. There was definitely a smile concealed underneath it.

“Ho-ho-ho, it’s fine to be young and innocent, Miyo. We were all like that once. I promise.”

“Indeed.”

“Oh, yes, long ago.”

The three all wore knowing looks.

It was there that Miyo suddenly realized.

Takaihito, in fact, had a wife and child of his own. If she recalled correctly, his wife was a daughter of a peer, nobly born, and their union had been established through a marriage proposal by the state and the imperial family.

Yurie and Hazuki needed no explanation.

Sensing that she had no way of subverting the situation in front of her, Miyo meekly accepted her fate.

As the four continued to eat, drink, and chat, the night grew late.

When Takaihito, whose daily schedule was planned down to the minute, took his leave, Kaoruko, who had awakened and sobered up, also terminated her art with sleepy eyes.

Miyo, Hazuki, and Yurie were now the only three left, and the room grew quiet.

The atmosphere felt both familiar yet different than usual, which was perhaps unavoidable given their location.

“Miyo… Is it all right if I ask you something?” Hazuki asked quietly as she cleaned up the scattered sake cups and bottles, plates, and other leftover items.

“Yes.”

“What do you think of Kiyoka?”

Miyo stopped in her tracks.

Her suspicions had been confirmed. It was clear that both Hazuki and Yurie had picked up on the fact that something had changed within her.

Assuming she wasn’t being too full of herself, Miyo figured that Hazuki had set up this soiree because she had seen through the truth behind her distress.

Hazuki had undoubtedly done that to make Miyo feel more comfortable talking with them.

But…

Miyo simply couldn’t bring herself to answer the question.

She knew herself.

She had always given the same answer when asked about Kiyoka in the past: He was her beloved fiancé, who she always wanted to be together with.

But now, she got the sense that merely vocalizing the word beloved would give her answer a different tone.

So Miyo tried to skirt the question.

“Kiyoka is very important to me. I’d like to spend the rest of my days at his side, if he would allow it… That’s what I think.”

“Miyo.”

She couldn’t look Hazuki in the eye. The woman’s gaze was serious, without a hint of frivolity, as if to say that Miyo hadn’t actually answered the question.

She felt guilty.

Miyo had glossed over the question and hidden her feelings despite understanding what Hazuki was asking.

“If you don’t want to answer, then I promise you don’t have to. I’m not forcing you. But, what exactly is making you so stubborn on this point, I wonder? There’s nothing to think twice about, is there? No matter what your feelings may be, I’m sure Kiyoka will accept them.”

“It’s just that…”

She was scared.

Terrified that these feelings might change something. Miyo was only growing happier and happier, and she was scared this might bring misfortune to someone else.

It wasn’t something she could easily confess, even when told she was being cowardly.

If things continued as they were currently, she and Kiyoka would become husband and wife before long. They would be able to be together. Miyo couldn’t possibly wish for anything more than that. Despite that, was there any reason for her to make her feelings clear?

Her breath caught.

There was a sharp pain inside her nose, and her heart was a mire as she floundered over what to do.

“I don’t… I don’t want things to change.”

When someone loved a person, they could end up shutting out everyone else. Like her stepmother, who was obsessed with her father.

Simple affection, on the other hand, could be given to many people.

For instance, Miyo cared about all the people around her who had shown her kindness. She held gentle feelings of affections for Hazuki and Yurie, as well as Arata and his father.

But romantic feelings were different.

Desire was like a bright flame, intense enough to devour all other emotions in its fires.

She had never wanted to become like the Saimori family. Yet despite her feelings, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t.

Once she put these feelings into words…they would go out of control. It would be tantamount to begging Kiyoka to look at her and her alone.

Just imagining it made a shiver run down her spine.

“Miyo…”

“If I’m able to quietly live together with Kiyoka forever and ever, that alone is enough to make me happy. We don’t need to have feelings reserved for just the two of us.”

Both her vision and voice wavered. Lukewarm teardrops welled up and spilled from her eyes.

Hazuki gently wrapped her arms around her. Miyo buried her head in Hazuki’s chest and wept.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you… You’re right. It is scary, isn’t it?” Hazuki said.

More tears welled forth as Miyo felt Hazuki lovingly pet her head.

Just then, events from her life flashed before her eyes, and she grew increasingly unable to voice her feelings.

The envy Miyo had felt toward Kaoruko, the jealousy Kaoruko had directed at her, made Miyo come back to her senses.

No matter how many memories of her old home she recalled, no matter how hard she rallied against becoming like what she saw there, she realized that she was threatening to do the same thing herself.

How could Miyo possibly say she wouldn’t bring anyone harm, all the while being stirred by her own jealousy as she haughtily admonished her romantic rival?

If things stopped at mere affection, no one would be hurt at all. Even if that meant she would feel lonely occasionally, she didn’t want to monopolize someone for herself.

That was why preventing her emotions from going beyond affection and reverence—familial love—would have been better.

Miyo wanted to go back to when she wasn’t lost and troubled, to a time before she became aware of the feelings that threatened to burst from her chest even now.

I was a fool. If I had never known, I wouldn’t have been able to say anything.

She lowered her tear-filled eyes and suppressed a sob.

In truth, Miyo had no right to weep. There were so many other women who had longed to stand by Kiyoka’s side.

“I’m… I’m sorry…for crying all of a sudden,” Miyo said, trying to hold back her heaving sobs.

Hazuki’s question was justified. Miyo was being half-hearted and indecisive, so it was obvious that a friendly and considerate woman like Kiyoka’s sister would be concerned.

Miyo had nothing to say for herself; Hazuki should have scolded her for avoiding her question.

Yet Hazuki shook her head at Miyo’s apology.

“Don’t be. I should be apologizing. I stuck my nose too far into your personal business. I was too hasty. But let me just say one thing.”

“Yes?”

Sensing the earnestness in Hazuki’s slightly lowered tone, Miyo looked up at her face with her tear-drenched eyes.

“It’s up to you whether you tell Kiyoka your feelings or not. But I think between making your feelings clear and regretting it afterward, and keeping your feelings unspoken and regretting it afterward, the latter of the two situations will hurt the most.”

“…………”

“I speak from experience, since I’m in the latter camp myself. I missed my opportunity to make my feelings known, and then there was nothing else I could do. Though I guess you could say I’m just being stubborn.”

Miyo felt a pain in her chest seeing Hazuki’s slightly lonesome expression.

“Hurting others is a scary thing, isn’t it? In that case…what if you think about it like this—you think that if you maintain the status quo, you’ll be able to get by without hurting anyone, right?”

Miyo couldn’t answer that. This must have been what it was like to be unable to voice your true feelings.

Taking Miyo’s silence as an agreement, Hazuki continued.

“I’ll admit that if your heart was yours and yours alone, that may be true. But I know one person who would be hurt if you kept your honest feelings locked inside.”

“Huh?”

Miyo’s eyes, unconsciously widened in pure disbelief, reflected Hazuki’s smile.

“Wouldn’t your fiancé who loves you be hurt by that?”

“Ah…”

Kiyoka’s smile flashed in the back of her mind.

He would be hurt if she kept her feelings to herself—she definitely wouldn’t have believed it when they had first met each other.

Thinking back now though, the only images that came to her mind were of her fiancé always showing her extra-special care.

Was it really okay for Miyo to believe that she was special to him? Just as he had become special to her?

What did Kiyoka want? Would he really be hurt if Miyo kept the depths of her heart a secret?

I don’t know. But…

Before she knew it, her tears had stopped.

“Please…give me some time to think.”

Hazuki broke into a smile of relief at Miyo’s response.

“Oh yes, of course. Give it as much thought as you need and find the path that’ll make you happy, okay? Yurie and I will back you up, right?” Hazuki said, and Yurie smiled and nodded back as well.

Miyo felt so blessed.

She had been too distressed to do anything. Yet she had people who would happily support her like this. This alone almost made her happier than she could bear. Miyo reflected on the warmth sprouting forth from inside her chest.

The clear winter sky shifted from orange to violet at twilight, and the air grew cold enough to freeze the ground.

The sun was setting on the fifth day since Miyo and others had begun living in the Imperial Palace.

Beneath the fully darkened wintry sky, Miyo was saying her farewells to Kiyoka before he went back to work.

He would take some time to visit Miyo every day. The timing always varied, but today they had been able to enjoy a slightly early dinner together.

Although she did enjoy these moments of relief, where she could see he was in good health, they didn’t alleviate her anxieties.

“Are you holding up okay, Kiyoka?”

“No issues here. You don’t have to check in with me every day…”

Kiyoka gave a slightly strained smile as he responded to a question he’d heard many times already.

“But I’m worried.”

Kiyoka and his men were standing on the frontlines to protect Miyo and Takaihito, and there was a growing number of voices expressing distrust of the military and government throughout the Empire.

It must have been quite the physical and mental strain to stand guard against the Gifted Communion while facing criticism from the press day in and day out.

Telling her not to worry was the unreasonable thing here.

Miyo gently placed the scarf in her hands around Kiyoka’s neck.

He gazed at her in slight awe and placed his hand up to it before he softened his gaze and smiled.

“Gift-users have hardier bodies than normal people. This much is nothing.”

“No matter how powerful Gift-users are, they can still be harmed.”

Gift-users weren’t completely emotionless, and they weren’t invincible.

Staying on alert day and night and facing people’s criticism was mentally and emotionally exhausting. If Kiyoka was injured on duty, it could lead to his death.

A slight amount of mental and physical fatigue alone was all it took to degrade one’s health.

“I don’t ever want to see you collapse again.”

“I did that?”

Miyo looked up at Kiyoka and pouted, annoyed that he was playing dumb.

“You definitely fell. Did you forget already?”

“I was joking.”

Laughing at Miyo’s annoyed objections, Kiyoka returned to the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit camp.

The image of him collapsed and unconscious came back into her mind. She would never forget the terror she had felt and the tears she had shed when Kiyoka had protected a subordinate and didn’t wake up.

The horror of losing someone precious. Having lost her own mother very early in her life, it was the first time Miyo had tasted that awful fear.

When she was living back in the Saimoris’ home, she had felt a feeling of loss tear open her heart when Hana left, but the terror of seeing her fiancé potentially lose his life right in front of her was incomparable.

No, right now, it’d be even worse…, she thought, staring at the spot where Kiyoka had disappeared from view.

Now that her feelings had developed and blossomed, if she did end up in a situation where she lost Kiyoka, she couldn’t imagine what would happen to her.

Nevertheless, she could foresee that the results wouldn’t be anything good.

Because after all the pain and sadness that came with losing the person she loved and who loved her back, she would be alone.

“Miyo, come inside quick or you’ll freeze.”

“Arata…”

Her cousin called to her, poking his head out from the entryway door.

Just what sort of expression had she been wearing when she turned around? Arata was slightly taken aback when he met her eyes.

After a small sigh, his tranquil smile returned as he approached her.

“You don’t have to worry so much. Commander Kudou will be fine.”

“Kiyoka told me the same thing.”

“I’m sure he did. I’d say there’s close to no one in the world who’s a match for the commander.”

“But that won’t necessarily hold true…for that man, Naoshi Usui, right?”

The Gifts of the Usuba and their branch family, the Usuis, were effective against Gift-users. Kiyoka was no exception, no matter how powerful he may have been.

On top of that, Usui’s Gift was particularly strong, even compared to the other Usuba and Usui Gifts. There was no guarantee that Kiyoka would come out unscathed if he crossed paths with Usui.

Miyo knew that fact very well, since she had learned much about the Usuba gifts.

Arata looked down at Miyo with a quiet stare. The color that came to his pupils melded with the darkness of night, so she couldn’t see them clearly.

“Maybe so, maybe not.”

“What?”

It was a vague answer. Not very characteristic of Arata.

“Did you know that Gifts will sometimes get stronger or weaker depending on the strength of one’s thoughts?”

“What do you mean?”

It was a topic that hadn’t come up in any of Arata’s lectures until now. Not only that, but the “strength of one’s thoughts” was still an awfully ambiguous concept.

Arata winced slightly and shrugged.

“It’s something I heard can happen on occasion is all. At the very least, I’ve felt the power of my thoughts effect the strength of my Gift.”

It sounded like this phenomenon hadn’t been explored much.

Though now that Miyo thought about it, her Gift had manifested out of her wholehearted desire to save Kiyoka.

“But you’re saying it’s possible, then?” she asked.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have given her such a vague answer.

“…I do wonder. Part of me wants it to be that way, but another part wants it to not be true. If that actually was the case—”

Arata broke off for a minute and let out a small sigh.

“If that were true, I feel like things would’ve ended up differently.”

Miyo looked up at Arata, confused by what he meant. However, he didn’t elaborate any further.

As they continued to chat, the curtain of night visibly came down from the east, and stars faintly began to twinkle in the deep blue sky.

The garden was still bright, illuminated in the reddish orange of the evening sun. Conversely, the small, evergreen-flanked road that extended from the front of the entryway to the main road, which went on to imperial residences and governmental buildings, had gone completely dark. The blackness was so intense it seemed to threaten to swallow one whole.

The sound of an engine broke the silence between them.

From the other end of the darkened road, a dazzling artificial light gradually approached, dimly swaying as it went.

“Oh… Whose automobile is that?”

The vehicle dug into the gravel and slowly passed through the small road, drawing closer to them.

Miyo couldn’t see who was through the darkness.

The automobile passed in front of Miyo and Arata at an outright leisurely pace. Miyo thought it may have been Kiyoka’s, but the shape was slightly different. Then she suspected that it belonged to someone else she knew, but no one came to mind.

“That’s probably one of the ministers’ official cars.”

“The ministers…”

“If memory serves, I believe they were holding a meeting in the Front Chambers that Prince Takaihito was attending.”

Even then, it was strange. The public Front Chambers, the emperor’s personal residence in the Inner Palace, and Takaihito’s residence were far from each other, and officials wouldn’t need to pass through here to get to the Imperial Palace entrance, which was in the opposite direction.

Right as Miyo and Arata started to grow wary, the suspicious automobile parked, and two men dressed in suits came out.

One was a plump, bearded middle-aged man, whose well-tailored three-piece suit evinced his wealth. The other was a younger man of medium build in his thirties, whose face lacked any distinctive features. While he also wore a high-quality outfit, it was inferior to the one of the man beside him.

“Good evening and pardon our intrusion. The Imperial Palace is just so very sprawling and vast, so we’ve gotten a bit lost.”

The younger of the two spoke up with a radiant smile.

Arata immediately pushed Miyo behind him and addressed the two men.

“Forgive me, but might you be the Minister of Education and his secretary? May I ask what business you have at Prince Takaihito’s personal residence?”

“Like I said, we’ve lost our way, so we thought we’d ask for directions.”

The younger man—the Minister of Education’s secretary—replied without the slightest apology.

Even Miyo could tell his excuse was a flat-out lie. There was no way a minister and his secretary would get lost after attending so many meetings that would have brought them to the Imperial Palace since the New Year.

Is there any chance they’re here for me…?

Though Miyo knew she couldn’t show fear, now that it occurred to her that she could very well be attacked at any moment, the blood drained from her fingertips and her hands began to go cold.

Kiyoka had already returned to the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit camp.

However, these two would have needed to pass the camp to get here from the emperor’s residence, so it wouldn’t be long before Kiyoka’s unit realized what was going on.

“You lost your way? Ridiculous.”

“We just took a wrong turn at a corner. Anyone could make that sort of mistake, wouldn’t you agree?”

The secretary wasn’t bothered at all by Arata’s stinging accusation.

The Minister of Education made no attempt to caution his secretary, and gave a chuckling snort after leering at Miyo and Arata.

“…Hmph. I was hoping to see the Gift-user who His Highness insisted on protecting, but all I see here are a whelp and a meager girl.”

By now, Miyo and Arata wouldn’t stoop to getting worked up over his contempt.

However, the sight of the minister stroking his beard as he spoke was so haughty and overbearing that it soured Miyo’s mood.

“Then there’s no need to go out of your way to see this whelp and girl, is there, my good sir? If you make your way back to the road you took to get here, you’ll be able to head right on your way.”

Both the minister and his secretary furrowed their brows in displeasure at Arata’s offensively obsequious statement.

“It seems you don’t know how to talk to your superiors, boy. You’re a lost cause.”

“Be that as it may, I am afraid that currently, as the minister is assuredly aware, we are under a state of high alert. We need to be wary of you, my good sir, as we do everyone else. There are no exceptions.”

Arata further rebuffed the minister in a calm tone that suppressed his anger, but this seemed to offend him even further.

“If you’re so wary of powerless people such as ourselves, then perhaps you Gift-users aren’t so impressive after all. You talk big about these Gifts of yours, but you actually can’t use any sort of supernatural powers at all, can you? No wonder then you’re cowering in fear like baby rabbits.”

Blunt provocation.

Should a person tasked as a governmental minister of an entire country really be allowed to speak and act like this?

Up until now, Miyo had seen many people around her—Kiyoka, Takaihito, or the Usubas—live noble lives and make sacrifices for their roles and responsibilities.

Compared to them, the minister didn’t seem to deserve to be in a position of such great responsibility.

Miyo noticed a twinge of disgust and disappointment beneath her fear and anger.

“…Please leave.”

Arata gave a direct answer, no longer feeling the need to go along with the man’s questions.

“Minister, sir, perhaps these two do not in fact possess any kind of Gift. That would explain why they are trying so desperately to turn us away. There is something shady going on here, that’s for sure.”

“Hah-hah-hah. Good point. If you both claim to be Gift-users who deserve esteem and respect, then go ahead and show me some proof. You can do that, can’t you?”

No one ever once expected any esteem or respect.

Miyo and Takaihito were being protected because the Gifted Communion was targeting them, not because of some expectation that Gift-users should be treasured and held above others.

If the minister, actively taking part in governing the country, truly meant what he was saying, then this wasn’t a case of mere ignorance.

Too bewildered to respond, Miyo looked up at Arata.

“You can provoke us all you like, but we won’t go along with your challenge. It’s entirely meaningless, and it’s likely to be to our own detriment.”

Arata was evidently annoyed by the pair’s remarks.

However, it would be the height of foolishness to actually use his Gift right here, in Takaihito’s residence, and cause a scene.

While Miyo didn’t know what circumstances may have been at play, there was no question that the two men trying to provoke them into using their Gifts were the ridiculous ones here.

“You cheeky little…”

Right as the Minister hurled his insults as if recoiling from Arata, there was suddenly the sound of engines and tires on gravel, along with signs that a large group of people were approaching.

“Minister of Education Hasebe! What are you doing?” a man in a suit shouted, his face distorted in anger as he leapt from an automobile coming to a sudden halt.

Miyo unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

That’s Mr. Takakura, isn’t it…?

She had been briefly introduced to him the day that that she started living in the Imperial Palace. According to Kiyoka, Takakura was unlike the other officials who came to the palace grounds and had earned Takaihito’s trust. He would act as their ally.

Miyo could see the Minister of the Imperial Household and his chamberlains following behind Takakura.

Further behind them were members of the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit, though Kiyoka was not among them, with Godou at the lead instead.

“Whatever do you mean? This is very rude of you, wouldn’t you say, Lord Keeper Takakura?”

“Manners have nothing to do with this. Though you are a minister, under the current circumstances, I ask you to refrain from acting out of line within the Imperial Palace grounds.”

“‘Out of line’ you say? Don’t you order me around!”

The Minister of Education raised his voice. Then he scowled at Miyo and Arata with piercing eyes.

“Besides! You acted out of line by inviting these charlatans into the Imperial Palace without permission in the damn first place!”

“I approached the others about the arrangements.”

“I didn’t give my approval!”

The Minister of Education threatened to lose his temper at Takakura’s counterargument, but then his secretary, of all people, jumped in to stop him.

“Now, now, sir. We’ll only have more problems to deal with if you make a bigger fuss, so please bear with it for now.”

As the secretary openly tried to stop his boss like he was a soothing a horse, Miyo felt as though his eyes met hers for a brief moment.

What…?

It made her shoulders tremble slightly. She felt like he had glared at her. Had that just been her imagination?

“Miyo. Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no.”

Miyo shook her head at her cousin as he turned back to her, looking worried.

Since things had dissolved into an argument, the secretary must have been on edge as well. As it was, Miyo and Arata were both Usubas, and the harsh criticism they faced was more intense than other Gift-users.

On top of that, the Minister of Education seemed fundamentally dismissive of Gift-users, and given the way the secretary also spoke and acted, he might have hated them as well. In which case, there wasn’t much she could do about being glared at like this.

“Please, allow me to apologize. The wrong turn we took ended up causing quite a bit of commotion.”

The secretary impudently turned to Arata as though nothing had happened, in spite of how much he had riled up the minister.

“I don’t need your half-hearted apologies. Go back the way you came as soon as possible.”

“Oh my. I certainly understand why you’d be upset, but please forgive us,” the secretary said as he approached Arata with excessive familiarity and tapped him on the shoulder. He clearly wasn’t actually sorry, so Miyo could understand Arata’s grimace.

As the two passed each other, the secretary whispered something.

“Don’t forget your role here.”

Arata widened his eyes in surprise for a moment, before he bit down on his lip.

The faint whisper disappeared before it could reach anyone else’s ears, and Miyo had no way of knowing the substance of his comment.

The secretary and minister returned to their automobile as the crowd who had gathered glared at them in annoyance.

“Sorry for not coming sooner. Are you all right, Miyo?”

Godou approached them with an apologetic look.

“Oh, Godou… I’m fine.”

Arata had protected her, and she hadn’t been at risk of being harmed.

“Thank goodness,” Godou replied, a wholehearted look of relief on his face. “We were notified right after the commander departed for the advance guard. He should have gotten the report on the situation by now, so I’m sure he’ll come here soon, but… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Thank you. I’m sorry for troubling you all with this.”

When Miyo bowed in apology, Arata looked strangely cross and a cold smile came to his face.

“You don’t need to apologize, Miyo. This is clearly a failure on their part. While it didn’t seem to be the case with the minister and his secretary, if they had indeed been Usui in disguise, it would have been far too late by the time Godou and his men arrived.”

“Yes, well… You’re absolutely right…”

As they spoke, the engine of the minister and secretary’s automobile roared, and they drove off.

Then Takakura came over to join them, dejection visible on his intellectual features.

“You have my deepest apologies for the trouble they caused you.”

“There was no harm this time, but I would ask that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again… I do understand that you’re in a difficult position, but still.”

Arata was equally stern with Takakura.

While Miyo didn’t know the particulars, it appeared the government wasn’t a monolith, either.

Evidently, some officials didn’t trust Takaihito acting in the emperor’s stead. They also had doubts about the current status quo, where everything was decided by someone wielding the power of Divine Revelation, which was incomprehensible to the average person.

Takaihito had battled against these forces the whole time he had been acting as the emperor’s representative, but it seemed that his invitation of Miyo and company into the Imperial Palace had caused the discontent and suspicions against him to boil over.

Miyo assumed that the Minister of Education was one of the people who was dissatisfied with the way things were.

“But of course. I swear on my name as Prince Takaihito’s aide that I will work to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Please do.”

Ultimately, Miyo failed to understand what exactly the minister and his secretary had come there to do.

However, that was more than enough to make her worried about whether or not she would be able to spend the next ten days there in peace.

“…Just what did those two men come here for, anyway?” Miyo muttered, cocking her head.

Their excuse about getting lost was absurd, so they must have come here for a different reason.

“Who knows. I can’t say for sure, but maybe they wanted to come check on us or something.”

“Wh-why would they go out of their way to do that?”

“Clearly, the government’s got too much time on their hands.”

Arata’s tone was cynical and biting.

Something is off.

Although his mouth was formed into his usual gentle and friendly smile, Arata was acting very uncharacteristically. His words carried a strange aggression.

“Arata.”

“What is it, Miyo?”

When she addressed him, she was met with the same temperament her cousin always had, free of any spite.

Still, she had felt like something was off the whole time. She needed to figure things out for herself.

“Um, are you…all right?”

A clever, tactful question didn’t come to her.

What was she supposed to ask him, and what did she need to ask to get Arata to answer her truthfully? Unable to instantly come up with the right question, she was disappointed in herself for landing on a terribly vague way of questioning him.

“I’m not exactly sure what you are referring to, but I’m just fine.”

“Um, no, well. That’s not it.”

“It’s not?”

“Is something bothering you? Or are you worried about something?”

A tiny chuckle escaped from Arata’s lips as she stammered and avoided looking him in the eye.

“Hah-hah. There’s nothing to worry about. Oh, but I am facing a problem, though.”

“Huh?!”

Miyo looked up in an instant, hopeful that he would actually confide in her.

However, things wouldn’t be that easy with this cousin of hers, skillful at keeping up appearances and playing things off as he was.

“You’re quick to get yourself involved in all sorts of trouble, so I can’t let you out of my sight for the slightest moment.”

That wasn’t what she was asking about at all. Nevertheless, she couldn’t deny that his observation was on the mark.

Miyo was conscious of the fact that she was regularly causing not only her fiancé Kiyoka to worry on her behalf, but also her cousin Arata.

“It’s just…”

His low murmur spilled down to her from above.

“I won’t be able to protect you forever, either.”

His melancholic and forlorn words cut deep.

She gave it some more thought and realized his statement made perfect sense. While they were relatives, she wasn’t even living together with Arata, so she couldn’t expect him to be her bodyguard for life, nor was it really necessary.

It was an extremely obvious statement. So why does it bother me so much? Miyo wondered.

“Arata…?”

“But even if I’m not around, with how you are now, you might be fine regardless.”

“That’s not true…”

It was totally unbelievable. If she really would be just fine, then Kiyoka wouldn’t have purposefully placed Arata, someone he was still somewhat leery of, at her side.

With an assertive connotation in his words, Arata continued without looking back at Miyo.

“You’ve gotten quite strong. And you have Commander Kudou with you.”

“Please, I’m not strong at all.”

“You definitely are. That’s why I’m sure that in the not-too-distant future, we’ll no longer be spending time together like this anymore.”

Even though he was right by her side, Arata seemed terribly far away.

They were conversing with each other, and yet she felt like nothing she said was resonating with him right now. She hadn’t the slightest idea as to why.

“I’m sorry. I’ve gone and caused you trouble.”

Miyo found it too difficult to pick up on Arata’s true intentions as he collected himself and gave a strained smile.

“Not at all… As long as you’re all right,” she said.

“I’m just the same as always. Though, I did seem to let myself get quite irritated back there,” he admitted.

She couldn’t parse Arata’s true feelings. And it felt as though she would be pushed away if she even tried.

Miyo was confused.

Or rather, it was more accurate to say she was too dumbfounded to make sense of things.

“…Was my bedding always set up like this…?”

A large bedding set had been neatly laid out in front of Miyo and Kiyoka—but for some reason, there were two pillows enthroned side by side at the head of the mattresses, their presence abnormally imposing.

“Well, I don’t know. If you’re not normally using two pillows at night, then it must have changed, right?” Kiyoka said from beside her, similarly flummoxed.

A few hours had passed since that evening’s incident.

After things settled down, Kiyoka arrived, completely out of breath, and confirmed over and over again that nothing was out of the ordinary. Even after Miyo assured him repeatedly that there wasn’t any problem, he wouldn’t listen to a word she said.

“Miyo! Are you all right? Did they do anything strange to you? The moment I heard that something bad had happened to you, I was beside myself with worry…”

Hazuki had kept repeating “thank goodness,” over and over again, though the tears had probably been unnecessary. This worried Yurie, and soon a terrible uproar developed.

On top of this, Hazuki and Yurie had harshly instructed Kiyoka to stay behind in Takaihito’s residence for the time being out of worry for Miyo. They were both given strict orders to relax together.

Kiyoka had been working nonstop these past few days. He’d essentially been camping out, sleeping in a tent beneath the winter sky, so he was understandably exhausted.

It was a natural course of events to invite him to take it easy and relax, under the pretext of guarding Miyo.

Th-there wasn’t anything strange about it…right?

Hazuki and Yurie had insisted that Kiyoka should relax and unwind a bit, but that was nothing new.

Both Kiyoka and Miyo normally found it difficult to decline the pair’s proposals, and were pressured into relenting, so nothing about it should have felt unnatural.

However, for some reason or another…

By the time Kiyoka escorted Miyo from the bath to her designated room, the interior had been perfectly cleaned up and magically transformed into its current state.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time her room had been struck by this sort of unnatural phenomenon.

Arata disappeared without a trace at some point, too…

Now he was nowhere to be found, even though he had guarded her right up until she had entered the bath. Additionally, she couldn’t feel Yurie’s presence in the half of the room partitioned by the sliding door for her to use.

Miyo couldn’t help feeling a strange sense of déjà vu at the scene before them.

“We’ve been set up.”

“…I—I thought so.”

It seemed impossible to wave this off as just happenstance.

However, Hazuki and Yurie had earnestly confronted the troubles weighing on Miyo’s mind, and were supposed to have understood her feelings, so it was difficult for her to think they would make such a forceful move.

Not only that, but they had only told her to relax together with Kiyoka, not hint that they should sleep together.

That begged the question—who had set this up?

“This…doesn’t seem like my sister’s doing. Despite how she may look, she’s still a gentlewoman in her twenties. She wouldn’t act this vulgarly. Which just leaves Prince Takaihito, then,” Kiyoka coarsely declared, shaking his head wearily.

This is almost the exact same situation we faced in the Kudou villa, isn’t it…?

However, there was one thing different this time.

“Haah. If this is Prince Takaihito’s doing, then I won’t be able to get him to prepare a separate room for me, will I?”

This wasn’t the Kudous’ estate, but another person’s home, and everything rested in Takaihito’s hands. In other words, even if they asked him to provide separate rooms, he could decide to refuse them.

The situation was dire, and Miyo and Kiyoka had essentially lost all means of taking control of the situation.

“Seriously, just where in the world did they get bedding this big in the first place?”

“…………”

“Sounds nice and all to say he’s being considerate…but is this really something a full-grown man, and a crown prince at that, should be doing?”

Kiyoka pressed on his forehead, his somewhat verbose statement showing his utter amazement.

Conversely, Miyo could only stand there in shock.

I’m…g-going to sleep next to Kiyoka? R-really?

Miyo and Kiyoka were very much living together, but they were still only betrothed, not actually husband and wife.

Wasn’t it far too early for them to share the same bed? No, it was definitely too early. The whole thing was absurd.

“Miyo.”

“Y-yes!” she squeaked in a weird voice that showed her unease.

“We don’t have a choice. Time to sleep,” Kiyoka said, taking off the jacket of the military uniform he was still wearing and picking up the nightwear that had been left for him in the corner of the room.

He smoothly undid the purple hair tie that held his hair in place, letting his gorgeous light brown locks flow down his back.

“…Miyo, it’s a little difficult to change with you watching me,” Kiyoka tentatively said to her as she stood in blank amazement. That brought her back to her senses.

Change—right, Kiyoka was going to change his clothes right now. In other words, if she stood there any longer, she would lay eyes on his bare skin.

“I-I’m sorry!” she apologized with a shout, hastily exiting into the hallway and slamming the sliding door behind her.

Miyo was so embarrassed that it felt like her face was catching fire. The wintertime hallway should have been freezing, yet her whole body was hot enough to make her want to take off her haori coat. It seemed like she would break out in a sweat any minute.

“I don’t really mind you watching me, though.”

“I—I certainly do!”

What did he mean by that in the first place? Did Kiyoka want Miyo to watch him undress? There was no way he was a pervert with an exhibitionist fetish, so that clearly shouldn’t be the case.

She was so beside herself that her thoughts went in a bizarre direction.

The slight rustling of clothes seemed to ring extra loud in her ears, and she no longer knew where to focus her hearing.

“I’m finished.”

The instantaneous yet unending moment passed, and Kiyoka opened the sliding door.

“Get in before you freeze. I didn’t mean to chase you out like that.”

“I understand…”

The inside of the room was bright. Crimson all the way to her ears with embarrassment, and wishing to hide her tearful eyes, Miyo kept her face down as she returned to the room.

Miyo was so worried that steam would rise up in the chilled air from her flushed body that she started wishing she could run away entirely.

Then she timidly raised her eyes, only to instantly regret it.

Miyo saw Kiyoka in his nightwear on an almost daily basis; it was neither a particularly rare sight, nor something that should unsettle her so much.

And yet, when her mind went to the fact they were about to share a bed together, the image of him wrapped up in his all-too-thin nightwear became alluring and seductive.

“Miyo, you should use the bedding.”

“What?”

Her head was so completely on fire that she couldn’t understand what her fiancé was getting at.

The way he put it, why, it was as if Kiyoka was saying he wasn’t going to use the bedding.

“There’s no way you’ll be able to relax if we’re lying together under the same blanket, right?”

“B-but…what about you?”

“I’m fine. I’ll figure something out, even if I can’t sleep. If push comes to shove, I can try to get some rest standing up. Rest assured, I’ll be right by your side.”

It seemed Kiyoka was intent on letting Miyo sleep by herself while he did an all-night vigil.

But she couldn’t possibly allow him to do that.

“Th-that won’t do. You should use the bedding, Kiyoka. You’ve been given a chance to get some good rest.”

“I can’t let you do that. I’d be kicking you out just so I can enjoy a leisurely night’s sleep all on my own.”

“I think it’s better that way.”

Miyo was bound to spend the following day cooped up inside this room anyway.

But things were different for Kiyoka. He was always on guard, prepared for Usui and the Gifted Communion’s attack, and had been living in an outdoor camp tent. She knew he wasn’t getting enough rest.

The other unit members, even Godou, were taking one to two days off in shifts, but Kiyoka didn’t get that, either.

She at least wanted him to be able to get a good night’s sleep in this stressful time.

“Enough joking.”

Kiyoka gave a big sigh and gently rapped Miyo’s head.

It didn’t hurt of course, but the surprise made her forget her embarrassment, so she looked Kiyoka in the face.

“There’s no way I’ll be able to get comfortable in that big blanket and doze off all by myself. Just do as I say.”

“…I don’t want to.”

Though she understood that the situation would remain unresolved, she couldn’t help standing up to him.

Of course, she just as readily understood that Kiyoka was gradually growing annoyed. Nevertheless, this was one point where she couldn’t back down.

“I don’t want you to sleep outside of the bedding.”

Hearing Miyo’s definitive declaration, Kiyoka finally appeared to relent.

“Fine then. I’ll sleep on the floor. You sleep in the bedding. That’s the only concession I’ll make.”

Kiyoka didn’t wait to hear Miyo’s reply, immediately turning his back to her, and taking one of the two pillows. Watching him as he went to lie down on the tatami floor, Miyo moved almost completely without thinking.

“What are you doing?”

As if chasing right after him, she grabbed him by the sleeve.

It felt almost like the nerves in her fingers had been peeled open and laid bare as her whole consciousness focused on her hand.

Her briefly cooled cheeks once again grew hot.

“Um, m-maybe…w-we could both…”

She had reached her limit. It was all but impossible to put what came next into words. It was mortifying. Unladylike. Her hands were trembling. Had the courage she’d mustered gotten across to him?

Kiyoka gently removed her fingers, which had gone white from gripping his sleeve.

“I get it. As annoyed as I am to go along with Takaihito’s dirty trick here, why don’t we sleep next to each other?”

All they were doing was getting underneath the covers, and yet they both moved awkwardly as they laid down, side by side.

I can’t believe what I’ve done…

Her heart pounded like a drum in her ears. It throbbed almost painfully in her chest.

Even she couldn’t believe that she had managed to behave so audaciously.

Miyo and Kiyoka both lay down while facing away from each other, toward the outside of the blanket.

She couldn’t stop her mind from focusing on him behind her.

When she did, she worried her intensely throbbing heartbeats would travel to Kiyoka’s side of the blanket, or that he would hear her almost agonizingly rough breathing.

Miyo tried to scoot to the edge of the blanket as much as possible and huddled into a ball.

Would she be able to hold her breath in this position and wait it out until morning?

As that thought ran through Miyo’s mind, Kiyoka abruptly spoke up.

“Can’t sleep?”

Her attempt to feign slumber was quickly found out.

“N-no,” Miyo quietly replied, making sure to stop her voice from quivering as much as possible. “I can. I’ll do my best to try to sleep.”

If she didn’t, Miyo was sure that Kiyoka would be too concerned about whether she was actually slumbering or not to sleep himself.

She closed her eyes.

Miyo desperately tried to make her consciousness sink into torpor, but the sound of her heart continued to thunder, and the presence she felt behind her loomed so large in her mind that she didn’t feel the slightest bit drowsy.

All she was doing was closing her eyes.

As she struggled, she again heard Kiyoka’s subdued voice.

“You can’t fall asleep, can you?”

“…I can’t,” she answered honestly in resignation.

After being the one to invite him to share the bed, she felt absolutely pathetic.

She wanted to scold herself for optimistically assuming that as long as she was underneath the blanket, she would naturally grow drowsy and be able to fall asleep without worrying about Kiyoka beside her.

“Miyo.”

“Y-yes…?”

“Why don’t we chat a little until you’re able to sleep?”

Was he being considerate to her? When she thought about the fact that she had held out so strongly to ensure he could rest properly only to end up in this mess, her spinelessness made her feel all the more excruciated.

But on the other hand, she was happy to have the chance to talk together, just the two of them, in a place without any extraneous noise to bother them.

“What sort of a chat?”

“…What do you want to talk about?”

They hadn’t had any time to have a relaxed conversation these past few days.

Kiyoka was busy, and though he came to see her every day, they would only be together long enough to share a meal.

This was why Miyo thought she would have had so many different things she wanted to talk about.

But now that she was on the spot, nothing was coming to mind.

“How about we take turns asking and answering each other’s questions until we start feeling sleepy?” Kiyoka asked.

“O-okay.”

Questions Kiyoka wanted to ask her— Miyo stared straight at the wall through the dark and thought to herself.

However, it was his abrupt proposal, not the questioning itself, that Miyo found curious.

Asking each other questions, of all things. She couldn’t help feeling that it was a very uncharacteristic suggestion. After all, it made it sound as if he wished to learn more about her.

As Miyo stewed in distress, Kiyoka went ahead and asked his question.

“I’ll go first. Have you experienced anything troubling or scary since coming here?”

“No.”

Miyo knew that Kiyoka couldn’t see her in the darkness, but she shook her head slightly anyway.

“Everyone here has gone out of their way to be kind, and I’m constantly being protected with great care… There have been plenty of moments where I’ve considered myself truly blessed, though.”

“Is that so?”

Every last person in her life was protecting Miyo with the utmost care, on top of taking the trouble to not upend her daily routine.

That was why she hadn’t faced any problems or felt scared at all.

If anything satisfied that criteria, it was the incident that evening, which had made her blood run cold. When she considered what would’ve happened with that minister and his secretary if they had been Usui’s men, she felt petrified and trembled uncontrollably.

But even then, she hadn’t felt the same sort of loneliness she had experienced at her old home, and she had allowed herself to be at peace knowing Arata was at her side and that Takakura and the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit members would come rushing to aid her.

She truly didn’t feel like she was in danger, or that there was an impending crisis.

When she recalled the events of that evening, she was ashamed of her own helplessness, which was like that of a weak and feeble child.

“That’s right. Um, then I’ll ask you that, too… Have you ever felt your work was grueling and hard before?” she inquired, trying to stifle her discomfort.

Unable to immediately come up with a good question herself, she’d ended up asking the same thing Kiyoka had.

B-but I do want to know everything I can about him…

As she internally justified the question to herself, Kiyoka answered without any hesitation.

“I’ve never felt the duty itself was hard before, no.”

“Not once?”

After asking him again, Miyo remembered they had decided on taking turns, and covered her mouth with both hands.

“Oh, sorry. I accidently asked two questions.”

“It’s fine,” Kiyoka responded with a chuckle, seeming to pick up on Miyo’s dejection from the tone in her voice. “That’s right, not once. Now, I’ve had a few hard times over the course of my military career. I’ve also felt the sting of regret when my colleagues and subordinates were injured or taken out. But even then, I’ve never thought that my duty was grueling.”

“I see…”

Kiyoka spoke without hesitation, but there was no doubt he’d experienced a considerable amount of both mental and physical anguish in his work.

From what she’d heard, the same had been true of Godou’s father. Seeing close acquaintances collapse one after another, seeing them slowly die, and the deep remorse he must’ve felt when he had been unable to save them—

Miyo couldn’t even imagine just how much pain he had gone through.

“What about you? Do you have any regrets about becoming my fiancée?”

Kiyoka threw another question at her.

But this one was extremely easy to answer.

“Absolutely none at all. In the beginning, I was nervous about being a substitute for my little sister. But at some point, that disappeared, too.”

“I’m glad.”

Their voices were absorbed into the still of the night and vanished.

For a moment, only the sounds of their faint breathing hung in the air.

“…………”

“…………”

Her eyelids felt ever so slightly like they would fall.

Perhaps that was why.

In her half-asleep state, a desire to ask more penetrating questions bloomed.

“Kiyoka, um, so.”

With her drowsiness lightly enveloping her consciousness, the final remnants of her reason and gentlewoman’s modesty made the movement of her lips waver.

“What?”

The response sounded curt, but she could feel the gentleness deeper within.

“Have you ever felt…romantic love before?”

Before she knew it, the question had left her lips.

Strangely, once she had put it out into the air, her attitude became almost defiant. There was no turning back now.

“…Love, huh.”

Kiyoka’s tiny murmur fell into the blackness and dissolved.

After she sensed him spend a moment to gather his thoughts, Kiyoka replied in a faltering tone of voice, as if he was carefully thinking through each word he spoke.

“Honestly, I don’t have any particular memories of being certain about feeling love. Now I can understand that I was being willingly unresponsive to both the feelings others showed for me, and my own feelings as well. That I had been running away from earnestly confronting them. That’s why I’ve never felt like that before.”

The way he spoke with such regret was surprising, and Miyo gasped with her back still facing Kiyoka.

Nevertheless, it might have been only natural.

While he was a kind and thoughtful man with a gentle side, he also had a clumsiness to him.

His behavior…

“You acted that way to protect yourself, didn’t you?”

…was exactly how Miyo had acted in her old home, striving to stop any emotions from appearing on her face.

“Is that how it sounds? I just thought I was being irresponsible. But in any case, what about you?”

“Huh?”

Miyo’s consciousness, which had been sinking into sleep, roused slightly.

“You’re afraid of something yourself, aren’t you? If I’ve got the wrong idea, then forget it. But there’s something worrying you, something that’s stopping you from moving forward, right?”

“Well…”

She had an inkling that he had picked up on this.

Kiyoka had sensed the feelings that Miyo wouldn’t speak of or let show on her face. On top of it, he was asking her why she was hiding them.

Miyo didn’t know how to answer.

She had been the one to tread this ground first. He had also given her his serious answer himself.

Miyo had been very afraid about avoiding things and keeping them under wraps, but her heart was too seized with fear, so she found herself unable to take the first step.

“Am I unreliable?”

A nebulous coldness and fragility shown through his words.

After a brief moment of confusion, Miyo hastily denied his statement.

“Th-that’s not it.”

She tightly gripped the edge of the blanket.

Was he anxious? Had she made Kiyoka feel uneasy?

“Wouldn’t your fiancé who loves you be hurt by that?”

Suddenly, Hazuki’s words came to mind.

“No… The idea that you’re unreliable has never once crossed my mind.”

It was impossible to think of him that way. If anything, she was the unreliable one.

Miyo knew just how incompetent a person she was, so she couldn’t believe his question.

It dawned on her that she was being selfish. That it was contradictory. After all, she had already given into these undeniable feelings of hers, grabbing onto her position as Kiyoka’s fiancée and holding on tight. That was how she’d gotten here.

She couldn’t bear to bring misfortune to someone else.

That was why if these warm days they shared continued into eternity, that alone was enough, and she didn’t need any burning feelings welling up inside her.

“Miyo.”

“Yes?”

Behind her, she could sense that Kiyoka had rolled over to face her.

Drawn in, Miyo turned around as well.

The two were so close to each other, that even in the darkness, she could clearly make out the serious look in his eyes.

“Right now, I’m not satisfied with the current situation. I want to have even more. If possible, I’d wish I could become even more engrossed. Engrossed in you, no one else.”

In other words, Kiyoka was saying that he wanted Miyo’s heart, didn’t he?

The tremendous shock made Miyo’s breath catch in her throat, and she was rendered speechless.

“I—I—”

“Do you think that I’m shameful for having that sentiment? Does that make you feel like I’m going astray?”

The questions he threw out seemed to pierce right through the conflict in her chest.

Nevertheless, Miyo’s heart was shaken, like rippling water, and it wouldn’t settle down at all.

“…It doesn’t.”

She averted eyes and somehow managed to give a simple answer.

Suddenly, Kiyoka caressed Miyo’s cheek with his slender fingers. His fingertips gradually brought warmth to her cold cheeks.

“Sorry. I asked too many questions, didn’t I?”

His apology had a troubled, frail tone to it. When she considered she was the one causing him to feel this way, she couldn’t get her words to come out properly.

Miyo simply shut her eyes and silently shook her head.

As she did, she was pulled slowly into sleep.