* * *
Just as I relaxed, my body jolted again. I quickly lowered my eyes.
Klen’s hand, which had been wrapped around my waist, slid down firmly over my clothes.
I barely managed to cover my mouth to stop the startled yelp from escaping.
But my body swayed, and of course, his hand caught me, holding me firmly in place.
‘Hiek?!’
Wherever his hand touched, a tingling sensation shot through me like a wave.
My shoulders twitched involuntarily, and the warmth I’d barely managed to calm surged back up again.
But Klen, acting like none of that mattered, began trailing his hand over me again.
In the end, my face burned even hotter than when I had been lying down earlier.
“Wait—hey! Where exactly are you touching?!”
“I’m just holding you so you don’t fall. We are married, after all. Isn’t this much perfectly normal?”
“…Ah.”
Right. We were married.
Usually, all we did was talk, sleep beside each other, and part ways.
But strictly speaking, this level of physical contact shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary between us.
“At this rate, I wonder when I’ll finally be able to fulfill my vows…”
I froze as those words slipped out, my mind grinding to a halt.
The moment I was reminded of the vows I’d shoved to the back of my mind, I became acutely aware of the hand at my waist and the body pressed against my back.
Klen brought his lips close to my ear again.
“These kinds of muscles… they only form on someone who trains regularly.”
“…!”
A shiver ran down my spine, and my heart sank again.
His hand had been tracing my body, not for anything indecent, but to check the shape of my muscles.
That realization only left me more flustered.
I felt ridiculous for reacting so strongly.
“M-Maybe it’s just… natural?”
At this point, I was blurting out whatever came to mind.
I wasn’t exactly built like some muscular warrior, but this wasn’t something I could just claim I was born with, either.
His body trembled slightly against my back.
From that alone, I could tell—he was laughing.
I didn’t have the nerve to look back at him.
My thoughts were spinning, desperately searching for an excuse to get out of this situation.
“Adrian, you…”
His voice, low and soft, brushed against my ear, making my shoulders twitch again.
He must’ve noticed even those small reactions.
The more I became conscious of him, the more my body overreacted to every little thing.
“Have you… never actually seen a truly frail person?”
That was the decisive blow.
No. I hadn’t.
The people around me were mostly knights who wielded swords, and even my mother was a strong, upright person.
The people in the territory might be weak compared to them, but no one would collapse from just a little exertion.
“The others never suspected a thing.”
Especially the attendants, who had been with me far longer—they never once looked at me with doubt.
“Hm. Maybe because they’ve never touched you directly?”
“…!”
The attendants helped me change clothes, but they always avoided direct contact as much as possible, careful not to touch my bare skin.
Even when supporting me, they kept their distance.
Klen, though—he was the only one brazen enough to grope me under the pretense of checking my muscles.
“Or maybe… it’s because the memory of you collapsing at the wedding stuck with me.”
He already knew the only time I’d genuinely fainted was back then.
There was no point hiding it now.
It wasn’t even a question of whether I was lying or not—he was going to prove I wasn’t weak.
But I could still make one last desperate attempt.
“…Didn’t you apologize earlier for being insensitive about my illness?”
“Well, we were in front of the attendants. It seemed like the proper thing to say.”
Klen glanced around as if searching for something, then carefully chose a path.
I didn’t know where he intended to go, but one thing was clear—we were getting farther from the castle walls, and he wanted to go even further.
“They say, to deceive your enemies, you have to deceive your allies first.”
“…”
His voice held a teasing edge, and I couldn’t think of any retort.
“You threw a book at Neser in the library once, didn’t you?”
“That… was an accident.”
He suddenly brought up an old memory.
I nodded, feigning ignorance, but the certainty in his voice made my heart skip a beat.
He didn’t say I dropped it—he said I threw it.
“Back then, everyone was too distracted to notice… but that book was way too heavy to just ‘accidentally’ fall like that.”
“Were you watching?”
“I figured, if Neser kept insulting you any further, I’d have to step in.”
“….”
So, he hadn’t just shown up by coincidence—he’d been watching the entire time.
And it was obvious to him that I’d done it on purpose.
I was aware, too—it had been too forceful to pass as merely dropping it.
“And the way you collapsed when greeting Fabian… that was suspicious too.”
“….”
Apparently, Klen had done his research on me.
Using all that information, he’d pieced together the truth—I was faking it.
“When you fall, you often tense your body. As if… trying to minimize the impact.”
Despite my efforts to make it look natural, my body had stiffened unconsciously.
Well, I couldn’t help that—no matter how much I was acting, I couldn’t afford to actually get hurt.
But Klen was different. He acted like he’d throw himself into real danger.
Compared to that, my performances probably looked pathetic to him.
I stared straight into his eyes and spoke.
“…Are you giving me advice? As a more experienced actor?”
Since everything was already exposed, I wasn’t going to be the only one flustered.
I made sure he knew—I was fully aware that he, too, had been acting.
And I hoped… he’d be just as caught off guard as I had been.
Soon enough, his eyes widened in clear surprise—evidently satisfied but startled.
He hadn’t expected me to see through his act.
Well, to be fair, in my case, it wasn’t exactly “seeing through”… more like cheating.
But does it matter?
In this situation, you play every card you’ve got.
“……”
“……!”
But just as my mood was soaring high enough to hum a tune, it plummeted straight to the ground.
His gaze changed completely.
Amber eyes, which should have carried warmth, instead radiated an eerie chill.
The air around him turned cold enough to freeze, and even though his lips curled upward, there wasn’t the slightest hint of a genuine smile.
“That’s not bad.”
Even his voice sent a shiver down my spine.
“W-What do you mean?”
“I’ll give you advice whenever your acting gets awkward.”
“Huh?”
Rather than denying my words, Klen outright declared his intent to help—though his expression remained ice-cold.
The creeping chill down my spine didn’t fade either.
And yet… somehow, a strange sense of reliability surrounded him.
The uneasy, distracted atmosphere that had clung to him earlier was completely gone.
A monarch—calm, unyielding, like an iron fortress.
It made sense now, why people believed he could claim a noble title.
Fabian was undoubtedly a good person, but this man… this man was the one who truly fit the role of leader.
The thought brushed past my mind, swift and unwelcome.
‘Terrifying… but why are you dropping the act too?!’
Maybe I’d poked at something I shouldn’t have.
Some truths in this world are better left buried.
“Look over there, Adrian.”
His voice was gentle yet cold.
* * *
