[CHAPTER 69]
Taking care of Rision when he was not perfectly put together as usual was a fresh experience.
If he had truly been seriously ill, Dianu would not have had the leisure to feel any enjoyment out of worry, but even Dianu, who rarely drank, knew that a hangover was only temporary.
Someone like him would surely shake it off and get back up within half a day, so until then, she thought she should take full advantage of seeing him in such a weakened state.
Is this… kind of a strange desire?
She found herself thinking that as she tidied the hair fallen across his forehead and drew the curtains for him as he squinted at the sunlight.
Rision clearly noticed that Dianu was enjoying herself more than she should have.
“Do you enjoy seeing me sick?”
Perhaps because his self control was dulled, he failed to hide the sulky tone of a petulant child.
Dianu smiled gently and brushed his cheek with her fingers.
“You are not truly unwell.”
“Then do you enjoy seeing me embarrassed?”
“When you put it that way, it makes me sound like a very strange person…”
The eyes he lifted toward her, as if asking whether he was wrong, were tinged with disappointment.
After thinking it over, Dianu spoke.
“Your Majesty is always flawless, so… I think moments like this are nice once in a while.”
“…”
“And it also gives us an excuse to be alone together under the guise of nursing.”
Rision averted his gaze and pulled the blanket up slightly.
Still, Dianu did not miss the faint curve lifting at the corner of his lips.
Even after several hours, no one came to check on the Emperor laid low by drink.
Rision explained it simply as, “Because you are here.”
It was not until around lunchtime that the head butler knocked, carrying a tray with a light meal.
Holding the door half open to receive the tray, Dianu asked,
“What is everyone else doing?”
“His Highness the Crown Prince is teaching swordsmanship to the young Duke in the courtyard.”
It seemed Ravelan intended to make good use of his public role as Erin’s swordsmanship instructor.
The fact that they were all spending their time well on their own was a relief.
Dianu had been quietly worried that idling away time with Rision might count as neglecting her duties.
“What about Her Highness the Princess?”
The head butler’s face looked oddly pale.
“…Her Highness is also learning swordsmanship.”
“What?”
Ravelan had mentioned the night before that he would teach Elpenlira martial arts, but Dianu had not expected him to be serious.
As Dianu worried whether the precious Princess might be injured, Rision’s faint voice rose from behind her back.
“Leave it be. Ravelan will handle it.”
“But…”
“He will not make Lira do anything dangerous.”
In the end, Dianu sent away the flustered head butler and returned to sit by Rision’s side.
Having given up on keeping up appearances, Rision looked far more at ease.
The room, tightly curtained to block out the sunlight, was dim, but it was bright enough to admire his face as he lay with his eyes closed as if asleep.
Nibbling on neatly cut sandwiches, Dianu slowly examined the chiseled line of his jaw and his remarkably even eyelashes.
Though his complexion was poor, his face still seemed to glow.
How can a person look like this?
Even if Rision had not been handsome, she was certain she would have grown to like him someday.
Still, it was also true that this face helped.
When Dianu had eaten about half her sandwich while using his face as scenery, Rision spoke with his eyes still closed.
“You are going to bore holes in my face.”
She no longer flushed at remarks like that.
Dianu replied shamelessly,
“Can I not look?”
“Is my face so good that you must stare?”
If it had been anyone else, it might have sounded like the affected boasting of a peerless beauty.
But Rision was not someone who needed to fill his pride that way.
Dianu shrugged.
“You know yourself that you are handsome, Your Majesty.”
Opening his eyes with effort, Rision rolled his upper body to face her.
“I take after my mother, and Lira does as well.”
Dianu nodded.
“She was a very beautiful woman.”
The late Empress was someone it would not be an exaggeration to call a beauty who defined an era.
It was only natural that Rision and Elpenlira, who resembled her so closely, were both striking.
However, Rision had not brought this up merely to reminisce about his mother.
“People call my mother and Elpenlira beauties, so I suppose that someone who looks like them would appear handsome to others as well.”
After saying that much, he seemed to ponder for a moment.
“Come to think of it, women do seem to like my face. When I was studying abroad with Ravelan, even women who did not know my identity often showed interest—”
Dianu set down the sandwich she had been eating.
She did not want to, but a slightly dissatisfied tone slipped out.
“Are you saying that to make me jealous right now?”
Rision looked genuinely surprised.
His green eyes widened.
“Jealous?”
“Yes. You seem completely fine now.”
“Honestly, calling it a hangover. You must have forgotten that Your Majesty is still a twenty six year old young man, to remind me like this.”
Though it sounded like criticism, his voice was filled with affection.
As Dianu stifled a laugh, the Erbinjel Grand Duchess glanced at her and spoke abruptly.
“So then, Miss Dianu?”
“Yes?”
Staring straight at Dianu as she echoed the question, the Erbinjel Grand Duchess asked again,
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course I am…”
Dianu trailed off.
She had finally understood the intent hidden behind the ambiguous question.
The two of them had already come to a stop.
Fixing her gaze somewhere in the empty corridor, Dianu forced her voice to remain calm.
“It is fortunate that Her Highness Elpenlira’s misunderstanding of Your Majesty has been completely resolved. And she does not seem to dislike His Highness the Crown Prince either…”
It was nothing more than skirting around the obvious point.
The sharp gaze of the Erbinjel Grand Duchess, who surely knew this well, felt as though it pierced straight into her face.
Avoiding that gaze, Dianu continued,
“Once the matter of the Belua Duke is resolved, and Her Highness Elpenlira marries safely, then everything will go as Your Majesty wishes…”
Dianu swallowed hard.
Her throat felt uncomfortably tight, as if something were stuck there.
“…Then, would that not mean everything turned out well?”
It would be a happy ending lacking nothing for everyone.
Surely, that was how it would end.
And where are you in that happy ending?
Dianu decided to pretend she did not see the gaze asking that question.
Fortunately, the Erbinjel Grand Duchess also seemed to have no intention of prying further into Dianu’s feelings in a place like this.
She deftly changed the subject.
“Ah, yes. There was a message from the Viscountess Ornin. She says you need a lawyer?”
Only several seconds later did Dianu grasp the meaning of the question.
On a day that now felt like the distant past, Rision had once pressed a check into her hands, calling it wages.
So much had happened since then that Dianu had merely tucked the check deep into a drawer.
She had planned to someday follow Viscountess Ornin’s advice and seek out the Erbinjel Ducal family’s lawyer to entrust them with managing her assets, but it seemed the Princess’s head attendant could not stand to see Dianu continue to put it off and had written directly.
“Um, yes. If Your Majesty is agreeable, there is something I would like to consult a lawyer about…”
She did not specify what that matter was.
Receiving money from Rision was still an unfamiliar and uncomfortable fact to Dianu.
The Erbinjel Grand Duchess simply gave her the name and address of the law office and, thankfully, did not press further.
