After a special group of knights led by the princess left the northern fortress to investigate an incident that had occurred at the border, Remesis remained at the castle to attend to other matters. This time, Hannes Reitli also left the fortress, so all responsibility for the residence of the Lord of the North fell entirely on her.
Just over a week had passed since their departure.
After completing her usual morning rounds of the inner castle, Remesis returned to her office to deal with the official business that, as usual, had piled up. Thus, she planned to spend the rest of the day in the company of papers and strong tea, as usual.
However, this time she felt a little strange, more so than usual.
Despite going to bed earlier than usual the night before and sleeping well, for some reason Remesis still felt tired. So much so that she couldn't even see the documents in front of her properly because the letters and numbers were blurring before her eyes.
«Ah, what's wrong with me today?»
Remesis touched her head, intending to give herself a light massage and relax her muscles. However, it hardly helped. Overall, she had been feeling a little strange for the past few days, but she hadn't paid much attention to it before, as it wasn't very noticeable. However, this day was definitely different from the previous ones.
Heitz Adelpho, who was working at the neighbouring desk, also noticed that the lady seemed less focused than usual. Of course, the amount of work she had done over the past few hours also spoke for itself. There was only a small stack of documents on the desk, half as much as usual.
— Princess, are you feeling unwell? — her assistant asked with concern.
— What? No, I'm fine.
— But you seem much more distracted than usual today, — he objected.
— Well, you're right... — Remesis was forced to agree, — But I don't know why.
The assistant sighed.
— It's because you're working too hard.
— No, I definitely slept well last night!
This was thanks to a gift that the young head of the order had given Remesis some time ago. Following her advice, Remesis had lit incense several times before going to bed. And it really helped. Unlike usual, when the girl tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep because her brain was still overflowing with the castle's current tasks, now she fell asleep immediately.
In other words, she had been sleeping well lately. But then why did she feel this way? Remesis couldn't find the reason and continued to massage her temples.
— My lady, I've told you this before, but you mustn't overwork yourself! — her subordinate declared. — The work won't go anywhere, but if your health suffers, it will be an irreparable loss for all of us.
— Perhaps you're exaggerating.
— No, I'm not. The well-being of all of us depends on you.
Remesis smiled involuntarily, thinking that her assistant was somewhat exaggerating the importance of her presence in this castle. It was true that Remesis had done a lot for this place and continued to do so. But nevertheless, they shouldn't rely on her too much. After all, sooner or later Remesis would leave here anyway.
— All right... Then I think I'll take a little nap today.
— Of course! Rest as long as you need to. I'll take care of things for you.
The girl was grateful to her assistant for caring so much about her well-being. After all, Heitz Adelpho was a very kind young man.
— Thank you, Heitz.
The young man smiled mischievously at her, and Remesis smiled back.
In the end, Remesis decided to deviate from her usual schedule and take a little rest today. She returned to her room, where she slept peacefully until evening. Until her peaceful sleep was suddenly interrupted.
— The lord is back! — the girl heard the servant shout outside, and the noise behind her door grew louder. Still half asleep, Remesis couldn't believe it.
What? It hasn't even been ten days. How could they have returned so quickly?
While Remesis was trying to make sense of it, her maid Julie had already entered her room with her permission.
— My lady, the lord has just returned to the castle! — she announced. — You will go out to meet him, won't you?
Hesitating, Remesis paused for a moment before answering.
— Oh, yes... I was going to do that.
Frowning in confusion, Remesis nevertheless could not simply ignore the return of the group of knights and went outside specifically to greet them.
Seeing the horsemen riding into the courtyard, the girl watched them intently. The main gate was open, and soon Remesis could see the entire group of knights returning from their short journey.
The princess of the north, who led the magnificent fighting squad, jumped off her horse.
She immediately noticed her wife and waved at her with a cheerful smile:
— Wife, I'm home!
— Oh.
Everything around them fell silent as the princess covered the distance between them in just a few steps and hugged her tightly. Asil happily embraced her wife with her arms encased in chain mail. The armour was cold, but Remesis couldn't pull away. As always, the princess's embrace prevented her from leaving. She just sighed.
— Your Highness, we haven't seen each other for only a week. There's no need to react like that, — she muttered.
— Exactly! — complained Asil. — We haven't seen each other for so long that I couldn't stand it and missed you terribly all the way home. How did you manage here without me?
— Everything was fine, as usual.
— Well, I always knew that my wife had everything under control, but I still can't help worrying when I'm away from you, even for a moment.
Remesis rolled her eyes, listening to her plaintive tone, when she finally managed to distance herself a little from the princess. At least, she tried to.
— How was your trip? — the girl asked. — Did you manage to achieve anything?
— Achieve anything? — Asil smiled distractedly, without turning back. — Well, you could say that. Anyway, wife, I'm terribly hungry and want to have lunch with you first...
— That won't happen until you take a bath.
— What's wrong with me? — asked Asil, puzzled.
— Your Highness, you smell of blood.
Suddenly, Asil frowned. Hearing her wife's telling remark, she looked herself over from head to toe. It seemed that only now did she realise how she looked — a mountain of dirt and blood left over from the demonic beasts.
— All right, then I'll take a bath first... — she agreed reluctantly, — But after that, you must have dinner with me, wife!
— All right.
Remesis sighed as she watched the princess's silhouette finally turn away from her and hurry towards the castle. At the same time, after looking over the procession of returning knights, Remesis began to give orders:
— Take good care of the horses. Bring food and a change of clothes to all the returning knights.
— Yes, princess. Do you have any further instructions?
— No, that's enough for now.
The servant beside her bowed calmly and stepped back.
At the same time, Remesis's gaze involuntarily turned to Liana Dexsin. When the woman dismounted from her horse, her face was so pale that it seemed as if she had caught a cold from her long stay in the cold. Remesis wanted to ask her if she was ill and if she needed help, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.
To Remesis' surprise, the young head of the astrological order simply walked past her without even looking at her.
***
During the lively dinner that Remesis arranged with the princess some time later, the woman continued to chat casually with her, talking about all sorts of nonsense, but never about anything important.
Remesis tried several times to ask her how their trip had gone, but the princess responded evasively until she finally managed to get some kind of intelligible answer from her.
— Wife, as I said from the beginning, it was all meaningless, — Asil said reluctantly. — It was just an accident.
— In other words, you found nothing? — Remesis summarised.
— Lady Dehsin insisted so much that we searched the entire forest. But, as expected, we found nothing but a few corpses of demonic beasts.
— Hmm, I see.
«I wonder if she's upset about it?» — Remesis unconsciously thought about Liana Dexsin's reaction to the unsuccessful outcome of their trip, but she couldn't dwell on that thought for long, as the woman opposite her was still talking.
— In any case, wife, none of that matters anymore.
— I don't want to waste this precious time with you talking about such boring things. Let's talk about something more important! — the princess exclaimed.
— Like what? — she asked.
— For example, how beautiful you are.
«....»
Remesis sighed angrily when, in the end, the serious tone of their conversation did not last long and the princess began to talk nonsense again. Of course, Remesis did not want to participate in this. However, the princess was determined to make up for the days they had spent apart, and so the girl had no opportunity to refuse.
They spent the entire evening together, and when Remesis finally freed herself from the princess's clinging arms, it was almost midnight. Naturally, there was no point in doing anything at such an hour, so the girl simply decided to return to her room and continue sleeping. Besides, after such a heavy meal, she felt even more sleepy.
Remesis, accompanied by her maid, made her way to her room, where the maid left her.
— My lady, would you like me to help you change for bed?
— No, thank you. I'll manage on my own tonight.
Since it was already quite late, Remesis decided to send the maid away so as not to keep her up and allow her to go to bed. So, the girl entered her room and was about to finish getting ready for bed on her own. However, this happened the moment after she closed the door to her room.
Just when Remesis least expected it, someone suddenly greeted her:
— Hello, Princess Rania.
Remesis sighed and looked back, but suddenly her eyes widened.
In the dim light of her room, she saw the silhouette of a person who had suddenly appeared there and was slowly approaching her.
— I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, — Liana Dehsin stood directly in front of her with an expressionless face.
— Lady Dexsin... What... What are you doing here?! — A stunned cry escaped the girl's lips.
No matter how you looked at it, it was clearly too much. Meeting in the library and meeting in her private chambers were two completely different things. The latter was completely unacceptable, especially for women who were married. If anyone happened to see them...
However, putting those useless thoughts aside, Remesis first had to deal with this matter.
— Lady Dexsin, I don't know why you came to my chambers at this hour, but you must leave immediately! If you have something important to say, I will listen to you tomorrow.
She tried to gather her thoughts to send the successor of the order away.
However... As soon as Remesis reached for the door handle to open the door, her hand was grabbed. In the next moment, Liana suddenly pinned her against the wall. Both of her arms were pinned to her sides, and her face was inches away from the emerald-eyed woman standing in front of her.
At that moment... The last thing Remesis wanted was for anyone to see them in this position.
— Lady Dexsin, what are you doing? — she exclaimed indignantly. — Stop this immediately, or I'll call...
But she couldn't finish her sentence because a warm palm covered her mouth.
— Hush, princess, — Liana whispered.
«.....»
— You know very well that I would never wish you harm.
«.....»
Remesis, unable to respond, could only continue to mumble incoherently.
— All I want is to shed light on your current situation, — the woman continued softly.
— ....?
— The fact is, I must open your eyes to your wife. You must know... what kind of monster you are living with.
At that moment, Liana squeezed her wrist harder, and she almost felt pain. Remesis looked at her in shock.