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Four days had passed since the two had returned from Hildak.

Ariel was once again sitting in front of her desk in the office, idly scribbling with her pen.

Maybe it was because not long had passed since lunch, but she felt a bit sleepy. Today, however, she was trying to wake herself up by choosing coffee instead of tea.

“By the way, a letter arrived today.”

Meanwhile, Edgar, who had just stepped out of the office for a moment, came back holding a letter.

Not just any letter—it was an edict stamped with the Emperor’s seal.

It was the same type of letter that had arrived for Edgar not long ago.

“Did you bring it?”

“Yeah, here it is. I think it’s a reply to the letter Father sent not long ago.”

To be precise, it was a reply from the Emperor regarding the request for instant judgment authority that Yulken had sent on Ariel’s behalf.

If there was a letter from the Emperor, nothing else immediately came to Edgar’s mind.

Ariel seemed to have guessed as much, nodding nonchalantly.

“I had a hunch. I heard about it when I met the Emperor at the Imperial Palace.”

“…Don’t you think you should at least use honorifics even if no one else is around?”

Edgar knew that when Ariel used honorifics in a private setting about someone, it genuinely meant she respected that person. But he thought that, at the very least, she should use formality for someone of the Emperor’s stature.

Though she didn’t seem to care, he worried she might slip up in front of others one day.

Despite her status as the head of a grand duchy, Edgar always felt as if he were looking at a child left on the shore whenever he looked at her.

“It’s fine. I only act like this in front of you.”

“Seriously.”

In principle, that line should have sounded quite romantic or at least somewhat charming, but to Edgar, it only came off as teasing.

Still, her narrowed eyes and cute, mischievous grin forced a chuckle out of Edgar as he handed the letter to her.

“By the way, I heard you met the Emperor at the Imperial Palace, but I wasn’t there.”

“You were called away during the banquet, remember? That’s when it happened.”

It was only then that Edgar, digging into his memory, nodded in realization.

There had been so many people looking for him back then that it slipped his mind. Since Ariel had returned shortly after, he had thought it was nothing too significant.

“Ah… I thought that conversation was rather brief. You were summoned for that reason, huh?”

“Yup.”

To Edgar’s surprise, it turned out she’d received an advance notice.

More than anything, he was amazed that the Emperor, of all people, took the time to inform her in person rather than responding with a letter.

“At first, I thought he just wanted to send greetings on behalf of Father, but it wasn’t that. While the official reply will arrive in a few days, he wanted to let me know in advance, thinking it wouldn’t hurt.”

“He sounds like a pretty accommodating guy. So what’s the response?”

“Well, it’s obvious. He wouldn’t have any reason to refuse in the first place.”

The letter sent not long ago was merely formal.

Neither Yulken nor Ariel had ever considered that the Emperor would give a negative response to that letter.

Therefore, the reply they received didn’t exceed Ariel’s expectations. If the response had indicated difficulty in giving an immediate answer or a refusal, Ariel would have been quite displeased. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

“Did he send anyone along with the reply?”

“Why would he send someone just to deliver a response? That’s all there is.”

“Good.”

If someone had come personally to deliver the edict, Ariel wouldn’t have been able to sit still. Given that it was a letter sent officially from the Emperor, she would have had to receive it with the bare minimum of respect.

But the fact that it didn’t happen meant that the Emperor didn’t attach much significance to the matter either.

It was just a simple reply to something that needed to be done.

Flap.

“What’s written in there?”

As Ariel’s eyes stopped reading the inside of the letter, Edgar asked, expecting it not to contain anything too significant.

The response didn’t deviate much from his expectations.

“It’s just formal stuff. One is greetings for my father.”

“Of course.”

After reading the entire content, Ariel put the letter back into the envelope and said she would deliver it to Yulken later. Suddenly, she crossed her hands and rested her chin on them.

“Oh, and your aide-de-camp is supposed to come today. Have you heard about it?”

“Huh? What aide-de-camp?”

Edgar raised an eyebrow at the somewhat random news. It left him more baffled than when Yulken previously suggested he should appoint a maid.

“Well, if you want to carry out your duties, you need someone to deliver your orders, right?”

“But I have Elin.”

“Private tasks and official duties are different. I have Shuri, but you need someone too.”

“…I can’t argue against that.”

Realizing he hadn’t thought it through, Edgar nodded in understanding.

The issue was that commanding someone he didn’t even know would be uncomfortable for him.

“Couldn’t you have at least given me a heads-up? I need to know who I’ll be dealing with to make things easier.”

“Do you really think I didn’t consider that? I picked someone with that in mind, so don’t worry.”

Ariel was responding confidently, but Edgar felt an odd discomfort with her words.

‘You picked someone with that in mind?’

It sounded as though she had personally chosen someone among the applicants to be his aide-de-camp.

“…Wait, you chose the person yourself?”

“Yup, that’s right.”

“……”

Edgar was left speechless by her seemingly casual tone. The fact that the owner of an entire region had made the effort to personally select someone to fill a mere aide-de-camp position felt a bit overwhelming.

He imagined she might have caused a few cracks in her own facade along the way.

“Since they’ll be working under you, they’ll be seeing you often, right? So it wouldn’t hurt for me to pick someone to familiarize myself with.”

Edgar’s suspicion of Ariel’s unusual logic increased today. Generally, whenever she had a valid reason, there was always an unreasonable one hidden behind it.

This was the insight of a childhood friend who had spent about twenty years with Ariel Robeheim.

“…You’re not checking to see if it’s a girl, are you?”

“Ahem… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her behavior, which clearly showed awkwardness as she averted her gaze, prompted Edgar to let out a tiny sigh of resignation.

As expected.

The fact that she, who generally disliked being in the spotlight, willingly stepped forward to recruit an aide-de-camp was suspicious enough by itself.

‘Should I think positively about this?’

Watching her rummage through paperwork with a somewhat unnatural demeanor—even tackling a document she had just finished approving—Edgar couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

Regardless of the situation, she was offering to help him with the aide-de-camp.

Moreover, the fact that she had kept the existence of that aide-de-camp a secret could very well be her version of a surprise gift.

So Edgar decided to accept this kindness gratefully.

“Well, whatever the reason, it looks like my workload just decreased thanks to you. Thanks.”

“Hmph, you’re just going to take that without any proper gratitude?”

“…Heh.”

With her arms crossed, looking down her nose at him while maintaining narrow eyes, Ariel seemed, to Edgar, like a cat unable to show its true feelings.

“Fine, what do you want?”

“W-Well, you should think about what I want without me having to say it…! Show some sincerity!”

In other words, she was seeking some sort of definite return for her favor.

To think she would say such a thing after helping him find an aide-de-camp that he hadn’t even asked for—Ariel truly was showing her tyrannical side again.

Edgar gazed at Ariel for a moment with poignant eyes before suddenly striding over to the side of her desk.

His approach was so strong that even the formidable Ariel felt a chill run down her spine.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just showing you my sincerity, right?”

“Y-You idiot…! What are you doing in the office!”

As Edgar buried his face in the area around her neck and shoulders, Ariel protested verbally, but she didn’t struggle.

In fact, to Edgar, it felt like she was acting flirtatiously.

Just as the heated atmosphere between the two might have developed into something more, Edgar detached his face and chuckled, bringing things to a close.

“W-What? Are we… done?”

When his movement suddenly stopped at an awkward juncture, Ariel gazed up at him in a daze.

It wasn’t as if she expected anything explicitly, but how could he just stop like that?

At the very least, he could have kissed her. Even a ten-year-old would sigh openly and exclaim, “What’s this?” if they saw such a situation.

Unlike the pitiful Ariel, however, Edgar’s response was simply rational and devoid of any counterarguments.

“C’mon, we have work to do. Didn’t we say today was busy?”

“W-Well…? I mean, there is quite a bit…”

That was something Ariel herself had said.

In fact, they did have many documents to go over today, and Edgar had several things he needed to take care of outside the office, so they were both in a busy situation.

So it was Ariel who had originally laid down the warning to be prudent today.

“And it’s already three o’clock. Your aide-de-camp should be arriving soon, right?”

“Gosh….”

Ariel displayed her frustration, feeling as if her own words had restrained her feelings.

Just as the ticking clock reached twelve, someone knocked at the door of the office right at three o’clock.

It almost felt like they had been waiting outside just to knock the moment the clock hit three.

“This person is pretty punctual, huh?”

“…I don’t know, you idiot.”

Since she already knew who it was, Ariel wasn’t particularly hopeful.

If anything, she felt slightly disappointed that her previous expectations had been dashed.

With that disappointed thought in mind, Edgar told whoever was outside to come in, and as the office door opened, a man stepped inside.

He was slightly shorter than Edgar and perhaps about the same height as Hagel.

With a bit long brown hair and a confident face, he seemed like a likable guy. But that wasn’t what surprised Edgar most.

“…Leonel?”

That man was none other than Leonel, a close friend he had shared childhood memories with until a few years ago.

“From today onward, I’m Leonel, working under your command. Nice to meet you, Aide-de-Camp.”

“……”

Though his playful face seemed untouched by time, the sight of him placing a hand over his heart and giving a formal greeting felt jarring to Edgar.

Thus, a reunion with a friend after a long time, surprisingly in such a way, had been set in motion.