By Zephyria 
“I heard you weren’t feeling well, are you okay?”
Adrian’s expression was full of unconcealed worry and concern. He must have received a report about the commotion in the mansion this morning. I heard that Andrew Hamilton had carefully selected and fired the people he had planted, but it seemed like he had planted them again before I knew it.
“You heard? It wasn’t a big deal. I just… had a bad dream…”
“That’s right, that brother of yours is of no help until the end.”
Adrian even clicked his tongue with a displeased face, as if he had heard that I had woken up in the middle of the night and went to Allen’s room without any reason. I was the one who suddenly caused a ruckus, but he doesn’t ask or question that.
It was an overwhelming affection and favor that was almost perfect. At this point, it was almost one step above the overprotection that Adrian of the first life had shown me.
“But why did you call me here?”
The point of my question was not why he called me, but why he brought me to the Crown Prince Palace of all places, but Adrian seemed to have taken it as the former. He said that he couldn’t stand not seeing my face after hearing that I had collapsed due to a headache, and that he didn’t have time to get out of the Imperial Palace, and his voice was tinged with a subtle resentment.
The others around me, who had ears but pretended not to hear, were still in shock. It was hard to believe that the cruel Monarch, who had recently executed the direct descendants of Duke Grachio and those involved in my kidnapping, was saying and doing such things.
It was even said that the Empress, who had already left the Dukedom and was officially not involved in this matter, would also be subject to purge. She was currently confined to the abandoned palace, but after the coronation, she would be exiled after a suitable period of time. The Empress, who seemed to enjoy eternal glory, would not arrive safely at her place of exile.
In any case, the matter was well resolved, and those who remained under Adrian gathered together with even more solidarity.
As for me, Nicole was safely revived, and I had confirmed that Beatrice and Duchess had safely escaped the capital with the help of the North, so it was all good.
“It’s like you only miss me and only long for me…”
His grumbling voice was new. If it had been before, I would have been worried about how to solve this, what impact the Crown Prince’s displeasure would have on my future, and that I shouldn’t lower his favorability, but now I was strangely not feeling any sense of crisis.
I just smiled and said, “How could that be? I wanted to see you too.”
“I thought you would call me to the Sun Palace or the Moon Palace, but I was wondering if there was a special reason why you called me to the Dawn Palace.”
The Dawn Palace, which had been used by the Crown Prince for generations, now has no owner. Until the next Crown Prince is appointed and officially becomes the owner of the palace, it should remain closed in its current state, but strangely, the Dawn Palace is currently undergoing an untimely construction as if it were being renovated.
Even if the owner of the Sun Palace changes, it would only replace the furniture while preserving the original tradition, so it would be right to renovate the Moon Palace, where I would be entering, but why here? It was something I couldn’t understand at all.
“Let’s take a walk for a while.”
Adrian didn’t answer my question and held my hand tightly. Leaving all the people following behind, we walked around the outside of the Crown Prince Palace’s garden, which was under construction.
“I should have told you in advance, but I’m sorry it was delayed. The place where you will stay will not be the Moon Palace, but this place, the Dawn Palace.”
It couldn’t be that he was going to bring someone other than me as the Empress now, so I was listening silently for now.
“Actually, I didn’t have very good memories of the Moon Palace from the beginning. But I thought that if the Empress had to use it, I couldn’t help it… But after this incident, it just feels ominous.”
He slowly continued to explain that he had decided to use the Dawn Palace for now, and when he heard the news that the Empress had died, he would completely demolish the Moon Palace and rebuild it.
I, too, had bad things happen at the Moon Palace.
In my first life as Adrian’s Empress, I lived there and only looked for Allen’s traces, who never came to me, and eventually lost my mind and dragged others into it. It was Adrian who protected and defended me, who wouldn’t be strange if I was kicked out of the Empress’s position, until the end.
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
If we completely demolish and rebuild the place with the stained traces, it would be a good fit for the completely new life that will begin this time.
Adrian seemed relieved to hear my answer that it was okay, and regained his usual relaxed demeanor.
“Since it’s the place where you’ll be staying, feel free to tell me if there’s anything you want me to reflect. Oh, should I tell them to install a fountain in this garden too? I heard that you spend quite a bit of time at the fountain I sent.”
“…No. It’s okay.”
The image of the sparkling fountain and the nightmare that suddenly appeared in front of it instantly took over my mind. I consciously blocked the thoughts that were trying to flow out and buried my forehead in Adrian’s arms as if making a pledge. As I deeply inhaled his pheromone, which I could faintly feel, even the remaining headache that I didn’t even know I had slowly disappeared.
“Umm… Your, Your Highness…”
How long had I been like that? The voices of the vassals, who were carefully suppressed as if they were watching, leaked out from behind Adrian, cautiously. When I tried to lift my head and glance at them, Adrian grabbed my cheeks with a gentle but firm touch. He was trying to prevent me from turning my gaze in that direction.
But just because I can’t see it with my eyes, does that mean those earnest gestures will disappear? In fact, I had been worried about the shadows of these people, who had been anxiously pacing around in the distance with thick bundles of documents in their hands, since a while ago.
I managed to shake off Adrian’s touch, which seemed like he didn’t want to let go, and took a step back first.
“You…”
“It’s not scary at all even if you look at me with that expression now, okay? Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be sitting over there, so please take care of any urgent business and come back. I’d like to have dinner together for the first time in a while.”
When I pointed to a bench in the garden that was visible in my field of vision, Adrian turned to the vassals as if he was relieved. The sunlight was still dazzling. As I slowly walked and sat on the bench, one of the servants who was waiting nearby immediately came and held up a parasol.
“These are urgent reports from various borderlines. The areas that were eaten and disappeared in the darkness are suddenly reappearing since dawn today.”
“Have the residents who lived there returned safely?”
“No. Not only people but also animals and Demon beasts… Those who had life could not return. Still, it’s fortunate that the land and buildings have returned, but we need to renegotiate the borders with the neighboring countries.”
“First, we need to gather the lords of each region. When will be the fastest we can gather them?”
“Somehow before the Royal Wedding…”
“Yes, we must deal with it before then. We can never postpone the Royal Wedding.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I will pay special attention.”
While listening to Adrian and the vassal talking with an urgent momentum with one ear and letting it flow out with the other, I was leisurely watching the clouds floating by. …Come to think of it. The fact that areas all over the world disappeared into the darkness, and that Demon beasts were rampaging arbitrarily. Wasn’t it all because Allen Young-won was trying to repair his damaged body? Seeing that it suddenly came back, it must be something that guy is involved in again this time.
Allen Young-won’s pale appearance, who didn’t even move his eyes no matter how much I called him, and who was quietly sleeping like a corpse, came to my mind.
One side of my chest sank coldly. I felt gloomy. The weather in the world that had regained its freedom was so clear.
“Have you been well, Little Count.”
“Ah, yes.”
Receiving the greeting from the vassal who was managing the territory as the lord’s representative, Andrew Hamilton entered the office. He had rushed over as soon as he received the report, but his consciousness was still trapped in the mansion in the capital.
…I was so surprised to hear that he had suddenly collapsed. Is he awake now? Is he okay?
His mind was full of worries about Noah Hamilton.
“First, tell me about the situation in detail. The problem of how to deal with it is something to think about afterwards.”
“Yes. As you heard on your way here, the areas that had disappeared are rapidly returning. The Hamilton Territory may have suffered damage from Demon beasts, but there were not many areas that were lost, so there will be no chaos due to that, but among those who had already immigrated to the Hamilton Territory from nearby other territories…”
The mumbling continued for a long time. In the end, the main point was that there were many lords who were requesting that those who had immigrated to the Hamilton Territory from nearby other territories be returned. It wasn’t a problem that could be solved simply by giving and taking. A significant number of the territory’s residents were freemen, and there were not many who showed a desire to return to their hometown.
However, the Hamilton Family, which had risen through commerce, could not simply ignore the requests of other families. Maintaining friendly relations with each territory and family was an important issue for maintaining and developing the family business.
For the time being, he would have to travel around the nearby territories himself and show appropriate sincerity. If he saves face to that extent, there will be no future troubles.
Only after dealing with the work frantically was he given a chance to take a breath. He decided to look around the head of the family’s room first. As soon as the new Emperor’s coronation is over, he will also inherit the position of head of the family, so it would only take a month at most for him to occupy the head of the family’s room.
There wasn’t really anything new to look at. Everything was as he had always seen it. Only one thing. It seemed that he only needed to figure out the location of the secret archive that his father had given him after the succession work was completely confirmed.
He dismissed everyone around him, thoroughly locked the door, and activated the device hidden under the bed. Then, the bookshelf that filled one side of the wall turned around, revealing a hidden space inside.
The space where the secrets and important transaction information collected by the successive Count Hamiltons were hidden was a place that even he, who had lived as the Little Count all along, had never seen before. Clearly, it was a place he was seeing for the first time…
‘So? Are you saying that from now on, I can be locked up here instead of in prison? Oh, that’s a very grateful kindness.’
Just as he was strangely familiar with the stuffy space without a single window, a voice he had never heard before flashed through his mind.
“Ugh… what is this…”
Pressure filled his head in an instant. An unfamiliar voice became a sinister hallucination and wouldn’t leave.
‘Get out of here right now. I’d rather die than say thank you to the likes of you? Or what, do you think you can hide me here forever?’
Yes. Clearly, someone…, hide…, try to hide…….
His thoughts stopped there. His consciousness was cut off.