After a whole day of celebrating the triumphant return of the Lord of the North, Remesis was completely exhausted. As soon as she was able to free herself from this, Remesis returned to her room and sat absently on the bed.

  Because she had spent so much time in the company of her wife, Remesis felt tired. It was truly difficult.

  "Wife, I would like to spend a little more time with you, but... Unfortunately, after my return, I still have many matters to resolve."

  "No, thank you."

  "Yes, I'm sad about it too."

  "No. I'm not sad."

  Only after a whole day had passed did Asil remember her primary duties as the lord of these lands. Upon her return, the woman had simply abandoned her subordinates to their fate, leaving them to deal with the unresolved problems that had undoubtedly accumulated in the fortress after the princess had been absent for a whole year. Perhaps she would have preferred to shirk work further, spending time like this, but Remesis couldn't allow that.

  "Chattering nonsense in front of me won't get you anywhere. Hurry up and get back to work."

  Asil sighed but did not respond to her words. It was natural for her to obey her wife's will.

  This was how Remesis managed to get rid of her and finally find peace.

  "After all, it's not all about swinging a sword."

  Whether the princess liked it or not, the duties of a lord of the lands included not only indiscriminately killing monsters and people, but also some other, more "down-toearth" things. There was a limit to the permissible official work that Remesis, as the castle's princess consort, could delegate to herself.

  Nevertheless, even having returned to her room, Remesis did not stop thinking about her wife, who had come back to the castle from the battlefield after a year's absence.

  These thoughts had haunted her almost all day, and the girl bit her lip. It seemed to her that if she continued to think about her now, her thoughts would only become more complicated.

  "That woman... has returned. So be it," a sigh filled with a variety of conflicting emotions escaped Remesis's lips.

  Creak.

  Just at the moment when Remesis was indulging in her difficult reflections, she heard the sound of the bedroom door opening. The girl knew who this person was without even looking back. So she only said quietly:

  "It's you. You may come in."

  Then she heard the sound of the door opening fully.

  "Your Highness."

  A knight in steel armor entered the room and knelt before the Princess Consort of the northern fortress.

  "Your servant has arrived to report on his return," he responded respectfully.

  Remesis wanted to brush aside this emphasized courtesy and manners, and only frowned, looking at the smile of the commander of Fortress Nord. But she couldn't maintain a serious expression for long, and soon smiled back at the man's face, without realizing it herself.

  Hannes Wrightly, who had just come to greet Remesis, had a more rugged and angular face than ten years ago. Was it because his eyes had become sharper with age? The man's rusty hair was now also touched with gray.

  "You returned later than usual today," she remarked.

  "That is so. Today our detachment was returning via a mountain where an avalanche had occurred. It delayed our journey a bit," the knight admitted.

  Remesis nodded understandingly.

  "Good. I'm glad you all returned safely," she uttered. "Did the distribution of food go as it should?"

  "Yes, Princess."

  "Was there any shortage of provisions? I told you to calculate as much as possible. Are the people on the outskirts living normally?"

  "The place there isn't the coldest, so many people have started raising livestock. But overall, everything is going well."

  "Excellent..." Remesis, having listened to the knight, nodded satisfactorily.

  Despite the fact that the North had now become significantly wealthier, some problems still existed. In particular, due to many years of incessant war with monsters and barbarians, some regions still experienced food shortages. This was especially true for villages and residential settlements located far from the capital. Remesis was mostly concerned about the population living there. In the capital, regarding provisions, everything was now relatively fine.

  Hannes Wrightly, as the commander of the northern fortress, was the one who defended the castle in the absence of the princess while she fought on the battlefield. He also supported the Princess Consort in her efforts to do everything possible to improve the welfare of the northern people.

  While Hannes led the knights on campaigns and patrols to kill off the remaining monsters and deliver provisions to residents of remote areas, Remesis directed this process and distributed resources among the villages according to their needs. In a sense, the fortress commander could be called more the Princess Consort's man than the princess's herself.

  "With the arrival of spring, we need to check everything again. Could you compile a report on the safety and supplies in each village?"

  "I will do so, but..."

  Noticing that her knight hesitated on the last words, Remesis frowned.

  "What's the matter? What are you trying to say?"

  "Isn't today the return of the lord?" said Hannes. "But you don't look too happy and keep talking about work."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  There was some truth in the commander's words. The girl didn't look as magnificent as usual. She seemed a little pale, even with her dark hair and sapphire-like blue eyes. Her face was indeed pale, and her eyes were puffy, but that was only because today Remesis had to get up earlier than usual and had spent the whole day being exhausted by the company of her "yearning" wife.

  The return of the Lord of the North was an event that many in the castle had eagerly awaited. After all, she was considered a heroine who had brought glory to these lands. But Remesis, it seemed, didn't care, even if it concerned her own wife. As expected, the girl frowned at the knight's mention of her.

  "Is there any point in talking about her?" Remesis said irritably.

  "Hmm?"

  "I don't think there's a single ounce of common sense in her behavior," the girl muttered discontentedly.

  After Remesis told the knight about what had happened today, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Hannes stood there, smiling wanly at his lady, who was actually gloomier than a cloud.

  "Well, that's too much. The princess risks her life fighting enemies, and all for the sake of bringing glory and wealth to her wife."

  "So you're trying to say that all this is my fault?"

  "No, it's just that the princess loves you too much, and you can't do anything about it."

  The commander's words, which in fact embodied the thoughts of everyone around, were like a sentence for Remesis. She really didn't want things to turn out this way. Asil Nara Ashelot was loyal to her in every way. As if she had raised an obedient puppy.

  "How nice that I raised a dog! Damn it..."

  Only Remesis suspected, no, was even certain, that things were not so simple here. Something that the people around them didn't even suspect.

  Since Remesis knew the princess's nature well from the experience of her previous life, she did not at all believe that these so-called "feelings" could be real. Rather, it was a trap that could snap shut at any moment if she let her guard down. Therefore, Remesis was not in the least touched by all her cloyingly sweet speeches and actions.

  Moreover, one should not forget exactly how Remesis had died in her past life!

  "What should I do? This woman continues to behave in a way that defies common sense. I no longer know what's going on in her head..."

  In the end, what Remesis feared most was that her plans for their future divorce might not go as smoothly as she had initially assumed. Even the coup d'état, for which all this was started, kept being postponed indefinitely. Remesis felt that she was gradually losing control of the situation and could no longer manage it as before, and she didn't like it at all.

  While Remesis continued to nervously bite her lip, trying to unravel the true intentions of her strange wife, the knight beside her coughed. Only then did the girl finally come to her senses and remember his presence.

  "Oh, Hannes, you must be tired. You may go and rest."

  "Thank you, Princess. I will certainly take advantage of this offer."

  As soon as Remesis was left alone in the room, her anxiety did not diminish but continued to grow.

  "...Is it possible that I've missed something?" the Princess Consort muttered to herself, looking at the spot where the fortress commander had stood until recently. Then she began pacing circles in her room, pressing her lips tightly together in a straight line. Tired of this, Remesis dived under the covers and let out a muffled scream, while not forgetting to beat the poor pillow.

  "Ugh-h!"

  It was good that it was night outside. The girl wouldn't want other castle residents to hear her and spread stories about the princess consort who had lost her mind, so she tried not to make too much noise. Although these manipulations did not help her calm down.

  Until recently, when it seemed that everything was going according to her plan, it suddenly became clear that this was not entirely the case.

  Clearly remembering the timeline of events from her past life, Remesis was sure that the period when Asil was supposed to meet her "lover" should have already occurred. More precisely, their affair with Gardenia should have started six months ago.

  In her past life, the Supreme Astrologer's youngest daughter and the princess had first met when the latter was fighting barbarians on the border. Then, the beloved daughter of the cult head, who by some unknown coincidence had ended up unaccompanied on the border of the northern region, was saved by Asil. After that, the girl lived in their military camp for some time, where their relationship began to develop rapidly. At least, that's what the rumor about the wife's infidelity, which reached Remesis from eyewitnesses of those events, claimed.

  And although Remesis knew that this "love" was merely a game on the princess's part, which ultimately led to Gardenia's death and the destruction of the entire Astrological Order, she still believed that it should have happened one way or another. After all, it was the revenge of the bloodthirsty and ruthless northern devil for the suffering she had endured, and it couldn't be simply dismissed.

  But... Why hadn't Remesis heard anything like this in this life? These two should have already met and entered into their "forbidden" relationship. But Asil had already returned from that very war, and the corresponding gossip still hadn't appeared.

  Since Remesis couldn't simply resign herself to this and leave her curiosity alone, today, as soon as she managed to temporarily disappear from the princess's field of vision, she secretly tried to extract this information from the guards who had participated in the military campaign together with the princess. She sneaked into the courtyard, where soldiers bustling back and forth seemed puzzled by the sudden visit of the Princess Consort.

  "Um. Am I disturbing you?" Remesis asked just in case, to make sure she wasn't interfering with something important that might be happening here.

  "No, of course not, Your Highness!" The soldiers were puzzled: "But what are you doing here?"

  "I just wanted to find out something. During the war, did the princess happen to... save anyone?"

  "Excuse me?"

  The guards seemed genuinely puzzled by this question.

  "Is it possible that the princess saved a person, a young girl, who accidentally ended up in the northern lands?" Remesis tried to express her thoughts carefully, so as not to accidentally blurt out anything unnecessary. But even what she said was enough to sincerely confuse the soldiers.

  "A woman known as the merciless northern devil, and she saved someone? Is that even possible?" these were the thoughts that arose in the minds of the soldiers, who perceived even these words in one sentence as something incompatible.

  "Uh... I answer the princess," one of the guards stepped forward, "nothing like that has ever happened."

  "Really? Are you sure about that?"

  "Your Highness," he scratched his cheek embarrassedly, "if the princess had saved anyone, we would have been the first to know..."

  Remesis sighed in disappointment, as this was not at all the answer she had expected.

  For some time, the Princess Consort peered intently into the men's faces, but could not detect any trick among them. Even if they wanted to conceal this information from her, it was impossible for ordinary warriors to keep such straight faces before their mistress. So, most likely, it truly wasn't a lie.

  "Alright... I understand."

  Thus, Remesis had to return empty-handed.

  "...And what to do now?"

  The problem that Remesis had not suspected before now became quite acute. The relationship between Asil and Gardenia, which had been an important part of her previous life, suddenly turned out to be highly questionable.

  Still in her room, Remesis closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts.

  On one hand, it was good that Gardenia, who had seemed like a good person to Remesis, had managed to avoid this catastrophe and her tragic infatuation. But on the other hand, the girl couldn't understand why this had happened at all. There must be some reason for such a sudden change. Or maybe the meeting between them had actually taken place, but Asil had somehow managed to keep it a secret from her people...?

  Remesis was already considering meditation, because her thoughts were preventing her from functioning normally.

  "Gardenia Alseid is the direct key to revenge against the Astrological Order. But is Asil even planning to use it? Honestly, I can't understand anything anymore..."

  Remesis was determined to unravel the plans of her cunning wife, even if she had to stay up all night. But after much deliberation, she looked at the morning star greeting her in the sky, her eyelids gradually grew heavy, and she wanted only to rest a little, but sleep overcame her.

  And the next morning was not easy for her either.

  All because early in the morning, a maid burst into the girl's room, bringing news that made Remesis's heart sink.

  "Your Highness... Today it became known that the master's condition has significantly worsened."