"Seeing the Grand Duke lately has been a great pleasure."
"Why are you saying something like that all of a sudden?"
"If this old man had no such happiness, how could he go on living?"
Alfredo found the atmosphere drifting through Winter Castle these days very much to his liking.
In particular, the Grand Duke's face looked far brighter than it had in the nearly twenty years Alfredo had known him.
Under ordinary circumstances, Alfredo would have been unable to shake his worry over the Grand Duke from the moment morning broke.
This next matter, then the next.
Then gathering the ministers and nobles for a meeting.
And even after the meeting ended, the Grand Duke would spend the remaining hours working through documents until the very last one was done.
The Grand Duke's days had consisted of nothing but work, work, and more work.
"I believe this Alfredo no longer needs to stand guard over this room. Your Grace."
"Well... you've been at my side all this time. You may as well stay."
The Grand Duke spoke, then glanced quietly across the room toward Daniela.
Daniela was absorbed in reading a book.
Alfredo already knew which book it was. The Grand Duke had been the one to tell him, after all —
They were novels one would never find in the South, though in the North they were commonplace. In the South, he had heard, even popular fiction was not easily come by.
Alfredo sighed inwardly.
It would have been the sort of prohibition the Grand Duke would never have lifted.
"Your Grace, may I take my leave now?"
"You may. It's already late."
"Is there still no need for a new bed, or anything of that sort?"
"It's fine as it is."
"I cannot fathom how you manage to sleep. Is it not taking a toll on Your Grace's health?"
"No. I sleep well enough lying down."
"If that is truly the case..."
Alfredo already knew.
The Grand Duke received reports on every matter in the North and within Winter Castle, and attended to all of it —
yet he rarely attended to himself.
At best, the bath prepared to ease the Grand Duke's fatigue was the only moment His Grace could be said to rest.
And as for leaning on another person for rest — that was something Alfredo had never once witnessed.
"Your Grace, forgive my impertinence. But if it is harming Your Grace's health..."
"It isn't."
"Then am I to understand that you sleep lying beside Lady Daniela?"
"..."
The Grand Duke said nothing.
Alfredo already knew, but there was a part of him that wanted to hear it from the Grand Duke's own lips.
What nobleman — no, what man — could sleep soundly lying beside a woman?
Of course, one could sleep soundly. If one had no thoughts whatsoever.
A few nights of restless sleep would be understandable. For an ordinary man, that would be perfectly acceptable.
But the Grand Duke was, to Alfredo, a most exalted person — one revered by the whole of the North.
"Your Grace!"
"It can happen. Besides, Daniela falls asleep quickly."
"Your Grace, as one who holds Your Grace's health as the highest priority, I must say —"
"I know, I know. It's nothing."
Only then did the Grand Duke explain how he and Daniela shared a bed.
Yet the more the Grand Duke explained, the less Alfredo found himself reassured.
He kept his feelings from showing, of course —
but it struck him that for a man who was vulnerable when it came to women, this too was a kind of trial.
Even so — was this not being just a little too oblivious?
For any man, if he were to find himself lying in the same bed as a beautiful woman,
there were certain steps that ought — naturally! — to follow!
Alfredo felt as though he could weep inwardly.
To think that such an exalted person would not heed their counsel.
"I just wait until Daniela falls asleep, then squeeze in beside her and get some rest."
"Your Grace, I shall arrange a cot for you at once."
"No. There's no need for that."
"Your Grace, it is damaging your health. You must sleep properly for the sake of Your Grace's wellbeing —"
"No. I'm fine."
Alfredo understood it all.
Because he had a sense of why the Grand Duke refused so stubbornly.
A single word from the Grand Duke, and they could have prepared not merely a cot but an entirely new room.
And yet he would not say that word.
Which meant, perhaps, that it was precisely the act of caring for his own health.
Not physical health, exactly.
But something pertaining to his state of mind.
"In that case, if Your Grace would simply not retire too late, I could worry a great deal less."
"Don't worry. Oh, go on — go do your work! Go do something else!"
"You are truly yourself, Your Grace."
"Now what does that mean."
"They say a wolf rests only beside the woman he loves. Would not Your Grace, who carries the blood of the wolf, be the very embodiment of that tradition?"
Alfredo flashed a grin at the Grand Duke.
Lately, praise for the Grand Duke had been flowing without end.
Alfredo could easily sense the mood among the ministers and nobles.
Indeed — the blood of the great and true Wintergard line!
One who, at a young age, had suppressed a rebellion,
and resolved every matter of the North's politics, the North's economy, and the welfare of its people!
"Don't say things like that. Hexon and Berdo have been saying the same thing lately."
"You are truly the Grand Duke of the North."
"Go on, go do your work. I'm going to —"
The Grand Duke did not continue, but Alfredo already knew.
The moment he stepped outside the room, the Grand Duke would be deep in conversation with Daniela.
And at considerable length, at that.
How the Grand Duke managed to talk with Lady Daniela even while working —
that was something Alfredo could not fathom.
But one thing was certain: to Alfredo's senses, a very sweet air was drifting through the room.
"Then I shall go and prepare Your Grace's bath."
Alfredo stepped straight out of the room and made his way to the bathhouse.
He set the water to the right temperature and checked carefully that nothing was amiss.
By the time the bath was ready,
he happened to cross paths with Hexon, the Minister of Internal Affairs, who had been working late at Winter Castle.
Hexon was wandering the halls with a broad grin on his face, as though something had put him in fine spirits.
"Hexon!"
"Oh, Alfredo. You still look busy."
"Haven't you gone home yet?"
"Of course not! There's still plenty left to do. Ha!"
He showed not the slightest trace of fatigue.
Hexon was, if anything, in high spirits.
"Has something happened?"
"Ha! Not exactly — it's just that the Grand Duke seems to have changed quite a bit, I think."
"So you've noticed it too. I feel the same."
"It must be on account of the lady who came from the South, don't you think?"
Hexon felt it as well.
When they had first learned that Daniela would be staying in the Grand Duke's chambers,
the ministers and nobles had not exactly welcomed the guest from the South with open arms.
But as time passed,
people had begun to notice that something was changing — and changing rapidly.
That the Grand Duke was warming, and warming fast.
"In the old days, he would have rolled up his sleeves and gone straight at any problem to solve it."
"That's true enough. His Grace was never one to simply stand still."
"Now he seems to have found some ease — and above all, he's become gentler in dealing with people, I'd say."
"My thoughts exactly."
Hexon clapped Alfredo on the shoulder.
In a sense, they had both served under the previous Grand Duke,
which meant they had watched the current Grand Duke for a very long time.
The Grand Duke had always been armored in the cold that was characteristic of the North's people.
He was a man who devoted himself entirely to his work and his duties, nothing else —
and so approaching him had never been an easy thing.
But now it was different.
"By the way, Alfredo — I ask only out of curiosity."
"What is it?"
"That young lady — Lady Daniela, that is — could she possibly be..."
"You're asking whether she's becoming the Grand Duchess?"
"You read my mind. Everyone has been wondering."
Alfredo already knew.
The Grand Duke was no longer so young.
Of course, whenever the subject of marriage was raised, the Grand Duke's prohibition would seal everyone's lips —
but even at the cost of his life, Alfredo had been preparing to say at least one word on the matter.
The Grand Duke's marriage!
Marriage!
"The position of Grand Duchess has been vacant for nearly thirty years, after all."
"And the matter of an heir is even more pressing..."
"It's a difficult situation, frankly. We can't put it off any longer."
"Don't worry about that."
The time had come when there was truly no need to worry.
He could not read the stars well enough to foresee the future, of course —
but Alfredo already knew.
That the Grand Duke had changed in some way, and that it was Daniela's influence behind it.
A feeling he could not put precisely into words.
"When you say there's no need to worry..."
"I imagine your thoughts and mine are the same."
"Yes!"
It was the first time Hexon had ever let out a cheer inside the castle walls.
One might shout for joy over a victory in war, or a great triumph over the nomads —
but this cry was purely and entirely for the Grand Duke's sake.
Alfredo, too, clenched his fist tightly.
At last! At last! The possibility that the North might have a great heir.
"Living long enough, I truly feel these days that the sun does come out eventually."
"Ha! The dark age has passed, hasn't it? What are you talking about."
"An heir to the Grand Duke. When the Young Duke is born, I want to be the one who gives him the education of a sovereign."
"There will be many vying for that position."
"Oh! That place is mine! No one else can have it! Not even Berdo!"
"Ha!"
With a happy laugh, Hexon turned and went back to his work.
Alfredo stood slowly before the door to the Grand Duke's room.
The guards offered their greetings,
but his attention was fixed entirely on what lay within.
— "Your Grace, surely you didn't make that story up?"
— "No. Things like that happen all the time in the North!"
— "Even granting that courtship is more natural here —"
— "They really did run off together. You can't imagine how flustered I was."
Hmm.
Perhaps he would wait a little longer.