By the time I came back to my senses, we had already left the training grounds behind. Only once Bjorn had confirmed that no one was around did he finally release my wrist.
I blinked, trying to collect myself, and then rounded on him.
“You can’t just drag someone off like that, Your Highness!”
Bjorn tilted his head with a perfectly guileless expression, as though he genuinely couldn’t see the problem.
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“What’s wrong with it? Everything!”
“Didn’t Lady Melberine also think there were things left to discuss between us?”
That was true — but not like this.
The image of Axel’s face just before I’d been pulled away surfaced in my mind, his expression strangely tight. I was worried he might have drawn the wrong conclusions.
That was exactly why I had been deliberating right up until the last moment over what to do — and then Bjorn had gone and hauled me off like this.
Bjorn studied me for a moment, then gave a knowing nod.
“Ah. I think I understand what Lady Melberine is worried about — but there’s no need. That particular concern won’t come to pass.”
I had never heard words I believed less in my entire life. He spoke as though he knew something, and I couldn’t help but be suspicious.
I let out a long exhale.
Right. What was done was done. Worrying about it now wouldn’t change anything.
For the moment, I needed to focus on what Bjorn had brought me here to discuss.
“Ha… fine. All right, Your Highness. Let’s talk.”
“Good thinking.”
I got straight to the point.
“I’ve been meaning to ask — what exactly were you thinking, keeping that recorded vision orb to yourself?”
Bjorn had stepped in at the very last moment, when the misunderstanding between Axel and me had spiraled nearly past the point of no return. Thanks to the recording he’d shown Axel, the whole thing had been resolved — but that didn’t mean I was prepared to let it go.
As I spoke, the forgotten anger began to stir back to the surface.
“Do you have any idea how much I suffered because of that? If there was a way to fix things all along, you should have told me. I trusted you, Your Highness, in my own way — and this was honestly too much.”
But even at my outpouring, Bjorn only tilted his head as though genuinely mystified. I had never found anyone quite so infuriating in my entire life.
Just as my frown was deepening, he turned the question back on me.
“Lady Melberine was the one who asked me to help things work out with Axel.”
“I have no idea why that’s relevant right now. I asked you to help, not to orchestrate a misunderstanding!”
His shameless face made my voice rise before I could stop it. Bjorn shook his head as though I simply didn’t understand.
“A true love is only forged through great trials. Doesn’t Lady Melberine know that? Only by weathering every adversity can one claim a love that is truly one’s own.”
The more I spoke with Bjorn, the more my temper rose. What he was saying was so absurd I was practically speechless.
“Well, it didn’t end badly, and you and Axel did reconcile in the end. By all appearances, you’re closer than before. I genuinely don’t understand why Lady Melberine is so upset with me. I simply did my best to honor her request… is this how I deserve to be treated?”
Bjorn dropped his eyes with the expression of someone deeply hurt. He produced a handkerchief, as though tears were imminent at any moment.
Where did that handkerchief keep coming from, and how?
His sheer audacity left me opening and closing my mouth without finding words. My fighting spirit was no match for Bjorn.
And he wasn’t entirely wrong — the outcome hadn’t been bad.
But this was, as he put it, entirely a matter of looking at results.
“You nearly arrived too late, Your Highness. Do you understand that? I felt like half my lifespan was shaved off.”
“All of it unfolded exactly according to my meticulous plan — and yet Lady Melberine speaks of it in these terms…”
Bjorn trailed off, turned to look at me, and smiled that bright, unsteady smile of his.
“Then, going forward, I’ll give advance notice.”
Not I’m sorry, I won’t do it again — just I’ll warn you next time.
Next time? What next time?
But I knew better than to argue the point. It would only exhaust me.
I exhaled and asked:
“So is that what you came all the way to the training grounds for?”
“No. That was incidental. As Lady Melberine knows, we still have a very important matter left to discuss.”
An important matter? This wasn’t even the main point?
I furrowed my brow slightly.
“An important matter? What would that be?”
But Bjorn looked at me as though I had said something absurd — eyes faintly widened in surprise.
“Are you asking because you genuinely don’t know?”
The atmosphere had grown oddly serious. I couldn’t find the words to answer, and my mind turned it over.
I thought hard, but nothing came to me. Had I made some important promise to the Crown Prince?
My reaction seemed to baffle him, because he shook his head in disbelief.
“Lady Melberine has truly forgotten that Axel’s birthday is fast approaching? Then I suppose you haven’t prepared a gift yet, either. I came to ask because I assumed you were already getting ready.”
“What? His birthday?!”
His birthday? Whose? Don’t tell me…
I went pale and searched my memory — and then I understood.
Good heavens.
I pressed one hand over my mouth.
How had I forgotten something like this? Such an important event, and on top of that, one that only came once a year!
“It seems Lady Melberine truly didn’t know.”
There was a flicker of something like disappointment on Bjorn’s face, but that was not what mattered to me right now.
Axel’s birthday was next week. Right then, next week.
No birthday café, no advertisement, no date planned, no gift prepared — and I had almost no time left.
Less than a week.
I clutched my head and felt the weight of it.
Why did I forget something this important? Even if I was overjoyed about resolving things with Axel, there were limits to what one should let slip from one’s mind.
Eyes squeezed shut in self-recrimination, I suddenly lifted my head.
Right. This was no time to stand here with Bjorn.
Now that I knew how little time remained, I had to start moving immediately.
I pulled myself together and gave him a quick farewell.
“Your Highness, something urgent has just come up and I need to get going. Thank you for letting me know about the Grand Duke’s birthday. I’ll see myself out!”
And with that, I departed at speed.
For a while after that, I was so busy I hardly had time to see Axel.
First, I secured Axel’s time on the day itself — the most essential step of all — and then went on to reserve five different cafés around the capital and arrange for large advertisement banners to go up.
Cup holders, photo cards, postcards, banners, framed prints, special extras — I designed and prepared all of it myself without a moment’s rest. Every night ran until dawn.
But it still wasn’t finished.
Because the most important problem remained unsolved.
“I still haven’t decided on the gift…”
Tomorrow was Axel’s birthday. And I still had no idea what to give him.
I hadn’t expected this to be the thing that tripped me up — and yet it was the hardest problem of all.
I sat with my head in my hands.
What could I possibly give him that he would actually like?
Axel held more wealth than almost anyone in the empire. If he wanted something, he could simply have it.
For someone like that, an ordinary gift would carry very little meaning.
The first thing that came to mind was a cravat — but I didn’t want to give something so predictable.
No sincerity in it. No sincerity at all.
Every idea that surfaced felt equally ordinary.
Something that carries real meaning — but also looks presentable enough on the outside…
I had been sitting there since early morning without eating, turning the problem over and over, when it suddenly came to me. A flash of clarity, like lightning.
That’s it. I’ll give him that.
I called for Mary to help me get ready and set out at once.
At last, the long-awaited day of Axel’s birthday arrived.
Accessories and outfit — both perfect.
The pale pink hair I always left down had been braided to one side and pinned with an ornament for balance, and I had dusted a faint blush across both cheeks.
It looked flawless.
I had run through this day in my head so many times. Seeing it come together exactly as I had imagined — I was satisfied.
With one last check in the mirror, I stepped into the waiting carriage.
Since this was Axel’s birthday, I had decided to go and meet him myself. The carriage had barely gone far before it stopped in front of the Grand Duke’s estate.
Through the window, I could see Axel already waiting outside in front of the carriage.
The moment the door opened, I reached out toward him and smiled.
“Happy birthday, Your Highness!”
