But the fuss soon calmed down. Levisia was absently staring at her tingling hand when she said,

“I’m fine now.”

Pel’s hand slowly fell from hers. She shoved her free hand back under the blanket.

Pel was staring at her with calm eyes when he lifted his hand, placing it on her forehead. It seemed like he was her wiping sweat with a towel. So it wasn’t a dream that my forehead was wet. Levisia grabbed Pel’s wrist because she was so shocked at that.

The whole story of the incident was naturally drawn in front of her eyes. However, she could not tell that him. Because she felt sorry… to say that she had thought that his hand was Kraken’s leg.

“Really, I’m fine.”

After gripping Pel’s restless hand she softly pushed it away. It was with enough strength for him to pull back his hand

Levisia saw a chance to pull herself up. Pel said after seeing her move,

“Lie down for a bit longer.”

“No. I want to get up.”

At first glance, it sounded like a sigh came from him. He, however, helped her sit up comfortably as if he couldn’t win against her.

Before leaning her back against the headboard, he fluffed a soft pillow and placed it behind her. She asked as she stared at Pel’s hands pulling the blanket up to her chest,

“When d—Ahem! When did you come back?”

She suddenly lost her voice trying to say something long. A glass of water was handed to her as soon as she cleared her throat. She accepted it out of impulse.

“Seeing that it’s 2 a.m. now, I’ve been here for about six hours.”

“It’s that late?”

“It was past dinnertime and you hadn’t returned then, so I―”

Pel, who was normally a decent orator, stopped out of the blue. Drinking her water, Levisia shifted her eyes to the side and stared at him.

It wasn’t until after he turned his head from her that he continued speaking.

“…I was so worried about everyone left behind.”

Levisia knew that his words strangely didn’t add up, but she didn’t intend to dig that far.

“I didn’t think I’d stay there that late… I guess I took too long to take care of the situation.”

“What in the world happened?”

It was a question thrown out as if he’d been waiting until this very second to ask it.

“How can someone go on an inspection, lose consciousness, and return like this?”

“Uh… I didn’t pass out because I wanted to―”

“No. I’m not trying to say it’s your fault; I want to blame the guys who were by your side.”

She knew this was the room she had been assigned, but Pel’s outspoken words made her look around carefully for no reason.

“Pel, no matter how kindly you speak, the word ‘guys’ is kind of weird.”

“What if I’m trying to hold back what I really want to call them?”

“All right. Then let’s reach an agreement here.”

Levisia soon accepted. People say that the king curses in unseen places.

Pel, who didn’t seem to give a single damn about her totally flipped attitude, said,

“Levisia, you lost consciousness, so can you not blame the humans who have returned unscathed?”

How did they look last time? Tired as all hell after getting water splashed on them.

“They weren’t all that unscathed…”

“If your head is right, you’re unscathed.”

“Oh, yeah. All right.”

“Some people lose consciousness and suffer from nightmares…”

Levisia scratched her itchy cheek as she turned her eyes away. They’d all returned unscathed, so it was embarrassing to have been the only one who had lost consciousness.

Earlier she seemed to have thought, “I overcame the crisis of death, but this is nothing,” but now that she has come to her senses, what was to be embarrassed about?

Pel said, staring calmly at her,

“Even though I don’t know what happened, everyone seems to be busy hiding it. Perhaps it’s something that shouldn’t be openly revealed.”

Levisia recalled the boundary stone under the ocean in Vinhol. What she thought of next was the embarrassed face of Marchioness Vinhol, at the appearance of the sea monster on the pier. If this had been caused by damage to the boundary stone, it could not be taken lightly.

From Mentine to Vinhol…

Had they kept quiet about what had happened at the pier, Levisia would be able to guess the reason easily.

“If it’s something I shouldn’t have stepped into, I’ll step back now.”

“No, that―”

Levisia didn’t even realize she was grabbing Pel’s wrist again with the same hand as earlier. Pel raised his body as he was looking down at her hand on his wrist.

She winced and said, taking her hand away,

“It isn’t something you shouldn’t have stepped into; it’s because I am not sure what to do.”

That was a lie. That wasn’t what she’d just been thinking about.

What’s gonna happen if I tell Pel?