Though she said that, her heart felt at ease, making her wonder if she had really been dragging this out because she wanted to avoid it. Apart from feeling nervous, she felt stable.

She thought Tewiller would feel better once she gave him an answer. Humming a tune with a refreshed feeling, she looked like someone excited to anyone who saw her.

As Anasha walked with a light face, someone happened to see her through a window while passing through the corridor.

“Commander?”

The administrative officer who found it strange that he suddenly stopped walking carefully spoke to him.

“Did you perhaps forget something……”

“……”

“Ah, no. I’ll go back and check again. Let’s go to the meeting room first.”

The administrative officer’s job was to read facial cues, especially since the commander rarely showed changes in expression. With his face now stiffened in the partial shadow, the officer felt even more anxious. He hurriedly went back the way he came to check if anything important had been forgotten.

Even after he left, Rihirt still stood without moving. Though he eventually took a step, his pace was noticeably slower than before.

⁕⁕⁕

Rihirt had always considered himself insensitive. He had never ruined work because of his mood or lost motivation, nor had he ever worried about trivial matters.

He must have lived his entire life dully, but for the first time, he couldn’t concentrate on anything. Simply because he was feeling anxious.

Even while working, he kept recalling what he had briefly overheard from her earlier.

She had said she would give her answer this evening. It was obvious that it was about the partner issue. She had been agonizing over this problem recently. And her bright voice suggested she had finally made up her mind.

The problem was why he felt anxious about this. After setting up several hypotheses, he began to examine them one by one.

First, as someone who had heard her concerns in real-time, he was worried whether she could talk well.

But Rihirt knew well that he wasn’t such a considerate person. If that were the case, he should have empathized emotionally from the moment he first heard her concerns, but feeling this way now seemed a bit off.

Second, seeing her made him think he should quickly find a partner too.

He was certainly in a hurry. But if that was why he felt rushed, why wasn’t he opening the file? The fact that he needed to decide on a partner as soon as possible was something he had been aware of for a long time. It didn’t add up.

Third, he was worried she might actually attend as a partner.

But why should he feel anxious about her accepting the proposal and attending as a partner? Rihirt still couldn’t find an answer to this.

He became lost in thought. He believed that this anxiety was just a momentary emotion that would be resolved with time.

‘…Nine o’clock?’

However, his judgment was wrong. Even as the sun set and the lights in the building went out one by one, his mood remained the same.

A pile of documents, only half processed, was stacked high on the right side of his desk.

Rihirt put down his pen. This wasn’t going to work today. He thought it was no different from occasionally putting down paperwork early when fatigue accumulated from long training sessions. If he went to the mansion, finished the rest of his work, and went to bed early, it would be resolved by the next day.

He opened the drawer and took out the file he hadn’t looked at for a while. He still had to do what needed to be done.

On his way to the mansion, he sat on the carriage sofa and opened the file. Rihirt began to look through the papers, considering three candidates. But just like when he was working, his mind couldn’t absorb the information.

Eventually, having no choice but to close the file, he turned his gaze to the window. The outside scenery was quickly passing by.

His eyes followed the yellow light that shone in. In the dimness, he saw an arch bridge with streetlights extending along it. It was the largest bridge in the capital. Crimson streaks shimmered on the river flowing beneath it.

Suddenly, a scene he had seen before came back to his mind. And her figure beside him that day. Just as his hand holding the file unconsciously tightened, a small figure crossing the bridge caught his eye.

Feeling somehow familiar, he began to follow the figure closely, and as the distance shortened, he could be certain. The person crossing the bridge was none other than Sir Asha.

The culprit who had made him so anxious all day long had a light step, as if something had made her excited. Her hair, slightly disheveled by the night breeze, was so black it seemed about to blend into the darkness. As he watched intently, afraid she might disappear from his sight, he belatedly noticed himself doing so.

‘Why.’

He wanted to know what was making him so anxious. In fact, he wanted to acknowledge it.

‘Am I dissatisfied with her going?’

He actually knew. This anxiety wasn’t about kind-hearted worry or newfound nervousness. He was simply uncomfortable. In his heart.

That she came to him with such consultations, that she was now going to another man to give her answer, that tomorrow he would face her excited to tell him how it went, and that he could only watch this whole process as an outsider—all of this made him uncomfortable.

Rather than hiding and feeling anxious like this, it would have been better if he had at least honestly spoken up. And that last opportunity was now in his hands. Rihirt quietly applied pressure to his hand and then, as if having made a decision, knocked on the carriage ceiling.

The carriage, which had just entered the bridge, gradually slowed down. The distance between them was getting closer. Rihirt grabbed the door handle, opened it, and stepped down.

“Sir Asha……!”

Anasha, suddenly called in the middle of the bridge, turned around. She saw a man rushing toward her from not far away. She was greatly surprised and stood blankly before taking a step to meet him.

It happened when they were less than ten steps apart.

The file in his hand slipped due to sweat and escaped his fingertips. The file, opened by the wind, soon hit the low stone railing. Just as Anasha rushed to grab the file that was about to fall below the railing.

Anasha looked up at the warm hand that grabbed hers. He was standing close enough for their bodies to almost touch.

“…Uh……”

Anasha, who had been looking at the file that had disappeared into the pitch-black river water, looked up at him.

“Wasn’t that important? I think we could retrieve it and dry it, should I get it?”

“It’s not important, so there’s no need.”

“But still……”

“It’s fine, so don’t worry. More importantly, I have something important to say.”

He released her hand and took a step back. His appearance in the streetlight looked a bit different from how she had seen him in the commander’s office. He looked more relaxed. Anasha lowered her gaze. The cool night breeze passed over the back of her hand where the warm sensation had disappeared. It felt somehow empty.

“On the day of the ball, I would like you to accompany me.”

“…What?”

“…You don’t have to answer. It’s not a command from a superior either.”

When Anasha raised her eyes to look at him again, Rihirt lowered his gaze instead. With his eyes diagonally fixed between the dark river surface and the shadowed stone railing, he spoke.

“Just think about it. About what kind of option this is……”

“…Um, what?”

Anasha still had a face that didn’t understand. Rihirt, feeling like his throat was burning, just repeated the same words again.

In the end, without even saying half of what he had intended, he rambled and put her in the carriage. Then he closed the door himself and stepped back.

“Excuse me, this carriage, Commander?”

“It’s late at night. If you tell them your destination, they will take you there. Please go.”

“But what about you, Commander?”

Anasha asked, urgently sticking her face out the window. Rihirt quietly shook his head. Currently, he couldn’t properly face Anasha. Since he couldn’t ride together, he had no choice but to get off.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Sir Asha.”

Though it wasn’t clearly visible in the darkness, a quiet smile, barely noticeable, seeped into his face. Anasha looked at him with an expression of complete bewilderment, but eventually had to let him go as the departing carriage carried her away.

Rihirt, who had been staring in the direction she disappeared for a while, belatedly took a step.

4. Moment of Realization (2)

Anasha had been eager to ask many questions since morning. Starting with why he had sent her alone in the carriage last night, and what the talk about accompanying him to the ball was about. Of course, thanks to that, she had been able to finish her conversation with Tewiller well and quickly return to the knight order by carriage.

But being grateful and finding something strange were separate matters. Anasha, who had been sitting in the commander’s office since morning waiting for him, sprang up from her seat as soon as the door opened.

“Commander!!”

“Good morning.”

He had the same calm, expressionless face as usual. Soon, a small question bloomed on his face. It was because of Anasha, who blocked his way with her arms spread out.

“Let’s talk! Why on earth yesterday……”

“Do you happen to know anything about jousting?”

“Why jousting?”

“I’ve become interested in it.”

But when he trailed off, saying there was no one around to tell him about it, Anasha slowly blinked.

She sat on the sofa with a solemn face. Then she began to excitedly talk about what she knew about jousting.

Starting with the advice that it’s best to watch jousting in tournaments, she told him everything from the big tournament held once a year in the capital, to the eligibility requirements and last year’s winner.