Chapter 7.1

“No, navy is too dull. Bring me something else.”

With a flick of her hand, Esha dismissed the maids carrying a tailcoat and gestured for them to bring another.

She had been sitting on the sofa for two hours now, choosing Johan’s outfit.

“Anything is fine with me, Your Highness,” Johan said quietly from his seat beside her.

But Esha shook her head.

“This will be your first formal appearance in Elendor’s social circle. ‘Anything’ won’t do. First impressions tend to linger for a long time.”

Her voice was gentle but firm.

It had been four years since their engagement, and now the New Year’s ball was just around the corner.

She was examining his wardrobe with even more care and scrutiny than she used for her own gowns.

The designer, clearly flustered, flipped open his sketchbook.

It was rare enough for a wife to involve herself so deeply in her husband’s attire, an engaged woman doing so was nearly unheard of.

“How about green?” Esha mused aloud. “A white shirt, beige trousers. Dark colors don’t suit you as well, since you’re still young. Something lighter would fit better.”

“An impeccable eye, Your Highness,” the designer murmured, adjusting his spectacles. He was already exhausted from her endless rejections.

Another thirty minutes passed as they measured Johan’s frame and settled on cuffs.

At last, Esha pressed a hand to her sore back as they walked side by side down the corridor. Outside, the sun was already dipping below the horizon, painting the windows in shades of gold and rose.

“Your Elendorian has improved so much. I’d believe it if someone told me you were Elendorian yourself.”

At her praise, the tips of Johan’s ears flushed pink.

Esha often told him he was “just like an Elendorian” these days, and though the compliment always left a faint weight in his chest, anything spoken from her lips brought him quiet joy.

Even if he could no longer throw himself into her arms like a child…

“Sister…”

Johan spoke hesitantly.

His voice had deepened with age. It was low, calm, and steady now, and he was no longer mocked for his accent.

“I have a request.”

Though he still called her “Sister” when they were alone, Johan no longer spoke with the childish cadence he once had, and Esha found herself missing it.

There had been a time when he’d chatter away in clumsy Elendorian, endearingly awkward.

She drifted for a moment into that memory, then finally asked,

“A request?”

“After the New Year’s Festival… I’d like to spend some time in Atlan.”

“Hmm. Shouldn’t you ask His Majesty’s permission first?”

“That’s…”

Johan trailed off.

Of course, he already knew what the answer would be. Esha did too.

That stubbornness in her nature, she had inherited it from her father. Edmund was the kind of man who, once he said “no,” meant it absolutely.

“You know how it will be, Sister…”

There was the faintest trace of forced charm in his voice, and Esha’s lips curved faintly in amusement.

When had he grown so tall? The head that once reached only her waist was now level with her eyes.

In the four years since their engagement, they had spoken of countless things, growing undeniably close. But year after year, Esha could not help but notice how visibly more somber Johan had become.

And she knew why. He missed his homeland.

“I’m sorry,” she said firmly. “You know it’s not possible.”

Perhaps if she begged Edmund, it could be arranged.

But she didn’t want to go that far. Not because she couldn’t, but because she feared that if Johan set foot on Atlan’s soil again, he might choose never to return.

Johan never asked a second time when his first request was denied. Instead, his lips pressed into a thin, silent line.

The two of them continued down the long corridor without a word.

Tonight was the evening they had planned to dine together in the greenhouse, so they were already dressed for the occasion.

For four years, those within the imperial palace had spoken of their relationship not as an engagement but as if Johan were a fledgling bird following its mother.

To see Esha—the quiet, sensitive princess so often overshadowed by her sister—pour such devotion into caring for her fiancé as though he were her only younger brother had been nothing short of astonishing.

The sight of the young betrothed pair leaning so deeply on one another slowly began to shift even the palace servants’ prejudices about them.