Nearly two years had passed since the war began.

Nineteen-year-old Lavi visited the temple again today, as she always did.

As Lavi sat in the prayer chamber inside the temple reserved exclusively for nobles, a great many gazes clung to her with stubborn persistence.

With a veil draped over her head, Lavi clasped her hands together and shut her eyes tightly.

‘Please don’t let any men come near my Akkad. There’s no one who donates as much money to this temple as I do, so you know you can’t make my Akkad cry.’

Every time she came to the temple, Lavi poured her heart into praying for Akkad’s safety.

When she finished, she rose from her seat and lifted the veil from her head, her face expressionless. As she stepped out of the prayer chamber, she spotted Allen waiting for her.

“You took a long time today.”

“Yeah. I prayed longer than usual.”

As Lavi emerged, a group of young noblemen followed in a rush. Seeing them, Allen shifted a step to the side, blocking their line of sight.

The rumor that the young lady of the Diaz family—never seen at banquets or parties—frequently appeared at the temple was a well-known story among noble sons.

Lavi had no idea that, in accordance with her visits, temple donations were increasing. 

‘Why are there so many people these days?’

Completely unaware of the attention focused on her, Lavi headed toward the waiting carriage.

Her skin was pale, her slender body so frail she looked as though even a gentle tap might knock her over. Her slightly expressionless face gave off an air that made her difficult to approach, yet there was also a rumor that when she prayed, she looked heartbreakingly pitiful, as if she carried some tragic story of her own.

One noble youth, who had been staring at Lavi in a daze with a flushed face, suddenly stiffened.

Her slightly upturned eyes, raised brows, and the crooked lift of one corner of her mouth gave an impression completely at odds with her initial image. Her clear, pale eyes flashed, and harsh words burst from between her red lips.

“’God’, huh? It should all just rot and burn. What’s the use of praying like that every day? This damn sh*t!”

Hearing Lavi’s string of curses, the young man quietly stepped away, increasing the distance between them.

“Nothing happened, I hope?” Allen ordered the coachman to head back to the estate, then he sat down across from her.

Irritation written all over her, Lavi roughly swept her hair back. 

“Why won’t he write back?”

“You mean Lord Akkad?”

“It’s been almost half a year already! My brother’s been getting replies from big sis Rose. So why haven’t I gotten one?”

Since her big sis Rose’s letters were arriving without issue, that meant there wasn’t any particular problem with the mail itself.

Feeling dejected, Lavi absently fiddled with her hair.

She had reread Akkad’s last letter so many times she could practically recite it from memory. There was nothing especially strange or different about it. So what on earth was the problem?

“He’ll be fine. Didn’t we hear just last week that the southern defense was successful?”

“That wasn’t Akkad’s unit.”

Lavi glared at Allen, as if asking how he could possibly confuse something like that.

“Ah… was it not?”

“No. Akkad’s unit hasn’t even been mentioned in the papers for three months now!” Lavi shouted, clutching at her hair. 

She was so worried she was on the verge of wanting to go find him herself. Lately, her anxiety had reached its peak, so she hadn’t been able to focus on anything, neglecting even to meet with the priests.

There was no way Akkad wouldn’t reply after receiving her letters.

“Should I hire someone separately to deliver one?”

“To deliver a letter?”

“Yes.”

“That would likely be difficult. It would take an extremely long time as well.”

Delivering letters to military units by any means other than the officially designated channels was prohibited.

Listening to Allen’s explanation, Lavi resigned herself to it.

“Why does it feel like nothing’s been going right lately?”

“…It’s probably just your imagination.”

At Allen’s utterly soulless attempt at comfort, Lavi let out a sigh.

“Why do all the young priests have such pitiful amounts of divine power? I really don’t like it.”

She worried about Akkad, but it was also about time to meet a replacement priest—and yet there wasn’t a single one she liked.

Why was it that only the Enoch family and priests had healing abilities? The range of options was far too narrow.

She felt like giving up on everything, but the thought that she might die at twenty made it impossible to quit.

For now, she had badgered her father into pouring a tremendous amount of money into the temple so she could have a priest assigned exclusively to her. Priests visited her regularly and used divine power regardless of whether she was injured or not. Thanks to that, she had been diligently going back and forth to the temple, but it was fair to say she wasn’t seeing results commensurate with the investment.

“…If you need a priest with strong divine power, wouldn’t it make more sense to seek out a high-ranking priest? Why does it have to be a young one?” Allen asked.

Lavi tilted her head, a crooked smile on her lips. It seemed Allen still hadn’t realized why she frequented the temple so obsessively.

“Allen. Don’t you think it’s about time you figured it out?”

Allen’s expression said clearly that he was lost. He simply pressed his fingers firmly against his brow, as if he had a headache.

“If I’m going to get married with a body this weak, the bare minimum requirement for a groom is a healing priest.”

“You …marriage?”

“What else did you think I was coming to the temple for, pushing this fragile body of mine?”

Only then did Allen finally understand the strange behaviors the young lady had shown all this time.

Marriage. 

So the man she met briefly last time was a priest because of that?

And the man before that. And the man before that one.

---

The camp of the Second Unit, led by Akkad, was in an uproar over letters that had arrived for the first time in a long while.

“Why is it so noisy?”

Akkad, who had been resting his eyes briefly after returning from a meeting, frowned and asked the knight processing documents in his tent.

“It seems to be because of the letters.”

“Letters?”

Just then, a voice from outside the tent asked for permission to enter.

“Come in.”

As if confirming the knight’s earlier words, the person entering was holding an armful of letters.

“These are letters for the Vice Commander.”

Akkad frowned as he looked at the pile of letters placed on the table.

“Why are there so many?”

“Ah, well, the unit transporting the mail was attacked. These are the letters we recovered after successfully defending the south this time. Nearly a year’s worth had piled up, so there’s quite a lot. The letters that arrived on schedule are mixed in as well.”

He had been worried because the letters from Lavi—which used to arrive regardless of whether he replied—had suddenly stopped. Still, he had received one letter about four months ago, so hearing that nearly a year’s worth had piled up felt strange.

“Then what about the replies I sent?”

“Replies sent over the past six months weren’t delivered properly. They were all sent out in a batch last week, so they will likely be received soon.”

“What a mess.”

Letters exchanged with the imperial family were managed separately, so incidents like this didn’t happen, and all nobles were supposed to use the Imperial courier service to exchange letters.

However, he and his father didn’t use that channel.

They exchanged a few letters with his mother through that service as a diversion, but ever since they caught wind that the Imperial Family seemed to be checking the contents of the mail, they had been using the method used by regular knights.

They took certain roundabout measures to maintain security—but perhaps that was precisely why this had happened.

Akkad cursed the Emperor inwardly for a moment, then gestured to the knight that he could leave.

“Good work.”

“Then I’ll take my leave. I will come tomorrow to collect any replies.”

Akkad nodded and untied the string that held the bundle of letters firmly together. There seemed to be at least twenty of them.

Thinking he should check on Lavi’s well-being first, Akkad searched for the most recently sent letter.

[To Akkad:

Akkad, nothing’s wrong, right? I know everything’s probably fine, but since there’s been no reply, it’s been bothering me a little.

I won’t say things like ‘fill three pages’ like before, so if you see this letter, please…! Please write back.

If you don’t, I’m really going to sulk.

Since I haven’t received a reply from you recently, I don’t have much to say other than asking if you’re safe or hurt.

No, actually, I have a ton to say because of my boyfriend. Can you believe this boyfriend turned out to have a woman he promised to marry? I didn’t even care that he was a priest who used to be a commoner when I dated him, so how could he do that to me?]

“……?”

Akkad froze at the word ‘boyfriend,’ but then realized from the phrase ‘this one’ that there wasn’t just one.

His initial bewilderment at the idea of Lavi having a lover was quickly twisted his stomach as he reached the part about the man who already had a woman he planned to marry.

“…My Lord?” Knight Levin, who was looking at documents in Akkad’s tent, flinched at the murderous aura and called out to him.

Akkad tore open all of Lavi’s letters at once and rapidly scanned the contents.

The backlog of letters contained very detailed accounts of the men Lavi had met and what had happened with them.

“Priests, huh…”

“…Pardon?”

Akkad swept back his hair and leaned loosely against his chair.

It seemed there were more audacious priests than he had expected, ones willing to take advantage of innocent Lavi. What on earth were Werner and Allen doing, letting bastards like that get close to her?

Akkad knew that Lavi went to the temple to pray for him.

Thinking of that, he wondered briefly if these useless bastards were swarming around her because of him.

“…Three of them, at least.”

Akkad twisted his lips and tapped the table.

He would need to read the letters carefully again to know the details, but he could tell there were at least three guys he needed to crush.

Thinking he should at least reply back for now, Akkad took out some stationery—but his hand refused to move. The news had come too suddenly. His initial daze gave way, little by little, to emotions that became increasingly hard to endure.

More than half of those emotions were worry for Lavi’s health.

Unless she met them while praying at the temple, had she been sick often lately?

So, did it happen naturally because she encountered priests frequently?

But she and I spent time together like that, and we never became lovers—so why?

“Levin.”

“Yes? Y-yes!”

“Where’s the nearest enemy camp?”

“…Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

Akkad knew all too well how ugly the inner nature of those priests could be. He couldn’t imagine Lavi approaching them of her own volition and suggesting they become lovers.

Akkad abandoned his efforts to try and send a reply, gathering Lavi’s letters and placing them into a storage box.

Before replying, he felt he needed to vent those nameless emotions first. 

It was fortunate, perhaps, that today was the day for a preemptive strike.

---

Lavi shrugged as she looked at Allen, who now wore an expression as if he had finally pieced everything together.

“Miss… don’t tell me that one was a priest too…?”

“That’s right. How can someone who claims to serve a god do things like that?”

Lavi fell into deep contemplation over whether she had terrible judgment when it came to men, or whether she was simply destined to live alone.

The priest she had briefly seen before already had a woman he’d promised to marry, and had approached her harboring dreams of advancing his status.  When Allen caught on and it reached her brother Werner’s ears, and then even her father’s, the priest had nearly been forced to relinquish his priesthood, but in the end, Lavi had chosen to forgive him, and the matter was settled just like that.

That had been about a month ago, give or take.

“Miss. Wasn’t the first man you met not a priest?” 

“His divine power manifested late, so he hadn’t been officially ordained as a priest yet. But he was scheduled to become one soon..”

He had been cheating on no fewer than nine women.

Allen buried his face in his palms.

“…Then what about the second one?”

“I met him because I’d heard Holy Knights also have healing abilities too, but it turned out to just be a false rumor.”

That holy knight had tried to initiate something physical with Lavi, and when she refused, he turned forceful, and it even escalated into a duel with Allen.

The one who had fed her the false information was Caleb, the knight who had once brought her wine. Hearing that, Allen resolved that he would absolutely see that knight kicked out.

“Haa… I know the third one was a priest as well.”

“A fifteen-year age gap just didn’t feel right, no matter how I thought about it. I couldn’t even bring myself to hold his hand.”

“Miss…”

Allen let out a sigh, holding back tears.

For some reason, he found himself desperately missing Lord Akkad. It felt like things hadn’t been this bad when Lord Akkad had been around. Lately, it felt as though everything was getting increasingly difficult to rein in.

No—perhaps using the phrase rein in toward the lady he served was wrong to begin with. But was it really too much to hope she would at least act within a predictable range of behaviors?

The one small mercy was that, with all the men she had met so far, nothing had happened beyond holding hands. 

…To be in a situation where this even counted as something to be grateful for was just…

“My lady. You are nineteen now.”

At his words, Lavi slumped back loosely against the carriage seat and asked,

“What are you trying to say?”

“If what you want is marriage… then perhaps it would be better to ask the Marquis directly—ah, no, that’s also… never mind.”

Lavi raised an eyebrow as she watched Allen continue to sigh heavily.

Well, she knew she had a talent for picking only the worst partners—but wasn’t Allen much the same? He was staying unmarried even past the marriageable age, after all. Of course, she also knew that his appearance—still looking under thirty—and his popularity were through the roof.

“Allen. You should try dating too. At this rate, you’ll never get married.”

“…Excuse me? Miss, you’re the one person I don’t want to hear that from.”

“What do you mean by that?” Was he saying that because all her past relationships had ended in failure? Bridling, Lavi added sharply, “Are you trying to pick a fight right now?”

“As of I would.”

“You’re no good at dating either, Allen.”

“…I have no rebuttal to that.”

Rubbing his face, Allen looked at Lavi.

“If you ask for leave, you get it. On days you’re staying at the estate, I even make time for you to go out on purpose. I don’t understand why you can’t date.”

“…I’m just planning to live alone.”

Allen recalled the women he had dated in the past. He had been in five relationships so far, so it wasn’t a small number. The problem was that every single one of them had dumped him. And the reason he’d been given was always the same.

“You keep going on about ‘Miss’, ‘Miss’—why don’t you just date her instead?”

“Can you stop talking about your lady already? Whether we meet after a week or a month, it’s always about your lady. I’m so sick of it.”

It was usually something like that.

Had Lavi heard this, she would have clutched her stomach laughing, declaring the birth of yet another hopelessly devoted fool.

---

“Miss. Here is today’s newspaper.”

Jenny handed the newspaper to Lavi along with dessert after she finished breakfast.

This had been the routine every morning since Akkad had deployed for war.

With a strawberry between her lips, Lavi unfolded the newspaper.

“So this was the reason!!”

Her eyes widened as she read an article reporting that the military unit responsible for delivering mail to the troops had been ambushed. That made sense. Before Akkad left—and before his replies stopped—they had exchanged letters so diligently. There was no way Akkad would have deliberately ignored her letters.

Feeling as though she might cry, Lavi pressed a hand to her chest.

“Hm? Lavi, what’s going on?”

Werner, who has joined her for breakfast for the first time in a while, approached closer at her outburst.

“Brother, how is it that you somehow don’t know about news like this, but you keep telling me useless things like the enemy nation’s financial situation?”

At the bottom of the article was a notice stating that several months’ backlog of letters had been fully delivered three months ago, along with a note that some losses may have occurred.

“Huh? Ah… I see. Sorry—your brother misunderstood something.”

Werner looked slightly shocked as he read the article with her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… Akkad sends letters through a different method than Lady Salome.”

Lavi looked at Werner as if to ask what he was talking about.

“There’s a bit of an issue with His Majesty… I’ll explain later. For now, I’m sorry.”

Werner glanced toward the servants and held his tongue.

“Hm… so that’s what it was. But you knew how worried I was because I wasn’t getting any replies..”

“I’m sorry. I really am, Lavi. I’ll make sure to look into things properly from now on.”

Judging by how Werner kept apologizing with his hands clasped together, he clearly meant it.

“If you’re sorry, then write a letter to Akkad.”

Werner hesitated for a moment, then nodded reluctantly under Lavi’s ominous stare.

“Alright. I will.”

“Fill up three whole pages.”

“Three pages? Th-that’s…”

Ignoring her brother, Lavi counted on her fingers, calculating the volume of backlogged letters Akkad must have received.

“Hm… was it right after my first breakup?”

Thinking that the delayed letters were probably filled with nothing but complaints and gloomy stories made her feel a bit sheepish.

Still, the thought that she would finally get a reply lifted her mood.

Humming softly, Lavi picked up the next paper.

“There’s a lot of news about Akkad today.”

Werner moved to the seat next to Lavi and leaned in, peering over as if to read together.

“Yes. There hadn’t been for a while.”

Lavi read the article, looking slightly bewildered. It stated that seven of the enemy nation’s twelve vice commanders had been killed by Akkad’s hand. All within a span of three months.

“This is the kind of thing you should be telling me.” Lavi pointed at the article, eyes flashing. What was the point of having a brother with excellent intelligence networks otherwise?

“I did tell you.”

“Huh?”

“I mentioned it last time I told you news. I told you who died in which camp, their name, rank, title, family relations, and what impact it had. I even told you what damage Akkad’s unit took and who they were likely to target next.”

Did she really need to know the family relations of deceased enemy officers? Wasn’t it because he explained all that unnecessary detail nonstop that she hadn’t understood?

As Werner continued his long-winded explanation, Lavi reached out and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“From now on, just say things like: ‘Akkad won a battle somewhere. He killed someone important. They say Akkad wasn’t injured.’ Otherwise, just hand over the whole report you’re holding.”

Werner nodded and gently removed her hand from his mouth.

“…Mm. Sorry.”

Pointing at the article, Lavi asked about something she was curious about.

“Is this even possible? It wasn’t like this before.”

“I think they’re starting to try to turn the tide of the war. It’s much earlier than originally planned, but that’s thanks to Akkad’s continuous victories.”

“Exactly. What are the other units even doing, that only Akkad is this busy?”

Lavi puckered her lips, feeling somewhat resentful of her father. She didn’t know much about war, but from what she’d seen so far, this wasn’t something that should have happened within three months.

“Akkad moved on his own initiative, so don’t worry too much.”

“He should know when to slow down. What if he gets hurt?”

“There hasn’t been any news of Akkad getting injured, so stop worrying. Alright?”

Despite the worries swirling in her head, Lavi carefully clipped out the article about Akkad and slipped it into the folder where she kept such things.

“Ah, that reminds me—Lady Salome was saying she hasn’t gotten a letter from you.”

“Ah! I completely forgot. I was so focused on not hearing back from Akkad.”

Lavi reproached herself for forgetting to reply to her big sis Rose. Hadn’t she failed to even think about exchanging letters with her all this time?

“I’ll have to write and send one today. But Brother, it seems you exchange letters with Rose more often than I thought.”

She’d heard about letters from Rose through her brother more than a few times. Lavi leaned closer to Werner, looking at him as if urging him to say something.

“W-w-well…”

“Well?”

“She’s my fiancée.”

Even if she was his fiancée, it was a political arrangement—what did that have to do with anything?

“Treat her well.”

“…Mm.”

After delivering that short but forceful line, Lavi picked up the next newspaper.

“What’s this now?”

Clicking her tongue, she looked at the main article.

Why had they written “red hair” when it was pink?

Lavi checked the name of the newspaper company and smiled crookedly. She was fully intending to contact them immediately and demand a correction.

How dare they get that beautiful hair color wrong?

It wasn’t like his hair color could have changed in the meantime… right?

Lavi shook her head at the implausible thought.

“Hm? What is it?”

“Look. They got Akkad’s hair color wrong.”

“Lavi, that’s—…no, never mind. You’re right. The newspaper made a mistake.”

Werner hesitated for a moment, then patted Lavi’s head.

“It’s not blood, is it?”

The sudden thought made Lavi spring to her feet, bracing her hands on the table.

“Of course not. There’s no way he’d be covered in blood to the point his hair color changed.”

Even in a war, surely it wouldn’t be enough to make his hair look different.

Lavi tilted her head.

Still, feeling uneasy, she resolved to make sure she asked in her next letter whether his hair color was still the same.

---

Translator comments: Lazy tired translator is lazy and tired and this has been on my computer for over a year do I am embracing a ‘done is better than perfect’ philosophy lol. As always, if anyone else wants to pick up this project, it’s yours. You can reach me on NU @ yodireads.

Also, NGL, one of my favorite tropes is ‘ML is a puppy dog in front of the FL and a ferocious terror around everyone else’, ahaha (if it isn’t clear, the newspaper is talking about blood euphemistically since he’s killed so many people, and Werner is just like…Lavi is too innocent to know this we’ll just roll with her calling it a mistake)

Translator notes:

• 의자에 느슨히 기대어 앉았다 this phrase shows up twice in this chapter and translates literally as like, ‘sat loosely’. I have no idea what sitting loosely means. Slumping?! idk y’all I’m so tired.
• As always ‘big sis’ here as used by Lavi with regards to Rose is not literal. She’s using ‘unni’ which is a form of address from one female to an older female. I omitted it, but Akkad calls Werner ‘hyung’ – form of address from a younger male to an older male – in the same way. Notable mostly for how he does NOT call Allen hyung. There’s a formality line drawn between them.

---