“Since I was planning to buy Amun a set of clothes anyway… no, I was planning to visit a tailor shop. I would have bought my clothes there too. While these fine clothes are really nice, I’d prefer something a bit more ordinary.”
“…”
“I would have spent money I saved up. I wouldn’t have used Amun’s money or imperial funds.”
Cayden offered excuses in advance, worried that Assad might find him pathetic for spending money twice on unnecessary things. It was a forced addition.
Assad’s reaction wasn’t positive. The man whose smile had faded seemed somewhat displeased. He also appeared to feel slightly hurt. Cayden believed he was making an absurd misinterpretation.
“It’s not that I dislike the clothes Amun prepared. They’re truly stylish and nice.”
“It wasn’t Amun who prepared them, it was me.”
Assad said as he gathered up the clothes he had tried on Cayden.
“I know they’re excessive.”
“…”
“Plain clothes are good. That’s right. But rather than too ordinary, I wanted something a bit better, and as I kept changing the clothes, this is what happened. My standards were probably too high.”
“So… these clothes were prepared by Your Highness.”
Cayden repeated words he wouldn’t normally repeat, words Assad had already spoken once.
It felt strange to see what looked like inexplicable embarrassment in Assad’s eyes as he spoke such things. Cayden found himself absently touching his right cheek.
‘Prepared personally with me in mind…’
It was the kind of statement that could make him misconstrue that Assad cared for him. For a moment, he had an absurd thought.
But Cayden quickly organized his confused mind. How could Assad possibly feel that way? Does one increasingly distort the other person’s actions as affection grows? He became worried about himself.
“What? You don’t like it because I prepared it?”
“No. I’m truly… happy and pleased.”
Cayden answered Assad, who wasn’t looking at him. He spoke the truth. If he disliked it, his heart wouldn’t feel this ticklish. He wouldn’t have felt momentarily elevated, as if flying through the sky.
But he shouldn’t assign meaning to unnecessary things. He shouldn’t feel improper emotions. Knowing this, he tried to calm his heart quickly. Though it wasn’t working well.
Come to think of it, Assad hadn’t liked his shabby appearance since they first met. That’s probably why he prepared these nice clothes. Although the people of the kingdom who would meet him wouldn’t know he was temporarily sitting in the position of Helio’s Crown Prince’s consort, Assad and the guards knew.
“Plain clothes are good. That’s right. But rather than too ordinary, I wanted something a bit better, and as I kept changing the clothes, this is what happened. My standards were probably too high.”
Still, Cayden was happy. He wondered if it was alright to feel joy alone over kindness without meaning. His heart simply wouldn’t settle. His heart pounded shamelessly.
“Why make such excuses? Even without them, I know you’re not someone who would disregard my sincerity.”
“…Thank you.”
“Yes, let’s buy new clothes. Very ordinary clothes to wear at your friend’s wedding.”
Assad smiled as he put the prepared clothes back down on the bed.
“These will be useful someday on their own.”
Assad continued speaking.
“We’ll go to the tailor shop together. Besides your clothes, there are other clothes I need to buy.”
“Do you need clothes?”
“Yes. My clothes. What I brought… it seems you won’t like them. I’ll have better ones made for Amun, so erase that from your mind. Instead, buy clothes for me.”
Assad’s words, still without losing his smile, were only puzzling to Cayden. He wondered what Assad meant by saying buy his clothes instead of Amun’s.
Cayden had been thinking of visiting a tailor shop gathered in part of the residential area. A common tailor shop with a tailor who would make simple alterations to ready-made products on display.
He didn’t consider “ordinary” to mean “low quality.” Nor did he want to disparage the word. From the beginning, wasn’t he living a bottom-of-the-barrel life that couldn’t even approach ordinariness?
But Assad… was someone who shouldn’t be ordinary. Even if he had followed Cayden in Amun’s place.
“If there’s a problem with the clothes I prepared, we should change them. Since I’ll also be attending the wedding ceremony, no, the wedding with you, all the more reason.”
“…Your Highness at the wedding?”
“I can’t let you go alone.”
“Are you concerned something might happen at the wedding? I can ask the escort guards… to come along pretending not to be part of my party.”
“You’d ask them? To my ears, that sounds like you’re saying you’ll go alone.”
This statement too was forced.
“No. How can I let you go around alone when something might happen? I am your spouse. I should act as both your guard and servant.”
Cayden wanted to ask Assad why he was acting this way. He also found it strange, thinking it would be better if something happened to him while alone. Their two-year-and-a-bit marriage life would be shortened faster.
Cayden’s questions didn’t last long. He soon found the answer.
“The Crown Prince’s consort of the empire suffered humiliation in kingdom territory, and in the center of the capital, while I wasn’t paying attention… That would be disastrous. Shouldn’t we be careful?”
Assad seemed worried that he, as the Crown Prince’s consort, might get involved in an unexpected accident or cause trouble in Elba, not Helio. Rather than being concerned for him, he was worried about the possibility of troublesome incidents.
“Don’t you think?”
“Your Highness is correct.”
Cayden slowly nodded in response to Assad’s question.
“Well, I’ll accompany you, so don’t worry. With me keeping my eyes wide open by your side, who would dare to act carelessly?”
“…Thank you for your consideration.”
Cayden thought it made no sense for Assad to attend Emma’s wedding. Nevertheless, he hastily grasped the goodwill Assad extended.
The anxiety that had been neatly stacked within Cayden came crashing down. It was awkward that what Assad had to do out of obligation became the greatest reassurance for him. But in his mind, he kept repeating Assad’s words—that he would stand by his side.
Assad turned his head and glanced out the window. A pale purple was spreading at the corner of the sky, which had become less saturated than before. When more time passed, complete darkness would claim the sky.
“We’ll continue our conversation at night. We should go out before the sun sets completely.”
Assad’s hands grasped the shoulders of Cayden, who was following his gaze out the window. It was a gentle touch that didn’t match his playful eyes.
“Let’s ask the people working in this mansion where the tailor shop that sells the clothes you want is located. If you know a place, we can go there as well.”
“Understood.”
“It would also be nice to have dinner outside before returning. Though the guards will try to stop us.”
“I… will follow whatever Your Highness wishes.”
Cayden, with a somewhat dazed face, hastily answered. Seeing Assad’s smiling face, who had suggested going out before sunset, seemed so excited that he felt more urgent.
‘He seems happy to leave the palace. He looks thrilled.’
What was important to Assad now wasn’t new clothes. He looked like someone who was simply happy about being able to go outside using clothes as an excuse.
Thinking that way, the excited Assad… looked somewhat cute. It was vividly felt that Assad and Amun were only 1 year apart in age. Unlike what one might expect.
“Aside from his noble status, he’s… 4 years younger than you, Cayden.”
The words Amun had once spoken came to mind.
Four years younger than me, a child. Cayden, who had been quietly blinking, soon smiled along with Assad.
* * *
The tailor Miloa stood askew with an air of importance at the side of her atelier.
Miloa was watching Raina, her only assistant and the only employee in this small shop. Observing the tall male customers with Raina was a bonus.
Raina, who had just become an adult, was a troublesome country bumpkin who had barged into the capital saying she wanted to learn to make clothes. Her design ability and sewing skills were pitiful, but she wasn’t a completely useless assistant. She was better at customer service than Miloa, who couldn’t even lie about having a good personality.
Not only that, Raina never got flustered. It was the same now. She was selling clothes with her usual smile, even in front of handsome men she had never seen before in this neighborhood—one of them was an alpha. She didn’t show even a needle’s worth of shyness.
Seeing this, Miloa thought that deciding to employ Raina wasn’t a completely wrong choice. At least it wasn’t a loss.
The elderly tailor Miloa’s shop was located in a corner of the outskirts. It was a complex neighborhood where beautiful mansions of wealthy people without titles directly connected with ordinary civilian houses.
Miloa’s main clientele wasn’t the wealthy. Those living in ordinary residential areas became her customers.
She had more familiar regulars than unfamiliar customers. It was a small atelier where altering clothes that customers brought in or selling ready-made garments from the display rack was more common than making custom clothing.
In such an atelier… it was the first time men she had never seen passing by, handsome men who would make good mannequins, had visited. She thought they must have come on recommendation, as there was no better place among the ateliers in this area than the one she ran.
“…”
Miloa raised her gaze again to the men taller than Raina. She stared at the man with a faint scar on one side of his face and the beautiful Helio man.
One side had an atmosphere as dull as the winter sky, while the other side shone so brightly it was dazzling. No, it was hot. As they were sticking closely to each other, their contrasting atmospheres seemed all the more apparent.
‘The one with the confident face looks like he’s sucking up all the energy from the dull one…’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
