A light knock on the door broke her thoughts, "Come in."

The door opened, and she spotted Kristy, "Lyn, you have a guest."

Guest?

Lyn watched as Kristy moved away and her eyes went wide when she saw Kazuya. She immediately

"Kazuya! Eh? Why..."

Kazuya smiles, "Surprise. I told my doctor not to ramble about it. It seems like I'm in good health as of late, so he allowed me to go. I wanted to see you, after all, so I came running."

Lyn blushed at his words, "That's not fair geez."

Kazuya laughed.

"Well then, I'll be stepping out," Kristy said. Lyn nodded and watched as her friend leave.

Her thoughts broke off when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her slender waist, "What's the matter?"

"I missed you."

Indeed, the times they saw each other were rare these days. Kazuya's honest words made her feel like crying. But she has to remain strong, "It's only been a month."

Kazuya rolled his eyes, "Hmm? That so, it's a real shame. I even got you a present."

Lyn turned around then, " Eh? A present"

"Maybe I shouldn't give it to you."

Lyn pouted, "That's cruel !!!"

Kazuya chuckled, "I'm kidding."

He took out something from the strange bag he carried. When Lyn saw it, her eyes widened, yellow, red, white, purple...a mix of her favorite colors. The scent of violet roses, red tulips, and yellow cosmos all clas.h.i.+ng and yet mixing into one. A bouquet.

"Tda."

He got her a bouquet, and from the scent, she could tell that they were freshly picked by hand too. Her silence must have made him uncomfortable since she could see him scratching his cheek. A sly smile made its way on to her face, honestly. ..

Lyn felt her cheeks redden, " Uwaa. I'm so happy!"

"You are?"

"Yep!"

Kazuya smiled and reached over to pat her hair before his hands caressed her cheeks. She leaned on to his palm; it's warm.

"I'm glad," Kazuya said.

---

Why is she in her room? And more importantly, her gaze fell on Rhys fast asleep on the chair. She thought she felt somebody carry her. But Lyn didn't believe it was Rhys; she thought it was Allen. Lyn tried to think back to the events of last night, but the pain spread through her head.

"Ouch.." she murmured. Hangover when she only just returned? Talk about irresponsible much.

....

"I didn't think I'd wake up to a lovey-dovey breakfast from my dear Lyn."

"Shut your trap, and just eat," Lyn sighed. She knew she couldn't call the servants over with her in this state. What's more, Rhys is here too. Isn't it already bad that there're rumors regarding her and Allen? She doesn't want to make the situation worse than it already is. She could have called Pupillam over. But Lyn knew her aide was taking care of the child.

Rhys pulled up the chair opposite and sat down, "So, going to explain what you were doing in your former fiance's room last night?"

"I simply brought him there."

"But you fell asleep."

"Rhys."

The man looked at her with a disapproving look, "Your not that oblivious I'm sure. Do you think it's so wise to spend so much time with your former fiancé?"

"What do you want me to do then, avoid him like the plague?"

Rhys rolled his eyes, as he took a bite of the food she prepared, "Not quite. But you have no problem doing that with me."

Lyn wanted to say it's because he's different, but she kept it to herself. If Rhys hears those words, he will misunderstand.

"Thank you," she murmured, "For taking me back. Indeed your right. If I stayed overnight, people would chat."

"Didn't want to add fuel to the rumors, which I don't really need to ask how they came about. When Kazuya isn't around, you unconsciously seek comfort with the person closest to you."

"I--I'm not.."

"Take it easy; I'm not calling you a loose woman or anything like that. But I do understand. You were locked away for so long and lived that isolated lifestyle. Then Kazuya comes along with all his sweet words and promises. Naturally, after spending so much time with him. Even someone like you forgot about how it felt being alone."

"..."

Lyn said nothing to that. What could she say? It's true Kazuya spoilt her silly. It's true that when she gets lonely, she ends up reverting to her careless personality. This man knew a lot about her. She didn't understand why before. However, when she recalled his words at the Sacred Church. It caused her to frown, exactly how much does he know? Should she be worried? It felt strange to have somebody other than Kazuya having this much knowledge about her.

Rhys continued, "I'm not scolding you, Lyn. But you need a reality check. The war with the Snow Kingdom is drawing near, even if there's a temporary halt. Your head mage came here by herself; she didn't bring her troops and left them with the head knight. Why do you think that is?" he looked over at her expecting her to answer.

Lyn spoke up, "Because she knew that a fight would still happen, even with J so-called friendly appearance."

"Exactly, the current situation does not look good for the Mist Kingdom. So your head mage returned to dispelled the rumors slightly. n.o.body knew she returned alone. Right now people think that half the forces we sent out returned."

As smart as ever, "We have time then," Lyn mumbled. "In this time, I need to settle the affairs here quickly."

The Mist Kingdom drama has to stop; otherwise more innocent people would get dragged into this mess.

"The other reason I left was to look for the forces that worked alongside General Teo. But," Lyn clenched her fist, "I couldn't find them."

They looked at ten towns but saw no trace of the group. According to Teo, since he played sacrifice even though a lot died. A lot escaped too.

"I think I know where they are."

"eh?"

Rhys scratched his hair and sighed, "They dropped by. They told me they would help you search for Kazuya."

Her eyes widened in alarm, "But they're gravely injured…"

"That's why I helped heal the stupid fools before they set off. Don't worry; they were all recovered before they left. They said it was the only way. You'd never send a search party out for Kazuya even if you wanted to, because of the current circ.u.mstances. So they wanted to play sacrifice."

"I'll send for them to return."

Rhys shook his head, "You won't find them. They spilt up since going around in a large group would attract too much attention."

"Something like that would never cross their minds, unless," she glared at Rhys. "What did you tell them?" Lyn knew the group of people well. As smart as they all were, such a thought even if it crossed their minds. They would never take action.

"I gave them some advice if they want to protect their careless Queen. I predicted you'd go out and search for him; I didn't know about those guys coming. But I would eventually bribe some of the Head Knight's group to search."

Lyn looked at him in disbelief, "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing much other than, I want to protect you."

T—this man, he's getting more shameless as the day goes by.

...

The rest of the meal they ate in silence and after they finished. She walked towards the small kitchen when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from the back. Lyn frowned.

"Rhys quit it."

"What's wrong with getting a morning hug?"

What morning hug? Why does she have to give him one? Lyn jabbed him with her elbow and stepped on his foot causing him to let go, "Ouch, why are you such a scary woman?"

"Tough. You're the one making this difficult."

He should learn from Allen. Even if Allen still harbors feelings for her, he isn't touching her inappropriately. In fact, Allen always maintained a good distance between the two of them. Allen always told her that he was not fit to be the Mist Kingdom King how he intended to remain the Wind Kingdom King and take her away to become his Queen.

'But Kazuya is different; it's like he belongs here.'

Despite all the injustice he suffered, Kazuya worked hard to gain people's approval. He won the hearts of the townspeople first, and then slowly everybody else followed. Just like her, they worked on earning people's approval. When her existence first came out, few people approved. Yet, Kazuya held her hand and stood by her side the whole time.

"This is our Kingdom, mine and Kazuya's..." Lyn murmured. That's right, without Kazuya she wouldn't have been able to get this far on her own. This place, everything she worked hard to build was only possible with him by her side.

Rhys overheard her and sighed, "Yeah, I guess I have to agree with you there."

...…