The Emperor's Dangerous Lips
I wondered if some kind of blue-tailed waterbird mushroom was growing wild somewhere in that garden.
The blue-tailed waterbird mushroom was a rare fungus, one of the ingredients for a love potion whose recipe had been half-lost to time.
A mushroom that only grew in snowy mountains obviously wouldn’t be found in the imperial palace.
Yet Everett today was strange enough to make me entertain such ridiculous thoughts.
It’s like someone sprinkled sugar powder all over him.
Or maybe coated him in chocolate syrup.
I pressed both hands to my burning cheeks and thought.
The Everett I’d met in the garden seemed like a completely different person from the one I’d seen two weeks ago.
Let me think…
When I arrived at the garden—carefully avoiding prying eyes—Everett was already there, waiting for me after nearly two weeks apart.
“It’s been a while, Miss Diaz.”
He must have arrived at the garden earlier than I expected.
He looked like someone who had been through a lot and was exhausted. Or perhaps like a sage who had just grasped some profound truth.
“Did you wait long?”
“No.”
When I asked cautiously, Everett shook his head in denial.
Then—
He took my hand in a familiar way, paused for a moment, and carefully lifted it.
With faintly flushed cheeks, he pressed his lips to the back of my hand.
His lips were moist, soft, and slightly warmer than body temperature.
W-what is this?
A kiss on the back of the hand was considered light social etiquette in high society.
I had never really participated in society, so I wasn’t used to it, but it was a common enough gesture even between people meeting for the first time. Nothing special.
But when those bare, ungloved fingers felt the deliberate length of his kiss, it was impossible to see it as a mere greeting.
Even if Everett’s true intention was far more innocent than what my imagination was cooking up.
All the nerves in my body seemed to rush to the back of my hand at once.
My face heated up in an instant.
I lost my words and could only move my lips soundlessly.
Eventually, Everett’s golden eyes, which had been politely lowered, rose to my lips.
Seeing that I didn’t look displeased, the spark of heat in his eyes grew stronger.
The emotion contained in those beautiful golden irises wasn’t overt, but it was crystal clear.
To me—who had only ever received vague hints leaking through cracks in his solid exterior—it felt sudden.
His feelings, now neatly organized yet shown without any attempt to hide them, were so vivid that my mind went completely blank.
In my confusion, my silently moving lips snapped shut.
Everett’s mouth curved into a smile.
Still with his lips against the back of my hand.
I could feel the movement of his lips on my skin.
Some indefinable spot tickled.
I turned as red as early autumn leaves, while Everett, on the contrary, regained his composure.
After observing my flustered state with satisfaction, he slowly released my hand and smiled.
It was the satisfied smile of someone who had obtained the exact hint he needed.
Having been half-dazed from nothing more than a kiss on the hand, the moment Everett let go I quickly hid both hands behind my back and took a step away.
My heart must have stopped while he was holding my hand.
The instant I moved away from him, the sound of my heart pounding like it was about to explode filled my ears.
“Miss Diaz?”
Everett called my name with an innocent expression, as if he genuinely didn’t understand why I was acting so awkward.
Compared to me—who had practically turned into a human tomato—he looked perfectly fine.
Everett’s just standing there, but I’m the one having weird thoughts right now.
Feeling unreasonably wronged, I turned my face away from him with a pout.
I knew the emotion was unfair.
If I were to nitpick, Everett’s kiss on the back of my hand was nothing more than mild flirting.
So basically, I’m the one who saw a guy sit next to me in class and immediately started imagining a marriage proposal.
The fact that I was far more excited than his intention warranted was entirely my problem.
I guess I’m ridiculously weak to handsome men.
When I remained silent, lost in self-criticism, Everett took a bold step forward to close the distance I had created.
I retreated even farther than he advanced.
Now that I knew the feel of Everett’s lips, I couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like if they touched somewhere else.
……Like my forehead. Or my cheek.
At this rate I’m going to start thinking about names for our grandchildren.
For the sake of my dignity, I genuinely wanted to back away all the way home.
I thrust both palms out toward Everett as he tried to take another step closer.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I blurted out quickly.
“I just remembered something urgent I have to do.”
It was, of course, a lie.
If I went back to the office, I’d just be flipping through documents I’d already seen multiple times.
But if I stayed in the same space as Everett any longer, I was certain my heart would explode.
Or my face would explode.
Or I’d do something stupid.
Without waiting for Everett’s reply, I spun around and ran.
I heard his voice behind me, but I pretended not to hear and kept running.
Everett was a man who was seriously bad for my heart.
My heart would calm down for a brief moment, then start racing madly again.
It was like doing interval training—sprinting at full speed, stopping, then sprinting again—while sitting at my desk.
I was grateful that no one else could hear my heartbeat.
I spent the rest of the afternoon in a daze, occasionally moving my quill as if taking notes.
My mind only returned when the errand boy I had sent to Connie came back.
The boy—who I had seen for the third time today already—grinned as he handed me a thick envelope.
“This time it really is a reply from the Ministry of Finance.”
“You brought it so quickly. Thank you.”
I gave the cheerful boy another generous handful of snacks.
Feeling like I was dousing myself with cold water to snap out of my daze, I immediately opened the envelope.
The moment I did, a short note full of smugness slid out.
It was filled with comments about how he had gone out of his way to prepare everything quickly since it was difficult for me to request support promptly from here.
I knew that if I just let it slide, there would definitely be consequences later.
I shook my head with a laugh at Connie’s consistent attitude.
“Could you deliver one more note for me?”
“Of course.”
I handed the errand boy a reply that stretched the phrase Thank you. Dinner’s on me into twenty lines.
“Should I give this to Sir Constance from the Ministry of Finance again?”
“Yes.”
The boy disappeared with the note and snacks in hand.
The rest of the thick envelope’s contents were documents related to Camelot Castle that Connie had skillfully gathered in just a few hours.
It seemed to be in full I don’t know exactly what you want, so I grabbed everything I could find mode—the amount of material was far more than I had expected.
There were bird’s-eye views, blueprints, reconnaissance documents from the kingdom era, and even maps detailing the castle’s troop placements.
I sent Connie a mental round of applause.
No wonder she was showing off.
Some of the documents would have been difficult to access even with Connie’s security clearance.
I slowly pushed away the lingering afterimage of Everett that still occupied the center of my mind and spread out the materials.
They were organized haphazardly, as if she had simply scraped up everything she could find. I flipped through them one by one and picked out the maps that showed the interior in relatively high detail.
The entrance to the secret space was inside the lord’s study.
After staring at the maps depicting the lord’s quarters until my eyes nearly fell out, I finally found some useful ones.
Found it. This will do.
They were more than enough to support the claim, I happened to wonder if there might be a secret space and took a look—would you believe there’s this suspicious area here?
I carefully set aside two of the maps.
Kyle said he’d stop by again later.
I planned to show them to him then.
I was organizing what I would say in my head when, not long after, a haggard-looking Kyle entered the office.
“Everyone doing well? Feels like it’s been about a year since I last saw you all.”
Kyle tossed out a weak joke with a tired smile and trudged over to his seat.
The glances filled with faint concern that landed on his noticeably worse face lasted only a few seconds.
Once the staff realized he was simply exhausted, their eyes returned to the documents on their desks.
Apparently used to this, Kyle didn’t seem to mind and half-heartedly flipped through the papers the staff had left for him.
He clearly knew he had work to do, but his entire demeanor screamed that he was too drained to care.
What on earth happened in just a few hours?
I worried about Kyle a few seconds longer than the others, but that was all.
I waited for the right moment and approached him.
Kyle, who had been flipping through documents with a reluctant expression until I got close, finally noticed me and asked.
“What can I do for you, Miss Diaz?”