A Peaceful Morning After a Long Time

“Euuuh…”

As the sunlight shining through the curtains illuminated his closed eyelids, Kyle groaned and woke up to the faint light seeping through.

With hazy eyes, he raised only his upper body and stared blankly at the disheveled bedding. A soft voice seeped into his ears.

“Did you sleep well, Kyle?”

“……?”

Not knowing why he was hearing that voice at this moment, Kyle momentarily thought his ears were playing tricks on him.

Wondering if he was still half-asleep and hallucinating, he turned his head and saw a woman sitting next to the bed on a wooden chair, her hands neatly folded in her lap.

The silvery hair, reflecting the sunlight, and the heterochromatic eyes of different colors were staring at him.

He stared at her blankly for a while. Soon, Kyle’s consciousness, which had been paused, restarted.

“…Sylvia?”

“Hehe, yes. It’s Sylvia.”

“……”

No, I wasn’t asking for her name.

Kyle blinked blankly. Perhaps because he had just woken up, the gears in his head weren’t quite meshing and were creaking.

“Why are you here…”

“Why? Because you wouldn’t let me leave last night, Kyle.”

“……?”

Last night?

Using that word as a keyword, Kyle’s mind slowly tried to restart, and the gears gradually meshed.

“…Ah.”

A low sigh escaped from Kyle’s mouth as he continued to think deeply.

Only then did the events of last night, when he had fallen asleep using Sylvia’s lap as a pillow, flash through his mind like a slideshow.

So, Sylvia had been watching over him since he fell asleep yesterday?

She couldn’t have moved him with her delicate body, so she must have called a servant, but anyway.

‘I must have been out of my mind.’

There was no doubt that what he had done yesterday was insane, so Kyle sighed, pressing his forehead with his hand, overwhelmed by self-loathing.

What the hell was he thinking doing that?

If he had done it during the day, he could have just taken a nap and woken up, but doing it in the middle of the night meant that Sylvia would have been stuck and unable to do anything while he slept soundly until morning. Didn’t he think of that?

No, actually, he did.

That’s why he had worriedly asked her in the middle, but Sylvia had smiled and said she was fine, so he had been bewitched and borrowed her lap for a while.

But that wasn’t much of an excuse for Kyle.

Even if Sylvia had agreed, he should have thought about backing out if he knew it was a nuisance. What kind of senseless behavior was it to go even further?

‘Was I drunk?’

It was an inexplicable act unless he had been drunk or something.

Although Kyle hadn’t drunk a single drop of alcohol yesterday, he must have been intoxicated by something else.

Maybe it was Sylvia’s scent that he felt when he lay on her lap, Kyle pondered before shaking his head.

You crazy bastard.

The scolding that was about to rise to his throat swirled in his mouth and disappeared.

“I, I’m sorry, Sylvia. I unintentionally caused you trouble.”

“Trouble? No, it’s not. I allowed it in the first place.”

“Even so…”

“Tsk, are you going to make me angry if you keep doing that? This conversation is over.”

“Ah, I understand.”

Kyle awkwardly tried to apologize to Sylvia, but she firmly ended the conversation, so he had no choice but to cut his words short, feeling a little uneasy.

“By the way, Kyle seems to be weak in the morning, unexpectedly.”

“Yes, a little… So I sometimes sit blankly for more than 30 minutes.”

“I see, that’s a bit new. Kyle has such a cute side to him.”

“…I have a lot to say, but I won’t.”

Aside from calling a grown man cute to his face, Kyle couldn’t figure out which part was cute, so he tried to retort but closed his mouth.

After all, he had known from the start that it was impossible for him to interpret Sylvia’s thoughts.

However, there was a more important matter he needed to ask urgently.

“Were you by my side all night?”

“Of course. That was the promise, wasn’t it?”

“……”

Oh, damn.

Kyle had to press his forehead again at her nonchalant answer.

While he was fast asleep, she could have called a servant to lay him on the bed, and she could have gone back to her room to sleep.

“Ah, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t sleep at all. I closed my eyes for a bit while sitting on the chair in the middle.”

“That’s not closing your eyes, Sylvia. That’s staying up all night.”

“Is that so?”

‘Is that so?’ What do you mean ‘Is that so?’, you innocent miss.

Kyle felt the fog that had been in his head until just now clear up at once as he looked at her tilting her head and asking back, and he jumped up from his seat.

And then.

He grabbed Sylvia without warning and showed off what is known as a princess carry.

“W-wait a minute! Kyle…!?”

“Go back to your room and sleep right away. Of course, you’ll have to eat before that, so I’ll bring it to you.”

But it wasn’t for a sweet reason like something that would come out in a romance novel.

Since it was obvious that she wouldn’t listen to him, Kyle decided to use force.

The problem was that Sylvia, the person in question, was suddenly held in his firm arms, so her heart was pounding and she couldn’t even bring herself to look up at his face.

Why does this man arbitrarily widen or narrow the distance like this?

Just pick one, just one!

“N-no! It’s okay…! I’ll go to the dining hall and eat on my own and come back to sleep!”

“I won’t accept any objections.”

He moved his steps outside, not doubting that it was a blatant lie to escape this situation.

“Ah, young master. You’re awake…!?”

His servant, Alf, who was waiting in front of the door, noticed that his master had come out as soon as the door opened and tried to greet him, but for some reason, his pupils shook when he first made eye contact with Sylvia instead of his master, Kyle.

At that moment, Kyle, who followed behind and showed his face, gave an order with an indifferent expression.

“Perfect timing. Alf, go to the kitchen and bring only the meal for Sylvia in advance.”

“Y-you mean the Lady Sylvia’s meal? Where to…?”

“To Sylvia’s room.”

“Yes, yes…! I understand!”

In fact, it was Alf who had moved Kyle to the bed at Sylvia’s request last night.

So he knew that the two of them were together last night, but seeing them coming out together in broad daylight made him unable to help but have strange thoughts.

Moreover, Kyle himself even princess-carried Sylvia to her room and told him to bring her a meal?

Alf, believing that this was an undeniable fact, quickly ran to the kitchen and shouted.

“Extra! Extra!”

If Kyle had heard that voice, he would have grabbed him by the neck and tried to kill him right away, but unfortunately, he didn’t hear that voice because he was taking Sylvia to her room.

It was one peaceful morning.

＊＊＊

After personally feeding Sylvia breakfast and confirming that she had fallen fast asleep, Kyle headed to the dining hall.

“Welcome, Kyle.”

“…Yes, Mother. Good morning.”

“Yes.”

He was a little surprised that his mother, who had suffered deep wounds last night, had arrived early at the dining hall and was waiting, but he sat down, thinking that it was possible enough since the family’s healers were so excellent.

When they exchanged brief greetings in the middle, he deliberately pretended not to see the faint smile that flashed across Roxanne’s lips and awkwardly turned his gaze away.

It was still somewhat awkward to even exchange friendly morning greetings.

“Father, Sylvia is a little tired, so I had her eat in her room.”

“…Hmm, yes. I heard the story. She must be tired.”

“……? Yes.”

When Kyle told Dver, who was wondering why Sylvia’s seat was empty, the news instead, a somewhat strange reaction came back.

It was strange enough that he replied as if he knew what had happened last night without explaining the details, but what was even stranger was that Dver, who always looked people in the eye when talking, seemed to be avoiding his gaze.

‘Something’s off.’

Kyle felt suspicious, but he soon picked up a spoon for the soup that had arrived in front of him.

He didn’t particularly like eating too much for breakfast, so he intended to finish his meal lightly with soup, bread, and some simple meat.

He took a bite of bread and was about to drink the warm mushroom and cream soup when Dver opened his mouth.

“Come to think of it, a letter arrived from the Imperial Palace yesterday.”

“From the Imperial Palace, you say?”

“Yes, His Majesty the Emperor wants to see you once. It seems that the news from the day before yesterday has reached His Majesty’s ears as well.”

“I see. If that’s the case, I’ll go there quickly.”

He didn’t know why they were trying to have a conversation with him directly, even though it was a story that could have been shared in a letter, or a story that could have been discussed by calling the head of the family, Dver.

Kyle nodded nonchalantly, thinking that the Emperor must have his own reasons.

If possible, he wanted to go alone quietly, but if it reached Sylvia’s ears, she would definitely insist on going too.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to show Sylvia the Imperial Palace.’

It was a pretty good option for him, who always wanted to give Sylvia even a little bit of new experience.

He felt strangely excited at the thought that good news had come from Sylvia in the morning, and he smiled to himself, feeling that the taste of the food had improved, when.

“…And I heard the story. You spent a meaningful night with Sylvia-yang yesterday?”

“Puhwah!”

At his father’s surprise attack that came without warning, the soup in Kyle’s mouth scattered in several streams like water spurting out of a watering can.