After telling him everything that was on his mind, he felt relieved. Seoho smiled brightly and pointed at the small seed on the table.
“Now then, I’ll continue.”
Rosetta confirmed what Seoho was pointing at and asked, puzzled.
“You’re going to do it?”
“Yes. I haven’t succeeded yet.”
“You don’t have to do it right away today.”
“Yes, I don’t think I’ll succeed today, but I’ll still try my best.”
“But…”
Seoho giggled, having noticed why he was hesitating.
“I’m just asking you to lower your expectations a bit, not that I won’t practice at all.”
Rosetta blinked his eyes a few times wordlessly, then soon smiled with sparkling eyes. It was a genuine smile. Feeling at ease from that smile, Seoho asked Rosetta.
“Did the matter you went out for get resolved well?”
“…Yeah.”
He could read the lie in the hesitant answer, but Seoho decided to let it pass.
“Alright, then I’ll be working on something else for a bit. I’ll call you again if I really can’t do it.”
“Okay.”
Seoho looked at Rosetta’s red-rimmed eyes and asked.
“Should I call Puti for a moment? Your eyes shouldn’t get swollen.”
Fortunately, Puti hadn’t gone far, as he returned immediately at Seoho’s call. Seoho left Rosetta in Puti’s care, who was watching Rosetta’s mood, and focused on the seed again.
* * *
Rosetta headed to the terrace, saying he would get some fresh air for a bit so that Seoho could practice comfortably. Puti, who had brought a towel soaked in water, followed him to the terrace.
Rosetta closed the terrace door and checked on Seoho, who was concentrating beyond the door. When Seoho first looked at him with irritation, his heart dropped all the way to his feet.
No, that was too cute an expression. Rosetta thought his heart was being torn off and falling away.
It was the first negative emotion he had ever felt from Seoho. No emotion received from anyone else could shake Rosetta like this.
At that moment, Puti asked Rosetta.
“Your Majesty, here… Are you really sure you don’t need to call Imperial Mage Aris? If you use magic, the swelling in your eyes will go down quickly.”
Rosetta took the water-soaked towel Puti handed him and answered.
“I don’t need it.”
Since Seoho was weak to tears, if his eyes were a bit swollen, he would pay more attention to him. As he was having such cunning thoughts, Puti asked.
“Shall I report on the matter you went out for?”
“Go ahead.”
“You encountered several servants, but there was no one you talked to or that Seoho-nim looked at with interest.”
It wasn’t even clear whether Rosetta was listening to Puti’s words or not, but Puti continued his report.
“And because Seoho-nim seemed uncomfortable with servants coming in and out of the room, I told him that from now on, I alone would take care of the room.”
Rosetta frowned and looked at Puti.
“He was uncomfortable?”
How exactly had they behaved to make Seoho find them uncomfortable? He had clearly ordered them to select servants who were tight-lipped and wouldn’t make Seoho worry.
“It’s not a problem with the servants, but rather that Seoho-nim doesn’t seem accustomed to being attended to by someone like this.”
Rosetta, who had been looking at Puti with a displeased face, nodded. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a bad thing for Rosetta.
Originally, Rosetta hadn’t wanted to let in any servants other than Puti. In fact, he hadn’t wanted to let even Puti into the room.
‘I only let him in for Seoho’s sake.’
For Seoho’s convenience, and so that Seoho wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about the current situation.
For Rosetta to manage, the imperial palace servants were more convenient than nobles or people outside the imperial castle.
But contrary to expectations, if Seoho found them uncomfortable, then for Rosetta it was an even better thing since he could monopolize Seoho.
“Good.”
As Rosetta nodded satisfactorily, Puti spoke up with a slightly worried expression.
“Ah, and there was something strange that happened today.”
“Something strange?”
“Well…, a bird flew in.”
“Did it attack Seoho?”
“Not a large bird, but one of those birds let loose in gardens, like a parrot or canary.”
“Ah, that.”
At Rosetta’s nonchalant reaction, Puti’s eyes widened as he asked.
“Is it related to divine power after all?”
“That’s right.”
When he first received divine power, Rosetta had also experienced such things quite often. After a few days, once he had fully controlled the divine power, such things no longer happened.
When Rosetta answered calmly, Puti spoke as if relieved.
“If you happen to know a solution, it would be good to tell Seoho-nim.”
As for a solution, there was nothing but to handle divine power freely. However, since Seoho found that a bit difficult, for the time being they could only observe the current phenomenon.
Suddenly, Seoho’s sharp eyes came to mind again. Those eyes that had looked at him resentfully.
Even though it was already over, even though Seoho had said he wasn’t angry, when he recalled those eyes, his chest ached again. What he had wanted, what he had wanted to receive from Seoho—it wasn’t something like that.
After experiencing that once, Rosetta lost the desire to eagerly teach Seoho about divine power. Actually, the reason Rosetta had been so enthusiastic about education was because of the circumstances that led to the divine power being transferred to Seoho.
‘That dream…’
The thread of fate had thinned, so it was definitely not an ordinary dream, and the alien energy that had been hovering around Seoho’s ankle was also definitely not something that could just be overlooked. Nevertheless, the reason Rosetta could pretend to be this calm was all thanks to divine power.
‘Because I’m certain that as long as he has divine power, things will be okay.’
The words Rosetta had said to reassure Seoho weren’t lies. As long as Seoho possessed divine power, evil things wouldn’t be able to touch him. Rosetta’s instinct was telling him so.
There was no way the gods would have given their divine power to Seoho without any meaning, so the divine power must have been transferred to Seoho for his own sake.
‘Though it doesn’t seem necessary for him to be able to use it freely.’
Just in case… And if Seoho could freely handle the Power of Dawn that had been his own power, it seemed like he would feel more deeply connected to him, so he had been a bit stubborn about it. Though they couldn’t yet exchange the same feelings, he still wanted himself and Seoho to be in the same position, if only through divine power.
‘But if that leads to being hated…’
That would be putting the cart before the horse. So Rosetta had decided not to bring up anything related to divine power to Seoho anymore.
But Seoho once again showed an unexpected attitude.
‘How diligent.’
Rosetta smiled as he looked at Seoho concentrating beyond the window. Wondering what wasn’t going his way again, Seoho was frowning and glaring at the seed. After glaring at the seed for a while, Seoho let out a small sigh and squeezed his eyes shut.
He had definitely had no intention of teaching Seoho how to use divine power ever again. He had thought Seoho wanted that too, but he was trying again.
‘Seoho.’
Those words saying it would be a bit difficult and frustrating, but he would still try his best. Those words sounded just like saying he wouldn’t let go of Rosetta even if it was hard, which made him even more delighted.
It was the first time someone’s efforts didn’t seem trivial to him.
When someone else worked hard for something, he always thought it was a waste of time. No, even having such thoughts was really rare. Rosetta never gave second chances and never found anyone satisfactory no matter what they did.
To be honest, he simply wasn’t interested in others. Whether someone worked hard or not—that wasn’t Rosetta’s concern.
‘But Seoho is different.’
Every single action was lovely and naturally drew his eyes.
‘How can every action be so pleasing?’
How could it get even better from here? Really, Seoho was such a lovable person.
As Rosetta was smiling contentedly while watching Seoho, he gestured for Puti, who was still remaining by his side, to leave.
“Go on now. Stop by the aides and get a report on the Holy Maiden too.”
He seemed to have fled to the office after Seoho’s gaze and heard stories related to Angel, but he couldn’t remember anything.
‘I think I heard that they delivered Seoho’s letter…’
He had just listened to the aides’ reports without any thoughts, then hurried back to the room, worried that Seoho might dislike him more for running away like this. That’s how much Seoho’s gaze had shocked Rosetta.
‘I really didn’t know it would be like this…’
Someone who entered his heart to an amazing degree. And someone who kept inflating that size more and more. Rosetta wanted to kiss Seoho’s fluttering eyelashes that were visible even from afar.
As he was engraving each wrinkle on the forehead furrowed with concentration in his eyes, Puti, who had been about to leave the terrace, called out to Rosetta.
“I have just one more thing to report.”
Puti glanced at Rosetta and spoke up.
“Seoho-nim seems to quite like the garden, so I suggested that it would be nice to go for a walk at night together with Your Majesty.”
“A walk?”
“Yes. He seemed to want to do it, but he looked worried that Your Majesty might be busy.”
It was a good suggestion.
“…Alright. I’ll ask him.”
“Then, I’ll take my leave now.”
Though there were some irritating parts, he was still the least irritating one, so he planned to keep him around for a while.
Since Seoho found Puti comfortable too.
‘Of course, that’s what’s irritating.’
Rosetta, who had been watching Puti’s departing back, looked at Seoho again and smiled brightly. As long as Seoho liked it, then Rosetta could tolerate a bit of irritation.
