Go back? There's no going back.

Listening to the man's words, Su Wei's hand that was holding his collar...suddenly stopped.

"What's in this?"

He asked as his eyes rested on the small box in the man's hand for the first time.

"If you know it in advance, it won't work."

Obviously, this was a bad guy who cheated the young man out of ten gold coins without hesitation, but for some reason, the man in front of him suddenly showed a strange professional ethics: "This thing is best opened together without the two of us knowing. The better the atmosphere at the time, the better the effect..."

"I swear on my father's twenty years of life that I will never lie to you this time!"

"..."

Hearing this, the disappointed face of the princess flashed through his mind when they parted not long ago. Su Wei hesitated for a moment and looked at the man again: "I always feel that it would be easier to send you in directly."

“Don’t, don’t!”

***

A few minutes later.

On the top floor of the hotel, Su Wei pushed open the door in front of him.

He hung a Do Not Disturb sign outside the door with ease, closed the door and walked into the room.

After entering the house, Su Wei first turned on the heater to the maximum.

After all, it is very cold in the royal city during the day.

After confirming that warm air was filling the room, Su Wei walked straight to the bed and lay down on it.

He got up from bed before four o'clock this morning to go to work, and he has hardly had any rest since then. He just had a fight with a liar. Now Su Wei feels physically and mentally exhausted, and waves of sleepiness are rising in his heart.

With half of his face buried in the soft quilt, Su Wei was silent for a long time, looking at the small box in his hand, and finally... he smiled with relief.

What are you thinking about.

Let’s not talk about whether this thing is really as effective as the flower shop owner said.

From the most basic logic, as a small character like me, what position do I have to seek reconciliation with the empire's number one princess?

In the past, he had the courage to offend the other party because there was an employment relationship between them, which made him feel that he had to play a role no matter what and help the princess solve her problems.

In addition, the princess herself has a gentle personality, and after her mood improves, she will not bring up the past and blame him.

This is why he was able to "reconcile" with that adult even after committing suicide many times.

But now, he has been fired. Why should he still fantasize about reconciling with the other party?

Rather, without a Karami like me to bother you, the princess' life will probably be more pleasant.

"..."

Thinking of this, Su Wei was silent for a while and put the box back into his trouser pocket.

...Go to sleep first.

While waiting for the drug to be absorbed into his body, he planned to take a nap to restore his energy.

Of course, in addition to this, the reason why Su Wei came here specifically to rent a room was naturally the fox fairy.

If he remembered correctly, today was the day when the Fox Fairy was going to swallow the elixir, separate the contaminated power through the efficacy of the medicine, and start practicing again.

At times like this, this undisturbed hotel is naturally better than the dormitory assigned by the school.

However, after Su Wei tried calling out "Master Fox Fairy" twice to the air around him, he received no response, and there were no strange fluctuations in the magical elements in the air.

The other party doesn't seem to be here now.

"..."

He calmed down again. Although he was a little confused about what the socially anxious adult was doing, as he became more and more sleepy, Su Wei still closed his eyes.

Until the last moment when his consciousness fell into silence, the princess' face full of self-blame and helplessness reappeared in Su Wei's mind.

Although Su Wei vaguely sensed that the princess's attitude suddenly changed drastically, the cold look she gave him was probably intentional, and she just wanted to use a tougher way to make him learn the so-called "self-love."

But Su Wei just felt that this was meaningless.

Without the support of his mother and the princess, he even had to question whether he could grow up healthily. In this situation, where did he get the audacity to think of himself more important than them?

What an international joke.

Today, the princess was a little too sentimental, which was hard to understand.

...Go to sleep.

***

At the same time, the First Palace.

In the courtyard full of blooming flowers, two figures sat on a rattan chair, waiting quietly.

"...It's so slow. It's been more than half an hour. This place isn't that far from the training camp, right?"

The empress of the empire unconsciously played with the ends of her hair with her index finger, staring at the main gate with an idle look on her face, looking in the direction where the previous few people left in the car.

"..."

On another rattan chair nearby, the newly promoted royal knight… lowered his head in deep thought, saying nothing.

The air around was calm and peaceful.

However, unlike the calmness shown on his face at the moment, the Royal Knight was actually quite nervous before coming here.

After all, the awarding result this morning was completely beyond his expectations.

Even he himself couldn't believe that he could actually become the guardian knight of the first royal family.

You know, the Celsia in his impression was never someone gentle enough to consider others.

When she was a child, she was doted on by her family, carefree and had a perverse personality. Even among the four royal families, she was a well-known villain.

But, ever since her father sacrificed his life in the burial ground of gods because of an act of "kindness", she has changed a lot.

As if something was missing, she began to become ruthless to everything, and unknowingly, her aggression became much stronger than before.

During that time, Jon rarely saw her smile.

To be honest, at that time, he was already an adult, and although he gradually realized his feelings for the girl he grew up with, during a not-so-smooth communication, looking into the girl's lifeless eyes and listening to her cold voice, he completely lost his courage and no longer dared to take the initiative to talk to her.

Although he always appears mature and steady on the surface, Jon is actually very clear that he is also afraid of being rejected by the person he cares about, and even losing their friendship because of it.

Just imagine, for a teenager, how much hurt would it be if the person he likes treated him coldly as if he were a corpse?

Therefore, during the two years since Celsia's father passed away, he could only watch her become more and more withdrawn, praying in his heart that the maid who grew up with her could enlighten her a little and prevent her from going to extremes.

In the months that followed, the only time Jon mustered up the courage to approach the other party was on the day the Royal City was ravaged by the Order of Evernight.

Twenty years have passed since then.

Time has changed many things.

In the past, knowing that he would become a laughing stock in the entire royal city if he was rejected, Jon would probably choose to be "cautious" at today's awarding ceremony.

However, he is different now than he was twenty years ago.

Even if you are rejected in the spotlight, what does it matter?

Rather than listening to other people's comments, he now wants to give an account of the past four years.

During the twenty years of separation, he has completely figured it out.

Even if he would be treated coldly again and again, he wanted to muster up the courage, try to change her, try to put a smile on her face again.

However, what Jon did not expect was that the girl who would have followed her heart and rejected him without hesitation even if she knew that rejecting him in public would make him a laughing stock in the entire royal city... had changed a little.

One thing is one thing. Even if he had saved her before, the result of rejection would not change. In Jon's eyes, she was such a pure person.

This was also what attracted him to her in the first place.

But now, there is something more in her that has never been there before.

For some reason, she has become much gentler now, and she is even willing to think from other people's perspectives.

Although it is precisely because of those things that Jon today has avoided becoming a clown famous in the empire.

But he also realized that those things, those changes... were not brought to her by him.

Jon was confused about this.

He couldn't figure out what could have caused a completely frozen mountain to melt into this state.

At this moment, almost subconsciously, the strange face he had seen in the courtyard before emerged in his mind.

He was very sure that Suwei was not Celsia's brother, nor was he of the bloodline of the other two royal families.

Could it be that the princess’s change... is related to him?

"Your Majesty, do you still remember...when did Celsia become what she is now?"

After thinking it over, Jon couldn't help it. He turned to look at the Queen of the Empire beside him, opened his mouth and asked.

Even though he had just returned, the man could already see that the queen and his princess had gotten along quite well over the past twenty years. In other words, they had been quite close.

If the other party is willing to answer him, he might be able to get some answers.

"…Um?"

After being asked, Queen Klenna, who had been staring at the main gate in a trance, came back to her senses a little.

She tilted her head, a thoughtful expression on her face: "Now that you mention it, it seems that she has indeed changed a lot. To be specific... well, it should be in the last few years?"

Although he had suppressed the four major royal families when he ascended the throne, Krenna did not suppress them too much afterwards.

After all, she had no children, and she had no intention of falling in love and developing a family.

Even in the subsequent power structure, she still used most of the royal family members.

Including the "child laborer" who became like a little hedgehog after he passed away from his father.

She still remembered clearly how incredibly stubborn that kid was at that time.

Although he was still a minor, he stayed in her palace all day, examining a pile of documents that gave her a headache, one by one.

Although she was very grateful that her workload could be greatly reduced, she felt inexplicably helpless when she saw the kid who didn't leave even after the holidays and stayed up late every day to work overtime.

Later, after the royal city was attacked and the knight in front of him was captured by the cult, the little hedgehog worked overtime longer hours every day, as if he was trying to escape from something.

Although his behavior seemed normal, he had dark circles under his eyes at such a young age. At that time, Klenna even felt that it would not be surprising if he suddenly died at any time.

Now, she could probably guess what the other party was thinking at the time. He simply wanted to familiarize himself with the work in advance, and after ascending the throne, he would mobilize the entire country to go to the burial ground and the Church of Eternal Night to avenge the two of them.

As for when this situation began to change... Well, Klenna closed her eyes and thought carefully for a long time, then frowned slightly.

She wasn't sure either.

The only thing she remembered was that one day, when she was returning home from working as a child laborer, a little hedgehog suddenly found her and said he wanted a box of medicine for her cold.

But how could she catch a cold at that time?

I had no choice but to give her half of the medicine that my sister had at home who had caught a cold.

Speaking of which, it seemed that from that day on, the child laborer she had watched grow up began to change a little.

The time to go home is a little earlier than before.

At first, it was just irregular early departures, but gradually, it became more and more punctual.

In recent years, she almost left on time, and there was often a pile of documents left on her desk, which made her experience the hardship of work again after a long time.

However, despite the vitality, there was a period of time in the middle when the mental state of the child laborers' descendants... was still not very stable.

During those two years, although her eyes regained their luster, she always seemed to be angry when she was working.

Even when stamping, he stamped very hard, as if what was on the table was not a document, but someone's face...

"… Her Majesty?"

At this moment, the knight's voice came from the side, bringing Krenna, who was a little distracted, back to her senses.

Realizing that she seemed to have been distracted just now, the queen opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but at this moment, she suddenly turned her head and looked at the street outside the courtyard.

A beast carriage engraved with the emblem of the First Royal Family was approaching from outside.

"Well, the person you swore to follow has returned. Why don't you just ask her directly?"

Looking at this scene, Klenna shrugged speechlessly.