Obey me

After a full day of celebrating Lord North's triumphant return, Remesis was completely exhausted. As soon as she was able to free herself from it, Remesis returned to her room and absent-mindedly sat on her bed.

Because she had spent so much time in the company of her wife, Remesis felt exhausted. It really was hard.

— Wife, I wish I could spend some more time with you, but… Unfortunately, I have many more matters to attend to after my return.

— No, thank you.

— Yeah, it makes me sad, too.

— No. I'm not sad.

It was only after a whole day that Asil remembered her primary duties as Lord of these lands. After all, upon her return, the woman had simply left her subordinates to their own devices, leaving them to deal with the unresolved problems that had undoubtedly accumulated in the fortress after the princess had been away for a year. Perhaps she would have preferred to slack off further, spending her time like this, but Remesis couldn't allow it.

— Talking rubbish in front of me won't get you anywhere. Hurry up and get back to business.

Asil sighed but didn't respond to her words. It was natural for her to obey her wife's will.

It was how Remesis could get away from her and finally find peace.

‘After all, it's not just her sword to swing.’

Whether the princess liked it or not, the duties of a lord of the lands included not only indiscriminate killing of monsters and humans, but also some other, more ‘down-to-earth’ things. There was a limit to the acceptable official work that Remesis, as the princess of the castle, could delegate to herself.

Nevertheless, even back in her room, Remesis couldn't stop thinking about her wife, who had returned to the castle from the battlefield after a year's absence.

These thoughts haunted her for most of the day, and the girl bit her lip. It seemed to her that if she continued to think about her now, her thoughts would only become more complicated.

— That woman… was back. So be it,‘ a sigh escaped Remesis’ lips, filled with all sorts of conflicting emotions.

Squeak.

Just as Remesis was indulging in her difficult thoughts, she heard the sound of the bedroom door opening. The girl knew who that person was without even looking back. So she only said quietly:

— It's you. You can come in.

Then she heard the sound of the door opening completely.

— Your Highness.

A knight in steel armour entered the room and knelt before the princess of the northern fortress.

— Your servant has come to report to you of his return,’  he said respectfully.

Remesis wished to brush off this emphasised courtesy and manners, and only frowned at the smile of the commander of the Nord Fortress. But she could not keep her serious expression for long, and soon she was smiling at the man's face without realising it herself.

Hannes Wrightly, who had just come to greet Remesis, had a harder and more angular face than he had ten years ago. Was it because his eyes had become sharper with age? The man's rusty hair was now also touched with grey.

— You're back later than usual today,’ she remarked.

— I am. Today our troop was returning over a mountain that had been hit by an avalanche. It delayed our journey a little, ’ the knight admitted.

Remesis nodded understandingly.

— Good. I'm glad you're all back safely, ’ she said, ’Did the food distribution go as it should?

— Yes, Princess.

— Was there no shortage of food? I told you to calculate as much as possible. Are the people on the outskirts of the city okay?

— It's not the coldest place, so many people have started raising cattle. But overall, things are going well.

— Fine… — Remesis, after listening to the knight, nodded in satisfaction.

Although the North was now considerably rich, there were still some problems. In particular, due to years of continuous war with monsters and barbarians, there were still food shortages in some regions. This was especially true for villages and residential settlements that were far away from the capital. Basically, it was the population living there that worried Remesis the most. After all, the capital was relatively well off in terms of provisions at the moment.

Hannes Wrightly, as commander of the northern fortress, was the one who defended the castle in the absence of the princess while she fought on the battlefield. He also supported the princess in her endeavour to do what she could to improve the welfare of the northern people.

While Hannes led the knights on campaigns and patrols to slaughter the remaining monsters and bring food to the inhabitants of hard-to-reach areas, Remesis oversaw the process and distributed resources to the villages according to their needs. In a way, the commander of the fortress could be called more of a person of the princess than the princess herself.

— When spring arrives, we need to check everything again. Could you make a report on the security and supplies in each village?

— I will, but…

Noticing that her knight hesitated at the last words, Remesis frowned.

— What's the matter? What are you trying to say?

— Isn't today the lord's return? — Hannes said, - But you don't look too pleased and you keep talking about work.

There was some truth in the commander's words. The girl didn't look as gorgeous as usual. She seemed a little pale, even with her dark hair and sapphire-like blue eyes. Her face was indeed pale and her eyes were puffy, but that was only because Remesis had to get up earlier than usual today, and she had spent the entire day being drained by the company of her ‘bored’ wife.

Lord North's return was an event that many in the castle were looking forward to. After all, she was considered the heroine who had brought glory to these lands. But Remesis didn't seem to care about that, even if it was about her own wife. As one might expect, the girl frowned at the mention of her by the knight.

— Is there any point in talking about her? — Remesis said irritably.

— Em?

— I don't think there's a shred of common sense in her behaviour, ’ the girl muttered unhappily.

After Remesis told the knight about what had happened today, the knight couldn't stand it and laughed. Hannes stood there, smiling faintly at his lady, who was actually gloomier than a cloud.

— Well, this is too much. A princess risking her life fighting her enemies, all to bring fame and fortune to her wife.

— Then are you trying to say it's all my fault?

— No, it's just that the princess loves you too much and there's nothing you can do about it.

The commander's words, which were actually the personification of the thoughts of everyone around her, became like a sentence to Remesis. She really didn't want this to be the way things turned out. Asil Nara Asheloth had been loyal to her in every way. It was as if she had raised a submissive puppy.

‘How nice of me to raise a dog! Shit…’

Except Remesis suspected, nay, was even certain, that it wasn't that simple here. Something the people around them didn't even realise.

Since Remesis knew the princess's nature well from the experience of her previous life, she didn't believe at all that these so-called ‘feelings’ could be real. Rather, it was a trap that could slam shut at any moment if only she let her guard down. That was why Remesis was not at all moved by all her sugary-sweet speeches and actions.

Besides, it was not worth forgetting how exactly Remesis had died in her past life!

‘What am I supposed to do? This woman keeps behaving in ways that defy common sense. I don't know what's going on in her head anymore…’

In the end, Remesis' greatest fear was that her plans for their future divorce might not go as smoothly as she had originally thought. Even the coup d'état for which it was all being organised kept being postponed indefinitely. Remesis felt that she was slowly losing control of the situation and was no longer able to manage it the way she used to, and she didn't like it at all.

As Remesis continued to bite her lips nervously, trying to figure out the true intentions of her strange wife, the knight beside her coughed. It was only then that the girl finally came to her senses and remembered his presence.

— Oh, Hannes, you must be tired. You may go and rest now.

— Thank you, Princess. I will certainly take advantage of this offer.

Once Remesis was left alone in the room, her anxiety did not diminish, but continued to grow.

‘…Is it possible that I've missed something? ’ — muttered to herself as the princess looked at the spot where the commander of the fortress had stood until recently. She then began to run circles around her room, pressing her lips tightly together in a straight line. Tired of this, Remesis ducked under the covers and let out a suppressed scream, while remembering to beat the poor pillow.

‘Aaahhhh! ’

Good thing it was night outside. The girl wouldn't want the other residents of the castle to hear her and tell stories about the princess who had gone insane, so she tried not to make much noise. These manipulations didn't help to calm her down though.

Until recently, when it seemed that everything was going according to her plan, it suddenly became clear that it wasn't quite so.

Clearly remembering the time line of events from her past life, Remesis was certain that the period when Asil was supposed to meet her ‘mistress’ should have already taken place. More precisely, their romance with Gardenia should have started as early as six months ago.

In her previous life, the youngest daughter of the supreme astrologer and the princess had first met when the latter was fighting barbarians on the border. Then the favourite daughter of the head of the cult, who by an incredible coincidence and coincidence found herself unaccompanied on the border of the northern region, was rescued by Asil. After that, the girl lived in their military camp for a while longer, where their relationship had already begun to develop rapidly. At least, that was the rumour of his wife's infidelity that had reached Remesis from eyewitnesses to those events.

And even though Remesis knew that this ‘love’ was just a game on the part of the princess that eventually led to the death of Gardenia and the destruction of the entire astrological order, she still felt that it had to happen one way or another. After all, it was the revenge of the bloodthirsty and merciless northern devil for the suffering she had endured, and it couldn't be dismissed so easily.

But… Why had Remesis never heard anything like this in this life until now? These two should have met and entered into their ‘forbidden’ relationship by now. But here was Asil already back from that very war, and the relevant gossip still hadn't appeared.

Since Remesis couldn't just accept it and leave her curiosity alone, today, as soon as she managed to disappear from the princess' sight for a while, she secretly tried to elicit this information from the guards who were on a military campaign with the princess. She sneaked into the courtyard, where the soldiers scurrying back and forth seemed puzzled by the princess' sudden visit here.

— Erm. Am I disturbing you? — Remesis asked, just in case, to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything important that might be going on here.

— No, of course not, Your Highness! — The soldiers were puzzled: — But what are you doing here?

— I just wanted to know something. During the war, did the princess happen to… save anyone?

— I beg your pardon?

The guards seemed genuinely puzzled by this question.

— Was it possible for the princess to save a person, a young girl who happened to be in the northern lands? — Remesis tried to express her thoughts carefully, lest she accidentally say something unnecessary. But even what she said was enough to genuinely mislead the soldiers.

‘A woman known as a ruthless northern devil and saved a man? Is such a thing even possible? ’ These were the thoughts that arose in the minds of the soldiers who perceived even these words in the same sentence as something incompatible.

— Uh… Answering the princess, ’ one of the guardsmen stepped forward, ’nothing like this has ever happened.

— Really? Are you sure about that?

— Your Highness, ’ the man scratched his cheek in embarrassment, ’if the Princess had saved someone, we would have heard about it first…

Remesis sighed disappointedly, as that was not at all the answer she was expecting.

The princess watched the men's faces inquisitively for a while, but she could not detect any subterfuge among them. Even if they wanted to keep this information from her, it was impossible for ordinary warriors to hold their faces so confidently in front of their mistress. So most likely, it really wasn't a lie.

— Alright… I understand.

Thus, Remesis had to return with nothing.

‘… Now what to do next? ’

A problem that Remesis had not been aware of before, now came to a rather acute head. The relationship between Asil and Gardenia, which had been an important part of her previous life, was suddenly in great question.

Still in her room, Remesis closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts.

On the one hand, it was good that Gardenia, who seemed like a good person to Remesis, was able to avoid this disaster and her tragic crush. But on the other, the girl couldn't understand why it had happened at all. There must be some reason for such a sudden change. Or maybe the meeting between them had taken place after all, but Asil had somehow managed to keep it a secret from her people…?

Remesis was already thinking of meditating, for the thoughts were preventing her from functioning properly.

‘Gardenia Daehsin is the direct key to revenge against the Astrological Order. But is Asil even going to use it? Honestly, I can't understand anything else…’

Remesis was determined to unravel her conniving wife's plans, even if she had to stay up all night. But after much deliberation, she looked up at the morning star that greeted her in the sky, her eyelids were getting progressively heavier and she only wanted to rest a little, but sleep overpowered her.

And the next morning was not an easy one for her either.

All because a maid burst into the girl's room early in the morning, bringing with her a news that made Remesis' heart fall down.

— Your Highness… Today it was learnt that the Maester's condition has deteriorated considerably.