/
That thing was the baby bird from last time, wasn’t it?
His passing gaze landed once more on Catherine and the bird. Bird babies looked all the same, but there weren’t many that had a bright ribbon tied around its neck.
“Haah.”
She had dressed herself up this much, solely for the sake of meeting a mere bird.
Really, he couldn’t help but laugh incredulously at this situation.
“If you are trying to trick me with this
”
“Why are you coming out!”
“
..”
“I mean, I asked you to please just stay there, didn’t I?!”
The moment he took a step towards her, Catherine yelped and approached him hastily.
Rashid scrunched his eyes at her– she was acting like she had someone she really needed to hide.
“Do you dare to
”
“Yes?”
When Catherine went as far as to grab his arm, her grip was stronger than it looked. So strong, in fact, that the words ‘remove yourself before I cut your arm off’ didn’t leave his mouth easily.
“
never mind.”
“Ohh.”
She appeared to have belatedly realized that she had taken hold of the Emperor’s wrist; she let go in a flash.
With the way her head had dropped deeply, she must have finally realized what situation she was in.
“
..I, I greatly apologize, Your Majesty.”
The situation in which she would no longer have a tomorrow.
“That is why I had humbly requested Your Majesty to wait for a moment; you really didn’t need to come all the way here.”
“You dare to tell your Emperor to hide behind a ridiculous tree like this?”
“
.”
Speechless, he barked out an empty laugh.
What do you take your Emperor for!
Though he glared at her, all Catherine did was imitate the nature of a harmless herbivore, which didn’t suit her at all. She had the appearance of a glamorous peacock like no other, but she was timidly murmuring her words as if she was nothing more than a baby sparrow.
“Th-that is, the animals are still very young, so they could get surprised. Animals are shy as well, you must understand
.”
“And you’re so very worried that those lousy animals will be surprised.”
“
..”
His voice intentionally dripped with sarcasm for her to notice, but it was impossible that she would be discouraged like he wanted her to. In that short amount of time, she had taken the opportunity to crane her neck and peek behind the tree.
“Ah
.”
No, really, what was this woman?
Catherine was already sticking to the back of the tree, her lips glued tightly together as she looked towards the lake. The way her shoulders were shaking and her hands were gathered, and the touched expression on her face, reminded him of the wives at the nobles’ admissions ceremonies looking at their children.
Fine. At the very least, he was going to figure out what was such a big deal.
As he stood behind her, radiating obstinacy, he followed her gaze, but

“What is it?”
“
.No, it’s nothing.”
When she quickly turned her head away like she was hiding something, the look in Rashid’s eye keenly sharpened.
She was being way too suspicious, but at the same time there wasn’t anything he could pinpoint to accuse her of. More than anything, Catherine’s purple eyes were dreamily directed solely to the lake when he, the Emperor, was next to her.
“
.that’s right, that’s exactly how you do it!”
“

”
Yes, she was definitely suspicious.
Rashid slowly breathed out, grabbing at his throbbing chest. He’d thought it had subsided somewhat since the last time they had separated, but the relapse of this apparent illness made him crankier.
“If you are trying to trick me silly, give up. You really want me to believe that you came all the way here to see these mere birds?”
“
..mere birds?”
Her eyes, filled with contempt anew, turned downwards as if she was belatedly succumbing.
When observed carefully, Rashid noticed that this woman tended to mumble unnecessary things when taken aback.
“If you look closely at them, they all look different and they’re all different types of species. And while you’re looking closely, you’ll even see that there is a bird among them that is very very extraordinarily and overwhelmingly
 cuter than the rest.”
“
.”