I felt my heart drop as my eyes scanned through the neatly written letter. Rodrick watched me attentively, waiting to see what I was going to say but I found myself speechless for words as I reread the contents over and over again.

　　“We have to go.” I finally told Rodrick.

　　“Princess?”

　　I looked up at him in urgency. “We have to return to the Southern Kingdom, now.” I said, trying my hardest to maintain my composure. “Get the carriage ready, Rodrick. I’ll explain everything in due time.”

　　“Understood.” He said, bowing before rushing away.

　　I turned back to Leonidas’ room, wanting to inform Veronica of this sudden departure. She sat on a chair by the bed, her and holding onto Leonidas and she lightly caressed her fingers over his.

　　“Is there trouble? I could hear the urgency in your voice.” She asked without looking at me.

　　“Yes. I have to return to my kingdom, someone is—in danger.”

　　She then stood up and turned to me. “Then go, my dear. I bid you a safe journey back home.”

　　“I’m sorry that—”

　　“No. Don’t do that. You were not obligated to leave your duties and kingdom behind, but you still did, and I thank you for it, Cordelia. If you ever need any help with anything, do not hesitate to reach out. We are family now after all.”

　　I smiled at her. “Thank you, Empress Veronica. Goodbye.” I said, bowing slightly before turning around and rushing down the hallway as I clenched tightly onto the letter. It has not even been a week yet since Augustus and I left, and trouble was already brewing back home.

　　Rodrick rode the carriage back to Augustus’ manor as fast as he could and throughout the journey, all I could do was grow restless and worry about what was happening to my kingdom now. To my family. To my husbands.

　　I explained everything to Rodrick the moment we reached the manor and told him to get Anne and tell her that we had to leave at this instant whereas I ran around the manor looking for Augustus. I found him in the kitchen, drinking tea and chatting with his head chef. He seemed at peace, happy even with a smile small on his lips. I contemplated if I should just leave back without him but when he turned to look at me, his expression changed to one of concern. It would seem that I was not doing a good job hiding my emotions.

　　“What’s wrong?”

　　“I’m sorry Augustus but we have to leave.”

　　“Leave?” he frowned, placing the cup on the table.

　　I nodded, feeling the fatigue of running around catching up on me. “It’s…” I paused, and the head chef noticed the tension in the room and quickly excused herself as she walked past me. It was soon just Augustus and I in the kitchen and even then, I could not spit my words out, afraid that if I spoke it out then it would become reality.

　　“Cordelia?” Augustus urged.

　　“It’s Isaiah!” I blurted, my voice cracking. I felt Augustus approaching me, but I could only stare at the ground, unable to look up at him as worry was quickly engulfing me. I could not think, I could not do anything but overthink Gideon’s letter to me.

　　Augustus noticed the letter that was now crumbled up in my hand and instead of forcing me to speak, he slowly reached out and pried my fingers off the parchment one by one until he took it away from me. He silently read the letter only to read it aloud in disbelief.

　　“…a situation arose when the body of nobleman Declan Wright was found. Lord Isaiah was the only one present and became the prime suspect. He was arrested and is being charged for murder…I request your immediate return to the Southern Kingdom…” There was a long pause that followed and somehow it was only making me more anxious.

　　“He—Isaiah wouldn’t—” I started.

　　“There’s no point in talking about whether he would or not. We have to return promptly before the trial. Gideon says that he and the rest are doing whatever they can to clear his name, but we should be there to help as well.”

　　“We?”

　　“What? Did you think I was going to let you go back into such chaos alone? I suppose it is time I repay my debt to you.”

　　“Debt? What are you talking about?”

　　Augustus placed a hand on my head, his fingers lightly brushing my hair for a mere second before pulling away. “Enough dallying, Cordelia. Isaiah needs our help.” He pulled away and walked past me and after a second, I turned around to get ready to depart from the Northern Kingdom.

　　We rode in the carriage just around late afternoon; I asked Augustus if he wanted to say goodbye to his mother, but he just shook his head and told me that he could always write to her. I know that their relationship would never be fixed the way Veronica wanted, but I would like to think that Augustus was willing to try.

　　“Tell me about Declan Wright. How much do you know about him?” He suddenly asked as he read the letter Gideon sent for the umpteenth time.

　　“He is the youngest son of the Wright family, one of the handful of loyal families who are followers of Lady Marie’s. But he has a handful of scandals in his name, adultery, extortion and other illegal activities.”

　　“And how do you know about that?”

　　“One of the things Gideon showed me when I was training to take over emperor duties was the book of official pardons done by my father in the past and Declan’s name was there.”

　　“Official pardons…so the late Emperor Byron would turn a blind eye on these illegal activities.”

　　I shook my head. “Even though it was a book meant for my father’s usage, the official signature under Declan’s name did not belong to him.”

　　“Let me guess, it belonged to Lady Marie?” Augustus asked, with an eyebrow raised.

　　“Well yes, yes it did.”

　　“I suppose we can link her to this mess, but we will only know for sure once we reach back and learn the whole story from Gideon and the rest. He did not give any details on his letter after all.” He sighed, placing the parchment on the seat next to him.

　　“It’s starting to be a pattern now.” I muttered. “Lady Marie and her people cannot target me directly, so she is targeting the people around me, more specifically, my husbands. First it was Cassian with the cheating scandal and if it was not for Gideon’s quick thinking, the entire thing would have been a mess to handle.”

　　“But for Lady Marie to shift from a simple scandal to murder is…”

　　“I do not want to believe that she was involved in this because that would mean she would stoop as low as to harm her own people nor do I want to believe that Isaiah would murder someone unprovoked.”

　　“That’s the keyword right there, unprovoked. We don’t know what happened so we cannot simply deem Lady Marie or Isaiah to be fully innocent.” He said logically.

　　“Even so…”

　　“You need to be rational here, Cordelia. It is clear to see that you are having a bias for Isaiah just because he is your husband.”

　　I snapped my eyes at him, surprised that he had just said something like that. “Is it so wrong to trust in my partners? I regret not trusting Cassian before and I do not want to repeat my faults.”

　　“I am not saying it is wrong. I am just saying that you should determine these things after you know the whole story.”

　　“I know…you don’t have to keep reminding me.” I huffed, turning to look out at the window of the carriage.

　　“It would seem that you are growing soft for your partners.” He suddenly stated. “Has the affection so brutally deemed to be non-existent, slowly creeping its way to you?”

　　Was it? I wondered. In essence, we were still strangers to each other who got married and lived together. I may know certain things about them, their past and their behaviours but there is so much more to learn about them such as their likes and dislikes or even their views of the world.

　　But no matter how much I wanted to tell myself that I did not care about them, that I had no affection to give to them, I found myself thinking about them and the little things they have done. I could not forget the way Isaiah treated me oh so gently after our first night, how comfortable I felt to be by his side. I could not forget the way Cassian saved me from drowning, the worried expression on his face, the softness of his lips and I could not forget the scorching kiss Augustus planted on my neck nor the reassuring pat he gave me earlier.

　　We were strangers, slowly but surely opening up to each other no matter how much we wanted to deny that. “Is that such a bad thing?” I asked him and for the first time ever, I made Augustus go speechless.