(From Blue''s Perspective)


    "I like cats too. I have always wanted a cat myself. It''s fantastic that Blue owns a cat," Iris, the duchess, eximed.


    This morning, I was hanging out with her in the dance practice room. We danced a bit as well. She could not dance much, so I taught her a little. I was not too good at it either since I did not learn it much. I only watched others dancing and learned from that.


    Then Iris showed me around the duchy residence. The duke and Dem were busy. Dem did not want me to get involved much since he was worried about me, so I did not push much either.


    "You can visit the Imperial Pce. I will introduce you to Sapphire then."


    "Is it a girl? And her name is Sapphire?"


    "Yeah," I nodded. "We found her back in Ataraxia."


    "Ah, when you went there for the banquet?"


    "Yes. I was... ill, so Dem brought the cat for me. He found it while going out. He doesn''t like cats or other animals much, but since I like them, he lets me keep her."


    "Where does she sleep? Don''t tell me in your and His Majesty''s bedroom..."


    "She sleeps there. Sapphire doesn''t stay in one ce for long if I am not around. She sleeps by the window of our room."


    "Doesn''t His Majesty mind? What do you do when you do it?"


    "... Dem chases her out and closes the door and windows usually," I mumbled, looking down as my cheeks heated up.


    "Pfft, that''s too harsh on the cat. But it''s very weird to do it when another living creature is in the room. It''s like being watched which is creepy..."


    "That''s true..."


    "Strangely, I don''t feel ufortable talking to you about this. You don''t mind, right?"


    "No, it''s fine. It''s good to talk to you about things as well," I said.


    I found Dem in front of the stairway while we were on the way to the library. He was talking to the duke and another person who I did not know. By the look of that person, it seemed he was a mage and a very old one.


    He noticed me at once and nced at me every now and then while talking to them. "Is that the duchy''s head mage?" I asked Iris.


    "Yes. He is very old, isn''t he? He has a bitter personality. But he is very powerful, but of course, not as powerful as the master of the magic tower."


    "I see..."


    "His Majesty is looking at you again and again as if he doesn''t want to look the other way," she said and sighed. "It''s not like the duke doesn''t love me. But his workes first and then Ie. I never minded since it was fine the way it was and he care for me. But now that I look at you and His Majesty, I have to admit that I am a bit jealous though I wish the best for you two.


    His Majesty and Blue look very good together, like a match made in heaven."


    "Why don''t you call the duke by his name? You are his wife and also his best friend after all," I asked while also trying to change the subject.


    It always made me ufortable when someone said that they were jealous of me because Dem was my husband and he loved me so much. There was no doubt that he loved me. He loved me more than anyone could ever love someone or something. But they had no idea how different our marriage life was.


    We were happy, but sometimes, it was a bit scary for me to face him because he had so many sides to him that I feared for some reason. They did not know the difficulties in our marriage. One of them was Dem''s insecurities which sometimes led to anger issues and minor fights. Then there was that dark mage who was continuously trying to mess with me.


    Because of him, we faced many problems and we were going to face more, I was sure.


    "After he got married to the previous duchess, since it might make her ufortable, I stopped calling him by his name. The duchess did not like me and thought that there was something going on between the two of us just because I was his female friend. I got used to calling him ''duke'', so I did not change it even after we got married. But I call him by his name when we are alone.


    But it''s weird to say it in front of others for some reason."


    It was not unusual here to not call each other by their names even after getting married in high society. They called them using honorifics or their titles. Kings and Queens usually called each other ''my queen'' and ''my king'', even when they were alone. It was not the same for Dem and me since we both started calling each other by our names and never thought otherwise.


    We used pet names often, especially Dem, but we never used honorifics with each other. When we were with others, if I did not know them very well, I used honorifics to address Dem. While it was weird for Iris to call the duke by his name, it was the other way around for me.


    We slowly made our way to where Dem was along with the duke and the duchy''s head mage.


    The duke nodded at me and kissed my hand. I noticed Dem clenching his fists, but decided to ignore it. If the duke asked for my hand, how could I refuse it? That would be too inappropriate. I had told Dem a lot of times that doing this was not too intimate and he finally decided not to do anything crazy. It was a good thing that he was keeping his word.


    "I, the head mage of the duchy, greet Your Majesty, the Queen," the mage bowed. "And also, greeting to Madam."


    "Nice to meet you, head mage. I have heard a lot about you."


    "The pleasure is mine, Your Majesty."


    The head mage did not seem bitter at all. Rather, he was very gentle and showed proper respect.


    "We were discussing the rebels," the duke said. "His Majesty suggested that the head mage checks the rebels to make sure that they are not controlled by dark mages."


    "What''s the result?" I asked.


    "Negative. There was no trace of ck mana," the head mage replied.


    "Can I ask you something, head mage?"


    "Of course, Your Majesty. Please feel free to ask me anything," he said.


    "How do you see if there are traces of ck mana or not?" I asked.


    "Well, it''s like ck strings. The more ck mana, the more the number of strings will be. When ites to detecting normal mana, the strings are white since it''s said that mages have divine power except dark mages who possess cursed power thates from the ck stone. It''s a cursed stone after all," he replied.


    "We, mages, cannot even get rid of ck mana even though we can store the extra amount of mana in us. We cannot absorb ck mana after all."


    He said something more, but I could not hear him properly since I was thinking about something else.


    ''ck strings? That day, I saw ck strings around Sapphire... I was confused. I did not tell anyone about it since I did not see the ck strings again and thought that I did not see them correctly. But what if I managed to detect the ck mana in her?''


    "Can mages always see the ck strings?" I asked again.


    "It depends. We usually can, but there is a very small chance that we can''t when the amount of ck mana is too less. ck mana is easy to trace, so it is very rare."


    "But it can happen, right?"


    "It can."


    I looked at Dem and said, "I want to see the prisoners."


    Dem kept his eyes on me for a while before saying, "Alright."


    "Duke, take care of the things I said. I will go with the Queen to the underground prison. No need to apany us."


    "Yes, Your Royal Majesty."


    "I will see youter then, Iris," I said.


    "Alright. See you at lunch."


    "Why do you suddenly want to see them? I told you before you don''t have to push yourself...," Dem said as he started taking me to the underground prison, holding my hand.


    "I am not pushing myself. I just need to check something," I said impatiently.


    "What is it?"


    "Let''s go first."


    The prison here was almost like the Imperial Pce''s prison. It was a disgusting ce, but I tried not to care much about it.


    Even at that time, I had no idea that I was right about my suspicion.