Ahel took a deep breath. This was where she’d be working from now on until she got information about the tattoo on her neck. I’ll do my best. She gathered all her courage and reached out to grab one of the door handles. When she pressed down on it, it opened with a small click.

She gasped in surprise when she saw what was behind the door. The first thing she noticed were three desks pressed together to form a square with one side missing. Documents on the desks were stacked nearly eye-level with Ahel.

Ahel’s mouth formed a tiny ‘o’ shape as she stared at the mountains of paper, totally lost for words.

“Oh, you’re here.”

The sudden sound of the voice nearly made Ahel take a step back.

A head of black hair popped out from behind the pile of documents on the desk. Clearly, someone had been sitting there. Despite him being rather tall, Ahel could see no lower than his chest because of the sheer grandeur of the pile of documents.

Ahel’s wide eyes met the man’s stare.

The man said with a smile, “Oh, you’re surprised at all these papers, right? It’s okay, you can come in, ma’am.”

Ahel stepped in, dumbstruck by his words.

To the right of the man standing at the center desk was another man, who she hadn’t seen from the hallway. Even though he was standing with his back to her, she was sure she recognized him.

Her eyes widened even further when she caught sight of his familiar pink hair. She wondered if he could feel her eyes on him.

Ray turned away from the window he’d been staring out of and looked at her. “You came.”

After taking a moment to recollect herself, Ahel asked, “Your Majesty, what are you doing here?”

Morning was the time when everyone was busy. That must mean Ray was quite ahead of his schedule already.

Ray perched on the windowsill behind him and casually answered her question, “I think we should introduce ourselves. This here is Sever, my assistant,” he said, pointing to the man who’d stood up from among the pile of papers.

Ahel was completely shocked by this unexpected revelation. This man is Ray’s assistant?

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Sever. You can call me Sev for short, ma’am.”

Completely shocked, Ahel was about to greet him, but Ray beat her to it. He swooped his hand around and gestured at her as he said,  “And this is Ahelissa. Sev, she will be your assistant from today on.”

Finally, Ahel understood what type of work she would be doing. She would be assisting Sever, the emperor’s assistant.

I wonder why those documents are all piled up like that. Maybe it’s because it’s the assistants’ room.

A mere commoner had become an assistant in the Imperial Palace, all through the emperor’s recommendation. The entire empire would flip if word of this got out. Then again, perhaps the news had already spread.

Now she understood why everyone had been looking at her like that. Seems word has already gotten out that I’m Sever’s assistant.

They had looked at her and bowed because of the rumor that the emperor had brought a woman in the previous day. It made sense now, considering how the rumor must have spread. Her thoughts on the matter weren’t totally wrong.

But she still narrowed her eyes, feeling like some details had been left out. By making me his assistant, he knows rumors are going to spread. Clearly he is willing to endure it.

And Ray’s reason for that, of course, was because of the tattoo on Ahel’s neck.

After reaching that conclusion, Ahel finally greeted Sever, “I look forward to working with you. I’m Ahelissa. But you can call me Ahel for short.”

“I look forward to working with you as well, Madam Ahel.”

“Just Ahel….”

“I feel more comfortable addressing you like that.”

Well, I don’t like it. Sever’s formal speech was bewildering to her. But by the subtle smile on his face, he was resolute in what he wanted, and there was nothing she could do to change his mind.

Ahel felt her stomach growling and realized she hadn’t had breakfast yet.

Sever was not only an aristocrat with a higher status than her, but also an assistant to the emperor. It was only natural that she felt uncomfortable having to speak formally with him from now on.

What if I ask him to at least not put ‘Madam’ in front of my name? But she knew that wouldn’t work, because she could feel that behind his ever-smiling face was a seriousness as hard as a steel plate.

Ahel let out a deep sigh that she could no longer hold in.

“Now that introductions are over, I should get going,” said Ray, pushing his body up from the windowsill

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Sever piped up at his comment, “Come to think of it, it’s about time for your morning meeting, sir.”

Ray, slowly nodding at Sever’s words, turned from his desk and approached Ahel.

She thought he would just breeze past her, but he stopped right in front of her, clearly having something to say. When Ahel tilted her head up because of their height difference, their eyes met as if he’d been waiting for her to look up. The green of his eyes this morning was as dense as a dark forest.

Ray leaned closer, lowering his face to hers. This close, Ahel could smell a unique, refreshing scent coming off him. A scent that went very well with his forest-like eyes.

Then Ray’s low voice tickled her ear as he said, “You haven’t forgotten that you made a promise to eat lunch with me, right?”