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“Miss Popo.”
The smile on Helios’ face was brighter than the torchlight that was illuminating the balcony.
Because such an unexpected person appeared, Sera’s eyes were soon filled with questions.
“Here you are.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, but…”
What brings you here?
Sera pressed down on the urge to ask this question. The graceful smile on his lips was the same as usual, but she could feel a hint of impatience in it.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m alone, but…”
Why do you ask?
Before she could ask out of curiosity, Helios crossed the distance between them.
He walked towards the balcony railings in an instant, but he was looking around with vigilance, as though he was checking if there truly was no one else here.
As she was unaware of his thoughts, Sera faced him carefully with her own worries in mind.
When his violet eyes, which were as deep as the night sky, glanced down at her, she could see her anxious expression reflected in them.
‘Maybe…’
Suddenly, she was arrested by a wave of fear—one that she didn’t even want to think about. As expected, there was only one reason why the emperor was urgently looking for her.
The drunkenness and sentimental mood she had just now vanished completely as she looked up at him with surprise apparent in her eyes.
“Perhaps, did Their Highnesses cause any trouble?!”
She covered her lips with both hands, but her small cry slipped through.
“Huh?”
“Did Their Highnesses make a ruckus?”
Sera’s face turned pale as she urgently looked at Helios.
“N…No. That’s not it, Miss Popo.”
Helios shook his head urgently.
“Then what happened, sire? What on earth happened that you personally came to see me, Your Majesty?”
“That’s…”
Sera’s expression turned grave as she waited for him to answer.
“It’s nothing like that, I was just…”
As though entirely embarrassed, Helios covered his face for a moment. In his awkwardness, he swept a hand over his face. He looked towards the garden, then he let out a very long sigh.
With her pupils shaking nervously now, Sera really couldn’t imagine why Helios himself had come here.
“I was worried about you, Miss Popo.”
“Pardon me?”
Sera tilted her head to the side, wondering if she heard him wrong.
“Worried?”
“Yes. I was worried.”
Helios answered cautiously. But it still didn’t make sense to her.
Why was His Majesty worried? What’s there for him to worry about when they’re at a banquet? Or maybe, was he worried about her meeting someone like Duke Bethmann?
“Why was Your Majesty worried?”
Sera asked frankly.
But was it a difficult question to answer?
Helios gave her a smile that made it seem he had lost all strength, and he leaned over with his arms over the railing.
Leaning down with a calm expression, he stared at the fountain that Sera had been looking at just now.
Then, he slowly faced her. His violet eyes, which were like the night sky, were directed at her.
“You’re attending your first ball today, Miss Popo, and you’re so very popular that men have started lining up in front of you. That kind of worry.”
Helios’ eyes were curved gently as he spoke with a low voice. With one corner of his lips tugged up crookedly, it was a smile that seemed to bewitch her.
“Ah…”
Sera opened her mouth slightly.
“Anyway, it’s your first ball, that’s why…”
Helios looked straight into her eyes and added this calmly. The smile he gave her was ever so mesmerizing that she unknowingly held her breath.
Her first ball.
Sera murmured the word to herself, trying to figure out what that meant.
But she denied the first thought she had—that shouldn’t be the reason why His Majesty had come all the way here to find her. She shook her head while telling herself, ‘No way’.
Her heart was pounding so heavily that her imagination seemed to have gone wild.
“Your Majesty. Perhaps, do you have the same worries that your parents had during your own debutante?
Despite many other young lords and young ladies making mistakes when they attended their imperial debutantes, of course Helios wouldn’t have done any kind of worrying thing.
And right now, the kind of worry she was insinuating he had towards her was about how she might be getting led around by the nose by some popular young lords who were trying to seduce her.
“…Similar.”
But after a moment of hesitation, Helios answered unexpectedly. Sera laughed blankly at the flustering answer. Ah, it must only be a joke.
Sera looked at him with mischievous eyes, as though to say that she’s not going to fall for his teasing anymore.
However, when he faced her, he gave her such a despondent look.
Soon, Sera’s eyes opened wide and her lips gaped open.
“That can’t be.”
Then, when he sighed in response, Sera smirked and laughed.
“Your Majesty really came here because of that concern?”
Sera shook her head.
“There are many dangerous people in the world, Miss Popo.”
Helios smiled briefly.
“But still, Your Majesty. It’s true that today is my debutante, but I’m not young enough to fall for such tricks.”
In the Adelio Empire, people were considered to be adults already at the age of sixteen, and she’s been an adult for a long time now.
She supposed that these kinds of concerns were necessary towards young ladies and young men who just had their coming of age.
“You’re just twenty-three years old, so aren’t you still young?”
“You don’t trust me, sire?”
“I do, but it’s the men around you that I don’t trust.”
Hearing those words, Sera’s cheeks and ears turned a bright pink shade. She pouted her lips for a moment before giving him an embarrassed smile.
“Still, I’m not like Their Highnesses that Your Majesty has to…”
“But you don’t seem to be aware of it. There have been so many people who are thinking of asking you to a dance today.”
Helios’ eyes were curved into crescent moons as he laughed, but he turned his head to the side as though it was difficult for him to maintain eye contact with her.
‘Are you feeling a bit shy…?’