“An hour of sleep a day is quite enough for me.”

“Perhaps for a day or two. But you have been unable to sleep properly for three months now, have you not?”

Lucas could not hide his concern. Of course, the princesses of the Seven Dragons Society were different from ordinary humans from birth. Simply using their powerful innate psionics allowed them to regulate their physical condition perfectly.

Even so, going without proper sleep for over three months was bound to have adverse effects. The very notion of a princess of the Seven Dragons Society suffering from insomnia was absurd to begin with.

“Would it not be best to seek medical attention after all?”

“You know perfectly well that there is nothing wrong with my body, Sir Lucas.”

“Physical health alone does not mean all is well, Your Highness.”

“If the problem is not physical, seeing a physician would be just as useless. Medication would not work on my body anyway.”

Rose spoke calmly. Then, looking Lucas straight in the eye with a gaze as deep and weighty as a lake, she continued.

“More importantly, this is not the time for me to rest.”

She could rest only once everything was finished. Lucas quietly met her gaze as she spoke with a resolve that belied her beautiful, delicate appearance. At last, he sighed.

“If that is truly your wish, Your Highness, I will not urge you to seek treatment again. But please remember that many in the clan besides myself are worried about you.”

Perhaps she sensed his genuine concern. Rose nodded, a faint smile returning to her face.

“Thank you for your concern. Out of consideration for your feelings, Sir Lucas, I will make sure to rest whenever possible from now on.”

“Please do not forget that promise.”

Lucas knew what that “rest whenever possible” would amount to. Nevertheless, with a rueful smile, he finally withdrew. As a member of the clan, it was only right that he obey his princess’s wishes.

In the end, however, his concerns proved justified. Even after he left, Rose did not rest. Instead, she continued handling paperwork while considering what she needed to do that day.

'There are plenty of reports piled up, but if I deal with the urgent ones now, the rest can wait until late tonight.'

'Perhaps I should patrol the area around the Thames today.'

'Oh, it would be good to stop by the orphanage there too. I should bring some supplies to donate when I go.'

'I should also leave instructions to pay closer attention to the guests from the Magus Guild...'

Rose suddenly rubbed around her eyes. Just as Lucas had feared, the effects of chronic sleep deprivation were making her feel exhausted.

Yet she did not rest. No, she could not. However much she closed her eyes and tried, the nerves that had been stretched taut for the past few months would permit her neither rest nor sleep.

Her eyes felt impossibly heavy, and her body and mind were so weary that a headache was building, yet she still could not sleep. An ordinary person would long since have collapsed from such suffering.

But Rose paid it no mind. As always, she merely regulated her bodily functions with psionics, forcibly banishing her fatigue, and went over the reports.

It was then that a faint sound reached her ears, made exquisitely sensitive by exhaustion.

N E E E.

'What is that...?'

Rose turned without thinking. Recognizing the instrumental melody drifting from the garden through the wide-open window, she nodded.

'Miss Julia? She borrowed the violin, so she must have started practicing right away.'

A faint smile crossed Rose’s lips as she recalled the woman who had confidently asked to borrow her finest violin, declaring that she had brought the finest musician. She briefly considered whether to close the window. Simply shutting the soundproofed window would completely block out the barely audible violin.

'There is no need to close it if this is all.'

In the end, Rose chose to leave it alone. Had it been too loud, that would have been another matter. Though slightly distracting, it was not particularly unpleasant, and there was no harm in checking the performance beforehand.

And so Rose signed a report while listening absently to the faint music.

NEEEE.

'... What?'

Rose gave a start, then looked puzzled. It was not merely that she herself could not explain why she had involuntarily shivered. Another faint melody had slipped seamlessly over Julia’s barely audible playing.

'Is this... the musician Julia brought?'

It was unmistakably the same instrument, yet the melody sounded astonishingly different. Rose was genuinely impressed.

'Indeed, I can see why she was so confident he was the finest musician.'

She was not even hearing the performance properly, only overhearing fragments of melody broken up by the garden maze. Yet that alone was enough to make the difference so clear. It left her wondering just how remarkable a musician he must be to play like this.

'Not bad.'

At any rate, Rose was satisfied. The time had been so short that she had wondered whether things would work out, but a performance of this caliber seemed unlikely to ruin the important event.

But she had not yet realized something. Though her sleep-deprived nerves had made even the slightest sound unpleasant, she now felt no irritation at all. On the contrary, a strange sense of comfort was soothing those frayed nerves. And, before she knew it, her eyelids were sinking shut.

'Yes, not bad at all.'

Without even noticing, she quietly closed her eyes and surrendered herself to the faint melody drifting from the garden. Little by little. Ever so slowly. Only enough that she could start working again as soon as she opened her eyes...

KNOCK, KNOCK.

“Your Highness, I have something to report.”

“Come in.”

Rose opened her eyes reflexively. Lucas, the knight in ornate armor, came through the door again and addressed her solemnly.

“Next month’s budget has been revised as you instructed.”

“Already?”

“Yes. When I explained that the order came from you, the treasurer set to work immediately, allowing us to finish sooner than expected.”

“... I shall have to thank Elder Coulanges.”

Though she spoke without thinking, Rose was privately puzzled. Elder Coulanges was certainly an excellent treasurer, but it was strange that even he had finished revising such an enormous budget in mere minutes.

'Did he anticipate my instructions and prepare it in advance?'

As Rose silently reflected that this was just the sort of response one would expect from such an experienced elder, Lucas sighed.

“Your Highness, of course you are free to decide how much rest to take... but surely this is going too far?”

“...?”

“Have you not been doing paperwork this entire time since I left?”

“And what of it?”

“I am asking you to rest.”

Rose was bewildered. It was true that she had recently been throwing herself into her work without sleeping properly. But that was hardly a reason to hear this again just because she had spent a little while looking over reports.

For some reason, Lucas seemed to take her reaction as feigned ignorance. He spoke with a lamenting air.

“You have skipped meals and worked straight through until evening. Even you will wear yourself out at this rate, Your Highness.”

“What do you...?”

Rose was about to ask what he meant when it was still midday, but stopped short. Only then did she realize that Lucas’s face, as he looked at her with concern, seemed strangely red.

She turned around and blinked blankly. The sun had been high in the sky just moments ago. She could not understand why that same sky was now stained red by the sunset.

“Of course, I understand that you are busy, Your Highness. But... please... sometimes... you must...”

“...”

Lucas spent a long while both scolding and counseling her for once again working too hard. After she finally sent him away and was alone, Rose found herself thinking that it felt as though someone had cast a spell on her.

Of course, that was impossible. Only a legendary Great Witch or Saint could cast a spell that made her, the Blue Dragon Princess, skip through time. And while she was within House Seaserpent’s estate, no one could do such a thing.

That left only one conclusion.

'Dozing off over reports... I must have accumulated a great deal of fatigue.'

Rose smiled ruefully. Even an expert of the Seven Dragons Society nodding off on duty would be absurd. The idea that she, of all people, had fallen asleep was something not only others, but Rose herself, would have taken as a joke.

That was why Lucas had merely assumed she had spent an unusually long time doing paperwork today. It had never occurred to him that she might have dozed off.

'How embarrassing.'

Fortunately, she moved about by teleportation so often that no one had discovered her asleep in her office at that hour. Had anyone caught her, she would never have been able to hold her head up.

'But what am I to do now? There was so much I needed to do today...'

Rose gazed with conflicted eyes at the sky, where even the sunset had faded. She already had to ration every moment, yet she had wasted half a day asleep. How was she to make up for that lost time? She was simply at a loss.

'It cannot be helped. I will put off the patrol until tomorrow and stay up all night to finish the other work.'

Staying up all night was nothing new for her anyway. Besides, unintended though it had been, she had enjoyed her first sound sleep in a long time. Going without sleep for a few days should pose no problem.

And so Rose rearranged her schedule on the assumption that she would not sleep at all for a while. As she finished signing the document she had left untouched for nearly half a day, she told herself that today’s lapse had only been caused by accumulated exhaustion. It would never happen again.

NEEEE.

And so, the following day, in the very same office and the very same chair, with piles of documents she had not even touched, let alone approved, she awoke after sleeping away another half day. Staring at the sky, stained sunset-red just as it had been yesterday, she could only murmur in a daze.

“... Why?”

* * *

[“But Team Leader, are you sure this is all right?”]

'What is?'

[“Playing the violin. The Princess asked you to avoid it if you could, remember? Especially in front of the Blue Dragon Clan.”]

'That was because my violin is so unusual that it might arouse suspicion. This is just an ordinary violin, so it does not matter.'

[“That is true, but still.”]

'Besides, I have infiltrated the place as a musician. I can hardly refuse to play.'

Limon chuckled. Having finished practicing just as he had yesterday, he put the violin away in its case and added silently,

'Well, do not worry so much. What could possibly happen just because I play a little music?'

[“... I suppose you do have good instincts, Team Leader. If it were going to cause trouble, you would have noticed yesterday.”]

That satisfied Yu Na-gyeong. But neither she nor even Limon, a Sword Master, knew that something so trivial he had sensed no problem at all could be an incident that left a certain princess clutching her head.