"Goodnight, Zilu."

"Goodnight, Master..." she responded in a low and somewhat sad voice.

Mark gave her one last caress on the head before closing the door.

Emilia and Zilu were left alone in front of the room, and for a few seconds, an uncomfortable silence settled between them.

"...This way," said the queen as she turned around.

Both advanced through the palace hallways in complete silence for several minutes.

It was an uncomfortable silence, the kind that appears when two people who don’t know each other at all are forced to walk together without having anything to say.

Emilia walked a few steps ahead, with her back straight and her gaze forward, guiding Zilu toward the room she would assign her.

Meanwhile, Zilu followed behind her, with her ears half-raised and her eyes moving from side to side, observing everything around her except the woman walking in front of her.

The queen looked at her out of the corner of her eye over her shoulder.

’So a beast-woman...’ she thought, observing the black rabbit ears that protruded from Zilu’s dark hair. ’he said she’s his subordinate.’

But the way they had hugged didn’t seem like that of a leader and his subordinate. They didn’t hesitate for even a second to sleep together, so Emilia quickly came to a conclusion.

’She’s probably his partner,’ she thought with total certainty. "And if that’s the case... she must know everything about him."

Like his tastes, habits, the things that annoyed him and the things he liked. Emilia needed to know all of that if she wanted to get him to stay in the kingdom.

The queen took a deep breath before deciding to break the silence.

"Zilu, right?" she said, turning her head slightly backward.

The woman behind her lifted her ears upon hearing her name.

"Y-yes," responded Zilu in a tone that was still cautious.

"It’s a pretty name."

"T-thank you..."

The silence returned for a few more steps.

"And tell me, Zilu..." continued Emilia in a tone that tried to sound casual. "Are you aware of what happened today?"

"Only what Miss Yuki told me when she came to see me..."

"And what did she tell you?"

"That the Master had taken control of the palace, that you eliminated the council, and that there was a fight against a very strong monster that escaped."

"Anything else?"

"Well..."

The queen saw how Zilu hesitated for a second and then continued.

"Do you know about what—"

"About what happened on the balcony?" interrupted Zilu, completing the sentence for her. "Yes, I’m aware of it."

Emilia fell silent because she didn’t expect Zilu to be so direct. After that, both continued walking a few more steps without saying anything until Emilia spoke again.

"And... what do you think about it?" she asked without looking at her. "Do you think what I did was wrong?"

Zilu stopped abruptly.

Emilia also stopped upon noticing that her footsteps no longer sounded behind her, and upon turning around, she found the demi-human looking at her with a mixture of surprise and nervousness.

"W-why are you asking me something like that?" said Zilu with her eyes slightly more open. "I-I’m no one to have an opinion on that kind of thing..."

She looked at her for a moment and then let out a soft sigh.

"...You’re right," said Emilia, lowering her gaze slightly. "I shouldn’t ask you something like that."

"..."

"I don’t even know myself if what I did was right..." confessed Emilia in a lower voice. "The only thing I know is that everything I did was to protect the kingdom."

Zilu listened to her in silence.

"But now everyone is angry with me," she said with sadness. "Your master is angry, his companions are too, the noble houses probably want my head, the population is confused, and I’m here not knowing if the decision I made was correct or if I just destroyed everything my father built for me in a single day..."

After hearing the entire situation, Zilu began to look at Emilia with a bit of pity and finally spoke.

"...If you did it to protect your kingdom," she said in a soft tone, "then you have nothing to regret."

Emilia lifted her gaze.

"I know well how heavy the responsibility of protecting others is," continued Zilu with a somewhat sad look. "My mother carries that weight every day too."

"Your mother?"

"She’s the chief of our village," explained Zilu, nodding. "All important decisions go through her, and many times she has to do things that people don’t understand or that no one likes. But she still does them because she believes they’re best for everyone else."

Zilu lowered her gaze a bit before looking back at Emilia.

"So if you did all this to protect your people... then I think you made the right decision, even though others can’t understand it right now."

"Thank you, Zilu," said Emilia with a small smile. "Really."

"I-it wasn’t a big deal..."

The two resumed their walk down the hallway, this time with a silence that was no longer as uncomfortable as before.

They walked a few more meters until Emilia spoke again.

"Zilu," she said in a softer tone.

"Yes?"

"I want to apologize to you."

"Apologize? For what?"

"Because now everyone thinks I’m his official wife," said Emilia, looking ahead. "And I’m sorry that affects you, since you’re the one who should really be at his side."

"Huh?" said Zilu, stopping abruptly.

Emilia also stopped and looked at her. Zilu’s face was completely red, her rabbit ears upright and trembling as she waved her hands in front of her nervously.

"I-I think you misunderstood the situation..."

"What?"

"I-I’m not even one of the Master’s main wives!" continued Zilu even more nervously. "Miss Ely, Miss Alice, Miss Rose, Miss Aria, and Miss Yuki. They are the five main wives."

The queen froze completely.

"I... I’m just something like..." Zilu lowered her hands and started playing with her fingers nervously while her face turned even redder. "Something like a concubine... or something similar to a lover... according to the harem hierarchy that Miss Ely created..."

"..."

"..."

"HUH?!"