Fate I

LXII

"Kouen."

"Hm?"

Turning his head, he wore his usual stoic, blank face which was indifferent to the many events that happened around him. But, his eyes lit up momentarily upon hearing his name called from her lips for no matter how busy he was, he would always turn and respond to her.

"What is it?" he stopped writing. "Lucy."

"What should I do with these documents?" she asked, pointing towards a large stack of scrolls.

"Ah," he looked at it. "You finished already?"

She nodded her head.

"Meanwhile he can't even finish half of what you did," Kouen turned towards Koumei with a pitying look, wondering how impotent he was compared to Lucy.

"I heard that," Koumei immediately said without raising his head, continuing to write away.

"Good. I meant it."

At that, Koumei gloomed. One would expect that after working under him for so long, one would naturally get used to his insults but that certainly was not the case. One way or another, he always managed to insult him and at times, he would throw a hurl of insults. Not to mention, given Kouen's violent personality, he had a tendency to behead anyone who got in his way or proved useless and as a result, it was up to him — the Prime Minister — to clean up his mess. As if dealing with mountains of paperwork wasn't already stressful enough.

"You can just leave it there. Eunuch To will come back soon to take it to the administrative department," Kouen turned back to her.

"I understand," she smiled.

Getting up, she moved to clean her table for she had finished with the documents that needed to be dealt with on her part. In the first place, helping them with the paperwork was not a part of her duties but after seeing how they were practically buried in them despite Kouen's incredible pace in dealing with it, she couldn't help but step in and offer a hand of help. Of course, after knowing her godly speed which exceeded even that of Kouen's, there was no way they could turn her away.

"Did you have lunch yet?" Kouen asked, seeing as how she was still so light despite the fact that she had developed quite well in certain areas.

"Mn," she smiled. "What about you guys?"

"Is that so," he remarked, a bit disappointed.

"What about you guys?"

"We'll have it after this. There's no need to worry," he said, his voice soft and gentle, a drastic difference to his usual booming, authoritarian voice.

"Make sure you eat," she said.

"I know."

"Then I'll be taking my leave first," she smiled.

"Ah! I'll walk you out!" Koumei stood up from his pile and hurriedly caught up to her.

Lucy chuckled and patted down his wrinkled clothes and fixed his untidy hair to which he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. Taking her hand, he escorted her out of the Emperor's Palace as Kouen watched the two with a conflicted expression. The two clearly suited each other well and even the people thought so. In the past five years, the two had made themselves known as his right and left hand who stood by his side no matter the circumstance. Their knowledge and intellect were second to none and who other than each other was better suited to match each other? Like yin and yang, they completed each other. Yet, despite knowing that, he couldn't help but furrow his brows in frustration and turmoil. If it wasn't for the late Emperor's words, he would've long taken Lucy as his official wife, the Empress. But he couldn't. All because of those words he spoke.