Evening gradually settled over the Imperial Palace. The brilliant orange glow of the setting sun filtered through the window beside Kiara's bed, stretching long shadows across the wooden floor before slowly fading into the softer hues of twilight. Outside, servants had begun lighting lanterns throughout the palace gardens, while the distant sounds of changing guards echoed faintly through the quiet corridors.
Inside the partitioned room, however, everything remained unusually silent.
Scarlett had purposely given Kiara several hours to herself after noticing her strange mood during the carriage ride back from Marquis Baldwin's manor. Normally, by this time, she would have heard the scratching of Kiara's pen across paper, the occasional muttering over complicated calculations, or the faint mechanical chime of the System.
Today… nothing.
After standing outside the partition for a brief moment, Scarlett quietly walked through the opening.
Kiara was exactly where she had left her.
