Arabella had to mention him since Clarisse was pregnant. He needed to be home more often and yet, he got so busy instead.

"Yes, I will give him a month-long vacation," Ferdinand understood why Arabella mentioned him.

"That’s good then. Clarisse and the kids would be delighted."

Her husband understood such things now, or rather, he knew and he actually cared. She simply did not know that he did in the past.

"You also need to take a break. I will do all the work now so you should take it easy and do whatever you want," Ferdinand offered her a vacation too.

But Arabella could not afford it. There were a lot of things she still needed to do and she must do a lot while she was not yet pregnant.

After all, once she gets pregnant traveling a lot and doing too much work would not be good. Thus, she needed to do as much as she could now. Especially when it comes to establishing herself and her position as Empress here in Valeria.

"I’m fine. I did not really do much when you were not around." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[How can that be not much?

My office should be filled with documents but only the tables were.

I praised Raymond for working hard but he said he and Arabella divided the work equally.

How can that be not much when she worked at the same pace as Raymond who can stay awake for several days without any problem?

She must have not slept for a lot of nights.

She should catch up with her sleep.

And yet, here she was still working.

Is this how much she worked in Lobelius?]

Ferdinand was going to the wrong conclusions.

It was simply because Arabella was already used to her work due to her experience in her past life so she knew exactly how to deal with the work that came to her.

"Wasn’t the heir declared heir in Lobelius your elder brother? How come you seem so used to working so hard? Did he make you do his work?" Ferdinand inquired out of nowhere and Arabella blinked repeatedly.

"Hahaha. How did you come to that conclusion?"

Arabella couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Ferdinand had this talent of being so off-tangent at times.

"No. He never did. I was the one who busied myself. I wanted to be a responsible princess so I did my best to help where I could," Arabella clarified.

It would be bad if Ferdinand who was already not that much liked by her brother would also dislike the latter.

"Are you sure?" Ferdinand eyed her suspiciously.

"Yes," Arabella said, but Ferdinand stopped walking and cupped her face.

"You should sleep early tonight after dinner. You have eyebags," Ferdinand said and Arabella frowned.

"I do?!" Arabella blinked repeatedly and touched her face.

’Was it that bad that even Ferdinand who does not notice such things had to point it out?!’

Arabella panicked at the thought that she may have looked ugly to her husband just now.

She wanted a mirror to see her face but felt ashamed to ask Alwin for such a minor thing.

"Pfft."

’Huh? What was that?’

"Did you just laugh?" Arabella frowned at her husband.

"Eh? No," Ferdinand played an innocent face. But she was sure she heard him stifling a laugh earlier.

[She’s that concerned about it?] Ferdinand thought and Arabella realized what was going on.

She did not get much sleep while they were in Estrella since they were busy making love all the time. But there was no way she would get eyebags after all the times Ferdinand healed her and gave her some of his mana.

After all, now that she thought about it, she was sure she did not have eyebags this morning.

"Liar. I’m sure I don’t," Arabella pouted.

"You do. You have dark circles under your eyes so you should go to sleep early. It doesn’t suit you to have these," Ferdinand added.

Arabella’s brows knitted as she looked at him.

[Oops. Did I go too far? I just said those so she would sleep early. I don’t want her health to deteriorate.]

’See. I knew it. There was no way I would get eye bags and dark circles.’

"I can hear your thoughts, Dear Husband," Arabella reminded and Ferdinand flinched.

"R-Right..."

"Thank you for always thinking about me.

I will only do work that I can handle.

If it’s too much for me, I won’t do it.

So you don’t need to worry," Arabella assured Ferdinand so he would not keep thinking about it.

Ferdinand gazed at her and realizing that she would not change her mind, he backed down.

"Alright. But please take some rest when you need to," Ferdinand added.

"Yes, I will," Arabella assured him.

Ferdinand held her hand and interlocked their fingers. His hands were warm and huge and felt nice despite the callouses from his sword.

’Right, he prefers holding hands,’ Arabella smiled at the gesture and her husband blushed when she glanced at him and looked away.

"Let’s go," he said and began walking.

Arabella bit her lips to stop herself from giggling. Ferdinand looked so adorable when he was acting shy.

He got even more embarrassed when he realized that she noticed that he was feeling shy.

They were just apart for a bit and he was acting shy again.

Arabella wanted to tease him but saved it for later since Ferdinand was quick to change the topic.

"You heard right? I won’t be sleeping in your chambers tonight. There’s a lot of work I need to do," Ferdinand glanced at her.

"Yes, I understand. You should focus on work. I’m already used to sleeping alone anyway," Arabella replied.

Ferdinand stiffened so she glanced at him.

When he did not say anything, she listened to his thoughts.

[Used to it?! She’s still angry about my absence, isn’t she?!]

’Oh, I should have been careful with my words. He misunderstood it.’

"I... I think I will sleep in your chambers after all."