Louis woke from a dream. Before his eyes had fully opened, he felt the warmth against his side.
It was soft and warm, with a faint, lingering fragrance mingled with the subtle scent of sunlit pine.
He blinked and slowly turned his head, finding familiar blue hair spread quietly across the pillow, its loose strands rising and falling gently with each breath.
Emily still lay nestled motionlessly in his arms, without so much as a twitch of her eyebrows.
Louis blinked silently and sighed with mild resignation. "Ah, thanks for all your hard work on our great baby-making endeavor."
That little complaint aside, important business came first.
He carefully sat up beside Emily, taking care not to wake her.
Gray-white morning light filtered through the window. Even with the geothermal heat, the air still carried a cold, austere chill.
Winter really had arrived, and it would be hard to endure-several times harder than last year.
He picked up the gloves and outer robe beside his bed and put them on. As he approached the brazier, his breath emerged in a white cloud.
"Time to see how lucky I am today." He gently extended his right hand and waved it through the air.
A translucent blue-white interface appeared, hovering before him as text rapidly arranged itself across the screen.
``` [Daily intelligence update complete]
[1: Yesterday's Dragon Throne Conference resolved to establish the Northern Frontier Disaster Reconstruction Bureau, creating a reconstruction framework for the Northern Frontier led by Duke Edmund and overseen by the Imperial Capital.]
[2: The emperor's Sixth Imperial Prince, Asta August, will be the first to travel to the Northern Frontier to develop new territory, serving as an example for reconstruction.]
[3: Dark red lava moss grows along the edges of geothermal fissures in the Red Tide Fief.