Louis finished reading the Daily Intelligence System and dismissed the glowing screen with a light wave of his hand.
"All right, time to get to work." He rubbed the space between his brows and climbed out of bed.
He washed and dressed, his movements as brisk and efficient as ever.
Dawn had barely broken, and sunlight had yet to pierce the morning mist, but the office door was already open.
As soon as he stepped inside, he saw Sif sitting at the desk, leafing through a thick stack of official documents.
"Good morning, little white." Louis greeted her with a smile.
Sif's hand paused. As if she had not expected him to say that, she blinked before rising to greet him.
"Good morning, my lord." Her voice was soft, but the tips of her ears flushed faintly red.
In truth, while Louis had been away at war, she had considered running away.
It was not that she lacked the courage. The timing simply had not been right. Besides... where could she go if she escaped?
In the end, she had simply stayed.
Then Sif discovered that her thoughts would actually run wild at night.
Would he die on the battlefield?
What if he never came back?
When she learned that he was returning victorious, Sif had even let out a long breath of relief.
Of course, she could never say any of that aloud. It was too strange.
Sif merely lowered her head and pushed the sorted documents toward him, her tone unchanged. "I've finished preparing the documents you wanted to review."
Her voice was quiet, but her movements were efficient.
She did not notice, however, that the hand passing them over was trembling slightly.
Louis did not notice Sif's little oddity.
His gaze fell on the stack of documents,