Crow shifted his weight uncomfortably, unsure how he felt about what he’d just shared with Penelope. While he’d decided it was important enough to bring up, he had no idea how to handle conversations like these. Part of him wasn’t even sure if his feelings were valid, because he preferred to discard them in favor of logic whenever his head and heart conflicted. Knowing that the tension between him and the knight had already been resolved, he wondered if he’d just made things worse by telling her that he’d felt hurt after the fact. Unfortunately, it was too late to take it back now that the words had been said though.

When Penelope finally spoke up, the viceroy met her gaze with a frown. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting her to say, but he was surprised to hear that she felt so insecure about their relationship. It sounded like her worries didn’t even stem from anything he’d done before, but rather from a lack of confidence she had in herself. He remained quiet as she continued to explain why she’d believed the rumors about him, taken aback to find out she’d felt this way for so long. In his opinion, she didn’t have anything to be insecure about in the first place. Compared to all the other women he’d met throughout his life, she had so much more to be proud of. It pained him to know that she didn’t see herself the same way he saw her.

As she apologized to him, Crow bit his lip, suddenly wishing he hadn’t said anything at all. If he’d known why she had been so upset, he would have approached the situation completely differently. Now that he had clarity, he didn’t care about making her trust him anymore. Of course, he was still hurt that she doubted his faithfulness to her, but the sting wasn’t as sharp when he understood the reason behind it. If anything, he wanted to find a better solution that would work for both of them instead of accusing each other of being wrong.

“Penelope, I-I had no idea,” Crow shook his head, running a hand through his hair once she finished speaking. “If you hear anything that makes you worried, by all means, come to me with it. I don’t want you to force yourself to ignore your gut if you feel like you need to question me. I just don’t want you to jump to a conclusion before we’ve talked first. That’s all.”

Feeling a burst of affection for the knight, he moved forward to wrap her in a tight embrace. “All that other stuff aside, I don’t know why you feel like you aren’t good enough. You’re an amazing woman, love, and you mean more to me than you could ever know.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then grinned at her. “No matter what you think of yourself, I think you’re the best knight in all of Brerra, and I’m proud that I get to call you mine. You have every reason to be proud of yourself too, because you make me and so many other people happy, just by being in the same room with us. If you don’t believe me, just look around sometime. You have plenty of people in your life who think you’re just as great as I do.”