Chapter 135

“I asked them to make it using only the flowers that looked the prettiest to me, but I’m not sure whether you’ll like it.”

As he shyly held it out, the rich fragrance of lush greenery and thick petals washed over me.

It was a bouquet.

The vivid red flowers distinctive to the south gave off such a powerful scent that it was almost as though they had been sprayed with perfume.

The instant I smelled them, my startled heart began to pound.

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

When I said it with a smile, Count Rowan tilted his head slightly toward me as if in response.

“Beautiful? I brought them because they reminded me of the color of your eyes, Princess Aisha...”

His fingertips naturally took my hand.

For a moment our gazes met intensely, and before I knew it, his lips were pressed to the back of my hand.

“But now that I see you, they can’t compare to your beauty.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

“No...”

I blinked in surprise.

Count Rowan knows how to flirt like this?

“...Ah. I see.”

I was a little flustered, but an expert never shows her emotions.

I quickly regained my composure and decided it was entirely possible.

The kind of character whose every innocent remark makes women’s hearts flutter. That’s a common novel cliché, isn’t it?

Still, I refused to be the only one getting flustered in this conversation.

After all, the reason he had come here today was to court me.

Wasn’t that simply how marriages between nobles worked?

There was always some sort of deal involved, and whoever held the initiative had the advantage.

Especially since he and I each wanted something from the other, we could probably make an excellent marriage contract.

But he had been the one to send the marriage proposal first, so I had to be the one leading today’s meeting.

Pretending to be shy, I looked down at the bouquet, then slowly raised my gaze toward Rowan.

“By the way, I read the marriage proposal you sent me. I wanted to have a serious discussion with you about it, Margrave Rowan...”

I’ll be the one to bring up the real subject first.

“The terrace is a little cold, but thanks to yesterday’s snow, the garden is quite a sight. How about we talk for a while over some warm mulled wine?”

And I’ll be the one to suggest something date-like first!

This is how I take control of the marriage negotiations.

With a relaxed smile, I gestured toward the terrace.

I looked at Rowan, expecting him to nod readily and obediently follow along behind me...

“Princess. I’d be happy to discuss that too, but first, would you take my hand?”

“What?”

“May I ask you to dance?”

And with that, he held out a gentle hand toward me.

When I looked around, the musicians were leafing through their scores and preparing to play, while young men and women were taking each other’s hands and making their way to the center of the hall.

...Why does he keep deviating from what I expect?

I stared blankly at Count Rowan.

He was supposed to be an innocent young man who wouldn’t even know the proper timing for asking someone to dance.

His whole character setup is that he spent every waking moment suffering on battlefields and doesn’t know this sort of thing!

Ever since I first threw the original novel off course, I had occasionally encountered situations I hadn’t expected.

But Rowan’s reputation in high society up until now had been exactly the same as the one I knew.

A flawless head of his house who was hopeless when it came to society.

That was Count Rowan.

“I’m a little hurt.”

I had started sweating coldly at the thought that this wasn’t going to be easy, when another soft assault snapped me back to attention.

“You’re suddenly hurt? Why?”

“You won’t even accept my invitation to dance and only want to discuss marriage. It makes me think you don’t have even the slightest personal interest in me.”

His eyebrows drooped into a mournful expression.

He looked as though he might lower his gaze at any moment, but perhaps because he still had more to say, his light green eyes, reminiscent of early summer, remained fixed on me.

“One dance with you, Princess, and I’d give you my heart even if you demanded it as a condition of marriage.”

My mouth fell open at the words that followed.

Wow. Since when are we that close...

Thump.

Huh?

Yet unlike my horrified mind, my body reacted completely differently.

I looked down at my chest in disbelief.

Did my heart just skip a beat?

Because of Count Rowan? Because of that cheesy line?

Ugh. No.

Objectively speaking, he was handsome, but after years of looking at Dad and my brother, I was fairly immune to a face at this level.

Then...

No way. Did the Count actually get to me?

He wasn’t charming enough to make my heart race like that. Could it be because of the flowers’ scent?

I was just beginning to wonder suspiciously when—

“Why don’t we dance first? It won’t be too late to talk afterward.”

“Oh. Shall we...?”

He smiled softly, and without thinking, I found myself awkwardly reaching out to take his hand—

“Aisha. Is this the man?”

“......?”

For an instant, it felt as though a blizzard had swept away the overpowering floral scent.

Along with the sharp, icy smell of a northern snow wind, a large hand thrust between us and seized Count Rowan by the wrist.

“...And you are...?”

The corners of Rowan’s mouth, which had remained relaxed all this time, stiffened.

He immediately tried to pull his wrist free, but the solid hand holding him did not budge, as immovable as stone.

“So you’re planning to marry a man who reeks this strongly. If that really is your taste, I can’t stop you, but I’m a little worried.”

He spoke to me in a low voice, as though Count Rowan did not even exist.

Who is that?

Startled, I lifted my head—

“Wouldn’t it be better to marry me than a man like this, Aisha?”

At the plain question, I met a pair of violet eyes that were at once completely familiar and utterly different.

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

The gaze that had once been roughly level with mine was higher now.

No, much higher.

I had to tilt my head back far enough to make the nape of my neck ache just to meet his eyes.

His sharp features had completely shed the traces of childhood, becoming deeply defined.

Broad shoulders and a tall frame like one of the Kreutz knights.

Blue veins stood out across the back of the huge hand gripping Count Rowan’s wrist as though he might snap it.

And yet his gaze remained fixed on me.

Just as it always had in my memories.

“Aisha.”

Then, as he called my name,

“I’m back.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

A smile that looked exactly like the one worn by the boy I had known as a child.

“...Kyle?”

It was a name I had repeated to myself every day for years, so familiar it should have rolled easily from my tongue.

And yet, somehow, saying it aloud felt strange.

I was still staring up at him in a daze when—

“Wait. I don’t know who you are, but barging into a conversation like this is incredibly rude. And... who exactly did you say you were going to marry?”

Count Rowan, whom I had momentarily forgotten, broke the silence.

His face was slightly angry as he gave a stiff smile and knocked Kyle’s hand away.

Kyle released him without resistance, but stepped in front of me as if shielding me.

Count Rowan gave a disbelieving laugh.

“Think about it. Between a man who politely asks the Princess to dance as a prospective husband and a man who isn’t even a noble yet barges into the conversation without warning, which one do you think suits her better?”

Kyle looked at him after the politely phrased but openly hostile question and answered evenly.

“Whichever one Aisha chooses.”

“A man as overbearing as you claims to respect the Princess’s choice?”

“If that’s what Aisha wants.”

“Hah... You act as though Princess Aisha’s word is law.”

“Well...”

At the blatant sarcasm, Kyle’s gaze returned to me.

And then—

“Why shouldn’t it be?”

Along with the plain answer, his violet eyes filled deeply with the sight of me.

Wait.

Does he even know what he’s saying right now?

“...Hah. Hahahahaha!”

Count Rowan burst into laughter as though the whole thing were absurd.

The problem was that the sound was drawing more and more attention toward the two already extremely handsome men.

“Wow. Aren’t those Himali snow blossoms in that man’s hand? I can’t believe I’m seeing them in person. That’s incredible.”

“That’s not the issue. Stop staring at the flowers and look at the man himself. His eyes are violet. That’s the color of a monster!”

The color of a monster?

Right.

His eye color.

“You...!”

I hurriedly rose onto my toes and tried to cover Kyle’s eyes, but even when I stretched my arm out, all I could reach was his shoulder.

“Are you out of your mind? Where did you leave the transformation potion for your eyes?!”

Kyle’s identity is going to be exposed this easily?

After we worked so hard to hide it for fifteen years...!

“Go drink the potion. Hurry!”

Whatever joy I had felt at seeing him again vanished under the shock as I rose onto my toes and whispered urgently.

But Kyle, completely oblivious to what I was feeling, answered with a displeased expression in an infuriatingly calm voice.

“What if I go looking for the potion and you dance with that poisonous weed?”