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(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 1/4 🎉)

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Somehow, I ended up trapped between his chest and the bed.

“……”

He stared at me intently without saying a word.

“No, I was just trying to help. Your hair was stuck to your wound…”

“……”

I felt I should say something, but he just kept staring at me with unmoving eyes.

Did he feel uncomfortable because I touched his face…?

“I’m sorry for touching you without permission…”

Just as I was about to apologize.

“Jella, Shunaibel.”

His lips slowly opened, and in a chillingly low voice, he called my name.

Each time his lips moved, his breath tickled my face.

The distance was too close.

Realizing this, I was enveloped by a strange feeling.

“I…”

Perhaps because of this, when he tried to speak, I impulsively covered his mouth with my hand.

“……”

Surprised by my sudden action, he stopped speaking and stared at me blankly.

“If you’re going to pick a fight again, saying ‘I dislike you,’ then stop it!”

I raised my voice unnecessarily and mimicked his tone.

“Do you think I like you? I dislike you, too, Niel Alpenhayer.”

“……”

After my sharp retort, his eyes, which had been staring at me quietly, seemed to soften, and he let out a small laugh.

“What? Why are you laugh…”

He gently wrapped his hand around my wrist and lowered it.

Even without much force, my palm that was covering his mouth came away.

And in place of my hand, on his face…

I froze.

“Why are you making that expression…”

I stared at his face and muttered in a dazed voice.

Since revealing my identity, he had been cold and sharp toward me after removing his mask, but now he was giving a bitter smile with a face that looked like he might cry.

“I always.”

He gently stroked the soft skin inside my wrist with his thumb and whispered softly.

“Envied that man.”

“Huh…?”

By ‘that man,’ could he possibly mean Cail?

Confusion spread across my face.

After all, if it was Cail, he had certainly just told me in the next room…

“I… have always envied that man.”

“Whenever I see that man who has everything…”

“That man is not lacking by your side, but compared to him, I seem so shabby, so I…”

He had said he always envied Niel.

Cail had told me, almost like a confession, that he envied Niel, who had everything, who seemed not to be lacking by my side.

Thanks to the sudden nighttime visitor, our conversation had been cut off there, but I couldn’t give him any answer, and Cail’s words had troubled me like unfinished homework.

But now Niel was saying he had always envied Cail.

The young nobleman of the Alpenhayer family, who seemed to have nothing to envy in the world, was saying he envied Cail Aleret, the man I had taken in.

“Why… Cail?”

When I asked in a barely squeezed-out voice, his eyes curved.

“Because that man was someone who could freely express his feelings.”

Huh…?

“Unlike me, who couldn’t reveal even a fragment of my heart in front of you, he was a man who acted according to his feelings at every moment.”

Huh huh…?

“Because he was always with you. Because he was the man you favored. Because he was the man you trusted and relied on.”

Huh huh huh…?

My eyes, which had been listening quietly, grew round.

“All I had was the empty title of your fiancé, which is why I couldn’t even be jealous of that man.”

“Jea… what?”

“Even though he bared his teeth and was wary of me, I had to give that man a generous smile.”

He said with a twisted smile.

“In truth, I too wanted to be jealous of that man.”

“……”

“To tell him to get away from your side. To not dare to hold you in his eyes. That worthless slave, to not hold you in his heart.”

“……”

“I always wanted to be jealous like that.”

“……”

“……”

“No, wait a minute!”

What did I just hear?

Jealousy? Get away? Worthless slave?

Words that didn’t suit Niel Alpenhayer at all and vulgar curses confused me.

Unsure if the man in front of me was really Niel Alpenhayer, I spoke incoherently.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. There are too many things that don’t make sense…”

“Don’t make sense?”

At his cold question, I swallowed hard and nodded.

“First of all, Cail never liked me with those kinds of feelings. He just followed me because he was kind and innocent.”

“Kind and innocent…”

“And you say Cail bared his teeth at you. That’s slander against Cail. He’s not that kind of person. Even when people around him bullied Cail, he was always so respectful to them.”

“Ah, respectful…”

Somehow, his additions to each of my statements seemed to carry a tone of disagreement, but I ignored them.

“So being jealous of Cail, that’s not only impossible, but also, why…”

At that moment, I stopped, unable to continue.

Why are you looking at me with those eyes and speaking in that voice as if you like me, as if you even love me?

I wanted to ask that, but the words wouldn’t come out.

So, as I was just opening and closing my mouth.

“…Ha.”

Niel, who had been listening to my passionate objections, suddenly burst into cold laughter.

“Haha, hahaha! Hahahaha!”

“…?”

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Niel covered his face with one hand and laughed for a while, his shoulders shaking.

‘What, what’s going on? Why is he laughing like that?’

I had never seen Niel Alpenhayer laugh out loud like this before.

After all, Niel Alpenhayer, the finest masterpiece produced by the Alpenhayer family, was always a man who smiled gently, just loosely curving the corners of his mouth without making a sound.

But at this moment.

For some reason, I had the strange thought that the face that had been showing sharp hostility toward me was his other mask, and this current appearance, laughing out loud freely, was his real face with the mask removed.

Just as I was staring at that face in a daze.

He suddenly stopped laughing and met my gaze.

At that moment, there were even small teardrops at the corners of his eyes.

‘Did I say something that funny?’

I had only explained the ridiculous misunderstanding about Cail and me.

“Jella.”

He called me in a voice that had become softer than before.

“I was always taught not to show my emotions, and I believed that was the only proper virtue.”

He slowly lowered his hand toward my face.

“So, I never told you.”

His fingertips gently brushed away my hair that was stuck to my cheek.

“I will say it clearly here.”

I was confused by his meaningful gaze.

‘Why, why is he acting like this?’

But he continued whispering without stopping.

“I, you…”

My heart fluttered. I wished he would just pick a fight with me as usual, saying he disliked me.

But this seemed exactly like he was about to confess, not pick a fight!

“Not even for a moment…”

It was at this moment.

CRASH!

With the sound of breaking glass, a man dressed in black came through the window.

For a moment, Niel’s expression froze, but my face brightened.

‘An assassin!’

Actually, I had sensed a murderous intent lurking outside the window for some time.

Since Cail would know that Niel was sleeping in this room, I had been ignoring it, thinking Cail would handle the assassin and prevent him from entering.

But seeing that Cail had missed the assassin, it seems even he makes mistakes sometimes.

However, rather than being scared or surprised by the assassin’s arrival, I first thought it was fortunate.

We had almost drifted into a strange and uncomfortable atmosphere, but that assassin had broken the flow.

‘Thank you, assassin! I’ll send you off painlessly!’

With such a generous thought, I gently pushed against Niel’s chest and got up.

“What, what’s this? Why are there two people…”

The assassin rolled his eyes and then charged at us with a sharp metal weapon.

“I, I don’t care! Both of you die!”

And just as I was about to counter.

Whoosh!

‘Huh?’

My body, which was getting up, was pushed back onto the bed. Niel had pushed me. And before I could grasp the situation…

Stab!

“Niel…!”

Niel took the assassin’s blade instead.