Brilliant golden hair as radiant as summer sunlight, and vivid sapphire eyes that looked like the Caline Sea itself had been poured into them.

His jawline was masculine without being rough, and his straight nose ran clean and sharp. His vivid eyes were languid beneath their deep-set gaze, and a careless smile rested at the corners of his mouth.

His face could have come across as severe, yet the looseness of his expression gave him a strangely compelling air instead.

Living on the island, Cornelia had never laid eyes on a man so strikingly handsome. The young men in the village who were considered good-looking were nothing compared to this man.

She knew it was impolite, but Cornelia couldn’t help herself and simply stared at him in a daze.

An ordinary person would likely have found that gaze uncomfortable. But the man seemed well accustomed to such reactions, and he held out her hat to her with an indifferent gesture.

“The harbor doesn’t seem like the best place for running.”

“Oh.”

Her senses snapped back belatedly. She took the hat, fumbled it onto her head, and smiled with an embarrassed laugh.

“There’s a story behind it. Thank you for your kindness.”

“It was nothing.”

The man replied without much interest. His tone was smooth, but far from warm. The kind of courtesy that was purely perfunctory.

Cornelia tried not to seem rude as she took in his appearance. The travel bag in his hand caught her eye.

“Did you just arrive on the island?”

“Yes, more or less. Only one ferry a day, it seems.”

The man’s gaze drifted toward the far end of the harbor. She turned to follow it, and there was the passenger ferry she had spotted earlier, moored in the distance.

Come to think of it, tourists carrying bags similar to his were milling about all around them. They had all disembarked while she was running around trying to catch Pepe.

Cornelia nodded.

“It may be a place that’s taken off as a tourist destination, but at the end of the day it’s still a small island town. The locals are more than grateful for even one ferry a day.”

“Yes, that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting much. The sea route wasn’t bad, though.”

He replied as though it were of no consequence. But Cornelia caught something in those words. That particular tone nobles had, the kind that looked down on Fiora as some backwater little corner of the world.

She raised an eyebrow.

“What’s your first impression of Fiora?”

“Not bad. Better than I expected.”

The man answered breezily. That response wasn’t much better either. Cornelia kept a calm smile on her face, but a faint sourness had crept in.

Fiora was an island that meant more to Cornelia than she could say. From the time she had come to Fiora following Omar after losing her parents as a child, she had never once stopped loving this island and its sea. Her pride in it ran deep.

So when a stranger of a tourist acted as though Fiora left something to be desired, she felt her spirits sink a little, even knowing full well that not everyone in the world had to love Fiora.

Still, this was the man who had kept her from falling, and she had to behave with courtesy regardless. Cornelia smiled pleasantly.

“Do you not care much for this island?”

But it seemed her mouth had a different opinion from her head. The words slipped out before she could stop them, and Cornelia nearly bit her tongue.

Of course, thanks to her father’s background she had never been particularly intimidated by nobles, but what a thing to say.

The man glanced at her. His lips curved upward slightly, as though he had seen right through her.

“Did I say I didn’t care for it?”

He asked lightly, in a teasing tone.

This time, Cornelia truly collected herself. Getting into an argument with a tourist who was clearly a noble was not a wise choice by any measure. She softened her expression into a conciliatory smile and raised her tone.

“Of course not. I hope you take nothing but good memories with you from your time on the island.”

“Naturally.”

He smiled back, just as crookedly.

“In any case….”

Eager to change the subject quickly, Cornelia let her words trail off and glanced around the harbor. Conveniently, a few coachmen soliciting fares were loitering nearby.

“…May I ask where you’re headed? I’d like to help if I can.”

Cornelia paused briefly before adding:

“As thanks for rescuing both my hat and me.”

“I’m going to the Acolso estate. Do you know the way?”

Cornelia nodded.

The Acolso estate was one of the rental villas where nobles tended to stay. Nobles sometimes used high-end hotels like Julia Marinetti, but they also rented entire estates to enjoy their leisure at their own pace. For the upper class with money to spare, that kind of sum was nothing.

“I’ll take you in my carriage. Acolso is on the way to my destination.”

She offered readily, partly to make up for her slip. In truth, Acolso was farther from the harbor than the restaurant, but a small white lie of this kind could hardly be called a sin.

“Hmm.”

The man looked around the harbor as though weighing his options. A few bearded coachmen were eyeing him, sneaking glances his way. At the sight of them with their merchant-like air, the man seemed to make up his mind and gave a quiet scoff.

“I suppose I’d be better off accepting the favor.”

“By all means.”

Cornelia took the lead and guided him toward the carriage stop. About midway down the stop, where horses stood lined up in a row, the restaurant’s carriage waited quietly for them.

Cornelia looked over the carriage, one that held its own even against those belonging to the upper class nearby. It had been well appointed on the grounds that it often carried noble guests, so while it wasn’t extravagant, the quality was good. It was nothing to be embarrassed about when carrying a noble.

“Sir, could you take us to the Acolso estate first!”

“Sure thing.”

The coachman answered her with a hearty reply. They climbed in one after the other, and a moment later the reins were pulled taut.

The carriage wheels began to turn, slowly rolling forward.

2. Luca Tesoro’s Holiday

Luca Tesoro did not believe in the love-marriage craze.

To him, romance was a moment of foolishness that only immature people went through, and love was an illusion, a story about grasping at clouds.

His parents had wed through an arranged marriage and lived well together all their lives. They could not be called inseparable, but until his father passed away a few years ago, they had spent their lives respecting and caring for each other, a perfectly decent couple by any measure.

It was likely their influence. From a young age, Luca had grown up assuming that one day, as a matter of course, he would enter a marriage that would benefit his family.

To him, marriage was a tool, a means to an end. A marriage that offered no mutual benefit was simply not worth making.

So for a man of such convictions, the love-marriage craze was nothing short of absurd.

Giving up the advantages that a single marriage could easily secure, in exchange for choosing a love that was nothing but a pretty shell, was something Luca could not begin to understand. It felt as though the entire world was conspiring to make a fool of him.

‘I’m going to Fiora for a holiday this summer. Come along, Luca.’

When his friend Silvio first brought up Fiora, Luca hadn’t even pretended to listen. What possible reason could he have to walk willingly into a place said to be overrun with people chasing dreams of free love?

But Silvio was a persistent man. From that day on, he turned up at the office at every opportunity, pestering and badgering him under the pretense of coaxing him out. Under that relentless pressure, Luca finally threw up his hands.

‘Fine. Fine, I get it. I’ll go, so please stop coming by.’

‘Hahaha, I knew it would come to this. See you in Fiora, Luca.’

He had no idea how much effort it took to hold back the fist aimed at the back of Silvio’s head as he turned away in satisfaction.

At any rate, true to his word, Luca came to Fiora in June.

With no real desire to be there, nothing about the journey to Fiora felt worthwhile. It was a long, tedious trip from the capital all the way to an island at the southern tip of the continent.

His mood lifted, if only slightly, when he arrived at the coastal city overlooking the Caline Sea. Brilliant sunshine, a vivid blue sea, dry winds. The Caline Sea was said to be dazzlingly beautiful, and it more than lived up to its name.

But what was it that had made Luca so reluctant about Fiora in the first place? Precisely that it was a breeding ground for free love.

Right up until he stepped off the ferry and set foot on the island for the first time, he still found Fiora disagreeable. And that disagreeable feeling was exposed almost immediately.

By the first young woman he met on the island.

‘She’s offended.’

After catching the negative undertone in his words and watching those amber eyes stir with feeling, Luca smiled crookedly.

“I’ll take you in my carriage. Acolso is on the way to my destination.”

Despite appearing none too pleased, the woman extended generous kindness to him. As he followed her toward the carriage, Luca tried to form a rough picture of who she might be.

To start with, her dress was a yellow gown in fine linen. Her hat and sandals were also of some quality, so she was likely not an ordinary commoner, yet at the same time, he doubted she was a noble either. Her bearing was not particularly refined.

She did not carry herself in a “noble” manner. That left the possibility that she belonged to the rising civilian upper class, the middle class. The sight of the well-appointed carriage solidified his assumption.