Rian, facing the neatly spread letter, wiped his tears with the back of his hand again.

“Lady Rania has formally invited you like this, so will you cry and prostrate yourself when you go there too? No noble shows such a sight before a high-ranking person.”

“I’m sorry, I won’t cry. I won’t act pitiful anymore, ever. Please forgive me.”

Frightened, Rian hurriedly begged for forgiveness. His pleading appearance also looked as familiar as when he had been crying.

It was a sight that naturally evoked pity, but that wouldn’t do.

The viscountess was a noble who had spent her most brilliant unmarried youth in central high society.

Though she couldn’t mingle with mainstream families, she had clearly seen what kind of thoughts they had and how they lived.

⟨The weaker and prettier the flower, the more miserably it gets destroyed.⟩

The pitiful and pretty bastard of Bellington would have awakened sadistic tendencies in the grand ducal house’s youngest daughter.

And if the child was merely beautiful and weak, being cast aside would happen in an instant.

The viscountess resolved again that she must harden her heart first, even for the child’s sake. So she deliberately made her voice even sterner than usual. She turned away from her own compassion.

In the end, she failed to realize that even she was just another noble with power to Rian……

“Rian. Since you’ve seen Lady Rania, you must know she has blue eyes.”

“Yes. I…… saw her. I saw her eyes too.”

“Consider those blue eyes as the sky. You must do so.”

“The sky…… ?”

Rian recalled the only sky he had seen.

Beautifully blue but cold enough to freeze one’s entire body as it snowed, bringing blizzards where one couldn’t see an inch ahead.

Yet solitary and noble, the sky of the North.

“Just because you wish for the sky to be clear doesn’t mean the clouds will part. Rather, fiercer winds will blow and test you every time. So be careful.”

The lady removed the blanket covering her knees and stood up. Then she approached Rian, who was pondering her words.

When she lowered her posture, she could see the child’s reddened eyes.

Gray eyes. Brown hair. An appearance that briefly reminded her of Marvan’s childhood.

Toward that undeniable evidence of adultery, the moment Lady Bellington unconsciously reached out her hand….

“Hic, uh, I did wrong.”

Rian flinched and shrank back in surprise. It was clear avoidance and fear.

“…… Straighten your shoulders.”

The lady withdrew her hand that had never touched him.

The two people facing each other wandered in empty space, each trying to escape from the other’s gaze.

Drawing diagonal lines over the ground they had to step on to live, drawing parallel lines with their respective gazes.

As if they would never meet again.

“The invitation is in ten days, so I’ll teach you every day until then. Learn.”

What?

The child asked with his eyes instead of his mouth that wouldn’t open. The lady’s gaze briefly touched the eyes that held moisture.

Rian would soon realize. That the people of Bellington were very uncomfortable with his eyes.

She struggled to shake off the child’s turbid and gloomy eyes that resembled his mother.

“You’re not a foolish child, so you must know you shouldn’t be rude to her or upset her mood.”

“…… Yes.”

“Time is short, but you must know how to live under the sky to avoid disaster when you go to the grand ducal residence. Learn and get used to it as much as possible. Otherwise, you’ll experience something more frightening than never being able to visit the grand ducal house again.”

Rian bit his teeth at the words that stimulated his fear. But he was only eight years old after all. The child full of dreams soon opened his mouth again.

“If I do well, then can I go again next time? Will a carriage, no…… will an invitation come?”

Even after being drenched by rain pouring from the sky, Rian was happy that it wasn’t snowing.

He dreamed that the sun would shine through the clouds tomorrow too.

“I’ll work hard. I’ll really study hard.”

Even if rain came again and soaked him in sadness. There wouldn’t be a sky that only brought sleet.

So that he could meet again the girl like the sun who had found him hiding in the shadows……

***

The weather had been clear for several days, but clouds covered the blue sky densely again. Rian shrank at the cool air penetrating through the carriage.

“Rian. If you’re cold, cover yourself with the blanket.”

The viscountess sitting across from him offered the blanket. It was already the second time.

Rian shook his head to refuse this time too.

“I’m fine…… I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.”

Even though he used polite language clearly as he had learned, the viscountess’s gaze didn’t leave him. Rian instinctively shrank, then heard the rustling sound of his clothes and forcibly straightened his stiff shoulders.

What Rian wore was thin silk formal wear meant for midsummer.

Even the lady wearing a shawl was feeling the cold, so if left alone, his skin would surely be damaged by mild frostbite all over his body.

However, Rian not only violently refused to change clothes, but even refused to put anything over them.

⟨If the clothes get wrinkled, they won’t be pretty. Lady Rania told me to come dressed in pretty clothes.⟩

Wear good clothes and come prettily dressed. Rian desperately tried to keep the request Rania had written in the invitation.

But the only clothes Bellington could give Rian were old clothes that the eldest son Marvan had worn twenty years ago.

Though they were well-maintained, even to Rian who was a complete novice, they were clothes too shameful for a guest of the grand ducal house to wear.

Recalling Rania’s appearance that had sparkled brilliantly in contrast to his dirt-covered self, he felt like crying because he looked so shabby.

Marvan’s wife, unable to bear watching, pleaded with a relative family and obtained one set of clean clothes.

⟨Rian. How about this? It might still be too big for you, but let’s try it on.⟩

The sleeves were long enough to completely cover his hands, and the fabric, meant for summer, was so thin that the outfit looked ridiculous to adult eyes.

⟨This won’t do. We need to find other clothes……⟩

⟨I like this.⟩

⟨Huh? Rian. What did you say?⟩

⟨I like these clothes. Because they sparkle…… I want to wear these.⟩

Marvan and his wife, who had sighed as soon as they checked Rian’s appearance, tried to dissuade Rian with stunned faces.

⟨You want to wear this? It’s too big and looks strange. We should find other clothes, or if that doesn’t work, we should speak to the viscountess and have new ones made.⟩

⟨Right. I’ll consult with Mother again and get proper clothes, so let’s return these clothes.⟩

But Rian resisted with tears welling in his eyes, clutching the clothes he wore with his hands. They couldn’t dissuade him from insisting it had to be the clothes he was wearing now.

Having no choice, they asked for understanding from the one who lent the clothes, and the Bellington servants folded and altered the sleeves, making them at least presentable.

⟨His stubbornness reminds me of you when you were young.⟩

The viscountess said this upon hearing the news from her son and daughter-in-law.

Marvan smiled bitterly upon hearing this. In the past, he would have been annoyed, but watching Rian for the past few days had given him complicated feelings.

The child had been wary like a captured wild animal.

But his appearance, obsessed with meeting Rania, was like a puppy that had lost its owner.

The puppy, emboldened by the thought of meeting its owner, even acted stubbornly and did things that would get him scolded.

⟨Young Master Rian followed the servant in charge of clothing alterations around all day. He pestered so much that we delivered the completed top first, and he hugged it around so much it got wrinkled enough that ironing barely worked.⟩

Finally, when the viscountess showed Rian the wrinkled clothes and said, ‘If this continues, it won’t unfold again, and then you’ll show Lady Rania an un-noble appearance,’ it was very effective.

So effective that afterward, Rian was even afraid to touch the clothes. He was so extreme that he refused even a blanket in this cold.

It was both childlike stubbornness and un-childlike obsession.

‘Even acting like that, if he hears unpleasant words, he’ll have to bear that wound alone again.’

Weren’t all kinds of words already circulating among the servants of House Bellington?

⟨Did you see the second young master’s obsession with clothes? You can’t hide one’s birth after all. He must be desperate to seduce the grand ducal house’s lady like his lowly mother!⟩

⟨Until recently, he seemed to know his place…… Isn’t he acting like he’s already become a mistress just because he received attention from a high-ranking person?⟩

Everyone thought of Rian as the son of a maid, so they spoke without restraint. The viscountess tried to control this, but the servants who sympathized with her treated Rian even more harshly.

The closer they got to the grand ducal residence, the deeper the accompanying viscountess’s worries became.

Should she make him cover himself with the blanket even now? But at that moment, the carriage stopped.

“We have arrived.”