Chapter 7.1

Just before Lovell returned to the Academy the next day, Earl Bierre asked to see him for a moment.

The Earl led him into the office and began to question him with a rather serious expression.

“What happened to your face?”

“Just… a fight. It was nothing this time.”

The Earl stared at his face. With eyebrows as if drawn on, and deep-set eyes, along with that straight nose—there were few men in the area as striking as he.

“Earl, the carriage must be waiting.”

“Ah, about that.”

Earl Bierre returned to what he wanted to say.

“Lately, you seem to be clashing too much with Chris.”

“I’m not going to fight anymore.”

“What I mean is…”

Even his ears had caught wind of yesterday’s commotion in the kitchen. There were reports that something suspicious was going on between Chris and the Prince, or Chris and Lovell.

“So, that girl… ahem, she’s been talking with the 2nd Prince, hasn’t she? You should stop being just the little brother who follows his sister around, like when you were kids.”

“I already have. I’m not a child anymore.”

“Hm, good. You’ve both grown up, so things won’t be the same as before.”

“Of course.”

He answered smoothly, but there was still something off.

‘If he really does have some kind of admiration for my daughter…? No, that can’t be! Ever since puberty, they’ve treated each other like strangers… How could it be now?’

The Earl placed his clasped hands on the desk.

“You know, staying in the same place isn’t always a good thing.”

“I’m considering it.”

“Your mother and father went their own ways, so you at least should do well.”

The Earl was once again presenting Lovell with the life plan he’d considered for him. After graduating from the Academy, Lovell would work under him, find a suitable woman from the gentleman class, and marry—a very proper future.

“Earl.”

Lovell’s pale blue eyes met his squarely.

“Is becoming a noble really only possible by being adopted by someone?”

Earl Bierre fell silent for a moment.

“Who else would you go to?”

“…I should get going now.”

Lovell quietly left the office.

The Earl seemed to be trying to dig into what was going on between him and Chris, but Lovell kept up the act, pretending not to know anything and stonewalling him. Having nothing, now was not the time to make a decisive move.

***

Twelve years ago, on the day Lovell, who had been under Carrington’s care, formally came to greet the Earl at the ducal residence, the first to run out was Chris.

The girl with golden hair falling below her waist stroked the pale face of the eight-year-old boy.

“Hello, Lovell?”

Chris often played with the small, skinny Lovell out of pity. Lovell, too, clung tightly to the hand she offered.

But the good times didn’t last. As the boy chased after her, the girl began to ignore him as she grew, and she disliked her father’s support for him. She had barely managed to avoid going to a private school, and now there was the Academy.

Amid endless conflict, Chris decided to become a truly competent manager, and devoted herself even more to learning about the estate.

While she grew, Lovell changed in a slightly different way. He would sneak into her room, snoop around, play by himself, and even take things one by one.

‘It’s because you won’t pay attention to me.’

He made excuses to himself as he carefully filled his treasure box with things precious only to him.

Lovell sometimes turned down marriage proposals the Earl brought, nurturing his feelings for Chris. He also felt satisfaction seeing the stack of marriage proposals treated as scrap paper by her.

‘Right, if we both stay single, in the end it will just be the two of us.’

This year, with the Prince’s arrival, he felt a sense of crisis, even to the point of tears. But his persistent efforts seemed to pay off, as Chris finally said she would accept him.

And then there was the problem of Prince Nathan.

There were many obstacles, but the immediate threat was that guy from the Academy.

Why did a Prince suddenly appear out of nowhere, studying abroad, only to come here and try to take everything with his power? That was something Lovell was determined to stop.

Lovell sat at his dormitory desk and touched the pendant on his chest.

‘Please, just let that woman remain mine.’

Christine was the one he had devoted twelve years of pure affection to, and that feeling would never change.

***

The Academy was the same as ever. The Prince’s group would bump shoulders with him as they walked, and the Prince would openly sneer at Lovell.

Martina was visibly frustrated that she couldn’t get close to the Prince.

‘Ridiculous girl. She tried to seduce me before.’

The things they talked about on the outdoor terrace were just as absurd.

“Was Lady Bierre really that beautiful at the ball?”

“Far more than the first fiancée.”

Everyone talked about the Prince, the Prince.

That cursed influence was even reaching his woman.

“If she’d entered the marriage market sooner, someone would have snatched her up by now.”

“These days, I can’t even visit that house… It’s a shame.”

Lovell, standing behind a pillar so they wouldn’t notice him, fiddled with his hot teacup.

“Should I seduce Lovell and go to the Bierre Earldom again?”

Whose damned remark was that?

Go again? He couldn’t believe these used to be his friends. 

‘Get lost, you d*mn fools. Spend your lives shining the Prince’s shoes.’

“Are you thinking of stealing His Highness’s bride?”

“Is it wrong to have feelings for her?”

While they snickered among themselves. No matter how much they talked, she was already as good as his.

Praising Chris’s beauty was only natural. But no matter how good their compliments, Lovell didn’t want to hear them from those guys. Even before the Prince showed up at the Academy, it was always about her face, her fingertips.

‘I stayed quiet until now, but they’re the ones making a fuss.’

Also, there was another voice that had been grating on his ears for a while.

“I’ve heard a lot about the Bierre Earldom, too.”

Elijah McCarthy.

There was a time when he’d hung out with that guy, but after hearing his vulgar comments about Chris, Lovell cut ties.

“They’re not even that impressive of a family, but their noses are sky-high. When was the last time they were even considered an Earldom? The day they come crawling to His Highness isn’t far off.”

“Elijah…”

Nathan’s voice, calling his name slowly, grew a little cold.

“Enough, will you? Why are you looking down on the woman I’ve marked as my own?”

“Ah… I’ll stop… It’s just, I look up to you so much, Your Highness…!”

“All right, that’s enough.”

It was flattery so excessive even the Prince found it unpleasant. Not only the Prince, but the others also began to rebuke him, and Elijah, with all his might, bowed and apologized over and over.

A faint smile gradually formed at Lovell’s lips as he listened.

‘That Elijah…’

He was about the same age as Lovell. Though he was a relative of the King, a child of Grand Duke Tessier’s many mistresses, he wasn’t officially recognized in the family line.

His grades weren’t great, nor was his character. Constantly being warned about his behavior by the Grand Duke, he would grovel before the Prince at every turn.

Among the Grand Duke’s children, Elijah was the only grown son; the rest were daughters or infants.

‘So he’s desperate to be recognized as an official son. Ha! Yet the best he can do is serve the Prince and bother me?’

Lovell swallowed the now-lukewarm tea.