‘I’m not mentally prepared yet.’

But if not now, the opportunity might never come again.

Having steeled herself with difficulty, Yvette cautiously opened her mouth.

“…To be honest, I came because I have a favor to ask of you, Noel.”

“A favor is it.”

Noel tilted his head to the side.

“It must be an important favor to bring you here in such a condition, I suppose?”

“Yes. It’s a matter of life and death for me.”

Yvette answered seriously.

“…Well, let’s hear it then.”

Noel leaned back comfortably in his chair, nodding slightly as if to say, “Go ahead, tell me.”

Unlike the tense Yvette, his posture exuded a sense of ease.

‘Well, it’s all or nothing now.’

Yvette squeezed her eyes shut.

If she couldn’t get Noel’s help somehow, she was as good as dead.

It would be too unfair to die without even living a month in the house she had just bought.

After taking a deep breath, Yvette finally opened her mouth.

“…You may not believe this, but I’ll die without you.”

At last, the bomb was dropped.

Yvette slightly opened her eyes to gauge Noel’s reaction.

‘Surely he won’t throw me out for saying something strange?’

Although she felt much better than before, her physical condition was still not great.

If she were thrown out now, she might not last a week.

After some time had passed in silence, Noel finally spoke.

“…I didn’t know I was such an important existence to you.”

Noel said with a slight chuckle.

Judging by his reaction, he didn’t seem to take her words badly.

“It’s a bit of a long explanation, but you are indeed important to me. And I’m not joking when I say I’ll die without you.”

Yvette answered more seriously than before.

Noel gazed at her with interested eyes.

“When you put it that way, I’m even more curious. Why would you die without me?”

“…That’s because I’m under a curse.”

Yvette took another deep breath and slowly began to explain about her curse.

Of course, she didn’t mention anything about the original story or Kervel, the villain.

She felt that bringing up such things would only reduce the credibility of her words.

‘Still, his reaction doesn’t seem bad.’

Yvette kept observing Noel’s expression as she spoke.

Fortunately, Noel seemed to be listening attentively to her explanation.

“…So, the conclusion is that I’m your destined partner. The flower on your back is the proof of that.”

“To summarize, yes. That’s the gist of it.”

As Yvette nodded, Noel’s lips pressed into a straight line.

As if pondering something, he looked at Yvette with a thoughtful expression.

“Then, was your collapse today also because of this curse?”

“I’m not certain, but it’s highly likely. The flower withered while I wasn’t meeting you.”

Showing once would be more effective than explaining a hundred times.

Thinking this, Yvette slightly pulled down her dress.

Since the dress she wore today had a slightly open-back design, she could easily show him the withered flower.

“Here, look. Can you see the withered flower?”

As her pale skin was revealed, Noel raised one eyebrow.

His composed gaze wavered for the first time.

“…You were shy before. Today you’re being excessively bold.”

At those words, Yvette blushed slightly and glared at Noel.

“Stop saying unnecessary things and just look. This is a matter of life and death for me.”

Only after receiving this rebuke did Noel examine Yvette’s nape.

When his gaze fell on the blackened withered flower, his expression hardened slightly.

“Are you saying this flower wasn’t withered originally?”

“Yes. It didn’t look like this at first. You should know, you saw it then.”

“…Then?”

When Noel asked in confusion, Yvette hesitated before whispering in a small voice.

“That… the night we spent together.”

Noel’s lips curved into a slight smile at her behavior, as if she were revealing an enormous secret.

“Ah. That night.”

“I actually thought the curse was broken then. But as it turns out, that wasn’t the case.”

Yvette sighed deeply as if the ground might swallow her up, and adjusted her slightly lowered dress.

“How peculiar. Usually, when the conditions set by the sorcerer are met, the curse is supposed to be lifted.”

Noel stroked his chin with an unreadable expression.

Yvette strongly agreed with his words, muttering as if feeling wronged.

“I know, right? Anyone would think the curse is trying to bring us together.”

“That’s not entirely wrong. The curse is indeed bringing us together.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Yvette slumped her shoulders weakly.

Even so, it didn’t seem likely that Kervel had intended this situation when casting the curse.

‘I guess I’m just terribly unlucky.’

Just as Yvette was about to swallow another sigh, Noel, who had been thinking about something, spoke up.

“There’s something else I’m curious about.”

“What are you curious about?”

“That flower on your back. Do you know for certain when it bloomed?”

Noel asked Yvette with a serious face.

It was the most earnest expression she had seen from him so far.

“I told you earlier. It bloomed on the night we spent together.”

Yvette looked at Noel with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Why are you asking such an obvious question?’

Noel slowly shook his head.

“That’s not what I’m asking. I want to know if you know what we were doing when it bloomed.”

“What we were doing when it bloomed? Obviously, when we were doing… that…”

Yvette bit her lip hard, stopping mid-sentence.

For a moment, an inappropriate image flashed through her mind.

‘Wait, is it okay to imagine something so vividly that I don’t even remember?’

Yvette shook her head vigorously, barely managing to shake off the flood of flesh-colored images in her mind.

“So, what exactly do you mean by ‘that’?”

Noel chuckled deflatingly as he watched her face grow increasingly red.

Yvette made an incredulous expression at his persistent questioning.

“Are you making fun of me now?”

“No. I was just curious.”

Noel continued speaking calmly, meeting Yvette’s eyes.

“As I remember it, nothing happened between us that night.”

Yvette gaped at Noel, turning to look at him.

She felt as if she had been hit on the head.

“…Wait a minute. Are you saying we didn’t sleep together that night?”

As she stammered out the question, Noel calmly nodded.

“But, but you said I pounced on you then!”

“That’s true. You pulled me onto the bed, saying you didn’t want to sleep alone.”

Noel answered, shrugging his shoulders lightly.

“…Then what about when you said you didn’t leave any marks to avoid causing me trouble? Was that just talk too?”

“I meant exactly what I said – I didn’t leave any marks. Suspicious marks could lead to misunderstandings among the servants.”

Unlike Noel, who maintained a consistently calm attitude, Yvette felt like her head was about to explode.

Barely resisting the urge to tear at her hair, she struggled to continue speaking.

“Why didn’t you tell me honestly from the beginning?”

“You told me not to answer.”

“Even so, that’s going too far! Do you know how much trouble I’ve had because of that!”

Yvette started to shout but then bit her lip hard.

As much as she wanted to argue more, she knew it would only hurt her to get angry over something that had already passed.

After all, the situation hadn’t changed just because they hadn’t spent the night together.