Side Story 6

Lucas’s habit of comparing others did not change with time.

No, if anything, it had become worse.

Three years had already passed since they graduated from the Academy, and Adrianna had established herself at the center of high society.

-A crane among chickens.

This was Lucas’s inner thought as he suddenly barged into the tea time gathering she was hosting. In his eyes, only Adrianna looked like a complete human being.

-What sort of conversation is she supposed to have with those stupid frog-like things. Just because they speak the same language doesn’t mean conversation is possible. If they want to exchange words with Adrianna, they should raise their level before coming. Pathetic.

Walking toward her step by step, he kissed Adrianna on the cheek without hesitation.

“Oh my!”

Even though the young ladies who saw it gave short shrieks and made a fuss, Lucas’s expression did not change in the slightest.

“I missed you, so I stopped by for a moment.”

They were sweet words, but Adrianna did not show much reaction.

Because she knew why he was acting this way.

-Today, please…….

These days, Lucas no longer knew how to hide the burning feelings inside him.

The patience of the man who had once quietly waited for the right time had finally run out.

Thinking he had endured enough, he was now courting Adrianna as though trying to let loose the desire he had suppressed all this time.

It had gotten to the point that her mother, after seeing his mind full of l*stful color, had told Adrianna to stop tormenting the poor boy. Her father, only then, had quietly nodded, saying that now he finally understood the Marquis’s reaction back then.

“You’re making a commendable effort.”

Adrianna replied indifferently.

She knew as well. That her feelings toward Lucas were also love.

But if what he had felt back then in the library was intense s*xual desire, then what Adrianna had felt had been a vague sense of rejection.

At the time she had not understood well why she had felt that way, but now she thought she did.

She had not wanted to be separated from her parents. She had not wanted to lose, for a long time, the warm love of parents that she had seized like a stroke of fortune.

Though she possessed a fully grown soul, that soul still held a child starving for affection, and so, with a child’s heart, Adrianna had rejected Lucas.

Because she had feared that if she shared true love with him, it would somehow cut her off from her parents as well.

—Say all the harsh things you want. Do you think I’ll give up? I even stole your first-place spot in the end.

“Is there any man who does not make an effort for his fiancée.”

Contrary to his thoughts, the words that came out were neat and composed.

Adrianna let out a small laugh and whispered into the ear of the lover who considered taking her 1st place the pride of his lifetime.

“Wash yourself more thoroughly than usual tonight.”

“W-what?”

“You know I dislike dirty things.”

But now Adrianna knew.

That the love given to her was not the kind that disappeared.

“W-what are you suddenly……. Ah, ah! I know. I know very well. Uh…….”

“If you understand, then go do your work. And stop interrupting the ladies’ time.”

Lucas, whose ears had turned bright red, straightened the waist he had bent and turned away.

-No! Don’t react now! You stupid shameless lower body!

She could guess very well what was making his body move so stiffly. Unlike when he had come, he turned away without even saying goodbye.

“His Imperial Highness is consistently affectionate.”

Eyes full of envy turned toward Adrianna.

Watching Lucas, whose mind had grown filthy with the fantasy of laying her down on the tea table and taking her there, while he was entirely preoccupied with trying to calm the lower half of himself that looked ready to leap up at any moment, she answered.

“He is someone who does not know how to give up.”

“Pardon?”

What did affection have to do with not giving up? Their faces seemed to ask exactly that.

Feeling a ticklish sensation on the cheek he had kissed, Adrianna unnecessarily moistened a throat that was not even dry.

“He’s a constant sort of person.”

“I’m so jealous. Honestly, it isn’t easy to like only one person like that.”

“That’s true. I heard your engagement was arranged when you were young. Don’t you get tired of it?”

Lucas too had once been asked a similar question by Rio.

At that time, to Rio’s playful question, he had answered like this.

‘Tired of it? If you knew Adrianna, you couldn’t say something like that.’

That answer of Lucas’s, who played the role of a considerate fiancé quite excellently, had not contained even a sliver of falsehood.

He was someone who was good at speaking sweet, polished words that could make the one asking feel embarrassed, but that time, at least, there had been no embellishment.

She remembered his eyes as he looked back at her.

Those transparent eyes, clear enough to reflect a face exactly as it was, had been truly pure.

“Even if it’s familiar, it isn’t tiresome. He’s such an interesting person to watch.”

Words saying they were a match perfectly suited to each other soaked Adrianna through. She gave them a graceful smile.

She knew how much Lucas had agonized and how many times he had imagined it before he finally became able to kiss her naturally in front of other people.

When, in the first year after becoming an adult, he had handed her a bouquet of roses the exact same color as the flushed tips of her ears, and when he had gathered every scrap of courage he possessed and timidly pressed his trembling lips forward, Adrianna had never refused him.

She too had been preparing herself to accept him.

“I feel like we’ll be hearing good news soon.”

At someone’s teasing remark, Adrianna gave a little wink.

All the preparations were complete.