He had set difficult conditions to save her life and even openly mocked her when they coincidentally met earlier.

As a result, Angela’s eyes, which had shown goodwill when she first approached him, were stained with disappointment by the time they parted.

This meant that his casual remark about not meeting again in the future had kicked away the fortune that had rolled right to his feet.

This was driving him crazy.

Recalling what he had done, Dion’s heart sank. He felt suffocated, like someone was squeezing him, making it hard to breathe.

“What time does our patrol end today?”

Feeling he needed to escape this place quickly, even though he knew the shift change was coming soon, Dion felt compelled by his urgency to check how much time remained.

“I think there’s not much left?”

From Mark’s vague answer, it seemed the shift change was indeed approaching soon.

“I need to leave first. Make some excuse to the knight coming for the shift change.”

Since he had already seen her twice, there was no way they wouldn’t meet again, but today he needed to avoid encountering her.

So he wanted to get away from the imperial palace as quickly as possible. Whether it was the training ground or home, anywhere he wouldn’t run into her would be fine.

“Got it.”

Mark answered with a reluctant expression. Since Dion had granted his requests before, he nodded like he had no choice.

The farther he got from the imperial palace, the more Dion’s heart seemed to calm down, and now he finally understood the entire situation.

Hah. At that moment, a deflated chuckle escaped from Dion’s mouth.

“What a foolish bastard.”

If he had known she was rich, he would have suggested marriage as payment for saving her life. Then all the rich young lady’s money would have become his.

Dion had thought he made unexpected good money by saving Angela in the forest, but that wasn’t the case. He had caught only a small fish and let the big catch that came into his hands slip away.

That’s why the more he recalled past events, the more Dion regretted those situations. And the more intense his regret became, the more his greed for Lady Huntley began to grow.

The fact that she had almost become his was so frustrating that he felt he had to claim the seat beside her. But when he actually thought about how he had treated her, he lost motivation.

“Damn it.”

Rough curses flowed from Dion’s mouth. He felt like he had been eliminated in the preliminaries before even entering the competition.

* * *

“Oh my goodness. What is all this?”

After completing her debutante ball, Angela received numerous letters.

“These are marriage proposals sent to Lady Huntley.”

Besides people she had danced with once or briefly talked to, even people whose faces she didn’t know had proposed to her, so marriage proposals were piled high on the office desk.

“I should read them one by one, right?”

“Of course.”

Though she had no immediate thoughts of marriage, Angela began reading the marriage proposals sent to her one by one.

Most began with words about falling in love at first sight, some wrote that they fell in love because they were impressed when they talked, and others wrote that her modest appearance was beautiful.

“How ridiculous.”

A chuckle escaped from Angela’s mouth as she read each one slowly.

The people who sent marriage proposals were all from insignificant families rather than prestigious noble houses, and even when prestigious families were occasionally included, they were second or third sons who couldn’t inherit the family, not the eldest sons.

Angela would become the Count of the Huntley family, and her husband would have to become part of the Huntley family, so perhaps this was natural.

She understood that point, but the more she read the letter contents, the more it seemed everyone was rushing in based on conditions, making Angela feel strangely unpleasant.

There was no one at yesterday’s banquet who had long conversations with Angela. There was also no one whose face showed they had fallen in love upon seeing her face.

There were only people whose eyes widened when they heard she was a Huntley, or people who already knew she was a Huntley and approached her.

This meant their goal was clear. They were after her wealth.

Well, even relatives had tried to take her life to get her wealth, so it would be the same for others who found it tempting.

“I don’t have to get married, right?”

Worried that she might be told to choose one of them for marriage, Angela asked Mrs. Seymour with concern.

“That’s right. But don’t you want to continue the Huntley family line?”

Then Mrs. Seymour threw heavy pressure at her instead of words of coercion.

“…”

Looking at the marriage proposals made her not want to marry, but thinking of the late Count Huntley made her want to continue the family line.

“Who should I choose?”

Angela’s gaze at the letters wasn’t bright. Even without reading them all, the contents seemed similar, making it difficult to know who to choose.

“There’s no reason you must choose from these people.”

At that moment, unexpected words flowed from Mrs. Seymour’s mouth. Soon after, Angela’s dark expression brightened.

“Really? I thought I had to choose from these since you told me to read them.”

“I told you to read them so you could avoid anyone you didn’t like when you meet them at the next banquet.”

“It wasn’t coercion?”

“Lady Angela is currently the master of the Huntley family, so who could coerce you? I’m only here to help Lady Angela live a slightly happier life.”

“Mrs. Seymour…”

With her mother and father gone, nearly killed by relatives who were her only blood relations, and with almost no close friends due to living busily, Angela felt like she had gained one person on her side in this world, making her heart feel touched at that moment.

“The Count wanted Lady Huntley to live a happy life, so don’t choose just anyone in a hurry. If someone is too strange, I’ll oppose it too.”

It felt like she was conveying her father’s love on his behalf, making Angela feel reassured.

“I’ll try my best to continue the Huntley family line. There might be someone among the suitors who proposed with sincere feelings! I’ll look carefully.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“I understand. Don’t worry.”

Angela smiled brightly. Mrs. Seymour’s words gave her more motivation, so she read the marriage proposals even more carefully.

“Ugh. How can they be so vulgar?”

However, there were also letters filled with harassing words that were extremely offensive, so Angela immediately tore them up.

Then she tried to focus on reading the properly written marriage proposals, but she couldn’t read sincerity from letters alone. She had no idea who she should filter out or who she should meet.

If there were any marriage proposals that caught her eye… they were the marriage proposals sent by imperial knights.

Seeing letters that were so transparent, introducing themselves as imperial knights and saying they kept thinking of Angela’s face so they were proposing, reminded her of that man. The one who kept irritating Angela while also making her worry about him…

Did Sir Dion also send her a marriage proposal?

Angela immediately checked all the names of those who sent marriage proposals, but there was nothing from him.

“Well, of course not.”

“What?”

When Angela muttered regretfully, Mrs. Seymour asked.

“It’s nothing.”

She hadn’t told Mrs. Seymour about what happened with Dion. It was too embarrassing a memory to tell anyone.

At that moment, Mrs. Seymour’s eyes seemed to flash briefly, but she said nothing.

“Then look at them more comfortably.”

Instead, as the contemplation time grew longer, Mrs. Seymour went out to do her own work.

After confirming Mrs. Seymour had left, Angela checked the names on the marriage proposals once more. There were so many she might miss one.

But even after checking the sender names two or three times, Dion’s name wasn’t there.

Though she knew there was no way he would have sent one since he disliked her, Angela’s heart, which had secretly hoped, turned to disappointment.

“Maybe it would be more honest to openly show that you dislike someone.”

But absurdly, Angela thought Dion, who revealed his emotions, seemed better than the men who sang false serenades with money as their purpose.

Ridiculous. So ridiculous.

A hollow laugh escaped from Angela’s mouth because she found herself so absurd for constantly making excuses to find good points about Dion.

‘This won’t do. I should just act like he doesn’t exist in this world.’

So to calm her heart that moved differently from her head, Angela thought it would be better to treat Dion like an invisible person.

Probably…