Deliberately raising her captured wrist high to bring their bodies close together, Lime admonished her with a stern expression. Feeling wronged, Olivia grumbled and lightly kicked his shin with her toe. Did his sister turn violent while he was away? Lime playfully retorted while dodging her foot, then spun Olivia around the garden as if they were dancing a waltz. Familiar with such antics since childhood, Olivia, who had been aiming at Lime’s nimble feet, promptly stepped onto both his feet and smiled victoriously.

“Hmph, try moving now.”

“As you command.”

Contrary to her expectation that he would surrender and complain about his stepped-on feet, Lime continued dancing slowly with Olivia standing on his feet. Since they never had any occasion for social dancing, Olivia found this pose amusing and fun, making it look like she was dancing without doing anything.

“Unbelievable.”

But Alois, who was watching them, released a sigh that sounded like laughter, finding it all absurd.

They call themselves family with those eyes?

While Olivia might genuinely think of Lime as an ordinary family, her younger brother, Alois could see that Lime absolutely did not. It was unclear whether Lime himself was aware of it, but those were definitely not the eyes of someone looking at a close family member.

Whether they shared blood or not wasn’t really important. Alois didn’t believe in affection in the form of “family.” He disliked how it deceived people with the sweet name of family, as if they were uniquely on the same side in the world, when it was nothing more than an imperfect relationship between humans. Not just that, he also found it detestable to guarantee fair affection for everyone in relationships involving multiple people rather than one-on-one connections.

Alois rose from his seat and approached the two. He gently removed Lime’s hand from Olivia’s waist and lifted her up in that position. Suddenly appearing behind her and embracing her, then lifting her like he’s pulling up a radish, Olivia tilted her head back to meet Alois’s eyes.

“What is it?”

“There are some things we need to discuss, and since it’s something that shouldn’t be leaked, we should go to the room.”

“Oh! Ah! Yes! Let’s go to the room!”

Is your heat cycle approaching? Since there were quite a few secrets between them that couldn’t be discussed in Lime’s presence, Olivia calmly nestled in the duke’s arms as he lifted her.

“Then finish cleaning up the rest yourself.”

After dumping all the garden cleanup on Lime, Alois left the garden, carrying only Olivia, whom he needed.

“Will you be okay? Or just leave it. I can clean it up later.”

“How long do you think it would take to clean up? I’ll handle it.”

Speaking quite maturely despite his earlier teasing, Lime smiled broadly. As he waved them on, Alois glanced down slightly. Despite his kind smile, Lime’s other hand was gripping the garden tool tightly. And Alois could easily tell that the irritation wasn’t directed at Olivia—but at him.

Nothing would be more infuriating than having someone snatch the strawberry from atop a cake you’d been saving, thinking it was too precious to eat. But there was nothing to be done about it. Alois had no intention of sharing even the cake itself, let alone the strawberry.

Though he had nothing particular to discuss, the duke had deliberately emphasized their private conversation to steal Olivia away, thoroughly enjoying this childish victory that didn’t match his years of life.

* * *

The room was filled with the scent of Olivia’s bath products. Having just bathed, she was still wearing a shower gown, busy squeezing water from her long hair with a towel. Lime, who had just entered the room, felt oddly uncomfortable with the fragrant but humid and heavy aroma, and rubbed the back of his neck. Strangely, he felt an itch inside his body.

“Wait a moment. Let me dry my hair first.”

“At this rate, it’ll take forever. Give it here.”

Unable to watch Olivia struggling to dry her hair, Lime took the towel from her. Perhaps due to his trained warrior’s strength, he dried her hair much more easily than Olivia had been able to. She closed her eyes languidly as his hands gently massaged her scalp.

Her collarbone and shoulder line were slightly exposed where the shower gown had opened. The shadow of her cleavage was briefly visible between the closed lapels. Trying not to deliberately look in that direction, Lime supported Olivia’s body as she leaned against him drowsily. Her head rested lightly against his solar plexus. Naturally, after putting down the towel, Lime now gently kneaded her neck and shoulders.

“Mmm, that feels good.”

The slightly damp hair with its sweet and cozy fragrance, the loose shower gown, and glimpses of fair skin and body curves between them. Though he joked naturally while massaging her shoulders, Lime strangely felt the room growing hotter.

“So what did you want to ask me? You’ll have to leave soon.”

That question broke the momentary tension, and Lime, whose gaze had been captivated, recalled the irritating figure.

The mansion’s owner, who was somewhere near this room, had strictly forbidden Olivia from visiting Lime’s room. He wasn’t very pleased about Lime coming to her room either, allowing it only at specific times and for limited durations. And that was solely out of kindness for Olivia, not for Lime.

“After staying in this mansion for a few days, I feel there’s too big a gap between the rumors and the duke, so I wanted to ask what you think.”

“Right? You felt it too? I’ve been saying the rumors are too exaggerated and negative.”

Unable to discuss details like the duke’s heat cycle or the curse that transformed him from beast to human, Olivia passionately argued that Alois wasn’t as cruel as rumors suggested, and that the more you knew him, the more you realized he was kind, thoughtful, and generous.

Throughout her speech, numerous question marks floated above Lime’s head. Where exactly was he kind and thoughtful? He finally shuddered with goosebumps when she reached the part about “though he has a cold impression that’s hard to approach, he also has many secretly cute sides.”

“Have you checked any other objective information about the duke besides his personality?”

“Information? Like his name?”

“Yes. His name, age, the curse…… Don’t you find it strange? We heard those legends when we were very young. The incident where the duke went berserk due to a curse and was banished from the imperial palace happened at least 30 or 40 years ago, right?”

Oh? Now that he mentioned it, it was indeed strange. While stories about curses and monsters might contain inaccuracies as they were impossible to verify, the timing of events not matching made no sense. The duke’s rampage at the imperial palace wasn’t a legend but an actual historical event. Though they didn’t know the details, the incident had caused a political storm among the nobility, leading to a period of political turmoil until the current emperor’s ascension.

“Thinking about that incident, the duke can’t possibly be in his current form. The duke now looks only five or six years older than us at most.”

At Lime’s suspicion, Olivia also fell into deep thought. Unlike Lime, who only knew Alois’s face, Olivia had seen and intimately felt his entire body hidden beneath his clothes, which made the question even more perplexing. How could the duke, supposedly the emperor’s older brother, be so young when the current emperor had already passed middle age and was entering his elderly years?

“Could he be someone impersonating the duke, or perhaps another being…?”

“Maybe the curse has some special power that prevents aging.”

Lime’s reasoned speculation was cut short by Olivia’s outlandish response. He had hoped she might develop some wariness toward the duke while lost in thought, but instead, her expression in the mirror showed her eyes shining like a child discovering something new.

“Like you said, I still don’t know nearly enough about the duke.”

“Y-yes.”

“I’ve been trying to judge Alois based on my own experiences rather than rumors, but now I’m curious about the stories I haven’t encountered.”

“You’re curious?”

Not suspicious or scared? Lime met Olivia’s eyes in the mirror with a hardened expression of inexplicable defeat. No matter how closely he examined her gaze for any sign of lie, he could find nothing but pure curiosity.

“I wish Alois would tell me more stories.”

Seeing Olivia fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke shyly, Lime closed his mouth, unable to continue.

After a simple goodnight greeting, Lime left the room and found the duke leaning against the corridor window, looking outside. With a face devoid of emotion like a doll, the duke stared at something beyond the window, his eyes showing no warmth or kindness whatsoever.

“If you’ve finished what you wanted to say, I’d appreciate it if you’d quickly disappear to your room.”

Checking his pocket watch, the duke issued his dismissal gently without even turning his head toward him. His elegantly flowing voice, seeming even less human, created a strange sense of revulsion.

“Why did you approach Olivia?”

Stepping closer to the duke, Lime directly asked what he most wanted to know. Why he had approached her, what he wanted from her. Abandoning his good-natured facade, Lime’s low voice carried the cruelty he had learned through many battlefields, sharp as a blade. His willingness to cut down his opponent without fear of death for Olivia’s sake was so palpable that Alois silently applauded him.

“If I must explain, I didn’t approach her—Olivia invaded my world. Without permission.”

“What?”

“And you have no right to interrogate me about this. The only thing you can do is to quietly leave as soon as possible.”

Despite their similar builds, Alois easily shoved Lime aside and casually grabbed the doorknob to Olivia’s room, turning it without hesitation. He opened the door without knocking or asking for permission, yet no one could stop him.

As the door closed behind him, Lime stood alone in the empty corridor before slowly heading to his room.

Today was his complete defeat.