“…What?”

Ilion’s brow furrowed. He probably hoped to go peacefully to the Marquis’ house, but that’s not possible.

“You should put on the engagement ring yourself. If I had known it was an engagement ring, I would never have put it on myself.”

“……”

“If you don’t put it on for me, I won’t wear it today.”

I deliberately spoke in a sulky tone. Who would be in trouble if that happened, me or you? It doesn’t seem to be me, at least…

“Actually, I wanted to receive a proposal on bended knee, but this much… Ouch!”

As I was arguing with Ilion like this, suddenly the carriage shook violently as if it had hit a large stone.

The impact was strong enough to lift my bottom off the seat, and I momentarily lost my grip on the ring I was holding. The ring that escaped my hand instantly bounced out the carriage window.

I stared blankly at the window, breaking out in a cold sweat.

I tried hard not to meet the Duke’s gaze while staring at the window, but I could feel Ilion’s fierce glare burning into my cheek.

“What are you…”

“Th-that, well… P-please stop the carriage!”

I shouted urgently, sticking my head out the window. I didn’t want to be beheaded by the Emperor, but I certainly didn’t want to be stabbed by the Duke either.

I have no intention of making this nameless forest path my grave!

“Give me 5 minutes, no, 10 minutes. I’ll find it right away!”

After the carriage stopped, I hurriedly opened the door and went outside. I glanced at the Duke’s face, and he seemed to have a lot to say to me, but I deliberately ignored it.

Well, because it’s too scary…!

I ran back along the path we had come, scanning the surroundings.

This was never part of the plan. I had been trying to cause Ilion financial damage, but that ring was still mine. It was given to me by Ilion, wasn’t it?

So I had been thinking of using it as funds to start a new life with my handsome future husband after breaking off the engagement with Ilion.

I was just trying to make Ilion angry moderately! Why did I have to drop it at that moment? If it had at least fallen inside the carriage, I could have picked it up!

As I was searching the area and retracing my steps, I saw a white carriage approaching from afar.

I paused my ring search for a moment and moved to the side of the road to make way.

However, the carriage that I thought would just pass by stopped abruptly next to me. Then the white curtain covering the window was drawn back, and a doll-like young lady spoke to me.

“Oh my, aren’t you Miss Rischefeld?”

There are advantages to being famous, but it’s awkward at times like this. The other person knows me, but I don’t know who they are.

I looked at her with an awkward smile.

She opened the door and got out of the carriage. Her voluminous pink hair flowed over her shoulders, and her sky-blue dress fluttered elegantly.

She was so beautiful that it felt as if an angel had descended to earth.

“I am Julia Grenoble. The daughter of Count Grenoble. I’ve always wanted to meet you, Miss Rischefeld, and I’m so glad to meet you like this.”

Julia greeted me, gently spreading her skirt. Although I had learned etiquette with Sebastian’s help, this was the first time I had seen such a textbook-perfect, elegant greeting.

I stared blankly at her greeting for a moment before coming to my senses and hurriedly lifted my skirt and bowed my head.

“By the way, what are you doing here without a carriage?”

“Well, I accidentally lost a ring. I left the carriage waiting ahead and I’m looking for it.”

“Oh my, is it an important ring?”

“…Yes. It was a gift.”

I smiled vaguely, afraid that if I said I had lost my engagement ring, I would lose what little face I had left.

“Oh dear, shall I help you look?”

“No, no! I shouldn’t waste your precious time…”

I waved my hands and shook my head.

“It’s alright. Shouldn’t we help each other at times like this?”

Is she really an angel? I looked at Julia with emotion, and she smiled brightly. She really is an angel.

With Julia’s help, we set out to look for the ring together with her maid. However, even with three heads instead of one, we couldn’t find the ring or anything similar.

“Maybe it rolled into the forest.”

“Surely not…”

As I looked at the endless forest with a dejected expression, Julia asked.

“Shall we look a bit more?”

“No, I can’t take up any more of your time. It’s not that important a ring anyway.”

“But, oh my. Isn’t that Duke Celestine?”

Julia looked somewhere and gave the textbook-perfect greeting I had seen earlier.

“It’s been a while, Duke. How have you been?”

“Hello.”

“It’s been so long. I was worried after we parted like that… I’m glad to see you again today.”

What’s this…? This conversation that seems to suggest there’s something between these two that I don’t know about?

However, Ilion merely nodded at her words without giving any particular response.

“Ravenne, it’s getting late, so let’s go now and look for the ring on the way back.”

Look at him calling me Ravenne because there are people around. Usually, he calls me Rischefeld or ‘you’… He’s subtly conscious of others’ eyes.

However, because of what I had done, I followed Ilion without any protest.

***

“Celly.”

After confirming that the two had disappeared in the distance, Julia called her maid and held out her hand. Celly placed a small ring on her palm.

“Indeed, it’s something that would cause a commotion if lost. It looks quite expensive.”

Julia picked up the ring with two fingers and examined it carefully.

She had planned to decline the party, using illness as an excuse, but when she heard that Duke Celestine would be attending, she hurriedly prepared to come. Who would have thought she’d get such an unexpected harvest?

“By the way, I wondered who this great Rischefeld was, but to think she’s such a country bumpkin of a lady…”

The social circles had been persistently pushing for her and Celestine to be a couple, saying there was no one better suited for Celestine than Julia. Of course, that was because she had intended it to be so.

For her, manipulating public opinion in the social circles with an angelic face and appropriate smiles was as easy as breathing.

She had put in so much effort to become the next Duchess, but Duke Celestine had taken a daughter from an unknown family as his fiancée. All her efforts had gone to waste.

Rischefeld? She didn’t even know such a family existed. And to think they were of the same rank as counts, although of course, even among counts, their status was as different as heaven and earth.

Julia pondered how she could make that country bumpkin a laughingstock. It wouldn’t be difficult using her angelic face and the image she had built in social circles.

Julia smiled, curling up the corners of her mouth as she put the ring in her handbag.

***

“I’m really sorry about the ring… I’ll definitely find it on the way back. Somehow…”

“……”

Looking at Ilion, who was sitting with a stiff expression without saying a word, I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles. Even the ring he had been wearing on his finger until earlier was now removed.

It seemed he had decided that both of us not wearing rings would draw less attention from the world than only one of us wearing one.

“I still don’t understand.”

After contemplating with a stiff expression for a while, Ilion said something incomprehensible and then picked up the documents he had put aside.

“Are you very angry?”

“What… Oh, about the ring?”

What? Were you thinking about something else?

“If it’s about that, I’m sorry. I apologize.”

“…Pardon?”

Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who lost it. Why are you suddenly being scary?

“Um, I’m the one who lost it…”

“I’m the one who caused it, so I can’t say I’m not responsible. I didn’t think you would take it to heart that you didn’t receive the ring directly. I should have listened to Sebastian’s advice.”

Contrary to what I had thought, Ilion admitted his fault too easily.

I’ve been hanging around Ilion deliberately to be disliked, but Ilion was originally just cold-natured, not a person with a bad personality.

I couldn’t help but compare him to the kind image he had in the book towards the saintess, but even that kindness was based on his inherently good nature. Of course, he’s also merciless and scary…

Suddenly, I wondered what it would have been like if I had possessed the saintess instead of Ravenne. If my luck had been just a little better and I had possessed the saintess, would he have treated me more kindly?

“But I wish you would be more aware that we are in a political marriage. I paid your family a sufficient price as a condition for marrying you. So don’t ask me to be the husband you dream of. I have no intention of playing the role of a husband, nor can I.”

You’re blowing away my idle thoughts in an instant. Right, I’m Ravenne, and I was just a charm to drive away the flies clinging to you.

That handsome face of yours sometimes has the ability to make me forget who I am.

It’s really a dangerous face.

“But we have to live together for our whole lives, can’t we get along a bit better?”

I, who had no intention of obediently listening even if he cut me off like that, deliberately emphasized ‘whole life’ as I spoke.

“When we get married, we’ll have to have children, and to have children, we’ll have to spend our wedding night, and for that, we need to get along, right?”

“You still don’t understand what I’m saying. Even if I marry you, I have no intention of having children, spending our wedding night, or getting along.”

“Oh my, are you saying that because you’re shy? There’s no need to be so shy…”

As I smiled brightly and spoke, Ilion frowned. Then he consistently ignored whatever I said. His tightly closed lips and emotionless face remained fixed on the pile of documents, as if he couldn’t even hear my words.

Despite sharing this narrow space, it felt like there was a thick wall between us. It was just the right distance for me.

I’m destined to be hated by Ilion and driven out in order to survive, so ‘getting along’ is out of the question.

Hiding my bitter feelings, I looked out the window. The carriage had already left the forest path and was now racing across the fields.