I alternately looked at the ring in my hand and Ilion’s face. I couldn’t easily find words in response to his sudden proposal.

“Are you… proposing to me right now?”

“Yes.”

It was a picture-perfect smile, but somehow, I felt a bit resentful looking at it. After all this time worrying because of him, he tries to resolve everything with a proposal.

“Then why have you been avoiding me until now?”

I asked gruffly, still trying to show I was upset, and he made a troubled expression.

“I’m sorry if it felt that way. It wasn’t intentional.”

“Then what?”

“I’m still clumsy at controlling mana, so I was worried you might be in danger.”

Ilion’s explanation made some sense, but I still couldn’t shake off my hurt feelings.

“Even so, that’s too much.”

As I grumbled quietly, Ilion opened his mouth with difficulty, seemingly embarrassed to speak.

“Controlling mana is related to emotional control…”

“What does that have to do with me?”

As I asked back, not understanding, Ilion looked me in the face and asked,

“Do you really not know?”

Would I ask if I knew?

I was about to open my mouth to say I obviously didn’t know when I recalled the windows and vases that broke unusually often. It was a similar reaction when I gave him gloves…

“I’m saying I have trouble controlling my emotions in front of you.”

Seeing my dazed reaction, Ilion finally continued his explanation reluctantly to the end.

Stop right there. I understand now.

I felt embarrassed about my insensitive questioning earlier, seeing his reddened face.

“That, that must have been difficult for you.”

As I smiled awkwardly, rolling my eyes, I noticed the roses had multiplied even more than before.

“Um, Your Grace. Don’t you think the flowers have increased?”

“……”

“Could you… do something about it? I feel like we’ll be buried in flowers at this rate.”

I asked, looking at the roses multiplying at a terrifying pace.

“Didn’t I say? It’s hard to control.”

“What an irresponsible thing to say!”

“Well, I think you bear some responsibility too, don’t you?”

Ilion asked, looking at me with a calm expression.

“Re-responsibility? Are you saying it’s all my fault that you have trouble controlling your emotions…!”

I stopped mid-sentence, feeling like I was digging my own grave. My face, which couldn’t get any redder, felt like it was about to burst into flames.

“Why did you stop talking?”

“Well, um.”

I lowered my head, looking at the flowers filling the terrace.

“I’ll… I’ll do it with that.”

“And the proposal?”

Amidst all this, Ilion asked me, saying he still hadn’t heard the important answer.

If the plan was to confuse my mind and get my acceptance, it was absolutely perfect.

I felt like I wanted to just nod silently with my eyes spinning. Too embarrassed by my flushed face to look at him, I held out my hand.

“I, I accept the proposal! Put the ring on me!”

My voice cracked from embarrassment, and at the same time, I was overwhelmed with the urge to close my eyes right then and there.

As if my appearance was quite a sight to see, Ilion said, holding back laughter,

“It sounds more like you’re accepting a duel challenge than a proposal.”

I know. So please don’t say it out loud.

Still unable to find a mouse hole to hide in, I inwardly swallowed my tears.

Unlike his teasing tone, Ilion asked with a rather serious touch as he put the ring on my finger,

“Will you be alright?”

“With what?”

“You won’t be able to run away now.”

I managed to smile at his question.

“Oh my, Your Grace. When have I ever run away?”

At my brazen response, Ilion finally burst into laughter.

***

The flowers that filled the terrace stopped multiplying. Thanks to that, I could lean against the terrace with Ilion and share all the stories we couldn’t before.

“At the academic festival, how did you recognize me when I was disguised as a maid?”

“I just had a feeling.”

“You guessed based on intuition?”

At my question, Ilion chuckled and answered.

“How many times do you think I’ve fallen for your lies?”

Well, how many times? Thinking that he must have suffered because of me, I carefully spread my fingers, feeling solemn.

“Maybe twice?”

Hearing my answer, Ilion laughed as if in disbelief.

As we asked each other things we wanted to say or were curious about, the night deepened, and my eyelids grew heavier.

Did I play too much during the day?

“Are you sleepy?”

Even Ilion’s gentle voice sounded like a lullaby.

“A little…”

Despite the cold night air, I unconsciously leaned on Ilion’s shoulder, finding it hard to continue speaking due to the overwhelming sleepiness.

Contrary to the thought that I shouldn’t fall asleep like this, it was difficult to stay alert against the drowsiness that seemed to pull me in. Finally, unable to resist, I mumbled,

“I’ll just… sleep for 5 minutes.”

A pure white room with nothing in it. In front of my eyes, black smoke was writhing. Although the expression ‘writhing smoke’ sounds a bit strange, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate description.

Thinking it was just a dream anyway, I didn’t feel particularly threatened. I just thought the dream was a bit odd.

The smoke that had been writhing at my feet for a while gradually swelled in size and began to take on a definite shape.

Just as I thought its appearance resembled a human form, I heard a chillingly familiar voice.

“You look happy, Ravenne.”

The smoke had already changed into a man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a boyish appearance.

“…Klaus?”

Even though I know it’s a dream, my heart beats anxiously.

“You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“…Forgotten what?”

“What I said.”

Behind his gradually approaching footsteps, black smoke was imprinted like footprints. Feeling somewhat ominous, I stepped back and asked.

“What did you say?”

Looking at me as if I were pathetic, Klaus once again closed the distance. Then, curling up his straight lips, he answered,

“That you’ll lose the most precious thing.”

“The most precious thing? What’s that?”

As I asked back in irritation at his tiresome face, he opened his mouth with a strange smile. Then, just as he had appeared, he turned into pitch-black smoke and disappeared without a trace.

“Klaus, you bas…”

I jumped out of bed. His appearance, showing up just when I was about to forget, was worse than cockroaches.

Was it because I didn’t hear his last words? Even though I had woken from the dream, the unsettling feeling wouldn’t go away.

What was he trying to say? I know it was just a silly dream, but I was bothered by those last words that I didn’t hear.

As I frowned, thinking the sunlight was particularly harsh today…

Wait a minute.

I narrowed my eyes and turned my head. The morning sunlight was pouring into the room, asserting its presence.

Morning? Really?

Frantically looking around in disbelief at the reality, I found Ilion lying asleep next to me.

Why is he sleeping here again?

Judging by the clothes he was wearing, which were still the same as last night, it seemed he had fallen asleep after intending to just rest his eyes for a moment.

“Haa…”

An indescribable feeling of unfairness washed over me at this situation that was both natural and shouldn’t be natural — waking up to find it’s morning.

Even if we had fun all day, isn’t it a bit much to pass out right after being proposed to?

“…You could have woken me up if you weren’t going to get up.”

After briefly screaming internally as I grasped the situation, looking at his neat and clear face made me think, well, what does it matter?

While I quietly gazed at Ilion sleeping with a peaceful expression, I raised my hand to examine the ring. As if to prove that last night wasn’t a dream, a ring with a green gemstone was on my finger.

Looking at the brilliantly shining ring, I found it hard to suppress the corners of my mouth from rising.

Did he have it made when we went to the jeweler’s last time? Thinking that I should ask him when he wakes up, I looked at Ilion again.

He opened his eyes with a slightly drowsy expression, seemingly woken by the rustling sound beside him.

“Did you sleep well?”

“……”

I greeted him first, feeling a bit awkward, and Ilion looked at me with a startled expression. Thinking he might be feeling shy, I poked his cheek with my finger.

“Why are you so embarrassed?”

He still said nothing.

“Come on, are you upset that I fell asleep first? That was because I was so sleepy I couldn’t help it…”

Before I could finish speaking, Ilion hurriedly sat up.

“Lady Rischefeld.”

It had been a while since I heard ‘Lady.’ Thinking it wasn’t something to get so angry about, I cautiously observed his expression, and Ilion asked with his brow deeply furrowed for the first time in a while.

“What are you doing here?”

“…Pardon?”

“When did you enter my room?”

“Your Grace?”

His eyes, which were interrogating me, were filled with contempt.

“I didn’t know you had a habit of entering others’ bedrooms as you please.”

“What are you suddenly saying? You opened the door for me, Your Grace. You’re the one who let me sleep here. Are you pretending to be upset right now?”

I asked back, feeling upset at his gaze that was so different from yesterday, and Ilion muttered as if he couldn’t believe it.

“…I opened the door? And let you sleep here?”

The way he spoke like that, it really seemed like he couldn’t believe the current situation.

To shake off the ominous thought that suddenly came to mind, I forced an awkward smile and grabbed his clothes.

“Y-Your Grace, what’s wrong with you? You’re scaring me when you keep doing this. Stop joking around.”

“Do I look like I’m joking right now?”

Ilion’s voice, as he roughly pushed away my hand, was so cold that I even wondered if I was still dreaming.

But why are Klaus’s words coming to mind?

As I recalled the meaning of his words about losing the most precious thing, I asked him with a trembling voice.

“Do you really not remember proposing to me yesterday?”