“…Um, Satin. This is…”

Gjorn stammered for a moment. Satin moved her puzzled gaze from Delilah to Gjorn.

Why was the prima donna, who should be at the theater, here at Gjorn’s house? Were they acquaintances?

It didn’t seem that way, given that Gjorn had never shown any interest in the prima donna. After graduating from the academy, Gjorn had focused solely on studying the fields he was interested in.

Gjorn had been betrothed to Satin since they were in the womb due to their parents’ promise. Neither Gjorn nor Satin had time to be interested in anyone else.

Satin, who had watched him closely for a long time, knew this best. Gjorn was so innocent regarding women that he was almost naive. An ambiguous but delicate silence settled among the three.

The one who broke the silence first was Delilah. As befits a famous actress of the grand theater, Delilah bent her knees and greeted first. Even her slightly bent fingers holding her collar were elegant, like she was dancing.

“Nice to meet you, Miss. I haven’t heard your name yet, but I can guess which family you’re from just by looking at your face.”

Satin glanced at her silver-gray hair that flowed down to her chest.

People with Del Mare family blood always showed some traits in their appearance. To varying degrees, but due to hereditary albinism, they were naturally light-colored.

When she was young, Satin had long, silky silver hair. That’s why her name was Satin. As she grew older, some color mixed in, and now it was silver-gray. However, it was hard to distinguish between the direct and distant lineage of the Del Mare family just by hair or skin color.

Gjorn introduced her with a face that couldn’t hide his awkwardness.

“She is Satin Del Mare, my fiancée.”

“Ah!”

Delilah’s eyes widened.

“You are the eldest daughter of the Del Mare family. Miss, please call me Delilah. I don’t have a proper surname due to my humble origins.”

Satin nodded as calmly as possible. She had been scolded countless times to maintain calmness and elegance in any situation.

“I see. Miss Delilah. What brings the prima donna of the opera theater here?”

Gjorn’s expression turned awkward at Satin’s question.

“Satin. Well, um…”

Delilah answered without any hesitation.

“Actually, your fiancé saved me. From my patron.”

As expected of someone who stands in front of countless audiences singing and acting, Delilah’s expressions and gestures were rich. Even though they were just conversing, every movement caught the eye.

“That person has a bit of a hot temper. He tried to drag me away by force today, and your fiancé happened to witness it and tried to help, but got kicked by a horse. It’s all my fault, so please don’t blame your fiancé too much.”

“So, Miss Delilah brought Gjorn back?”

“Yes. I called for a carriage and brought him home. I was planning to leave after giving him the painkillers. I didn’t know who he was until I came to the mansion and found out he was the young master of the Sel Wio family who helped me.”

Delilah smiled.

“Thank you for your kindness in helping me.”

Gjorn responded.

“It’s a gentleman’s duty not to overlook a lady in danger.”

Delilah, with the quiet steps of a cat, approached Gjorn and placed the painkillers down. Satin watched as Gjorn drank the bitter painkillers without leaving a drop.

Gjorn, who couldn’t tolerate bitter medicine as a child, didn’t complain at all now. She wondered if he was in that much pain that he needed the medicine, or if it was because Delilah was watching.

Even so, the way he faintly frowned showed that he still had the habit of disliking medicine from his childhood. Satin stood up to call someone.

“Wait. There should be toffee candies outside.”

“Give me the medicine dish.”

At the same time, Delilah took the empty dish.

A drop of the medicine hung from the corner of Gjorn’s mouth. As Gjorn quickly wiped it with the back of his hand, Delilah swiftly took out a handkerchief and wiped the corner of his mouth.

…What?

It wasn’t a particularly significant scene, but it strangely stuck in her mind.

Why was the prima donna of the grand theater tending to the Selvio family’s young master like a servant?

Gjorn, who met Satin’s gaze, hesitated to take the handkerchief from Delilah.

“I-I’ll do it.”

Their hands briefly overlapped before quickly pulling away as if he was burned. Gjorn muttered.

“I don’t need candy, Satin. I’m not a child anymore.”

Right, he must feel sorry because he got hurt while helping her. And he must have followed her home to handle her patron’s mistake as his beneficiary.

Satin erased her subtle discomfort and called out to Delilah.

“Miss Delilah.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Who is your patron?”

Regardless of the circumstances between a patron and a beneficiary, it was serious rudeness by Satin’s standards for someone to injure Gjorn, a member of one of the five guardian families, Sel Wio, and then leave him unattended. Delilah’s face showed awkwardness. Gjorn, looking back and forth between Delilah and Satin, forced a smile and mediated.

“Satin. I also bear some responsibility for intervening on my own. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Satin sighed. Gjorn was always like this. Good things were good. Bad things were also good.

No matter how gentle a person is, there should be limits. He was always so bland, like water mixed with water or alcohol mixed with alcohol. That’s why those around him had to struggle more to take care of him.

“Satin. Didn’t you say you were busy today?”

Gjorn cautiously changed the subject. Satin answered straightforwardly.

“We were discussing the floral decorations for the wedding arch.”

A wedding is the moment when the two protagonists should shine the most. Thus, they should discuss together how the wedding would proceed, but with Gjorn now having to lie down for a few days, it was a setback. Gjorn seemed to realize this, as he immediately looked dejected.

“I’m sorry… Just do whatever you want without worrying about me.”

“It’s nothing new.”

She was already doing it halfway. Whenever Satin suggested something, Gjorn would vaguely respond that he liked this and that. No matter what she asked, he was no help at all.

Her parents said that it was better to have a husband with no picky preferences, as it would be tiring to match them, but Gjorn’s lack of opinions was sometimes frustrating. Most decisions ended up being Satin’s responsibility.

Right, think of the positives. It might be advantageous for saving time since the process of asking for opinions and adjusting them was gone.

The quick-witted prima donna noticed the ambiguous silence between Satin and Gjorn.

Delilah broke the ice.

“As a token of my gratitude for saving me today, may I invite you both to the best seats at any of my performances? They’re not that great, though.”

Delilah’s performances were always sold out, and it was said that tickets were hard to get. If you wanted to attend a performance, you had to buy scalped tickets, which were quite expensive.

Meeting her in person had sparked considerable curiosity about this prima donna. Satin immediately answered.

“If you invite us later, we’d be delighted to attend.”

“It would be an honor for me if you both came. I’ve always heard rumors about the guardian families, but I never expected to meet one in person. And as my savior, no less. But I’ve caused you too much trouble, Miss. I’m sorry.”

At this point, it felt awkward to blame Gjorn for acting recklessly during such an important time leading up to the wedding.

“As Gjorn said, it’s a gentleman’s duty not to ignore a lady in distress. Thank you for taking care of him. And I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt, Miss Delilah.”

Satin greeted Delilah with perfect courtesy learned from her family. Then she looked at Gjorn.

“I’ll be going now. You need to rest well to recover quickly. Miss Delilah, are you returning to the opera theater? I’ll send a carriage for you.”

“I appreciate the gesture, but I can call for my own carriage, so please don’t trouble yourself, Miss.”

Delilah declined.

“Right, Satin. She’s my guest, so I’ll arrange the carriage.”

Gjorn added. Satin didn’t insist further.

“You’re leaving now, right, Satin? Wait a moment. I’ll call for a cane.”

Gjorn tried to lift his upper body by leaning on his elbow. Satin shook her head.

“How do you expect to get up with that leg? Just lie down. I’ll come back later. If you feel sorry, just get better quickly.”

“Got it…”

Satin hesitated to straighten the disheveled blanket but saw Delilah’s quick hands moving first and turned away. Gjorn, lying in bed, saw Satin off.

The unexpected accident was bewildering, but there was nothing to be done now that it had happened. Since he got hurt helping someone, it was hard to blame him entirely.

So now, all she could do was hope Gjorn would recover safely before the wedding.

“Miss, you must have been very surprised.”

“What a disaster right before the wedding…”

“It seems you’re getting rid of bad luck in advance to live happily.”

The servants of the Sel Wio family followed to see Satin off, comforting her. There was so much to say, but she couldn’t speak. It was frustrating in many ways.

As Satin walked towards the mansion’s entrance, she glanced up at the upper floor where Gjorn’s bedroom was.

But why did Gjorn keep urging her to leave as soon as he saw her? Was it because he found it troublesome to host a guest while he was in pain? But why hadn’t he sent the prima donna away yet?

It was almost as if he didn’t want her to meet Delilah…