3.2

When the Earl, who had been sulking for days, suddenly burst into hearty laughter and called her, Clara felt something had gone wrong.  

“They agreed to push for marriage instead of an engagement.”  

“…What?”  

What was he talking about? Young Master Aiden accepted me?  

Did the Sky Earldom lose their minds? Marriage?  

“They said they’d overlook your behavior so far. Isn’t that fortunate?”  

While their side might suffer some minor losses, the Earl reasoned, as long as the marriage went through, it was a small price to pay.

The Earl muttered, calculating gains and losses with his shifty eyes. Clara’s mind was a chaotic mess.  

“They’ll overlook my behavior? Ha…”  

Clara shook her head at the absurdity of it all. She never imagined the Sky Earldom would approve of this marriage.  

Being at the center of the social world, she thought they would avoid getting entangled in such a scandal.  

“From now on, you just need to conduct yourself properly. Don’t get involved with that man anymore, and don’t set foot in the Barony again.”  

“No.”  

“Of course, you wouldn’t want to… Wait, what?”

The Earl, who had been speaking as if she would naturally comply, was dumbfounded by her response.  

“What… what did you just say?”  

“I said I’m not getting married.”  

“Clara!”  

“Yelling won’t change anything. You can’t force me either. I won’t marry someone I don’t love.”  

“Love?”  

The Earl clicked his tongue in disbelief at the word.  

“Talking about love in a union between nobles? Your head is in the clouds, and it’s all your mother’s fault. I should’ve kept you on a tighter leash.”  

“…”  

Hah.

Clara let out a quiet sigh. There was no reasoning with her father.  

Now that the Sky Earldom had agreed, he would push for the marriage no matter what, and she would have no choice but to go along with it.  

“Anyway, stay quiet until the wedding date is set. You’ll have plenty to prepare for then.”  

“Father…”  

“Silence. Go to your room. Don’t even think about running away. If you step outside, I’ll break your legs so you can’t move again.”  

Clara swallowed hard as she looked at the Earl, whose eyes gleamed with menace.  

One more word, and he might actually do something to her.  

The Earl seemed satisfied with Clara’s silence and laughed as he left. He probably thought his daughter had finally come to her senses.  

But Clara was already thinking of something else.  

Just because things weren’t going her way didn’t mean she would give up.  

If he intended to use the Sky Earldom, she could use them too.  

***

“I wasn’t the one who spread the rumor.”  

As soon as Clara sat down, Young Master Aiden said this.  

Clara blinked a few times, unsure of what he meant, then remembered locking eyes with him on the terrace that night. Embarrassed, her face turned red.  

In truth, the embarrassment had started long before meeting him.  

From the moment she left her house to come to this tea shop, she had felt the judgmental stares of everyone around her.  

“I heard you couldn’t leave the house. I’m glad to see you’re okay.”  

“When I said I wanted to meet you, they let me out without much trouble.”  

Although the Earl had seemed ready to force the marriage through, things hadn’t gone entirely his way. Instead, he had started pressuring Clara relentlessly.

‘Young Master Aiden seemed to like you, so hurry up and do something about it.’

Clara had laughed at the absurdity of it. How could she do anything when she was locked in her room?  

When she mentioned meeting him, her father had smiled brightly, his transparent intentions plain to see.  

Thinking of that made her feel like she couldn’t even drink her tea.  

“You were the one who witnessed that scene, Young Master. Then who could’ve spread the rumor?”  

“Ah… I hadn’t considered that angle.”

Aiden looked at Clara with an incredulous expression.  

‘Was she not even going to apologize for showing such a scene to someone she was in talks of marriage with?’ His expression seemed to ask. 

“I thought the engagement would be called off, but marriage instead?”  

Clara scolded him instead.  

Now that things had come to this, she decided to act boldly.  

“I didn’t know you had this kind of personality. Were you hoping the engagement would be broken?”  

“Even in this situation, you speak so kindly, Young Master. You should be angry, not gentle.”  

At her words, Aiden’s expression twisted slightly.  

That confirmed it for Clara.  

He was just like her. They didn’t desire each other enough to waste emotions on one another.  

And that fact didn’t hurt Clara at all.  

“I have no intention of breaking the engagement over a single flaw of yours. As long as you promise to be faithful after marriage…”  

“And with that promise, you’ll live your entire life as a kind husband, never once getting angry, and with no expectations?”

“Do you think marriage is child’s play? Neither you nor I want the stigma of a broken engagement.”  

Child’s play?  

That phrase grated on Clara’s nerves.  

She hadn’t planned to talk for long, but she felt the need to make this clear.  

Could he really live with a lifelong partner while wearing a mask the entire time?  

“Even if it seems like child’s play, so what? Life is long enough to act mature all the time. At least with the person you live with, you should be able to show your true self.”  

At her words, Aiden gave a bitter smile.  

From the moment he first met Clara, he had liked her shy yet honest demeanor.  

That’s why he wanted to keep her by his side.  

He thought she might be the only outlet for him to breathe in this pretentious world.

And now, he had to salvage his reputation, which had been tarnished because of Clara.  

He aimed to play the role of a generous fiancé who forgives his betrothed’s scandal, hoping to at least gain sympathy in social circles and within his household.  

That was the only way he could survive as the Earl’s second son.  

So, Clara’s emotionally charged attitude naturally irritated him.  

For him, it was a matter of survival, while Clara was talking about affection.  

Suppressing his displeasure, he asked her,  

“…So, do you have such a person?”  

“Of course. Luciu…”  

She almost blurted out “Baron Lucius” but stopped herself, realizing it wasn’t the right thing to say.  

This wasn’t the reason she had arranged to meet him.  

“Then, if you didn’t spread the rumor yourself, did you at least tell someone about it?”  

“As I said earlier, I didn’t say a word.”  

Aiden calmly spoke.  

Since the conversation had been going Clara’s way, he had to steady his mind.

“Going to the balcony wasn’t a coincidence. Someone told me they had something interesting to show me.”  

“Who was it?”  

“Lady Serena.”  

At that moment, a deep male voice cut through the atmosphere.  

The sound of confident footsteps approached, and the man Clara loved most appeared before them.  

Baron Lucius Tempe stood in front of them.  

“Lady Serena deliberately led Young Master Aiden there. On purpose.”  

“Baron?”  

Clara blinked in disbelief at the sight of him.  

Lucius wasn’t someone she had planned to meet here.  

Her plan was simple: identify the source of the rumor with the Young Master and then meet Liz.  

Why was Lucius here?  

“Baron Lucius.”  

“Young Master Isaac, was it?”  

Lucius glanced at the Young Master briefly before fixing his gaze on Clara.  

His arrogant expression seemed to say, ‘Why are you with another man?’  

Clara wanted to ask him the same thing.  

Why was he here?

“It’s Aiden, not Isaac.”

The Young Master corrected his name with a hint of irritation, but Lucius couldn’t care less about his name.  

All he cared about was why Clara’s cheeks were flushed and what she and the Young Master had been discussing.

“Very well, Young Master Aiden. Mind if I sit here for a moment?”  

Before he even received permission, Lucius sat down, positioning himself squarely between them.  

“So, what did Lady Serena do again?”  

From the way he deliberately provoked the Young Master, it was clear he was in a foul mood.  

Before he could latch onto anything else, Clara quickly changed the subject.  

“She lured Young Master and made him witness our actions.”  

“W-wait, what…?”  

Did that mean he had seen everything?  

‘That’s not the point right now. Why would Lady Serena do such a thing?’  

Clara didn’t know much about Serena personally, but she had seen her from afar a few times.  

A dazzling beauty, Serena’s title as the Empire’s most beautiful lady was well-deserved.  

Their social circles rarely overlapped, and at parties, Clara had only admired her from a distance.  

“Why would she do that to me?”  

Clara racked her brain.  

Why would Serena harbor such malice toward me?  

Then, she thought of one person connected to Serena.  

“Could it be… because of unrequited love?”  

Clara turned her gaze to Lucius.  

Hadn’t Lady Serena recently visited his home?  

If Serena disliked her, it was likely because she had been intimate with Lucius.  

There was no other explanation.