‘[Although I hope this is an illusion, I’ll praise it forever.]’
‘You are amazing.’

Sometimes, perhaps because of her gentle appearance, Mishael began to have the misconception that the young lady was not a perfectionist, but was doing everything diligently only for his sake.

‘Would it be alright to have Mishael sit next to me?”
‘I’ll have him hold my book instead.’

In the end… he sincerely hoped it was true. That his young lady was secretly considering him and caring for him.

Lionella’s vibrant ginger hair had become the sunset after a storm to him at some point, and it made him think that he wanted to spend the rest of his life looking at this peace and warmth that he had found after the hardships of his childhood.

In this way, he made Lionella the cornerstone of his life, and many things started to become clear.

For example, the Marquis of Parma, who won him at won at the gambling table, was her weakness and the only obstacle to the peaceful and beautiful life that should have been hers.

“Ah, I’m drunk…”

That day, the Marquis of Parma returned home completely drunk. A young woman as refined as Lionella could not have known it, but the faint scent that Marquis Parma emanated was clearly the remnant of hallucinogenic incense secretly traded in the back alleys.

Mishael, who saw the sight of him secretly going out for a nighttime drink after Lionella fell asleep, unintentionally looked at him with a contemptuous gaze.

“You, what’s with those filthy eyes?”

“……”

“You, moron! Can’t you hear me? Come here, you bastard!”

“… What.”

“That’s right. I don’t like those eyes of yours… Our kind-hearted Lily treats you like some kind of companion, she was so kind and hospitable to you, and you completely forget your place, right? How could you, who’s not even worth fifteen gold coins, not even know your place, and dare look at my dear Lily with those eyes?”

When the ramblings of a drunken middle-aged man struck a deep desire hidden deep in the boy’s heart, which he wasn’t even aware of.

With a bang, the boy suddenly grabbed the middle-aged man’s wrist and pressed him against the wall.

“Ah, ah, ah, it hurts… Huff!”

Obviously, hands that could only roll trump cards or casino chips couldn’t keep up with the boy’s strength as he rolled around in the back alley for a while. Lionella had always worried that he looked too skinny, but his innate strength was strong enough to hold his own.

Filled with anger and disgust, Mishael pressed Marquis Parma’s wrist even harder.

“Ah, it hurts, it hurts…! Anyone, is anyone there…!”

Of course no one was around. Marquis Parma didn’t want his lovely daughter, who resembled his deceased wife, to know that he was wandering around at this late hour, so he had come into this place where there are only a few people.

How trivial and worthless he was.

Compared to that intelligent, beautiful, and upright lady, he was an indescribably weak and despicable man.

The boy, who had been in Parma for five years or so, and had grown to be about the same height as the Marquis. All thanks to Lionella’s tantrums, and her strange way of feeding him. He lifted his chin to reveal his face, bared his teeth, and laughed.

He had silver hair and red eyes that looked almost too saintly for this situation. But his true nature was so wicked…! It was with half fear and half amusement that Marquis Parma turned to face him, knowing that the boy had finally shown his true colors.

“I heard a story from the Nighthawk’s Nest that the marquis bought the wings of a fairy from Seral Island…”

“……!”

At the sound of the boy’s words flowing through the gap in his teeth, the color on Marquis Parma’s face drained away. The Nighthawk’s Nest is a secret black market where all sorts of illegal transactions took place beneath its facade of a pawnshop, and it’s one of the places forbidden by Lionella. Naturally, the wings of the Seral Island fairy that the Marquis bought were also items prohibited by the kingdom’s laws.

“And, ah, last weekend, it was such a pity that the Giant from Empard lost a match… right?”

Marquis of Parma’s eyes widened, as if they were about to tear apart. The emerald green eyes that Lionella inherited from him trembled, just like his hands do whenever he didn’t get a drink.

He told Lionella that he would go hunting last weekend but instead went to an illegal fighting arena located in the back alleys, where he bet money on a combat slave with the nickname ‘Giant’ from the Empard region and lost.

“Wha, what the hell! If money is all you want, then…!”

“Money?”

Marquis Parma barely managed to squeeze out the words, and Mishael couldn’t help but burst into laughter. The Marquis’s face turned pale enough to make him appear purple, unable to comprehend the meaning of his laughter.

“Well, I am living well thanks to Miss Lily. Who needs money when I’ve got her, right?”

The way Mishael mentioned ‘thanks to Miss Lily’ made his words sound strange. It was as if he was returning the harsh words Marquis Parma told him.

“Just… since you bought me, I hope you take responsibility.”

“W-w-w-well, then…!”

“Please take care of yourself, so that Miss Lily doesn’t have to worry, okay?”

Mishael smiled slyly and released his grip on his arm, as if pushing him away.

Well, it was resolved so easily on that side.

It was as it should be, if not more so. If Marquis Parma and the boy had anything in common, it was that they were both terrible to Lionella, and they both wanted to keep their true selves hidden from her. It was just that Mishael, who knew the ways of the back alleys well, had the edge, and he had the balls to threaten the nobleman who bought him. As Marquis Parma, who didn’t know Mishael’s true nature, was at a loss, he had no choice but to panic without knowing how to deal with the situation.

The result wasn’t bad.

With this, Marquis Parma would bother him less, and Miss Lily’s worries could also be greatly reduced.

And above all…

‘Those eyes.’

Mishael mulled over the Marquis’s vulgar expression, which he would not have done in front of his beloved daughter. And then Mishael strode to where he was supposed to be.

The boy’s sleeping place was Lionella’s bedroom, at the foot of her bed. Lionella naturally arranged a bed in the adjacent room attached to her bedroom, but Mishael wanted to stay here himself. Initially, he pretended to be a pitiful child to stimulate her guilt, but later he dedicated himself to being there for her whenever she needed.

For example, to hold Lionella soft hand when she had a nightmare or couldn’t sleep due to severe thunderstorms.

When he opened Lionella’s bedroom door, the light from the hallway poured in. The room was spacious enough that the light did not disturb Lionella’s deep sleep, but the boy opened the door as little as possible, quietly entered, and carefully closed it. With a soft, almost inaudible sound, the door closed completely after.

Only the moonlight seeping in through the gap in the curtains remained as the only source of light in the bedroom. The colorful breaths of the deeply sleeping girl, who was sleeping in a position not much different from when she was sneaking out, filled the silence.

The boy sat down carefully near the head of Lionella’s bed, knowing full well the gravity of the situation. Thankfully, due to the size of the bed, the sinking of the mattress didn’t wake her up.

He silently looked down at Lionella. Her face, turned halfway towards the inside of the bed, was innocent, unlike the proud and perfectionist lady she portrayed during the day. This was Mishael’s favorite time of the day, when he could leisurely admire Lionella’s unguarded face without any facade.

‘How could you not even know your place, and dare look at my dear Lily with those eyes?’

I wonder. What kind of eyes am I looking at you with now?

What did it look like to the Marquis?

“Hmmmng… so cool.”

Mishael couldn’t help but smirk and laugh at the sight of her little mouth puckering as if she had realized that he had come. Unlike the foolish Marquis Parma, the boy didn’t have the habit of wearing his night robes to bed, so what emanated from him was simply the fresh smell of the night.

Wondering how good she felt, he tried to smile too, seeing the corners of Lionella’s mouth twitching up.

‘…What.’

At that moment, something caught his eye.

There were several books haphazardly piled beside the bed. They were definitely not there when he left.

Lionella seemed to have woken up, and, noticing he was gone, tried to read only to fall asleep midway. What could she be reading secretly? Curious, the boy carefully examined the covers of those books.

「An Impulsive One Night Stand with the Duke」, 「Why Does That Knight Only Pay Attention to Sally」, 「I’m Not Such an Easy Girl」, and so on.

“……”

They seemed to be romantic novels that young girls would enjoy at first glance. It turns out our young Miss had this side to her as well. With a smile naturally forming on his face, the boy reached out his arm and picked up one of them…

‘…What’s this.’

It was just because he wanted to know a little more about Lionella. The white was obviously paper, and the black was the writing, but the content was a feast of sinful desires. His face and crotch both heated at the same time.

Ah, no matter how much she may not see me as a man…. to read such a thing while we sleep together in the same room and leave it out here without a care…

Even though I’ve been hovering around her, making ‘those kind of eyes’ that even that stupid marquis can recognize.

When I first came to this house, I was just a scrawny snot-nosed kid with nothing but evil in my heart. But now, I’ve grown taller like the marquis and my face, well, it’s more acceptable. Sometimes I could even see the maids blushing at me… Reflecting on this young Miss’ vulgarity, Mishael gazed intently at Lionella’s sleeping face. That innocent face was deeply asleep, unaware of what had just happened.

‘So is this your taste….’

Mishael quickly flipped through the tainted book disguised as a romance novel and roughly confirmed its contents. Most of it was about two people who accidentally spent a night together and ended up falling in love, even against their will.

Even if the boy and the girl were compatible in every way, how could think of discarding it all… Is this the kind of story that provides some sort of fantasy. It felt like I saw a glimpse of humanity from Lionella, somehow.

With a little courage, the boy gently grasped a handful of Lionella’s disheveled hair on the bed. Her vibrant ginger-colored hair didn’t lose its warmth even under the pale moonlight that robbed all things of their color.

Compared to my blood-colored irises, her hair was an utterly mild red. It was like the color of blazing fire and sunset, a warmer color than any warmth I’ve ever known. A color as vibrant as the wildflowers of summer. Perhaps it was the color of my cheeks that secretly blushed because of her… that kind of color.

The boy slowly lowered his head and kissed her hair in his hands. Just by smelling the scent of the girl’s hair, Mishael’s chest swelled with excitement.

Yeah… This was enough for him. At best, little can be given to him, who is only a starter, but Mishael was satisfied as long as he had a glimpse of a Lionella that only he knew about. He was the only one who could fall asleep at her feet every night, the only one who could sneak a peek at her favorite tainted books. Only he was allowed to protect her from behind, hiding those ‘eyes’ with all his might

So, I hope to obtain more of Lionella’s extraordinariness tomorrow than today, and more next year than this year.

And I hope the young lady will keep me by her side forever. Stay where I can always protect her. Throw affection towards me like a green bud and keep me by her side. So that I can continue to explore her to my heart’s content, silently and with my gaze.

Thus, as Mishael continued to hide his dangerous inner thoughts and fell asleep at Lionella’s feet… When he turned eighteen years old, something strange happened.