“What’s wrong with you, really!”

“Lin…… Life is hard.”

“My life is hard too! Especially when you act like this!”

Lin’s touch was rough as she rubbed Mel’s forehead, which was turning red as if she were venting her frustration. It hurt, but Mel wanted to come to her senses through this pain, so she obediently submitted her face to Lin’s ministrations.

“By the way, Lin, I’m just asking hypothetically.”

“Yes?”

“If I run away like this now, will the Duke of Ivanstein give up on meeting me and enter the imperial palace?”

“Are you admitting you’re running away right now?”

“The imperial palace must be so busy right now. He wouldn’t delay his entry just to discuss something with me, right?”

“Haa……”

Lin shook her head as she watched Mel ramble on with an uncharacteristically anxious expression.

“I’ve never seen the duke fail to do something he said he would do.”

“……Still, depending on the situation.”

“Aish.”

Lin let out a deep sigh as she watched Mel shake her head as if trying to deny reality, then threw open the carriage window. She stuck her head out to survey the surroundings, then straightened back up with a small gasp.

“I don’t know what happened between you and the duke, but just apologize.”

“What?”

“He’s coming right now.”

As soon as Lin finished speaking, the carriage slowed to a stop. Mel, feeling an ominous premonition, hunched her body and just blinked her eyes. Trembling from her vague foreboding, she hesitantly stuck her head out the window to look outside.

In the distance, she saw Genoa approaching on horseback at a leisurely pace matching the carriage. Hadn’t some paper compared his silver hair, reflecting the sunlight and sparkling, to the descent of a god? However, Mel couldn’t agree with that praise today.

When Genoa’s eyes met Mel’s as she poked her head out the carriage window, the corners of his tightly closed lips curved up gently. Mel shuddered from the goosebumps rising from her toes and pulled her head back into the carriage.

The Empire’s papers were seriously mistaken. Could there really be no one who felt fear when seeing that smile?

“Why, why……!”

She could barely speak properly. Mel’s wide eyes, filled with shock, looked toward Lin. They asked why someone who was about to enter the imperial palace was here. Even though she knew Lin couldn’t answer this question, she couldn’t help but feel resentful.

Genoa was always busy, so even within the same mansion, they rarely encountered each other except when she acted as his sleeping aid. So Mel thought she could naturally avoid him if she wanted to. At least during the day, if not at night.

But Mel was only now beginning to realize that thinking she could avoid the Duke of Ivanstein at all had been the problem.

“He must have something important to discuss with you before entering the palace. This is what happens when you suddenly insist on watering the vegetable patch, making things so troublesome……”

“What could the Duke of Ivanstein possibly need to discuss with me now! If I wasn’t in my room, shouldn’t he proceed to enter the palace first, as protocol dictates?”

“Why are you asking me? He must consider discussing matters with you more important than entering the palace.”

Lin blinked her eyes with an expression that asked what the problem was. Mel despaired, almost envious of such pure ignorance.

She couldn’t just honestly confess to Lin, ‘The duke proposed to me, and even though I know my rejection will be rejected, I still need to reject him first, and that terrifies me.’ From Lin’s perspective, this would certainly be something to welcome with open arms.

Lin would definitely not take Mel’s side on this. She had always said, as if it were a habit, that if Mel ever left the Ivanstein mansion, she should take Lin and her family along. If Mel became the lady of the Ivanstein ducal family, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Lin to become the lady-in-waiting to a duchess. Given Lin’s personality, she would undoubtedly do everything in her power to properly match Genoa and Mel.

So regarding Genoa’s proposal, Mel was truly alone in this mansion. Without a single ally.

When this realization hit her, Mel buried her face in her hands, feeling resentful toward the innocent Lin.

“This is all ruined because of you, Lin.”

“Huh? Me?”

Just as Lin made a face showing she truly had no idea why she was being blamed, the carriage that had arrived at the southern garden gradually slowed down. Mel let out a small groan as the carriage stopping felt like her heart stopping.

As if replacing the heartbeat she wished would stop, the sound of hooves grew closer outside the carriage window.

Knock, knock.

“Eek!”

A hand wearing a white glove knocked on the closed carriage window with a neat rhythm. At the same time, a gentle baritone voice addressed her eerily.

“It seems the maid didn’t properly relay my message.”

“……”

“I told her to tell you that I wanted to discuss something with you.”

Mel couldn’t answer. Never had Genoa’s pleasant voice sounded so grating to her as it did today.

When she didn’t respond, Genoa knocked on the window a couple more times before giving up and dismounting. He then came to the carriage door and gestured to the coachman, who was about to open the door for him with a greeting, that he would do it himself, and threw the door wide open.

“What are you doing here? I feel hurt.”

Genoa’s beautiful eyes curved gently as they met Mel’s. Lin and Mel, facing this sight head-on, clutched their chests for entirely different reasons.

“I’d like a moment alone with the princess.”

“I’ll get out!”

The quick-witted Lin jumped up from her seat. Mel urgently grabbed the hem of Lin’s skirt.

“……”

“……”

In that brief moment, Lin and Mel exchanged many words through their gazes alone. And as always, in front of Genoa, Lin always betrayed Mel.

“Please talk comfortably, you two.”

Lin heartlessly pulled her skirt hem from Mel’s grasp and bounced out of the carriage. Mel stared helplessly at her retreating figure, then straightened her posture with a start when Genoa strode into the carriage.

Sitting across from her as if it were the most natural thing, Genoa crossed his long legs elegantly and tilted his chin up.

“Did you sleep well?”

Judging by his crooked smile, Genoa seemed both amused and annoyed by Mel’s current state. Mel swallowed dryly, feeling as if cold sweat were streaming down her back.

‘This is so awkward I could go crazy.’

Even if it was a proposal entangled with complicated circumstances, Mel was still facing a man who wanted to marry her. The man who had asked her to do something she had never once considered in her life happened to be Genoa.

Genoa standing before her now felt as strange as when the boy Genoa had first appeared as the Duke of Ivanstein.

“You haven’t given me any answer yet, Princess, but why do I feel like I’ve already heard one?”

“……Is it that obvious?”

Looking at Mel who asked timidly, Genoa nodded lightly. Finding it harder than expected to voice her rejection out loud, Mel said with relief:

“I’m glad you understand……”

“Your eyes are so bloodshot, you must not have slept well.”

“Sleep?”

“I asked if you slept well, didn’t I?”

“……”

Was he not talking about her answer to the proposal? Seeing Mel’s dumbfounded face as she opened and closed her mouth, Genoa laughed out loud, unlike his usual self. With this, Genoa must have confirmed that her mind was filled with thoughts of his proposal. Only then did Mel realize that he was deliberately teasing her.

“I slept well.”

She noticed the skin of this man smiling cleanly at her. Firm, clear, and clean skin that seemed devoid of even a hint of life’s anguish shone particularly brightly today.

Genoa’s skin was already said to release particles of light if pressed, but how much had Mel contributed to his skin becoming light itself? She suddenly found herself wondering about such trivial things and felt indignant. Wasn’t this all because she had acted as his sleeping aid?

“I couldn’t sleep well because of the question you threw at me.”

While Genoa’s casually tossed stone had created wave-like ripples in Mel’s world. Unlike the turbulent Mel, Genoa’s serene and beautiful face irritated her especially today.

“You said you had something to discuss with me. You need to enter the imperial palace soon, so could you please get to the point quickly?”

“You seem busy.”

“I also have children waiting for me.”

“Ah, the sprouts.”

Genoa’s eyebrows rose slightly showing mild interest, as if he had just remembered the small vegetable patch Mel had created in the southern garden. He glanced out the carriage window and saw the crops that were supposedly waiting so eagerly for her.

“Yes. The cute sprouts.”

“I’m not sure if those can still be called sprouts.”

They had grown enough to be clearly visible from inside the carriage. Too big to be jokingly called sprouts anymore.

“What on earth.”

Following Genoa’s gaze out the carriage window toward the vegetable patch, Mel blinked slowly with a deflated sigh.

Were these really the same plants she had carefully planted one by one? Weeds and crops were all mixed together, turning the vegetable patch into its own little wilderness. This was the result of not properly tending to it while she was busy preparing for her society debut.

“To find even that cute, you truly are compassionate.”

“……”

Mel’s gaze, which had been blankly staring out the window, turned somewhat sharply toward Genoa. He maintained his smile as he looked at her.

“It’s also something the Ivanstein duchess should rightfully possess.”

At Genoa’s words, Mel looked as if her breath had been cut off. Her face changed through a colorful range of expressions, further stimulating his interest.

“I believe I haven’t answered that question yet.”

“I tend not to spare any effort in obtaining the answer I want.”

“So you’re going to ignore my wishes?”

Mel quietly criticized Genoa’s confidence. But it didn’t seem to have much impact on him, as his smiling face remained unchanged.

“What would you like to do if you gained freedom? Tell me something other than raising lots of those cute things.”