“So that means you should accept more without hesitation.”

As the soft whisper reached her ears, warm mana spread from his hand. Leah gasped in surprise.

A refreshing forest scent brushed her nose before fading away with his movement. Her heart pounded rapidly.

‘Why does he affect me so strongly…?’

Leah fanned herself with the innocent invitation, using it like a makeshift fan. The slight breeze touched her reddened ears, gently disturbing her golden wisps of hair.

“…”

Helix, for his part, couldn’t take his eyes off the sight. He tightly gripped the invitation with the hand that seemed determined to move toward her on its own.

As the two stood in awkward silence, each holding their invitations and avoiding each other’s gaze—

“Lady, Sir Helix. I’m coming in.”

The door slid open.

Janet appeared, pushing a gleaming tray. Leah’s eyes widened.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“The Duchess sent it, my lady.”

“Mother did?”

She looked at the tray with greater surprise.

Dainty desserts and finger foods of various kinds arranged neatly, with champagne chilling in an ice bucket.

In front of the pretty canapés sat a note stamped with the golden Piert family crest.

Leah quickly unfolded the note.

<My wonderful daughter.

Darling, you’ve worked hard, so have a toast with Helix and enjoy the atmosphere. You know your mother supports you, right?

1. Oh, your father secured a title for Helix. There’s a small principality in the Free Trade City Alliance that’s nearly extinct. He bought the Grand Duke title from there. Isn’t your father’s scale as impressive as his face? Makes me fall for him all over again.

Keep it up, my daughter. Handsome men are meant to be won.>

What a sense she had. She gave Janet a thumbs up. Janet smiled.

“I’ll relay that to the Duchess.”

“Yes.”

After Janet left, Helix approached the tray.

“Leah, what is all this?”

“Mother wants us to have a toast because we worked hard during the trial.”

“A toast? Where’s the alcohol?”

“This is the alcohol.”

Leah pulled the champagne from the ice bucket and struggled to twist the wire around the cork. Seeing her difficulty, Helix took it and stretched the wire.

“Is this how it’s done?”

“…Was it supposed to stretch like that?”

Momentarily confused, Leah took the champagne bottle back from his hands and shook it.

“You see, if you shake it like this…”

Pop!

Startled, Helix snatched the bottle, held it high, and protectively embraced Leah. Foam from the champagne rained down on them like a fountain.

As the popping sound rang out, Leah, who had started laughing with delight, suddenly froze in surprise.

“…Is this how you drink this alcohol?”

Helix asked, covered in fragrant champagne foam. She shook her head in a daze.

“We don’t… normally drink it like this.”

“No? I thought this was how it’s meant to be drunk.”

With his long fingers, he wiped away the bubbles that had formed on Leah’s eyelashes and tasted them. Leah’s face turned bright red.

“W-why are you eating that?”

Looking up at him while still in his embrace, her face flushed red. As she shook her head in embarrassment, her golden hair became disheveled, and the sweet smell of alcohol wafted up.

“…Why shouldn’t I?”

He felt he could lick it all off right now. Helix unconsciously tightened his arms around her. Leah twisted her body in surprise.

“Why would you taste weird alcohol when there’s perfectly good alcohol right here?”

I think the weird alcohol would taste better. He reluctantly released his arms from around her.

Leah awkwardly spoke as she slipped out of his embrace.

“I-I wanted to make a toast, but we spilled it all.”

“There’s still some left.”

Helix poured the remaining champagne from the bottle into two glasses.

“Here. Proper alcohol.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.”

Leah giggled and reached for the glass, then hesitated. The fingers that brushed against hers as she took the glass felt hot.

‘What is this? Am I the only one with these impure thoughts?’

Leah tried not to show her tension as she smiled and held out her glass.

“Helix, cheers.”

Clink.

Even the sound of glasses touching made her heart pound.

As she sipped the champagne and glanced at Helix, she found him looking at her with an expression suggesting she was the most beautiful and precious thing in the world.

‘Leah, how can I take my eyes off you when you’re this beautiful.’

She remembered Helix’s low, rough voice speaking in fragments.

Back then, his breath had carried a sweet alcoholic scent like this champagne, and his fingers holding her had been almost burning hot.

‘Why am I remembering that now!’

Leah’s blush spread to her neck as she pretended to fiddle with the invitation.

“…”

Helix, for his part, remained silent as he watched her.

Seeing her fidgeting beside him made him twirl the champagne glass in his hand anxiously.

‘I want to tell her not to avoid me like that… but I don’t have the right to say that.’

Embracing and touching Leah under the pretext of alcohol—how did he differ from those scoundrels in that secret club?

‘I don’t deserve to be a guardian.’

He would have nothing to say if she despised and scorned him for pretending to be proper while actually being a pervert. He swallowed the bitterness filling his mouth.

As Helix turned his head in self-reproach, he noticed the tray. The dessert plates caught his eye.

Small tarts topped with fruit and dainty macarons—these were things Leah liked. He quickly brought over the dessert plate.

“Leah, eat this.”

“Uh… oh? Okay.”

A tart approached her mouth. She reflexively opened her mouth like a baby bird.

“Ah.”

Leah’s cheeks moved as she quickly opened her mouth to eat. After chewing for a moment, her entire face lit up with a happy smile.

That smile spread to Helix’s face as well.

“Is it good?”

“Mm! Y-yes.”

She nodded with her mouth full, then paused and rolled her eyes. She had just become aware of how close he sat.

As Leah moved her body backward, Helix unconsciously leaned his face forward.

He could smell the sweet sugar.

This close, he could tell. She wasn’t angry with him. She didn’t despise or scorn him either.

Even as she leaned back, Leah’s gaze remained fixed demurely on Helix, blinking and looking down. Her gaze revealed she was conscious of him.

Flutter.

Her trembling golden eyelashes resembled butterfly wings. He wanted to touch them. He wanted to stroke the white down on her cheeks that glowed in the sunlight.

And he wanted to touch her flower-petal-like earlobe, press against those lips that puffed up from chewing and not knowing what to do, and part them…

‘Am I in my right mind?’

Helix suddenly pulled his upper body back and straightened his posture.

‘Am I really not a pervert?!’

It felt like lightning had struck his mind, leaving it in chaos. To think that he, a guardian, could be such a pervert.

A question arose in his shocked mind.

But perverts, like those he had seen in that secret club, were people who didn’t care who their targets were as long as they satisfied their desires. He had never, ever done that, sworn by his guardian’s creed.

This gaze, these hands—they responded only to Leah.

‘Could it be…’

A new hypothesis formed in his mind.

‘What happened in the secret club wasn’t a mistake?’

Always following Leah with his eyes, her expressions and gestures etched like paintings in his mind, worrying about her getting even slightly hurt, smiling just from seeing her beauty—all of that…

BANG!

“Leah!”

Suddenly, Ruyan burst in, practically breaking down the door. Rikeil followed hurriedly behind him.

“Huh? Little brother? Big brother?”

“Pack your things! Let’s run! Anywhere!”

“What? Little brother, what are you talking about?”

Rikeil gripped Ruyan’s shoulder and said:

“Ruyan, please calm down. Calm down and…”

“Calm down? Can you be calm, brother? Who was it that fainted standing up earlier?”

What? Who fainted? Leah looked at her older brother in surprise.

Grand Duke Rikeil, despite his elegant aristocratic appearance, had a sinister side and wouldn’t bat an eye at ordinary incidents.

“What happened?”

Rikeil hesitantly opened his mouth.

“The crown prince of Oken has…”

“Sent a marriage proposal to you! That crazy bastard!”

***

The capital of the Kingdom of Peiren buzzed with activity.

“Envoys have come from the Oken Empire?”

“At this time of year? What’s going on?”

Their confusion made sense.

Between the Oken Empire and the Kingdom of Peiren lay mountain ranges and seas, so almost no exchange occurred in winter.

“I don’t know. But apparently many of them came. The delegation grew so large that their entry into the capital created quite a spectacle.”

Knights dressed all in black, marching in formation and waving flags—it must have impressed the capital’s residents, who grumbled, “Damn, those Oken people really are from a great empire.”

“But they say the flag had an emblem of a dragon with two wings!”

“A dragon with two wings? The Oken Emperor’s emblem is a dragon with four wings, isn’t it?”

“Yes. So this delegation must be from…”

Someone’s eyes lit up.

“I heard a crown prince was recently appointed? It must be from him. Archaik Oken, the crown prince.”

As suspected, the Oken delegation had been sent by Crown Prince Archaik Oken.

As soon as the crown prince ascended, he purged the second princess and the Elm Marquis family, the right hand of the empress, accusing them of treason. The justification claimed they had attempted to harm the dragon bound to the crown prince, and evidence had been found.

The empress and the nobles supporting her cried out in surprise:

‘It’s a misunderstanding! How can there be such a barbaric suppression, eliminating the Elm Marquis family, a noble house of long tradition, without giving them a chance to explain or have a trial!’

‘To bloody your hands before the heat of the enthronement ceremony has cooled—it seems the crown prince also has the cruel nature of dragons flowing in him. We fear a tyrant will lead the empire’s future into darkness!’

The crown prince paid no attention to their words. Instead, he contemplated how to crush them further.

And then news from the Kingdom of Peiren reached him.

“A Swordmaster has appeared in Peiren, and it’s Ruyan Piert, the son of Duke Piert?”