Afterward, in an extremely awkward state, Dana rose from her chair. She couldn’t remember what state of mind she was in or how she walked out of the music room.

Kaiden escorted her to the lady’s reception room and left. Dana couldn’t bring herself to look at his face, so she didn’t know what expression he wore.

Slumping into a chair in the reception room, Dana thought blankly. What had just happened? Then suddenly, she realized that Kaiden hadn’t actually properly played the piano in the music room.

‘No, he did play.’

Between his hot lips pressing against hers, she heard the sound of keys he accidentally pressed. The sound burst out chaotically, and it made her heart feel like it was dropping…

‘No, no.’

Dana tried to regain her composure. Yet her mind kept returning to Kaiden’s kiss from earlier.

‘Why, why.’

Well, the atmosphere had been somewhat like that. They were too close, and the sunlight streaming into the music room was too beautiful. So.

Without thinking, Dana raised her hand to brush her lips. The lips where his hot lips had touched, and then his hot hand. Her own hand touching her lips felt much colder than the sensation his lips and hands had given.

She kept thinking about it. The heat she felt on her lips, that slick sensation, his furrowed brow and eyes when she barely managed to open hers. His eyes, much bluer and deeper than her own eye color, had looked hot enough to spark in that moment.

Dana fanned her heated face with her hand. As she did so, she wondered where Kaiden had gone. Since he had been in training, had he returned to the training grounds?

‘It must have been impulsive?’

Was he regretting it? He might be. So did she regret it too? Dana couldn’t find the answer.

‘Focus. Focus first.’

She needed to do something. As she thought this, Dana suddenly remembered. Noah. She needed to ask Noah if she could teach poetry to her husband. Dana rang the bell sitting on the table. Three maids hurriedly entered the reception room and greeted her. Dana spoke first.

“Draw the curtains halfway. It’s a bit hot.”

One maid hurriedly walked over and drew the curtains. Shadows fell in the room and the hot sunlight was blocked. But it was still hot. Meanwhile, Dana gave another order.

“Call Noah. If she’s not in her room, she might be in the library.”

Another maid who had entered bowed politely and left the room. As Dana continued fanning her face while sitting in the shadows with her back to the curtains, a maid quickly brought a mirror and fan. While the maid who had drawn the curtains fanned Dana, the remaining maid held up the mirror for her. Since it would be inappropriate to speak before the lady did, they showed their thoughtfulness through actions.

Dana became dazed when she saw herself in the mirror. Good heavens. Had she walked from the music room to here looking like this?

“…Would you fix it for me?”

Dana asked the maid with an embarrassed, reddened face. The maid answered, “Yes.”

Dana sat leaning back in her chair with a completely drained expression. Until the heat that seemed like it would never cool down finally did. Flutter flutter flutter. The sound of the fan being waved by one maid continued as another fixed her face and retied her hair.

* * *

Some time later, Noah came to see Dana. It seemed the maid had taken some time to find her, probably because she was deep in the library. That was fortunate from Dana’s perspective.

Sitting across from Dana in the reception room, Noah handed over documents summarizing her records about the Divine Beasts. Though it was precious and she was grateful, Dana wasn’t in the right state of mind to look at it now. For now, she set it aside on the reception room table.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t find information about the Divine Beast called Yentamien that you mentioned.”

Noah said, and Dana nodded slowly.

“I see… Thank you for your hard work anyway. But actually, that’s not why I called you now.”

At Dana’s words, Noah’s eyes widened in curiosity. Dana pretended to hesitate slightly before speaking.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“Please speak.”

“Could you teach poetry to Lord Khalid?”

Hearing Dana’s request, Noah asked back.

“Poetry?”

Dana nodded. She explained appropriately, leaving out anything that might embarrass Kaiden.

“He wants to write poetry, and I thought it would be helpful if you could teach him from the beginning. Since you were a priest, you must have read and written a lot of poetry.”

Noah spoke in an unconcerned tone.

“Yes, but I’m not particularly skilled. I can only teach at the level I used with children at the monastery.”

That would actually be perfect. Dana thought so but couldn’t say it outright. So she nodded and said.

“That’s fine too. It’s better than me, who’s never taught anyone.”

As she said this, her face reddened without her realizing it. Right. She had never experienced teaching the piano to anyone. So when they went to look at the instrument together, she just sat there dazed when such an impossible thing happened.

Noah, who had no way of knowing Dana’s thoughts, nodded lightly.

“But I’m planning to leave next week. I’m not sure how much time Lord Khalid can spare before then.”

“It’s fine even if the time is short. It’s not urgent anyway. I think it would be enough to teach him the basics and check on him a little whenever you visit.”

When Dana spoke, Noah smiled gently.

“So the Duke plans to write poetry for his wife.”

Noah said, thinking that since they were married, they would have plenty of time. And isn’t it many ladies’ and noblewomen’s romance to have a knight write poetry singing about the lady in his heart?

Dana was briefly surprised by Noah’s misunderstanding, but soon realized that denying it would be stranger. With an uncomfortable and embarrassed feeling, she said.

“Just, killing two birds with one stone.”

But her face was flushed again as she avoided his gaze. Of course, Kaiden’s heartfelt poetry would become a gift for his real future wife, not her, but somehow she felt shy imagining him writing poetry and singing it to her. Even while thinking it was an impossible imagination.

Noah saw emotion showing on Dana’s usually calm face for the first time in the three years she had known her. She briefly widened her eyes at the princess’s reddened face, then soon smiled gently.

* * *

The next morning, Dana woke up early to have breakfast with Kaiden as they had agreed. Usually she would wake up leisurely and skip breakfast in favor of a meal between morning and noon, but now she decided to change that. She woke up much earlier than mealtime because she needed to get dressed up.

Dana had finished her morning prayers early since she hadn’t slept well due to yesterday’s events. The maids who had learned the art of princess beautification from Hilda worked hard to dress her up from early morning. Dana checked her reflection in the mirror – her platinum blonde hair twisted up at the back, wearing a bright light yellow dress. She had worried her eyes might be swollen from lack of sleep, but she looked adequate enough.

Nodding her head, Dana stood up and headed to the banquet hall.

She felt nervous the entire walk there. This would be the first time seeing his face since yesterday afternoon when Kaiden had escorted her to the reception room. Due to knight training, afternoon Kaiden had irregular dinner times making it difficult to have dinner together, and it’s not like they slept in the same bedroom at night.

In other words, this would be their first proper face-to-face meeting since yesterday’s kiss. Dana desperately tried not to be nervous or conscious of it. If she showed any signs. If it became obvious she was conscious of yesterday’s events.

That stiff man might try to correct his mistake by apologizing for his error and turn yesterday’s events into something shameful. Yesterday’s kiss might become something done on impulse, something that shouldn’t have happened.

‘But it was my first kiss.’

The first kiss was very different from what she had imagined. It was very sudden, felt like being devoured, and everything from the touching skin to breath to embrace was hot and mind-numbing. Everything was captured by the man with no way to escape.

It would be sad for such an intense first kiss to be remembered as the man’s mistake and regret. Whether the man actually regretted it or not, at least from her perspective it was like that.

So, Dana decided to quietly let yesterday’s events pass without showing any sign of acknowledgment. With that mindset, she arrived at the banquet hall.