‘I don’t like it.’

While Elena was likeable, the thoughts in her small head were very displeasing.

Even though his hair was soft and fluffy after she carefully dried it, he couldn’t sleep.

Imagining her having someone else as her superior – clever and occasionally cute as she was – kept him awake.

The result of staying up all night was realizing he had quite strong feelings for her.

‘Enough to want more than an aide-superior relationship.’

Rudfelix watched Elena’s lips as she turned her head primly.

Like how his eyes narrowed when displeased, she expressed her feelings through her lips.

She would push them out in a pout, or press them so tightly they nearly disappeared when she didn’t want to talk.

Now she was nervously wetting her lips with her tongue and biting them.

“Though our conversation was cut off yesterday, my thoughts haven’t changed.”

And when expressing her thoughts, she would look into his eyes and speak clearly.

“Go on.”

“I will be faithful to my role as aide and won’t bring any personal feelings into my official relationship with Your Highness.”

‘She speaks well.’

If she thinks speaking in a settled voice will make it sound businesslike, she’s wrong.

‘That might have worked before.’

Now that Elena is more than just an aide to him, those words are absolutely unacceptable.

“Relationships aren’t defined by one person alone.”

Rudfelix leaned his upper body toward Elena. He felt satisfied seeing her startled face as he drew close enough to kiss.

He felt regret as the sweet breath from her small lips touched his and dispersed. If only breath could be seen and touched.

Stopping at a precarious distance, Rudfelix drew the curtain. Though he approached her initially for the curtain, an ambiguous atmosphere lingered.

As the passage to the outside was blocked, Elena looked at Rudfelix with surprise and exasperation behind her shocked expression.

“Your Highness, couldn’t you please say something before taking action?”

Elena puffed her cheeks in complaint. She looked like a squirrel again. Rudfelix watched while holding back his laughter.

“Whether you’re giving me the badge or grabbing my hair to threaten me. You always reach out without warning so I keep getting startled.”

Rudfelix smirked knowingly.

“Your heart probably races whenever I get close.”

Elena’s eyes widened in surprise.

At her look of ‘How did you know?’, Rudfelix raised his chin.

“You get dazed whenever my beautiful face comes near.”

“…Did you have to say that yourself, Your Highness?”

“Because you openly like my face.”

Even if not me.

Elena opened her mouth to deny it but closed it again.

There was nothing to deny since she had said similar things yesterday.

“Let’s redefine things.”

Since he disliked her drawing a line treating him as someone else, he boldly decided to erase that line.

“How do you mean?”

“Like becoming my person.”

“You’ll see many secrets that can’t be revealed to outsiders in the future. To avoid worrying about trust issues each time, we need to settle this now.”

Elena nodded slightly in understanding.

“Being an aide can’t be classified simply as a job. If I were to do something wrong, Aide Elena would become an accomplice.”

“There’s no such law.”

Elena’s voice weakened. She was reluctantly accepting the situation.

“If you went to the Crown Prince and revealed my secrets, I would have no choice but to respond accordingly.”

Seeing her throat bob as she swallowed, she was clearly an innocent lady who couldn’t hide her thoughts.

Still a lady who had just shed her girlhood, unable to conceal her emotions.

“Now you understand? An aide can’t easily separate from their superior.”

Just a little more persuasion…

“You need to be very close to me. That’s why I said I wanted my aide to be my person.”

“Why don’t you just say you didn’t want me to accept the gift?”

His words were cut off by Elena’s sudden outburst.

His impression of her innocence had been mistaken.

Elena muttered, “Why are you beating around the bush?” Her one line that accurately grasped the situation reversed their positions.

Feeling this wasn’t right, he tried to regain control, but Elena wagged her finger as if he didn’t stand a chance.

“Could it be that this is the beginning of you becoming a bad person? Is that why you’re trying to send away that person whose face was so red…”

“Stop. No need to jump to conclusions. Whether good or bad, wielding a sword remains the same.”

“Just who is this person and what kind of relationship do you have?”

“A bad person.”

“Who? The person Your Highness wants to bring down? Or Your Highness himself?”

Somehow the conversation had drifted to whether someone was becoming bad or not.

Feeling frustrated, Rudfelix pulled back the curtain. As the bright morning sunlight warmed their cheeks, Elena drew closer with the carriage’s vibrations.

Their knees touched. It’s an unstable position where he might end up embracing her if the carriage jolted too much.

Elena drew the curtain with a determined expression.

The same situation as before. Reversed positions.

“See? Aides can be just as secretive.”

“My face isn’t beautiful and sexy like Your Highness’s.”

Rudfelix wanted to correct her words. That even without being beautiful, she was sufficiently stirring his heart.

“Anyway, let’s put that aside and return to our previous conversation.”

Elena met his eyes directly.

“I will never go along with any wrongdoing. I told you before. I absolutely won’t do bad things. I’d rather lock Your Highness in a small cell and not open the door until you promise not to do it.”

“That won’t be easy. I’m quite strong.”

“You look strong.”

Elena trapped Rudfelix with both arms.

“I can protect myself and escape from anywhere I’m confined, yet you think you can stop me?”

“Not doing bad things comes first though.”

“You think you can push me into a small cell? From those small shoulders to those small hands, you don’t look strong at all. I wonder if you can.”

Rudfelix’s hand gently covered Elena’s hand against the wall and slowly pulled it away.

“How boring would the world be if everything moved by force alone?”

Elena seemed to comply at first but twisted her wrist to free her captured hand. Her eyes sparkled with a confident smile.

“That’s what makes it interesting.”

“I look forward to it.”

Elena kindly drew back the curtain as she concluded their conversation.

“We’ve arrived.”

Feeling the speed decrease, Elena smiled broadly.

The conversation with the Crown Prince was water under the bridge.

“Do as you please.”

Swallowing a sigh, he resigned himself and told her to do as she wished.

Why did he try to persuade someone he knew wouldn’t be easy to handle?

The cheerful Elena and the sulky Rudfelix made an oddly harmonious pair.

* * *

“Father?”

Early in the morning, Elena went to the office looking for her father, who had been too busy with merchant guild work to attend the ball.

She knocked but hearing no response, she quietly opened the door.

“Not here?”

Thinking she should have asked Ginny first, Elena entered the office. Until recently, she had freely come and gone under the pretense of helping with guild work, but after just a few days away it felt unfamiliar.

The papers scattered across the desk caught her eye.

“He must be busy.”

He was someone who always insisted on organizing his desk himself, letting no one else touch it. As Elena briefly scanned the documents’ contents, her eyes fixed on something.

“This is…”

It was like having cold water dumped on her head – her mind suddenly cleared. Her eyes moved restlessly across the papers.

It was an investigation into the merchant guild. Everything from the items they dealt in to the list of noble patrons was recorded in detail.

As Elena picked up one page to read it carefully, she became so absorbed in its contents that she failed to notice another presence.

A dark shadow entered the Count’s office. Soon the shadow gradually approached Elena.

When the black hand silently passed behind her and touched her shoulder, Elena turned around startled.

“Father.”

“This isn’t your business.”

His daughter was already busy enough serving the Grand Duke. The Count took one of the papers from Elena’s hands and slipped it back among the documents.

“Is this merchant guild the one?”

Why was she only asking now? If it was the merchant guild that had threatened her father, she should have known about it long ago.

‘I missed it because I became the Grand Duke’s aide.’

“I didn’t tell you because you didn’t need to know. I also hoped you wouldn’t dig too deeply.”

The Count also distracted Elena by having her become the Grand Duke’s aide.

“It’s all in the past now, so don’t worry about it.”

Elena had thought so too until she saw it with her own eyes.

“If it’s in the past, why do you have so many documents gathered?”

She pointed at the papers piled on the desk. The stack was far too large to have been collected in a short time. Realizing that his recent busyness was because of this, her heart grew heavy.

“Father.”

“Elena. Just focus on your own work.”

At his firm words telling her not to interfere anymore, Elena pressed her lips together before slightly raising the corners of her mouth.