014

Sion completely concealed his indifferent demeanor and pretended interest as he shifted his gaze to Agate’s unusual appearance. His aesthetic principle was that drawing stripes on a pumpkin wouldn’t turn it into a watermelon.

“……”

Sion’s eyes lingered intently on her. Unlike him, she enjoyed the privilege of freely displaying her expression, as if all this fuss annoyed her.

‘She looks somewhat presentable. After all that grooming, it’s only natural.’

But his reluctant gaze couldn’t break away from her. The two braids falling below her shoulders without a single hair out of place, lips ripened plump like cherry blossom petals, and a clear milk-white face without a single blemish.

The woman before him radiated such vitality that it was hard to believe she was the same lady who wouldn’t let anyone touch her hair when he first met her. Countless changes had occurred in her over the past month.

‘She seems a bit cute…’

“My goodness, the butler must be thinking the same as us. He can’t take his eyes off her.”

“If even our handsome butler is staring in a daze, our lady’s beauty must truly live up to its reputation from her youth!”

“I was not staring!”

Sion’s voice rose involuntarily at the servants’ endless doting. Silence fell as if cold water had been splashed. The servants weren’t the only ones surprised. Even Sion, startled by his own outburst, could only stare blankly at them.

‘I should have just played along. Why did I stupidly get excited…’

“…Haha, to think I committed the rudeness of staring at the young lady. You’re truly mischievous.”

The servants, who had only blinked in response, soon regained their smiles at Sion’s belated recovery and smooth talking. Being told not to be embarrassed about such things among themselves was his punishment for failing to control his emotions.

Meanwhile, Agate focused solely on the mirror, showing no interest in the commotion. How vexing—after all, she was the cause of his predicament. He couldn’t forgive himself for momentarily thinking she looked cute.

‘Sion Benzef, you deserve to be mocked.’

“Well, we’ve decided who will escort the young lady.”

Molly quickly steered the atmosphere before Sion could change the subject. His opinion had never mattered in the first place. Sion humbly accepted this reality.

“Riding a bicycle together—what a romantic date!”

When Kanna, completely unrelated to this tragic situation, clasped her cheeks and became excited on their behalf, Sion’s eyes bulged again.

But he made no second mistake. This time he barely managed to hold back the words he wanted to blurt out. A date—what nonsense.

“Goodness, this child is too young. She says whatever comes to mind.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

At Molly’s mild scolding, Kanna gasped and covered her mouth. She quickly glanced at Agate, but the lady made no sign of having heard, maintaining her usual expression.

In any case, the thought of riding a bicycle for the first time in over a decade with that stone-like woman made him suddenly dizzy. If they fell, Adollo would surely throw a fit upon his return.

But all of this could be endured for the sake of his secret funds. Sion strengthened his resolve, thinking of the check that was his alone, nestled inside his br*ast pocket.

* * *

So they said a man and woman riding a bicycle together on a forest path was a romantic date? He could roughly guess what kind of picture Kanna had imagined when she said those words. It would certainly be nothing like his and Agate’s current situation.

“Miss, I know it’s uncomfortable, but please bear with it a little longer. According to the map, we’re almost there.”

Riding a bicycle again after enough time for mountains to change wasn’t that difficult. When he gripped the handlebars, his old sense came vividly back to life—his motor skills hadn’t rusted after all. The problem was his taciturn companion occupying the back seat.

As expected, the bicycle dug out from the basement storage was worn out, and the forest path was narrow, just as he’d heard.

Though it hadn’t rained, why was the ground so muddy? The bicycle, carrying two people on its fragile frame, struggled in the mud and barely made progress.

As a result, Sion hunched over like a racing cyclist, taking twice as long as the twenty minutes the journey should have required. It would be no exaggeration to say the bicycle moved forward by the strength of his thighs rather than the wheels.

Despite the weather not being hot, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He had already stuffed those damned dignified white gloves into his pocket and entrusted his jacket to the lady under the pleasant excuse that she might get cold.

‘I definitely couldn’t make this trip twice. It might have been faster to just carry the lady on my back. Less tiring too.’

Just as he was seriously considering carrying her on his back for the return journey, he smelled water. A sign that the lake was near. Dense ash trees appeared ahead.

Hope filled Sion’s legs, already swollen with muscle. Realizing their long-awaited destination was in sight, strength he didn’t know he had surged within him.

“Miss, we’ve almost reached the lake. Please bear with it a little longer.”

In reality, he was saying this to himself. Just a bit further and they would arrive. He planned to discard this junk bicycle as soon as he helped Agate off.

When he announced their imminent arrival at the lake, the slender arms around his waist tightened around his abdomen. He could roughly gauge how excited she was by that small restraint.

Even though she sat comfortably behind him, the bicycle’s back seat couldn’t be entirely pleasant for the young lady, yet her anticipation still seemed valid. Thinking this, he felt he should reach the lake as quickly as possible.

Not long after Sion spoke, a water color as clear as the sky came into view. He hadn’t known such a large lake existed near the villa. It was so vast that the opposite shore was barely visible, making him wonder if it might actually be a river.

Sion, who took in the lake’s magnificence before Agate, stopped the bicycle near a tree by the shore. After dismounting from the bicycle and placing his feet on the ground after a long time, he realized he would suffer from aching muscles tomorrow morning.

“Miss, the lake is quite large, larger than I expected. It seems our trip was worthwhile.”

After securing the bicycle properly, Sion wrapped both hands around her waist to help her down.

“…Miss?”

But unable to wait even that brief moment, Agate dismounted from the bicycle before he could lift her and brushed his hands away. He caught her again as she momentarily lost balance and swayed.

“Be careful. If you were to get hurt…”

‘My head would roll.’

Thud

While Sion grumbled inwardly, Agate took small, hurried steps toward the lake, unaware that her handbag had fallen.

Her reaction made it clear that not coming would have been a grave mistake. No, she was so delighted that it seemed worth all the trouble they had gone through to get here.

He had seen the smile spreading like ripples from the corners of her lips.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single person at the lakeside, which was perfect for enjoying a vacation.

Probably because this entire area was private property. Though he didn’t know exactly how far the Irone family’s land extended, at least everything within sight seemed to belong to them—to this lady.

‘Yes, this entire endless puddle is all yours, so enjoy it to your heart’s content.’

The one actually trying to enjoy some rest was Sion, who plopped down on the grass. Having already unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt to expose his neck, Sion leaned against a tree trunk and decided to spend some proper leisure time.

He intended to relax until the servants who had volunteered to be the second group arrived with the snacks, which were taking longer than expected.

‘Not bad. No, better than I expected. I can’t remember the last time I had a moment of peace like this.’

Looking back, since becoming an adult, he had always lived a refined life to survive fiercely in social circles. His life wasn’t constrained by anything, but only within a certain framework.

So while his current disheveled, raw appearance felt somewhat awkward, he also undeniably savored an indescribable sense of liberation. Perhaps coming to the lake wasn’t for the lady’s sake but for his own.

Even while sprawled like a cat in the shade, half-lying down, he didn’t forget his duty and kept his eyes on Agate. What adult could be careless with a child near water?

Agate too seemed content just to look, sitting gracefully by the water’s edge with her legs tucked in. Though he could only see her back, he could tell she was quite excited.

It was his intuition as a butler attending to her needs.

‘The obsessively white villa, the same garden every time, and that sickening iron gate. Watching the gentle flow of water must be better than those sights.’