Nate brought the handkerchief and made her way to the private hunting grounds of the Lovitz Marquisate. Many nobles were already gathered there. The young ladies sheltered beneath canopies or held pretty parasols as they watched the young lords make their preparations.

“Nate, over here.”

Lilia called to her with a warm smile. The spot where she stood gave a clear view of Roderick. Nate walked over to her.

“Are you going to give Roderick the handkerchief?”

Nate nodded at Lilia’s question.

“Yes.”

“Whose wish is it?”

It was a question whose meaning wasn’t immediately clear. Nate looked at Lilia with a puzzled expression, and Lilia added lightly,

“Did Roderick ask you to bring a handkerchief? Or is it something you want to give?”

Nate couldn’t find an answer. But it seemed that in itself was already an answer to Lilia.

“Roderick has been saying quite a lot lately. That you don’t seem very interested in him.”

Nate couldn’t find words to respond to that either.

Roderick probably started thinking that way after the last time he and Nate went to Ombra together. After hearing his lewd remarks, she kept her distance from him, whether she meant to or not.

Perhaps Nate’s first impression of Roderick was simply too favorable. Judging by how unsettled she still felt about the way he showed his desires. Was that just how things were between men and women? There was still so much Nate didn’t know.

“Young Lord Damon.”

A voice nearby made Nate turn her head without thinking. Damon Preston was also at today’s hunt. A young lady with a sweet face was holding out a handkerchief to him.

“Please don’t get hurt. This is my token of encouragement.”

The young lady’s cheeks were flushed. Everyone nearby watched with interest. Lilia was also watching for Damon’s reaction.

Nate assumed he would take the handkerchief, naturally. At events like this, refusing a handkerchief offered as a token of support tended to make things awkward. And there were a great many young ladies eager to give Damon one.

‘He really is popular…….’

Nate watched the scene before her without much surprise, then quickly lost interest in him.

She turned to look for Roderick. It seemed better to give him the handkerchief quickly while everyone’s attention was on Damon. The nobility talked far too easily.

Just as Nate stepped away to go to Roderick, Damon, who had been looking over the young lady before him with an indifferent expression, turned his head. His pale blue eyes were fixed on Nate, walking toward Roderick.

He stared at her, then answered the young lady still holding out her handkerchief before him.

“I’m sorry, young lady. You’d be better off giving that to another young lord.”

The nobles nearby murmured in surprise. Nate, who stopped in front of Roderick, also heard his voice and briefly turned her gaze toward Damon.

Damon turned his head back and met her eyes. Their gazes collided in the air at the same moment.

Nate found she couldn’t look away for some reason. Damon’s blue eyes felt like they pulled people in. They pulled and pulled until you were trapped beneath deep water with no way out.

“Nate.”

It was Roderick’s voice that finally pulled her up from the depths. She turned toward him, and he smiled and pointed at the handkerchief in her hand.

“Is that for me?”

Nate smiled softly at his question.

“Yes. Please be careful out there.”

She carefully tied the handkerchief around Roderick’s wrist. He smiled with satisfaction.

“Thank you, Nate. I’ll come back with a successful hunt and give you the biggest catch.”

For a man to give his hunt to a young lady he favored was a kind of declaration of interest. Nate simply gave a quiet nod in reply.

And so many young ladies expressed their feelings by giving the young lords tokens such as handkerchiefs and sleeve ornaments.

Nate returned beneath the canopy and watched from a distance as Roderick made his preparations. Throughout it all, Damon continued to receive tokens from young ladies. What was strange, though, was that he accepted not a single one.

‘…I keep getting the feeling our eyes keep meeting.’

On top of that, for reasons she couldn’t explain, he kept staying close to where Nate was. And she kept catching him glancing at her. Like he was waiting to receive something from her.

‘It’s just my imagination. I’m not going to misread things anymore.’

Nate made herself ignore Damon’s gaze. He kept looking in her direction while turning down every token offered to him, then eventually let out a breath and walked away.

Everyone mounted their horses to head out for the hunt. Damon finished putting on his gear and swung up onto his horse with practiced ease.

“Young Lord Damon really is something. You’d have to say he radiates a certain masculine energy.”

Lilia watched Damon and spoke in an admiring voice. Nate said nothing. Lilia simply smiled at her.

“Roderick is my brother, but he really is so manly. He even brought back a wild boar once.”

Nate let out a small sigh at Lilia’s words.

“That sounds terribly dangerous…….”

“The more dangerous it is, the more it becomes a way for men to prove their bravery.”

Nate gave a look of understanding. She watched Roderick with a trace of worry. Then, almost out of habit, she looked for the back of Damon’s figure.

The young lords soon rode off into the hunting grounds and disappeared. The young ladies cheered them on from beneath the canopy.

They returned around the time the sun began to set. Some young lords came back empty-handed, their expressions sour. Most brought back birds or rabbits and proudly presented them to the young ladies they favored. Someone even offered Lilia a sweet little rabbit. And then……

“Look at Young Lord Lovitz. He hunted something extraordinary.”

“My goodness, how impressive. He’ll be giving it to Miss O’Hara, surely?”

Roderick approached Nate with a servant in tow. The servant was carrying the head of an enormous beast. Roderick smiled and spoke to Nate.

“I dedicate the glory of my hunt entirely to Nate.”

The young ladies nearby gasped in admiration. Every eye turned to the two of them.

What Roderick brought back was none other than a wild boar. A beast so fierce that even skilled hunters said it was difficult to take down.

Nate never received a wild boar as a gift before and couldn’t help being startled.

“Thank you, Roderick…….”

Roderick looked thoroughly pleased with himself. He was enjoying every bit of the attention around him.

He curved his lips into a smooth smile and asked Nate,

“No kiss of gratitude, Nate?”

She looked at him with wide eyes. He winked and whispered, “There are too many eyes here, so give it to me later when we’re alone.”

Nate could only face Roderick with an awkward expression.

Everyone around praised Roderick lavishly. He looked away from Nate and smiled proudly at them. As time passed, the attention around him gradually faded.

Damon still hadn’t returned. Nate was actually the first to notice. Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. Another young lady spoke up in her place.

“Why hasn’t Young Lord Damon come back?”

One of the young lords who went hunting with him answered.

“That’s what I was thinking. He should be back by now……. We parted ways with him in the middle of the hunting grounds. He said he wanted to go deeper into the forest.”

Nate couldn’t hold back any longer and opened her mouth.

“He went into the deep forest alone? That sounds far too dangerous.”

“We tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s such a skilled hunter that we weren’t too worried, but…….”

The young lord added in a flat, uncertain tone.