His perpetually emotionless face today merely revealed his handsome features like a painting, not a single detail out of place.

With the momentum suggesting he wouldn’t move a single step unless she linked arms, Rayenne had no choice but to quietly slip her arm through Jin’s left arm.

“There aren’t any courtiers around today.”

She meant that since there was no one around, did they really need to walk arm-in-arm like this, but it didn’t seem to get through to Jin.

Having no other choice, Rayenne walked alongside Jin and tilted her head.

The closer they got to the library, the more it felt like there were more courtiers.

‘No, it’s not just a feeling—it’s a fact.’

The front of the imperial library was bustling with courtiers and knights.

Roughly twenty people.

‘Did some high-ranking person come by?’

“It seems His Highness the Crown Prince is here.”

“His Highness the Crown Prince?”

Jin, who had stopped walking in front of the library stairs, informed her quietly enough for only Rayenne to hear, making her eyes widen.

Come to think of it, there was indeed a crown prince in this country.

The owner of outstanding looks with black hair and black eyes, symbols of the imperial family.

An existence admired and cheered for by young ladies from noble daughters to commoners alike.

In short…

‘The empire’s idol!’

Like everyone else, Rayenne’s eyes sparkled at the news that this empire’s idol she’d only encountered in print was in the library.

“Would you like to take a walk with me instead?”

It was a sudden proposal.

Rayenne tilted her head, not understanding Jin’s intention.

“Didn’t you say you were attending a meeting?”

When Rayenne asked this, Jin pressed his lips firmly together. The space between his straight eyebrows seemed to narrow slightly.

When Jin gave no particular answer, Rayenne unlinked their arms.

Somehow she judged she should send Jin off before it got any later, given his strange state.

“Even if I happen to run into His Highness the Crown Prince, I won’t commit any major breach of etiquette.”

Rayenne thought that was the reason Jin was trying not to let her enter the library.

But Jin remained silent with a stiff face.

When the two had spent quite a long time in silence and the courtiers began looking at them strangely, Jin finally opened his mouth.

“I’ll come as soon as the meeting ends.”

It was welcome news to hear.

“Alright. Don’t worry too much and go on.”

“…I’ll be back.”

With those last words, Jin’s expression seemed to relax a bit.

***

Even when Jin had suggested taking a walk instead, Rayenne hadn’t known why he was trying to prevent her from encountering the crown prince.

But seeing Dante sitting languidly next to the crown prince—whose outstanding looks would make the hearts of young ladies throughout the empire flutter—she vaguely thought she might understand the reason.

‘Maybe it wasn’t about the crown prince, but about not letting me meet that guy.’

“A butterfly has come to visit.”

The crown prince had clearly said this looking at Rayenne, but the form of address was strange.

‘Butterfly?’

But since she had no desire to ask about it, Rayenne pretended not to have heard anything and went between the bookshelves.

“Weren’t you two acquainted?”

“It seems I upset her yesterday.”

It was natural to be bothered by their conversation, spoken loudly enough to be heard.

‘Even if he’s the crown prince, making such loud noises in a library isn’t right!’

It was an outcry she couldn’t voice aloud.

“Really?”

After the crown prince’s voice tinged with laughter was heard, their conversation didn’t continue further.

Just as Rayenne was about to focus on selecting books again, another sound she couldn’t ignore reached her ears.

Unlike their conversation without much lowering of voices, quiet footsteps were gradually approaching Rayenne.

“Duchess of Daihan?”

The crown prince, who had stopped without entering between the bookshelves, asked while tilting his head slightly.

“What is it?”

Meeting her wary violet eyes, the crown prince greeted her elegantly.

“I’m Shuga Cuffs. As you know, I’m also the crown prince.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Rayenne hoped Shuga would lose interest and quickly leave with her monotone answer.

But Shuga instead gracefully curved the corners of his eyes and made his black eyes sparkle.

‘It’s a gracious scene, but not particularly welcome right now.’

Besides, weren’t there plenty of idols with gracious appearances in her past life too?

“You’re the most talked-about person in high society these days, but I didn’t expect to meet you in the library. In the annex, no less.”

So this was the annex. It was a fact Rayenne hadn’t known.

But to end the conversation as quickly as possible, Rayenne deliberately didn’t voice that fact.

“I’m also honored to meet Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Finding appropriate words to respond without being rude was also t*rture.

“Haha. Since we’ve met like this, if you’re not busy, how about having tea together?”

‘You’re saying this now because anyone can see I don’t look busy, right?’

Careful that her sharp gaze might show, Rayenne covered her mouth with her hand looking troubled.

“I’m supposed to meet my husband here later. If I go somewhere else, he’ll look for me.”

It was an indirect refusal, but Shuga instead smiled brightly.

“Don’t worry about that, Duchess. I’ll have a courtier relay the message. Should I send someone to the noble council room?”

Shuga apparently already knew exactly where Jin was.

It also meant Rayenne had no more grounds to refuse.

***

The garden was full of warm sunshine befitting a spring day, sprouts blooming differently each day, and spring flowers were filled with fresh fragrance.

Unlike Rayenne’s mood as she sat there reluctantly.

“Does the tea not suit your taste?”

Unlike his position as crown prince, Shuga seemed naturally kind.

‘Or maybe he’s doing it on purpose.’

Glancing at Dante sitting quietly beside Shuga drinking tea, Rayenne shook her head lightly.

“No. It’s delicious with its rich fruit flavor.”

“That’s fortunate then.”

Looking at the brightly smiling Shuga and the intellectually seated Dante, it was confusing who the crown prince was.

Judging by the atmosphere, the wolf-like Dante seemed much more like a crown prince than Shuga, who was like a neighborhood puppy.

“Weren’t you and Dante academy classmates?”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

Black eyes with a mischievous glint went back and forth between Rayenne and Dante.

“You’re quite distant for that. Did Dante bully you during school?”

It would have been a joke to lighten the mood, but for Rayenne who had no memories of that time, it wasn’t something she could easily answer.

Because of this, an unintended silence flowed briefly.

“Wait, did you really bully her?”

“No.”

It was Dante’s voice heard up close for the first time today.

The moderately low voice, no different from yesterday, carried clear disbelief.

“Looking at the Duchess of Daihan, it doesn’t seem like nothing happened?”

Dante’s gaze, who had shrugged his shoulders like it wasn’t worth responding to anymore, slowly moved to Rayenne.

Though they were meeting again after just one day, the weight was clearly different from yesterday.

‘Was I too sensitive yesterday?’

Dante’s expressionless face, which had only shown an attitude as light as Shuga’s, made her look back on yesterday for no reason.

“If I had bullied her, at least she’d remember me.”

‘Why are you so desperate to be remembered!’

From yesterday, whether she remembered him or not—Rayenne was fed up with this repeated topic.

They clearly weren’t on friendly terms, so she desperately wanted to demand why he was acting this way toward her.

“That must be it. I must have been too focused on my studies back then.”

Rayenne pretended to agree while adding an excuse, hoping this would end the topic.

Shuga, who had been watching the situation with a bright smile, cut through the ambiguous atmosphere.

“So that’s why everyone’s interest in the duchess is even higher.”

Come to think of it, this was the second time hearing something similar.

“In me?”

Remembering hearing in the library that she was recently a hot topic in high society, she asked back, and Shuga’s eyes widened instead.

“I understand that over twenty tea party invitation letters are sent to the duchess per day.”

The words implied she should know this well, but it was news to Rayenne.

“What?”

Tea party invitation letters for her?

Just as she’d said the most interesting thing at the ducal estate was her husband’s face, for Rayenne who was spending boring days with nothing to do, this was absurd.

Questions filled the eyes of the two who didn’t understand each other’s words.

“I thought it took considerable courage to refuse that many invitations, but did you perhaps not receive them?”

If Shuga had been observing the situation earlier, now Dante was observing it.

Interest arose in Dante’s eyes as he quietly watched the situation that didn’t add up.

“I haven’t received anything like invitation letters.”

Shuga glanced back at Dante.

Looking at Dante’s face as he sat languidly beside him, it was clearly news to him as well.

“After I asked him to be an affectionate husband.”

When Rayenne looked at Dante wondering what strange thing he was saying, a memory suddenly came back.

The night of the wedding when she first encountered Dante.

There had been something Dante said on the terrace, seemingly to provoke Jin.

[It depends on how affectionate a husband Duke Daihan becomes to my friend, doesn’t it?]

Words Dante had given in response to Rayenne’s indirect way of saying not to worry.

‘What does not delivering letters have to do with being an affectionate husband?’

Even at that time, Jin hadn’t responded at all, whether he hadn’t heard Dante’s words or not.

“You said that to the duke?”

Shuga asked in surprise, then soon seemed lost in thought as he stroked his chin with his hand.

He nodded before long.

“To prevent the duchess, who has no connections in high society, from being called here and there, eliminating the letters at the duke’s level is indeed the safest countermeasure with the least complications.”

So that’s how the story went.

Hearing it explained, it was an interpretation that made sense.

But even if Dante had said that, there was no way Jin had heard it and decided to become an affectionate husband.

‘Could it be?’

She recalled Jin’s appearance earlier, wanting to take a walk with her even before the meeting.

What if Jin disliked Rayenne and Dante meeting?

‘Then everything would fit together perfectly… But Jin doesn’t even like me, so there’s no way he’d listen to such words. If not that, then…’

Rayenne drank her tea while continuing to think.