Casian’s palms were sweaty. Perhaps because it had been quite a while since he’d visited the County, his chest felt heavy with tension throughout the entire journey here. 

He, who had met countless women and spent time with numerous women, found himself overwhelmed with nausea-inducing nervousness at merely meeting his fiancée briefly.

A difficult woman. To Casian, Rihana was a woman defined by exactly those words. She was so different from all other women.

There had been a time when he felt her gaze toward him held the same feelings as other women’s. Even when he told the Emperor about his engagement to her, Casian had believed Rihana loved him. But all of that had been Casian’s misunderstanding.

A woman who flinched when he merely reached out his hand. Her consistently stiff and polite demeanor felt like she was dealing with a superior. His first love, whom he’d fallen for at first sight in the training grounds as a child, seemed to think of him merely as a tool necessary for her family. 

The union of the Ariella Count family and the Lewandes Marquis family. Anyone could see it was a union that would strengthen the Ariella Count family.

So he treated her the same way she treated him. Despite being his fiancée, he was indifferent, treating her worse than others, acting like there was no need to speak to her unless she spoke first.

He had maintained such an attitude for several years. Now even meeting her for business made him nervous and burdened. Especially now, when everything about her grew more precious with each passing year.

“I’m late.”

Just as he was bringing his teacup to his lips, Rihana entered the reception room. She still wore her stiff pants and shirt, but her unusually flushed cheeks were lovely.

“I haven’t been waiting long.”

Casian said, setting down the teacup that had been heading toward his mouth. Rihana sat across from Casian and focused her gaze on the teacup a servant had placed for her.

Despite this being their first meeting in a very long time, Rihana wouldn’t look at him properly, making Casian’s heart both ache and grow cold again.

“The reason I came here today is… Who is that?”

Suddenly, Casian glanced toward the open door and unconsciously asked upon seeing Raiden’s back figure standing at attention outside. Rihana, who had been drinking tea, looked at Raiden once where Casian’s gaze had fallen, then set down her teacup and said he was her guard.

“A guard?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell me you’re in some dangerous situation?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Just… I went to a black market and he caught my eye, so I brought him back. Since he can handle a sword somewhat, I’m keeping him as a guard.”

“A black market? Why would you go to such a place?”

And buying a slave there, a male one at that. Her words about him catching her eye kept circling in his head.

“It’s personal business.”

Personal business. So she couldn’t tell her fiancé about personal matters? Casian felt his heart ache and grow cold on one side again.

“A blonde slave, how refreshing.”

Since blonde hair was rare in the Kadelai Empire, Raiden’s dazzling blonde hair was particularly eye-catching. And though it was just his back view, he was a man with height similar to his own, automatically activating his male instincts to be wary.

“Please continue with what you were saying.”

Rihana said to Casian, who was staring intently at Raiden’s back. She had spoken to divert his attention, worried he might learn about Raiden being the Duchess’s former slave, but Casian misunderstood it as her wanting to finish business quickly and send him away.

Casian really didn’t like this aspect of his fiancée. Every woman he’d met so far had tried to buy time to stay with him even a little longer. But the woman who had ultimately bound him in the framework of engagement out of her own greed wanted to part from him quickly.

There was always a wall of misunderstanding between them. Just like now.

“About accompanying me to the Imperial party.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Normally, I should escort you as my fiancée, but…”

My fiancée. At the words “my fiancée” coming from Casian’s mouth, Rihana’s heart trembled finely. But soon, at the Princess’s name that came from his mouth, she snapped to attention like cold water had been poured over her.

“Her Highness Princess Melissa has designated me.”

Melissa Kadelai. The Kadelai Empire’s only princess. Learning that she liked Casian wasn’t something that had happened long ago. Due to Rihana and Casian’s engagement, Princess Melissa glared at Rihana like she wanted to kill her whenever she saw her, and pestered the Emperor daily to cancel Casian and Rihana’s engagement.

Rihana, who had been completely unaware that Princess Melissa had feelings for Casian, had once considered asking for the engagement to be canceled after hearing about it. 

But when she brought up the topic of canceling their engagement with Casian, he had sternly asked if the Emperor’s command was a joke and curtly told her never to discuss the matter again. That had been somewhat—no, quite—gratifying at times, but…

Not like this though. She was angry at the Princess for requesting an escort from a man who clearly had a fiancée, but she was also annoyed at her own fiancé who had come to tell her he couldn’t go with her due to the Princess’s request.

“Do that then.”

Rihana, who had learned through various circumstances that he had come to notify rather than consult, answered with an expressionless face.

Instantly, Casian’s face hardened coldly. As expected, his fiancée’s face showed she didn’t care what happened to him. If she was this uninterested in him, why had she specifically chosen him as her fiancé, and how did she plan to conduct their married life together? 

The most incomprehensible thing was how his lower body grew heavy at just the words “married life with Rihana.”

“Are you finished with your business?”

Instead of answering, Casian nodded once and stood up. After running his hand once through his fine ash-colored hair, he looked at Rihana and said:

“If it’s difficult to find an escort, I could ask someone I know…”

“No. It’s fine.”

“Do you have someone to go with?”

When her fiancé, who was abandoning her to go with the Princess, pretended to worry about her belatedly, Rihana’s brow furrowed slightly. Just then, catching sight of the dazzling blonde hair, Rihana stared at Raiden’s back like she was entranced and murmured:

“Yes, I do.”

* * *

“There’s a slave that Countess Ariella bought recently. Look into him.”

Casian said to Denver, who assisted him, after returning to his mansion.

“Yes, sir.”

After Denver finished his response, bowed once, and went outside, Casian tugged at his cravat with his index finger like he felt suffocated.

“Hah…”

‘Yes, I do. My guard will serve as my escort.’

Rihana’s face as she murmured while not taking her eyes off the blonde man was vivid in his memory. 

Despite her proud and cold demeanor, she had eyes that somehow seemed cute and lovely, and he was curious about the man completely captured in those eyes, so he had checked the blonde man’s face as he left. 

The moment he saw his face, he felt like the blood flowing through his body stopped instantly.

Blonde hair and blue eyes. For a slave, his hair and eye color were excessively arrogant. Moreover, even from his male perspective, he had a very handsome face. When he asked how she had acquired him, she said she had gone to a black market by chance and brought him back because he caught her eye. 

It was a face worth noticing and an appearance anyone would have brought back, but he didn’t like that it was his fiancée who had done so.

Beast instinct. Yes, it was something like beast instinct. Having that blonde b*stard in his fiancée’s house was quite dangerous.

‘I lost my memory, so I don’t know how I ended up in the slave market.’

The blonde b*stard with even a good voice had answered Casian’s question that way.

Lost his memory. That meant he might possibly be of noble status.

Casian was the type who greatly disliked things that bothered and got in his way. Now, when the Empire was secretly noisy due to nobles’ conspiracy of rebellion, from Casian’s position of being unable to refuse the Princess’s proposal for Rihana’s safety, the blonde slave of unknown origin was extremely bothersome.

“D*mn it.”

A low curse flowed from Casian’s mouth. He needed to send her to the northern frontier quickly. If she, the Emperor’s Sword, got involved in the rebellion commotion, her life would surely be in danger first.

Though Rihana didn’t like him, she seemed to have enough specialness to designate him as her fiancé, and Casian had sufficient confidence that once they married and lived in the same mansion, he could make her like him. So until they lived together, there shouldn’t be anything getting in their way.

Casian leaned his head back in his chair and sighed deeply, pondering how to get rid of the memory-lost blonde b*stard.

* * *

“Just stay by my side.”

During lunch, Rihana said to Raiden. Since Raiden had heard their entire conversation while standing guard outside the door, he nodded without much question.

“Let’s see, we’ll need to get clothes first, right? To order custom clothing we need plenty of time, so I’ll call a designer today right away…”

“Custom clothing for a slave’s status?”

Raiden interrupted Rihana, who was speaking with somewhat excited feelings. Though she seemed excited, she was clearly dejected right now. The expression she’d worn while watching her fiancé’s departing back continued even now.

“You’re not just any slave.”

“No employer gives custom clothing to their guard either.”

“The Duchess asked me to protect you preciously.”

“…Ah. I suppose custom clothing is included in that ‘precious’ treatment.”

“That too, but…”

Because I want to treat you well. She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest and kept her mouth shut.

“Your fiancé left quite quickly.”

“…Yeah.”

“Usually it wouldn’t be like that.”

“…Yeah.”

Rihana answered in a dejected voice while poking at the food in front of her with her fork.

“Don’t you two get along well?”

“…Yeah. That person… he dislikes me.”