And on the third day…

Saena was spending her third morning at Duke Kramer’s mansion.

The weather outside was still raging. Though the amount of snow had decreased, the blizzard persisted, preventing the accumulated snow from melting.

And during those three days, Saena was still being spoon-fed by the Duke.

“Um, my left hand is perfectly fine….”

He had been feeding her at every meal, claiming she couldn’t use her right hand.

“Can you eat without spilling using your left hand?”

“…I could try?”

Since only easy-to-eat foods were being served, eating with just her left hand didn’t seem like it would be too difficult.

But he pretended not to hear her request and calmly brought a fork with a small piece of cut meat to her lips.

“Hup.”

Saena reflexively accepted the meat and chewed it slowly. As always, the Duke’s household’s culinary skills were excellent and beyond reproach.

After the meat came roasted vegetables. The Duke didn’t forget to offer her juice between bites to wet her throat.

In fact, she hadn’t received such care even when she was deathly ill. Every time she noticed how delicately he attended to her needs, Saena felt very strange.

There were often times when she thought this level of care was unnecessary, but he was quite firm and showed no hesitation in taking care of her.

His nurturing touch, as if she were a one or two-year-old baby, was very awkward at first, but after a few days, it became familiar. No, to be honest, it had become problematically too familiar.

‘Even a wet nurse wouldn’t do this much….’

While she felt guilty about receiving care from someone of ducal status, she hadn’t asked for it, and since her protests were futile, Saena had no choice. She just accepted it with peace of mind.

“They said I could remove this bandage today, right?”

Besides, this care was, well, now coming to an end.

“…Wasn’t there still some redness remaining?”

“It’s barely visible. I think even that will disappear after applying medicine later. It seems fine to remove it.”

“Alright. Let’s do that then.”

Saena suggested applying the medicine right after the meal while they were on the subject. She was quite frustrated with being practically confined to her room.

After removing the bandage, he applied the medicine with his characteristically delicate touch. Looking at her now smooth palm, Saena smiled while making a fist several times.

“Thank you. Thanks to the precious potion, it’s healed without a trace.”

“The medicine isn’t the issue. Just don’t get hurt.”

“Yes.”

Smiling broadly, Saena stretched long. He stared intently at her smiling face and let out a short sigh, but she didn’t notice.

“You couldn’t work because of me, right? Shall we go to the study together?”

“Don’t worry about such things.”

“But you must be busy…”

“Work is naturally endless if you try to do it all. I’m handling things adequately, so don’t concern yourself.”

“I want to catch up on my delayed work while you work.”

“There’s nothing urgent, so don’t feel pressured.”

The Duke’s wall was impressive. Finally, Saena had to reveal her true feelings.

“…I want to do it.”

“…Were you bored?”

“Being confined to bed did make time pass slowly.”

Only then did the Duke smile slightly and head to the study.

Though he had spoken as if work was optional, once seated at his desk, the Duke showed incredible concentration while attending to his duties.

It seemed work had indeed piled up. Just looking at the documents stacked on his desk, there appeared to be more than usual.

Saena sat at her desk and examined the jewel after a long time. The black diamond she held in her hand after so long still emitted a brilliant light.

She observed the jewel, turning it this way and that. She carefully copied the patterns onto paper, looking more closely to see if there were any markings she hadn’t transferred yet. Though it was large for a jewel, it was still smaller than a palm, yet copying the surface patterns alone took an enormous amount of time.

It took considerable mental effort just to separate the letters because the engraved forms overlapped heavily. Moreover, among the separated Arlesian text, there were unusually many phonetic characters and structures whose meanings remained unknown.

‘This is going to be much trickier than I thought.’

Saena doesn’t know all the grammar and systems of Arlesian (a person who knows probably doesn’t exist in the current era). Therefore, while she hadn’t resolved to interpret all the characters engraved on the jewel, she worried that at this rate, she might not even complete half of it.

Since she thought the translation work she thought would be simple became increasingly complicated, a sigh escaped and her mind began to wander.

Saena put down the diamond from her left hand and rested her chin on it. While trying to control her pouting lips and rolling her eyes, the Duke’s figure naturally came into view again.

‘He’s the very embodiment of nobility.’

Watching his controlled movements, as if unwilling to waste even a fraction of energy on anything beyond prescribed forms, she thought how elegant it was, but also wondered if it wasn’t difficult for a person to maintain such composure without a moment’s break.

She herself would move her head this way and that while reading a book, wiggle her feet, or tap her fingers.

‘Besides… he’s really handsome.’

A perfectly symmetrical face, with thick eyelashes resting beneath prominent brow bones, masculine almond-shaped eyes, a high nose bridge, and a defined jawline.

Meanwhile, seeing a few strands of hair that had escaped from his neatly tied-back hair falling near his temples made her want to reach out and tuck them behind his ear — a strange impulse.

As she stared at him, the Duke suddenly looked up.

“……!”

She was caught staring.

“…Is something troubling you?”

“Wh-what?”

“You look like you have something to say.”

Hair… would it be okay to tuck it back for you? …That’s not something she could ask.

Even though she was caught, for some reason she couldn’t control herself and her fingertips tingled.

Why am I like this?

“No! It’s nothing…. Hmm.”

Saena quickly lowered her gaze and clenched her hands.

The Duke tilted his head slightly at Saena, who was pretending to work while looking at the jewel with an ‘I didn’t do anything!’ expression, then rose from his seat.

When he suddenly stood up and approached, Saena became quite flustered internally and pretended to study the jewel more intently.

“Let’s take a break.”

“…Yes?”

“It’s not good to overdo it on your first day of recovery. Let’s have some tea.”

“Ah…. Shall we?”

Since her concentration was already broken, it seemed like a good idea.

But when she thought about having something to drink, she suddenly wanted something else.

“Not tea, but alcohol.”

“Alcohol, you say?”

“Yes. I want to drink.”

The Duke had a bewildered expression.

“But… aren’t you ill?”

“No, I’m not. I’m not in pain anywhere.”

She was perfectly fine. In fact, the Duke had overreacted considering the injury.

“Your age…”

“I’m old enough to drink, you know.”

You were so eager before, but now treating me like a child…

She was an adult both physically and mentally. She knew the taste of alcohol and had drunk enough to know her preferences.

Actually, because she had to marry George Hollander after waking up in a strange bed drunk in her past life, she had avoided alcohol for a while, disgusted by it.

But her life then wasn’t easy. There were times when she wanted to let everything go.

Meanwhile, while managing the Hollander household, she had to reluctantly taste test numerous affordable yet quality wines.

Though unintentional, she was forced to discover the benefits of alcohol. After experiencing its effect of loosening taut nerves, she began taking sips here and there.

She had times when she needed even that to endure life.

Though it wasn’t like that now, when her mood fluctuated like this, she naturally thought of drinking.

Though they were trapped in the mansion due to unseasonable heavy snow, the view through the window was quite atmospheric.

It was perfect weather for sitting in front of a warm fireplace, watching the snow fall outside while having a drink.

The Duke, initially surprised, seemed to sense Saena’s rather firm resolve and showed a slightly sighing smile before agreeing.

“Then… let’s move somewhere else.”

“I’d like somewhere with a fireplace! With a soft rug in front of it!”

“You plan to sit on the floor?”

Was she being too casual? Seeing the Duke ask with slight surprise made her wonder.

“It would be nice to have a large window where we can see the falling snow from where we sit.”

But today, she really craved a drink. Though she was somewhat aware that she shouldn’t act like this in someone else’s house, the Duke’s attitude so far seemed trustworthy.

“There is… exactly one such place.”

“Oh, really?”

“Let’s look and decide. If you don’t like it, we can find another room.”

Saena followed him, skipping along. But gradually, she tilted her head as the path seemed familiar.

If they went this way… wasn’t this toward her room?

Wondering about this, she followed as the Duke passed by the door to Saena’s room and opened the next door.

Inside was a large private reception room, and through another door inside was another room.

In the center of the wide wall was a large fireplace with burning logs, to the left was a huge window connecting to a terrace, and to the right was an enormous bed that could fit at least four people.

Though the room had a simple structure with few pieces of furniture, the area in front of the fireplace with its long chaise lounge and several layers of fur rugs and cushions on the floor gave off quite a cozy atmosphere.

The conditions were perfect. It had everything Saena had mentioned earlier.