Epilogue

“Hmmmm……”

Lucas turned his head at the small sound coming from the desk area while sitting on the sofa reviewing documents.

He saw Giselle sleeping with her head down at his desk. The warm sunshine and the gentle breeze must have lulled her to sleep without her realizing it.

“……It’s not that it’s comfortable for working, but rather that it makes one sleepy.”

He smiled wryly at his wife who had claimed his office almost as if it were her own space.

Despite having prepared a separate office for her in the mansion, Giselle almost always came here, to Lucas’s office, to check the ledgers or handle the various affairs of the mansion.

⟨This place gets better sunlight and has a wider desk.⟩

⟨Then I’ll switch rooms with you.⟩

⟨No, that’s not it…… Don’t you want to be with me?⟩

How could he not understand her adorable intention to make excuses to be with him?

He had only teased her by offering to switch offices, but Giselle had become upset and huffed, and he suddenly remembered how he had struggled for a while to appease her anger.

Lucas stood up and carefully approached the desk.

Pink hair was scattered across the wide-open ledger. Fortunately, her hair, which had become dry and lost its luster until recently, had returned to its original shining state.

He carefully stroked her hair and tried to hold back his laughter at the sight of her glasses sitting askew on the tip of her nose.

⟨Ah, what a waste! How many times has this happened now!⟩

The round glasses that Giselle liked to wear while working had already been broken several times.

Because she would fall asleep like this with her glasses on while working.

Each time, she would look devastated about the waste, but then she would forget and fall asleep wearing her glasses again.

He smiled at his wife who could be so meticulous at times but occasionally showed such careless sides.

“I told you to sleep properly. You always end up falling asleep like this when you’re being stubborn.”

Despite his chiding words, his hands were incredibly gentle as he removed her glasses. Though he wasn’t aware of it himself, his gaze upon her was equally warm.

“……Mmm, I want to sleep.”

Perhaps slightly awakened by his touch removing her glasses, Giselle furrowed her brow and mumbled in her sleep.

“Now you’re even sleep-talking, my wife.”

Lucas laughed again as if he couldn’t believe it. Nevertheless, he folded the glasses and placed them on the side of the desk.

Within reach when she woke up.

Then he turned to leave but turned back again. Her cotton candy-like pink hair fluttered in the breeze coming through the slightly opened window.

He knew well how soft that hair was.

And how sometimes he couldn’t distinguish between her hair scattered across the bed and her small face flushed red.

“……I must be crazy.”

Thinking about the night in broad daylight.

If Giselle knew, she might have been alarmed and pinched his side. Lucas let out a light laugh at the vivid scene in his mind, then reached out toward her.

He barely touched Giselle’s hair as if brushing it, then clenched his hand tightly and went outside.

Even then, Giselle didn’t wake up.

Instead, a smile spread across her lips as if she were having a pleasant dream.

It was a peaceful afternoon scene, as always.

* * *

“Yaaawn….. Ah, I must have dozed off again. Why have I been so sleepy lately?”

Giselle rubbed her eyes and expelled the remaining drowsiness with a yawn. At that moment, the door opened and Lucas entered.

She hurriedly covered her yawning mouth with both hands, thinking someone else might have come in, but soon saw him and greeted him happily.

“What’s that? You brought it for me, right?”

To be precise, not him, but the sweet something he was carrying.

Lucas smirked at her sniffing the sweet aroma and playfully shook his head.

“No, I brought it for myself?”

“Don’t lie. You don’t even like sweet things.”

Giselle confidently held out her hand to Lucas. He sat on the edge of the desk and reluctantly handed her the cocoa he had brought.

“Ah, delicious……”

She took a sip of the cocoa he handed her and smiled as if she had the whole world.

Lately, Giselle had been particularly fond of drinking cocoa, so the mansion was constantly filled with sweet aromas.

“Doesn’t it taste sweeter after waking up from a nap?”

“Yes, it does…… Huh? W-who said I was napping? I’ve been working the whole time.”

Giselle casually responded to his words but then shook her head in surprise at her own admission. But Lucas pointed at her eyes with an amused smile.

“You might want to remove the sleep from your eyes before speaking, wife.”

“Oh! Y-you should have told me that earlier!”

At his words, Giselle hurriedly tried to check her face, her cheeks turning bright red with no time to hide them. But Lucas continued in a mischievous tone.

“I was joking.”

“……Oh, really!”

At the sight of the man growing more mischievous by the day, she glared at him with narrowed eyes.

But soon, as if recalling something, she looked at the cocoa in her hand and tilted her head.

“What is it?”

He had expected her to be annoyed with a red face after his mischievous joke, but her response was unexpected.

Lucas was puzzled by her unexpected reaction and tilted his head as well.

But she didn’t answer his question and looked at the cup in her hand.

The cup filled with warm cocoa.

With steam rising, just the right temperature for drinking.

“I was sleeping, so how did you bring this at exactly the right time?”

“Huh?”

Lucas’s expression momentarily faltered at the question she raised.

“It’s not cold, and you brought it at just the right moment.”

“……Ahem. Well, I guess I was lucky.”

“Hmm.”

Giselle put down the cup she was holding, crossed her arms, and looked at him with narrowed eyes. This time, conversely, Lucas’s face began to turn red.

Seeing this, Giselle raised the corner of her lips as if she understood.

“You kept bringing warm cocoa, didn’t you? And when it got cold, you brought another warm one. To give it to me when I woke up.”

“……Well, um……”

Lucas couldn’t deny her speculation and hesitated before awkwardly rubbing his chin with an embarrassed expression.

At this sight, Giselle burst into laughter.

The man before her was so cute and lovable.

Of course, people who knew him would be taken aback by her thoughts.

‘But cute is cute. It’s enough if that’s how he appears to my eyes.’

She couldn’t stop laughing as she imagined how many times Lucas must have entered and exited his own office with sweet cocoa while she was sleeping.

At the same time, her heart warmed as much as the still-warm cocoa.

“Um…… Anyway, since you’re awake, I need to talk to you about something.”

Lucas, who had been avoiding her gaze and continuing to look embarrassed, cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“Talk? What about?”

She looked at him with lingering laughter in her eyes.

“About the trip I mentioned before. I was thinking we could go now, what do you think?”

“A trip?”

Giselle’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.

She had thought he was just changing the subject to shift the awkward atmosphere, but that wasn’t the case.

A trip.

‘……Ah! Could it be?’

A conversation with Lucas buried in her memory resurfaced.

⟨Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped. Then later… no, perhaps we should take a trip sometime? I have a villa in the north with beautiful scenery. The lake in front of it is good for fishing, and it’s nice to walk around its perimeter.⟩

It must have been that day. The day when the return on her investment had reached its peak.

She had been so preoccupied with the thought of going to the bank without Lucas finding out that she had only half-listened to his words.

Or rather, she had simply thought it would be nice to go when they had time later.

Although he was leaving work early these days and living more leisurely than before, she knew better than anyone how busy he was.

Moreover, Lucas had been incredibly busy with various matters until quite recently.

But now, a trip.

“Are we really going on a trip? To that villa near the lake you mentioned then?”

“It doesn’t have to be there. We can go somewhere else if you prefer.”

“That’s not what matters! The important thing is that we’re going on a trip!”

Wow! Giselle rejoiced like a child, even throwing both arms up in the air. Then she promptly stood up and continued.

“I should tell Mother right away. How happy she’ll be……”

“Ah, wait a moment. Giselle.”

Seeing her about to rush out to find his mother, a flustered Lucas stopped her.

“……You want to bring Mother along?”

“Of course.”