The Marquis felt anew just how hopeless he was at speaking.

“Earlier, I said I was much older than the Lady… to Ray, so I wondered if perhaps the Lady didn’t know my age….”

Knowing how pathetic he sounded, he rubbed the back of his neck and spoke haltingly.

“I know. The Marquis is only three or four years older than me.”

“Yes! Only three or four years older. I should have been half a century older!”

The Marquis, worked up all by himself at her nonchalant attitude, raised his voice.

So that’s what he’d been fidgeting about this whole time—the Marquis was still hung up on the age topic that had long since ended.

“You’ve been worrying about that this whole time? Seriously. You know you’re really stupid sometimes, right?”

“S-stupid?”

The Marquis’s expression went blank again.

At that face, Arinne burst into genuine laughter this time.

“How cute.”

“No?! I’m not cute!”

His face now bright red, the Marquis shouted indignantly.

“And the person who calls someone stupid is the stupid one!”

“Ah. I see.”

Embarrassed by Arinne’s calm response, the Marquis crossed his arms to cover his face, then realizing even that looked pathetic, turned his back to her completely.

Arinne slowly shook her head while looking at his back. She found it fascinating how he didn’t let a single thing slide and responded earnestly to everything.

He reacted like this even to words she didn’t mean anything by—he really lived an exhausting life.

“Ah! Come to think of it, Jade said that to Ray. That the person who calls someone stupid is stupid.”

“Isn’t it obvious that the person who says bad things is a bad person?”

“You’re just as prickly too.”

The Marquis flinched.

Being told he resembled Jade was nice, but it also felt like she was teasing him for being childish, so he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Well, um, ah, mm, ahem.”

He acted like a broken wind-up toy before glancing back at Arinne.

“Anyway! I’m older than the Lady. Calling me cute is rude, and you should apologize for calling me stupid too.”

Arinne looked dubiously at the Marquis’s back and his reddened ears.

Really childish, like a kid.

Just moments ago he was explaining he wasn’t that old, and now he was emphasizing that he was her senior.

His naive and natural attitude, not knowing what he even wanted, was so childlike that Arinne wondered if the man before her wasn’t just Jade in a different shell.

“Stupid.”

She muttered like talking to herself.

“Lady?!”

The Marquis, sensing sincerity in that, turned to look at her with an aggrieved expression.

He moved his lips to say something, then thoroughly sulking, clamped his mouth shut tight.

“Oh my. Does a gentleman leave a lady behind and go alone?”

Arinne placed her left hand near her mouth and spoke to the back of the man striding ahead by himself.

The Marquis stopped dead in his tracks.

Would he flee, unable to bear the shame and embarrassment? Or would he return like a gentleman and escort the lady?

He creaked in place, looking like he might turn back or might not.

“I don’t care! Come by yourself!!”

“Huh?”

A laugh escaped Arinne’s lips.

‘Incredible.’

The children’s habit of running away at every little thing clearly came from him.

“And, Lady!”

The Marquis suddenly turned and shouted.

At first, Arinne thought he’d chosen to be a gentleman after all and come walk beside her.

If he was going to make a scene for all the servants to see anyway, even if it looked bad, he should just hurry back this way…

If she had to choose between looking bad in front of one person versus looking bad in front of everyone, Arinne would overwhelmingly choose the former.

“Just call me Arinne!”

“Yes, Arinne!”

Because he chose the latter, she found herself shouting back in an undignified manner too.

“Eat more or exercise! You keep swaying! If you can’t even climb stairs, there’s a problem with your stamina!”

“All of a sudden?!”

Caught off guard by the attack of facts without any mental preparation, Arinne responded informally in confusion.

‘Really, suddenly worrying about someone else’s stamina like this?’

She thought he was getting revenge for being teased, but he seemed quite serious.

The Marquis was an unpredictable man.

“Don’t you spend most of your time in bed? I know everything!”

“……”

Arinne, who had been planning to spend the entire remaining afternoon in bed after the walk, found herself momentarily speechless.

“Why do you keep picking fights?!”

“You’re too frail!!”

His cry that she was frail echoed through the mansion.

While Arinne stood there dumbfounded, the servants hurriedly fled to escape her line of sight.

Everyone was busy reading Arinne’s mood. Only that man, supposedly the master of this estate, was the sole person not reading her mood.

“……”

Arinne took a deep breath in and out, then quietly looked down at her feet.

The shoes she was wearing now had almost no heel, and the toes were pointed.

Right, this would be enough. Arinne adjusted her posture.

Determined to truly break his shin this time, she quickly started walking.

“Don’t move.”

As she approached with a frightening momentum, the Marquis hesitated and stepped back.

“Talk from there!”

The way he pushed at the air with both hands looked exactly like someone calming an angry beast, and Arinne was dumbfounded.

Would she really break his leg? At most, she’d kick him a couple times to leave some bruises.

He knew that, which is why the Marquis wasn’t running away and was just squirming like that.

“Just a moment, Lady! No, Arinne!”

“Haa. Stay still.”

Arinne grabbed the Marquis’s arm firmly. As soon as she caught him, her upper body, having exhausted her energy, bent halfway over.

“Are you alright?”

“Huff… Don’t pity me, haa… don’t.”

Frustratingly, just from walking this little bit, she was already out of breath, just like he said her stamina was too poor.

In the end, Arinne ended up being supported by him.

“Anyway, we’re walking together, so I’m not a gentleman who leaves a lady behind.”

“You can joke right now?”

At the Marquis’s playful words, Arinne smacked his forearm.

“You’re surprisingly annoying.”

“Better than being called stupid.”

“Ah, so irritating.”

“I’m more irritated.”

* * *

After somehow finishing the walk and returning to her room, Arinne immediately lay down on the bed.

While idling like that, the Marquis’s statement of facts suddenly came to mind.

“Whether I spend my day in bed or not, what’s it to him?”

No one had ever nagged about her lifestyle, and getting an earful from a complete stranger made her blood boil.

Arinne punched the pillow once, then lay down more actively seeking a comfortable position.

‘Brother wants to give it!’

‘When did I!! Ray… said to give it……’

Still lying down, she looked at the vase placed by the window.

Following the purple lisianthus, a few sunset-colored marigolds had been added to the vase, which sparkled in the sunlight.

Arinne stretched and estimated the date.

‘How long has it been since I came here?’

Thinking of Jade, she should leave as soon as possible. There was nothing good about dragging it out.

“Miss!! It’s urgent!!”

“When is anything not urgent with you? Go sit over there.”

Arinne casually glanced at Jo rushing in and gestured toward the sofa with her chin.

Jo, who had been obediently heading to the sofa, suddenly remembered and came back to Arinne’s side.

“Miss! Please listen to me,”

“I’m thinking right now.”

“This isn’t the time to be thinking,”

“Shut your mouth.”

Arinne firmly cut off Jo’s words. Jo closed her mouth with a sullen face.

After confirming that Jo, shoulders drooping, went to the sofa, Arinne shifted her gaze back to the vase by the window.

‘One week……’

It was the grace period Arinne had set for herself and the tacit period during which the Duke would overlook her escapade.

“So that’s one, two, …ah. A week has passed.”

Sleep suddenly fled as Arinne bolted upright.

Arinne counted on her fingers again. No matter how many times she counted, the result was the same.

“Ah.”

A dazed sigh escaped.

Really, a week had passed. In an instant. Like this, so easily.

“Miss~!! This isn’t the time for this!”

Jo, who came back to her side as soon as she sensed the crisis, shook Arinne.

“Why do you keep bothering me?”

“It’s a big problem, I tell you?! Outside!! O-outside!”

“Outside?”

When Jo stammered and couldn’t continue, Arinne frowned.

“Speak properly. What big problem?”

“Well, the, the Duke sent people! There are knights outside!!”

Jo finally blurted it out with relief. Meanwhile, Arinne’s expression hardened even more.

“Let’s go!”

Clicking her tongue, Arinne immediately got up.

‘How does he send people right as the week ends?’

If he knew where she was staying, he could have just assumed she was fine, and if she was late she was late, if there was no news then there was no news—but no, he had to barge in forcefully like this.

Anyway, the Duke was a stubbornly inflexible old man with no human warmth in matters like this.