Hot breath flowed from where our lips met, penetrating overwhelmingly.

When I instinctively flinched and tried to move back, he gripped the back of my head more firmly, refusing to allow even a moment’s separation.

The innocent grape I had been rolling in my hand without eating dropped to the floor with a soft thud.

It felt as if my heart had sunk to my feet.

I could distinctly feel him tilting his head to kiss me while bracing himself on the bed with his other hand.

His firm nose pressed against my skin and his fingers caressing my hair made my mind feel hazy.

The tingling sensation spreading with each rapid heartbeat overflowed through my limbs as if boiling.

My mind turned blank, filled only with unfamiliar sensations and sounds.

Eventually, he briefly separated his lips from mine and quietly gazed into my eyes.

“How far will you push me?”

His eyes, staring intently at me, remained completely still, as if pinned to me.

Unlike him, my chest heaved as I breathed rapidly, yet he still appeared composed.

However, I caught a glimpse of his Adam’s apple rising and falling urgently.

“What do you mean you’ll leave without anyone noticing?”

“……”

“Somewhere else, where? Were you planning to go to Joseph?”

“……”

“Is driving me crazy your hobby?”

His blue eyes, brimming with ferocity, stared at me as if demanding an answer.

Goosebumps rose on my arms, but I couldn’t possibly lift my hands to rub them away.

“…I just. You looked angry, so that’s why I said I would.”

“Why do you think I’m angry? If you had contacted me beforehand, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt like this.”

“……”

“You came with your legs in this condition, and you expected me to be happy seeing you like this?”

Looking up at him as he sharply questioned me, I was at a complete loss for words.

Suddenly overwhelmed with confusion, I finally managed to move my lips while captivated by him.

“So you weren’t angry because I came without notice… but because I was hurt?”

“What else did you think it was?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me you thought I was angry about your sudden appearance? Did you take me for a madman?”

Feeling as if he had hit the nail on the head, I slowly shook my head.

“N-no?”

I hadn’t exactly labeled him a madman in my mind, but I had thought of him somewhat similarly. I truly believed he was annoyed that I had come without notice.

As he quietly looked down at my surprised expression, he arrogantly lowered his eyes.

“Seems like you did.”

“No…!”

Though I vigorously shook my head to deny it, having had my true thoughts exposed, he didn’t react at all.

“How could I possibly think that?”

I quickly grabbed his face with both hands, as if imploring him to believe me.

His stern gaze seemed to soften and sink at my touch.

He soon grasped my hands holding his face.

“Ha….”

Looking at me with an expressionless face, he faintly raised the corners of his mouth in a hollow laugh, and I stared straight back at him with wide eyes as I continued speaking.

“…I didn’t think that badly of you.”

“That badly…?”

“No, I mean…”

“Your face clearly shows you thought I was even worse than that.”

“…What?”

“Otherwise, why would you look so flustered?”

That was also true, but I shook my head vigorously, pretending to be appalled.

“That’s really not it!”

“It doesn’t matter even if you did think that.”

“No, I don’t. I won’t think like that anymore…”

Before I could finish speaking, he turned his head and exhaled softly against my palm while still holding my hand.

The sensation resonating through my entire body interrupted my words.

I looked up at him with a start.

I caught a glimpse of his lips curving slightly upward.

“See? You’re the one both raising me to the heavens and burying me in the ground, aren’t you?”

His calm gaze looked down at me steadily.

I unconsciously bit my soft lips as I watched Carlo walking out of the barracks.

A few dozen minutes earlier, looking up through the window of the barracks, I had seen a clear night sky dotted with dazzling stars and told him I wanted to go outside for a moment.

It was because my face felt so hot that I needed cold air, but I couldn’t tell him the real reason.

Carlo’s barracks, unlike the others, was set apart from the group, built near the beach with its back to the hill.

“This wind is perfect for catching a cold.”

After setting down the food he had brought from the barracks on the side table, he wrapped a thick shawl around my shoulders.

“It doesn’t seem that cold to me.”

When I shook my head and replied that I was fine, he looked doubtful but didn’t scold me further as he sat down in the chair beside me.

Eventually, he stared at me for a moment before slightly narrowing his brow.

“What is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your face looks like you have many questions.”

Feeling caught, I widened my eyes as if to ask what he was talking about.

What a perceptive man…!

His gaze made me feel that if I tried to deceive him even slightly, I’d be caught and everything would be exposed.

He was always like this. He never avoided anyone’s eyes.

He would simply look calmly while maintaining silence, eventually making the other person open their mouth under the pressure.

“Well… I do have something I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

Of course, I had many questions, just as he said.

Was his trust based on the belief that I hadn’t participated in the St. Berte attack?

But trusting someone who had tried to kill you was actually quite shameless.

Perhaps he now believed I hadn’t participated in the Azanie family and the Empress’s plan to kill him…?

But that couldn’t be right. Overlooking all of Lea’s past wrongdoings, ignoring the major crime of the attack, and still embracing his wife would be reckless.

He wouldn’t intentionally create such a blemish on his honorable life as Grand Duke, having always walked a perfect path.

Moreover…

“……”

I was confused by my jumbled feelings and frustrated that I couldn’t control these emotions as I wished.

Though I had transmigrated into Lea, he didn’t know that I had possessed Lea’s body.

The fleeting thought that he might have recognized and kissed the original Lea as his wife, not me, made my heart unsettled and my thoughts complicated.

I had many questions but couldn’t ask them.

Why am I like this…? It’s almost as if I’m jealous of Lea…

That’s absurd.

I closed my eyes tightly, then opened them and looked at Carlo.

“Did you know you called me ‘thou’ earlier?”

Instead of asking the numerous questions I wanted to, I chose to smile brightly.

“Did I?”

Despite his gruff tone, he met my eyes as he placed a piece of fruit in my mouth. I nodded.

“You did.”

“I don’t remember.”

Carlo smiled enigmatically as he tucked a strand of my hair that had been tousled by the wind behind my ear.

I almost let a smile escape at his touch, but I opened my eyes primly.

“You can’t help it if you don’t remember. I heard it all.”

“That’s good, then.”

I paused to look at him, and Carlo handed me a cup of warm brewed tea.

“…It’s not alcohol?”

“What?”

“I saw everyone drinking earlier.”

He raised one eyebrow as if to ask what I was talking about.

“They were all drinking around the fire while looking at the ocean. It looked really fun and romantic.”

He quietly placed the cup in my hand.

“Drink your tea.”

“Why can’t I have alcohol?”

“Because I don’t like it.”

“What about just a taste, not enough to get drunk?”

“If we were alone here, I would have let you drink already.”

Huh?

The nuance of his words somehow felt impure. I unconsciously frowned.

Carlo stared at me with an unabashedly nonchalant face.

“What?”

“I thought you were preventing me from drinking for my health, but that statement just now was a bit strange.”

“I’d only let you drink as much as wouldn’t harm your health, and I think getting drunk together once wouldn’t be bad.”

“……”

“But that’s only when you’re with me.”

“…Yes?”

“Not with other men around.”

He calmly spoke while breaking off a piece of financier and placing it in my mouth.

After hastily eating the financier, I took a sip of the tea that seemed to add warmth, then looked at him.

“You know what? You sound like a very jealous person.”

“I suppose so.”

I flinched as he glanced at me, then suddenly smiled mysteriously for some reason.

Then, in the blink of an eye, he grabbed my waist, lifted me up, and sat me on his knee.

“If feeling angry whenever you look at someone else is jealousy…”

He gazed at me steadily and spoke in a low voice.

“If my eyes rolling back whenever you mention another man is also jealousy…”

“……”

“Then I’m constantly jealous.”