Sitting across from him, Lena’s heart was pounding. For the first time, she had expressed her own opinion.

That she disliked what she disliked.

That what wasn’t true wasn’t true.

She had spoken up for the first time.

She couldn’t even tell her family this…… Her heart fluttered as if she had done something wrong.

Delian was looking at her coldly with the most indifferent face in the world. Lena thought she had overstepped, but she didn’t regret it.

With a stiff face, Delian rose from his seat.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Pardon?”

Delian left without answering, kicking open the greenhouse door.

His pathetic behavior aside, he needed to convey Lena’s wishes to Penna as quickly as possible.

‘Philip’s mother or whoever must be kidnapped by now! I can’t serve potato potage to someone who hates it that much!’

In fact, Penna had already left the ducal residence. In this short time. At this moment, her competence was frustrating.

Meanwhile, Lena, left alone in the greenhouse, could only blink her tear-moistened eyes.

Delian had truly disappeared from her sight like an arrow.

‘Did he… get angry because I said I didn’t like it?’

She remembered Delian’s stiff face before he left the greenhouse.

‘I should follow him.’

Lena stood up.

Still unfamiliar with the dress, she was awkwardly lifting its hem when—

Click, click, click.

The sound of elegant heels approached.

Lena hunched her shoulders. As far as she knew, only one person in the Northern Duke’s castle had such footsteps.

‘Could it be… the duchess…?!’

Lena’s eyes filled with dismay.

She was currently wearing the duchess’s clothes. Seeing this, the duchess would surely punish her for being presumptuous.

‘What should I do?!’

Dressed all in yellow, she stood out too much in the predominantly green greenhouse.

While she was flustered, a woman in black appeared beyond the greenhouse plants.

‘Black……?’

Thinking their eyes might meet, Lena quickly lowered herself. Her shoulders trembled intermittently.

“I… I greet the Duchess of Northdelion.”

“…My goodness.”

A gentle, soft voice exclaimed in admiration. Somehow, the voice conveyed years of experience.

Lena unconsciously raised her head slightly. Before her stood an elegant elderly lady in a black dress, covering her mouth with a fan.

Her eyes had a reddish tint. They were filled with interest.

“So you are……”

The warm voice caught her breath.

“My, please stand up.”

“H-how could I dare……”

Lena bowed her head even deeper.

The elderly lady looked at Lena and approached her as if troubled.

“……!”

Then she personally helped Lena stand.

Barely rising with the elderly lady’s help, Lena glanced up at her. Her eye level was slightly higher.

Traces of age marked her soft skin. However, these traces only enhanced her classical atmosphere without diminishing her beauty.

Lena thought she was the epitome of a noble lady. Her mouth fell open unconsciously.

The woman greeted Lena.

“Pleased to meet you.”

“Ah, I greet the duchess. I am Lena Trix……”

When Lena awkwardly curtsied, the woman laughed softly once more.

“Duchess? My, it’s been a while since I heard that.”

She truly seemed amused.

‘Been a while since she heard that……?’

The woman said.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding.”

“……”

“I am not the duchess. Strictly speaking, I am of the previous generation.”

“Previous generation……?”

“Yes, I am Dandel’s birth mother, Orzena Northdelion.”

“H-his mother…?!”

She was surprised.

Now that she looked, both her face and unmistakable dignity resembled the Duke in a subtle way.

When Lena opened her eyes wide, Orzena felt as if the world brightened.

‘How can her eyes be such a clear color?’

Orzena, uncharacteristically, admired Lena’s eyes.

Lena felt momentarily dizzy, wondering if she had imagined something disrespectful.

“I’m sorry. I… really……”

“No, it’s alright.”

Orzena stopped Lena from apologizing repeatedly. Curiosity flashed in her red eyes.

“The dress suits you very well.”

“Ah, ah… yes…… How dare I wear the duchess’s dress……”

“Hmm? The duchess?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes……”

The two women looked at each other.

When Orzena blinked, Lena also blinked. Orzena tilted her head slightly and gently covered her mouth with her fan.

“Whose dress did you say?”

“The duchess’s……”

“Did my son get married without telling me……”

Orzena glanced at Lena. Lena’s expression froze again at those words.

“D-do you mean the Duke is unmarried?”

“Yes, he should be unmarried. No matter how unruly my son can be, surely he wouldn’t have gotten married without even his mother knowing.”

Lena opened and closed her mouth for a moment. She didn’t know how many times she had been rude.

Meanwhile, Orzena’s lips couldn’t stop smiling.

‘He suddenly asked to borrow a dress catalog, and I wondered why. So he was hiding such a pretty girl.’

Her only son, Delian, had suddenly started behaving strangely one day.

She was truly shocked when he abruptly returned to the ducal residence from the academy, saying his parents would die.

Even afterward, he continued to act in unpredictable ways, which worried her greatly.

‘I was concerned that he hadn’t even found a lover, let alone married, despite being of marriageable age.’

As a mother, her son’s marriage was important. Out of concern, she had urged him several times.

But her indifferent son only repeated that he would bring someone on his own if she just waited a little.

Due to her son’s stubborn insistence, she eventually had to stop arranging blind dates.

And not long after, he really did bring a woman.

But the scene was shocking. How could she not be surprised when he came in carrying an unconscious woman?

After barely collecting herself, she got angry asking what on earth he had done, and also coaxed and persuaded him to take her back if he had kidnapped her.

But the story her son told about the woman was shocking.

Since he insisted that she not show interest because it would be more shocking for the person involved, she couldn’t do anything…

‘To think I’d meet her like this. How fortunate.’

At first, she thought her son had gone mad, but after meeting Lena, she understood everything.

Orzena smiled gently and said.

“Yellow suits you very well.”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Lena quickly bowed her head with a dubious expression.

‘If there’s no duchess, and it’s not his mother’s clothes either… then what are these dresses?’

She became confused again.

“Please make yourself comfortable.”

A smile spread across Orzena’s face.

The night her only son kidnapped his prospective daughter-in-law, she couldn’t contain her curiosity and called for Penna. Penna described her master as ‘a small, white sparrow-like person.’

At first, she didn’t understand what that meant, but now she understood immediately. Perhaps because she was wearing yellow clothes, she also looked like a small chick.

‘She’s truly adorable.’

Looking at her made Orzena want to tease her. Perhaps her son’s mischievous side was actually inherited from her.

Orzena, wondering how to explain to Lena, first offered her a seat.

Lena followed Orzena and sat back down where she had been sitting.

“I’ve heard the story.”

“Ah… yes.”

“You must have gone through a lot.”

“Ah, no. And please… speak comfortably with me.”

“My, is that alright?”

“Yes, yes. Of course.”

“Then… since we’ll be family, I’d like you to be comfortable with me too.”

“Pardon…? F-family?”

Lena was startled by Orzena’s words. She couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

Seeing Lena’s visible confusion, Orzena covered her mouth for a moment.

‘Has he not proposed yet? I was too presumptuous.’

Orzena shook her head, saying it was nothing.

“In Northdelion, we treat guests like family.”

She just made that up.

Lena nodded slightly, saying, “Ah, yes.”

“I hope you’ll feel comfortable here.”

“Thank you.”

“Though Dandel seems mischievous, he’s actually a warm person. If you need anything or if something makes you uncomfortable, tell him without hesitation.”

“Ah, yes.”

The conversation kept breaking off.

‘Am I making her uncomfortable?’

Orzena felt strange, as if she had become a mischievous child tormenting a weak young animal.

As Orzena was about to rise from her seat, Lena cautiously spoke up.

“But um… when you say Dandel……”

The halting voice clearly conveyed how frightened she was.

Orzena patiently waited for Lena’s question. In the end, the latter part of the question shrank and disappeared.

“My goodness, you don’t know yet.”

A cute question mark appeared above Lena’s head.

“It’s his nickname. You thought Delian was his name?”

Orzena smiled as if she knew everything.

“His real name is Dandelion. But whether he’s embarrassed by its meaning, or finds the name too long… he made people call him Delian.”

“Ah, I see……”

Lena unconsciously tried calling him ‘Dandelion’ in her mind.

“But why did you name him Dandelion?”

Lena asked.

Orzena, pleased to see her curiosity about her son, answered gladly.

“Doesn’t he look just like a dandelion? I mean Dandel’s eye color.”

“A dandelion?”

Lena carefully recalled his one visible eye.

She had always thought he resembled a wolf because of his fierce demeanor, but now that she heard it, his eye color was indeed like dandelion petals.

“Now he’s tanned from rolling around on battlefields and camping with knights, but when he was young, he was a fair, white boy. That made his eyes look even more like dandelion flowers. Come to think of it……”

At that moment, Orzena recalled Dandel’s childhood.

Perhaps because of his name, the boy who used to throw tantrums at the mention of dandelions suddenly asked to plant them in the garden one day.

“Don’t you hate dandelions?”

“I hate them. But that child likes them. Enough to sing about them!”

The young Dandel had said that, his soft cheeks flushing.

‘They say children’s affections change quickly.’

Orzena inwardly vowed to keep her son’s first love a secret for life.