Delian walked over casually and sat down beside her.

As Lena lifted her head slightly, her starlight-like hair fell disheveled to one side.

Delian found his gaze involuntarily drawn to her hair that seemed dyed with violet water, before looking directly into her eyes. Her transparent sky-blue eyes resembling the spring sky were vivid.

Delian said.

“Lie down.”

“…Pardon?”

“I said lie down?”

“Why… why?”

“Why indeed.”

The Duke spoke, frustrated.

“The night is still long.”

A sinister atmosphere added to his fierce demeanor, swirling around him. Lena’s heart stopped with a thud.

Of course, Delian had no such intentions.

But in Lena’s head, emergency bells rang as if a monster was attacking.

Delian looked at Lena, who had broken down again, and without a word, grabbed her shoulders and laid her down.

“Aah! W-wait, ah!”

Her frail body, which might be crushed if caught in his embrace, couldn’t even properly resist before being laid down with a thud.

His gaze pouring down on Lena was extremely dangerous. Unable to face those violently beautiful eyes, Lena squeezed her eyes shut.

However, she heard a sound completely opposite to what she had feared.

Floof.

‘…Floof?’

Lena carefully opened her tightly shut eyes. What had poured over her was a blanket. Not Delian.

The very person who had made Lena tense was now lying quietly beside her, propping his head with one arm, watching her.

And then, pat pat.

‘Pat pat?’

He awkwardly placed his hand on her stomach and was patting it.

“…What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell by looking?”

She almost blurted out, ‘No, I can’t.’

When Lena stared up at him, Delian closed his eyes and said.

“Putting you to sleep.”

“…Who?”

“You.”

“…Why?”

“Because you said you can’t sleep.”

“…Ah.”

Meanwhile, Delian’s large hand continued patting Lena.

His hand, large enough to have room left even if she held it with both of hers, completely covered Lena’s stomach.

‘She’s too thin.’

Delian was thinking this in his own way.

Lena silently stole glances at Delian patting her. It was so awkward she could hardly breathe.

‘How did it come to this……’

Far from feeling sleepy, her eyes only grew more wide awake.

‘Why… is he doing this?’

Lena couldn’t understand the reason.

He was a man who supposedly went mad one day and killed his servants. No wonder he earned the nickname “mad dog.”

Yet this man had given her a corner of his ducal residence without asking any questions.

Not only that, he had personally embraced her frozen body to warm her, and now he was even patting her to help her sleep.

‘Why on earth?’

Lena’s head was filled with question marks.

Meanwhile, seeing no sign of Lena falling asleep, Delian clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘This is difficult.’

In his memory, Lena skillfully soothed her younger brother to sleep. He was trying to copy that, but instead of sleeping, she was only growing more frightened.

‘This is harder than I thought.’

Delian deeply furrowed his brow.

‘How can I make her sleep…… Ah, back then… I think she sang a song.’

Delian asked.

“Do you like lullabies?”

“…Me?”

“Is there anyone else here besides you?”

“Ah… y-yes, I do.”

Lena answered dubiously. In truth, regardless of whether she liked them or not, it had been ages since she’d heard one.

Who would sing a lullaby to a twenty-three-year-old?

At her response, Delian cleared his throat.

“Sleep well, my little one. By the mountains and streams……”

“……”

“The sparrows, the little lambs……”

“……”

The Duke deliberately ignored Lena’s gaze staring up at him.

“In the field of blooming dandelions……”

“……”

“Little butterfly flying in……”

But he couldn’t continue singing because Lena was noticeably flinching. Delian somehow felt his ears getting hot. Embarrassed, he growled for no reason.

“…Why aren’t you sleeping.”

“Ah, no……”

Lena stared at him intently.

‘How does he know those lyrics?’

The lullaby the Duke sang was the issue. While the beginning was a famous lullaby, the latter part was lyrics Lena had created.

She had made lullabies featuring dandelions and butterflies for spring, streams and goldfish for summer, autumn leaves and chestnuts for fall, and snowflakes and snowmen for winter.

All for her younger brother, Roberto, who always fell asleep in her arms.

The lyrics Delian sang were definitely the spring lullaby she had composed.

‘How… those lyrics……’

Lena could assert she was seeing the Duke for the first time. How could she forget such a fierce and uniquely handsome face?

It was unlikely he had heard it from someone else, as Lena had no friends to listen to her songs.

‘Since I always had to stay by Roberto’s side……’

Her parents had entrusted childcare to her, and Roberto chose his sister over his parents.

In other words, Roberto was the only one who knew this lullaby.

‘No matter how many people Roberto has around him, he couldn’t possibly know the Duke. And I didn’t sing the lullaby in front of others.’

Lena’s mind became complicated.

‘Should I ask?’

But Delian was one step ahead of her.

“Is the song not good?”

“…Pardon?”

“There’s that ‘Pardon?’ again. I’m asking if the song isn’t good.”

Delian looked down at her with a seemingly serious face.

‘I was told I’m not tone-deaf.’

During his academy days, the music teacher had given him an A+.

Lena hurriedly answered.

“N-no. It was… very nice.”

“Then why aren’t you sleeping.”

“Th-that’s……”

Lena’s throat tickled with the desire to ask how he knew those lyrics, but she barely held back. The situation was too awkward to suddenly ask.

Lena squeezed out her voice and said.

“You s-sang too well.”

“What?”

“You sang too well… I kept listening, so……”

Lena rolled her eyes around.

Delian was stunned by the unexpected compliment, but he didn’t dislike it.

“Hmm… then I’ll sing until you’re tired of it.”

“Pardon?”

“So sleep without worry.”

“Ah, no. Um, I……”

At the sudden conversation, Lena’s spring-sky eyes filled with confusion.

Delian covered her eyes with his large hand and began patting her stomach again.

“Ahem, hmm. …Sleep well, my little one.”

“Ah, um, Your Grace……”

“Shh. A little one who needs to sleep shouldn’t talk.”

“Ah, little one……”

Little one.

Being called a little one at twenty-three.

Being called a little one by a man not much older than herself. Lena was dumbfounded, but she didn’t dislike it.

He seemed sincere about singing until she got tired of it. Delian repeated the lullaby several times, and Lena had to listen to all the lullabies from spring to summer, autumn, and winter.

How much time had passed? Sleep came like a lie.

The pleasant low voice continued singing lullabies, and the patting of his large, thick hand gave her a sense of security.

Plus, there was a body temperature slightly higher than others in the same blanket.

Each time she drifted off to sleep, the room that had been bright gradually darkened, but she wasn’t afraid.

Lena unconsciously reached out and grabbed Delian. At that moment his body stiffened, but he didn’t stop the lullaby or the patting.

Eventually, Lena fell completely asleep.

Delian lowered his head to look at her hand. Her hand was resting on his chest. As if she had tried to grasp it but failed, she even had her fist lightly clenched.

Her fingers, which moved slightly with each exhale, tickled his chest. Delian lay down comfortably beside her and muttered.

“Does she… like chests?”

The night was deepening.

In her sleep, Lena groped the bed. No matter how far she stretched her hand, it was strange that it didn’t fall to the floor.

At the same time, it was pleasantly warm.

‘It’s warm…… feels nice… huh?’

Lena’s eyes flew open. She saw an empty space beside her where someone had been. It was the place of the man who had held and put her to sleep.

Lena jumped up from the bed before she knew it. Due to the sudden movement, a dizziness came over her as if her vision was spinning.

Her eyes hurt as if they were dry, and darkness descended as if she had gone blind, but Lena strained her eyes to see ahead. Soon her vision returned.

She checked the bed again, but the space was still empty. Lena felt somehow chilly and pulled up the blanket.

‘Ah… right. He must have left…… of course.’

It suddenly struck her.

‘That’s natural.’

By the way, she had slept deeply beyond her expectations.

‘How long has it been since I slept this deeply?’

Until now, she had thought she couldn’t sleep well because her body hurt.

Or because she felt guilty resting alone while her family was working hard.

But now, Lena’s face was all swollen from sleeping too deeply.

‘W-well… the time now is……’

It was clear the sun was high in the sky. She had always fallen asleep as if fainting, then woken up at dawn.

And as soon as she opened her eyes, she would look for sewing materials nearby.

‘Oversleeping.’

A groundless sense of guilt washed over her like a tide. When she felt she had become lazy, her fingers trembled.

If Lena woke up even a little late, her father would raise his hand without restraint. She was afraid that rough, coarse hand might fly at her at any moment.

‘Ugh, calm down.’

This is not that dark, cold room. So there are no hands to strike her cheeks mercilessly.

This is the castle of the Northern Duke Northdelion, and she had obtained a room through the mercy of Delian Northdelion.

‘There’s no need to be so afraid of waking up late.’

Lena thought and thought again.

Nevertheless, the anxiety that had been intermittently jumping at her fingertips soon consumed her entire shoulders.

Lena, not knowing what to do with her body’s reaction beyond her will, firmly wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

What on earth was so frightening?

Why was she trembling so much?

‘Ah… right. I’m afraid all this might be a dream.’

She was afraid that this luxury she was enjoying might be a dream, that when she opened her eyes again she would be back in that house, in that house where everyone except her was happy, beside the family that had betrayed her.

That was what she feared.

Especially since the Northern Duke’s empty space seemed to say that last night was a lie.

‘If I had woken up with the Duke, would it have been less frightening?’

Though she knew she wasn’t in a position to be spoiled, she couldn’t help but wish for it in her heart.

That’s when it happened.

“Miss, are you awake?”

Penna’s voice was heard.

‘Penna!’