Chapter 7

Meanwhile, someone had been watching the two of them argue in the pouring rain, perfectly still.

Andrea, again.

He stood motionless behind a peach tree, soaked to the bone.

How long had he been standing there after the two of them were gone. A figure dropped down before him.

It was one of his personal guard knights, stationed here in secret since the day he bought Riley the house.

“Your Highness, why are you still standing here in rain like this? Please come inside.”

But Andrea was lost in thought, as though the words did not reach him.

If the knight had looked into his lord’s eyes at that moment, he would have seen that Andrea had lost his composure in a way that was unlike him.

The knight received a perfunctory look that said go away, and disappeared from sight again. Andrea stood there in the rain for a long while after.

His mind was in turmoil.

And it was not only his thoughts. Something unpleasant churned and shifted in his gut.

What exactly are they to each other?

He spat out the rainwater that had trickled between his lips with irritation and kept thinking.

Coming all the way here……

The relationship might be more significant than he had assumed.

The first time he had seen the two of them together at Eli Palace, he had assumed they were lovers of the same s*x and had been quite displeased. Now, thinking they might have been lovers of opposite sexes, he felt genuinely foul.

And Parnelli had just tried to embrace Riley.

His chest twisted with a jealousy he had not known he was capable of.

He realized standing in the rain was not going to settle this twisted feeling, and slowly began to move.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

After standing at the entrance for so long because of the relentless Parnelli, Riley dried her wet hair and shoulders with a towel and sat down at her desk.

The window glass was completely obscured by the pouring rain, but she rested her chin in her hand and fixed her gaze on it.

No matter how she thought about it, Parnelli’s persistence was absurd.

Huff, let’s just get to work.

She shook her head and took paper and a pencil from the drawer.

She also needed to read through the article draft Nina had left, so she began going through it carefully.

This week would be a sharp critique of a certain high-ranking noble who had installed his son-in-law at the Supreme Court through back channels and used him to influence all manner of lawsuits.

To follow the thr*st of Nina’s characteristically cutting commentary, Riley needed her own wit as an illustrator.

But the memory of Parnelli’s relentless pleading kept surfacing, making it hard to concentrate.

Huff……

Riley tried to pull herself together.

He rattled me, but it’s not something I need to keep thinking about.

She was sharpening a worn-down pencil to settle her nerves when footsteps came striding down the second-floor corridor, and the bell cord downstairs was pulled with urgency.

Oh, who is it? His Highness?

The only person who walked through this house without hesitation, as though it were his own, was Andrea.

The bold, unhesitating footsteps drawing closer made it even more certain.

The restlessness in her chest lifted, and Riley smiled.

I should ask for his thoughts on this week’s illustration while he’s here.

His Highness would know better than anyone which of their enemies’ weaknesses to highlight for the public. He was the one directing the entire Daily Minerve, after all.

Riley had recently come to enjoy showing Andrea her work and talking it over with him. She turned and got to her feet quickly.

She was about to head to the door when it burst open before she had taken more than a few steps.

“Eek!”

Riley let out a small shriek at the sight before her.

Andrea stood there, soaked through, water dripping from every part of him, staring at her with sharp, cutting eyes.

“Why, why are you so drenched?”

After only a moment’s hesitation, Riley hurried over with wide eyes, picked up a towel, and tried to dry his wet hair.

But her arm was snatched in an instant.

“Oh!”

Something fierce was burning in Andrea’s eyes, right up in her face, and Riley was startled.

“Wh, what happened? You don’t seem to have been drinking.”

Out of old habit from her days as an attendant, she leaned in close to his cheek and sniffed, then found herself touching his cold face without thinking.

“Goodness, you’re freezing……!”

But that hand too was seized roughly.

“You.”

The voice was sharp and raw and cracked. Riley answered without thinking.

“Yes, Your Highness!”

She looked up at Andrea, who was seething in a way that was unlike him, with an expression of complete bewilderment.

She blinked, having no idea what was happening, and that expression only drove Andrea further out of his mind. The grip on her slender wrist tightened.

“Ow, that hurts. Please let go, Your Highness.”

Riley twisted her wrist and Andrea released it, drawing a rough breath as though trying to rein himself in.

His eyes were shooting blades of jealousy as he demanded.

“……You. What am I to you?”

The grip that had not yet released her tightened again, and Riley winced.

Why is he this angry, and why is he asking something like that?

But beneath her outward confusion, something deep inside her had grasped the meaning of the question and was stirring in a strange, unsettled way.

She hesitated, thrown off balance, and Andrea pressed harder.

“Go on, tell me. Am I nothing more than a difficult employer to you? And that man, were you lovers with him?”

The last sentence came out of nowhere, and Riley’s eyes went wide.

“That…… man? You saw Parnelli come by?”

Andrea studied the confusion shifting in Riley’s eyes with a suspicious look, then bit out.

“Yes. I saw the two of you together in the rear garden at Eli Palace last time, and I saw you just now. What, was I not supposed to?”

The tone was that of someone pressing a charge, and the edge beneath it warned her not to try making excuses. Riley was momentarily speechless.

It was embarrassing, but there was nothing she actually needed to hide. So why was he this angry?

She had been about to tell him the truth, but then she reconsidered.

This is my private life…… do I really have to tell him everything?

It was also something she did not particularly want to talk about.

Riley’s expression went cool. She lowered her eyelids slightly and said with a prim air.

“It’s my personal business, so I’d rather not say. I’d appreciate it if you pretended not to have seen.”

But her small chin was immediately caught and lifted by a rough hand.

“……!”

Riley was startled again to see Andrea’s gaze, right in her face, blazing.

What was this dense, dark emotion roiling in those eyes that were always so cool and composed?

Her heart was swept up in it, shaken, and seemed to drop with a small thud.

Watching her, Andrea began to sneer with a sharp edge.

“Oh, is that so? Can’t say, you tell me. What is it about that pretty-faced middle-aged man that’s worth all that bickering. Did you catch feelings for each other from sitting together so often over the renovation work? Well. That would mean I was the one who brought the two of you together.”

Andrea’s words were growing increasingly unguarded. In those darkened, sunken eyes, a cold flame of jealousy was quietly spreading.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Riley flinched, then pulled her chin free with a sharp twist of her head.

Andrea stared back with eyes wide and flashing with irritation and displeasure.

“Why. I didn’t know your type was some artist with a pretty face and heavy perfume. If I’d known, I might have tried being a little more mysterious around you. I had no idea, so I went and showed you everything, and now I’m just dull and charmless to you.”

Riley’s mouth fell slightly open as she stared at Andrea’s outburst.

What has gotten into him?

Even so, she needed to clear things up, so she rubbed her aching chin and grumbled.

“What are you saying? For one thing, the director and I are not like that, so please don’t misunderstand.”

“Oh, now Raul’s way of speaking is back. So that’s exactly where I stand with you.”

“……”

“Why. Whenever you want to put distance between us, you always go back to being ‘Raul.'”

The demand was almost childish in its insistence, and Riley lifted her hand out of habit and pressed it to Andrea’s forehead.

Has he had too much to drink? Or is he unwell? He might have a fever from being so soaked in the rain.