Chapter 10 Sending a Signal

“Since when did you become such an affectionate person?”

Affectionate?

Arsen tilted his head at a word he’d never heard used to describe him before.

He generally accepted the public’s assessment of him. Cold, aloof, and brusque.

He was neither affectionate nor caring. To anyone, not even to Emperor Richard who he couldn’t bring himself to act warmly toward. So he had always believed his personality was simply that way.

Arsen believed that he had forgotten how to express his feelings because he lived with secrets in his heart. And he had no reason to believe otherwise.

He had never regretted not being affectionate enough or not acting kindly toward someone.

He had just lived thinking, well, this is just my innate personality.

Until just now when Lydia asked “since when did you become affectionate,” he had believed without a shadow of doubt that he was far from being affectionate.

“In the past, you wouldn’t have hugged me even if I was about to collapse.”

Hearing her say it, Lydia was right.

Even during the coup, if someone had asked Arsen for a hug, he would have dismissed it as nonsense.

But now he was slightly different.

He wouldn’t hug others if they asked, but Lydia? He might.

Yet it wasn’t something he did after thinking about it.

When he came to his senses, he would already be holding Lydia in his arms. Is this what being affectionate means?

“It’s hard to tell. Whether it’s an act or not.”

“You don’t need to tell the difference, just push me away.”

“But what if you really collapse?”

Huh? Lydia hadn’t thought that far, so she couldn’t answer right away.

“If I really collapse, couldn’t you just take me to a physician then?”

“Don’t you think you could get seriously hurt if you collapse while climbing stairs?”

“Come on, even if I went up alone, you’d be nearby, Sir Arsen. If I fall, you’ll catch me right away, so why worry?”

Arsen couldn’t help but nod at Lydia’s unwavering eyes that looked at him without a trace of doubt.

Yet thoughts clearly crossed his mind—there are always exceptions, accidents happen no matter what so prevention is best—but they never made it past his lips.

“Well, thinking about it, you have a point. Rather than doing it blindly, we should establish a signal that only the two of us know.”

Lydia pondered what kind of signal wouldn’t seem strange to others.

Tapping with her hand?

That only works when they’re close, so it won’t do.

Then whistling?

But suddenly whistling would be too strange.

“How about a wink?”

Saying that, Lydia suddenly winked her left eye.

“I hear commoners express interest in someone they like this way.”

Lydia alternated winking her left and right eyes.

For some reason, she tilted her head in the direction of whichever eye she blinked.

“If I give this signal, others will think I’m trying to seduce you, right?”

Another wink.

Lydia kept sending signals.

Blink.

Her thin eyelids covered her eyes then lifted, curving, with her long pink eyelashes fluttering.

Blink.

Her head tilted to the side, her lips forming a gentle curve.

“When I give the signal, you can either push me away, avoid me by running away, or pretend to reluctantly go along while frowning.”

For a signal meant to be pushed away, avoided, or frowned at, isn’t it too… lovely?

Is this why people consider winking a form of seduction?

“Sir, are you listening to me?”

“I’m listening. But I don’t think that signal is good.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to push you away.”

Huh? What does that mean? Lydia froze for a moment. Not wanting to push her away—why?

“Why, why are you smiling, Sir?”

Apparently Arsen had smiled without realizing it at the sight of the frozen Lydia.

Lydia blankly admired those refreshingly curved lips.

When a man who walks around with a perpetually stern expression smiles, the observer can’t help but be mesmerized.

In her daze, Lydia wondered.

She must have seen Arsen in her past life too, so why hadn’t she been interested in him? Because he never smiled at her?

Judging by looks and physique, Arsen was better than Richard, so why had she only been fixated on Richard standing next to Arsen, staring at him day and night?

If Lydia had decided to have Arsen in her past life, she could have crushed him with her power.

Then Arsen would have refused at first, but wouldn’t he have eventually accepted?

Though he seemed brusque, he did care for his people.

Even if it wasn’t love, the outcome would have been much better than choosing Richard……

“You really do resemble a rabbit.”

The train of thought that had been connecting was abruptly cut off by words Lydia could hardly believe came from Arsen’s mouth.

“What, what did you say?”

A rabbit? Does he mean I’m cute like a rabbit?

Lydia, who was about to feel shy for a moment, recalled the rabbit Arsen was referring to.

The winter rabbit.

The one she thought was a demonic beast when she first saw it.

Arsen had said that rabbit was cute too. So this comment either meant he was calling Lydia cute, or if not that, then…

“You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

It meant Arsen was playing with Lydia.

“I’m not teasing you.”

“Hmph, liar. Do you think I’ll fall for that?”

Kedrick had seriously misunderstood Arsen.

He’d called him socially awkward, but here he was, toying with a woman.

Lydia pressed her lips together and pointedly looked away from Arsen’s gaze.

“Anyway, we’ve decided on the wink as our signal, so when I wink, you should act like you hate it but can’t say so outright, like you want to actively push me away but can’t because it would be awkward, so you try not to show it but fail.”

Arsen’s eyebrows contorted as he clearly couldn’t properly understand what she was saying, but Lydia pretended not to notice and looked away.

“I told you last time that’s difficult to—”

“Can you not do something just because it’s difficult? Practice, I’m telling you to practice. Like your swordsmanship training every morning.”

“How did you know I train every morning?”

Even after coming to Count Wonde’s territory, Arsen hadn’t missed his training at dawn in the open space behind the inn.

“Every time I train, it feels like someone is watching. Was that you?”

“Well, that…”

Not just Arsen, but everyone who trained with him knew. That Lydia watched them from the window every morning.

It didn’t seem like she had ulterior motives, just curiosity, so they left her alone.

There were also guys like Kedrick who preferred having spectators.

“I wasn’t peeping!”

Lydia flared up, just like someone who had been peeping.

“I was just trying to get you to be quiet!”

It was an absurd excuse. How does one hint at quietness while hiding beside a window frame?

“Anyway, get out. Hurry.”

Lydia pushed Arsen out by his back and slammed the door shut without even saying goodbye.

Then she opened the window wide to cool her flushed face.

“What the hell, he knew I was watching and still trained shirtless every day?”

Isn’t that practically asking to be watched?

Lydia was frustrated that she hadn’t thought of this comeback earlier. At this rate, wasn’t she the only one being labeled a pervert?

“To think I’m being manipulated by such a socially awkward man!”

Though Lydia hadn’t had much romantic experience, she had done something resembling dating with Richard, bickering and all. But to be teased by someone even his subordinates acknowledged as socially awkward!

She couldn’t lose the initiative to such a wooden person.

To regain control of the situation, Lydia decided not to watch them train the next morning.

However, as luck would have it, it rained from dawn the next day, so Arsen didn’t train.

“……Even the weather is on Arsen’s side, tsk.”

* * *

When the rain eased in the afternoon, Lydia began her real plan. The past two days had been a performance leading up to today.

A performance to spread the word that Lady Evansi had arrived, along with rumors that Lydia was receiving substantial financial support from the Evansi residence and was a naive young lady who knew nothing about the world.

The news would have circulated to reach the ears of the Count’s proxy at the lord’s castle.

“Where should we start? Grain merchants? Seed merchants?”

“They’re all gathered together, so you can meet them all at once.”

Mallan led the way. The shopping streets had their own rules, with shops selling similar items clustered in the same alley.

This made purchasing easier, but information also spread quickly between shops.

For example, information like the borderlands having a poor harvest this year, needing more grain, so they could raise prices and still make sales.

At first, Mallan had tried pretending to be a merchant who traveled everywhere, not just the borderlands, to buy cheaply, but that only worked once or twice.

The merchants weren’t fools. After crossing a few rivers heading toward the borderlands, word quickly spread that he worked for the young lord of Edis. After that, he only ever got overcharged.

“They’ll try to manipulate you, Miss. They might even threaten you.”

“What kind of threats?”

“Threats that they won’t sell grain after you leave.”

Lydia responded to Mallan’s worried face with a confident smile.

Mallan was curious about the source of that confidence and thought about copying her method if it was good.

That is, until Lydia actually flipped over a grain merchant’s display stand.

* * *