Wondering if Arsen had another room when there wasn’t even a guest room, Lydia hesitantly suggested,

“Then, shall we sleep here together?”

From the moment Lydia’s eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings, Arsen had felt uneasy, but such a careless and thoughtless remark?

She might know what will happen in the future, but apparently the lady doesn’t know that you shouldn’t try to hold back a man who’s voluntarily leaving the room.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. Since this is your room, I meant that you should sleep here and I could sleep on the floor or in a chair. That’s what I meant……”

Perhaps interpreting Arsen’s silence as displeasure, Lydia felt needlessly guilty and rambled on with excuses.

“My lady, you need to develop some caution.”

“I really didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know. But did it not occur to you that I might misinterpret it that way?”

Lydia’s eyes widened.

To try to hold back a man who’s voluntarily leaving with such a method.

Arsen suppressed the laugh that was about to escape.

“In your eyes, do I not even appear as a man? Or do you think I wouldn’t harbor any inappropriate thoughts toward you?”

“That’s not it. Richard said no man would want to do anything with a woman like me.”

“……?”

“That’s why……”

Ah. Arsen was at a loss for words.

Am I the only one who looks like trash in this situation?

* * *

Arsen felt he needed to warn Lydia while he had the chance.

If she followed him to the border of the marquisate as she wished, she would have to travel for days with hot-blooded men.

A combination of a lady without any sense of caution and men with dark intentions.

Arsen had no desire to get tangled up in any romantic incidents and wanted to prevent that in advance.

“He said clearly that no man would want to get involved with a clingy and persistent woman like me.”

Who knew Richard’s words would make Arsen look like trash too.

What nonsense did the emperor say to the woman who devoted herself to him?

Though Lydia had been somewhat obsessive towards him, and while it might have seemed excessive to observers, she was still the one who reached out when he was at his lowest.

“I’m sorry if I offended you, Sir.”

Receiving an apology made him feel like trash without even saying a single harsh word.

Lydia lowered her eyebrows and buried her gloomy face in the blanket.

Even for Arsen, who lacked sympathy, her pitiful state was enough to draw out compassion.

Her round eyes seemed to reflect her emotions, making her look even more pitiful.

Silence fell between Arsen and Lydia.

Arsen didn’t know what words he should use to break this silence.

At that moment, from within the tightly wrapped blanket, a small growling sound came from Lydia’s stomach.

Of all times!

It was a sound so faint that it wouldn’t have been noticeable during conversation, but it had to happen during this silence!

Embarrassed and mortified, Lydia couldn’t lift her face.

Still, Lydia believed Arsen would pretend not to have heard it.

Making a lady embarrassed over such bodily functions wasn’t becoming of a gentleman—

“Are you hungry?”

Arsen wasn’t a gentleman at all!

Lydia shook her head while burying her face, which felt ready to burst from heat, into the blanket.

“Don’t deny it. Being hungry isn’t a crime, it’s fine.”

“No! You, you……”

“I what?”

“You’re not a knight. You’re making a lady feel embarrassed on purpose.”

Was asking if she was hungry because she looked hungry making her embarrassed?

Arsen neither understood nor particularly wanted to understand.

“I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”

“Then what?”

“I was going to bring you something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry!”

She actually felt like she wasn’t hungry because of the embarrassment.

When she was at the labor camp, she would even eat bread that had fallen on the ground, but now she couldn’t understand why a simple growling sound made her so embarrassed.

“Are you sure you won’t eat?”

“I won’t!”

Lydia shouted sharply, still keeping her face buried in the blanket.

Arsen seemed to accept this and leave.

However, moments later.

He returned with a tray carrying warm, fragrant stew and soft, white bread.

The words ‘I said I wouldn’t eat’ came up to her throat but went back down.

Actually, they didn’t even reach her solar plexus.

The smell of food made her ravenously hungry.

Though she had eaten dinner, the physician had told her to eat only easily digestible foods, so she always got thin stew and a small biscuit.

Even when she asked for more because she was hungry, they wouldn’t give it to her—could that have been Devon’s orders too?

Lydia briefly had such suspicions while putting pieces of bread in her mouth.

“……”

If she was going to eat so well, why did she act embarrassed?

Arsen swallowed his question as he observed Lydia.

Looking at how quickly she finished a bowl of stew, she must have been very hungry.

The way she stuffed bread into her mouth was strangely familiar.

What was it, what was it, ah.

“…Rabbit.”

As the image clicked in his mind like a light turning on, Arsen accidentally spoke his thought aloud.

“Rabbit? Is this rabbit stew?”

“No, it’s not. I just realized you resemble a rabbit.”

I look like a rabbit? As Lydia tilted her head, Arsen elaborated.

“You look like the winter rabbits that live in the north. The ones with pink fur that live in the forest.”

They were rabbits with fluffy, thin pink fur, just like Lydia’s hair.

“I’ve never seen a pink rabbit.”

Lydia touched her hair and muttered curiously.

“They’re quite common animals that come down to villages, so you’ll see them often when you go to the border.”

“A pink rabbit sounds cute. Can I keep one?”

“Hmm, it would be difficult for you to raise one, my lady.”

What’s so difficult about it, if I want to raise it, I’ll raise it.

Lydia secretly vowed to definitely keep one of those rabbits that resembled her hair.

* * *

Despite all her talk about being a burden, Lydia ate well and slept well in Arsen’s room, in his bed.

Waking up to the sound of training shouts from outside in the morning, Lydia rose from the bed rubbing her eyes.

Though she wanted to sleep more, the schedule was tight.

By now, Devon must have sent people to look for her.

She needed to get to the temple before he started suspecting Arsen.

As she was roughly combing through her tangled hair with her hands to leave, there was a knock. Could it be Sir Arsen?

Lydia grabbed the doorknob and opened it without hesitation.

“Oh?”

Instead of Arsen, there stood a man who seemed both familiar and unfamiliar.

“He says to wear these.”

The man with reddish-brown hair suddenly thrust clothes into Lydia’s arms.

He pushed them with such force that Lydia almost fell backward while receiving them.

However, the man only glared at her with frost-like eyes, not even offering a perfunctory apology.

“Oh, thank you.”

His hostility was so obvious that Lydia tried to close the door, using changing clothes as an excuse.

But the man firmly caught the door with his palm. Lydia staggered again, still holding the doorknob.

“If you’re thinking of trying anything with our commander, you’d better give up. He’s not a suitable match for someone like you, Miss.”

“Um, I think there’s some misunderstanding…”

“You’d be better off going back to cling to the emperor. He’s not married yet, right?”

At these continued remarks, Lydia could no longer tolerate his rudeness.

“What’s your name, Sir?”

“Since you’ll forget it right away anyway, just pretend you heard it.”

“What did you say?”

“A lowborn’s name would only dirty your ears, Miss.”

He sneered and disappeared. Lydia glared at his retreating back while holding the clothes to her chest.

“What’s his problem.”

How incredibly rude.

Is he acting this prickly just because I occupied his commander’s room?

Lydia was pouting when she suddenly turned around.

She was startled when she met Arsen’s eyes, who was staring at her from the opposite end of the corridor.

“W-what is it, Sir? You scared me.”

“Did you commit some crime to be so startled?”

He approached Lydia’s face with long strides.

“Why were you glaring at an empty corridor?”

“Well.”

She wanted to tattle that his subordinate was extremely rude, but she held back.

The Black Wolf Knights would be people she’d have to see throughout the journey to the border of the marquisate and after arriving there.

She didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble, and she didn’t think Arsen would particularly take her side anyway.

Though he was being kind out of necessity, Lydia hadn’t forgotten that Arsen was suspicious of her.

“It’s nothing.”

“That’s good then. Make sure to wear the robe when you come out. People from the marquis’s residence were sent out last night.”

My, Devon, you’re so quick. When I was dying from poison you wouldn’t even call a physician, but now that I’ve run away you immediately send people to search for me.

Lydia swallowed her rising sarcasm.

There wasn’t time to be sarcastic about everything.

She’d save up the complaints for later.

“Then I’ll change and come out.”

“You’d better hurry.”

Lydia nodded and went back into the room, closing the door.

She took off her nightgown and squeezed into the ready-made dress someone had bought.

Then she put on the dark robe over it and pulled the hood down low.

Things would get very complicated if Devon caught her before reaching the temple.

“Sir, let’s go now.”

When she flung the door open, Arsen, who had been leaning against the wall, straightened up.

He considered warning her about the pink hair peeking out from under the tightly wrapped robe but decided against it.

After all, his job was just to take her there safely and quickly.