‘In the original story, Karl Drian’s feelings were deep and sincere. There was also the pain issue. Could Roco’s feelings be just as serious?’

The positive reasoning sputtered out in under three seconds.

‘But I cannot be certain his feelings are not sincere.’

Reading a novel, you could simply read the psychological descriptions of the characters, but you could not see into the feelings of a real person. That fact struck me with fresh poignancy.

Was I really going to end up helplessly going around in circles like this, only to receive Roco’s elephant proposal and be dragged off to the Northern Kingdom against my will?

‘That would be the absolute worst!’

But thinking about how to refuse the proposal always brought me back to square one. Groaning, I let out a deep sigh and rose from my seat. Silvie, finishing up the closing tasks in the kitchen, poked her head out and asked:

“Where are you going, Miss?”

“My head is cluttered. I want to get some air.”

“What will you do if you receive another proposal out there?”

“Is a proposal some kind of event that automatically triggers the moment you step outside?”

I laughed at Silvie’s joke. A proposal was something I had not even received from Crown Prince Adolf, who had been my fiancé for so long. It was not something that happened frequently in life.

When I cheerfully prepared to head out, Silvie let out a sigh. Then she held out a box as though she had been waiting for this.

“Then please take out the trash on your way.”

Inside the box, the café’s garbage was neatly sorted and packed. In this neighborhood, food waste was buried at the village communal dump, and other trash was gathered at the incinerator and burned on specific days. Taking the box, I let out a hollow laugh.

“It has become natural for you to put me to work?”

“People are creatures of adaptation. You should get used to being put to work too, Miss.”

Silvie’s shameless answer left me speechless. In the end I took the box and headed for the shop door.

The box was quite heavy. It felt like I had just taken out the trash the other day.

‘Trash really does pile up fast.’

Holding the box, I could not see well ahead of me. Somehow managing to push the door open and step outside, a solid wall-like shadow fell over me.

“Goodness, you startled me!”

Crying out in surprise, I realized belatedly that it was not a wall but a man as large as one. Someone I had not seen for the past few days.

Karl Drian.

‘I thought he had starved to death, but he was alive.’

When I had been so desperate to know where he was, not even his shadow had appeared. Seeing the same face as when he had left put me at ease, and a vague, unreasonable irritation crept up alongside. I asked in a prim tone:

“Why are you standing there? Why not come in.”

“……”

Karl said nothing. His face was set in such a serious expression that I wondered whether a golem made in Karl’s likeness had been placed there.

Sensing something was off, I set the trash box down on the ground. Then I reached out and touched his forehead.

“Karl? Are you feeling unwell?”

As if answering my suspicion about the golem, the forehead under my hand was warm, and Karl Drian’s expressionless face twisted. He looked as though he were in pain, like a large needle had been driven into him.

“Viviana Goldworthy.”

Why was he calling my name with that expression. The voice, heavy and aching, sent a tingle to the tips of my ears. Tension rose on its own, straightening my back and squaring my shoulders.

Growing uneasy for no clear reason, I listened for Karl Drian’s next words. What followed was a shock in itself.

“Marry me.”

“……Pardon?”

Am I receiving a proposal on my way to take out the trash?

❀❀❀

How was I supposed to take out the trash in this state of mind. I picked the trash back up and went back inside the shop. Then I sat down facing Karl. Seeing my expression, Silvie seemed to grasp that something had happened, and murmured with great significance:

“That is why I told you not to go out……”

I simply bowed my head and let out a low groan.

There was an old saying, was there not.

Words become seeds.

‘Is this real!’

I wanted to slap my own cheek for laughing off Silvie’s question about whether I would receive a proposal the moment I stepped outside.

It was real! I had stepped outside and immediately received a proposal from a different man!

Roco’s proposal had startled me, but Karl Drian’s proposal felt like my soul had actually left my body. Even sitting across from him, not knowing what to say, I was just mumbling meaningless sounds like “um, uh,” when I carefully opened my mouth:

“Well, I’m not sure what change of heart brought this on, but……”

The first words I had managed to say were immediately denied.

“It is not a sudden change. I wanted to propose for some time.”

“Pardon? Since when exactly?”

“……”

This man always went silent at exactly these moments. Did he want to play twenty questions with me?

Under normal circumstances I would have ignored it and moved on, but this time I was desperate to know. I closed in gradually.

“Since Roco came?”

Shake.

“Then before that? When the robbers broke in?”

It was not unheard of for pity felt at seeing someone in a pitiful state to bloom into affection. That day I had been trembling terribly from my fire trauma.

“Much longer before that.”

But that was not the right answer either. I furrowed my brow and pushed out my lips.

“Longer before that? There was no particular moment that would make you want to propose.”

Searching my memory, nothing came to mind. When he had appeared at the café I had been flustered and at a loss, but after the robbery incident only peaceful days had followed.

Wait. When he appeared at the café?

Come to think of it, the most out-of-place moment in my encounters with Karl Drian was the very day he had appeared. At the time I had vaguely assumed he had come to keep watch on me and kept my distance.

But what if his purpose had been entirely me from the very beginning?

“……Don’t tell me the reason you were lingering in front of my café was that you had come to propose to me?”

Karl, who had been looking at me steadily, slowly moved his head.

Nod.

“Huh!”

I had finally guessed what was in his heart, but far from feeling glad, all that came out was a gasp, like I had touched a live wire.

Silvie set a warm cup of tea in front of me and scolded me in a small voice:

“Miss, really.”

I know. I know that this is not how a person who has just received a proposal should behave. But how could I possibly laugh and smile with proper manners right now?

Instead I slapped both hands down on the table and raised my voice:

“How could I not be startled?! The whole reason you were hanging around in front of our shop from the very beginning was me! I was completely convinced you had come to keep watch on me!”

Silvie let out a deep sigh and shook her head.

“I thought that might be the case.”

“Really? When exactly?”

“……Let us talk about that separately later.”

Silvie jerked her chin toward the man sitting across from me. Karl Drian, even though it was his own story being discussed, was just blinking blankly as though listening to someone else’s business.

Looking at that face made my chest burst all over again. It was precisely because you were this kind of person that I never anticipated any emotional complication!

“No, we have never once had any contact before. I am seeing your face for the very first time! So why did you want to propose to me?”

Karl’s answer was brief.

“I fell for you at first sight.”

“What?”

I was beginning to wonder whether there was something wrong with my hearing. What did he just say? Who fell for whom and how?

I pointed at myself with my index finger and asked again:

“You really fell for me? Viviana Goldworthy?”

Nod.

“Th, that cannot be.”

In the original story, the character who kills me is Karl Drian. And yet far from killing me, he had fallen for me at first sight. The original story had not just been turned upside down, the character’s very identity had changed.

‘Could I have been mistaken about the original story? Perhaps what I thought was the original story was actually a completely different novel I transmigrated into.’

But the characters overlapped far too much for that. How many novels could there be with a heroine named Georgiana?