0. The Returned Fiancé

“Miss, slowly! Please slow down! You’ll trip at this rate!”

The voice of the maid, Anna, could be heard from behind, frantically trying to stop her, but April pretended not to hear and dashed into the mansion. She knew this wasn’t how a twenty-three-year-old noblewoman should behave, but she couldn’t help it. Every second was precious right now.

A short while ago, she’d received word from the Landen family that her fiancé, Kyle Landen, had returned. Kyle had gone to fight in a war that broke out two years ago, and only now had he finally come back. Two whole years of waiting. April couldn’t rest easy until she saw him with her own eyes.

“Miss.”

The head butler of the Landen family greeted April, bowing politely as she caught her breath. Normally, as the Landen family’s butler, he would address her as ‘Lady Myles,’ but since it had been promised that she would marry Kyle as soon as he returned, he treated April as if she were already part of the Landen household.

“How have you been, Howard? Where’s Kyle? Is he in the study?”

“Young Master is in his room.”

“Thank you!”

April clutched her dress and hurried toward the stairs, but the butler’s voice stopped her again.

“Please wait a moment.”

April paused, her foot on the first step, and turned around. She could have just kept going, but the butler’s voice sounded serious. Not only his voice, but even his usually expressionless face was now full of concern.

April’s face hardened as she approached him.

“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me Kyle’s hurt?”

When she sent him off two years ago, she had sworn that even if he returned injured, her feelings wouldn’t change. And she meant it. Even if he came back missing an arm or a leg, or unable to see, she was confident she could still love him.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be heartbroken if he was hurt.

“There was nothing about that in the letters. Don’t tell me… the reason there were no letters for a while wasn’t just because it was the end of the war, but because he was badly injured…”

“That’s not it. Young Master returned safely, just as he left.”

“Then why…?”

April’s voice trembled. Aside from his injury, all sorts of ominous possibilities that the butler might need to tell her flashed through her mind.

“Don’t tell me there’s someone else…”

The butler shook his head in shock.

“Nothing like that. I swear, there is no other lady in Young Master’s life but you.”

April visibly let out a sigh of relief, pressing her hand to her chest.

“Then why are you so serious?”

Despite her repeated urging, the butler couldn’t give her an answer.

“Don’t tell me he doesn’t want to see me?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Did he say he doesn’t want to marry me?”

“No, not that either.”

“Then why?”

“……”

Unable to bear the silence any longer, April ran up the stairs again. Anna and the butler called after her, but she kept running.

She’d been to Kyle’s room countless times. In the past two years while he was away, she couldn’t bring herself to enter the masterless room, but she still remembered exactly where it was.

April paused in front of the familiar dark brown door to catch her breath. She ran her fingers through her disheveled hair and smoothed out her slightly wrinkled dress. Like she was standing before a mirror, she practiced a smile in front of the door before knocking.

“Who is it?”

The voice from inside was one she knew well. The voice she’d longed to hear for the past two years. It was a bit lower and sharper than she remembered, but it was undoubtedly Kyle’s.

He was in this room. He had finally returned.

The tears she’d held back since hearing the news at the mansion threatened to fall. April bit her lip hard enough to turn it white, then opened the door.

“Miss!”

The butler, who had followed her belatedly, called out, but April stepped inside. Kyle, dressed in comfortable indoor clothes, turned to look at her.

Everything was the same. His thin black hair, which would lie flat unless styled; his delicate features, more suited to a scholar than a knight; his height, a head taller than hers, and broad shoulders.

He looked more tanned and his jawline sharper than the last time she’d seen him, perhaps from hardship, but he was unmistakably Kyle Landen.

“Kyle.”

April, her nerves finally giving way, steadied her trembling legs and walked toward him. Her gaze quickly swept over him from head to toe.

Just as the butler had said, he appeared unhurt. There were some small scars on the arm exposed where his sleeve was rolled up, but considering the two years he’d spent at war, they weren’t anything to fuss over.

April bit her lip, lowered her head, then forced a smile as she looked up.

“I missed you.”

But the response she expected didn’t come. No “I missed you too,” no bone-crushing embrace, no breath-stealing kiss.

Kyle simply looked down at April in silence. He didn’t seem at all overwhelmed by emotion at seeing his lover after so long.

His sky-blue eyes swept over April, as if assessing her. That gaze was completely different from how April had looked at him just moments earlier. She had never seen his eyes so indifferent and cold.

No, she had seen them once—when he looked at a Baron’s daughter who had clung to him obsessively.

A chill ran down her spine. She suddenly remembered the butler’s troubled expression as he tried to stop her.

Kyle’s gaze finally left April and shifted to the butler, who had followed her in. He didn’t say a single word to April. Instead, in a slightly angry tone, he muttered to the butler,

“How come no one stopped a stranger from entering my room?”