“……?”

I looked at Cardien with a puzzled face.

Why isn’t he saying anything?

“Um, Your Grace? Can you hear my voice?”

When I poked him repeatedly while asking, Cardien only lowered his gaze to look at me.

Hmm, it seems like he can hear me.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Could this person be pretending to know when he actually doesn’t?

Though I know Cardien isn’t the type to put on airs, his silence raised reasonable doubts.

“Your Grace, if you don’t know, you can still say you don’t know……”

I’ll let it slide.

Just as I was about to say that.

“Tutor.”

“Yes?”

“Smile for me.”

“……Pardon?”

……What nonsense is this now?

He finally opens his mouth, and what comes out is so random that I momentarily lost my words.

Is he playing with me right now?

But his expression was more serious than ever.

No, seriously?

“W-Why so suddenly?”

“I’m just trying to confirm something, so smile.”

I was dumbfounded, but what could I do? When told to do something, I must.

“Hahaha….. Like this?”

I tried my best, but Cardien’s neat brow furrowed with disapproval.

“It’s artificial. Tutor, were you always this artificial?”

“……”

They say when a person is too dumbfounded, they lose their words.

This is exactly that situation.

It’s unfair.

Of course, it’s artificial when you force someone to smile!

I tried hard to suppress my urge to argue.

This damn class-based society…..

Finally, I sighed deeply and said.

“I need a reason to smile.”

“Don’t you have one?”

You call that a response?

I looked at him with incredulous eyes.

Even just the content of this dream is so gloomy, how could I smile?

To begin with.

“What does my smiling have to do with ending this dream?”

I looked at him with an expression that showed how hard it was to understand.

Then Cardien, who had been quietly looking at me, slowly parted his lips.

“……Emotion.”

“What?”

“As you said, it seems that changes in my emotions, as the owner of this dream, are the key to ending it.”

“……!”

I blinked with a surprised expression.

What I had casually thrown out there was actually true.

But wait…..

“……What does my smiling have to do with changes in Your Grace’s emotions……?”

“When I see you smile, my emotions change.”

“So, what kind of emotion do you feel when you see me smile?”

Surely not anger or despair, right?

“Well……”

I was hoping it wasn’t, but his answer was too ambiguous.

No, is he really trying to end this dream by getting angry at the sight of my smiling face?

‘As long as we escape this dream somehow, I guess it’s fine.’

Though it does hurt my feelings a bit.

Feeling slightly offended, I glared at him, and Cardien sneered.

“It’s not what you’re thinking, so stop giving me that look.”

“……Then what is it?”

“Just.”

“……?”

“……”

“……??”

I was waiting for his next words, but Cardien’s lips didn’t part any further.

What is “just” the end of it?

As I looked at him with bewildered eyes, he glanced at me from the corner of his eye and slowly added.

“I don’t know exactly what emotion it is either. Just that when I see the tutor smile, my emotions change.”

“That……”

Makes sense?

I pressed my lips firmly together, wanting to argue.

If you don’t know your own emotions, who would?

But…..

‘So emotional change is the key?’

Then the reason the dream hasn’t ended until now is because there was no change in Cardien’s emotions, the owner of the dream?

Thinking about it that way, the puzzle seems to fit.

But rather than feeling satisfied, I felt frustrated.

‘Emotional change.’

Is this what they mean by something being simple yet difficult?

The point is, I need to somehow cause a change in Cardien’s emotions.

‘But I can’t smile happily when I’m not happy.’

And even if I smile here, Cardien already knows it’s a fake smile, so would that be effective?

I quietly looked at Cardien.

Cardien was looking elsewhere.

‘Come to think of it……’

Suddenly, a tactic came to mind.

Nothing special, just the so-called “hiccup tactic.”

It’s a tactic where if you startle someone who has hiccups, the hiccups suddenly stop.

‘Why am I thinking of this all of a sudden?’

Anyway, what’s important is his emotional change…..

‘Bewilderment, or disbelief.’

Even anger could be an emotional change, frankly speaking.

‘But the intensity of that emotion needs to be strong enough to break the dream.’

Though not certain, it was worth trying.

The problem is…..

‘How do I surprise this Cardien?’

Frankly, even if I suddenly started tap dancing here, Cardien would probably look at me with as much interest as he’d have for a passing mutt.

He might be a bit disgusted, though.

‘Since Cardien doesn’t show much emotional change.’

Something that could startle such a Cardien…..

‘I guess there’s no other way.’

I don’t particularly want to do this, but it seems this much is needed to startle him.

So this is self-defense, okay, Mr. Villain?

Thinking this, I slowly parted my lips.

“Um…… Your Grace.”

At my call, Cardien slowly turned to me.

Is it just my imagination that his purple eyes feel particularly cold?

I tried to think lightly that this was solely to break the dream.

But when I faced him directly, sweat began to form in my palms.

I looked at Cardien with trembling eyes.

And…..

“I like you.”

“……”

Cardien stared at me blankly.

I firmly grasped my fluttering heart and spoke to him once more with clearer pronunciation.

“I like you, Your Grace.”

Suddenly, the worry of what if this doesn’t work crossed my mind.

I wasn’t confident I could handle the awkwardness afterward.

Please, let it work. Please.

And whether my prayer was answered, the world started to crumble around Cardien.

‘It worked!’

This actually works?

I thought, but anyway, it worked, so that’s what matters.

“Your…!”

Turning to Cardien with joy, I couldn’t continue my words.

Because the look in his eyes as he gazed at me…..

‘Huh……?’

It was shaking more violently than ever before.

Until the moment I was buried in light, I couldn’t take my eyes off Cardien.

***

“You shouldn’t do this……”

“What’s wrong with……”

“The master……”

Suddenly feeling the commotion around me, I slowly opened my eyes.

Where am I……?

I seem to be lying on a bed, but the surface beneath my palm feels hard.

Can a bed be this hard?

Strange.

“This is strange……”

Feeling around.

“The tutor’s actions are even stranger.”

“Huh……? What?”

At the sudden voice, I looked up and froze on the spot.

Purple eyes were looking down at me with a contemptuous gaze.

Only then did I realize what I had been feeling.

‘Oh my god!’

This isn’t a bed, it’s Cardien’s chest!

No wonder it felt broad and firm…… wait, that’s not the point.

“Gasp! S-Sorry……!”

Just as I was hurriedly trying to get up in embarrassment.

“So, I need to see with my own eyes if His Grace’s condition is normal. To check if he hasn’t collapsed unconscious after another magic outburst.”

“Please wait a moment……”

Bang!

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and the door flung open as someone barged in.

Startled, I turned around in surprise.

‘Who is it?’

It was an old man with snow-white hair and distinctive drooping eyes.

The clothes he wore were very lavish.

The old man, who had entered with vigor, stopped in apparent surprise when our eyes met.

“Please wait. The master is currently resting……”

Winston, who had been hurriedly following, also froze upon seeing the situation.

While everyone was frozen, a voice laced with a cold smile suddenly descended.

“After all this, even trespassing. You really are something.”

Then the old man, with a cold gaze that didn’t match his gentle appearance, glared at Cardien and said.

“I sent several messages but received no reply, so I visited in person, worried that something might have happened. But……”

The old man’s gray eyes turned toward me.

“I didn’t expect you to be preoccupied with a love affair, Your Grace.”

A sardonic smile spread across the old man’s lips as he said this.

By the way, what? Love affair?