2. Contract Dating?!

‘Oh no……!’

She had been desperately covering her face, but as he grabbed her wrists, the hat fell helplessly to the ground.

“Let go of me…… and let’s talk!”

She wasn’t one to back down just because both wrists were grabbed. He seemed to have underestimated Marina’s thin wrists……

‘No matter what, restraining me with one hand is too much!’

She crossed her wrists and instantly freed herself from his hands. She tried to use a technique again while Felix was flustered.

“Back throw…… ugh!”

She tried to throw him with all her strength. However, Felix’s confusion was only momentary, and perhaps because he had experienced it once before, he didn’t go down easily. Felix quickly pounced on her body.

“Uwah!”

“Your wrist strength is a little different from that time. Did you get injured somewhere?”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? As if I’d tell you such things……!”

At the leisurely voice of Felix who was hugging her tightly from behind, she gritted her teeth and struggled to escape from his embrace. The more she writhed, the more Felix pulled her into his arms so tightly that she couldn’t move at all.

“Ugh, loosen your grip……”

“Since you’re caught from behind, it’ll hurt more if you move. Just stay still, won’t you?”

Feeling like she was wrestling with a bear, her breath quickly rose to her chin. When they met at the ball, he definitely hadn’t been able to use any strength because he was trying not to go berserk.

In rising impatience, she had no choice but to growl.

“A, aren’t you going to let go?”

“Oh ho. You’re speaking informally even though you know I’m the second prince of this country?”

“……? You should listen to what people say to the end!”

Annoying, but yes, since he’s a prince, let’s use honorifics. She was a police officer from a polite Confucian country after all.

Felix found her immediate submission amusing and laughed while apologizing in a low voice. Of course, there was no sincerity in those words at all.

“Puhup! Is that so? Sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, let go of my arms and let’s have a proper conversation like human beings? Aren’t you ashamed of treating a lady so mercilessly?”

“I can’t do that. Thanks to someone, I rolled around thoroughly on a small terrace.”

“Uh…… ha, haha.”

At Felix’s ominous aura as he spoke through gritted teeth, she lost her words and could only laugh. Right, this is all my fault! She finally followed his advice and relaxed her arms, letting her body go limp.

She could belatedly understand why he had restrained her like this.

“Don’t you feel it?”

“Wha, what……”

She muttered lowly, completely shrunk at the voice flowing into her ear. She tried to pretend not to know, but she had no choice but to hold her breath at the obvious energy.

Perhaps annoyed that she was pretending not to know, Felix spun her body around. Now facing him, she tried to avoid looking at him as he persistently wouldn’t let go of her hands. However……

‘Uh…… honestly, I can feel it too well.’

She could feel the sun power and water’s power intertwining and resonating with each other from her wrists wrapped in his large hands.

‘The sun power……’

It wasn’t as much power as when it almost went berserk at the ball. But the sun power was fluctuating very intensely.

‘Does this much power overflow even in normal times?’

He was indeed a tragic prince. To have to live every day harboring such strong heat. Sure enough, Felix was making a satisfied expression as if he had difficultly obtained and drunk cool water in a desert.

Thanks to the commotion as soon as they entered the alley, the hat had long since fallen from her head. She finally looked at Felix. Under the bright sunlight, his bold-featured face was revealed more clearly than on the dark terrace.

‘Hand, handsome……’

Befitting a romance fantasy male lead, as expected. Moreover, a classic handsome man with black hair and bold features, so how handsome must he be! Besides, the sun power flowing from his hands warmed her body sufficiently. The cozy and warm feeling made her feel drowsy.

Finding her appearance of quietly accepting his energy interesting, Felix opened his eyes narrowly and made more and more contact with her body. He tried to pull her into his embrace by drawing her nape with his other hand.

‘Get, get a grip!’

She must have unconsciously lost her mind to Felix’s sun power. She belatedly came to her senses and tried to escape from him again, but…… he delivered the finishing blow.

“Don’t think about continuing to make excuses. Marina Enchester.”

“Gasp!”

As soon as she heard the name ‘Marina,’ she was startled and pulled her body away from him. Felix obediently let her go.

“Hoot……”

And toward her looking up with a surprised face, he lifted one corner of his mouth and threw her a smile.

“Go ahead, try hiding or running away if you can. Wherever you are, I can find you.”

“……!”

Before she could answer anything, Felix leisurely left. She had no choice but to stand in that alley and tremble for a long time……

‘Why on earth is he looking for me……? Why……?!’

⁕⁕⁕

‘Marina Enchester……’

He had called her name. This made it clear that her plan to completely avoid the execution route had been shattered.

‘I’m doomed……! Felix knows everything.’

Far from avoiding Felix, she had not only used water power in front of him but even had her identity exposed. She ignored Lecia who was pouring out questions beside her and returned to the mansion.

Only then could she understand how he had been able to find her.

“Oh, Marina……! My one and only dress seems to have become a big topic at this ball!”

“The second prince, surely not? Is the content of this gossip magazine really true?”

“What? A gossip magazine……?”

The Enchester mansion was in complete chaos over a single gossip magazine. The baron and his wife shoved the damn thing right under her nose. She nearly fainted after reading its contents.

‘The second prince fell in love at first sight with a beautiful woman wearing an antique dress at the Founding Day commemoration banquet…… what does this mean!’

Ridiculously, one side of the newspaper article featured a dress design sketch. The Enchester family’s last dress at first glance. It was that dress she had worn a few days ago.

‘No, the nobles who laughed at my dress at the banquet…… what is this!?’

Apparently that dress had made a strong impression on the nobles. Several nobles’ testimonies were listed below the dress sketch.

[ A dress with an intense gaze. I was surprised by the antique design but soon saw it as a new charm…… ]

[ Twenty years ago, when I debuted in society, elderly ladies wore this style of dress. I couldn’t help but be amazed by the young noble lady’s bold spirit of challenge…… ]

The dress that the baroness had held onto for many years was now being called an ‘antique’ and ‘classic’ dress.

‘Marina’s beauty…… ha, yes, I acknowledge that too so let’s move on. But Felix fell for me?’

Moreover, the gossip magazine even had this clue written in it.

[ After a brief but enchanting time with the woman, it is said that the second prince discovered that a button that should have been attached to his sleeve had fallen off. The button the second prince lost at that time was a button studded with diamonds, and the person who possesses that button must surely be the second prince’s lady……! ]

“This is, what nonsense……”

“Oh my, goodness! Miss, this couldn’t be that button from that time…… could that person from earlier possibly be…… hup!”

She had to control Lecia’s mouth first. She exerted tremendous strength to cover her mouth. The Enchester couple looked this way with puzzled eyes. She quickly turned her back and whispered to Lecia.

“Lecia……? As I told you earlier, there’s nothing between me and that person from earlier and nothing happened, so you must not! Absolutely! Tell anyone……”

“Not even the madam and master?”

“Absolutely……! Absolutely not!”

Perhaps her fierce expression didn’t get through, as Lecia’s eyes sparkled even more.

“Ah, Miss. Could it be that you’re trying to keep this fact as a major secret because of the barrier of social status? Is that why the button too……? But that person is……!”

“Absolutely not! It’s not like that, okay? That person was a stranger!”

“Oh my goodness…… I see. Well, if that’s your wish, Miss……”

At her words shot out like lightning, Lecia nodded as if convinced. Tears began to well up in Lecia’s eyes, as if she alone was devising some melodramatic romance, but anyway she had to be satisfied with getting a promise to keep her mouth shut.

She quickly appealed to the Enchester couple as well.

“Surely, that dress couldn’t be this dress? If you look closely, this dress has a slightly different design, doesn’t it?”

“But, Marina…… it looks very similar to my dress.”

“The dress Mother gave me was wonderful too, but…… you know! Our dress is a bit old so it couldn’t attract as much attention as this dress.”

“But……”

“Ey……! Surely, if I had met His Highness the Second Prince, would I be worrying about today and tomorrow’s meals like this? I wouldn’t have missed that opportunity!”

“That would be true……?”

“Most importantly, that button! I’ve never even seen such a button. Haha, of course! I haven’t been able to properly talk to any gentleman.”

With each word she threw out, the baron couple’s faces became glum. Finally, the baroness burst into tears and went up to her room. Deeper wrinkles formed on the baron’s face. Perhaps it was because he faced reality at his daughter’s words.

She too felt heartbroken that she couldn’t deliver hopeful news, but there was no choice.

‘Because of this dress, strange gossip is circulating and the possibility of getting entangled with Felix has increased…… It’s better to tell them properly so they don’t get false hopes. By the way, the button…… I never thought the button story would appear in a gossip magazine. How does the reporter know about that?’

The incident of suddenly encountering Felix at the market today also bothered her. The strange gossip that arose was also suspicious, but there was nothing more she could do here. What she hoped for was just.

‘Please, just don’t let me encounter the second prince anymore!’

That night, she prayed earnestly with her hands clasped as she went to bed. But despite her earnest prayers, the incident happened the very next morning.

⁕⁕⁕