Are you saving that loose smile, only being stingy with it in front of me?

“Your Grace, you’ve arrived.”

Just then, Flan, who had come to the party in another carriage, saw Rihanel and ran over delightedly.

Despite Flan’s greeting, Rihanel didn’t turn around and kept staring at one spot. Flan followed his gaze and looked up.

“Miss Janet is already here! Oh, she seems to have met a close acquaintance. Look at her smiling like that.”

Flan looked at the terrace and chuckled. As if determined to spit on that harmless smiling face, Rihanel muttered quietly,

“Indeed. That woman is here.”

The moment he heard the voice, Flan was overcome with anxiety. He cautiously stretched his words and asked,

“And Your Grace…?”

“Depending on the situation.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m about to have an urgent matter.”

Looking at Rihanel, who was saying such nonsense as if it were natural, Flan’s mouth fell open.

Who would know? That the Duke of Reynes, known to be humorous and good-natured, was completely self-centered.

He urgently tried to persuade Rihanel.

“But Your Grace, Miss Janet will be waiting.”

“Let her wait.”

“What?”

“Someone waited five years for me, so she can wait that much, can’t she?”

“Um… I…”

“Have you resolved what I asked you to do?”

Ending the conversation with a question, Rihanel turned around without hesitation.

Flan stared at his retreating figure with astonished eyes, then turned back toward the terrace to somehow convey this situation to Janet, even if he had to shout.

But alas! Miss Janet had already gone inside!

In the end, Flan, unable to do either, followed Rihanel with a tearful expression.

The “task” this wicked duke referred to was finding the ring Janet had dropped in the river a few days ago.

For the past three days, they had blocked the entrance of that river and had been searching for the ring, and Flan had to frequently visit the site to check if the search was going well.

And the instruction just now was clearly telling him to go and continue searching for that ring.

‘What more can we find at this late hour?’

he thought, but surprisingly, three hours later, as a result of offering extra money for the search, they found the ring!

With a satisfied feeling, Flan ran to Rihanel, who was playing a card game at the club, and said,

“We found it.”

“What?”

“Miss Janet’s ring.”

“Ah, that.”

Ah, that? Suppressing the urge to give him a flick on the forehead, Flan handed over a small red velvet jewelry box. Rihanel visibly frowned.

“It feels like I’m receiving a proposal from you, which makes me feel disgusted.”

“I don’t feel particularly good about it either…”

Rihanel snatched the box from Flan’s hand and opened the lid with such force it seemed he might tear it off. Then he froze.

“Is this… that ring?”

“Yes.”

“I thought she would have thrown it away…”

“What? We’ve been working hard to find it.”

Rihanel rose from his seat with an irritable expression. He looked as if he had seen a ghost.

Flan asked what was wrong, but Rihanel didn’t seem to hear. In the end, he ignored people’s calls and ran straight outside.

Flan tried to follow him out, but was forced to remain seated due to the insistence, or rather bullying, of people who asked where he was going and told him to continue the game as Rihanel’s substitute.

***

Would she still be there? Wouldn’t she have gone home already?

Heading toward the party venue, Rihanel rubbed his face with dry hands.

She wouldn’t stay that long at a party venue without him there.

No… maybe she’d enjoy it. Because he didn’t come, perhaps she was enjoying herself more.

But why does this ring have to exist and stir people up, why?

When he entered the hall, the woman he saw in the distance was at the center of attention. She appeared to be mingling with other men.

Yes… of course. Feeling strangely empty, he sauntered toward her when he heard someone say,

“You think you’re a noble? Even after being abandoned by the duke?”

What?

Rihanel’s eyebrows rose fiercely.

True, she isn’t a noble. But she’s Rihanel Reynes’ fiancée. I haven’t abandoned her yet.

Hiding his anger, displeasure, and disgust, he lifted the corners of his mouth.

“Wow, Janet. You’re at the center of attention.”

Janet’s eyes trembled as she looked at Rihanel. And all she said was, “You came?”

Ah, right. For this woman, he’s no different from these men.

He felt indescribably displeased. Angry. Would others see it too? Would they think that you and I treat each other the same as these mediocre men here?

His proposal for the game was purely impulsive.

Half wanting to make Janet Wilton the center of attention to humiliate her.

Half wanting to show that even such a Janet Wilton was his fiancée.

It was an ambivalent feeling he couldn’t properly handle himself.

And when Janet Wilton opened the terrace door and came outside, Rihanel had somewhat made up his mind about the problem he’d been contemplating.

Janet reached out to snatch the ring from his hand. But Rihanel held it high so she couldn’t reach it.

She glared at him and said firmly,

“Thank you for finding it. But give it back. It’s mine.”

“Why didn’t you throw it away?”

“Because there was no reason to.”

No reason? How simple. Nel Siphren tried so hard to erase Janet Wilton from his heart. But you had no reason to throw away this ring?

He clenched his fist holding the ring. The hard object pressed into his palm, causing a small pain.

“You lost this. Now it’s mine.”

“Don’t be absurd. Didn’t you find it to return it?”

“No. I was going to melt it down. So that even the original shape couldn’t be found, so that all the memories contained in this ring would disappear completely. Without a trace.”

Janet bit her lip slightly in frustration. He liked that expression. Rihanel grabbed both her hands as she reached out again and confined them in one of his.

She tried to shake off his hand, but the difference in strength was incomparable.

Rihanel slightly bit the ring with his teeth. Janet’s eyes widened and her brows furrowed.

Staring directly into her golden eyes filled with shock, Rihanel leaned down. When he was at eye level with Janet, he smiled coolly and said,

“Here, take it.”

It was a low whisper without any inflection. Rihanel slightly lowered his eyes to look at Janet’s lips.

Janet’s eyes trembled. With both hands restrained, she must have understood what method he meant by telling her to take the ring.

Whether from shame or anger, her cheeks reddened.

But she probably wouldn’t do it.

The high-nosed Janet Wilton wouldn’t initiate a kiss. Especially in such an open space, even with curtains drawn.

Yes, it’s absurd.

Rihanel was about to straighten up with a sneer.

But at that moment.

A soft sensation touched his lips.

Rihanel was startled by the unfamiliar feeling and jerked his body back.

But Janet Wilton must have wanted this ring so badly that, without separating her lips, she took one step deeper toward him.

Her movements to find the ring were urgent. The unique, warm scent that came only from this woman mixed with the night’s wet grass smell and filled his nose.

It drove Rihanel crazy. His nerves sharpened, then dulled, confusing his mind. After a long time, he felt his reason becoming powerless.

He caressed her neat teeth and soft inner walls. As his tongue moved to the center, it met Janet’s tongue. An intense stimulation like being hit on the back of the head passed through him.

Rihanel enveloped her tongue as it struggled to grab the thin ring. He persistently sucked and stirred her soft tongue as it tried to escape from him.

Between breaths, the ring made clicking sounds that echoed in the quiet terrace. Rihanel moved the ring like rolling candy, and moved her.

When he wrapped around her tongue and then swept upward from below, Janet’s body twitched. Her hands, confined in his right hand, tensed.

While tightly holding her wrists, Rihanel changed the direction of his face. He savored the sticky sensation of the connected parts as he delved deeper into Janet.

Janet remained rigid with her eyes tightly closed. Yet she didn’t step back or separate her lips first. She moved diligently with clumsy motions to take the ring.

You want this so badly? A strange jealousy toward the seventeen-year-old Nel Siphren rose. At the same time, a subtle sense of elation spread at the fact that something so precious to her was given by him.

The thought disgusted him, and he wanted to break her arms.

What if he hurt her? If he could read her memories. If he could know why she had abandoned him.

He wanted to rummage through that woman’s mind.

Rihanel bit Janet’s lips. With her small moan came a tangy taste.

And.

“I like it even more. It’s a special ring, the only one in the world.”

When he opened his eyes again, sixteen-year-old Janet Wilton was saying that in front of the night lake.

Rihanel swallowed slightly. This scene was something that remained intensely in his memory too.

The girl who he thought would never return after bursting a ball made from pig’s bladder on her first visit continued to visit the Philodis orphanage.

When she whispered to Nel, asking him to teach her how to kick a ball without her father knowing, he truly felt his heart drop.

And so one year, two years… time passed, and it had been 7 years since Janet Wilton came to volunteer as a sponsor.

The small girl became more dazzling as time went by. Nel admired that beautiful, capable, and strong-willed girl.

Janet Wilton wasn’t usually one to show her emotions, but in front of Nel Siphren, she would occasionally smile or get angry.

He felt a sense of superiority that he had become someone special compared to others.

Yet an inferiority complex that he could never stand at the same height as the girl who had given him that sense of superiority.

Different forms of emotions filled his heart simultaneously.