“Princess. You’re here.”
I came here because of our business, not because I was curious about his partner, but I felt a little uncomfortable because Isidor was clearly in work mode.
“Yes, I’m here. Duke Visconti.”
So, a sarcastic tone came out without me realizing it.
“Why are you suddenly being formal? Speaking casually suits you much better, Princess.”
He was flustered.
“I am undeserving of taking the busy and popular Duke Visconti’s time.”
“Spending time with the Princess is not a waste at all. Please take my time often.”
… Anyway, he was good at talking.
He was the mastermind in the novel, the best con artist in the empire who even swindled the crown prince.
“I know you’ve been very busy lately. There’s no way you aren’t, all the letters that are coming to the Visconti family are enough to build a castle.”
The corners of his lips rose slightly.
“I don’t know about a castle, but I think I can pile them up as high as a hill.”
“That’s good. You can even slide down the hill of letters.”
For some reason, Isidor felt more relaxed than usual, so I spoke as if I was provoking him for nothing.
In fact, Isidor was the one who first requested a formal relationship, and I was the one who put the brakes on the establishment of a quick relationship. But why was I the one who was nervous…?
“It’s rather troublesome. I have to send letters of refusal out of courtesy.”
I didn’t agree with him.
“Well, I’m not sure. Duke Visconti is sending and receiving letters from all over the place because there is some possibility. … You also received a partner request from a young lady.”
As I said so, I felt that my tone of voice was sharp. I also knew it was unreasonable. However, I felt more and more bloated and uncomfortable, so I thought that I would feel better with whatever words came out of my mouth. In particular, it was very rare for gentlemen to receive partner requests from young ladies, so I felt even more strange.
‘Whether Isidor means good or bad towards that young lady, I can’t help but be bothered about it.’
She took the risk of being embarrassed and had the courage to make such an offer.
“I refused her.”
“I know that.”
Swallowing a sigh, I continued bluntly.
“I have spoken nonsense to you. Let’s just… work.”
He, who was covering his face with his hands at my cold attitude, giving off a serious vibe, soon took out a well-organized sales slip in a businesslike manner. I wasn’t able to focus at all, but amid that, I managed to neatly process the employee’s work attitude report. I rubbed the nape of my neck roughly.
‘Ugh! This isn’t it.’
I was trying to find fault with him, but he was so uselessly competent that I had nothing to say.
Honestly, every time I heard someone else talking about Isidor, I felt a sense of distance like never before, and at the same time, I had all kinds of thoughts.
I did not want to go off on my own with only speculation, so I brought up the popularity thing and the story about his partner, but he didn’t say a single word about it even today, so I was confused.
‘Since it’s an official occasion, does he think it’s better to go with someone with good character?’
I didn’t have a good reputation. As I kept thinking about it, he suddenly pulled something out and slowly held it towards me.
***
‘I’m in trouble. She’s so cute that I can’t take it…’
Seeing Princess Deborah, who had a blunt expression the whole time, Isidor kept struggling to hide his flushed cheeks. She even looked cute when she glared at him with an icy look and spoke in a sharp tone.
In fact, at first, he wondered why she had such a fierce atmosphere, but as they spoke, he began to understand.
‘I didn’t know she cared about another lady asking to be my partner.’
She looked more grown-up and composed than he was, so he didn’t expect her to have this reaction. And it was also because Isidor’s feelings for her, which started developing from the moment he met her a long time ago, had grown large and deep, so he had no chance to pay attention to the Princess’ feelings.
‘I’m happy, but she will be mad if I say something like this. The Princess looks quite serious.’
It seemed like his desire to confirm her affection had grown stronger. Seeing how he felt like jumping with joy despite this little bit of jealousy.
But to be honest, he didn’t put off applying for a partner just to see her jealous. Isidor had been distracted by what he felt was very important to him.
‘The timing of my father’s passing was awful.’
Time was tight because the ceremony and the funeral were so close together. He hadn’t prepared his partner’s dress and jewelry perfectly enough to meet his standards.
‘It should be something that the Princess likes.’
Unlike last year’s spring flower festival, he had to attend this time because he was receiving a full title. If Deborah were to be his partner, he wanted to send her a gift that would suit her. He also had the quite childish thought that he needed to kill the energy of people like Thierry and that irrelevant guy from the beginning so that they wouldn’t try anything.
The discerning Isidor wasted two days just choosing a jewelry design that suited her, and he was busy looking for a craftsman to engrave her name on the necklace. Engraving mana stones had expanded to other minerals, and recently, there was a trend in the empire to engrave names on jewelry.
Isidor could not let go of the crazy idea of engraving her initials on a blue diamond, and then filling the engraved parts with small diamonds. Because of his picky attitude and spending money on useless things while grilling him about the craftsman, Miguel, who had been by his side, had been so distressed that he even had nightmares about it.
And Isidor, who, with much effort, had received the finished jewel this morning, doubted his eyes when he looked at the calendar. Noticing that he had less time left that expected, he was considering the timing with which to ask Deborah to be his partner today.
Speaking of which, there was something that bothered him.
‘The occasion is too formal. Won’t she feel burdened to attend as my partner?’
It was also for this reason that Lady Syril’s public request to be his partner felt so unpleasant and disturbing to Isidor.
The title ceremony was the first official event allowed to a newly appointed and unmarried duke. A partner on such an official occasion is of great external significance. It was obvious that she was aware of that fact, but Lady Syril pretended to show pure emotion and requested to be his partner in front of everyone.
In Isidor’s eyes, the young lady didn’t show courage, she just tried to get what she wanted by troubling the other person. Since he was rumored to have a sense of chivalry, she thought there was no way she was going to humiliate herself in public.
‘Though it was a bit of a nuisance…’
As a result, he came to see a new face of Princess Deborah, and became convinced of her feelings. Although he had to pay the price for making things troublesome, apart from that.
“What is this?”
When Princess Deborah saw the blue diamond in the box Isidor had given her, her purple eyelashes fluttered several times.
“I hope you will shine next to me on the day of the title ceremony while wearing this necklace.”
“…”
“What do you think?”
She kept her lips tightly shut for a moment, then slowly swept her hair up as she swallowed a sigh. Her ears were red as if they were going to catch fire at any moment.
“I’m embarrassed.”
She murmured softly in an emotional voice, and Isidor smirked.
“When it comes to the number of times one is jealous… maybe no one does it as much as I do? I have even been jealous of the flowers that fell on your shoulders.”
He wanted to reach every place her soft gaze touched.
“No, it’s not because I’m jealous… In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed by that, but I said for us to build a relationship slowly while getting to know each other.”
“…”
“Even though I said that, I didn’t know that I would get nervous because of our ambiguous relationship…”
Before she could speak, Isidor reached out his arms and curled them around the nape of her long neck. Driven impulsively by her low words, he pulled her white, beautiful face closer to him and spoke clearly in a sunken voice.
“Are you nervous?”
“Yeah. More than I thought.”
With the extremely close distance between them, their breaths mingled lightly.
“Do you think It is alright for me to understand you like me as much as I do?”
Although he was sure it wasn’t as special and heavy as he felt for her.
“Did you only realize now that I like you?”
The Princess’ red eyes curved slightly.
“If you speak like that, it makes me want to try to be more presumptuous from now on. I’ll want to keep crossing the line.”
“What kind of line do you want to cross?”
With her slightly smiley voice, Isidor moved his neck and pulled her face closer. Before long, the lips of the two people locked together
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