Chapter 39
“Don’t tell me you’re saying you have more dating experience than me… Liar! No way!”
“What about it doesn’t make sense?”
“For your hypothesis to hold, Your Highness, you would have to have never dated a single person in your life until now. But with that face and that smile, there’s no way women wouldn’t be lining up everywhere you go!”
Even I would have!
Fortunately, she swallowed those last words. For some reason, Calyx looked like he was having the time of his life, his face lit with a constant smile. Lottie was certain she was being teased quite thoroughly.
“Liar.”
Lottie muttered under her breath, glaring at Calyx with a flushed face.
“I am not.”
“Playboy.”
“Even less so.”
“You’re subtly implying you have plenty of experience right now. Compared to you, I’m a pauper who can’t even remember when my last relationship was. It’s true!”
Lottie wasn’t sure if her pride was wounded from being teased or if there was some other reason for her agitation.
Behind her rapid-fire venting, countless explosions thundered, signaling the finale of the fireworks display.
Just as Calyx was about to calm her down, Lottie’s expression suddenly shifted as she looked past his shoulder.
“You said a contract needs a seal, right?”
Lottie looked up at Calyx. Her expression was provocative, yet determined.
Before Calyx could predict what was coming, it happened.
“……!”
Lottie grabbed Calyx by the shoulders and pulled him toward her.
His body, helpless against the tug, tilted forward as her slender frame collided with his. Lottie rose slightly on her tiptoes.
The scent of spring—something between floral and grassy—overwhelmed Calyx, leaving him no escape.
Soft lips pressed against him without a moment’s hesitation.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it wasn’t his lips she hit, but just beside them. It was a fleeting moment, impossible to measure, but every muscle in Calyx’s body froze instantly.
His heightened senses felt everything about her. Her warm lips, her hot breath, the small hands gripping his shoulders, and even her soft, rounded body pressed against his chest.
Following a premonition that if he stayed a second longer, he would have wrapped his arms around her waist and swallowed her whole, Lottie slowly pulled away from Calyx.
Her light green eyes, looking even more alluring as they glistened slightly, stared at him intently.
“The seal… is set, right?”
After that low whisper, Lottie cast a glance over his shoulder.
Calyx, who had been momentarily dazed, followed her gaze and looked behind him. He let out a short sigh.
Standing some distance away was Lottie’s party. Judging by their wide-eyed, slack-jawed expressions, it was obvious how long they had been standing there.
“Remember! Our history begins today!”
Lottie whispered while gesturing toward her companions. Unlike someone else who was struggling to hide his racing heart, her attitude was frustratingly composed.
“……I’m crazy, I’m insane! What did I just do…?”
That being said, the voice muttering quietly as she moved away from him wasn’t exactly calm.
Lottie led Isabel away, coaxing and soothing her great-aunt as the older woman struggled to get a better look at the man who had just kissed her grand-niece.
Once they vanished, silence settled around Calyx.
“Ah… seriously.”
If it was already like this from the start, how was he supposed to endure what was to come?
Even as he felt the intuition of an inevitable defeat, Calyx couldn’t stop smiling. Stroking his lips where her warmth and scent still lingered, he chuckled like a madman.
Though the time he had promised to meet his subordinates had long since passed, he remained rooted to the spot for a long while, unable to move.
As if blessing the first and unrequited love of a man facing a tragic future, the night sky was embroidered with brilliant, multicolored fireworks.
Southern Ronvernon, Montpelier Castle.
Better known by its nickname ‘Cupcake Castle’ than its actual name, this place was the honeymoon home the previous King had earmarked long ago for his beloved youngest daughter, Olivia.
William Redbreeze, the nominal owner of the house but in reality little more than a live-in son-in-law, paced around his lavish study—which didn’t reflect a shred of his personal taste—venting his fury.
“If you thought you were going to lose it, you should have at least destroyed it yourself! How could you just hand it over to some person whose status we don’t even know?!”
“Because you clearly ordered me to ‘find it and bring it back,’ sir…”
The subordinate, lacking any sense of timing, caught William’s glaring eyes and quickly bowed his head.
“I have committed a mortal sin, sir! I will scour all of Matila to find the man who took the contract. Please, leave it to me.”
The subordinate, who had successfully broken into Calyx’s residence to steal the contract, had been chased by officers who stormed the villa at that exact moment. He fled quickly but soon found himself on the verge of being cornered by officers from both sides.
It was then that he spotted a young man walking toward him, his hat pulled down low.
He didn’t know what he had been thinking in that split second. Perhaps he thought it was better to leave the original intact with someone else rather than destroying it and losing the evidence forever.
—I’ll be back for this soon, so keep it safe!
The young man had been saddled with the bundle of papers without knowing why, and the subordinate had surrendered to arrest with a light heart.
“The contract was written in code, so no one but you can even decipher it, sir. This won’t cause you any trouble. Please don’t worry.”
“That’s not the problem! You idiot!”
William stamped his feet, shouting harsh profanities. He was so fierce that the subordinate shrank back in shock.
“If that brat, that damn nephew of mine, ever finds out about this ridiculous blunder…”
William’s gaze shifted to the red sofa in the center of the study.
As he recalled the image of his damnable nephew-in-law sitting there a few days ago, his face hardened.
—I’m moving up the plan, William.
He had heard the man was exiled only recently, yet he had walked back here on his own two feet, bold as brass.
Had the Redbreeze family given birth to a monster of an assassin rather than a prince?
To William, who didn’t even have the energy left to be surprised, Calyx had continued calmly and leisurely.
—I hear the Queen has finalized the engagement with the Trie Royal Family. The World Fair schedule has been pushed back a month and a half because of Princess Sylvia’s engagement ceremony.
—No. Our schedule does not change. The great undertaking will proceed as planned. I can’t wait any longer.
—Look, Will. Don’t you get it yet? A great opportunity has arisen to seize the throne without getting our hands dirty.
There was even a hint of mockery at the end of his tone, as if he were placating a child. Calyx glanced at the speechless William and spoke as if it were a chore.
—Win over Andre. That’s your job until the engagement ceremony.
The ‘Andre’ he mentioned couldn’t possibly be anyone else.
Before the gasping William could even ask for clarification, Calyx stood up. His attitude was cold, cutting off all further questions.
—While I’m running here and there to win him over, what are you planning to do?!
That was the only sentence William managed to squeeze out. Calyx, standing at the door, turned back slowly. William expected a look of annoyance, but surprisingly, a pleasant smile played on the man’s lips.
—Trap hunting.
With a farewell that didn’t even feel like one, Calyx had left the castle. His stride was as confident as when he had arrived.
Snapping out of the memory, William massaged his throbbing temples.
The mission that Valdea brat had dumped on him was headache-inducing enough, but now another problem had been added to the pile.
“Whether he’ll even treat me like a human being after this is a problem for later. The real problem is…”
Muttering with an anxious face, William suddenly stopped his pacing. He realized there were ears listening.
Glaring at the blinking subordinate, William slammed his foot against the floor.
“What are you just standing there listening for? Go find them now! Both the contract and the man who took it!”
The train pulled into the platform with a thunderous roar.
Bane Coleman, the butler of the House of Count Ix, did not let down his guard until the fiercely spinning wheels of the train came to a complete halt.
Though tracks had been laid in Dempis for four years now, the giant, self-moving hunk of iron was still something his wrinkled eyes couldn’t quite trust.
“Coleman!”
Lottie, having disembarked from the train, called out in a clear voice. The way she came running heedlessly, not caring if she tripped on her dress, was exactly the tomboy lady he knew.
Coleman gave a small smile and bowed to Lottie, then politely greeted Isabel as she followed her off the train.
“Don’t even get me started. This child’s chirping didn’t stop for seventeen hours straight. She’s more excited to be back in Dempis than this old woman.”
“That’s because we left for Ronvernon in such a rush. Ah, this earthy countryside smell. I really missed it.”
As Lottie took a deep sniff, Coleman and Isabel let out a dry laugh almost simultaneously. To anyone else, it would look as if she had been away for ten years, not three months.
After the servants moved several pieces of luggage and gifts to the carriage, they left St. Basa Station.
Once they cleared the station front, the carriage began to rattle slightly.
Lottie forced her heavy eyelids open, watching the pale steam fade into the distance through the window.
She was finally home.
After becoming someone’s wife, this wasn’t a place she could go to just because she wanted to.
After being stripped of her fortune and divorced, she hadn’t even thought of visiting because of her obsession with remarriage. By the time she realized her longing was indeed longing, she had already been imprisoned in the old castle of Polton.
‘And when I returned to ten years before my marriage, I had to be chased off to Ronvernon before I could even do anything.’
Lines of summer sycamores and beeches flowed past the carriage window.
Everywhere her eyes landed was green. She never dreamed the day would come when she would find this landscape, which she used to think was incredibly boring, beautiful.
After another half hour of driving, the fig tree-lined road leading to Glaster, the historic castle of the House of Count Ix, opened up.
“Oh my! The young lady is back! My lady!”
Aunt Susan, who had been churning butter in the garden, spotted the carriage and waved her hand vigorously.
James, the gardener who had worked at the mansion for thirty years, stopped while carrying a water yoke and tipped his hat in a deep bow.
Everything was a peaceful and warm scene, just as it was in her memories.
“Lottie!”
