Chapter 44
Lottie, her face as pale as her white nightgown, grabbed Calyx’s hand. Then, she began to bolt in the opposite direction.
After taking refuge on a secluded path, Lottie stopped and let out a sigh of relief. Until then, Calyx had done nothing but stare blankly down at her hand gripping his. Neither were wearing gloves, so it was bare skin against bare skin.
Only then realizing their flesh was touching, Lottie let go as if she had been burned.
Calyx flexed the hand she had just held a few times before letting out a low chuckle.
“Are you suddenly shy about holding hands after we’ve already shared a kiss?”
Lottie opened her mouth to protest, but her face flushed as red as a carrot in an instant. It was because the memory of what happened a few days ago, under a night sky embroidered with fireworks, came rushing back.
“Th-that was just acting to fool Great-Aunt! And technically, it was right next to the lips. Not the mouth.”
“I meant it in the sense that we are partners who have aligned our stories based on our contract.”
He got her again. As Lottie glared at him with a beet-red face, Calyx gave a mischievous smirk.
“I shall stand corrected from now on. We are partners who shared a kiss right next to the lips, not on the mouth.”
“……If you came here in the middle of the night just to tease me, I’m leaving.”
As Lottie turned to walk away, Calyx reached out a long arm to block her path. She was about to shove that annoying arm aside and leave anyway, but then she changed her mind. Regardless of his teasing, she had many things to ask him.
“Fine. Then let’s start by hearing why Your Highness has trespassed onto private property at this ungodly hour.”
“My name.”
“What about your name?”
“You said you would tell me the origin of the name you gave me. I haven’t heard it yet.”
He risked coming here for just that? And at this hour? Lottie’s appalled expression screamed those very words.
Of course, this was merely a convenient excuse to mask the real reason he had sought her out in the dead of night.
However, she didn’t seem to suspect a thing. Had she guessed the truth, she wouldn’t have come running out in her nightgown; she would have locked herself in her bedroom and stayed there.
“Was it…… that important to you? Enough to lose sleep over?”
Lottie asked with a look of genuine curiosity. Calyx merely offered a meaningful smile.
Lottie let out a faint sigh and hesitated for a moment. She seemed a little embarrassed.
“First…… promise me. That you won’t laugh or judge.”
“It must be a name with a rather unconventional meaning.”
“Promise first! I won’t say a word until you do.”
“I swear. No matter what you say, I will never laugh or judge.”
Calyx spoke in a warm voice that felt like the moonlight itself.
For some reason, her face felt like it was heating up, but Lottie cleared her throat, telling herself it was just the humid summer air.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but there is a fairy tale called 『The Princess’s Marriage』. It was my favorite book when I was a child, and the name comes from there.”
The look of someone sharing something they love washed over her clear face.
Through her uncharacteristically flushed face and tone, he could feel that she cherished not only the fairy tale but the memories associated with it.
“I know it. The story of a princess who set three tasks to find a husband, and the young man who completed them all and married her.”
“I didn’t think you’d know it, since it’s the kind of story young girls usually like……”
“The royal tutors taught the Crown Prince everything from the art of kingship to the superstitions whispered among commoners.”
Ah……. Lottie was momentarily flustered by the joke she couldn’t quite ignore. Calyx smiled lightly.
“By the way, as far as I know, the characters in that fairy tale don’t have names.”
At his remark, Lottie’s eyes went wide.
“That can’t be. The book I read definitely had names for the protagonists. I still remember them clearly. The wise princess was Nuan, the young man who fell in love with her was Keltam, and……”
“The princess’s servant and fleet-footed messenger must have been Kayan.”
Lottie nodded.
Calyx stroked his chin with an intrigued expression and nodded slowly.
“Since it’s a transcription of folk tales, the versions might differ depending on the edition. But anyway……”
“……?”
“Why the servant’s name? Why not the name of the young man who married the princess?”
The answer—because Kayan was simply the first name that popped into my head at that moment—was too irresponsible, so she swallowed it.
Lottie felt a strange urge to appease Calyx, who for some reason looked slightly dissatisfied, before shaking her head vigorously. He was the one who said any name would be fine back then!
“Come to think of it, one of Kayan’s many jobs was that of a stablehand, wasn’t it?”
Calyx, wearing a meaningful expression, suddenly burst into laughter. Lottie felt uneasy. That look in his eyes—she felt like he was plotting something again.
“A loyal servant, responsible for tending to the princess’s precious stallions.”
The memory of him standing right here, nonchalantly retorting about being ‘Miss Evanshire’s stallion,’ made Lottie’s face burn like the afternoon sun.
This man, seriously.
“Do you enjoy teasing me that much?”
“Would you allow it if I said it was my only joy in life?”
“Do whatever you want. I know you’ll keep teasing me even if I don’t allow it anyway.”
Calyx barely suppressed his laughter at Lottie’s grumpy response. She had been planning to stomp on his foot as if by accident if he teased her one more time, but he didn’t give her the chance. He was a man who walked the line with infuriating precision.
“Well…… since I’ve given you an answer, I suppose it’s my turn?”
Your turn? As Calyx looked at her with questioning eyes, Lottie placed her hands on her hips and spoke with a pert expression.
“Now you must explain things to me candidly as well.”
“Explain what?”
“Archbishop Demolus.”
Ah. Calyx nodded slightly, as if he knew what she was going to say. Lottie continued, her face practically vibrating with curiosity.
“How on earth did you win him over? There’s no way he didn’t recognize Your Highness. A man who wants nothing to do with complicated politics wouldn’t have sided with you so easily.”
Worry and curiosity were mixed in equal parts in Lottie’s eyes. Standing under the moonlight, those eyes seemed to sparkle like stars.
Calyx, lost in thought for a moment, smiled softly.
“If I told you I bribed him with money, would you believe me?”
“I’d sooner believe the sun will rise in the west tomorrow than believe something so absurd.”
“Then let’s call it a personal acquaintance. That should be more credible than saying I bought him off.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it was just as suspicious. Lottie, narrowing her eyes as if searching Calyx for the truth, let out a small sigh.
“What were you planning to do if my father hadn’t turned a blind eye to our lie in the end?”
They had managed to escape the crisis once through Lottie’s heartfelt performance, but it was only a temporary fix. Her father was not the type to let Calyx stay by his beloved daughter’s side. He would surely remain suspicious and dig for the truth until the end.
“If you’re worried that your father will report my survival to the Royal Palace, you needn’t be. I saw for myself that he isn’t that kind of man, and also……”
Calyx’s voice trailed off. Lottie easily guessed the rest from the hesitation in his eyes.
“Because as long as his daughter is entangled with a dangerous man whose motives are unknown, a father who loves his daughter could never act recklessly?”
At Lottie’s question, Calyx’s expression darkened. As if to reassure him, Lottie quickly flashed a cheerful smile.
“So, I suppose I was essentially a hostage for Your Highness’s safety?”
Calyx couldn’t deny it. He only looked at Lottie for a long while with eyes that had sunk low.
If he had chosen to stay hidden on Manbrin Island as originally planned, the situation might have been simpler.
Without having to hold a precious person hostage or exploit the family she loved, he could have just waited comfortably for his time.
The reason it didn’t turn out that way was purely because of his desire and selfishness. The desire to stay by her side.
“……Does it not offend you?”
Calyx finally spoke, his voice heavy. His tense gaze was carefully watching the woman standing before him.
After enough time had passed for a deep breath to be taken and released.
“Not at all.”
Lottie shook her head with a clear smile.
“Comrades should use each other. If it weren’t for Your Highness, I might be preparing for an engagement with a man who wants to keep fifty mistresses.”
The woman’s face as she spoke was full of nothing but sincerity. It was the expression of someone who truly viewed the other as nothing more than a faithful comrade.
“……Your Highness?”
Lottie’s face darkened slightly as she looked at Calyx. By now, he should have responded with a picture-perfect smile, and his failure to do so made her worry.
“Is there some kind of problem……”
“Lottie.”
In that moment, Calyx called her name. Not ‘My Lady,’ or ‘you,’ or her grand formal name ‘Charlotte,’ but the nickname ‘Lottie.’
“Call me by my name as well. I shall call you Lottie from now on.”
Was it her imagination that his voice sounded more tense than ever before?
Lottie could only blink her eyes in a daze. It was a nickname she had heard countless times before, yet she couldn’t understand why the tips of her ears were growing so warm. It felt as if her heart were being tickled.
‘Is it because it’s the first time I’ve heard a man who isn’t family use my nickname?’
Lottie immediately corrected that thought. Technically, it wasn’t the first time.
Lottie didn’t even realize her expression had hardened at the thought of Padrick. She had no idea that the person standing across from her had noticed the change even before she did.
“I……”
“Who goes there!”
No sooner had Lottie opened her mouth than the shout of a servant was heard nearby. Footsteps were approaching.
“I’ll go and stall for time. Go back carefully so you aren’t caught.”
After a quick nod of farewell, Lottie ran hurriedly toward the source of the servant’s voice. A moment later, following Lottie’s words, ‘It’s me, James,’ she disappeared completely from sight.
Calyx stared at the direction she had vanished for a moment before quietly slipping away in the opposite direction.
“Why do you hide your true feelings from that lady, Your Highness?”
As Calyx emerged from the outskirts of Glaster Castle, a man naturally fell into step beside him.
With vivid turquoise hair and golden eyes under the moonlight, he was a shadow known as one of the wild dogs of the borderlands, nicknamed ‘White Bear’—Mikhail Volitair.
“As your shadow, how could I not know that Your Highness has that lady in your heart?”
It was the kind of banter William or Luca wouldn’t dare dream of, but Mikhail could get away with it.
From the military units of the borderlands—often called a ‘living hell’—to the present, he was the one who had shared life and death with his lord.
Calyx looked at Mikhail without any expression, then quietly averted his gaze. In the moonlit forest path, only the sound of insects chirping could be heard.
“She said she is clumsy at believing in love. If I reveal my heart to someone like that, she’ll obviously get scared and run away.”
