“Good morning, young lady Blanchet.”

The morning sunlight pooled in her curved grayish-blue eyes.

“Hello.”

As Olivia briefly responded, water spurted from the central fountain in the rose garden.

Startled by the swooshing sound, Olivia’s shoulders slightly rose and fell.

Why did she keep running into this man? Olivia inwardly swallowed a sigh.

Avoiding the man’s gaze, she stared intently at the hotel’s side entrance.

Please, hurry up, Elaine.

The fountain operates every hour starting at 8 AM. It meant that the appointment time with Elaine had arrived, but she hadn’t shown up yet.

Worried that someone might pass by, she kept looking around when the man spoke. Her gaze naturally turned towards him.

“Let’s sit together and wait. My companion isn’t here yet either.”

The man’s fresh smile made Olivia uncomfortable.

He was a strangely unsettling man. His attention-grabbing appearance played a part in that.

She wanted to turn back right then. If it weren’t for her appointment with Elaine, she would have. After a moment’s hesitation, Olivia spoke to Anne.

“Could you go see if something’s happened to young lady Elaine?”

“Yes, my lady.”

Fearing they might miss each other, Olivia reluctantly sat on the wicker chair opposite Edgar. As an awkward silence fell, an employee poured lemon water into glass cups.

Olivia looked around once more. Thankfully, it was early morning.

“Do you like tennis?”

Only when the man’s gentle voice was heard did her eyes, which had been moving busily like a sentry, take in Edgar.

“I play occasionally when I have time.”

“You seemed to play quite well for that.”

“I do have good athletic abilities.”

Olivia took a sip of lemon water, feeling her throat dry for no reason, and set the glass down.

“Who taught you?”

The man asked, crossing his long legs, resting his elbow on the armrest, and brushing his eye with his long fingers. The cool scent of his skin carried on the breeze.

Olivia, who was swallowing the lemon water, suddenly coughed. She choked and hacked for a while, her face turning bright red.

“…My husband.”

Seeing the man raise the end of his thick eyebrow as if surprised, Olivia quickly changed her words.

“He provided a coach for me.”

Because the Johan Leopold she knew, and this man knew, wasn’t the type to leisurely play tennis with his wife.

Only then did the man nod slightly.

Relieved, Olivia turned her head towards the garden with the grand fountain, avoiding Edgar’s gaze. The rose garden, full of spring vitality, was beautiful like another world.

“That coach is a fraud.”

“A fraud, you say?”

Olivia bristled and asked back.

“Your basic form is wrong. You’re wasting a lot of unnecessary energy. Don’t you think so?”

A smile played at the corners of the man’s lips as he casually delivered his slightly cynical evaluation.

“I don’t know what you mean. The person who taught me was truly an excellent teacher.”

Olivia’s tone was firm. She fixed the man with a resolute gaze, as if refusing any counterargument.

Suddenly, she seemed to hear the sound of cicadas on a summer day.

She remembered him, tanned firm by the sun. That moment when he, wearing a white polo shirt with the collar up and short pants revealing his sturdy calves, leaped high into the sky.

Unrequited love. That shallow emotion had made her life both thrilling and painful.

How loudly her heartbeat echoed when her senior’s warmth touched her body while correcting her posture.

Recalling that time, her cheeks inevitably flushed and her heart raced.

“Shall we compete to see how excellent that teaching was?”

It was the man’s playful voice that awoke Olivia from her memories.

“I don’t participate in matches where the outcome is predetermined.”

Olivia answered in a stiff tone, looking in the direction Anne had disappeared, hoping she would return quickly. It seemed she would have to give up using the free tennis court from today.

“Let’s do just one set. If you can take even one game, you win, young lady Blanchet.”

His leisurely voice was in stark contrast to his rather mischievous expression, as if bestowing great generosity.

“You can steal at least one game from me, can’t you? Since your teacher was excellent. Or not?”

Olivia, who had been looking at the distant west wing entrance, turned to look at the man. It was infuriating how he seemed to be looking down on her.

“Is it too difficult?”

The man, who had been smiling freshly, snickered. At that moment, a spark ignited in Olivia’s eyes.

“Three games.”

The man sitting across from her slightly widened his eyes.

“That would be fair.”

Olivia smiled brightly.

The woman who had fallen for the provocation stood on the court. Her eyes, filled with a heightened competitive spirit, were like the midsummer sun.

Scary.

He couldn’t help but laugh at her serious appearance.

Edgar grasped the racket handed to him by the employee. This racket, with the Dumblin Prince’s autograph on the shoulder part, was a gift he had received when he turned eight.

After taking a few swinging stances with the racket, Edgar stood on the court. On the opposite side, Olivia Blanchet was watching him.

Edgar walked towards her. Standing with the net between them, the woman asked.

“Why, are you scared now?”

“No.”

Barely holding back his laughter, he continued.

“It’s no fun if there’s no bet on the match.”

“Don’t encourage gambling in a wholesome game.”

“Is that also a teaching from your excellent teacher?”

“You must like gambling.”

“I suppose so. Being a casino operator and all.”

Edgar grinned.

“I have nothing to bet.”

“Ah, it doesn’t have to be anything grand. Just a small wish will do.”

The woman’s blue eyes wavered, her mind seemingly in complex thought.

“Why? Not confident?”

“What kind of wish?”

“It wouldn’t be fun if I told you now. If you’re curious, lose.”

Edgar turned away, pulling up the corners of his mouth. A moment later, with a bang! of the racket hitting the ball, the game began.

Good heavens! Who is that?

Elaine’s eyes widened.

The famous Edgar Lancaster Lancelot and Olivia Blanchet, of all people.

When Anne visited Elaine’s room, she had just finished getting ready. She wasn’t the type to rush people for being about ten minutes late, so she wondered what was going on.

“Add a little whiskey to the lemon water. Just enough for the aroma.”

While giving instructions to the employee filling the empty glass, her gaze remained fixed on the tennis court.

She didn’t know when the game had started, but it couldn’t have been long. Looking at the scoreboard, Edgar was already three games ahead.

Elaine wasn’t a tennis expert, but anyone could see that one side was unilaterally going easy on the other.

He could finish it quickly, but it felt like he was toying with his caught prey. Yet he didn’t forget to show a gentlemanly side, seemingly granting points out of generosity at times.

“Forty!”

The score was now 5 to 1. Olivia, having conceded another game, approached the bench.

“What’s going on?”

Elaine asked, handing over the towel Anne had been holding.

“It’s as you see.”

Olivia, her face red, answered with a bitter smile. After wiping the sweat from her forehead, Olivia drank some ice water. As her hand, having put down the glass, started to unbutton her blouse, a shocked Anne grabbed Olivia’s hand.

“You can’t, my lady.”

Anne quickly buttoned up two buttons and fanned with both hands. Still, her flushed cheeks remained red.

“Don’t tell me you made a bet?”

“How did you know?”

Surprised, Olivia asked, rubbing her cheeks with the ice-filled glass.

“It’s written all over your face. ‘I won’t lose!'”

The two looked at each other and chuckled. Just then, a whistle signaling the end of the break echoed across the quiet hotel grounds.

“We wondered where you’d gone so early in the morning. You traitor.”

The idlers who had been drinking all night at the hotel club sauntered over and sat around Edgar. With the smell of last night’s alcohol still lingering, they habitually ordered whiskey sodas.

“Isn’t it a bit mean to play against a woman?”

Edgar silently looked at Olivia and chuckled. It was his first time playing tennis with a woman.

It was quite regrettable that he hadn’t known such pleasure until now. It was incomparable to the pleasures in bed.

“Hey, did you get hit in the head with a ball?”

Brown hair tied neatly with a blue ribbon bobbed up and down before his eyes. The woman tended to become cheerful once she held a racket. And that yell…..

Edgar, uncharacteristically, burst out laughing.

“We’re the ones who lost money, why are you going crazy?”

Amidst the worried laments of the idlers who had squandered their fortunes at the card table yesterday, the whistle blew.

Well then, shall we go make a wish?

Edgar, uncrossing his long legs, slowly stood up, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

The pure white skirt fluttered as the woman walked onto the court. Her soft hair swayed in the spring breeze, carrying the scent of flowers. She looked like a fairy on the tennis court.

A fairy burning with competitive spirit.

A moment later.

Edgar, who had been playing the game half-heartedly with a complacent attitude, was considerably flustered.

The woman had changed.

Her returns became faster. Moreover, she started throwing balls that escaped Edgar’s predictions with aggressive serves.

Ha! The lady who dislikes gambling is now gambling with trick shots.

Edgar, who had carelessly made a mistake, gripped his racket properly. He felt like applauding and praising her indomitable will to hit back balls sent to the side.

5 to 2, a situation where whoever wins one more game first wins. Edgar had thought to end it lightly. But.

Oh my!

The woman, who had been bouncing the ball habitually to serve, suddenly started unbuttoning her blouse.

Behind Olivia, the maid’s shocked voice could be heard, while behind Edgar, the sound of the idlers’ whistles echoed loudly over the green grass.

Ha!

Along with a rough breath, Edgar marveled.

The woman even took off her light pink shoes and threw them outside the court.

Whee! The excited whistle sounds and the maid’s despairing cry of “My lady!” mixed together.