Bang!!

Suddenly, with a loud noise, the door opened, and Grayan was startled and jumped out of bed.

He blankly blinked, looking at the shadow in the darkness. The one who entered the bedroom… it was none other than Gloria. The excellent vision of the wolfman allowed him to clearly outline her face, no matter how dark the surroundings were.

“My lady…? What’s the matter?”

Grayan deeply inhaled to smell the air to check if she was drunk again.

However, he couldn’t detect any sharp alcohol scent in the air. That meant… she was not drunk but sober now.

“……”

Gloria, without saying a word, glared at Grayan and boldly approached him.

Reflexively pulling up the blanket, Grayan suddenly realized that he was almost naked.

“My lady, let me put on some clothes…”

“Stay as you are.”

Gloria forcefully grabbed Grayan’s shoulder. At that moment, Grayan, unwittingly startled, quickly blinked his eyes, covering his chest with the edge of the blanket.

With both hands tightly clutching the blanket, he was thinking hard about what was going on. Why did Gloria suddenly break into his room out of nowhere? What about April…

“Yo, you.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“So, fe, fe…”

For some reason, Gloria stuttered, struggling with her words, and tightly gripped Grayan’s shoulder.

Grayan waited silently for her to complete a proper sentence. A moment later, Gloria spoke.

“…It’s colder here than in my room. But you’re completely naked. Aren’t you cold?”

At the words ‘completely naked,’ Grayan’s cheeks turned red, and he answered, looking down.

“I’m fine. I’m less susceptible to cold. But you must be cold, my lady. I’ll add more wood to the fireplace.”

“No, no, you don’t have to trouble yourself because of me…”

Despite Gloria’s objection, Grayan gently got up and headed to the fireplace.

He picked up a few pieces of wood from the piled stack next to the fireplace and tossed them in, one by one.

Then the flames roared and blazed up. The room heated up in an instant.

Grayan approached the bed again, picking up the neatly folded gown on the bedside table.

As he donned the gown, Gloria, for some reason, looked guiltily at her dry hands.

Grayan, assuming she was troubled by something, wore a serious expression.

If she came for advice… it meant she trusted him, and in a way, it made him happy.

‘Shall I brew some warm tea…’

As Grayan glanced at the teapot and cups on the table, he heard Gloria’s tense voice.

“You, come sit here first.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Grayan obediently followed Gloria’s command. Lately, she called him ‘you’ quite often, and sometimes by his name. Her tone felt lighter than before.

Always addressing him strictly as ‘Your Grace’ and putting up a thorough wall, she now seemed quite different.

This change pleased Grayan a lot. A satisfied smile briefly touched his lips, then vanished like a phantom.

“Gra, Grayan, tonight―”

“Yes, Gloria.”

“To, tonight…!”

Why was she so tense trying to say something? And her face was flushed. Even though the only light was from the dim candle, Grayan’s eyes saw it clearly.

“…Sh… Shall we play the truth game?”

“……?”

Grayan, not knowing what that was, tilted his head. He quietly waited for Gloria to explain. Gloria, for some reason, sighed deeply, then muttered as if giving up on something.

“So, um… Do you have something like a long stick? About 10 centimeters…?”

“Um, would this fountain pen be okay?”
The Truth Game was something else, and Grayan didn’t know why the stick was needed, but he took the fountain pen out of the drawer at the desk and obediently handed it to Gloria.

Then Gloria received the fountain pen with a futile expression and looked at it carefully before speaking.

“Look, here, the tip of this fountain pen says ‘Winning,’ and the opposite end says ‘Losing.'”

Then Gloria quickly went under the bed and flopped down on the carpet. She motioned to Grayan to quickly take his seat in front of her. Grayan did as she instructed.

When he sat facing her, Gloria neatly placed the fountain pen between them and continued her explanation.

“We sit facing each other like this, and take turns spinning the fountain pen. Look, like this.”

Gloria spun the fountain pen clockwise. The spinning fountain pen stopped a moment later, with the nib pointing at Grayan. Then Gloria kindly explained like a teacher teaching a child.

“Like this, when the nib points at Grayan, I ask Grayan a question. If the nib points at me, you ask me a question. Simple, right? The person being asked must answer truthfully. If you lie, you’ll suffer from baldness!”

Despite her mention of baldness, Grayan did not react strongly. He just said calmly,

“I don’t mind if my wife is bald… but it would be troublesome if my hair were to fall out. You might discard me for being unsightly.”

He grinned as he finished speaking. As his eyes met Gloria’s, she turned bright red again. Grayan let out a small laugh, hiding his secret delight.

“Are you laughing like that on purpose…?!”

“Huh? What do you mean…?”