Surrounded by the heirs of the three great ducal families of the Dermeier Empire, I felt truly dizzy and collapsed onto the sofa. Then I looked alternately at the faces of the four men watching me.

In Lesotia, some believed them to be the incarnations of legendary dragons.

Walter Shaw Chaplin, who could freely move through space, but in exchange lost a day’s worth of memories.

Julian Bow Parquin, who could erase others’ memories, but had to pay a price in money.

Finally, Ricardo Gardarelli Rochester, who could gauge others’ truths, but had to reveal his own truth in return.

And on top of that, the unidentified man in the wheelchair.

It felt like I had plunged headfirst into an incredible novel that I thought had nothing to do with me.

Seeing me collapse, Ricardo began to stride towards me. Walter’s back visibly stiffened at the sight of him. Before the two could come face to face, I jumped up from the sofa and rushed over, blatantly ignoring Walter’s widened eyes of surprise.

As Ricardo reached out his hand towards me, I grabbed it and led him to a corner of the room. Ricardo followed me willingly, though with a puzzled expression.

Glancing back, I saw the others watching us with interest. Confident they couldn’t hear us from this distance, I stood on tiptoe and whispered very softly in his ear.

“Are you… going to erase my memory?”

Ricardo’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at me. I pulled his arm and whispered again.

“Don’t erase my memory. Then there’d be no way to know how I know, right?”

Our eyes met, and he… smiled. It was closer to a mocking laugh than because of my threat, but still.

Oh? But I must really be crazy.

Even in this situation, when our eyes met, my heart raced uncontrollably. His face was so close.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his long-shadowed eyelashes, even in this moment when men who might be incarnations of dragon gods were sharply confronting each other over whether I was their guest or not.

A self-loathing curse welled up inside me: hopeless girl.

That’s when Ricardo reached out and wrapped his arm around my waist. The sharp sensation made my chest fill with breath.

“Go on.”

I leaned back in the opposite direction of my tightly pulled waist.

“W-what?”

“Threatening me in my ear.”

“When did I ever threaten…”

Just then, we heard someone clearing their throat behind us. Only then did I realize I was in a very strange and ambiguous situation.

Reflexively, I twisted my body a little to break free from his arm. But he instead wrapped his arm more fully around my waist and spun me around.

As if dancing, my body was completely embraced by him and then gently released. The unknown fragrance coming from him made me dizzy for a moment. I barely escaped his embrace, but his arm was still around my waist.

The warmth radiating from his large hand, and the low vibration that resonated every time he laughed.

“Let me introduce, the young lady Lienne Lowy Pennel, who will soon be engaged to me.”

For a moment, silence fell over the room so complete you could hear a pin drop. Only Ricardo remained composed in this absurd situation.

“She is my fiancée.”

He spoke somewhat respectfully to the blonde-haired man in the wheelchair.

“I appreciate your invitation to join you, but my fiancée is quite shocked at the moment.”

Curious about who Ricardo was treating so politely, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Who… who is that person?”

“Ah, the soon-to-be-dead, overly curious Crown Prince.”

Could one really survive in this country after hearing such words? I was so shocked I couldn’t even gauge how I should react. This time, Ricardo pulled me closer and whispered in my ear.

“Breathe.”

“Ha.”

With his permission, I exhaled a sharp breath and looked up at him. Ha, ha. As I stared at him with trembling eyes, breathing shortly, he averted his gaze from me for a moment and looked at my lips. Then he immediately spoke to the red-haired man.

“Erase it.”

Ah, so all of this would disappear beyond my memory after all. He clearly called me his fiancée, isn’t there some way to keep at least that in my memory?

A sad thought occurred to me, but there was nothing I could do except glare resentfully at Ricardo.

But then, the red-haired man approached the Crown Prince and Duke Chaplin, not me. Watching him, Ricardo unhesitatingly removed his hand from my waist and strode forward.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

“I said let’s go.”

“Oh, yes!”

I hurriedly followed behind him. It seemed the situation inside the not-quite-closed door was still unresolved. There was a sound of something bumping, then soon a man’s fierce voice was heard.

“Julian, just erase my memory. I’ll use all the power of my family to destroy your house if you don’t.”

“Sure, if you remember what happened. Don’t you lose your memory quite often anyway?”

“You bastard, how much did the Rochester young lord offer you! I’ll give you double.”

“You know well it’s not about money.”

“Ha! If you erase my memory, who will clean up the Enehas Count’s affairs?”

“Don’t worry about that. Lord Rochester has already taken care of everything.”

Whether the power had already been used, Walter’s voice was no longer heard. Immediately, another voice spoke up.

“How dare you erase a royal’s memory, do you think you’ll be safe after this!”

“If anyone knew about it, I wouldn’t be safe, would I? Besides, I’ve already erased one person’s memory…”

“Erasing even the memory of a dying person, you really have no mercy. Neither you nor Ricardo.”

“Please, leave me out of this. That merciless man told me to erase even the memory of the Chaplin family’s head servant, so I’m very busy right now.”

As I lagged behind listening to the conversation, Ricardo strode back to me. Then he whispered in my ear.

“Hurry, if anyone sees you and me, there won’t be a single person left in this mansion with today’s memory.”

I pushed him away slightly at the ticklish sensation, and Ricardo grinned. He seemed to have taken quite a liking to whispering.

“Come on.”

But I had no choice but to hurry when he called. After all, whenever Ricardo called, I would stop; when he reached out his hand, I would run to him.

“But what about the Parquin family’s young lord…?”

Is it okay to leave him like that? He saw everything.

“Why? Want me to kill him?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

I denied it vehemently, waving my hands.

The man who had said we should hurry because no one should see us laughed loudly enough to echo through the corridor without any hesitation. My hopeless heart pounded in sync with his laughter.

“But if he finds out later…”

Won’t it cause problems? My words kept getting swallowed as I struggled to keep up with his long legs.

“Don’t worry, they’re friends. They grew up together after all.”

“Ah…”

“And God isn’t that careless, Lienne. Parquin can’t carelessly talk about the power he’s used. I guess even God knew in advance how frivolous Parquin would be.”

For a moment, the wick in his dark eyes seemed to turn yellow. It was a fleeting but distinct light. Somehow, his joy seemed to improve my mood as well.

As I gazed at Ricardo’s broad but lonely-looking back, I ran up and grabbed his hand. He flinched for a moment but didn’t let go of the hand I held.

Just like a nameless child from the orphanage in my childhood.

Clop, clop. The sound of horses galloping and carriage wheels rolling created a regular rhythm in the quiet, dark street.

What he brought was the Duchess’s carriage. After boarding the carriage, Ricardo said nothing, and I too remained silent for a while, internally organizing the whirlwind of events.

As we moved away from the Chaplin estate, the carriage rode through the deep darkness, relying on lanterns. How long had we been riding? Tok tok tok, dense raindrops began to hit the carriage.

Feeling like my head was about to explode, I shook it from side to side. Then I met Ricardo’s eyes, slowly scanning me up and down.

“You must have a lot of questions…”

Ricardo was the first to break the silence.

Ignoring his disapproving gaze, I turned my eyes to the carriage window. Fixing my gaze on a place where nothing could be seen made me feel awkward. Unorganized questions just swirled in my head.

Why did you come in such a hurry to get me?

Because it would be dangerous for Pennel if my existence was exposed? Or because I’m a guest of your family? Or, as you said, because I’m to be engaged to you?

I couldn’t properly voice even one sentence of what I really wanted to know.

“You really erased the memories of the Chaplin heir and the Crown Prince just now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Without erasing my memory?”

“I never intended to erase your memory in the first place.”

“Why?”