Isn’t it? Did I not remember but just guess? No, how do I know what I look like in the first place? It seemed like he had noticed who I was from the moment he approached.

Placing my hand on my chest, my heart was still pounding rapidly.

“Anyway, he asked if I had been to his bedroom, but does that make any sense? He even mentioned that I was holding a yellow rose.”

“……”

“If Chaplin remembers that incident, wouldn’t it cause problems for the Rochester family?”

As I pondered various possibilities, I suddenly realized that Ricardo hadn’t said a word until now.

Slowly, I raised my head to look at him. Making eye contact with Ricardo was always thrilling, but now it felt somewhat frightening.

Even so, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Why are you so angry?”

The face I encountered showed no particular expression. He was always a person whose emotions were unreadable. But why did I feel that he was very angry?

As if to prove my guess correct, Ricardo did not give a negative answer to my question.

“Is it because I acted too carelessly? But, I really didn’t do anything that could give us away… I was just walking and turned around, and there was Chaplin standing right there.”

Silently gazing at me, he took off his outer coat. Then he reached out and placed it over my shoulders. The coat that enveloped my shoulders was much warmer than I remembered.

Ricardo carefully adjusted the collar of the coat still warm with his heat. Even after that, he did not withdraw his hands from me.

Was it because his eyes were so deeply sunken? Although I knew it was daytime, I felt as if it would surely be night outside when I opened the door.

As I met that gaze, somehow all the excuses I was making seemed to scatter into the air, becoming meaningless words.

Then, with a slight smile, he opened his lips as if talking to himself.

“I left your side for barely an hour.”

“……”

“Just… an hour.”

Was he blaming me for causing trouble in such a short time? But somehow, the words thrown out felt like he was scolding himself, though that was probably my illusion wanting to avoid this moment.

“The chief minister said something very important, but honestly, I didn’t care about it at all.”

Our breaths were indistinguishable at this distance. Pulled along with the collar, I was bound by his gaze.

The silence in which even my breathing seemed disturbing, and the very thin distance between him and me somehow made me feel like a guilty person.

As if he no longer intended to utter incomprehensible words, he simply stared at me quietly. As if to trap me in his pitch-black eyes like the deep sea.

I grew increasingly afraid of that gaze. That he would eventually notice my pitiful desire to cross the line he had drawn last time.

“Lienne.”

He called my name tenderly and cruelly.

“The reason I erased Walter’s memory wasn’t because of some trivial concern about Rochester facing a difficult situation.”

“Then why…?”

“I just wanted to erase that absurd memory of you entering his bedroom with a yellow rose from that bastard’s mind.”

“And…”

A lazy whisper mixed with a chuckle followed.

“Just because I can’t touch you… doesn’t mean other guys can.”

What does that mean…? Before I could grasp the exact meaning, my face flushed first.

“At least, while you are my fiancée.”

“……”

“I absolutely won’t allow it.”

Ricardo pulled the collar he was holding a little more to cover my front well. His touch was so gentle that the words I had just heard didn’t quite sink in. With a face that showed no temperature, he smiled slightly and let me go. Then he buried himself deep in his seat.

Only then did my senses return, like an ice drop melting in the sunlight.

“Th-that’s obvious, isn’t it!”

I grumbled, unnecessarily adjusting the coat he had put on me.

“Then from now on, in such situations, I’ll just fall flat on my face.”

Ricardo chuckled and went outside. He soon returned to the carriage and closed his eyes tightly without any explanation.

“We’re… not going back to Rochester like this, are we?”

I have no intention of coming back here ever again.

“Huh?”

I asked repeatedly, but there was no answer. Although it was an important issue for me, I felt it would be better to quietly wait for him to open his eyes now.

After some time passed, there was a commotion outside, and Freddie’s voice was heard.

“Young master, it’s ready.”

Just as I thought we were about to leave, Ricardo opened the door and received something from Freddie. It didn’t take long to realize that the object was a new lace shawl to cover my shoulders.

Instead of asking where it came from, I quietly took off his coat and handed it to him, then obediently received the shawl from him and draped it over myself. The lace wrapping around my shoulders was much softer than the one I had brought.

It was clear that he had made the great Prince of Dermeier and the young masters of two other ducal families wait just for this trivial shawl.

After putting on his own clothes again, Ricardo got out of the carriage first and reached out his hand to me. I didn’t hesitate to take his hand, which still held some warmth.

Now it was time to start the play again, where everyone knew the ending.

The reception room of the Crown Prince’s palace had a completely different atmosphere from the audience hall where I had met the Emperor. Light poured in continuously from the large windows, and a soft carpet with exotic patterns covered the floor. It was full of warmth, as if this was where he usually spent his time.

The portrait of the Crown Prince and Princess couple that filled one wall was beautiful, but it was difficult to gauge their age from the expressions of the young couple in the painting.

Books were sparsely placed on the bookshelf below. Some books were just placed on the shelf, as if they had been read until just now, making it look like a reception room of any noble family.

As I had worried, everyone was waiting for Ricardo and me. And there, I had to meet another person I hadn’t expected.

“We meet again. Although it’s hard to say we met last time.”

At first glance, I recognized who she was. It wasn’t easy to forget such a striking beauty with such vivid colors.

“I greet Your Highness, the Crown Princess.”

She didn’t seem to care much about formalities. Without waiting for me to complete my greeting, she stood up and took my arm herself to guide me to my seat.

Despite receiving excessive kindness from the Crown Princess, I found this whole situation just uncomfortable and difficult.

This meeting was arranged because Rochester’s engagement couldn’t be treated as just a family matter. But there was no one in this space who didn’t know that I was Ricardo’s temporary fiancée, and that he had undertaken this engagement just to save Pennel.

Even if ordinary nobles might not know that Rochester’s star had risen again, the imperial family and the ducal families would certainly know this fact.

Nevertheless, I was in the position of having to participate most actively in this play.

After a time of introductions for each person, appropriate greetings were exchanged. Afterwards, there were occasional conversations that were hard to understand, but I tried to focus on my seat, nodding quietly.

Fortunately, thanks to the Crown Princess, the atmosphere flowed smoothly. Of course, no matter how comfortable they tried to make the setting, the aura emitted by each person was far from being unpretentious.

Soon, a conversation about me began to flow.

The Crown Princess’s story, which started with ‘I visited Rochester myself,’ caught people’s attention quite well.

“He tried so hard to hide her that I barely saw just her hair.”

“Is that so? To think that the Rochester young master has such a side, it’s hard to believe without seeing it.”

Only Julian responded actively to the Crown Princess’s words. Walter had been staring straight ahead, silently picking up and putting down his teacup since earlier. Glancing sideways, I noticed that the tea in his cup remained unchanged.

“I just wanted to ask what would be a good engagement gift for Lady Pennel.”

“Perhaps it’s because there’s nothing lacking in the Rochester family. Isn’t that right, Lady Pennel?”

I tried to smile appropriately to avoid the situation in response to Julian’s question. At this moment, I wanted to see Ricardo’s expression, but it was difficult to observe as he was sitting right next to me.

But I felt that the Crown Prince had been staring at me intently for a while. Thinking it might be my imagination, I turned my head, but I couldn’t ignore the persistent gaze any longer.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

“Your Highness, Lady Pennel must be embarrassed. Why are you staring at her so intently?”

“Ah…”