“I don’t want flowers or congratulations. Our marriage is nothing more than a contract marriage. But this is no way to corner me like this. Especially on a day like today.”

The Grand Duke clenched his hands on my shoulders, trying not to lose the initiative, and gathered his uneven breath.

“Yuriella. You’re straying off topic. First answer the question I asked earlier-.”

“It’s not a question, it’s an interrogation.”

“Call it an interrogation or whatever, but I need an answer. This is not a matter to just gloss over-.”

“You’re not paying any attention to what I’m saying at all.”

“Just because you saved my life doesn’t mean you can skip giving a proper explanation.”

“Ha. So you do remember that I saved you? And yet you’re still interrogating me! On a day like today!”

“Blurting out nonsense is a waste of time for both of us-.”

At that moment, an unexpected ally appeared from behind to support me.

“Yuriella! Here you are.”

Leon, the coachman of the medicine peddler group, came running over, panting heavily and smiling brightly like sunshine. He probably looked like sunshine because he was so glad to see me.

“Leon. What brings you here?”

“When you didn’t show up after waiting. I thought maybe you forgot about our plan today.”

“How could I forget?”

I removed the Grand Duke’s hands from my shoulders one by one and spoke clearly, putting on the most sulky expression possible.

“Who would be foolish enough to forget their own birthday? Even if they only receive scolding instead of celebrations.”

Leon’s appearance clearly added more force to my final blow.

The Grand Duke floundered, looking back and forth between me and Leon, unable to find the right words to say.

“Ah. Today was…your birthday?”

“So now you’re finally focusing on ‘today’?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Since my parents passed away, I haven’t really paid attention to birthdays, so it didn’t occur to me.”

If the previous Grand Duke and Duchess passed away when he was nine years old, has he not celebrated his birthday ever since then?

As an orphan abandoned on the streets, I don’t have a birthday to begin with.

Feeling a sense of shared misery, my resolve briefly wavered, but I quickly steeled myself again.

Once you’ve drawn your sword, you must see it through to the end. That’s the only way to minimize further damage.

“Is there anything you’d like as a gift? Tell me whatever it is.”

The Grand Duke rumpled his shimmering hair, looking apologetic.

“Do you think gifts are merely jewelry and dresses? A gift is about understanding the other person’s feelings. What they want. What they dislike. Giving them what they like and avoiding what they don’t like, that’s the true meaning of a gift. Whatever you give me, Grand Duke, I have absolutely no desire for it.”

I spun around and strode out of the training ground.

Leon bowed to the Grand Duke and hurriedly followed after me, examining my expression with concern.

“What happened? Why do you look like that?”

“Huh? It’s nothing. Let’s hurry. Your father will be waiting.”

I could feel the Grand Duke’s bewildered gaze following me, but I didn’t look back.

I couldn’t predict how he would react if he saw my flustered and guilty expression…

Whether he would think he found an opening and attack my weak point. Or if he would blame and worry about himself even though I was being unreasonable.

Neither was something I could handle, so I simply quickened my pace.

*

“Your Highness, darling~. Is this dress pretty? Or was the dress I wore earlier prettier?”

Shavell grabbed the bell-like ivory dress with both hands and spun around and around like an angel on a music box.

The Grand Duke had instructed that the mountain of dresses and jewelry accessories he had ordered to be returned be given to Shavell instead. Shavell was trying them on one by one in front of the Grand Duke.

The head maid who came to help Shavell dress narrowed her eyes and looked down on him. The head butler serving the Grand Duke’s tea kept clearing his throat loudly as if wanting to be heard.

But Frost sat on the sofa with his arm propped up and long legs crossed, deep in thought.

“The current one.”

At the Grand Duke’s half-hearted answer, Shavell’s brow furrowed.

“Then do these pearl earrings go well? Or did the sapphire earrings from earlier match better?”

“Pearls.”

“These aren’t pearls, they’re sapphires! The ones from before weren’t sapphires, they were pearls!”

Only then did Frost slowly turn his head to look at Shavell.

The sapphire necklace and earring set around Shavell’s neck was similar in design to the previous Grand Duchess’ set that he had tried to put on Yuriella earlier in the annex.

‘She didn’t really like it. In fact, she shuddered in disgust…’

“Your Highness. Please pay attention to me!”

[You’re not paying any attention to what I’m saying at all.]

Yuriella’s voice overlapped with Shavell’s.

“I didn’t realize today was the young lady’s birthday.”

Shavell abruptly stood up at the words Frost unintentionally blurted out.

“Were you thinking about that ugly Grande girl and ignoring Shavell?”

Big chicken poop-like tears dripped from his triangular eyes.

“Shavell lives trusting only in Your Highness’ love. But you give dresses and gifts that not even the ugly Grande girl would wear.”

“Speaking of gifts. Are birthday gifts that important to women?”

Frost tilted his head towards the head maid with an uncomprehending expression.

“Of course it’s important! It’s a day to celebrate being born into this world. The Grande young lady was a child abandoned by her father, wasn’t she? Naturally it’s important for her to feel that she is someone precious.”

“I see.”

The Grand Duke seemed to understand now, but Rosalinne narrowed her eyes at him.

“Your Highness. I absolutely do not want to hear that you didn’t even give the young lady a birthday gift.”

“Well, I’m the one who suggested skipping the engagement ceremony altogether, so how was I supposed to know birthdays mattered so much.”

“You’re skipping the engagement ceremony?”

“Yes. The young lady and I agreed on that.”

The shocked head maid’s eyes bulged. The head butler also clicked his tongue.

“Then there will be no engagement attire either? And no engagement ceremony or banquet?”

“No.”

“What about the introduction of the future Grand Duchess to the retainers? The greetings with the ladies of the retainer families?”

“This has never happened in Ielheim before!”

Shavell stepped forward resolutely to rescue his cousin from the endless nagging that the flustered Frost was facing.

“You skipped the engagement to hurry and marry that ugly Grande girl! I’ll crush her! I’ll crush that Yuriella or whatever her name is!”

Raising both arms high and trembling his voice, he looked just like the heroine of a tragic play.

Judging by the reactions of the head butler and head maid glaring at Shavell with narrow eyes, his acting was successful.

Shavell gave Frost a slight wink.

‘I’m doing well, right cousin?’

Frost heaved a long sigh, washing his face with his hands without realizing it.

Even though Shavell was clearly doing his best as Frost had instructed, why did it feel so uncomfortable today? Despite his noble status as a prince, he was so devoted to the play Frost had him put on.

[Whatever you give me, Grand Duke, I have absolutely no desire for it.]

The afterimage of Yuriella coldly turning away kept rising up, making his chest feel stuffy and his stomach churn as if a stone were weighing it down.

For some reason, the coachman of the medicine peddler group who took Yuriella away was also very irritating.

Without realizing it, Frost deeply furrowed his brow and rubbed the pit of his stomach with his hand.

“Are you feeling unwell, Your Highness?”

“Shall I summon the royal physician?”

Alexis and Rosalinne looked at ‘our dear, precious Highness’ as if their hearts had dropped, forgetting their earlier reproach.

But Frost swiftly stood up without a word, grabbed his frock coat hung on the chair, and quickly left the drawing room.

“Your Highness, darling! Where are you going? You’re not going to that ugly Grande girl, are you?”

To escape Shavell who chased after him gripping his fluttering dress train, Frost quickly put his finger to his lips and whistled.

Leaping down from the terrace railing, Mars came running like an arrow. The Grand Duke nimbly mounted his back and swiftly rode off without looking back, spreading his Iello power wide to follow the faint green energy trail the future Grand Duchess had left behind.

*

“Yuriella, happy birthday!”

“Happy birthday, Yuriella!”

The medicine peddler family prepared a modest birthday table at the inn’s dining room and celebrated Yuriella’s twentieth birthday.

“Stay healthy and by my side for a long, long time, my dear.”

Thomas, Yuriella’s new father, personally knitted a fur hat and put it on Yuriella’s head. The purple fur hat in a crooked pretzel shape even had a yellow bell on top.

“This… You made this yourself?”

“You know it’s no good if your head gets cold and the chill goes down, right? If that builds up, your body swells and your immunity drops.”

Spring had passed and summer had begun, but Thomas’ face was full of worry as he handed over the fur hat.

Last winter when Yuriella caught a cold and was on the verge of death before narrowly surviving, Thomas thought the most terrifying illness in the world was a cold.

“This is a good medicine for summer colds.”

Mrs. Loana, who was twice as large as Yuriella’s new father, was also anxious about Yuriella catching a cold.

“Boil it and take it together with the Grand Duke. He’s quite unwell, so his immunity is probably low and he’ll easily catch a cold.”

Mrs. Loana gave her a special medicine made with dried citron as a gift, saying it was a rare medicinal ingredient even in the Grand Duke’s palace.

And she earnestly advised Yuriella not to forget to take it, saying that couples sharing a bed and blanket are prone to catching any contagious illnesses together.

As soon as ‘the Grand Duke’ was mentioned, Thomas’ eyes turned triangular, and at the words ‘quite unwell’, his eyebrows rose fiercely. When ‘sharing a bed’ was brought up, he shot Loana a stern look as if telling her to stop talking.

The medicine peddler members gave Yuriella one modest gift after another.

The simple coachman Leon sheepishly held out a round glass bead he had made himself.

“Yuriella. Happy birthday.”

Inside the bead was a small snow field with a single red geranium blooming on top.

“What’s this, Leon?”

“Shake it and see.”

When Yuriella shook the glass bead this way and that, white snow fluttered inside.

“Wow!”

“It’s called a snow globe. Do you like it?”

“Yes! It’s so pretty! The snow is pretty and the tiny flower looks so real and lovely! What’s the name of this flower?”

“Geranium. Its flower language means ‘I’m happy to have you.’ It symbolizes that your father and all of us in the group are happy to have you, Yuriella.”

“How fascinating… It looks so real!”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“Leon, you have such skillful hands! Even the Tower’s Sorcerer couldn’t make something better than this.”

Seeing Yuriella’s repeated exclamations, Leon smiled.

If she knew that the white snow was real snow enchanted by Ricarion, the Tower’s Sorcerer himself, and the geranium was also a real flower shrunken to fit inside the bead size and even preserved with magic, what kind of face would Yuriella make?

He had imbued the energy of the earth into the deep ocher soil beneath the small snow field. When carried on the body, it would provide warm energy on cold days and cool energy on hot days to its owner.

It was quite a laborious task, but seeing her blooming smile, Ricarion was so pleased that he unconsciously raised his hand and stroked Yuriella’s rose-colored, golden hair.

“Thank you. Thank you all so much.”

Yuriella’s brightly smiling face clouded over and tears welled up in her red eyes.

“I’m really…”

Unable to continue speaking, Yuriella lowered her head and shed tears on her dress hem.

“Yuriella…! Why are you crying on a good day?”

“Don’t cry, Yuriella. Crying saps your energy.”

Her new father and medicine peddler family members approached Yuriella, patting her head and rubbing her back.

She shouldn’t cry. But the tears wouldn’t stop.

The gifts they had given to her, who had been abandoned by her parents at birth and had no birthday, were so warm.

She pitied her new father who didn’t know his daughter’s soul had already left this body, and felt so sorry for robbing him of even the time to mourn.

She felt so ashamed of herself for being happy and holding the family love she had only imagined and always yearned for.

Yuriella’s small shoulders shook like that for a long time.

-Clop. Clop.

Frost, who had been watching from in front of the inn, quietly turned the reins to turn his horse’s head.

He had pondered the whole way here.

Whether he should apologize, or keep interrogating her about the Wind Spirit. Or promise to be a good husband who won’t ask about the Wind Spirit anymore, wondering if that would be a satisfactory birthday gift for her.

But seeing Yuriella surrounded by the medicine peddlers and crying, all the thoughts he had flew away.

And a different thought filled his head.

‘I lost.’

To a measly purple fur hat with a yellow bell.

To some special medicine with just dried citron.

To a glass bead with a single small flower inside.

She rejected everything he offered, saying she didn’t want any of it. She didn’t shed a single tear even after seeing the training ground he had painstakingly prepared.

‘Crying?’

Frost’s straight silver brows twitched.

It was the sensation of a 9-year-old returning to the Duke, who had lost the meaning and joy of exchanging gifts with someone precious after losing his parents.

The sulky and ill-tempered expression he only wore in the embrace of his parents who indulged his every whim also revived.

And a sudden competitive spirit was triggered.

The entire way back, Frost concentrated more than when planning a major Northern Army campaign, pondering gifts that would please his future Grand Duchess.

Yuriella, you will cry because of me.

Even more than the tears you shed today.