The reason Zen didn’t choke was because the water hadn’t entered his mouth yet.

“……”

Deborah said this to Zen, who quickly and quietly put down his glass.

“Actually, that’s the correct way to address you, but I think I’ve been mistaken until now.”

“It’s fine. The current form of address is sufficient.”

“What? But…”

“Do you really think the title ‘Mr. Baker’ caused such a misunderstanding?”

Of course, it probably wasn’t just that.

‘Then why did everyone misunderstand like that?’

Deborah, who never wanted to cause such a misunderstanding again, entered the cave of her thoughts once more.

Though he didn’t dislike Deborah’s pensive look, Zen, who wanted to fatten her up first, said:

“Will thinking solve anything? Stop that and eat.”

“Ah, yes.”

Watching Deborah quietly cut the meat to avoid the sound of the knife and move small pieces into her mouth, Zen thought.

The reason people they met today inferred Zen and Deborah’s relationship that way was probably for a very simple reason.

They must have felt how Zen looked at Deborah. Because his gruff tone was laced with affection for her.

That’s why it’s like that, but the person involved doesn’t know. She probably can’t even imagine it.

‘Since she’s a devout person who avoids immoral things.’

That was half a joke, but half the truth.

Deborah would neither understand nor accept a man who hired a servant for his bride-to-be suddenly having feelings for her.

So the moment she notices Zen’s feelings, she might immediately leave him far behind. If she left once, would it be difficult to do it twice? Of course, the situation then and now was a bit different.

‘Anyway, not now.’

Zen knew it too. That his feelings shouldn’t be discovered now. That he had to keep them hidden until the moment when everything was sorted out and there was nothing to be ashamed of in front of this person.

So until then, he had to thoroughly monitor her. Since he couldn’t dare to hold onto her now, he had to use all his means to tie her feet down.

‘That’s how I’ll breathe.’

When they left the restaurant, the colors of the street had changed. Everything was tinged crimson, reflecting the setting sun. But soon the world would be plunged into deep darkness.

‘It’s a pity the days are getting shorter.’

Thanks to the restaurant front being packed with carriages of reserved guests, Zen’s car had to be parked several blocks away.

Zen told Deborah to wait at the restaurant and he’d return with the driver, but Deborah insisted on coming along.

“Why are you following when you could have just waited?”

“I’m so full, I think I need to walk.”

“How much did you eat……”

Zen grumbled discontentedly.

Deborah almost let out an involuntary laugh.

Deborah was by no means a light eater. How many ladies don’t or can’t finish a full course?

But Deborah had cleanly finished a full course and even enjoyed wine.

‘I don’t think that’s enough to burst your stomach.’

Yet this man had ordered additional dishes. He barely touched them himself while continuously transferring food to Deborah’s plate.

‘On the day we first met too, why does he keep trying to feed me like this?’

There was a fairy tale about fattening up people to eat them, wasn’t there? Could Zen be planning to fatten up Deborah to eat her like in that tale?

‘I wouldn’t taste good though.’

Just then, a chilly early winter wind blew in.

‘Ugh.’

Deborah involuntarily shrank back. Seeing this, Zen clicked his tongue and said:

“Tsk, that’s why I told you to wait at the restaurant.”

Zen opened the box he was holding and took out a neatly folded coat, draping it over Deborah’s shoulders. Zen bending down to wrap the coat around her happened so suddenly that Deborah couldn’t even say it was fine.

“Is that better?”

The coat Zen wrapped around her was a bit heavy, but warm nonetheless.

“Yes. It’s warm.”

Zen gazed at Deborah, wrapped in a coat of a similar color to his hair, as if admiring her, then answered languidly.

“You see. You needed it, didn’t you?”

The wind blew again. But it didn’t reach Deborah.

Because the large Zen was standing in front of her, blocking it. If Zen’s scarf and hair hadn’t been fluttering, Deborah might not have even known the wind was blowing.

Deborah looked at Zen’s back and thought.

‘This person may have reddened ear tips from the cold, but he never loses his unique dignity.’

He’s someone who knows to wrap a coat around a shivering person, even if his words are rough.

But why does such a person become so cruel? Can he become that cruel for the sake of revenge against Duke Buin who abandoned him?

In the novel, there was only a brief setting of “an illegitimate child abandoned by the Buin ducal family”, but what kind of life was condensed into that short sentence?

Deborah became curious about Zen Baker’s life.

‘Will I ever get to know? Or is it too much for a mere maid like me to know about his past?’

Gradually, as Deborah had expected, the world began to sink into darkness.

As the end of the year approaches, the capital, already low in temperature, becomes engulfed in more cold, and dark nights like this hurry to arrive and leave late.

That’s why when the year-end comes, people in the capital decorate their surroundings with warm colors.

They adorn evergreen conifers, whose leaves don’t turn yellow even in winter, with shiny ornaments and tie gold or red ribbons, while shops decorate their windows with lights and cozy ceramic figurines.

Just looking at them makes one feel warmth.

So ironically, people encounter the most ideal coziness in this cold season. For Zen, winter used to be a terrible season where not freezing to death was fortunate.

‘Damn winter.’

Zen usually wouldn’t walk this slowly. How long are his legs anyway?

But now Zen neither hurried nor resented the cause of his slowed pace. He just slowly walked ahead, at a pace comfortable for her to follow.

Zen’s steps, though facing forward, his ears turned backward, suddenly stopped. When he glanced back, he saw Deborah’s side profile, unable to tear her gaze away from the shop window already brightly lit with bulbs.

How beautiful it was, the bright bulbs illuminating her with a faint smile.

To wear only gloomy colors when such warm light suits her so well? That wouldn’t fly at all.

“……”

Zen slowly widened his gaze that had been fixed on Deborah. Then he could see that she was looking at a snow globe.

She’s not a child, why a snow globe? While she had shown constant discomfort when looking at things hundreds of times more expensive and valuable, Deborah smiled in front of a mere snow globe.

Zen didn’t bother to say things like “Do you want that?” or “Go take a closer look.” The answer was too obvious. She’d say it’s fine.

So he wordlessly grabbed the shop’s door handle.

“Mr. Baker?”

Surprised by Zen’s sudden action, Deborah called out to him. Hearing her voice, Zen pointed at the snow globe to the shop owner who had hurriedly come to attend to him.

“Please wrap this up.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m saying I’ll buy it.”

At Zen’s forceful attitude, the shop owner looked again at the item Zen was pointing to.

The shop owner swallowed hard and said:

“This is a decorative item.”

“I know.”

Who wouldn’t know that? Zen replied, furrowing his brow. Frightened by his expression, the owner explained again.

“No, I mean……”

Zen didn’t like the owner’s flustered attitude.

‘Anyway, you’re saying you can’t sell it?’

Thinking someone might have reserved it, Zen proposed to the owner:

“I’ll pay triple. Is that enough?”

“No, no! That’s not it!”

Just then, Deborah drew close to Zen.

Why does this woman approach so unhesitatingly? While she firmly draws the line every moment with that neat face of hers.

Zen’s heart fluttered. But the voice of the woman who approached like an untimely flower petal was unusual.

“If you need a snow globe, wouldn’t it be better to buy it at a general store?”

What is she talking about?

Zen furrowed his brow at Deborah’s serious expression. Then he slowly looked around. The store was full of cute things that didn’t match Zen, and there was a very sweet scent wafting…

‘Ah.’

Zen finally realized what the store was selling.

‘It’s a chocolate shop.’

Zen felt a headache coming on. To be so fixated on a snow globe that he didn’t notice the chocolate filling the store.

But this wasn’t just Zen’s problem. There was an issue with this store too.

‘There are more decorations than chocolate.’

Even the packaging materials were so cute they looked like decorations.

So this was a mistake Zen made because he was distracted by Deborah…

‘…Right. Damn it.’

In the end, Zen bought chocolate. A lot of it.

“Do you like chocolate?”

“Not particularly.”

“Then you’re planning to give it as a gift?”

“How can I gift something when I don’t know if it tastes good?”

“It was delicious though.”

When Zen bought a ton of chocolate, the shop owner, whose face had been terrified, gradually brightened and offered chocolate to taste.

Of course, Zen refused, but Deborah ate it despite being full. One piece of chocolate couldn’t burst her stomach after all.

“Then you can eat it all.”

“If I eat all of this, I could probably go without food for about a month.”

“Starve you.”

Zen furrowed his brow and continued.

“Speaking of which, instead of pecking at it like bird feed, would something terrible happen if you ate heartily?”

“What? I don’t think I’ve ever eaten like that.”

It was true. Deborah ate her meals maintaining dignity and manners, but she didn’t eat so little as to frustrate onlookers. Rather, she ate a lot.

“No. You eat too little. Isn’t your body proof of that?”

It was true that Deborah was on the thin side, but it wasn’t to a pitiful degree.

‘But if I answer this kind of bickering, there’ll be no end to it.’

Deborah fiddled with the small box in her hand. Unlike the chocolate box Zen was holding, this box contained the snow globe she had been looking at earlier.

Earlier, Deborah had just been looking at the snow globe. The reason was simple. Because it was pretty. The small family smiling brightly in that world where snow piled up softly when shaken by hand.

But she hadn’t expected Zen to enter the store and insist on buying it out of the blue. She was quite surprised, but once the snow globe was actually in her hand, she felt good.

“Thank you, Mr. Baker. For the chocolate and this snow globe.”

Hearing Deborah’s thanks, Zen hesitated for a moment, then resumed walking.

“I didn’t buy that, the shop owner gave it on their own.”

Zen answered crookedly. Deborah shrugged and said:

“They gave it because you bought so much chocolate.”

Just as he was about to reply again, something bumped into the back of Deborah’s thigh with a thud.