30.

“What do you mean, Duke, no—what permission did you get from my mother?”

“You must be cold.”

He acted as if he hadn’t heard her protest at all. Cardier immediately took off his thin coat and placed it over her bare shoulders. She wasn’t cold in the least—she had just stepped out of the carriage, and not even a breeze had touched her yet.

Just like that, the collarbones and cleavage, carefully highlighted with pearl powder by Valdemore’s maids, vanished from the men’s sight. Rosetta敏锐ly noticed several men reluctantly turning their gaze away from her neck. This wouldn’t do. If she didn’t put a stop to this now, this bastard would keep interfering at every turn.

She grabbed Cardier’s arm and provocatively swung one leg over his.

“Don’t change the subject. What right do you have to request that?”

“I regret that your opinion wasn’t sufficiently considered.”

“Regret? Re-gret?”

Rosetta swiftly caught his wording and raised one eyebrow. Cardier shrugged his shoulders in response.

“If I’d asked you directly, you would’ve refused.”

“Then why would someone who knows me do something so out of line?”

“I can’t very well break the ankles of every nobleman who approaches you.”

Rosetta blinked rapidly, utterly speechless. Cardier’s voice was perfectly calm, making it clear he wasn’t joking at all. That was the problem—the absurdity of his words was utterly sincere.

“…You’re truly insane.”

“The eldest son of the Dreuire family is shamelessly lusting after you without knowing his place.”

Judging by their tone, one might have thought they were already lovers. Apparently sharing the same impression, Cardier’s followers nearby, who had been eagerly waiting for a chance to insert themselves into the conversation, let out regretful sighs.

Rosetta briefly pondered why she had to become their spectacle. But she absolutely had to say this. Rosetta clenched her teeth tightly.

“And what does that have to do with you, Cardier?”

Cardier twisted his lips slightly as he spoke.

“That man is twelve years older than you, Lea.”

…It would’ve been better if she could’ve shot back that he himself was eight years younger than her. That the other man, despite being so much older, was probably better matched in maturity than this greenhorn. Rosetta tightly clenched her trembling hands to calm herself.

Horribly enough, it now seemed certain that she would have no choice but to face him throughout the entire social season. Unless Cardier himself retracted his words, the greedy Duchess of Valdemore would never refuse Montrosa.

From now on, that woman would meticulously exploit Cardier at every single event. Only then did Rosetta understand the meaning behind the duchess’s mischievous smile earlier. In the duchess’s mind, he was already a guaranteed catch.

The funniest part of the story was that Cardier hadn’t noticed this utterly ridiculous assumption yet. Or perhaps he had noticed everything and simply decided to play along as the fool. Rosetta shivered involuntarily, chilled by her own thought.

“Look. You’re shivering like this.”

Now Cardier acted as if covering her with his coat had been purely for her comfort. Rosetta barely managed to lift the corners of her mouth into a forced smile.

“Anna will be disappointed. She spent the entire morning applying pearl powder just so those clueless men would stop staring. All for the sake of my smooth romantic endeavors, you know.”

“Then you shouldn’t have dressed your mistress so lightly.”

“Does this look cold to you?”

“You just don’t know river winds yet.”

She didn’t. Rosetta really wanted to double over laughing. To her, who had faced violent storms bare-skinned, a summer river breeze felt as soft as silk. She thought Cardier was joking, but his face remained utterly impassive. Noticing her odd expression, Cardier glanced down and said,

“Of course, you’d probably be fine.”

The implication of his words was strange. Rosetta blinked stiffly, frozen. Cardier gave a small chuckle at her tense expression, then carefully adjusted her collar a bit more. His added tone was gentle.

“But if you catch a cold, it’s you who’ll suffer.”

What on earth was he even trying to say? Rosetta ground a torrent of curses in her mouth. Any one of them, if she could just spit it at that pristine face, would have brought her immense relief. But there were too many people around. Before she knew it, she was being led by Cardier’s hand, standing in line waiting for the pleasure boat.

The moment she raised her voice even slightly, eyes would turn toward them from every direction. She silently repeated a proverb about patience five times in her mind.

Be patient. Just endure it. After all, the boat party would last late into the night, and the eldest son of the Dreuire family wasn’t going anywhere. This wasn’t her only chance. Whether it was the following dinner banquet or tomorrow’s noon picnic, as long as they met, he would surely propose to Rosetta.

Rosetta reluctantly pulled her gaze away from Cardier’s foot. She almost wished she could step on it hard, just once, by accident. Irritated, she swept her loose hair behind her ear.

“Your mouth may be crooked, but let’s speak straight. You just didn’t want me looking appetizing in front of others, right?”

The hairpin she had firmly fixed earlier must have loosened slightly—it had been bothering her since a while ago. Cardier caught her hand, lowered it, and pulled the pin out. Her tied-up hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall.

He fixed her with a meaningful stare.

“Well. At least to me, your appearance isn’t an issue.”

As he carefully tucked her hair behind her ear, he added,

“Whether you looked worse than this, or several times more beautiful.”

“…What on earth does that even—”

To innocently ask what he meant would be foolish—Cardier’s eyes resembled those of a predator that had quietly gone mad. He turned her palm upward, then lowered his head and pressed his cheek against it. His gaze remained locked onto her face.

His eyes burned with such intensity it seemed he wanted to strip not only the dress she wore, but even the flesh wrapped around her soul. He rubbed his dry lips against her soft palm and murmured in a low voice,

“You’re too convincing for me to simply dismiss as madness.”

Rosetta swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth. The sound of her throat bobbing echoed loudly in her ears.

“But after all my past despair, I can’t swallow you whole just yet.”

“…”

“Truthfully, even that patience is reaching its limit. Whether you merely resemble her by coincidence or not—by now, it doesn’t even matter.”

Now, he clearly didn’t care whether she understood his words or not. Cardier slowly lifted his lips from her palm with a lazy smile, then placed the diamond hairpin he had just removed from her hair onto her hand.

He lifted his head slightly with a soft “Ah.”

“The boat has arrived.”

Only then did her senses return. Rosetta blinked several times, her eyes unfocused. She had expected a small pleasure boat, but now she gaped at the massive warship drawing closer. It was entirely different in scale from the tiny boat a few nobles had just boarded, rowed by three oarsmen.

This was a full-fledged galleon… She had heard the Endé River connected to a sea canal, but never imagined a vessel of this size could navigate such waters. Rosetta stared wide-eyed at the approaching warship.

“T-This is the boat we’re supposed to board…?”

“Didn’t you hear? It’s the launch ceremony for Conchester Trading’s new galleon.”

“I heard it was a boat ride…”

“In the morning, yes. From evening onward, it’s a banquet on board. If you’d prefer a small boat, you can still go stand in line over there. Though by the time the sun fully sets, even that will probably end.”

Three masts with horizontal sails flapping, and at a glance, more than sixty cannons… She gazed over the ship’s prow, gun decks, masts, and sterncastle with strange awe, almost as if licking every detail. This was truly the pinnacle of modern shipbuilding technology. Well, one had to admit—the nobles certainly knew how to spend their money extravagantly.

“Watch your step.”

At Cardier’s reminder, Rosetta scoffed with her expression and confidently climbed the stairs. The ship was so massive that the water rippling against its hull made her feel as if she were standing on the back of a whale.