In the blink of an eye, the day arrived to attend the princess’s tea party.

In the meantime, Kisa spent her time exposing her affectionate appearance to many people while dating Seyerd or preparing for the upcoming engagement ceremony.

Daniel sent a few letters saying he would arrange a meeting with a witness who knew about Seyerd’s past, but she just skimmed through them and ignored them all.

She would believe in the Seyerd she had seen so far. That was Kisa’s conclusion.

“You look lovely today too, Kisa.”

It was the first thing Seyerd said when he saw Kisa as he visited the Banspelt townhouse on a sunny afternoon.

While Marsha blushed her cheeks saying it was romantic, Kisa deliberately lowered her gaze and muttered.

“Oh Seyerd…”

Since the concert held at the Darion Duke’s residence, he would occasionally blurt out the words he had used that day to escape from annoying questions.

He said it was for a more perfect act, but judging by the smile that seemed to deepen especially when Kisa showed signs of embarrassment, it was clearly for the purpose of teasing her.

This made Kisa learn one more thing about Seyerd Hilan. He had quite a mischievous personality.

“Have a safe trip, miss!”

“Yes, see you later.”

After greeting Marsha, Kisa left the mansion with Seyerd.

While walking to the gate where the Hilan Duke’s carriage was parked, Seyerd lowered his voice and asked.

“Are you very nervous?”

Kisa answered weakly.

“Honestly, I can’t say I’m not. I wonder how the princess will act…”

Even the two young ladies she met at the recent concert were so hostile to Kisa for the princess’s sake, so she couldn’t imagine how the actual person would be.

Moreover, Melissa, with whom she had fallen out, would be at the tea party, and the other young ladies would surely be on the princess’s side, not Kisa’s.

Having to sit around a table and have tea with several people who held animosity towards her, would everything that went into her mouth not feel heavy?

Above all, thinking about the sense of loss the Princess Arta must be feeling made her uneasy.

Although she had recklessly exposed Kisa and Daniel’s affair, at least her affection for her dead fiancé seemed sincere.

Hadn’t she secluded herself in the palace, stopping her social activities after Bisek Hilan’s death?

‘She’s even lost weight.’

Perhaps the princess had intended to soothe her grief by marrying Seyerd, who closely resembled her fiancé.

Of course, even though they were twins, they were clearly different people, so it couldn’t be said to be the right method, but it might have been desperate for her.

Apart from not regretting accepting Seyerd’s contract marriage proposal, Kisa was inwardly concerned about that aspect of the princess.

Would it be a selfish wish to hope that she would break free from the past and find a new love?

“Now, Kisa.”

At that moment, Seyerd, who had arrived in front of the carriage, held out his hand to escort Kisa.

But when Kisa took his hand, he met her gaze intently.

Looking at the puzzled Kisa, Seyerd applied just enough pressure to his hand not to hurt her.

“Don’t worry too much. Everything will be fine.”

Facing his gentle smile, she was reminded of when he had said the same words before.

It was what he had said just before parting with Kisa on the day she first learned of Seyerd’s true identity.

Those words had given courage to Kisa when she was trying to escape from Daniel, who came to the Banspelt Count’s residence right after the broken engagement and was angrily shouting.

It was because of that gentle encouragement that she was able to say what she wanted to say.

And now, for some reason, she felt like everything would be fine just as he said.

Although it was just a vague feeling without any clear basis, it was so nonetheless.

“You’re right. Everything will be fine.”

So Kisa pulled up the corners of her mouth, giving the answer she couldn’t give back then.

In the carriage heading to the palace, Seyerd, sitting opposite Kisa, offered an extremely simple solution.

“Just throw the invitation card and leave immediately.”

“No, that’s a bit…”

Saying so, Kisa fiddled with the handbag on her lap.

The invitation card he mentioned was inside this bag. It was the invitation card for their engagement ceremony.

By the way, other invitation cards for guests selected by Kisa and Seyerd putting their heads together were being delivered collectively by the Hilan Duke’s house.

But this one card that Kisa had specially brought out, she wanted to hand it to the princess herself.

If it had to be handed over anyway, it seemed more polite to give it personally while inviting her.

No matter how uncomfortable the circumstances were, it was unacceptable not to invite a direct member of the royal family to the engagement ceremony of someone as important as the Duke of Hilan.

It was proper to at least extend an invitation, even if the princess might not attend.

Seyerd said to Kisa, who had a determined look on her face.

“Staying there for long will only be hard on you. It’s better to just quickly achieve your goal and leave.”

It wasn’t wrong, but how could one leave hurriedly without permission from a tea party attended at the princess’s invitation?

“You can pretend to be sick. Or say that an urgent matter has come up that you can’t avoid.”

As if reading Kisa’s thoughts, Seyerd made mischievous suggestions with a nonchalant face.

“Ah, or it wouldn’t be bad to say that I called you away.”

“That’s also a bit…”

“Kisa, leave the aftermath to me and just come out. I’ll take care of everything.”

It was an incredibly attractive proposal, just like his smiling face.

However, Kisa firmly shook her head.

“No. I can’t always rely on Seyerd.”

After all, she couldn’t live comfortably under his shadow forever.

Although it might be in the distant future, Kisa had to think about her life after parting with Seyerd.

Their relationship was fundamentally based on a contract with a set end.

Of course, quite a bit of human affection had built up between them in the meantime, but he was a man burdened with a great family and would someday have to marry and have an heir.

Kisa’s role was to faithfully perform the role of a wife until he found a woman he liked, and then quietly disappear someday to live her own life.

‘Seyerd said I could leave first if I ever wanted a different life, but how could I with all the favors I’ve received?’

When Kisa disappeared, he would immediately face large and small marriage pressures from his surroundings, and it would be troublesome in many ways to leave the position of duchess empty for long.

At least until he found a woman to fill the position of duchess like a relay…

For some unknown reason, her solar plexus suddenly hurt.

Kisa briefly searched for the reason and concluded it was due to imagining such a bleak future.

That was because parting with Seyerd meant going out into the world with nothing.

The Count of Banspelt would never forgive a daughter who divorced on her own, and Kisa had no intention of returning to Banspelt either.

She would live a new life freely.

To achieve that grand dream, she had to diligently prepare to stand on her own.

‘When I marry Seyerd, I’ll try to learn various things.’

Right now it was difficult to do reckless things because of her father’s eyes, but Seyerd had promised to provide Kisa with freedom. He said he wouldn’t interfere in her private life as long as she fulfilled her role as duchess.

So she planned to devise means to live on while indebted to the Hilan Duke’s house.

The top priority was to develop the ability to take care of herself before the contract period ended.

‘If only that happens…’

She would be able to live a life of her own, no longer possessed by the Count of Banspelt or Daniel.

Kisa tried to suppress her inner anxiety by deliberately imagining a positive future.

Then, not long after, her stiffened solar plexus returned to its original state.

“…”

“…”

But then her eyes met with the man who had been observing her as if studying her.

“What’s wrong?”

She asked, thinking he might have something to say, but Seyerd shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s nothing, just that you often get lost in thought like now, and every time I wonder what might be in that small head of yours.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if it bothered you. I’ve been told many times before that I get lost in my own thoughts too often.”

“Is that necessarily wrong? Besides, I like seeing your face when you’re lost in thought because it’s interesting.”

“…Do I make funny expressions?”

“Of course not. I meant it’s interesting how your expression changes slightly from moment to moment.”

Whether that was really interesting or not, Kisa thought it must be so if Seyerd said so.

‘But it’s going to bother me from now on…’

To think that someone was closely watching her face. It seemed it would be difficult to get lost in thought in front of him due to the tension.

At that moment, the carriage arrived at the palace.

Seyerd, who escorted Kisa when getting off just as he had when getting on, spoke in a regretful voice.

“I have to go this way.”

By an awkward coincidence, he also had business at the palace on the same day as Kisa.

The king had summoned him again. Although Kisa hadn’t heard the exact number of times from Seyerd, it wasn’t the first time he had been called to the palace.

After all, the princess wasn’t the only one whose feelings were hurt by Seyerd’s surprise engagement announcement.

The king had been bothering Seyerd with all sorts of reasons that he would have normally overlooked.

Even though he was at the pinnacle of a country, he had no right to force the marriage of the Duke of Hilan, so it was a kind of venting.

“Good luck!”

“You too, Kisa. And don’t forget. Just quickly hand over the invitation card and come back.”

After parting with Seyerd, who repeated the same words as before, Kisa headed to the princess’s palace.

A moment later, as she entered the reception room, several cold gazes were fixed on her.

The women who had been chattering until just then all closed their mouths at once and stared at Kisa.