“If you’re planning to return to the banquet hall, you might want to redo that hair. It’s quite a mess.”

“Thanks for the concern!”

Renéola turned her head and shouted back, her cheeks flushed. Kahilrun chuckled amusedly.

“Did you give her the bracelet, Prince Kahilrun?”

Kahilrun turned his head. His expression, just now mischievously smiling, was now blank. To anyone else, it might have seemed chillingly cold, but to Machi, who had served Kahilrun since before he was an adult, it was nothing unusual.

“The lady seems to have caught your interest, Your Highness. It’s rare for you to converse so long with a woman, even smiling.”

“She’s amusing.”

Easy to tease. Kahilrun admitted openly.

“She’s different from other women. It’s like she has the eyes of someone from another world.”

Recalling Renéola, who openly demanded her money back, Kahilrun smirked. Despite her boldness, there was something contemplative about her gaze, as if she didn’t belong here.

Machi, silent till now, seemed dismayed.

“I’m reminded of the cheap novels my sister used to enjoy some twenty years ago.”

Other women, indeed. Spending his days in war and then spouting lines like a womanizer. Machi shook his head as if he wanted to wash his ears.

“Is it really alright to gift such a bracelet to someone you fancy, without a word?”

Kahilrun remained unbothered by Machi’s concern.
Upon hearing the remark, Kahilrun’s lips pressed into a straight line. The bracelet he had entrusted to Renéola was enchanted with a so-called eavesdropping spell. More precisely, it was a spell that transmitted conversations to Kahilrun if she made contact with a certain someone. That ‘certain someone’ was naturally his future sister-in-law.

“She’ll be quite angry when she finds out later. No one likes their conversations to be secretly listened to.”

“Do I need to worry about that?”

Kahilrun twisted his lips, causing Machi to flinch and lower his head.

“I spoke out of turn.”

“She won’t speak up even when given the chance. She should’ve just opened up.”

Kahilrun spat out and strode forward. Machi followed, swallowing a sigh internally. What’s with that curt tone?

‘Has he really taken an interest?’

Was this a good or bad thing?

Among the knights, there were often jokes about Prince Kahilrun’s sexual orientation.

It was natural for knights, immersed in battlefields swarming with men, to yearn deeply for their wives or lovers. Especially for kingdom knights who valued family, being away from loved ones was a hardship.

But Kahilrun seemed entirely devoid of such desires, focusing solely on the goal of victory and showing no concern or unnecessary emotions for anything else.

Even after wars, when everyone rushed home, he was known to catch up on sleep for days on end. So it was perhaps inevitable that everyone found him rather extraordinary.

‘But Renéola Violet, of all people?’

It was good that he was showing interest in a lady, but why the daughter of a disgraced noble family, despised by the entire kingdom and sister of the future queen, with whom there’s a mutual animosity?

‘There’s nothing to gain from this.’

Surely not. The cold and calculating Prince Kahilrun Machi knew wouldn’t choose Renéola Violet.

Just then, Kahilrun, who had been leading the way, stopped and turned to look at Machi.

“By the way, where do people usually run off to these days?”

“…….”

…Surely not, right?