And Idren added to those words.

“I will let you do everything you want to do. I will give you everything you want to have, and make sure you never meet people you don’t want to see for the rest of your life.”

Although his gentle voice made even the content sound sweet, there was an error in it.

To entice someone, the proposed conditions should feel like special privileges, but Idren was talking about things he was already doing.

Ophelia stared blankly at the man who would do more than enough of what he offered as compensation even if she didn’t agree.

Anyway, from his perspective, he must have listed what he thought were the best things, so she didn’t want to point out his mistake.

When she didn’t answer, Idren, who had been watching her reaction for a moment, asked.

“Do you dislike it?”

“You know what answer I’m going to give.”

Then Idren asked in a small voice. Is it because you dislike living with me? Closing her eyes again, Ophelia answered the man who was surely drooping his eyebrows. No.

She didn’t dislike Idren. Both objectively and subjectively, Ophelia thought he was really a good person.

It’s just that their circumstances didn’t match.

Idren spoke as if living was just something you do, something that doesn’t require much effort, but Ophelia already knew that wasn’t the case.

Maintaining life took more effort than it appeared on the surface. Even now, when she had to repay Mahanas, Ophelia sometimes thought she wanted to quit everything.

How could she live after killing him with this kind of mindset?

Moreover, at that time, nothing would be determined.

When she imagined a future with no goals and guaranteed autonomy, Ophelia felt like she was standing in an endless wilderness.

Like that space that exhausts people just because of its vastness, time with nothing determined tired her out just by its existence.

No matter how good a person Idren was, Ophelia couldn’t bear that time, which might never end, just looking at him alone.

She said to the man who was still turning his head towards her.

“Not that, tell me something else.”

Since she had received many things from him, she intended to reciprocate to some extent as long as she could afford it.

Idren looked at the woman who was proposing a compromise that he absolutely couldn’t accept.

If he answered that, Ophelia would grant it as if settling a debt, and then discard him when the time came. From her perspective, it would be no different than finishing the settlement, so she wouldn’t hesitate at all.

But how could he say it?

Anyway, she’s very clever in this aspect. He let out a hollow laugh, let go of the hair he had been fiddling with, and turned around. Hearing the rustling sound, Ophelia realized that he had sat up properly.

Looking at the sofa across from him instead of at her, Idren muttered.

“You are really mean.”

Although it was thrown out like a joke, what was contained in it wasn’t so light. Ophelia, who had turned to lie on the inside of the sofa, said.

“…Then don’t like me.”

Although it sounded like a rebuke, what was contained in it was her own kind of kindness.

Idren thought that Ophelia didn’t know that this kindness felt sharper from his perspective. And soon he realized that she wouldn’t know anything.

She doesn’t like him, so she wouldn’t know this feeling of being the only one burning up, and she wouldn’t know that he couldn’t stop these feelings of his as he pleased.

To Ophelia’s eyes, he must look like just a man behaving incomprehensibly.

Sometimes it feels unbearable how resentful that fact is, but he hated even imagining cutting her out of his life.

Idren thought it would be better for everything to stop rather than for his life to go on without Ophelia. Even if everything else would be fine if she was removed, it was the same.

But he kept his mouth shut because he was slightly annoyed at the woman who wouldn’t easily grant one request, so he didn’t want to let her know this.

It was then that the question came back.

“…Why do you like me?”

After uttering those words, Ophelia realized that this was the same question that had made him cry once before.

Since it wasn’t asked to probe the other person, Ophelia hastily added.

“I didn’t ask in the way you’re thinking. It’s just, I’m not the kind of person someone would like.”

Idren turned back at words he couldn’t believe came from someone like Ophelia.

Then Ophelia turned her back even more. Her shoulders wrapped in red velvet curled inward, looking smaller than usual.

Idren got up from his seat silently. Lying facing the inside of the sofa, Ophelia heard his footsteps fading away.

Not even answering and where are you going? As she thought this and was about to turn around, the footsteps that had paused for a moment came closer.

In a situation where their faces would have met if she had turned her back, Ophelia flinched a little, but closed her eyes as if not minding anything.

It was then that something was draped over her body.

Opening her eyes slightly, Ophelia noticed that it was a blanket with soft fur raised on it. It seemed he had brought it from where it was folded in one corner of the room.

Sitting back down in his original seat with a thud, Idren asked.

“Who said such a thing?”

It was as if he was saying someone had maliciously brainwashed her.

But that was his misunderstanding. Ophelia had known since she was young that she wasn’t a likable person, but it wasn’t something someone had told her.

It was just a fact she realized while looking around at her surroundings and herself within them.

Pulling the blanket, which was warm and heavy as befitting something used in Edegrun, a little closer, Ophelia answered.

“It’s not that I think this way because of what someone said, it’s something I naturally came to know as I lived.”

She wasn’t affectionate, nor did she know how to love others. She wasn’t friendly in personality or outstanding in talent. There weren’t any fatal flaws, but there weren’t any notable strengths either.

Idren liked such a woman to an incomprehensible degree.

Even as she tried to just accept that side of him, Ophelia kept wanting to know the reason. She was curious because she had never liked anyone, including Haslen, the way he liked her.

So it was purely a question, but Idren seemed to have mistaken that she needed comfort.

Letting out a small sigh, he turned his body and rested his arm on the sofa. Ophelia noticed that he was looking at the back of her head.

After a moment of silence, Idren said.

“You are enough of a person for someone to like. You’re smart, honest, and rational. I think you have a kind side too, but I won’t include that because you wouldn’t agree.”

That’s not all your strengths, the man added as he brought his hand to the back of her head. Ophelia let him gently stroke behind her ear. Idren continued speaking.

“Think about what you did to Mahanas. How many people in the world could repay what was done to them like that?”

Ophelia didn’t argue with the man who was citing even things that deviated from the world’s ethics and morals as her strengths.

To be honest, she didn’t agree with his thoughts, but she didn’t want to appear as someone who disparaged herself.

To her, who said nothing, Idren continued to speak.

“Of course, I don’t like you because of these strengths. You won’t understand this until you like someone, but… your strengths or weaknesses don’t matter to me.”

It was as if he had read her mind.

Since it was true that she didn’t understand him, Ophelia pulled the blanket a little closer and buried her face in it. She muttered in a small voice to the man who was much more positive than she had thought.

“I’d like to see the world through your eyes once.”

The world reflected in his eyes seemed different from what she knew.

Ophelia wanted to experience his perspective once. If she looked around through his eyes and even looked in the mirror, she felt she might understand what he was saying.

And Ophelia realized that her words might have sounded sarcastic. Although she didn’t intend it that way, it seemed like it could easily be heard as such.

But Idren gently stroked her ear with the back of his hand and replied.

“Then tell me what you want to see. I’ll look on your behalf and let you know.”

The next day, Ophelia called for Sianna again.

Sianna had become very haggard in just one day. Her face clearly showed signs of not having slept much.

Summoned to the place where she had knelt yesterday, Sianna bowed her head deeply and said.

“I, I thought about it… but I’m not sure. I’ll, I’ll follow whatever you tell me.”

The words she had surely practiced several times before speaking came out broken, despite her efforts.

Ophelia thought about how Gilord Nevel must have raised his daughter. He must have always taught her prescribed behaviors and punished her oppressively when she acted against them.

He must have taken away her power to think for herself like that.

Ophelia offered a seat to the woman who clearly had not even a speck of self-belief left.

“Sit down.”

After waiting for a moment until a teacup was placed in front of Sianna, who stiffly did as she was told, Ophelia said.

“There must have been things your father said before putting you in the royal carriage. Tell me those things.”