Ariadne straightened up as if startled by a fire.

She had once vividly experienced what could happen when she satisfied a man’s desire without any commitment.

“Ari, don’t you love me? Come here.”

“Isabella will be the queen.”

Ariadne, haunted by Cesare’s voice in her ears, pushed away Alfonso’s heavy hand lingering on her.

“No!”

Ariadne told Alfonso directly again, looking him in the eye.

“I don’t like this.”

At Ariadne’s rejection, Alfonso too looked surprised as if he’d been doused with cold water. But he was always a gentleman.

“Sorry, you must have been startled.”

He put down his hand, wrapped her shoulders and kissed Ariadne’s cheek.

“Is this okay?”

A smile appeared on the lips of Ariadne, who was looking at Alfonso anxiously waiting. Ariadne smiled happily and kissed Alfonso’s lips.

“I like this.”

A smile came back to Alfonso’s lips as well. The young couple laughed together, rubbing noses and searching for each other’s lips. A playful touch of lips often led to a deep kiss.

What put a stop to their frenzied kissing was the ‘gurgle’ sound echoing through the lounge.

Ariadne looked at Alfonso’s face, and Alfonso turned his blushing face to the side. Only then did Ariadne finally have the leisure to look Alfonso up and down.

Alfonso’s outfit was full of the prince’s hard work of riding across the snowcovered plains day and night in winter.

She gently brushed Alfonso’s hair behind his ears and said.

“You must have had a hard time coming here. Are you hungry? When did you last eat?”

“Last night? Jerky?”

It was late afternoon now, going into the evening. Alfonso’s words meant that he had been starving all day. Ariadne jumped up in surprise.

“No, we must eat something now! Wait a minute!”

Ariadne ran into the kitchen connected to the dining room. She had been obsessively avoiding food since she returned. After dieting for so long, even the sight of food was enough to make her nauseous.

But as the mistress of the house, she had to take care of everyone’s meals meticulously, and overseeing meal preparations was a task she particularly disliked. But she was willing to handle it for Alfonso.

She entered the kitchen, where all the kitchen maids had left between lunch and dinner, and stuffed bread and meat into a tray from the pantry. Warm wine and hot soup were a must in the cold winter when she came indoors.

After filling a large tray with food, she hesitated for a moment, then added a dessert and closed the pantry, returning to the lounge next to the kitchen.

“Let’s eat quickly!”

Ariadne had brought only one set of spoon and fork. Alfonso raised an eyebrow.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“I already ate.”

She answered calmly without any hesitation, but he sharply scanned Ariadne up and down. Her face looked like she hadn’t eaten for three days.

Instead of pointing out her lie, Alfonso said with a smile to Ariadne,

“Then eat one more time.”

Alfonso urged Ariadne again, asking if he would have to eat alone. Finally, reluctantly fetching her own utensils, Ariadne nibbled at a little soup, puckering her lips.

In her haste to feed the prince, she had forgotten to bring any vegetables or the like that had not been sauced. Soup was the least nauseating thing.

Alfonso watched Ariadne as she paused with a spoonful of soup in front of her. Ariadne belatedly noticed his gaze and looked up at Alfonso.

“Why?”

“Don’t you eat much?”

He sharply eyed her wrists, neck, and cheeks.

“It doesn’t seem like they’d starve you in your own home now, so you’re not eating?”

Ariadne avoided Alfonso’s gaze. But he didn’t let her go.

“Let me see.”

Ariadne flinched, trembling. She felt sick just imagining the sensation of food entering her mouth. Eating means gaining weight. If she gained weight…

“You look like you’re hugging a man because you’re too big.”

It was a statement she should not have made.

When Ariadne stubbornly refused to open her mouth in front of the spoon, Alfonso frowned. Ariadne pouted her lips as Alfonso’s expression turned sour.

‘Well, are you going to get angry if I don’t eat?’

But what pressed against her was not Alfonso’s resentful reproach, but his lips.

The prince took a sip of warm milk with sugar and dried fruit, then opened her mouth and passed it beyond her throat. She could not distinguish whether the sweetness was from the warm milk or the kiss.

It was the first taste of sweetness she had eaten in over ten months since her return. Normally, she would have been startled and spat it out, or got angry at the person who made her eat it, but she was brought to her knees by the sweetness that could not be distinguished whether it was from her lips or sugar.

“Haah…..”

Alfonso pulled his lips away. The proof of the sweet kiss hung like a cobweb in a single thread. Ariadne waved her hand and wiped her mouth clean.

“Alfonso, what is this…..!”

“Ari, I want you to be healthy.”

At Alfonso’s words, Ariadne had no choice but to stop the tip of her tongue that was about to lash out.