The young knight looked at his lord’s lady. Beneath the veil hiding her face, her radiant skin and smiling lips were glimpsed. It was an incredibly elegant smile.

He looked at Ariadne with a blunt gaze, then bowed his head in reverence.

“There is no caste.”

Ariadne nodded her head.

“I heard there are a few of your knights who are of commoner origin.”

He did not answer clumsily.

“By carriage. I can drive the carriage.”

He glanced at Coachman Giuseppe as if it was a bother. Ariadne shook her head.

“Are you going to escort me home too?”

She added with a smile.

“Or do you mean to say that I should drive the carriage myself on the way home?”

Knight Elko blushed and no longer expressed his dissatisfaction with Giuseppe’s accompaniment.

Sir Elko coached amazingly through the back alleys to Centro Anima, not sitting inside the carriage but beside Giuseppe. He seemed to know every inconspicuous route.

“It seems you’re a native of San Carlo, knight.”

Giuseppe tried to make conversation with Elko, but the greyhaired knight made no response with a stern face.

It was common for knights to be snobbish. Giuseppe, who thought it was worth trying to talk to him as they were about the same age and neither was a nobleman, felt a little hurt, but pretended not to know and drove the carriage quickly.

“Let’s stop and wait in the back alley there.”

Knight Elko designated a narrow alley right behind Pietro Square in the very center of Centro Anima.

Giuseppe expertly parked the carriage flush against the alley wall as Elko instructed, and Sir Elko jumped down from the coachman’s seat and stood guard with his sword.

It was a demeanor completely incongruous with the ordinary black carriage that Ariadne had deliberately chosen to ride.

After waiting in the back alley for about ten minutes, another black carriage approached. The coachman of the new carriage made eye contact with Elko, and very briefly, the two carriages were parked in parallel.

Elko first opened the door of Ariadne’s carriage and escorted her down, then he opened the door of the second carriage.

“Ari!”

At the familiar voice, Ariadne looked forward. Alfonso, with a face full of joy, was riding in the ordinary black carriage.

He extended his hand to help Ariadne into the carriage, and with one knee on the floor and the other raised to provide a foothold, Ariadne could move to the new carriage in less than a second with the help of Sir Elko.

As soon as the carriage door closed, Prince Alfonso hugged Ariadne tightly.

“I’ve missed you!”

Due to the passionate embrace, Ariadne’s headscarf was pushed back.

As her French hood that had been hiding all of her hair came off, Ariadne’s ebony hair cascaded down her shoulders and chest like a waterfall.

A sweet fragrance wafted from the woman’s hair. It was the scent he had smelled when he had entered Ariadne’s bedroom at the debutante ball in the past.

Alfonso did what he had wanted to do so much but couldn’t do at that time.

The prince’s lips covered the girl’s lips.

“Ah.”

Ariadne responded to Alfonso’s kiss with a short moan.

The boy passionately responded to the girl’s body heat, and she too joyfully accepted him. It was the first time in her life she experienced this overwhelming sensation where vision and hearing were forgotten, and heat, touch, and smell dominated.

The two, sharing their body heat, lost track of time.

“Haa…”

When they came to their senses, the inside of the carriage was filled with steam. Moisture had fogged up the carriage windows and they couldn’t see outside.

Ariadne wiped the window glass with her palm and looked outside.

“Where are we?”

She brushed her disheveled hair with her hand. A lot of black hair slid down her shoulders and chest. Alfonso let go of Ariadne, who he was holding, and held the fingers of her hand sitting beside him.

“We’re taking a full round through the city of San Carlo by carriage. I had set aside about 40 minutes. …I had.”

They had easily wasted half an hour. Alfonso looked out the window to gauge the time left.

“……We’re currently passing the borders of Castel Ravico. I reckon we’re about 10 minutes away from Pietro Square.”

With his ungloved hand, Alfonso gently touched Ariadne’s cheek. She smiled slightly and rested her head on the prince’s shoulder. His warm scent tickled her nose. Leaning against him like a lazy cat, she asked a question. Curiosity always seemed to precede peace for her.

“How did you manage to get out of the palace today?”

Originally, Prince Alfonso was to receive a meeting from the regional cooperative leader of Centro Anima at the palace.

It was because the Prince was scheduled to deliver a congratulatory speech on behalf of the royal family at Pietro Square, the center of Centro Anima, at the spring festival. But, at the last minute, the regional cooperative leader suggested that it would be nice for the Prince to take a look at the daffodil altar, where he would be speaking, at the square itself.