Although I was in the position of both causing and healing the sickness, I started to indulge in reading the newly acquired books with a comfortable mind, thinking that I had successfully saved Kirian from the swamp of dark history.

Hours flew by before I realized something was wrong.

“Why don’t I see him?”

Kirian, who would usually have followed me around whining ‘Nuna, Nuna’ just after a few hours, was nowhere to be seen.

“He should definitely appear right before the confession scene.”

Even though the protagonists in the novel got married and had a child, his chubby hands did not appear obediently above the bookshelf. That’s when I started to worry a little.

“Is he hurt somewhere?”

That was physically impossible.

I temporarily put the book aside and set out to look for Kirian.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I found Kirian in the library. He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing.

I approached him with a slight tension.

He might be eating a snack. I encouraged myself desperately.

But as I approached, I realized that what Kirian was holding was a book.

No, it could be a monster encyclopedia. Kirian was excited about the revised edition recently.

But no matter how I looked at it, the thickness was quite thin for an encyclopedia.

That’s when Kirian sighed deeply.

What shocking thing did he read that made him sigh like this?

I had to step forward eventually.

“Kirian! Don’t read such an uninteresting book!”

I hurriedly snatched the book laid out on Kirian’s lap.

“You’re not supposed to read something like this.”

With an anxious heart, I quickly examined the cover. A title like ‘Contract Husband’s Wife’ would make me cry.

But there was no title on the cover. No, it wasn’t even a book, but a thin notebook.

Kirian’s neat handwriting, unusual for a child, automatically caught my eye.

What Nuna likes:

Novels
Allowance
Delicious snacks

“Nuna!”

Kirian hesitated to snatch it from my hands for a while, and hurriedly took it and hid it behind his back when I put the notebook down.

“What’s that?”

“No, no? There’s nothing.”

“The notebook hidden behind your back.”

“It’s nothing.”

My eyes narrowed automatically.

“You don’t have to lie. I’ve already seen everything. Why are you recording what I like?”

Unwillingly, he had figured it out quite accurately.

“You saw everything?”

Kirian’s pupils trembled uncontrollably.

“Yeah.”

Disappointed by my answer, Kirian shook his head vigorously.

“Why did you write that down?”

The sudden flower gift was one thing, but I couldn’t understand why Kirian suddenly started acting like this.

Is it my birthday soon? But Kirian couldn’t know my birthday, which I didn’t even know.

“I don’t know what Nuna likes.”

Kirian fiddled with the notebook with his short fingers.

“So I thought I might remember if I wrote it down.”

Was this the ‘I didn’t know what you would like, so I prepared everything.’ strategy? It was unclear why Kirian suddenly became obsessed with gifts.

“You don’t have to do anything for me.”

Kirian shook his head vigorously.

“No. I want to.”

“Why?”

Kirian, who had been staring at the floor, slowly lifted his head. Fluttering his dense silver eyelashes, he closed and opened his eyes a few times, then looked at me with an upright gaze.

“I want to be the person who makes Nuna the happiest.”

Kirian clenched the notebook as hard as he could. The paper was mercilessly crumpled in his small hand.

“But I don’t know how. Father is happy when I train hard, and Mother is happy when I treat others well, but I don’t know what Nuna likes.”

A deep shadow that didn’t suit his pretty face cast over Kirian’s face. His voice began to tremble more and more with every word.

“I want to know that the most, but I can’t. Everything else is easy.”

Breathing shallowly and speaking with difficulty, Kirian’s urgent expression momentarily appeared desperate.

Kirian offered an awkward smile, as if trying to reassure me. Only then did I realize that I was making a stunned expression.

“Sister, you seem troubled.”

When I continued to stand silently, Kirian smiled awkwardly again.

“Did you come to read your novel, sister? I won’t bother you. Feel free to read!”

“I’m glad.”

“Huh?”

“I’m happy.”

Kirian blinked his eyes as if in disbelief.

“You’re thinking so hard about this for me.”

Slowly, the shadow that had fallen over Kirian’s face began to lift.

“Happier than a flower gift?”

“Yes. It’s cooler than when you gave me flowers.”

I took out a snack box from the bookshelf.

I didn’t need to keep the snacks I got from the Duchess in Kirian’s snack box, but strangely, I continued to gather them here out of habit.

“Almost as cool as when you nearly proposed with this? It’s a little less than that, though.”

“You’re teasing me, sister.”

Kirian was quick to pick up on cues.

A suppressed laugh escaped me, but I was sincere.

“I mean it.”

I handed him the box.

“You gave me something you cherish then too, didn’t you? You’re thinking about a difficult problem for me now.”