As the Grand Duke approached, the people standing around him naturally made way. At the end of the clearly parted path stood Aidel.

With another man, not himself.

Caeron clenched his fist. The Grand Duke’s face was its usual cold, expressionless mask, but the veins on his neck were now bulging.

It was Rainien who first noticed the Grand Duke’s presence. Caeron’s deeply sunken eyes, which met his, flickered with blue anger. His tightly pressed lips slowly parted.

“……Aidel.”

“Your Highness……?”

Hearing the low voice calling her name, Aidel turned her head. Upon seeing Caeron, her eyes widened.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was conversing with Lord Rainien.”

Aidel answered, looking at Rainien beside her. Meeting her eyes, Rainien gave a faint smile.

“He came to study abroad in the same administrative department as me. He’s a person of great learning and excellent character, from whom I have much to learn.”

Aidel introduced Rainien, now her friend, to Caeron with a gentle gaze. For her, it was praise filled with pure goodwill. However, the more she praised Rainien, the lower Caeron’s mood sank.

At the same time, the conversation he had with Rainien earlier came to mind.

− I’m suddenly curious about something……

− Please speak.

− At the entrance ceremony last time, did you meet the person you wanted to see?

It was a question he had instinctively asked after seeing the prince unable to take his eyes off the Grand Duchess. He saw the prince’s eyes waver at the question. But soon, Rainien looked at Caeron with firm eyes and said,

− Yes, I did.

− ……Then that’s fortunate. I was wondering if you had met that ‘lady’, seeing how the prince rushed off during the entrance ceremony.

His words were a kind of warning. To remember that lady the prince had been so desperately searching for, enough to jump up and run off in the middle of the entrance ceremony.

‘Could it be…… that lady……’

Caeron’s brow furrowed deeply. His sharp intuition was pointing to who that lady might be.

“……Aidel.”

As Caeron called Aidel’s name, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his side. Surprised by his sudden action, she inhaled sharply with a bewildered face.

“Your Highness…!”

With the rough gesture, Aidel’s body tilted as if falling into Caeron’s arms. Caeron felt his already rapid pulse quicken even more as he inhaled Aidel’s scent in his arms.

This uncontrollable, fiercely burning emotion that threatened to swallow his reason…… was probably due to her scent stimulating him. Caeron felt the longing for her that he had barely suppressed before attending the party now boiling up again.

“Let’s go back.”

“What? Suddenly, what do you mean……”

“We need to return to the Grand Duke’s residence right now.”

Caeron said, gritting his teeth. An uncontrollable strong desire increasingly dominated his entire body. Aidel felt his grip on her tightening.

“Ugh……”

A short moan escaped Aidel’s lips. It was due to the pain seeping into her slender wrist. Seeing her slightly frowning face, Rainien grabbed Caeron’s arm.

“Lady Aidel is in pain.”

Caeron loosened his grip on Aidel’s wrist and instead enveloped her hand. Then he swatted away Rainien’s hand that was holding his arm.

“Prince Rainien.”

Caeron spoke in a voice tinged with coldness, despite his fiercely burning eyes.

“The reason you came to study abroad here is because of the peaceful relationship between Yupiter and Lisandro.”

Rainien looked at Caeron with a puzzled expression as he suddenly brought up peace between nations.

“Do you know why the peace between two countries sharing a border has been maintained until now?”

Caeron stared directly into Rainien’s eyes. His tone, which had been cold to the point of seeming emotionless, suddenly sharpened.

“It’s because we’ve maintained our ‘boundaries’.”

The exposed beast did not allow intrusion into his territory. A tense atmosphere enveloped the three of them.

The carriage returning to the Grand Duke’s residence was quiet except for the sound of horse hooves rolling on the ground.

Aidel stroked her wrist where Caeron had grabbed her. Sitting across from her, Caeron frowned with concern at the sight.

“……Does it hurt a lot?”

At his question, Aidel slowly shook her head.

“It’s fine. More importantly……”

She hesitated, her lips trembling without continuing. To her, Caeron had shown too clear hostility towards Rainien.

‘Why……?’

When they first exchanged greetings upon arriving at the party, Caeron and Rainien seemed to have a formal relationship. They maintained proper etiquette without revealing emotions.

‘Did something happen while I was away at the tea time?’

Aidel guessed there must be a reason for Caeron’s sudden change in attitude towards Rainien.

After exchanging greetings, when she went for tea time with Roselyn and Marchioness Catrina, if something had happened between Caeron and Rainien who remained behind…….

Aidel was concerned about the strained relationship between the two. After hesitating for a moment, she seemed to make up her mind and asked him.

“Did something happen with Lord Rainien?”

When Aidel asked cautiously, Caeron raised one eyebrow.

“Something happened……?”

“It seemed like the relationship between you two had changed from before.”

Caeron stared intently at Aidel’s eyes filled with worry. It was a clear gaze as if she knew nothing. A heavy sigh escaped through his lips.

His Grand Duchess was brilliant yet ignorant to the point of being unaware in some areas. Especially when it came to the ulterior motives of men approaching her…….

‘She probably didn’t realize it.’

That’s why she had so innocently fallen into his grasp. Caeron gave a self-deprecating sneer.

“Are you concerned about him?”

“It’s necessary for you two to maintain a good relationship, even considering the relations between the two countries.”

“Well, he’s not that important of a person to me.”

Caeron rubbed his chin with his finger and asked back.

“What about you? Is that prince an important person to you?”

“Ah……”

At his question, Aidel fell into thought for a moment.

Rainien was her first friend. He said he didn’t care whether she was the Grand Duchess or not, and encouraged her on the path she had chosen. Today too, when she was struggling alone, Rainien’s warm encouragement had been a great strength.

“That’s right. He is an important person to me.”

Aidel nodded with a voice full of certainty. There was not a hint of hesitation in her straightforward gaze. Seeing her like this, Caeron’s face hardened uncontrollably.

“Since when did you become such important friends?”

“It hasn’t been long. We happened to meet by chance in the university grounds when I went to prepare for the entrance ceremony.”

As expected…… Rainien and Aidel had known each other since before the entrance ceremony. The identity of the woman Rainien had been desperately searching for at the entrance ceremony became even clearer.

“You’ve been meeting the prince since then?”

“Meeting…… what do you mean by that?”

Aidel felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort from Caeron’s words, which seemed to have a sharp edge. Seeing his unsettling expression, she began to feel a tightness in the corner of her chest.

“No matter how innocent you are, you must know what it means when a man and woman meet……?”

“A man and woman? Surely not……”

Aidel’s eyes widened as big as saucers. Her heart seemed to freeze for a moment before starting to beat rapidly.

“Do you mean a romantic relationship?”

Aidel’s voice trembled slightly as if shocked. Caeron didn’t give any answer, as if affirming her question.

“Lord Rainien and I are not that kind of relationship you’re thinking of!”

She shook her head urgently.

“He and I are friends!”

She and Rainien shared friendship, not love. Her mouth went dry at Caeron’s misunderstanding. Aidel’s face was tinged with anxiety.

“Friends……”

Caeron repeated her words. Her expression was sincere, without a trace of lie. Even though he clearly heard that it wasn’t a romantic relationship but a friendship, his mood did not improve.

The image of Rainien running off with a face clearly in love kept coming to mind. The more it did, the more something hot welled up from deep in his stomach.

With an infinitely cool face on the outside, contrary to his fiercely burning insides, he twisted his lips and sneered.

“Do you think it’s possible for a man and woman to be completely platonic friends without any feelings?”

“I think it’s possible. Lord Rainien is just a good friend who shares similar thoughts…… I have no other feelings for him.”

“I wonder if Prince Rainien feels the same way?”

“That’s……”

His voice was already tinged with deep suspicion. Aidel hesitated and couldn’t answer right away. She couldn’t be certain about all the emotions in Rainien’s heart.

Seeing Aidel at a loss with a troubled face, Caeron roughly ran his hand through his hair as if frustrated.

“Don’t forget that you are the Grand Duchess.”

Caeron’s voice, which evoked a sense of caution, penetrated Aidel’s complicated mind.

“Act with consideration for your position as Grand Duchess.”

The man who couldn’t be honest with his own feelings indirectly expressed that she should distance herself from Rainien. But at the same time, it was also advice for Aidel, who was unfamiliar with social activities.

The social world was not to be taken lightly. The nobles who hid their true faces behind masks were busy eyeing their opponents. Slandering others with baseless words or distorting facts was commonplace.

He could vividly imagine nobles gossiping about the relationship between the Grand Duchess and the Prince of Lisandro after seeing them together.

However, to Aidel, whose mood was unusually disturbed, it came across with a different meaning first.

‘The position of Grand Duchess……’

For a moment, she was reminded of the young ladies at the tea time who had mocked and belittled her unladylike behavior as unbefitting of a Grand Duchess.

Those faces that had subtly criticized and isolated her…… seemed to overlap with Caeron’s image of telling her to mind her position and be careful of her conduct as Grand Duchess.

Her skin prickled and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She understood intellectually that his words about acting like a proper Grand Duchess had a different intention from the young ladies, but…….

His words, which felt like they were cornering her, seemed to stab her heart like a dagger. It felt hundreds of times more painful than what she had received from the young ladies.

“Is all you want from me…… just the role of Grand Duchess?”

Caeron frowned at her deeply sunken voice and dark expression. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and answered.

“……Yes. Just be faithful to what you need to do as Grand Duchess, as per our contract.”

Aidel was already fulfilling her role sufficiently. For Caeron, it was meant to ease the burden on Aidel, who seemed to be struggling, perhaps due to his own pressing, but…….

At Caeron’s words, Aidel’s eyes instantly darkened. Contrary to his intention, his words again stabbed her heart like a dagger.

‘He just thinks of me as……’

Just the Grand Duchess he made a contract with.

Perhaps to him, she had no meaning other than as a contract partner and Grand Duchess. After the contract ended, she might even be forgotten in his life.

Even though it was something she had already expected…… a corner of her chest ached so much it was hard to breathe.

Aidel quickly lowered her head. At the same time, droplets fell onto her tightly clasped white hands. The spot felt burning hot, as if scalded.

Aidel quickly composed her blurred expression so Caeron wouldn’t notice. It was a night when even the moonlight was completely obscured by thick clouds, like her heart.

The scenery inside the carriage looked dim to the point where complexions couldn’t be distinguished. Thanks to this, Caeron’s eyes failed to notice her reddened eyes.