“Ah….”

People who finally realized that Demian was bragging about his wife in his own way showed an awkward reaction. Wondering if this was also praise.

But seeing his imposingly dignified face, everyone clapped a beat late.

“I, I see. Madam Vandermir seems to have many talents.”

“That’s right. She even won the hunting festival and made you the hunting festival queen.”

“There’s no greater blessing than having a reliable spouse!”

Misunderstanding the words of agreement spoken to avoid dampening the mood as sincere, Demian slightly raised the corners of his lips.

“She’s also good at throwing things. Enough to save someone’s life.”

“Ah, yes….”

People could no longer find words to respond and averted their gaze elsewhere. Arasila tightly grasped Demian’s arm while struggling to manage her expression.

She shot him a look telling him to tone it down as he was acting like an oblivious husband instead of the doting one she had asked for. But Demian’s mind was busy recalling Issac’s third piece of advice.

‘Affectionate skinship like embracing your wife’s shoulders or waist is essential, Captain!’

Demian, who was terrible at skinship, hesitated to put this advice into practice right away.

How could Arasila so easily put her hands on his body? Recalling their earlier arm-linking, Demian let out a low sigh.

After some deliberation, he stiffly placed his hand on Arasila’s lower back. It looked as if he was examining whether her spine was intact.

Thinking this wasn’t right even to himself, he moved his hand a bit more to lightly wrap around her waist.

A momentary look of relief at successfully carrying out the advice flashed across his golden eyes.

Convinced that he was showing the image of a flawless couple, Demian gained confidence.

‘Always paying attention to your wife and taking care of her meticulously is the most basic of basics.’

While he was at it, he decided to faithfully implement his subordinate’s final piece of advice. When Arasila reached for a champagne glass, he quickly stepped in.

“Ah, my lady, let me….”

His intention was to hand her the glass since he was closer to the table, but his wife was quicker than expected.

Arasila had already half-grasped the glass when Demian’s hand bumped her arm, causing champagne to spill onto her dress.

For a moment, commotion arose among the startled people.

“Oh my! Are you alright, Lady Vandermir?”

“Here, use my handkerchief.”

“Oh dear, you should go to the lounge and wipe it with some water.”

The noble ladies, well aware that there’s nothing worse than spilling something on one’s dress at a party, threw out words of concern.

Arasila calmly smiled and thanked them before looking at Demian.

Demian flinched when he saw her sapphire blue eyes silently cursing. It definitely wasn’t intentional….

“Just wait.”

Demian nodded at the words whispered through gritted teeth.

Arasila left the group alone and went to the lounge. Fortunately, the champagne only stained the black chiffon fabric at the hem of the dress, so it wasn’t noticeably blemished.

After roughly cleaning up with a wet handkerchief, Arasila returned to the hall.

Hoping that Demian hadn’t done anything stranger in the meantime, she looked for her seat, and saw him talking to some man in the distance.

‘Who is that person?’

As the nobles who were with him just moments ago had disappeared and only an unfamiliar man remained by his side, Arasila narrowed her eyes.

‘I’ve never seen him before, but he looks familiar somehow….’

The blonde hair long enough to cover his neck had a slightly bluish tinge, and his eyes that kept folding gently as he smiled were a fresh light green color.

As she approached, she could vaguely hear what the man was saying.

“It’s not easy to take money from someone else’s wallet. If you want to make people spend money, you need differentiation and innovation.”

Unlike the smiling man, Demian was listening to his words with an expressionless face when he spotted Arasila and immediately turned his body.

“My lady, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. It didn’t spill as much as I thought.”

Demian let out a sigh of relief after quickly scanning Arasila’s dress with his eyes. Soon after, he offered a polite apology.

“I’m sorry. I went too far earlier.”

“That’s okay too. It was a mistake made while trying hard.”

Arasila, who wasn’t very angry to begin with, waved her hand dismissively. Then she shifted her gaze to the man standing behind her husband.

She was curious about his identity.

When their eyes met, the man smiled brightly. Looking at him directly, she felt even more familiar somehow.

Arasila grabbed Demian’s arm and whispered softly.

“Demian, who is this person?”

“Ah, this is His Highness Crown Prince Lucas.”

Arasila’s eyes widened at those words. It was her first time seeing the Crown Prince she had only heard about in person.

No wonder he looked familiar. Lucas resembled Frederick.

To be precise, Frederick resembled Lucas, but they looked as similar as if they were full siblings despite being half-brothers.

However, while Frederick had short, neat hair giving off the vibe of a proper prince, Lucas had relatively longer, more ornate hair, making him seem like a free-spirited troubadour in comparison.

“I apologize for the late introduction. Your Highness, this is my wife, Arasila Vandermir. She is also a magician affiliated with the Magic Tower.”

“Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Lady Vandermir.”

Lucas offered a handshake with a friendly smile. As Arasila took his hand, his eyes curved gently.

“Duke Vandermir always pleasantly surprises me. Acting like he had no interest in women, yet he married such a beauty.”

He brought Arasila’s hand to his lips and lightly pressed them against her knuckles.

“Your eyes look like they have stars embedded in them. If you were in a field, one couldn’t tell the flowers from you, my lady. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in my life.”

“Thank you.”

Despite the compliment being delivered with a smile that would make anyone’s heart flutter, Arasila’s response was calm.

Though his appearance was outstanding, it wasn’t quite as good as her husband’s, and she had already heard she was beautiful several times today, so she wasn’t particularly moved.

Above all, the smooth movement of his tongue suggested that such behavior had already become a habit for him.

It became even clearer when she saw him wink at a noble young lady who bowed her head to him in passing.

‘He feels completely different from Frederick.’

It seemed that despite their similar looks, his personality was quite different from his half-brother’s.

Her friend may have been acting cheesy these days, but he wasn’t originally the type to put on airs.

“That’s enough. My wife is uncomfortable.”

Demian stepped in to stop Lucas as he held onto Arasila’s hand for too long.

Lucas released her hand without showing any regret and winked at Demian. His flirtatious advances flew out regardless of gender.

“Oh my, are you perhaps jealous? As if I would seduce your wife. Now, if it were you….”

“I said that’s enough.”

Demian frowned slightly in disgust. At this, Lucas laughed brightly, clearly enjoying himself.

He seemed to have a playful side that made him deliberately more clingy to tease others.

Arasila looked back and forth between the two men with contrasting expressions and asked.

“So what were you talking about?”

“Ah, I was giving some advice about the business our Duke Vandermir is preparing. It’s as mundane as his personality. Don’t you think so too, my lady?”

Arasila’s eyes widened slightly at Lucas’s words, which he had uttered thinking that she would naturally know about it as his wife, when in fact she was hearing it for the first time.

But she quickly composed herself and nodded naturally in agreement.

“Demian does have a somewhat old-fashioned side.”

“I knew you would agree! This friend of mine has a lot of money, but his thinking isn’t flexible enough to find innovative business items. I don’t know why he’s trying to enter fields that others have already thoroughly pioneered.”

Lucas clicked his tongue as if he found it very regrettable. Then he patted Demian’s shoulder and added.

“But even though I want to help, he’s so stubborn that he won’t accept it. Try to stop him, my lady.”

Although she wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to stop, Arasila nodded for now.

Then she voiced a curiosity that had arisen from observing the two men’s quite familiar tone and attitude.

“You two seem to be close friends.”

“Ah yes, our relationship is quite deep. We even spent a night together alone.”

At Lucas’s boisterous response, Demian nearly spat out the champagne he was drinking, and Arasila looked at her husband with wide eyes.

“Are you cheating on me?”

“…Would I do that?”

Demian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand after barely swallowing the champagne and frowned. Then he glared at the playfully smiling Lucas.

“Please refrain from word choices that cause misunderstandings.”

“Haha, it’s not like I made up something that didn’t happen, why are you getting upset?”

“Your Highness.”

“Alright, alright.”

Realizing it was time to stop teasing, Lucas raised both hands in surrender.

But as they say, the enemy is often closer to home. Lucas may have backed off, but Arasila still remained for Demian.

“So he was your man. Now that I know the truth, I’m even more pleased to meet you.”

“My lady, how could you say such….”

“His Highness isn’t a woman, is he?”

Demian was about to refute that that wasn’t what he meant, but seeing Arasila’s lips twitching mischievously, he put his hand to his forehead.

He thought there was no use pointing it out since she was doing it on purpose.

Lucas looked at Arasila with an impressed expression and held out his hand again. He had taken quite a liking to her, more than he expected.

“Unlike Duke Vandermir, you’re witty and humorous, my lady. I look forward to our future acquaintance. I’ll be returning to the country for good now, so we’ll see each other often.”

“I look forward to it as well.”

This handshake was refreshingly different from the first one. There wasn’t even a hint of flirtatious teasing, just straightforward friendliness.

It was because they realized they shared the same intention of teasing Demian, beyond simply having no ulterior motives towards each other.

They continued with some light conversation before wrapping up the chat at an appropriate time.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, and let’s talk again next time.”

Lucas waved his hand lightly as he left, having noticed some nobles lingering nearby, hoping to speak with him.

As he departed, the nobles who had been waiting to talk to the couple also gathered around.

“Do it properly this time, Demian.”

“Understood.”

Fortunately, this time Demian stopped overacting. It was thanks to him belatedly realizing that he had been too dramatic earlier.

Instead, he said things that were the opposite of recent rumors while embracing Arasila’s shoulders or holding her hand.

“I always prioritize my wife’s wishes above all else. The same goes for my wife. We live with mutual consideration, so there’s no discomfort. While strictly separating public and private matters, we gladly help each other when faced with difficulties. That’s why I’ve received a lot of help from her in work-related matters. It would have been much harder without my wife.”

Even after hearing his mechanically delivered words, people understood that the rumors had been exaggerated.

It was as if they had perfectly achieved the purpose of attending the party.

In the carriage on the way back after the ball ended, Arasila opened her mouth to satisfy the curiosity she had been holding back all along.

“How did you become close with Crown Prince Lucas?”

Demian, who had his eyes closed as if slightly tired, slowly opened them and answered.

“We studied abroad together in the Kingdom of Roshan.”

The Kingdom of Roshan, located in the northwest of the empire.

It was the place Demian had left, almost as if driven out by the Vandermir ducal family, and where Lucas had gone as both an envoy and a student.

However, since the details of his study abroad weren’t glorious enough to freely disclose to others, the explanation ended there.

“Ah, so that’s why you’re close.”

Arasila also nodded without prying further and moved on to the next question.