“My lady!”

“Miss Rose, you can’t! The lady and the Grand Duke are in the middle of an important conversation!”

“Sob, sob. Waaah! What conversation could be more important than my business?”

“I don’t know what they’re talking about, but it must be important!”

“Never mind, my lady! Are you here? I’ve come!”

The door burst open.

Rose stood there with her hair in two braids, her eyes swollen from crying. Apple stood beside her, awkwardly trying to hold her back.

What was it the maids had said earlier?

I looked ahead. Darius was standing uncomfortably close to me.

Look at that, children. See how excellent a maid Apple is? She appeared at just the right moment to interrupt.

The two of us clinging together is not good for the emotional development of growing children.

Thud. I gently pushed against Darius’s firm chest, extricating myself from his embrace.

Bang. Darius struck the desk for no apparent reason.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just feeling frustrated.”

“Well, it’s made of oak, so I suppose it doesn’t matter if you hit it. It’s quite sturdy.”

“I might infuse my fist with aura…”

“I see your skill has reached a new level without my noticing. Congratulations.”

“I feel like I could do it right now…”

If he could infuse objects other than swords with aura, then he’d truly be a Sword Master. Currently, Darius was a Sword Expert, one step beyond Sword Aura.

“Waaah, my lady. They said you weren’t in your room, so I came all the way here! Your room and this place are on opposite ends!”

Tears welled up in Rose’s large blue eyes, making them appear even bigger.

“There, there, Rose. What’s the matter? Why are you crying, you’re a big girl now.”

Come to think of it, even though Rose can be immature, she’s not the type to burst into a room crying. What could have happened?

“No, first Lucian, and now the Temery family…”

As I was worriedly trying to comfort Rose, Darius made a displeased expression.

“Grand Duke, please eat your pudding. There’s still a lot left, isn’t there? Ah, Rose, do you want some too? Maybe it’ll help you calm down?”

“I’m not sharing.”

“Are you a child?”

“She’s ruining my break time.”

While Darius and I were bickering, Rose Temery, who had stopped crying, blew her nose loudly. Then, with a resentful look, she cried out.

“My lady, my parents want me to get married! And to go all the way to the East!”

“What?”

“Ah.”

Our reactions were at odds.

Whoosh, Rose inhaled sharply, her face red. She looked as if she had expected this.

“You knew about this, didn’t you, brother? But you didn’t say a word to me. You were all in on it!”

Rose pointed an accusing finger at Darius, then clung to me again.

“Waaah, I have no one but you, my lady! You’re on my side, aren’t you? You won’t send me to the East, will you? My mom and dad aren’t even my real parents! How could they do this?”

Darius, rubbing his forehead, chose to simply leave.

Just before closing the door behind him, Darius waved a spoon. When did he pick that up?

“Anette, no matter how much Rose cries, don’t give her any pudding. It’s all mine.”

“I don’t want your stupid pudding!”

Darius mocked Rose.

“See? She calls it stupid pudding. She doesn’t even know how much effort you put into making it, Anette. Not understanding the preciousness of the pudding you made. Don’t give Rose even a single bite.”

I hoped Darius would leave quickly before Rose could grab the pudding and throw it in anger.

Where had my peace gone?

Oblivious to my frustrating mood, Rose clung to my waist and wailed as soon as Darius left.

“Waaah, my lady. I really don’t want this! I don’t! A fiancé? That’s absurd! I’m so young! I’m supposed to live with you forever!”

‘No matter how young you are, the idea of you living with me forever seems a bit odd.’

“My lady, my laaaaady, I don’t want this. Please tell my parents to cancel my engagement.”

Our adorable fifteen-year-old – no, she’ll be sixteen after this winter, won’t she? Anyway, it seemed that Inkhart Castle’s prim and proper Rose Temery had recently heard from her parents about the decision regarding her engagement.

Upon hearing the news, Rose immediately denied reality and ran to me to stage this protest.

“It’s the East! Is the East even a place where people live?”

Is that a place where people live, she says. That’s usually what people from the East say when they’re insulting the North. How is the North, with nothing but snow and mountains, a place for people to live, they say.

Though not as prosperous as the South, compared to the North, the East is a mild and pleasant place to live all year round… but saying that would be useless to Rose right now.

In fact, I had some idea of the intentions behind Rose Temery’s engagement.

Yes, due to her frequent crying, whining, and rolling on the floor, her parents had apparently decided to arrange an engagement for Rose, finding her behavior unreliable.

“Getting married doesn’t necessarily make one mature, you know.”

Let alone an engagement. That would only serve to add to her parents’ repertoire of nagging: ‘You have a fiancé and are about to get married, yet you still can’t behave properly!’

Sniff, sniff. I gently wiped Rose’s reddened nose with a handkerchief.

Puff, puff. Bubbles of mucus formed at Rose’s nostrils. Embarrassed, she quickly wiped them with her sleeve.

“Yes, who would want to engage such an adorable little girl? Whoever it is must be a very bad person.”

“I’m not a little girl, that’s not true. I’m a young lady. A very fine one.”

“By the way, I heard your fiancé is the same age as you. The heir to an eastern count’s family. Wouldn’t you two make a good match, being similar in age?”

“I don’t like it. I’m not interested. No matter what anyone says, I absolutely won’t get married.”

“Even if you’re engaged, you won’t get married right away. A few more years will pass.”

“But I’ll still have to go to the East eventually! I don’t want to be anywhere but by your side, my lady.”

Rose clenched her fists and exclaimed resolutely.

I wanted to ask, ‘So you’d be okay if I went to the East with you?’ but I was afraid she might actually light up at the idea, so I refrained.

She’s just that kind of girl.

‘Hmm, Rose Temery’s engagement. This wasn’t something I heard about in the original story.’

There was a reason I had paid attention to the tomboy Rose Temery when I first came to Inkhart Castle.

For me, who didn’t know exactly when the female protagonist Evangeline would meet Darius in the original story, Rose was a potential milestone.

So, when I first came to this castle and met Rose, it went like this:

It’s amazing how that sharp-tongued child has become like this now. The world is truly unpredictable.

Anyway, those harsh words were originally what Rose had said to the female protagonist.

‘Don’t misunderstand just because brother Darius is being a little nice to you.’

‘Do you think a common maiden like you is suitable for the Grand Duke of the North?’

‘A woman abandoned even by the temple!’

These were the thorny words Rose had thrown at the mysterious woman who appeared in Inkhart Castle, even before Darius and Evangeline had begun their romance.

Currently, Rose is fifteen, five years younger than the twenty-year-old Darius.

Of course, from the moment she met me, Rose had been possessive of Darius and showed her claws towards me. But if there’s a difference between the original story and now, it’s that Rose was older when she confronted Evangeline.

A young child might like a handsome older brother figure. This wasn’t just something people joked about, but Rose Temery was actually considered one of the potential new brides for Darius. In the original story.

That’s why I was secretly relieved when I first confirmed that Rose Temery was fifteen.

‘If we consider the age at which this little lady would be seriously considered as Darius’s bride, it would be at least 17 or 18?’

Of course, 17 or 18 is just the minimum age for marriage talks to begin.

To avoid criticism, she should be at least 20.

So I thought, ‘Ah, there’s probably about 2 to 3 years before Evangeline appears. Until then, I’ll develop the territory well, make a lot of money, and then divorce.’

‘At least in the original story, Rose Temery didn’t have a fiancé of her own, which is why she lashed out at Evangeline like that.’

If the same thing had happened in the original story… did Rose strongly refuse and it was called off?

‘No. This engagement itself is happening because Rose, who became impatient because of me, has been causing trouble here and there, making the Temery family think that something needs to be done.’

So, is this event something that existed in the original story or not? My course of action would be determined by the original story, but not knowing made me confused as well.