In this way, the meaning of coming out with great momentum from the space alone with Cryer, if there were no results and she went back without any achievements, wouldn’t it be pointless?

If that were the case, it seemed too evident that I had run away because I couldn’t endure that subtle atmosphere, or more precisely, a mood that only I felt.

To achieve results here, eventually, I had to ask Cryer…

Yeah. Since this is work, let’s focus on it here. My heart won’t beat wildly like before, even if it does, let’s think of it as an arrhythmia.

Olivia, calming her mind, suddenly turned to Cryer, who was sticking close to her, and asked while looking at him.

“Do you hear anything?”

Although it was a question without a subject or object, Cryer gave a precise answer.

“It seems I have to change the curtains, but the preparations are not yet complete. I’m considering whether to go somewhere else to rest during my free time or just wait.”

In response to the conversation of the servants flowing out like water, Olivia was rather speechless.

I did ask, but I didn’t expect such a straightforward answer to come out.

Blinking her eyes quickly, Olivia, who quickly regained her composure, whispered.

“Talking about curtains seems to make your complexion pale, doesn’t it?”
“I just passed by the fragrance of madeleines baking in the palace kitchen this morning.”

“Even talking about madeleines, your expression is… well…”

As Olivia carefully examined the pale face of the servant with a different ribbon color, something pricked at the edge of Olivia’s nerves.

“Any talk about the murder case?”

“None of them bring it up.”

“Well, they were educated that way. Hm.”

Considering that a murder had occurred in the princess’s palace, were they feeling uneasy? However, they must have received thorough education not to reveal such things.

Was the servant with a different ribbon color not suppressing their emotions well…?

It was annoying, but Olivia couldn’t properly pinpoint that something, and afterward, there were only trivial conversations among the servants.

Eventually, when the servants started to move, Olivia and Cryer also changed their positions.

When the servant with a different ribbon color separated from the other servants, Olivia unconsciously approached them, getting closer and closer.

During that time, the servant with a different ribbon color grabbed the arm of the servant next to them and shook it.

“Huh? Why did you stop…”

As Olivia tilted her head in confusion, Cryer’s strong arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her towards the wall.

The sudden and overly natural movement made Olivia realize her position only after her back touched the cold wall.

As she, with wide eyes, opened her mouth to breathe, Cryer’s large hand covered half of her face, silencing her before she could finish speaking.

Looking down at her, Cryer slowly turned his head and gazed at a place.

His gaze was fixed on the servant with a different ribbon color, passing just a few steps away from them.

“Uh, ugh!”

Although Olivia grumbled about what was happening, she didn’t resist as she was well aware that struggling in his arms would be as futile as an ant pushing a rock.

Soon, he lowered his gaze to her and spoke.

“Quiet.”

He didn’t press his index finger against her lips, but the message to keep quiet was effectively conveyed. Olivia’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly in response.

While she did agree to keep quiet at his words, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes in curiosity about why the situation had turned out like this. However, her vision showed only Cryer from top to bottom, left to right.

It was inevitable. His steel-like body firmly enclosed her, with the wall between them.

Realizing this fact, Olivia’s mind went blank, and instinctively, she tried to step back. However, her back was already pressed against the wall, and she could find no place to retreat. She ended up with just her clumsy heels hitting the wall.
Cryer tightened his arm around her waist, which was trembling slightly, putting more strength into it as he looked in the direction where the servant with a different ribbon color was moving away.

He slowly traced the path she was taking in his mind, hearing the slow fading footsteps of that servant.

As Olivia, attempting to step back from his embrace, failed and her eyebrows twitched at the edge, Cryer, who keenly noticed Olivia’s attempt to retreat, turned his eyes back to her and raised an eyebrow.

Olivia, who failed to notice that she was holding her breath, felt an excessively delicate sensation where her dry palm and lips touched.

When the rough and dry texture of his palm was felt on her entire lips, she unconsciously held her breath.

As the sensation of the rough and dry palm against her lips extended to her entire face, Olivia unknowingly stopped breathing.

Cryer, quick to notice Olivia holding her breath and blinking her eyes, turned his gaze back to her, raising the end of his eyebrow.

Olivia’s face was gradually turning red, but she still didn’t seem to consider taking a breath, completely unaware of her own condition.

In such a state, it seemed impossible for her to take her eyes off even for a moment.

“You should breathe.”

A subdued voice, as if holding back laughter, tapped her ears, making Olivia finally realize that she had been holding her breath.

Cryer’s palm slightly moved away, and Olivia, who had been holding her breath until now, exhaled in one go.

“Phew.”

Breathing out felt like clearing the fog that had clouded her mind.

Consciously, Olivia took a deeper breath, exhaled slowly, and her warm breath, which had been suppressed between her pressed lips, flowed down Cryer’s rough palm.

As the blocked breath burst out, the warm breath from her lungs tickled Cryer’s hand, running down his neck to the spine, sending a shiver through him…

“Huh?”