As she did to Cassard Montra. It would be very satisfying to trip him over like that jerk and then stomp on his back.

A sweet impulse tempted Evie, but she resisted the desire. No matter how recklessly she acted, she couldn’t throw herself at the Count. To be honest, she was afraid of regret.

She had finally raised a toast and, not satisfied with being interrupted, she had to swallow this humiliation. Feeling aggrieved, Evie brought her legs together and hugged them tightly.

She wanted to just leave, but she didn’t want to seem like she was running away from the Count. So she held on stubbornly, and suddenly she remembered what happened in Biss.

The night she first met the Count in Biss’s twostory house, that night the Count acted arrogantly and distastefully. And Evie had tossed and turned all night because she couldn’t slap the Count’s cheek.

Remembering this, Evie, not wanting to repeat the same regret, opened her mouth again.

“I thought you would do anything, but I guess you won’t let me become the Grand Duchess.”

“You don’t really want that either.”

“What I want and what I decide are different. A disobedient younger brother is not a problem for becoming the Grand Duchess.”

“The Grand Duchess is not such a comfortable position. Knowing what the Duke of Laurel is doing, how can you say that?”

“So you’re saying it won’t happen?”

“There’s no need to mention it.”

“You won’t let me become a saint, you won’t let me become the Grand Duchess, your conditions are very picky. Just be honest. Are you saying I’m out of my league, thinking about entering the Duke’s family?”

As Evie snapped in a tart voice, the Count looked at her again. But this time, Evie avoided his gaze as if she didn’t know.

Even avoiding his eyes, she felt the Count staring at her menacingly. So, Evie covered her nervous heart with anger.

After a while, the Count asked in a subdued voice.

“Did my words sound like an excuse?”

“No, it didn’t sound like an excuse. It sounded like a command.”

Even though she wanted to ignore it, the response came automatically.

Evie was annoyed by that too, so she buried her chin in her tightly hugged knees. Then she built the already sturdy wall of her heart even higher.

And Zion, who realized that Evie’s mood was a mess, was cursing himself and the whole world with a feeling far more miserable than her.

‘Damn.’

Zion barely refrained from spitting this out.

Then he covertly watched Evie, who was crouching down, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

It was really a meaningless thing to say, but since he wouldn’t say it out loud, it was even more meaningless as an excuse. Zion hadn’t intended for this to happen.

He didn’t want to make Evie angry over a pointless quarrel. He didn’t have the intention to pick a fight about the saint issue in the first place. But in an instant, it had come to this.

Zion was already feeling guilty about crawling out this far. On top of that, when Evie repeatedly told him to leave, saying he wasn’t needed, and even spoke considerately, he snapped back out of sheer frustration.

After a brief backandforth, Evie became completely angry, and Zion found himself tormented by an entirely unfamiliar pain.

The socalled pain of being conscious of something, a pain he had never experienced in his life.

Zion experienced emotional anxiety for the first time because of Evie’s face buried in her knees and her silence. He couldn’t bear this uneasy atmosphere.

It was the first time in his life he had felt such anxiety.
Furthermore, his towering pride began to dance a sword dance as soon as he became aware of it.

Anxious, who, me?

Such a nonsensical claim. There is no one in the world who can give a hint to Zion Laurel. There never was, there isn’t now, and there never will be.

Zion’s dignity was infuriated at this absurd situation. So he swept away his dizzy mind and spoke in a more serious voice than ever.

“…I didn’t command, I stated the fact. If you felt that way, it seems to be my mistake.”

He admitted his mistake with a really serious voice, lowering his tail. But Evie didn’t even pretend to hear him.

“If you really want to enter the royal family, I can prepare as soon as tomorrow. But becoming a royal concubine is out of the question.”

Adding this to clear the misunderstanding made no difference. Evie remained silent, and Zion, for some reason, became more impatient and urged her.

“Honestly, you don’t seem to care about becoming a royal concubine or joining the royal family, so do we need to quarrel about this?”

“So should I just listen to the Count’s words without doing even this much?”

Evie finally answered. Of course, it wasn’t Evie’s intention, and even this was a form of retort as if she was dumbfounded.

And Zion realized why this argument had started after hearing Evie’s answer.

Evie did not trust Zion at all. So she deliberately tested him by talking about becoming a royal concubine. She treated him like someone who throws leftover bread after looking after Zion and sat at his table waiting for him to dismiss her.

Zion felt the heat gathering in his head at this solid mistrust.

Indeed, Evie had underestimated him very much. How much time he had spent on Evie Ariate, whom he had never met before, how desperate he was, yet she doubted, mistrusted, and guarded against him without knowing anything about it.

But Evie had to believe. The man who asked not for Zion but for Evie, she had to trust him more than this.

Zion’s chest edge felt dull, as if he had swallowed molten lead, and he mumbled unknowingly.

“I understand if you don’t trust me, but can’t you trust the person who left you with me?”

“Why?”

Then Evie answered again.

“Why should I trust the person who abandoned me? If he went that way, it’s the end, what is this about trusting again now?”

Evie’s voice asking this was neither cold nor twisted. It was simply transparently expressing her doubt.

Evie sincerely thought so.

So Zion felt as if a part of him had turned to ashes and crumbled.