Evie had constructed a hypothesis that the astrologer was the predecessor Count Laurel and matched many stories on top of that. But all of that had crumbled, and she was out of her mind.

Meanwhile, she was frantically looking for something to offer instead, fearing the Count would think her useless.

So Zion recalled the way Evie had wandered under the magnolia earlier.

Evie had stood sweetly smiling like a sugar doll among the purple flowers, secretly bristling her antennae.

Zion, who had observed Evie all morning, easily noticed that she was still in that state.

“I didn’t expect to find out all at once.”

So Zion casually said.

“So take your time thinking. Don’t go too far.”

Then he added the best thing he could say.

He wondered if she would understand, but sure enough, Evie blinked and asked.

“……Do you mean I should find out more about you?”

Really, the quickwitted Evie Ariate.

Zion could not answer, but Evie’s face already showed conviction.

Evie started thinking again. Then suddenly she asked Zion.

“By any chance, has the Count seen your face too?”

Zion nodded.

“What does it look like?”

Annoyingly…….

His honest feelings were like this, but he held his tongue.

He also hesitated to describe it specifically, fearing that the curse that sat stitching his brain would seal his mouth, so Zion hesitated and mumbled.

“Is it……handsome?”

“Handsome, I see. I didn’t know that.”

As the Count acted unusually foolish, Evie did not miss the opportunity to treat him like a fool.

Then, regardless of the Count’s glaring, she laughed, satisfied with her rightful teasing.

“I really didn’t know. He never showed me his face even if he was stingy. Why didn’t he show that handsome face only to me?”

Evie complained in a voice mixed with laughter. It was a casual comment, but Zion once again noticed Evie’s feelings.

“Are you upset?”

“I’m miserable.”

“……Is there something to be miserable about?”

“There is. Because I thought about marriage.”

Evie answered unknowingly, then looked at Zion with a start.

But somehow, Zion looked more surprised than Evie.

So as Evie gradually became astonished, Zion spoke in a belatedly cautious voice.

“So the blood relationship that way……. ”

“No!”

Evie shouted, cutting off Zion’s words.

“It’s just a childhood story, all kids do that! Because they’re kids!”

Evie strongly emphasized that first love for children is like that, and she also followed an entirely typical process.
Then Zion just looked with eyes that seemed to ask who had said what, and thanks to that, the unbearably embarrassed Evie’s face turned bright red, and she bit her lips.

Zion, watching this, struggled to contain his laughter and covered his mouth with his hand.

Half of it was a genuine laugh towards the adorable Evie, and the other half was sarcasm towards the despicable astrologer.

To think that she was considering marriage on her own.

Of course, it was probably a fleeting thought that would change with the wind, but Zion still found it quite amusing that Evie Ariate once had such naive and trivial dreams.

On one hand, a spontaneous laugh came out, wondering how much of a good person the astrologer must have pretended to be in front of her to make Evie harbor such feelings.

Zion laughed heartily for the first time in a while at the embarrassed Evie, and Evie raised her head only after quite some time.

Then, with a face still flushed, she spoke as calmly as she could.

“Ah, anyway, I think I was wrong about the gentleman, so I’ll rethink it. By tonight, including what I couldn’t do properly before.”

“Tonight might be a bit tight because of the evening schedule.”

“We must do what needs to be done even if it’s tight.”

Evie said determinedly. So Zion became rather insistent.

Unlike Evie, who was under pressure due to the selection of the saintess, Zion had plenty of time. So, actually, it would have been okay if it took a few months.

But Evie considered this an urgent matter, and taking Zion’s curious gaze as pressure, she nodded more vigorously.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do just as much as Count has done!”

Evie seemed to be reassuring Zion with a guarantee.

So Zion looked at Evie, feigning surprise.

Evie spoke as if asking for trust, but what Zion felt from those words was Evie’s complete distrust.

Somehow, Evie firmly believed that if she failed to fulfill her purpose, Zion would cast her aside and leave.

Evie’s trust in Zion was so thin that it touched the bottom, so she was being extra careful not to make a mistake, just as she had been at lunch earlier.

Of course, considering Zion’s previous arbitrariness, dominance, and arrogance, it was only natural for Evie to shrink like this.

But Evie had been smiling easily at Zion all this time without showing any signs, so Zion had momentarily forgotten his place.

But along with Zion’s trivial selfrealization, reality arrived.

Zion had already reached the point of being infuriated by Evie’s matter, but Evie herself was keeping her heart tightly closed, without even a gap for a piece of paper to enter, and was distancing herself from Zion, mistrusting him more than she would a stranger.

The moment he realized that significant imbalance, an unknown sense of doom engulfed him.

So when Zion looked at Evie with a stern face, Evie became momentarily awkward, then smiled as if trying to hide it.

Thus, even the Count, who hated futile emotions, had no choice but to realize that something had gone quite wrong.