It was a movement.

“Did I press too hard?”

Seeing Nerea’s frightened face, the Baroness smiled kindly with crinkled eyes.

“No, not at all. It’s rare for the baby to greet someone like this first. The baby must have wanted to say hello to you.”

A greeting.

Nerea looked back and forth between her hand and the Baroness’s belly. Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of her mouth. Seeing Nerea’s cheeks turn as red as apples, the Baroness felt a strange impulse.

And as soon as she returned to the couple’s bedroom, she said to the Baron:

“About our baby’s name. What if we let the young lady choose it?”

“The young lady?”

The Baron raised his eyebrows. Then he smiled broadly.

.

.

.

“Please give our baby a name, young lady.”

At the excited Baroness’s words, Nerea was momentarily dumbfounded. Beside her, Johan Jenax complained, but she couldn’t hear a thing.

She recalled the sensation that felt like palms touching. Nerea moistened her dry lips and looked at the Baroness’s belly before asking again.

“Is it really okay for me to choose?”

Is it really alright for someone with such a strange name like me to dare name such a precious baby?

But as if knowing the words Nerea had swallowed, the Baroness smiled gently and said:

“The baby will love a beautiful name given by such a precious young lady even more.”

That night, Nerea wrote down every word she knew on paper.

Words with beautiful and strong meanings. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, wanting to give the very best word among them.

Then suddenly, when she saw the stars twinkling as if commanding the pitch-black night sky, Nerea discovered the most noble name in the world.

Guardian of the first star.

Alejandro.

The pronunciation rolling off her tongue was soft. The most beautiful and strong star among the exceptionally bright ones.

A feeling melted into her heart that a child called by this name would be able to live happily for life.

“Yes, Sir Knight.”

It was strange. How could Alejandro, who wasn’t even born yet, answer?

Nerea chuckled and called his name once more. The captivating low voice answered again.

“Yes, I’m here. Sir Knight.”

“What…”

Nerea blinked.

She thought the curly black hair looked just like Johan Jenax’s. It was an instant when Nerea’s dazed eyes came into focus.

“What, Alejandro. Why are you…”

Her voice was hoarse, so Nerea cleared her throat. As she hurriedly sat up, her hair swayed slowly along her shoulder line.

“You called me. Just now, Sir Knight.”

Ah, that’s right. Alejandro came to this cabin looking for me yesterday.

Thinking thoughts disconnected from Alejandro’s answer, Nerea smiled a little. Alejandro docilely smiled back with his handsome face.

“I like it. You calling for me as you wake up.”

Nerea was about to laugh and say she hadn’t called for him, that it was a dream, when she suddenly thought her room behind Alejandro looked unfamiliar. And after blinking once more, she unknowingly let out a harsh sound.

What is all this?

Overnight, her room had changed.

At the same time, the sound of someone running up the stairs was heard, and Heather’s startled voice burst into the room.

“Miss! The whole house has changed! Oh my, even your room?”

“That’s right?”

Nerea mumbled in a dazed voice. From the plush rug to the ornate mirror hanging on the wall.

What in the…

At a loss for words, Nerea looked at Alejandro. However he interpreted her expression, Alejandro’s eyes drooped like a pitiful puppy’s.

“I should have changed the wardrobe and bed first. Now that you’re awake, I’ll change them right away.”

Good heavens.

In just one night, the house had completely changed.

Completely, to an extent incomparable to just having a nightstand, vase, and exotic patterned carpet added to her room.

From the table and pretty cream-colored chairs that looked soft, to the cozy-looking curtains, and even the dining table and tea cups set out in the kitchen. It was unbelievable that this was the same house she had seen last night.

“I didn’t know I’d sleep through even changing the countertop despite being a heavy sleeper. They say they’ll change the bed in my room in a bit too!”

Heather whispered with a dazed face. But unlike the happy-looking Heather, Nerea couldn’t smile.

The changing house seemed somehow familiar.

“Don’t you like it? You wanted a house with this kind of feeling, didn’t you? A comfortable feeling.”

Alejandro said in a dejected voice.

Only after hearing those words did Nerea recall what she had said one day ten years ago, when returning to the estate after grasping victory.

“I’ll have a vacation mansion in a slightly remote territory. A comfortable house I can go to whenever I’m tired.”

“But that was…”

That was based on the premise that I would become a Count.

Nerea closed her mouth. At the same time, Alejandro’s eyes slowly curved. And as if he had understood the words Nerea had swallowed, he answered.

“That’s right.”

His languid voice became even more seductively low.

“I hope you’ll be comfortable while you’re here.”

Nerea understood too. Alejandro’s true intention of treating this place as the ‘comfortable house’ to come to whenever she was tired.

She felt her blood run cold and clenched her fists.

“Can I replace the bed and wardrobe now?”

Alejandro smiled brightly.

Nerea had sincerely hoped that Alejandro had just come to visit her. Simply because he missed the knight he had shared the past with. Or because he wanted to resent her for what she had left behind.

Anything would have been fine as long as he didn’t show signs of treating her as Count Esteban.

But.

The scars on those sturdy, large hands. He had become wealthy even at the cost of injuring his hands like that.

“I wanted to make a dressing room, but there aren’t enough rooms. How about looking for a bigger house?”

To think the reason he sought power and authority enough to change all the furniture in a day was just to cling to the past. If it was to treat her as Count Esteban…

“Oh, and the garden needs tending too.”

“…Put it all back the way it was, Alejandro.”

Nerea cut off Alejandro’s words.

She thought he might be surprised, but Alejandro just looked at Nerea for a moment without saying anything.

Rather, it was Heather who was stomping her feet.

“Miss, you’re joking, right? Is it just one chair you don’t like? Please don’t say you don’t like the kitchen.”

Seeing her grabbing her arm and whining, it seemed she really liked the changed house. But Nerea’s mind didn’t change.

When she shook her head lightly, Heather stepped back two steps with a tearful face. Nerea turned her gaze towards Alejandro. And tilted her head for a moment.

Had she seen wrong?

She was sure his jaw had been clenched as if he was angry. She thought he might set his face like that since it was an unreasonable demand.

“I’ll put it back right away. From where to where should I restore it?”

But now his handsome face bore an annoyingly smug smile. Seeing his relaxed appearance, Nerea added an even more excessive condition.

“Everything. By one o’clock.”

“Yes.”

Along with a refreshingly agreeable answer that made her feel deflated, Alejandro nodded. His black, curly hair swayed lightly.

Nerea unknowingly reached out her hand before stopping.

The head she used to habitually stroke was now too high up.

It hit her that this grown man was no longer the Alejandro she knew, as much as time had passed.

So Nerea began to speak.

“And when all that is done…”

Leave this place. And never associate the Esteban family with me again.

She just needed to say the words lingering in her mouth.

But the words wouldn’t come out.

“That would be abandoning me.”

“…Actually.”

The playful voice of reality cut in over Alejandro’s deeply embedded voice. Nerea looked ahead as she emerged from her reverie.

Alejandro’s black eyes sparkled as if telling an interesting secret.

“I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

“You again…!”

I told you not to call me Sir Knight.

But at Alejandro’s next words, Nerea unknowingly forgot her anger.

“I couldn’t possibly find a horse like Clasimen.”

Clasimen.

The ill-tempered, large black horse. The naughty horse that followed Alejandro, a servant, more than its owner.

And yet on the day they left the Esteban Count’s residence, it kicked the comfortable stable full of hay as if to destroy it and ostentatiously followed Nerea. That foolish horse finally breathed its last at the Esteban summer villa in Alpern before coming here.

For a moment, a numbness swept over Nerea. Not missing that sign, Alejandro added a word.

“A house where Sir Knight can take the most comfortable rest wouldn’t be complete without Clasimen, right?”

“Then I’ll let Clasimen spend the rest of its life there. With the best grooms and caretakers.”

Alejandro’s eyes briefly showed a faint longing as he repeated the exact words she had said.

“Then would you like to rest for a while? I’ll prepare breakfast soon.”

At his words, Nerea could only dazedly go up to her room. After Heather went back downstairs to help prepare the meal, Nerea suddenly looked down at her wrist and opened the wardrobe.

As she felt inside the hanging casual clothes with her fingertips, she touched a cool sword. Her unstable heartbeat slowly began to find its anchor.

In fact, she had become quite capable of wielding a sword now. But Baron Jenax would still be limping.