“And everywhere else…”

“…”

“It’s so hot that I can’t stand it.”

He whispered as he slowly slid her hand down his chest.

Over his tight, muscular abdomen and further down…

Reaching down, Rosenia’s face started to heat up and she quickly wrenched her hand away.

Llewellyn unexpectedly let go of her hand. He looked at her with a playful smile and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

“What are you so embarrassed about? You’ve seen it—a lot.”

“… Be quiet before I bite off your tongue.”

“Hmm? You like that?”

Let alone being hurt by her words, the way he was smiling and savouring the situation was really despicable.

She burst into laughter at his absurdity but couldn’t take her eyes off him.

There was no other man in this world who could smile as beautifully as him; there was no other sight that could compete with this.

“Today is for you.”

“…”

“How can I serve you, Rosenia?”

He grinned after asking.

‘Anyhow, you’re going to do as you want. Why even bother asking?’

Rosenia looked at him, dumbfounded.

“It doesn’t matter how you do it, please don’t hold on to me for too long.”

As she spoke coyly, Llewellyn’s eyes widened and he quickly responded with a look of disappointment.

“Once isn’t enough…”

“… And they say the duke of Rasiane is an ascetic. Who’d believe me, if I say otherwise?”

Maybe because he liked it, Llewellyn kept smiling gently at her complaints. He hugged her tightly as if she was a cuddling doll, and then began planting kisses all over her face.

”

”

“I like you so much, Rosenia Hill.”

“… Yes, I think so too.”

“The fact that I will always only look at you…”

“…”

“—Please don’t forget it.”

Then his lips gently covered hers.

A long night began… again.

* * *

Rosenia’s father, the head of the Hill family, readily accepted the duke’s invitation.

Their visit was quickly set for the coming Friday. This news quickly spread throughout the empire.

But since both sides had not given any official stance, rumours and speculation went rampant.

“Nobody would have expected this, the purpose of this invitation will be to hold a matrimonial meeting between the bride and groom’s families…’

A matrimonial meeting.

It wasn’t a word that could ever be thought of in association with the Hills and the Rasianes.

‘Apparently, the Lovick family expressed their regret in a letter about this…’

Upon hearing the news, congratulatory letters rushed in from many places, but none of them mattered as much as the response from the Lovicks and the imperial family.

The imperial family seemed to think very positively of this meeting, as they had long hoped that the Hills and the Rasianes would get along with each other and resolve their conflicts once and for all.

But the Lovicks had taken a different stance.

The Lovicks and the Rasianes had long been friends. To be exact, the Lovicks followed the Rasianes as their vassal and benefitted from them.

However, in recent years, the Lovick family had become so powerful that they no longer needed to benefit from the Rasianes as they had managed to expand their income and assets.

Nevertheless, the Lovicks remained loyal as a reliable ally of the Rasianes because they admired Rasianes noble lineage and long history.

But what if that noble lineage became tainted?

Hypothetically, if the blood of a wizard, which the Lovicks so detested, intermixed into the blood of the Rasianes…

‘The relationship between the Lovicks and the Rasianes could become strained…’

Come to think of it, the scandal between Rosenia and Llewellyn was much bigger than she had expected.

But well, it was still better than the Hills and the Rasianes going to war.

‘If the relationship between the Hills and the Rasianes improves, it will greatly benefit us.’

It meant they could share the benefits that they couldn’t because of the tension between the two families in the past.

Adrian objected to her betrothal to Llewellyn, but maybe her father and the others might have a different view on the matter; wizards were generally inclined in seeking practicality in all things.

‘By the way, I want to talk to Alex a little more.’

Rosenia could understand why Alex hated wizards.

But since they were going to see each other often… wouldn’t it be inconvenient in many ways if he continued to hate her?

Even if he hated wizards, did it make any sense for him to also hate her?

‘I’m somehow worried and without solutions.’

Since the weather today was cooler than yesterday, Rosenia went out with a shawl wrapped around her.

As she was taking a leisurely stroll through the garden, she came across someone wielding a sword in the open, from afar.

‘Huh?’

That, someone, was Alex.

‘We coincidentally happened to meet in such a place.’

Was this what it was? An enemy meeting on a single wooden bridge?1 Of course, Alex and Rosenia weren’t exactly enemies.

Rosenia walked slowly towards him. She could have just turned around and gone in the opposite direction, but she wanted to take this opportunity to talk to him.

As the distance between them got a little closer, Alex stopped swinging the sword. He seemed to have sensed her presence behind him.

Seeing the boy stare at her, Rosenia quickly greeted him with a gentle gesture.

“Hello? I didn’t expect to see you in such a place.”

“…”

Alex didn’t respond and gave her a harsh glare.

She had expected it. However, she was quickly embarrassed because his attitude was sharper than she had thought.

‘Whenever I see him, the picture of an irritated cat or a Maltese comes to mind.’

Both had similar traits: They only liked their masters.

But the question was who was Alex’s master?… It didn’t seem to be Llewellyn.

‘He doesn’t really listen to Llewellyn…’

Alex turned back from her and began to stride away, as if in a hurry. Rosenia asked while following him.

“Would you mind talking to me for a moment? I’m afraid there’s… I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?”

Alex, who stopped abruptly, turned and asked. He seemed enraged.

“What misunderstanding? Isn’t it true that you wizards use people as materials for your experiments?”

“Well, in the case of the Mage Tower, we get volunteers and get them insurance. We go through various kinds of tests… both risks and stability. We don’t do anything inhumane.”

Of course, these measures only began from her father’s generation. And before that… the Mage Tower was a hotspot of lunatics who carried out vicious experiments.

Alex laughed out loud, glaring coldly at her and retorted.

“Funny. Even if that’s what you claim to the public, secretly, you are conducting these experiments. Aren’t you?”

“…”

A deranged wizard was indeed caught conducting illegal experiments behind Adrian and others’ backs.

The wizard hid his laboratory for as long as six months due to his adeptness in handling the spawns of dark magic, commonly referred to as ‘Shadows’.

He was eventually found out by Adrian and he subsequently could not escape his terrible punishment.

‘It’s hard to say no since it did happen.’

Rosenia spoke in an awkward tone while scratching the back of her head.

“Sometimes there are people who break the rules, but Adrian is frighteningly strict. The Tower never allows inhumane experiments.”

“…”

Alex, who had been staring at her for a while, asked softly.

“So what? You and your family are different. What does it prove?”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d think so, but I’m not trying to force anything on you. After all, you are a victim …”

“…”

“I know, I, as a mage of all people, shouldn’t be saying this to you, the victim. I just… didn’t want you to hate me and wanted to talk to you. I apologise if I upset you.“

Rosenia took a step back with an apologetic look on her face.

However, her back hit someone. She was taken unawares and was baffled as to how long the person had been standing behind her.

“Wh, what? who—”

The body of the person was incredibly hard. To the point, she thought she had hit a stone.

When she looked back in bewilderment, the man with an expressionless and blunt face looked at her blankly. Rosenia asked in bewilderment.

“Hey, why are you so close…”

“Ah…”

The man slightly opened his blue eyes and said while looking at her head rather than her.

“There’s a bug on your head, so I was going to take it off for you.”

“Bu- bug?”

Rosenia jumped in fright, knowing not what to do. She fiercely hated bugs. She, really, really hated them. Especially the ones with many legs!

Knowing that there was a bug on her head made her feel faint. Of course, there was no way she’d kill the bug with her own bare hands.

Crying, she looked at Alex without realizing it. When their eyes met, Alex flinched slightly. He wriggled his eyebrows with a look of annoyance, but at the same time, he also looked bewildered.

“Wha- what do you want me to do? Take care of the bug on your own!”

“What do you mean by ‘take care of the bug on your own’… I can’t kill the bug…!”

“You… How old are you?…”

Alex looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. But right now, Rosenia was more concerned about the bug on her head than what he thought of her.

‘Someone, please…’

“… You can just use your magic. Do you hate bugs so much that the thought didn’t even cross your mind?”

Rosenia was on the brink of passing out when a heavy voice came in, followed by a large hand reaching over her head.

The hand took the bug off with a very simple motion and threw it away. The movement was so fast that Rosenia didn’t even see any bugs.

It all happened very quickly. Rosenia blinked blankly and looked at the owner of the hand, the man with black hair and blue eyes.

The man just stared at her with an expressionless and terribly indifferent face.

”

”

Footnotes

encounter one’s enemy at the worst place and at the worst time; A bad penny always turns up