Chapter 28
The next day, it wasn’t Marie who visited me first thing in the morning, but Countess Anthe, the handmaiden.
“You coughed early.”
I nodded, rubbing my tired eyes with my fingertips.
‘Oh, I didn’t sleep well.’
I’d been forced to wake up early because I’d had a strange dream, but I hadn’t bothered to tell her that.
No, I hadn’t even bothered to tell her what the dream was about, let alone that it involved Thierry.
‘I’ve never had a dream like this before…’
Thierry was chasing me around with cucumbers and bullying me to eat them. It was really gross.
More or less, he was chasing me around like a ghost who couldn’t eat cucumbers and offering them to me.
It was almost cute in a way. He was asking me why I don’t eat cucumbers, why I avoid him, and why I should answer him.
I was very confused. I don’t have lucid dreams very often, and even when I do, I tend to forget the details of my dreams quickly, but this one was particularly vivid.
Even though I was dreaming, I felt like I was smelling cucumbers, and my stomach was churning the whole time.
I wondered if it was a dream about this situation, and I had a bad start to the day.
“But what are you doing here at this hour…”
I stammered, my eyes darting to the glass bowl the maid had brought. I knew she’d brought it to wash my face, but it wasn’t her job to do that.
What was the point of this?
“I have heard that a child under my care has done something unsavory. I’m here to apologize for my lack of supervision and for any disrespect shown to your honor.”
“Ah… This morning?”
Her attitude was obviously sour. But I smiled as if I knew nothing.
“You’re so diligent!”
“… I think it’s the proper thing to do to serve the guest of honor myself until I can assign the right person, so I’d like to take care of the Princess for the time being, do you mind?”
The handmaiden’s eyes quivered at my words, but it was only for a moment, and she turned to me with the same businesslike demeanor she’d had since our first meeting.
“I’m sure she is busy, but you don’t have to do that to me, just send her on her way.”
“You mean… Marie Diana?”
“Yes. It’s a relief to have someone at least a little familiar around, after what happened, you understand, and besides, she is so busy.”
“…”
“Oh, and by the way, I heard that Sera is your niece, which must have been quite a shock for her.”
“… So you knew that part.”
I’m sure she meant why would I mention such a thing, but I gave her a look of concern as befitting my role as the unobtrusive, sunny Princess.
“But you were the one who took care of me on my first day here, and I was worried about you, and the Emperor was very angry with you, so I was wondering if there would be any damage to the family.”
“We’re distant relatives. You might think I was given special treatment because we work at the same place, but I was treated the same as any other maid.”
Cold. Her demeanor was as cold as the Siberian wilderness as she stood up straight to avoid any misunderstanding.
“As expected, you are fair-minded and selfless.”
“… Naturally.”
I laughed at the maid’s response, a beat too late, as if her own conscience had been pricked.
After all, I was once the one who endured that desolate cottage, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s something sinister beneath that masked face.
It was a time of sneaking food, of deftly maneuvering around people’s grumpiness, and of learning to be a bit of a sneak.
‘Well, if you’ve stabbed her in the back, she’s going to stop fooling around for a while to keep her position. Or maybe she’ll do something out of impatience and get caught.’
I started grooming casually, hoping that she would behave as expected.
The maid’s service was smooth, as if she were not a veteran, but I couldn’t help but feel strangely uncomfortable.
After putting on a white dress with puff sleeves and tying an apricot-colored lace sash around my waist, I sat down at the dressing table and the maid combed through my luscious platinum locks. My hair seemed to shimmer with each stroke.
When she was done, and I was about to put my hair up in a half-bun, there was a knock on the door.
“May I come in?”
It was Thierry.
‘Why this morning?’
My eyes widened in surprise, then I made eye contact with the maid in the mirror and rolled to the side.
“Do you mind if I open it for you?”
“Uhhh…”
Do I even have a choice? I mumbled a small reply of mustard and fiddled with the ends of my hair, which was quickly tied up.
‘From breakfast to Thierry at the… No wonder my dreams are so fierce.’
Convinced that cucumbers are a curse crop, Thierry opened the door and stepped inside.
As usual, Thierry’s shirt was unbuttoned at the front, showing off his shapely neckline, and my eyes were drawn to his collarbone and pectoral muscles, which I pretended not to notice.
“Imperial Sun…”
“Stop. I told you to skip the formalities.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“It’s still before breakfast, right?”
The question came right out. It was nice that he didn’t drag his feet, but it was bad enough that we had to eat dinner together, but now he was trying to get me breakfast. My day was starting to feel like a drudgery.
I nodded my head in a noncommittal way. Normally, I’d have gotten a bruise for keeping my mouth shut, but Thierry, being Thierry, who doesn’t know what he’s thinking these days, didn’t seem the least bit bothered.
“Let’s go. I told them to have it ready in the greenhouse.”
A callused, manly hand was held out in front of me, with a friendly tone I wasn’t used to.
‘Why don’t you just notify… as usual?’
I glanced at the hand and then at Thierry’s handsome, unshaven face.
He had seemed so stern not so long ago, but his changed demeanor reminded me of the young Thierry of long ago, the one whose eyes shone unusually brightly at me today.
‘No, no, no. How long are you going to do this? I can’t believe you even picked me up… You’re changing so fast, it’s making me cringe.’
You might as well just ask the question outright. I didn’t like the fact that he was trying to act like a tongue in cheek, like he had something up his sleeve.
The fact that he was so strangely considerate of the fact that he was already planning to eat with ‘me, and that he could have just informed me as he had before, made me feel uncomfortable. At least until now, I had been able to separate the young Thierry from the one who had changed so much, so I could treat him separately…
‘You’re going to get me confused if you keep doing this.’
That he was missing me, that he was looking for me.
“Princess?”
I blinked once, startled by the low, whispery voice.
“It’s…”
“Are you okay, are you not feeling well?”
His hand, which I had been carefully holding in midair, moved toward my cheek. I casually pulled his hand away and shook my head slightly.
“Oh, no, I’m fine.”
I stare at him, expressionless, but somehow oddly attracted to him.
Thierry’s gaze drifted down, following the movement of our overlapping hands, until I found his sunken eyes, colored like the light of the setting sun, unlike the clear sky outside the window.
‘Does he feel bad that I caught him?’
His eyes were so deep I couldn’t read them.
I shuddered with anxiety and slowly pulled my hand back. But his unyielding grip on my hand made me stop breathing for a moment.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
“It’s…?”
His gaze snapped from my hand to mine.
“Don’t dodge.”
His voice sounded strangely raspy, as if she didn’t like what she was hearing.
‘… What did I just think, did I just hear that and feel blunt?’
I shuddered in retrospect.
I’d associated that warning and threat with an almost too cute word. Maybe I’ve been through too much trauma lately.
‘Isn’t that a bit much?’
I glanced back and forth between Thierry and my captor with bewildered eyes. Finally, my gaze settled on the man, who had an aura of strength, even more wolfish than Rudd’s.
‘I see. I shouldn’t have thought of that. You’re so cute, and the only time Thierry was cute was when he was under thirteen!’
I pouted unnecessarily. I could feel myself blushing even without looking.
I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips, shielding my vision from him.
“Oh, I told you I shouldn’t do this.”
I could feel my fever rising. I murmured softly against the top of my head, where I was lost in my own fierce thoughts.
I pulled my hand away and looked at him again. He was smiling, his usual lopsided grin.
‘Hick… I’m scared…’
The only time Thierry smiled was when he laughed. And especially when he was in a bad mood.
Maybe he was trying to tell me to be gentle with him when he was in a bad mood.
Whatever it was, it was clear that I shouldn’t offend him anymore. I shivered, suddenly feeling like a rabbit in front of a wolf.
Then I just smiled at him without asking, thinking that his moody demeanor was just the way he was. A weak smile, as if to show that he was impressed by a particularly gentle beast.
‘You mean you’re not going to hurt me, thank you!’
I wondered if I had finally gotten through to him. His smile slowly faded. His brow furrowed as if to say, “No, I’m not,” but I must have misread him.
