“Seyard.”
At Kisa’s call, Seyard nodded.
“Yes, leave the greeting of guests to me and go ahead.”
“Thank you. See you later.”
Since she needed to quickly change clothes before the ceremony began, Kisa left the reception hall with Lily at a brisk pace.
One dress for greeting guests before the engagement ceremony, one for during the ceremony, and one for the reception afterwards.
This was Kisa’s plan to change into the three dresses she had prepared for the engagement ceremony.
Having obtained the dresses from a prestigious dress shop with Seyard’s help, it would be a waste not to showcase all of them.
Shortly after, the two arrived at the guest room where Kisa was staying.
Since they had decided to use a guest room, Seyard had given her the room closest to the reception hall to minimize the trouble of going back and forth.
Thanks to that consideration, Kisa was able to return to the reception hall less than twenty minutes after leaving, having changed into her second dress with Lily’s help.
As she entered the reception hall, she could feel countless gazes on her skin.
This wasn’t merely because Kisa, who was both the woman at the center of the kingdom’s recent attention and the protagonist of the engagement ceremony, had appeared.
[Wow! You were already beautiful, but with this dress, you seem to shine!]
These were the words Lily had uttered just a few minutes ago when she saw Kisa who had just changed her clothes.
What had sounded merely embarrassing to Kisa was now proven to be more than simple flattery by the looks in people’s eyes.
Unlike the relatively modest first dress, the blue dress, which was both splendid and boldly revealed the wearer’s figure, captured people’s attention at first sight.
Moreover, it created a visual harmony with the similarly colored decorations in the reception hall, further emphasizing its beauty.
Kisa looked around at the faces of those who were staring at her in a daze.
Among them were clearly those who usually didn’t welcome her.
External beauty. In fact, the objective truth that her beauty was exceptional didn’t bring much joy to Kisa.
It hadn’t always been that way. Kisa was once an ordinary girl who secretly enjoyed the praise, favor, and envious glances of others.
Her father, who was stingy with praise, acknowledged his daughter’s beauty, and Daniel, who found his fiancée annoying, was strangely more generous to Kisa compared to other girls, while Melissa openly boasted about her pretty friend. Kisa liked that.
But perhaps due to the fickleness of human hearts, at some point, Kisa had become increasingly numb to what her beauty brought her.
No matter how much recognition she received for her appearance from many people, Kisa’s life wasn’t particularly happy.
Because of that beauty, the Count increasingly wanted more from his daughter.
It was a markedly different attitude from how he treated his son, whom he would leave alone and pay no attention to as long as he stayed quiet.
Daniel seemingly showed contempt in his words and actions toward Kisa, who cultivated her beauty.
Yet when appearing in public with a fully adorned Kisa, he seemed quite pleased, making it impossible to know which tune to dance to.
Melissa still appreciated Kisa’s beauty, but she didn’t appreciate Kisa’s shy personality.
Gradually, the hand of her friend pulling her to introduce new people became burdensome.
If the three most important people in Kisa’s life were like this, how much worse would others be?
Before she knew it, compliments about her appearance became so obvious and sometimes tiresome to Kisa that they went in one ear and out the other.
Since everyone, including the Count, demanded it from her, she paid as much attention as possible, but the sincere longing that she once had rarely arose anymore.
But not now.
At this moment, Kisa deeply hoped to appear beautiful.
To others. And to Seyard.
The person who told her she wasn’t stupid.
The person who helped her escape from Daniel.
The person who understood her feelings that even she didn’t know.
The only thing Kisa had done so far for this person who had bestowed so many favors upon her was to play the role of his fiancée.
If so, at the very least, she wanted to look beautiful.
She wanted the people who saw today’s engagement ceremony to say she was indeed a beauty worthy of the Duke of Hillan’s desire and to be unable to hide their envy.
She wanted to be the best ornament that would make Seyard Hillan’s name shine even more.
That was all Kisa could do for him.
Would he be pleased?
“Seyard.”
Unable to hide her expectant heart, she approached the man who was standing in the same place as before.
“Kisa.”
Seyard also moved a few steps towards her.
Then, before Kisa could say anything, he took her hand and kissed the back of it.
It was a gesture full of affection, making him look like a man completely smitten with his fiancée in others’ eyes.
Even Kisa, who knew the circumstances, was confused, proving he was truly an excellent actor.
“Why suddenly……”
“I just felt like it.”
Responding with such brazen confidence, Seyard led Kisa to the center of the reception hall.
Almost simultaneously, the servants closed the main door of the reception hall, which had been wide open.
The engagement ceremony had begun.
“Aren’t you cold, by the way?”
As they walked through the path cleared by people, Seyard whispered in Kisa’s ear.
“Especially, your shoulders look cold.”
The second dress was designed to expose Kisa’s bare shoulders.
Kisa chuckled softly, conscious of his hand touching her shoulder.
“Didn’t you ask the same thing last time?”
When they went to fit the dresses, Kisa wore a prototype with the same design as this dress.
Like the other two dresses, Seyard told her it was beautiful, but then added a question about whether she would be cold.
It was a somewhat odd question.
The season was already late spring approaching summer, and the engagement ceremony was held indoors, so how cold could she be just because her shoulders were exposed?
When she answered just that, Seyard simply nodded without further comment.
But thinking about it now, perhaps that was his way of expressing embarrassment.
Having grown up in a monastery, a place forbidden to women, he might not be accustomed to exposure.
Of course, he could leave the monastery, but such attire probably wouldn’t be common in Bonzmos, which was relatively remote.
Such revealing dresses were mainly seen in reception halls.
‘How cute.’
At that moment, Kisa felt an appreciation she had never had before when looking at Seyard.
Thinking that the great Seyard felt embarrassed by such minor exposure made laughter escape her. He wasn’t even an adolescent boy.
Somehow, a corner of her heart tickled.
“It’s fine. I’m not cold at all.”
In response to Kisa’s answer tinged with laughter, he said in a slightly embarrassed tone that he was glad to hear that.
The two arrived at the podium in the center of the reception hall, exchanging whispers along the way.
“I express my gratitude to everyone who has come to this place to celebrate our relationship.”
Seyard delivered a simple greeting to the audience.
After his words ended, Kisa also expressed similar sentiments.
In fact, at an engagement or wedding, since it was a union of two families, the heads of each family would typically announce the start of the ceremony with a lengthy speech.
But the two had previously discussed and decided to simplify the procedure by eliminating all such steps.
There was also the meaning of not exhausting themselves too early since they would be getting married in a few months anyway, and there was concern that the picture might look a bit strange.
Having lost both parents and his brother, and with poor relationships with relatives due to inheritance issues, Seyard had no blood relatives to invite to the engagement ceremony.
This meant there was no suitable older figure to substitute for the role of the family head.
Of course, since he was clearly the head of the Hillan family, he and Count Vansfelt could appear together, but it still felt unbalanced.
Therefore, Kisa and Seyard broke with convention and retained only the exchange of gifts among the existing engagement ceremony procedures.
Originally, this banquet had been planned to celebrate Seyard’s succession to his title, though it somehow ended up being changed to an engagement ceremony.
So Kisa argued that they should put more effort into the banquet that would follow rather than the engagement ceremony, and Seyard gladly granted her wish, saying:
[I am happy for your thoughtfulness towards me.]
He had noticed Kisa’s inner desire for him not to feel the emptiness of family even a little.
Seyard himself didn’t seem to mind much, but it had been weighing on Kisa’s mind all along.
Previously, he had clearly described himself as being insensitive to emotions.
Even if he wasn’t aware of it himself, there could be old wounds beneath that perfect appearance.
Anyway, as the greetings quickly ended, it was time to exchange gifts.
Since they would exchange rings at the wedding, they decided on different items for the engagement gifts.
First, Seyard placed a bracelet made of pure white diamonds around Kisa’s wrist, and then Kisa attached black diamond cufflinks to his sleeve.
As there was no law anywhere that required the preparation of the same type of gift, this was the result of each choosing what they wanted to give to the other.
Afterwards, the two faced each other for a while.
It was the moment they officially became each other’s fiancé.
