Unexpectedly, I Became the Emperor’s Fiancé

Misunderstanding that Ruth likes me?

As I pondered over the part of his words that bothered me, an unprecedented assumption formed in my mind.

It was an unimaginable situation, but seeing his platinum blond hair soaking up the sunlight, I felt I understood what it might feel like.

“Okay. I won’t do it, the misunderstanding.”

After a brief silence, I nodded up and down, which brought a satisfied smile to his lips. Facing that smile made my stomach flutter, so I deliberately changed the subject.

“By the way, I brought a set of clothes for you to wear. Go try them on.”

“The clothes?”

“Yes. It’s not nice to keep walking around half-naked.”

“I’ll say it again, but thanks to your terrible skills, it’s not just being half-naked….”

“Just go try them on. Change the bandages while you’re at it.”

“…Alright.”

Ruth, with much to say in his eyes, stepped back and then, hanging the pendant around his neck, pointed at the clothes on the table.

“Should I wear that?”

“Right. Those are the clothes.”

I glanced briefly at the pendant hanging on Ruth’s neck without making it obvious and responded.

“I’ll go change then.”

“Okay. I’ll wait.”

As he went into the bedroom to change clothes, I watched then sat down in the armchair, in the same position as before.

With the cabin quieting down, the sound of birds outside became clearer.

Peaceful.

I briefly reflected before my eyes slowly closed, the feeling of dizziness I had experienced upon realizing Ruth wasn’t here gradually faded.

I wanted this moment to last forever. Not in the suffocating mansion filled with lies but here, in this small cabin, with Ruth.

It was a moment when such thoughts flowed naturally.

“Are you sleeping?”

The voice near my ear broke the silence.
Startled, I opened my eyes to see amethyst eyes looking at me from up close.

“Ruth?”

“You don’t look tired, so I guess you weren’t sleeping.”

Ruth, seemingly ignoring my call, suddenly and gently ran their thumb under my eye.

My heart was the first to react to that seemingly meaningless action.

Wondering if the loud drumming sound coming from me might reach him, I quickly slapped Ruth’s hand away and snapped at him.

“What are you doing?”

“I was just wondering if you were still breathing since you weren’t responding to my calls. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

I coughed awkwardly at Ruth, who was apologizing with an embarrassed look. Then, I gently got up from the armchair and gave him a once-over.

Ruth, dressed neatly in a clean white shirt and black pants, looked sharp.

He seems fine on the outside.

After examining him, I questioned Ruth.

“Do the clothes fit?”

“They’re okay. Except the pants are a bit short.”
“The pants are short?”

I was internally surprised by his unexpected answer.

Tommy was on the taller side. So, I thought if the clothes didn’t fit Ruth, it was because the sizes were too large. But to think it was because the pants were too short.

Glancing down, indeed, his round ankles were clearly visible, just as he said.

“Should I bring a larger size next time?”

The nobles considered it rude to carelessly show one’s ankles to someone who was not family. So, I discreetly asked if Ruth was uncomfortable with their ankles being exposed.

“No, this is fine.”

However, they flatly rejected my suggestion.

“Then, that’s settled… Uh? Why are your hands like this?”

Since I had no interest in insisting on a rejected proposal, I was about to let it go when I noticed the many scratches on Ruth’s hands. It was surprising how I hadn’t noticed until now; their hands were covered in scratches of various sizes.

“Ah.”

Following my gaze to their hands, Ruth then clenched their hands as if it was nothing after a while.

“Are you curious about why my hands are like this?”

“Of course.”

Blinking as if to say why ask the obvious, they stretched out their hand with a droop in their eyes.

“Then follow me. There’s actually a place I’ve been thinking would be good to visit with you, Serbia.”

***

The place Ruth took me to was a lakeside surrounded by willows.

The round lake was so vast that you couldn’t see the end, and the blue water that swallowed the sunlight was like the remnants of the finest diamonds.

“The sea was beautiful, especially the sea at sunset, it looked like jewels were floating on the sea, making it even more beautiful.”

Suddenly, I remembered what Ian had told me before about how the sea looked at sunset.

Back then, I had vaguely imagined jewels floating on the water, but now I seemed to understand what that meant.

It was a shame it wasn’t sunset, but this was beautiful enough. It made me wonder what it would look like under a sky laden with the sunset.

“It’s dazzling.”

I exclaimed in admiration, without taking my eyes off the lake.

Soon, a pleasant laugh rang out from beside me.

“You talk as if it’s your first time seeing a lake.”

“It is my first time.”

“What?”

Ruth made an indescribable face when I calmly responded to his joke.

After a while, Ruth finally broke the silence around us.

“Then, besides the lake, have you ever seen a fountain?”

“No, I haven’t even seen that.”

I scolded him as I saw his eyebrows narrow.
Although there was a fountain in the mansion’s garden, it seemed to have not been used for a long time because the water had dried up completely. So, I might have seen a fountain without water, but I had never seen one spurting water.

Ruth frowned as if he couldn’t understand my answer and crossed his arms.

“Fountains are found even in the center of the city. So, you mean to say you haven’t even seen that?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever been to the city?”

“No.”

The answer came immediately.

To go to the city from the mansion, I needed my parents’ permission, and they had never granted it so far. Therefore, I hadn’t even been to the city, let alone seen a fountain.

I tried to lighten the increasingly tense atmosphere with a small laugh after I answered, but this only made Ruth’s expression stiffen more.

“Not even once?”

“Yeah. But why are you asking this?”

“It’s strange.”

Ruth bluntly put it out and washed his face with dry hands. Then, he sharply stared at me.

“No matter how much a person stays indoors, they go downtown for the festival day. And yet, you’ve never been? Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“……”

As I met his pale gaze, the corners of my mouth tightened involuntarily. At the same time, the air around us seemed to become heavier instantly, making me shrug my shoulders.

“At the very least, as a noble, you would have been invited to a banquet at the palace and seen the fountain in the palace garden. And judging by your attire and appearance, you seem to be of noble birth.”

He looked me up and down. As if he would pounce on any weakness he found.

Under his scrutinizing gaze, I forgot how to breathe. I felt like I was going to suffocate, being able to offer nothing but lies to someone demanding the truth.

Ruth, seeing my face flush, looked at me for a few seconds and then sighed weakly.

“Breathe.”

“Inhale.”

Thanks to him, I managed to regain my senses and took a deep breath.

Having confirmed that I was breathing correctly, he resumed the main topic without changing his expression.

“Anyway. I will ask you once again, Serbia. Is it true that you have never seen a fountain in your entire life?”

“……”

Faced with a question that brought someone closer to my secret, I chose silence because I didn’t know how to respond.

Then, I tried to keep a calm face while thinking hard. I had to admit it was true that I hadn’t shown restraint.

If I did, they would be curious about why I couldn’t, a reason I couldn’t reveal.

And yet, saying I had seen it now seemed a bit far-fetched. What to do? I secretly tapped my foot in frustration, feeling as anxious as if the sands of time were running low in an hourglass.

While pondering, suddenly an excuse that was neither a lie nor the truth occurred to me.

“Uh, when I was younger, I was ill and couldn’t leave the mansion.”

“You were, ill?” Ruth hesitated as he moved his lips, seemingly taken aback by the unexpected reason. Seeing that he appeared to believe my excuse, I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t a lie that I was often sick when I was young. However, the reason I couldn’t leave the mansion was different.

“And now? Are you better now?” Soon, Ruth asked in a slightly higher tone.

I laughed at the sight of him, looking nothing like the intimidating figure from before.

“You look fine now. See, you’re healthy.”

“Healthy? I’m like a twig that could break with a touch.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

He mumbled softly, completely shedding his fierce demeanor and gestured toward a flower garden blooming with various flowers.

“Shall we head over there then? It seems like if we delay any longer, the sun will start to set.”

“Already?” I couldn’t believe it was already time to leave, so I glanced up at the sky.

True to Ruth’s words, the sky was already taking on a deep hue, the color that comes just before sunset. My lips instinctively pouted.

It felt like we had just arrived, but the fact that we soon had to leave was disappointing. But then again, I could come to see him again next week…

I consoled my reluctant heart by reminding myself that this wasn’t the last time, I would come to meet Ruth again next Wednesday.

And before I knew it, I had arrived at the flower garden where Ruth was sitting and ran towards him.

***

In the flower garden where my steps had taken me, there were flowers huddled together that I hadn’t even seen in the mansion’s garden. Whites, pinks, purples, and so on. They weren’t flashy but the variety of modest colors caught my eye.

“What flower is this?”

I squatted next to Ruth, murmuring as I looked at a yellow flower the size of my thumbnail blooming in front of me.

Ruth, who had been busily weaving the stems of flowers, glanced at the yellow flower and then uttered its name.

“Primrose.”

“Ah. So this flower’s name is Primrose. It’s a pretty name.”

I kept admiring it and then gestured towards a light pink flower next to the yellow one.

“And this one?”

“That’s Moss Pink. Think of it as a wildflower that grows in the grass.”

“I see.”

Primrose. Moss Pink. The names of the flowers I had just heard from Ruth were ones I had never read in books. So, I repeated them several times to myself so I wouldn’t forget them when I returned to the mansion.

Then, I spoke to him, who was making something out of the flowers.

“Ruth knows a lot about flowers. I’ve looked through many herbals and fruit guides, but I still can’t recognize them when I see them in real life.”

When I praised him, Ruth looked at me, chuckled briefly, and then touched the pendant around his neck.

“When I was young, I often spent time in the garden with my mother. I guess I learned a lot from that.”

For some reason, his eyes grew terribly melancholy the moment he mentioned his mother, as if he were recalling some unhappy memory.

Yet, there was also warmth in those sad eyes, similar to the warmth Ian showed when he thought of the sea at sunset.

Because of this, I found unexpected courage welling up inside me.

I glanced at Ruth, then cautiously started the conversation.

“My nanny used to say that people who have beautiful memories carry beautiful looks in their eyes.”

Thinking about it now, almost all I know was learned from my nanny.

Of course, that’s to be expected. My nanny was my support and my world when I was young.

Suppressing a sad smile that threatened to surface, I turned my head only to find our gazes accidentally meeting, not knowing when he had looked away from the pendant.

I smiled with my eyes at Ruth, who was staring intently at me, and continued the conversation.

“And now, your eyes are incredibly beautiful. As if a fairy collected twinkling stars and poured them into your eyes.”