Chapter 34
A chill crept up the back of my neck, making goosebumps rise as I dropped my gaze.
Fine. I lost. You win, Rixion Luhanes.
Honestly, I wanted to just demand, “Why are you doing this to me? What do you even want?!”
But I didn’t. Because I knew perfectly well that this man would never easily reveal what was going on in his head.
I’m tired.
Suddenly, everything about this situation felt exhausting.
No—ever since the moment I first met him, it had always been like this.
Frustrating.
I didn’t even know what I was doing here anymore, and the weight pressing down on my shoulders made my irritation bubble up.
“The Empress sent me an invitation,” I finally said instead of sighing.
I had debated over and over whether or not I should talk to him directly—on the way to the imperial palace, even after Rixion Luhanes appeared in the banquet hall.
But before I could make up my mind, I realized I was already looking straight at him and speaking.
“Thanks to that, I was able to attend today’s banquet. It seems the nasty rumors about me and my family will finally settle down a little.”
We spun once in a slow circle, hand in hand. The distance that had briefly stretched between us as we danced vanished again.
“Should I also thank Your Grace for that?”
In other words, Did you ask the Empress to invite me to the founding anniversary banquet?
I wanted to ask without putting emotion into it—but somehow, my tone came out sharp anyway.
Truthfully, I should be thankful—to both Empress Serena and Rixion Luhanes.
If the Empress hadn’t invited me today, I would have had to keep suffering through those awful rumors.
But instead of gratitude, what welled up inside me was discomfort.
It wasn’t because I felt like I was dancing on a stage Rixion Luhanes had set up, or because the Empress had cooperated just to matchmake her brother and me.
It was because of this man’s unpredictable attitude.
From the very first meeting at our arranged date, to the moment we parted ways in front of my mansion—
I could never understand him.
Sometimes he acted as if he were interested in me,
other times he turned cold and distant, as though I’d bored him completely—
and now, he was going out of his way to help me in such a conspicuous manner.
Why?
Suppressing my emotions, I stared blankly into his eyes.
He too met my gaze in silence.
He didn’t answer my question for a long time,
and I didn’t ask again.
The waltz continued quietly between us.
“I was thinking,” he finally said slowly as the music neared its end,
“what kind of answer might ease your displeasure…”
He paused. “But I honestly don’t know.”
For the first time, he averted his eyes.
His long lashes lowered, and the sight of him looking down caught my attention.
With that handsome face and that subdued, almost guilty expression—
he looked so much more endearing than usual that I almost told him, “It’s fine.”
No! Don’t fall for that face!
I blinked hard, snapping myself out of it.
“I can’t say for sure if this is the right answer,” he continued softly,
“but to be honest…”
We drew apart and came close again in time with the dance.
“…I wanted to help you, Lady Christener.”
“Because you pity me?” I shot back instantly, my voice sharp.
“Just because you feel sorry for me?”
The words came out before I could stop them.
I suddenly recalled that time at his mansion, when he had asked why I saved the children even after knowing they were infected with the plague.
And the way he’d looked offended—like he had been personally insulted by my answer.
So before I knew it, I was asking as if accusing him of seeking petty revenge for that incident.
“No.”
His reply came immediately, without the slightest hesitation.
Even with his gaze lowered, the cold emotion glinting in his eyes was unmistakable.
“I simply wanted to shut the mouths of those who dared to speak recklessly about you.”
His voice was low, heavy—there was even a faint trace of murderous intent.
He wasn’t speaking to me, yet the back of my neck went cold all the same.
I stared at him blankly, stunned.
Why did he care so much about me? It didn’t make sense—
but at the same time, a small part of me was… grateful.
Still, I couldn’t fully understand him.
Even so, hearing those words made me feel a little better.
After all, I already owed him a bit for what happened with Rowyn and Lynn.
I hesitated, then parted my lips after a few false starts.
“…Thank you.”
I lowered my gaze, pretending not to meet his eyes.
“Honestly, it helped a lot.”
I said it so softly that I wasn’t sure he even heard.
Maybe I saw the faint curve of his lips, a small smile—but I couldn’t be certain.
And with that, the waltz came to an end.
I immediately let go of his hand and took a step back.
Only then did I realize we had danced through the entire song together—without switching partners even once.
All around us, people had stopped dancing and were just standing by the walls, watching us as if we were performing for them.
I felt like a monkey in a cage.
By tomorrow morning, I was sure all of high society would be gossiping—
that Rixion Luhanes and Elizabeth Christener are about to be engaged.
And correcting that rumor would take an enormous amount of time and effort.
Just like that, my name—Elizabeth Christener—would forever remain in the story of The Saintess of Erendel as the male lead’s “ex-girlfriend.”
I had tried so desperately to prevent that from happening—
but in the end, here we were.
A headache I didn’t have before was now pounding in my temples, and I couldn’t stop sighing.
Solve one problem, and another one popped up right away.
And both were thanks to—or because of—the man standing right in front of me.
So I couldn’t even decide whether to be grateful or furious.
“This is starting to get irritating.”
His low voice held a faint trace of annoyance, though he was still smiling.
“I didn’t ask you to dance just to become a spectacle, after all.”
He looked around the room once, expression flat, then met my eyes again.
“Should I make it so they can’t look anywhere else?” he asked lightly, as though joking.
But something in his tone made my instincts scream that it wasn’t a joke.
Whatever he meant, I doubted it would be peaceful.
For a moment, I’d forgotten what kind of man he really was—
the kind who, aside from his sister the Empress, treated everyone else’s lives as worthless.
Honestly, this entire situation was his fault to begin with.
If he hadn’t approached me so boldly that first time, none of this would’ve happened!
Instead of saying that out loud, I just sighed shortly and said,
“…I think the problem will be solved if we just leave.”
Yes—if we simply walked out of this banquet hall and went back to our own estates,
we could at least escape being the evening’s main attraction.
Whatever gossip followed afterward would be tomorrow’s problem.
Come to think of it, that’s another problem waiting for me.
My eyes flicked toward my brother, Michael, who was pretending to chat with acquaintances while clearly watching me like a hawk.
His gaze was so sharp it was almost frightening.
He looked like he wanted to grab me by the collar and shake me, demanding, “Didn’t you swear you weren’t dating him?!”
A little while ago, I’d insisted we were absolutely nothing—but now, after Rixion Luhanes himself had come up and asked me to dance, what could I possibly say?
To anyone else, we probably looked like a perfectly matched pair.
Just thinking about explaining this to my brother later gave me another wave of headache.
I pressed my fingers to my temples and looked up—only to find Rixion watching me with a strange expression.
Then he suddenly asked,
“Was that… a date invitation?”
“…What?”
I blinked in disbelief, frowning.
“Me? When?”
“You just said, ‘Let’s leave here together.’”
He tilted his head slightly, feigning innocence with infuriating ease.
“Didn’t you mean, ‘Let’s go outside and get some fresh air together’?”
“No! That’s not what I meant.”
I hurried to correct him.
“I meant we should separately leave. Each of us going our own way.”
At that, disappointment washed over Rixion Luhanes’s face in an instant.
