Strangely, a memory of a child he had briefly met in his youth came to mind.
She wasn’t doing anything—just sitting there quietly, barely breathing—and yet, ever since the engagement ceremony, that feeling of discomfort he used to have around her had vanished. In fact, he could almost see a glimpse of the warm, comforting Louisa from fifteen years ago.
“Do you really need to trust someone? You’re the one you’ll live with for your whole life.”
“…Are you saying I shouldn’t trust anyone?”
“Hmm—not exactly. I’m just saying, trust yourself.”
Such a simple line, yet it had brought him an immense sense of comfort.
‘…Was that moment just a child’s whim after all?’
If his mother had instilled deep distrust in him, then the completely changed Louisa he saw now felt like the final blow that sealed his disillusionment with people.
When Raphael turned seventeen, he had run into Louisa by chance in the capital. That encounter had been so shocking, he had nightmares that night.
At first, she looked at him as if he were a total stranger. But once the distance between them closed, something murky clouded her once-clear eyes. The way she stared at him with such a heavy, ominous gaze—it chilled him to the bone.
The memory of that moment was so vivid it made Raphael clench his teeth unconsciously.
‘I waited so long to see her again, and yet… she turned out just like her.’
His expression hardened even further, his ice-blue eyes reflecting her lowered head and fragile shoulders.
‘Now that I think of it… she’s been awfully quiet.’
Her reaction was completely unexpected. Judging from her behavior so far, she had apparently chosen to ride the carriage rather than argue over his rudeness.
‘…She’s not crying again, is she?’
Despite secretly wishing the meeting would be canceled, a part of him worried she might cry like she did on the day of their engagement.
‘Wait, why do I care? I said those things on purpose to hurt her.’
Raphael’s brow furrowed slightly.
Uncomfortable with how his childhood memories were starting to fade, Raphael had been trying harder and harder to separate the young Louisa from the one in front of him—hoping to sever the emotional link.
He reminded himself again: ‘Taking a slap to the face is still better than this—at least it would ease my conscience. But the best outcome is if she gets hurt enough to ask for a breakup herself. No matter how many times I ask for it, His Majesty will ignore me. I need to make her heart turn cold so that the Duke’s family takes action. Yeah, just keep this up. But still…’
Something felt off. Before, he would have gone out of his way to avoid even glancing at Louisa, but since the engagement ceremony, he couldn’t stop noticing her.
Maybe it was because she seemed slightly different now. Or maybe it was simply because being around her didn’t feel so suffocating anymore.
But more than anything, fragments of long-buried memories were starting to resurface—and that was what troubled him most.
‘This doesn’t feel right.’
She looked so pitiful now, timidly climbing into the carriage on her own like a rejected kitten.
“…Take my hand.”
In the end, Raphael stepped forward and offered his hand, telling himself it was just the proper thing to do for a lady.
‘Ugh… she looks way too happy about this.’
Sure enough, Louisa shyly reached for his hand as if she’d been waiting for it. Raphael felt conflicted.
Worse yet, she even covered her mouth with her other hand, as if to hide her delight. That made his chest sting for some reason.
Louisa barely suppressed a sneeze, holding it back with a hand over her mouth.
‘Ugh, stupid pollen.’
Apparently, holy water did not boost her immunity to allergies. Her itchy nose and throat made her bow her head involuntarily.
‘Still, for someone who supposedly hates me, he’s surprisingly polite.’
She hadn’t even heard whatever snippy thing Raphael had said earlier—she had tuned him out. So when he offered his hand, her eyes widened like she was watching a pushover.
Still, no reason to reject help if it was offered. She took his hand without hesitation.
‘If I were in his shoes, I would’ve canceled today’s appointment—imperial order or not. He’s so uptight. Or maybe not uptight… Later, when he meets the heroine, he softens up and asks to break off the engagement himself. Guess he’s kind of a pushover.’
Louisa gave Raphael a brief glance once seated, then turned toward the carriage window.
‘I mean, he is soft when it comes to love. He fell so hard for the heroine, he dropped his whole vow to leave the palace and started fighting with his own brother to become crown prince.’
Louisa made a mental note of it, her expression indifferent as she stared blankly out the window.
And she thought about absolutely nothing.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say she was practically asleep with her eyes open.
The carriage reached their destination quickly: a luxury restaurant in a popular boutique district.
“Oh my, it’s the First Prince and Lady Blake.”
“How odd. I’m so used to seeing Lady Blake chasing him around—it’s strange to see them together like this.”
As soon as Raphael and Louisa entered the restaurant, whispers began to spread like wildfire among the nobles.
“I heard she went into hiding after the engagement, but that was right after she pulled another lady’s hair out—maybe the Duke banned her from going out?”
“Oh, that’s hardly the worst of it! She’s caused so many scandals, I lost count!”
“But how did she end up engaged to the prince…?”
“She’s from House Blake, that’s how. Julia, you weren’t at the engagement ceremony, right? You should’ve seen the prince’s face.”
“What was it like?”
“Like he wanted to run away on the spot! I’ve never seen such a tense atmosphere at an engagement before!”
Normally, no one of lower rank would dare speak to a royal, but outside the palace, etiquette was a bit more relaxed to protect their privacy. So the nobles didn’t approach—they just stared eagerly and gossiped in whispers.
“A man as upright and clean as the Commander of the Holy Knights… and this is who he’s engaged to? House Blake is powerful, sure, but she’s known for being awful.”
“Awful? You’re sugarcoating it.”
Their gossip shared one tone: pity for Raphael, and disdain for Louisa.
Stares grew more blatant, now openly fixed on Louisa.
Just then, Louisa—who had been following the maître d’—suddenly stopped. Her gaze moved toward the table where the loudest gossip had come from.
“……!”
Shuffle shuffle— All at once, the eyes darted downward as if rehearsed. A heavy silence settled in the room.
No matter how disgracefully she had behaved before, Louisa was still the daughter of one of the empire’s most powerful noble houses.
They had spoken up freely, assuming she wouldn’t dare react in front of Raphael, but now faced with her icy stare, the nobles began to regret their carelessness.
It was cold. Almost worse that she wasn’t saying anything at all. Just that piercing gaze—silent and unblinking—was enough to dry their mouths.
‘Hmm, that looks tasty. Should I ask what it is?’
Unaware of their anxiety, Louisa had no intention of saying anything to them.
‘Never mind, it’s on every table. Must be the most popular dish.’
She had long since learned to tune out hostile voices. She expected people to hate her—after all, she was the “villainess” of this story.
‘I’ll just ask the waiter to recommend the most popular menu item.’
Having received malice from those closest to her, she found random strangers’ hostility laughably mild.
She simply did what she always did—closed her ears and calmly scanned the room for a table.
But Raphael, who was watching her closely, felt something else entirely.
“Such insolence.”
He didn’t understand Louisa’s detachment, so he muttered coldly under his breath.
Their comments were harsh, yes—but not all of them were wrong.
Still, he didn’t want to agree with them. Regardless of how he felt, Louisa was now his partner and fiancée.
He didn’t want to step in and make it seem like he was defending her—but the whole situation annoyed him deeply.
“….”
Raphael slowly scanned the room as if looking at cockroaches, then clenched his jaw.
He figured Louisa wouldn’t let this slide, so there was no need for him to interfere—yet.
They had only spoken out of foolish desire for gossip, but surely, they also knew Louisa well enough to expect her retaliation.
So he waited, already wondering if he’d have to step in to stop her.
But what happened next… was something he hadn’t expected at all.
‘She’s not reacting?’
Raphael stared at Louisa in disbelief.
She didn’t flip a table, didn’t grab anyone’s hair—she simply held the room hostage with her gaze.
‘…That’s Louisa?’
Something was off again. The impulsive, arrogant woman he once knew—she had changed. Whatever happened during that month apart, she had become an entirely different person.
