Chapter 55 ….
The Epher I had always looked up at from below through Sienna’s eyes felt quite different from the Epher I was looking up at now with my own.
Each time he took a step, the feeling of drawing a little closer to his body and then away again was strangely peculiar.
Even the rise and fall of his chest with every breath unnecessarily tickled something inside me.
It was a shame I couldn’t find the fox bead, but at the same time, it almost felt as if the heavens were telling me there was another path.
A path where I could spend a hundred nights with this man.
Honestly, who in the world would turn down a fox this charming?
I had been wary at first, but that caution seemed to have eased a bit now. I wasn’t even expecting his heart—so maybe we could at least share some physical affection.
I slowly shifted the hand resting on his chest.
“I think we’ve gotten pretty close.”
As my fingers naturally teased him, I saw Epher’s Adam’s apple bob.
“Please don’t move so much. I-it’s uncomfortable.”
The tightly wound Epher looked rather cute.
If we go straight to the bed as soon as we return to the castle, that would be perfect.
Was I having too many shameless thoughts?
As if trying to regain his composure, he bit his lip hard, swallowed, and then asked me,
“There’s something I’d like to ask the Grand Duchess.”
It looked like he was trying to change the subject and calm himself. I decided to shelve my mischievous thoughts and answered him with a smile.
“What is it?”
But like stew rapidly settling once the heat is turned off, my heart cooled instantly the moment I heard his question.
“Have you ever tried talking with Sienna as well?”
“…?”
“You said you can communicate with animals—did you communicate with Sienna that way too?”
Suddenly… Sienna? What?
“Why do you ask?”
He glanced at me, then quickly turned his gaze away, his face reddening.
“You seemed to know a lot about Sienna…”
“……”
“Next time, could you talk with Sienna together with me?”
From start to finish—Sienna. This was absurd.
Even in a moment like this, completely captivated by a charming fox, and he brings up Sienna?
“No. It’s hard to talk with Sienna. That leopard earlier reached out to me because it thought it was going to die and wanted help.”
“…I see.”
The disappointment in Epher’s voice was obvious.
“What do you want to talk about?”
After thinking for a moment, he replied,
“Just… whether Sienna needs anything. Whether there’s something she wants to eat…”
It sounded like he was making it up on the spot.
“I’m curious whether she likes me and things like that.”
“Sienna likes Your Grace the most. So you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I envy you, Grand Duchess. To be able to communicate with animals… I wish I could understand Sienna’s feelings better.”
This guy… Is his entire life just Sienna from beginning to end?
“It’s my first time raising a fox, so it’s difficult. Well, I haven’t really raised other animals either.”
He cleared his throat and then asked me in a gentler voice,
“So, about that… would you be able to go to the stables with me next time?”
I stared straight at him. Going to the stables wasn’t hard. But a three-way meeting was impossible, my dear.
How could I meet Epher both as Sienna and in this form at the same time?
“Sienna runs away immediately when I’m with someone else. I don’t think she likes me very much.”
“That can’t be true. You know more about foxes than anyone, so Sienna must know that too.”
Looking slightly embarrassed, he averted his gaze.
“You handled the beasts of Mount Tiris, so a small fox will naturally follow the Grand Duchess.”
Of course. After all, the one I love most is myself.
Still, this was one thing I had to say firmly.
“I’ve only met Sienna a few times myself. I’m not sure the communication will go well.”
Epher moistened his dry lower lip.
“Even if you don’t communicate, just come with me to the stables—”
“No.”
I cut him off sharply.
The moment I saw his deeply dejected expression, I was dumbfounded.
What, now he changes the moment I say I won’t meet Sienna with him?
Could it be that he’d only been nice to me because he wanted to try talking with Sienna just once?
Looks like I got ahead of myself again.
I felt incredibly embarrassed.
Up until now, I’d always been quick to notice when someone seemed to like me.
Honestly, he had given me precious jewels, worried about me, even held me like this—of course I thought Epher had developed some feelings for me.
It must be because I don’t have the fox bead—my instincts are dull.
If I thought about it carefully, even at today’s wedding, hadn’t he sworn on the back of my hand because he didn’t want to kiss me?
Why am I really like this…
How many people had I met and watched until now?
Love that seemed eternal sometimes lasted only a fleeting moment. Love that had gone cold was occasionally reheated, barely kept lukewarm.
Sometimes there were those who cherished each other wholeheartedly until the end of their lives—but that kind of luck never came to me.
Even knowing all that.
The way I let my happiness circuits spin just because someone treated me a little kindly… I felt like such a fool.
“Put me down.”
“Grand Duchess.”
When I shifted my body, Epher hesitantly set me on the ground.
“It’s just my shoulder that’s a little hurt, not my legs. I can walk on my own.”
An oddly awkward atmosphere circled between us.
Only now was the sun slowly sinking beyond the western mountains.
Today feels especially long.
Usually time flew by even when I did nothing, so why did days feel so endlessly long whenever guests came to this castle?
Because Epher and I hadn’t exchanged a single word since earlier, the time dragged even more.
When we returned to the Grand Duke’s castle in that stifling silence, everyone’s attention instantly focused on us.
Of course, the nearby nobles of Ellenoa had gathered and were busy chatting and socializing just fine without the bride and groom—but still. They were having quite the party in someone else’s house.
“Roselia!”
Among the murmuring crowd, Count Pellua rushed forward first. The physician in a white coat hurried beside him.
“Are you… alright?”
Count Pellua spoke in that awkward half-formal tone as usual.
Fortunately, no one seemed to pay attention to his strange manner of speech.
“Grand Duchess, may I examine your injury first?”
When I slowly removed the cloth I had used to cover myself while sneaking out, everyone stared at me in shock.
“Oh my…”
“My goodness…”
I was just as surprised.
It had hurt, but not severely—more annoying than anything—so I hadn’t thought much of it. But one side of my expensive white reception dress was stained as if it had been dyed red from the start.
Epher quickly wrapped my body in a red cloth.
“Let’s go to your room and examine it properly.”
The moment his hand touched me, I instinctively shook him off.
The worried murmurs around us fell silent, and Epher stared at me in surprise.
“I-it hurts when you touch it…”
“Roselia! You must be in great pain!”
Thanks to Count Pellua’s textbook-like dramatic voice, the awkward moment was smoothly brushed over.
As soon as we returned to my room, the physician examined my shoulder wound. Since it only required lowering my shoulder slightly, everyone watched the treatment process.
“Fortunately, it’s not a deep wound. The pressure was applied well at the beginning.”
Count Pellua stood beside me, apparently struggling to force out tears and instead crying only with his voice.
“Ugh… I’m so relieved, Roji. I was so worried something terrible had happened to you…”
You should be worried about your acting skills.
“I’m fine now, so please go. You must’ve had a hard time dealing with the nobles.”
“Yes. Th-that said…”
Just as the count hesitated, as if he had something more to say, I stood and walked toward the window, speaking tiredly.
“I’d like to rest now. Everyone, please leave.”
“R-right. We’ll talk tomorrow. Rest well.”
I heard the door close behind me. Finally thinking I was alone, I let out a long sigh.
“Why are you sighing?”
Startled, I turned around. Epher was still standing there.
“You’re not leaving?”
“I’m curious why you’ve been so upset since earlier, Grand Duchess.”
I knew it too. I was the one misunderstanding, imagining things, and then disappointing myself.
Even knowing it wasn’t his fault, I was just venting because I felt foolish.
“You became upset after I asked you to communicate with Sienna. Was that an impolite request?”
Sienna again. Always Sienna.
“My spiritual power—no, my mana—keeps decreasing, and you won’t even give me proper skinship, yet you keep asking for so much?”
Instead of restoring it with a kiss, I’d wasted so much power earlier because of his brother slowing time.
“You don’t even know how much strength I used today!”
And on top of that, the vague hope that maybe this man might come to like me had been completely shattered.
“What’s so hard about one lousy kiss? Even during the vow, huh?”
I waved the back of my hand at him.
“You did it on something like this!”
As I kept waving, pain flared from my injured shoulder. When I groaned and bent forward, Epher hurriedly grabbed me.
“I told you not to overdo it.”
I shoved him away hard.
“Please leave. Unless you’re planning to spend our first night here with me!”
“…What did you just say?”
Epher clenched his teeth and looked down at me.
No—more precisely, he seemed to be staring at my lips as they kept spouting nonsense he couldn’t contain.
Right. You must think the words coming out of this mouth are ridiculous. Even I felt embarrassed about three seconds after blurting them out.
But I brazenly pressed him further.
“Do you think I’m saying this because I want to?”
Because you have the fox bead!
“I need skinship to recharge my mana. Rather than asking someone else, my own husband should—mmph.”
I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Because Epher covered my mouth.
With his lips.
