Chapter 18
An Eye for Choosing Gifts
After the day I received the hyacinth bouquet, I began having dinner with Renard.
To be precise, it was because Renard’s barrage of gifts continued even after the bouquet.
Even on the night I received the flowers…
“Your Grace, our young master—no, His Highness the Prince—personally chose this gift and sent it to you.”
Through Douglas, Renard sent me a necklace.
It was a purple diamond necklace so extravagant that it felt burdensome to wear.
My taste leans more toward smaller gemstones…
That was what I had thought.
Through the original story, I already knew Renard had quite a bit of hidden wealth.
But although Renard was skilled with the sword and talented at making money, it seemed that the heavens had not granted him any sense when it came to choosing gifts.
However, what Douglas said while delivering the necklace was unexpected.
“His Highness is still worried that Your Grace may not have fully forgiven him yet. If there’s anything more you need, please let us know. His Highness would probably do anything for you.”
Renard… worried that I was still angry?
“But I clearly told His Highness that I wasn’t angry.”
“Ah… did you? His Highness still seems quite worried…”
Douglas muttered awkwardly.
For some reason, he looked exhausted.
Perhaps Renard had been making his life difficult lately.
I needed to find a solution.
A way to reassure the strangely anxious Renard.
A way to make him believe that I truly wasn’t angry.
Since Renard kept sending expensive gifts the day after the necklace and the day after that, I decided to act immediately.
“Would you like to have dinner with me today?”
I ambushed Renard, who had recently been returning to the mansion even before dinner time.
Well, technically the office door had been open, so I just walked in.
Renard was already looking at me.
It seemed he had sensed my presence even before I appeared.
On his desk, two gemstones were sparkling.
Both happened to be purple.
Which meant he was probably preparing another gift for me.
Did he come home early these days just to personally choose gifts for me?
“Would you like to have dinner with me today? Unless those things on your desk… are yet another gift for me.”
At my words, Renard lowered the corners of his eyes.
“Did you perhaps dislike the gifts I sent?”
I couldn’t tell if the expression was deliberate, but he certainly looked pitiful.
“No, that’s not it. It’s just… a little—very slightly—burdensome. They all look so expensive.”
“I am capable of buying things like that for you.”
“Even so…”
“If you wish, I could buy you a villa.”
“…No villas. Just have dinner with me. That would be enough.”
“Dinner…? Were you serious about eating together? I thought you preferred eating alone.”
“That’s true, but… we said we’d be friends. I thought we should get to know each other better.”
Renard stared blankly for a moment.
Then he looked toward the corner of the office ceiling as if thinking, before turning back to me.
“…Of course I’d like that.”
“Then the gift attacks stop, right?”
“……”
“Right?”
When I pressed him, Renard nodded slowly, still looking somewhat dazed.
He seemed strange, so I tilted my head.
From that day on, having dinner with Renard became part of my daily routine.
There was nothing particularly special about our dinners.
As always, Renard naturally led the conversation, and all I had to do was respond.
Even with just that, our conversations were always enjoyable.
Sometimes Renard would stare at me blankly during meals.
Whenever I asked why, he would immediately return to his usual expression and shrug as if it were nothing.
Aside from those moments, our days were very ordinary.
But perhaps simply sharing meals wasn’t enough.
Judging from the fact that Renard had appeared in front of me like this.
Summer was less than a month away, so I decided to enjoy the clear spring weather by reading in the garden.
But not long after I sat on a bench surrounded by blooming yellow evening primroses, Renard appeared before me.
I hadn’t even known he was in the mansion.
“Renard? Oh? What are those?”
I asked, noticing the several books tucked under his arm.
“I came out to do some reading, and I happened to see Your Grace. Would it be alright if I sat beside you and read?”
For a moment, Evan overlapped with Renard in my vision.
Was it just my imagination?
“I haven’t been able to attend lessons with Your Grace lately… so I thought at least reading would help increase my knowledge.”
Renard sighed deeply as he explained.
Our lessons had been paused due to his lack of sleep.
But honestly, his condition had improved enough recently that we could probably resume them.
Even I could see that.
The shadows under his eyes had faded.
Living more leisurely lately had clearly helped.
Recently, Renard had been wandering around the mansion like he had nothing to do.
Meanwhile, Douglas had been getting noticeably thinner.
Renard said his nightmares were improving.
They hadn’t disappeared entirely, but the frequency had changed.
Instead of having days without nightmares followed by one, now he only had nightmares every few days.
It seemed the Libero tea I brought him every night was actually working.
Strangely though, my palms had started itching lately.
Sometimes I even had a slight fever.
But I decided not to mention it to Renard.
It wasn’t unbearable, and I liked seeing him getting better.
When I shifted to make space, Renard sat down beside me like Lovelin, the dog from the Cowell household.
After that, I focused on reading.
But after some time, I felt something tickling the tip of my nose.
When I looked up, I saw a beautiful yellow butterfly with black stripes sitting on it.
When I glanced at Renard, he turned his head away to avoid my gaze.
He was smiling mischievously.
The butterfly fluttered over the book I was reading, then returned to my nose again and again.
As if telling me to stop reading and play with it.
He even brought a pretty butterfly.
That was my impression after seeing another butterfly Renard had lured.
“Look at this butterfly. Doesn’t it seem like it wants someone to play with it?”
I asked slyly.
Renard looked at me and smiled.
“As expected of Your Grace. To understand the butterfly’s feelings so accurately.”
He laughed teasingly.
Renard seemed strangely careless.
When he lured butterflies at the Cowell family estate, it could still pass as coincidence.
But if he kept doing things like this, people might become suspicious.
After all, Renard was a magician.
In the Graysiana Empire, witches and magicians had to hide their identities.
Yet Renard didn’t seem to consider me someone he needed to guard against.
Especially after the assassin incident.
What had changed him like this?
“So what will you do, Your Grace? Will you play with the butterfly?”
Renard urged.
His large eyes drooped deliberately.
That expression of a dog begging to go for a walk…
“I’m thinking about it. The butterfly is so pretty.”
I glanced at the butterfly now resting on my shoulder.
But when I said that, the tips of Renard’s ears suddenly turned red.
He coughed awkwardly.
…Why?
Why would calling the butterfly pretty cause that reaction?
“The butterfly… is pretty?”
Renard asked strangely.
At that moment, a thought flashed through my mind.
Don’t tell me… he’s been comparing himself to the butterfly this whole time? And he wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he can control butterflies?
While I was confused, Renard’s ears remained red, as if he had just been called beautiful.
How should I explain that wasn’t what I meant?
Of course, Renard’s beauty far surpassed this butterfly…
“This is the first time I’ve seen such a beautiful butterfly.”
I deliberately emphasized the word butterfly.
Renard seemed to understand and let out an “Ah.”
Then he winked and laughed.
Apparently he also found his misunderstanding amusing.
Suddenly his face brightened, and he closed his book.
“Your Grace, if you like that butterfly, shall I gather that species and build you a greenhouse?”
A greenhouse?
For butterflies?
Like an insect conservatory from the real world?
“So you’re saying you’d create an enclosed space and keep butterflies inside?”
I asked to be sure.
Renard nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes. That way Your Grace could see them whenever you want. I’ll decorate it beautifully.”
Renard seemed rather excited.
Behind him, I could almost imagine a dog’s tail spinning like a helicopter propeller.
Even so, the idea didn’t appeal to me much.
I didn’t have a hobby of confining living creatures.
“Thank you for the offer, but it’s alright. This butterfly is beautiful… but if it had to be trapped just because it’s beautiful, that would be too pitiful.”
“……”
As I gently refused, Renard suddenly fell silent.
Then he asked an even stranger question.
“Your Grace… do you perhaps feel… suffocated?”
Suffocated?
Me?
I really didn’t understand.
When I looked at him, Renard was staring at me with a strangely dejected expression.
The drooping corners of his eyes didn’t seem deliberate this time.
Yet oddly enough, that expression felt dangerously charming to me…
Before I realized it, I had grabbed his face and turned it sideways.
Because it was hard to keep looking straight at him.
His eyes drooped even more sorrowfully.
Only after doing it did I realize I could have just looked away instead.
Sorry, my stray cat…
At that moment, the dog-like Renard once again looked like a cat.
