“Olivia is a common name, so it might not be the case.”
“But it would be rare for someone with her nanny’s name to come to Blie.”
As if he could see through my anxiety, Rhodnes spoke and slowly got out of bed.
“Roan!”
"Yes?"
The sunlight pouring in through the window clearly illuminated his back as he headed toward the entrance. The shadows on his tightly muscled body grew darker.
"Clothes!"
"Ah."
His bright blond hair, unlike my occasionally disheveled hair, sparkled calmly as if nothing had happened.
Roughly brushing back his hair, Rhodnes smiled a charming smile that made people dizzy, then took his share of the blanket, wrapped it roughly around his waist, and walked to the entrance.
I heard a servant gasp as he came to deliver breakfast at the door. He took the tray and began to set it one by one on the tea table.
“Come out, Adrienne. Let’s have breakfast.”
“More than that. I need to tell Victor that I’m going to Elacon as soon as possible.”
As I groaned and tried to get up, enduring the pain that felt like my whole body had been beaten, Rhodnes came up to me.
The blanket draped precariously over his body clearly showed off his prominent pelvis.
As soon as I turned my head, my face flushed, and I woke up with a thud.
“I already sent someone while you were washing up yesterday.”
"What?"
Without giving me a chance to say anything, Rhodnes lightly hugged me, covered me with the blanket, and sat me down at the tea table.
As I held on to the blanket that was about to slip off and hurriedly wrapped it around my shoulders, Rhodnes snickered and ruffled my hair.
“Ephero will take care of all the difficult preparations, so eat first. I need to fatten you up.”
Before I knew it, Rhodnes had pulled the chair across from me over to sit down next to me and pushed soup and white bread in front of me.
“You were planning to send me to Elacon? From the beginning?”
In a daze, I asked him while dipping my hands in a bowl of water and washing them.
“If you weren’t the type of person to go when I told you to, I wouldn’t have had this much of a headache.”
“I’m surprised, honestly. It happened so quickly...”
“I’m good at work.”
Rhodnes wiped every nook and cranny of my hands with the handkerchief that was on the tray.
I flinched for no reason as I remembered the touch of his hand last night, but every time I did, he would firmly hold my hand and wipe it, so my hands quickly became soft.
“While I’m at Elacon, I’d like to meet that woman, either Olive or Olivia.”
Rhodnes, who had been watching me patiently to see if I had anything to eat, poured one of the wines that had been placed as a decoration and drank it from the bottle.
Every time he raised his head and took a sip of the bottle, I shook my head quickly as the afterimages of last night came back to me. The thick throat of the wine gulping down stung my eyes.
I gulped down water out of thirst and reached out to chew the wheat bread aggressively. As soon as I took a bite, the buttery scent filled my mouth, as if Rhodnes had spread butter on it.
“Anyway, once Elacon and Ephero pack up their luggage and everything, we’ll leave right away.”
“Are you really going with me?”
“I told His Majesty that I would go and check on the possibility that the Elacons might do something rash while taking advantage of my brother’s death.”
“He gave you permission?”
Rhodnes stared at my worried face and then took another sip of wine.
“Not yet. But there are only two remaining successors, Ephero and I. What good would come from provoking me unnecessarily?”
“I think His Majesty might be more worried about the two remaining successors going abroad.”
I pushed the half-empty plate away and rinsed my mouth. As if he had been waiting, Rhodnes handed me a napkin and furrowed his brows as if remembering something.
“That bastard. No, I can’t help but follow him because his words are so annoying.”
"Yes?"
After confirming that I had finished eating, Rhodnes hugged me again.
“Your face is my type and all, how can you spend time with that dog, that nonsense guy? That Elacon guy follows you around like a puppy.”
Rhodnes muttered, unable to hide his anger, and laid me down on the bed.
I rolled my eyes, not knowing what to say, but then I suddenly came to my senses thinking that Ephero and his party might come to the Grand Duke's residence soon.
“Then, I should get ready too. I don’t know when he’ll come...”
“You don’t need to prepare anything, just go. Everyone in this mansion except you knows we’re going on a long journey.”
So, that means I have some time.
Rhodnes added, slowly gathering up the blanket I had wrapped myself in and climbing onto the bed.
“Roan, I can definitely say that yesterday was my first time...”
“...Me too.”
When he picked me up, I realized what the sound of something hitting my chin was.
When I turned my gaze a little, I saw that his blanket had fallen to the floor.
“This is my first time too, Rien.”
A voice much lower than before soaked my whole body. His shadow completely covered me.
As I flinched at the sensation of his hot, hard body, Rhodnes's lips soothingly moved down my eyes, cheeks, and mouth, and then down to the nape of my neck.
The strong scent of the wine he had just drunk lingered throughout his body.
“I still miss you...”
"Ah."
“Do you know how cute your mouth moves when you eat? If you knew, you wouldn’t be able to tell me not to do it.”
After a deep sigh and the words pouring out, hot lips took possession of me.
Me too.
'Actually, ever since you started drinking alcohol like it was water, I wanted to hang around your neck and kiss you.'
I didn't even have a chance to say something like that.
It felt like the wine he had drunk was flowing into my head as my thoughts flew away.
The blanket I had taken from him passed over his back and covered both of us.
It was a morning when the inside of the white blanket became a sweet and sour wine barrel, and I felt like I had fallen into it.
***
Bianca, who attended the Crown Prince's funeral, felt strange.
“Madam, what’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable?”
From the welcoming ceremony for Prince Ephero to the social activities as a representative of the East in place of the busy Gregory, she felt a similar sense of uneasiness that day as she does now.
“Lily. Do you remember the welcoming ceremony for Prince Ephero?”
“Yes, both you and I were surprised. How could the royal family, who had never seen the Eastern social circles before, decorate themselves so well in the Eastern style?”
It was said that Crown Prince Bardenaldo, or rather his aide, had done it in place of the busy royal ladies. And how furious Bianca was when she found out that the aide's true identity was Blie Acacia, that woman who was so damned delicious that she couldn't even chew her up.
However, knowing the true feelings of the central nobles who were wary of the East, Bianca could not say anything to the woman openly like she did at the Grand Duchess' residence.
The plan was to simply stay quietly until the Emperor's birthday and then leave after stamping the Eastern Empire's participation in a major imperial event.
When Bianca heard the news that the Crown Prince was in critical condition and passed away within a day, she attended the funeral in a frenzy.
But Bianca was so shocked to see the woman next to Prince Ephero that she forgot that it was a funeral and almost screamed.
'Adrienne!'
Bianca couldn't take her eyes off the woman throughout the funeral, screaming the name of the dead Adrienne and holding back the urge to run towards her.
When people later asked who the woman who had been by Prince Ephero's side was, they naturally said that she was Blie Acacia.
A witness to the assassination of the Crown Prince by Grand Duke Noevian, and the Crown Prince's aide who was almost killed along with him.
But Bianca just couldn't admit it.
That woman was clearly Adrienne, not Blie.
She had been seeing Adrienne in and out of the Piretta mansion ever since Adrienne was a little child when she first saw a book and began to read it word for word.
In a household without a mother or sisters, Bianca looked after Adrienne as she grew up in a way that her older brother Gregory could not.
Perhaps more than her blood-related father or older brother, Bianca was Adrienne's closest family member.
No matter how similar Blie looked, even if she dyed her hair blonde for a moment to dazzle people, she couldn't fool Bianca's eyes.
Bianca saw Adrienne's body with her own eyes, and even attended the funeral and watched it being buried in the ground.
Bianca felt the urge to check again, even if everyone in the world was crazy about her.
“Madam! Madam, please! I’d rather do it myself!”
“Get out of the way, Lily!”
“Exhuming the corpse of a member of the royal family is punishable by death, even if you are a great noble like the Duke of Piretta!”
On the night of the funeral, Bianca couldn't sleep and ended up sneaking into the cemetery of the Grand Duchy of Trovica.
The few guards guarding the place left without much suspicion after hearing that Bianca, a member of the Grand Duchess's family and a noblewoman, wanted to mourn the deceased in private and in exchange for a small amount of money.
“Even if I am punished by the Lord for digging up a grave, and even if the imperial family finds out about this and tries to punish me... Just say that Bianca Piretta is actually a crazy woman who did such a thing. If I alone become a crazy woman, at least I won’t be a burden to Piretta.”
“Madam, madam, please. If the little Duke knows...”
“If Gregory had seen that woman, he would have understood what I was thinking. No, he would have dug up this place too.”
The aftereffects of losing his only sister so easily did not go away easily, so Gregory would sometimes go to Adrienne's room to be alone.
Bianca, recalling that lonely back view, gritted her teeth and picked up the shovel.
It seemed too hideous for a noble lady to bear, but she paid it no mind.
The maid Lily stamped her feet and watched the net to see if anyone would come.
How much time has passed like that?
An eerie laugh poured out from Bianca's lips as she silently dug into the grave.
“No... no, Lily!”
"Lady?"
“There’s nobody! There’s no Rien! Someone stole Rien! What did I tell you? I told you something was wrong?”
Bianca crawled up onto the sunken ground.
Lily reached out and pulled her up.
Bianca's dress, which had collapsed on the floor due to the recoil, was covered in mud from the rain the day before.
“Blie Acacia. I have to meet that woman again.”
Bianca warned her not to show up in front of her, but now that it has come to this, she can't help but meet that woman.
No, she had a strong instinct that she had to meet her.
The next morning.
Bianca's heart grew anxious when a rumor suddenly spread that Elacon had specially invited the Second Prince and Blie.
When she heard that she was going to leave for Elacon from the Grand Duke of Trovica's mansion, she got on her horse and rode off without even properly dressing up her hair.
Already in the middle of the procession of wagons, the Grand Duke's carriage, surrounded by several layers of escort, was passing through the north gate of the capital.
Bianca ran like crazy on her horse and chased the carriage.
As soon as they left the center of the capital, the guards, who were on guard thinking they were meeting assassins, were surprised to see a small woman chasing the carriage and gave chase.
The carriage at the center of the commotion finally stopped, and a woman with blond hair that flowed like honey appeared inside.
“...Adrienne.”
It was clear Adrienne.
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