Honey, I Believe That’s Your Misunderstanding

Grace couldn’t keep up with the conversation. He was being so mysterious that all she could think about was the time they had played twenty questions.

In the meantime, Grace’s cheeks went bright red the moment she heard Lucas say, ‘If you keep being cute…’ The words kept ringing in her head.

“Pardon me, I’m a little embarrassed right now and I don’t quite understand. What do you mean by that, Your Excellency?”

—Why is it that you keep setting fire to people’s hearts? What’s up with that? It’s very, very troubling. Is arson one of your hobbies?

No, seriously. What does he mean?

Just now he said that she was cute, then he suddenly mentioned a wild boar, and this time it was arson.

Grace was so flustered that she couldn’t help but ask.

“Fire? Me? Arson? I, when did I…”

When she asked back nervously, Lucas remained silent for a moment.

With the tone of his voice enough to convey his smile, Lucas spoke.

—The fire I’m talking about isn’t that kind of fire…

“Then what exactly… Ah!”

Grace covered her lips with a hand, one thought flashing through her mind.

‘Then His Excellency means I keep lighting his heart on fire…’

It must be that.

Grace inwardly gasped.

“…No, all of a sudden… How can you say such a thing to a lady?”

It’s embarrassing.

No one was looking, but she hid her face behind Grandel’s encyclopedia and drew out a long breath.

She had felt it last time, but it truly seemed like Lucas Blacke was fond of her.

…A little more than she thought.

Grace’s heart started pounding helplessly each time she acknowledged it.

She didn’t even have feelings for her, but why was it that her heart was beating fast and her face was turning red?

—Grace?

Grace couldn’t answer even as his voice called out to her.

‘…What on earth is wrong with me. Seriously, it’s all so confusing.’

After being able to interact with him closely, he certainly wasn’t as terrifying as she had originally thought.

If one could just see through his intimidatingly sharp impression, it would be possible to see just how warm and kind he was.

So, Grace kept straying.

Initially, she was firm on her decision to break up this marriage. However, as time went on, it had come to the point that maybe, just maybe, she’d want to get married to this man.

‘Have I always been this weak?’

Unknowingly, she sighed because of the tingly feeling on the left side of her chest.

—…Grace? Can you not hear me again?

Grace continued to say nothing, face tightly buried between her knees as she crouched down.

She couldn’t bring herself to speak, lest she might make a mistake and he’d hear just how much her voice would tremble.

* * *

“Khhhk, ptoo.”

As soon as Kafrenn O’Ellin left the Heath Intelligence Bureau, he spat loudly onto the ground.

Watching him from a window on the third floor, the white-haired young man smirked.

“What an adorable old geezer.”

Leaning against the window with arms crossed, a thin blanket was soon brought over to that person’s shoulders.

“You’ll catch a cold again, Master,” said Yulias.

He murmured softly in return, “It’s hot,” but he did not push the blanket away.

The pale-cheeked, red-eyed man had an alluring, mysterious air to him.

He looked so delicate that he would break, even when left alone. Yet nonetheless, there was a cold aura emanating from him.

It might be due to the man’s enigmatic red eyes, which were in stark contrast to his white hair.

“Yuli, what that guy said… Do you think it’s him?”

“A description like that is not common.”

“Then, did that guy upset the black horse?”

Yulias remained silent.

And her silence meant ‘yes’.

The thin-framed man—that is, Heath Serpiente—silently contemplated while fiddling with the two stones in his hand.

‘The black horse had only ever been angry three times in his entire life, yet he was infuriated enough to suddenly disappear this time. What in the world did that old geezer do?’

Heath was intrigued.

He was, by nature, a curious man. He just had to know everything he wanted to know.

In any case, this involved the seven households, so he should know.

It was also his job to inform the king of this fact.

“Yuli, investigate…”

“I’m already on it, sir. The residence of the black horse is quite well-protected, so it won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best to obtain what’s needed from there.”

“Alright. I’ll wait.”

Heath grinned and sat back against the fluffy chair that’s been especially made for him.

Hundreds of sheets of paper were spread out on the huge mahogany desk before him.

It would take him only ten minutes to read everything and gather all information.

With his pupils contracting, he quickly skimmed through the words on those documents.

As his gaze flitted through the pages, it looked as if he was merely skimming through them. But as a matter of fact, all the information was processed properly in his head.

He was the young household head of the Serpientes, a man who buys and sells information from all over the Zeronium Kingdom—no, actually, from all over the entire continent.

And, exactly one day later.

The name ‘Grace O’Ellin’ reached his ears.

* * *

Grace spent most of her time at Lucas’s study.

Once she was inside, she’d stay there for almost half a day, just reading.

Her entire focus was on reading, taking notes, and acquiring knowledge.

“Then, is there nothing that Your Excellency is afraid of?”

While taking a break from reading a book, she talked to Lucas.

From some point on, it became natural for her to greet him first thing in the morning, right after she had woken up.

Likewise, it became natural for her to hear his voice until the very last moment before she’d fall asleep.

That’s how much she had gotten used to talking to him.

—There’s nothing I’m afraid of, but there are things that I dislike.

“Is that so? Like what?”

—Snakes.

He answered flatly.

—I don’t think I’ll ever match well with snakes.

Hearing the disgust in his voice, Grace chuckled.

Truly, it sounded like he disliked snakes very much.

How many people liked snakes anyway.

‘But I’ve never seen a snake before.’

And she couldn’t really hate something that she had never seen before.

The long, cold-skinned reptile that she knew of wasn’t really just an evil, vicious animal.

Of course, there were snakes that were as big as a house, and those were actually frightening. But she knew that there were no such snakes in this country.

It was endemic to a certain island country in the east, where the rainforests were thick.

Then, did this mean that His Excellency had seen a snake before?

“Have you ever seen one?”

—I’m sorry, Grace. I don’t even want to think about it.

The way he was so serious about this made Grace smile, but she was understanding.

“I see. Then, may I ask what your childhood was like? Oh, come to think of it, what happened to the stuffed bunny? You know, your Bunbun?”

—Please… Just erase that damn stuffed bunny from your memory, Grace.

He sounded frustrated, but Grace couldn’t stop.

“How could you curse at such a precious stuffed toy? You can’t do that.”

Lucas’s sigh deepened as she playfully admonished him.

—I should have thrown that picture away in the first place… If it weren’t for the fact that my mother cherishes it… Haa.

“Pictures are very precious as well, how could you throw one away? Please keep it forever. Never throw it away, Your Excellency.”

—So now you’re also in line to tease me using that picture?

“I’m sorry. But aren’t you just so cute there? I can’t believe there was a time when you were so adorable.”

—…Fine. Whatever you want, Grace. As long as you’re happy, my dark history can just stay…

He answered back with resignation.

By his tone alone, it’s as if he had to go through this several times before.

Grace set down the book she was reading and picked up Lucas’s family photo once more.

Even though she had seen it many times over already, she couldn’t get enough of it.

Stroking the face of the little crying Lucas with her fingertips, Grace looked at the smiling man next to his family, smiling.

 “What kind of person was the previous duke?”

—My father, you mean?

“Yes.”

—Hmm… A fool?

Grace paused, thinking that she might have heard him wrong. Meanwhile, Lucas muttered to himself.

—Right. There’s no other word that’s more appropriate than that. A fool. My father was a fool for his wife and children.

He unhesitatingly called the former Duke Blacke a fool.

Nevertheless, he took on a tone that might sound as if he was saying, ‘My father was a great man’.

“What do you mean by that?”

—You asked me earlier if there’s something I was afraid of, didn’t you, Grace? That should include what I might have feared when I was young.

“Yes.”

—Then, come to think of it, there’s just one thing that I was afraid of.

Where was he going with this? He had just mentioned that his father was a fool for his family, but he’s talking about fears again… What’s with that?

—Five years ago, when my father passed away, I saw my mother cry for the first time.

“…Oh.”

—My mother is a brave, valiant woman, yet she showed such tears for the first time. After that, she did not come out of her room for a whole year as if she had given up on life itself.

It was an unexpected recollection.

Grace quietly listened to his story, trying to keep silent even as she was very shocked.

—At that time, I couldn’t even go inside her room to see her. Even from just outside her door, it was so difficult to bear the weight of her sadness.

“I see.”

—You don’t have to sound so sad, Grace. Fortunately, my mother took a step outside after a year—looking as bright as she once had been. But she had gotten ill because of that year of seclusion, so instead of residing in the capital, she started to stay only at the Duchy.

“But still, it’s a relief.”

—Ever since then, my brother Cain and I had been working hard for our mother. …We don’t want to cause her any trouble.

When he added the last part with a playful tone, Grace chucked slightly. He laughed with her as well.

“Now that you mention it, there’s also your younger brother, Your Excellency.”

—Mm. He likes running away from me, so he rarely ever stays in this mansion. He likes his daily life at the Royal Palace, though he doesn’t really have any grand ambitions.

Lucas murmured as though he couldn’t understand his brother.

“Does he resemble you?”

—Not one bit.

He uttered these words seriously.

This made Grace laugh.

“You say that you don’t, but… It seems to me that you do.”

—It’s only because you don’t know him, Grace. All that punk’s good at is doing pointless things. Even now, he’s not really interested in anyone around him, just chasing after whatever catches his attention. There was one time that he pulled out all the roses from the mansion’s garden all because he wanted to give roses as a gift. Crazy punk. Why did he have to take everything.

Somehow, that sounded… familiar…