40.
It was the most emotionally charged answer I’d ever received to the many similar questions I had asked him until now.
A captivating smile followed—one that momentarily made me forget the very question I had just asked.
The violet eyes I faced wavered slightly before turning away.
As I watched them shyly retreat, I replayed the words Everett had just uttered in my head.
‘I like you.’
Everett’s pupils were trembling, perhaps even more violently than my own.
Until about thirty seconds ago, I remembered exactly what I had asked him. It was common for Everett to take a moment before answering questions about his preferences. But the moment he looked at me and said, ‘I like you,’ all of that evaporated into thin air.
That single phrase was the only thing circling in my mind.
‘Why would you say you like flowers with such a heart-fluttering tone?’
Without realizing it, I avoided his gaze.
‘Don’t think what you want to hear, Carolina Diaz.’
Everett only said he liked roses. But the misunderstanding was so intoxicating that I couldn’t regain my senses. I prayed that my heart, which was beating with such oblivious intensity, wouldn’t be heard by him.
*Hoo, hah. Hoo, hah.*
As I turned away and stole a deep breath, Everett, sensing the awkward atmosphere, hurriedly added,
“So, roses are…”
“That’s right, roses are…”
As we awkwardly picked up the conversation, we began to competitively list the merits of roses.
“They are beautiful.”
“And they smell lovely, too.”
‘What is this?’
I glanced sideways at Everett.
‘I’m ruined.’
Everett looked just as embarrassed and flustered. His gaze darted everywhere, and his cheeks were flushed.
‘Ah.’
An awkward, tingling silence wrapped around us.
I desperately searched for a topic to break the tension, but nothing sharp came to mind. It seemed Everett, who wasn’t particularly eloquent, was in the same boat. For a long while, we couldn’t even look at each other properly, just parting our lips and saying nothing.
“Uh…”
Then, Everett called out to me cautiously, as if he had braced himself for something.
‘It seems he forgot what he wanted to say now that he’s actually about to say it.’
It appeared the shy man had gathered his courage with great difficulty to break the ice, only to fail. If we stayed quiet like this, the air would become suffocating.
It was my turn to step in.
I decided to act as if nothing was wrong and end our time together for the day. To ease Everett’s burden. And for the sake of my own peace of mind.
“I should head back before it gets too late.”
I offered a random excuse—that there were no office buildings on this side and it might become troublesome if we ran into patrolling soldiers—and Everett let out a short sigh, his face looking somewhat deflated.
After staring into the empty air with hollow eyes for a moment, he reached out his hand.
“Let’s head back.”
‘Well done, Carolina.’
Walking diligently would at least make the silence less awkward. Feeling slightly proud of myself, I placed my hand over Everett’s.
Perhaps knights had excellent night vision, for he navigated the darkened garden with ease, nimbly dodging the rose vines that had spread onto the path. However, as if lost in deep thought, Everett didn’t open his mouth once. He even looked a little dejected.
It was a quiet journey home.
“Good morning.”
I’d tossed and turned until just before dawn. Therefore, only the last five characters of the seven-character greeting were true.
As I entered the office, delivering a greeting that was about 71% sincere, the atmosphere in the room felt off.
‘What is it? Why are they gathered and whispering again?’
It made me anxious from the very start of the day. As I rolled my eyes, trying to gauge the situation, Connie, who had arrived earlier, slipped over to me. As someone with a quick ear for news, she seemed to have already grasped the incident that had swept through the office.
‘What happened?’
I mouthed the question at Connie. Reading my lips, she quietly linked her arm with mine and gestured for us to head outside. I followed her in silence, and only when we were quite far from the office did she open her mouth.
“Wait a second.”
I wasn’t usually one to care much about other people’s eyes. But Connie, who had cared even less since the Donovan incident, kept checking to see if anyone was around, which only made me more nervous.
“What is it?”
I poked Connie’s side as I asked. Even after confirming no one was passing by, she lowered her voice to a whisper.
“You know, the talk about the royal marriage? It’s not about the Crown Princess of Bellot and His Majesty the Emperor.”
Deep down, I had suspected as much.
‘If it were a marriage between the Crown Princess and the Emperor, Everett wouldn’t have shown such distaste for her in front of me.’
Aside from his personal preferences, he would have shown some level of respect for the person meant to marry his liege. The rumors had also been dying down lately.
‘If the royal marriage were true, it would be much more chaotic by now.’
“Oh, really?”
When my reaction was weaker than Connie expected, she scratched her cheek as if she felt let down.
“You didn’t believe those rumors either, did you? Well, I suppose the Crown Princess and the Emperor were a bit of an ill-fitting pair.”
‘To be precise, I was someone who wavered, thinking, “Could it be…?”’
But it was a waste of time to explain my thought process now. I hadn’t seen either of them, so I couldn’t judge whether they matched or not.
“But is this really something that needs to be discussed outside the office? Is there more to it?”
Even when the rumor first broke, the office had been buzzing. People talked about it openly during lunch hours or tea breaks. Since it was accepted as mere gossip, it wasn’t exactly a subject that required extreme caution.
“Of course. Do you think I would have asked you to come out just for that?”
Connie, having captured my attention with her teasing style, began her explanation like a storyteller reciting the climax of a novel.
“The royal marriage itself is a matter between the Crown Princess and an Imperial noble. I heard who the candidates were, but that’s not important, so let’s gloss over it.”
Connie paused, perhaps to build tension.
“This is where it gets important…”
She still hadn’t lost her playfulness even in this situation, making the pause a bit long.
‘What is this, a cliffhanger?’
“So, what’s the important story?”
“Well, you see…”
Only just before my patience wore thin did Connie speak.
“A few days ago at the conference, the royal marriage with Bellot was brought up as a topic, and the nobles, thinking it was an opportunity, seemed to have badgered His Majesty the Emperor, insisting he take a consort.”
As she got to the main point, the playfulness slowly faded from Connie’s face. I could guess the severity of the situation. I quietly waited for her to continue.
“In the end, His Majesty, who had grown angry…”
Connie’s voice dropped to a whisper. Tense, I couldn’t even breathe properly, urging her on. She checked our surroundings once more before leaning in close.
“They say he drew his sword and told them to shut their mouths if they didn’t want to die. Apparently, someone saw a swarm of palace servants rushing over. They said the atmosphere was incredibly tense.”
Seeing her whisper so quickly and then pull away, I wondered if this was really something that needed to be said outside the office in a deserted area.
“Sword-drawing?”
I unconsciously repeated Connie’s words, then flinched. In the Empire, there was no such thing as ‘complaining about the King behind his back’; instead, there was the strict crime of insulting the Imperial family.
“For real?”
I asked back, my voice hushed, and Connie simply nodded.
“I heard a few nobles ended up being carried out.”
‘The Emperor’s marriage discussed at the conference? This, could it be…’
A scene suddenly flashed through my mind.