Chapter 86
The words he’d whispered so softly kept circling through my mind.
I knew instantly that calling me a “good person” wasn’t just casual praise.
Because the very condition we’d set when we began our fake relationship had been “until you find a good person.”
So Alferen was telling me, plainly, that the person he liked wasn’t Summer—it was me.
At first I thought I must be dreaming.
“W-wait—just a second. Are you saying you… me…?”
“Yes. I like you, Delly.”
But the calm, measured way he answered only made me more frantic.
“Since when?”
I ended up blurting the most idiotic question imaginable.
Thankfully he didn’t seem offended. Instead he considered it seriously before speaking.
“Hmm… maybe it started when you kept bringing home injured animals.”
“…”
“It just dawned on me one day. I felt most like myself—most at ease—when I was beside you. When you weren’t there I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and even when you were, my eyes followed you everywhere. How could I not know what that meant?”
Alferen said the most embarrassing things so effortlessly.
“I waited for you to realize it. I couldn’t tell if you were pretending not to notice or if you genuinely had no idea. Turns out you really didn’t know.”
He brushed his lips self-consciously and let out a shy laugh.
My gaze drifted naturally to his mouth.
“Actually, the fake relationship was just an excuse. I knew you wanted to help me, so I asked on purpose.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed some pretext, any pretext, to stay tangled up with you.”
“…Then the pink diamond ring, too?”
Once the secrets started spilling out, he didn’t hold back.
“That’s right. I designed it thinking of you from the very beginning. Of course, I never planned to hand it over like that. I was pretty desperate myself back then.”
So the ring I’d thought suited my taste so strangely had been meant for me all along.
Alferen liked me.
And for far longer than I could have imagined.
My mind went perfectly blank.
I’d been completely oblivious to his feelings, diligently trying to pair him with someone else.
I’d truly believed our relationship was fake, ended it unilaterally, and then avoided him altogether.
All while nursing the ridiculous notion that if I just stepped aside, he and Summer would be perfect together.
And in the meantime he’d suffered a breakup all alone, feeling pathetic…
“I didn’t know.”
I hadn’t even looked properly at my own heart—how could I possibly have seen his?
Besides, I’d spent the entire time thinking in terms of the original story.
This world was my life, yet at the same time it was the inside of a book I’d read.
“It’s true. I really…”
I looked away and let the words trail off. Just as I reached to touch my burning cheeks,
it happened to be the hand he was holding, so his hand came along with mine.
“Ah.”
Startled, I blinked rapidly, and he cupped my cheek, drawing me in close.
Close enough that I could no longer avoid his eyes.
“So now you know?”
My heart hammered wildly at the question, as though he needed confirmation.
“Y-yeah.”
“And your answer?”
“Huh?”
Even though all I managed were stupid little sounds, Alferen waited patiently.
More accurately, he knew exactly how to push me.
He pressed his forehead to mine and closed the distance until it felt a kiss could happen any second.
“I just confessed to you.”
“…”
“I’m dying to know how you feel.”
His breath tickled the tip of my nose.
His deep gaze pleaded for me with quiet desperation.
In the end, Alferen had liked me from the start, while I’d been forcibly trying to attach Summer to him.
The realization that I’d misread everything from the very beginning and dug myself into a hopeless mess made my head spin.
The instant I laid my hand over his,
he brushed a light kiss against my lips and whispered,
“I like you. I only see you—other women don’t even register.”
“…”
“I won’t beg you to accept me. Just please don’t tell me to be nice to someone else. That really would drive me mad.”
A pleading murmur.
His voice trembled, and through it his sincerity reached me so clearly.
He was still afraid I might reject him—it hurt to see it.
When I realized how cruel I’d been all this time, the words came on their own.
“Actually, I was regretting it too. I kept thinking I shouldn’t have agreed to your request that day.”
At the word regret, Alferen’s face hardened.
He started to pull away with a pained expression, but I clung closer.
I looked straight into his eyes and said,
“The contract relationship with you was genuinely fun.”
“…”
“I think I liked you too. The moment I realized it, I panicked and ran. I was terrified it was one-sided. …Am I really that terrible?”
I tried to laugh it off, awkward and joking.
In that instant Alferen’s composure collapsed—actually, it had started crumbling the moment I said I liked him.
As if he’d been waiting forever, he pulled me into a fierce embrace.
I burrowed into his arms in one swift motion and was met by the thunder of his heart.
It pounded like an earthquake; he must have been every bit as nervous as I was.
“Not at all. If anyone’s at fault, it’s me for confessing so late.”
He took even my mistakes onto himself and gently stroked the back of my head.
“Then you won’t avoid me anymore?”
A faint thread of doubt lingered in the question, as though he couldn’t fully believe without hearing it again.
I rubbed my cheek against his shoulder to reassure him.
“Yeah. I’m going to stay stuck to you just like this.”
I settled quietly into his arms.
It was almost funny.
Something that could be confirmed so easily—why had I agonized over it alone for so long?
When you like someone, your vision narrows until even the clearest signs disappear.
You attach meaning to every little gesture, misinterpret, and end up disappointed—that must be it.
I looked up at Alferen and declared,
“From now on we’re dating for real. No more fake.”
“…”
“Of course, to everyone else it’ll probably look like we fought and made up…”
Before I could finish the sentence,
Alferen lowered his head and kissed me.
Our lips met softly, parted, met again. Our eyes locked and smiles escaped, but soon quiet settled.
A moment later our heads tilted, and he kissed me more deeply.
The hand cradling my chin remained careful, but there was none of the earlier hesitation.
Once we stripped away the “fake” from our fake relationship, it felt as though we were truly beginning to date—my heart raced so hard I thought I might die of excitement.
Every detail of Alferen sharpened into vivid focus.
The warmth of fingertips grazing my cheek.
Breaths intertwining deeply.
Deep eyes that looked at me with desperate longing.
The soft rustle of movement, louder in my ears than the distant noise of the banquet hall.
Everything felt like a dream.
In my eyes there was only Alferen.
* * *
After we’d confirmed our feelings and shared kisses, an unfamiliar awkwardness drifted between us.
But it wasn’t unpleasant.
Even this awkwardness made my heart flutter—I really was incurable.
Then Alferen smiled brightly and asked in a low voice,
“Delly, how should we get revenge on that bastard?”
His eyes were tender, but the words were anything but. He was clearly still carrying Cesare in his heart.
Truth be told, the incident had opened my eyes as well. Cesare wasn’t the sort to stop just because you left him alone.
He had far more pride than I’d realized, and he seemed to harbor a deep grudge over my rejection.
Seeing him openly display hostility in a public setting while drunk meant letting it slide would be far too dangerous.
At that moment Alferen muttered darkly,
“Maybe a duel after all.”
“Come on—you and swords don’t exactly go together.”
“Then with magic…”
“Are you seriously saying you’ll break Magic Tower regulations and use magic on a civilian, Tower Lord?”
“But you almost got hurt. I can’t just let it pass.”
His voice was still thick with anger as he toyed gently with my hand,
as though holding it was the only thing keeping him steady.
To lighten the mood I teased,
“We were marked by that side from the beginning anyway. Nanael, Cesare—both of them.”
“So you want to just overlook it?”
“Of course not. Moments like this call for a thoroughly aristocratic response.”
