“Kasha! You’re awake?”
Daryl rushed to the bedside as though his legs had carried him there before he’d even thought to move. Kasha blinked at him, faintly bewildered. Had they not been nearly strangers to each other until just a few weeks ago?
And yet a few weeks of kind treatment is all it takes for him to worry about me like this.
Truly, her half-brother was far too simple-natured.
I hope no one ever tries to swindle him.
Kasha nodded, expression still slightly unsettled.
“I’m… fine. Thanks to Sir Leon.”
Through the room she could see Leon’s broad back — and she watched it give an almost imperceptible flinch. He was probably wondering how much of their conversation she had overheard.
She took stock of herself and noticed at once that her body felt completely restored — as though she had shed some great weight she hadn’t known she’d been carrying.
So this is the power of holy energy.
Even the persistent low-back ache that had plagued her for years from sitting hunched over her desk — that was gone too.
But how did he channel it? He would have had to make contact with my body.
She studied the solid, unyielding line of his back through narrowed eyes.
Then Daryl spoke again.
“Thank goodness, Kasha. I was genuinely worried. You don’t have to worry about anything now.” He paused, then shifted his tone abruptly — warm to cold in the span of a single breath. “Sir Leon.”
He turned to face Leon with all the warmth of a winter gale.
“You may go now. I trust you’ve understood everything I said.”
“Brother.”
The quiet, resolute sound of Kasha’s voice made Daryl glance back at her.
“What is it?”
“Please don’t… speak to Sir Leon like that.”
If you drive him away, my entire plan falls apart.
Kasha blinked at Daryl with what she hoped was a meaningful, pleading expression — but he didn’t pick up on any of it. If anything, his voice only rose.
“Don’t speak to Sir Leon like that — what do you mean by that? Did something happen between you two? What about Simon — what about that —” He caught himself mid-word. “What about him?”
The moment the name Simon left Daryl’s lips, Kasha’s face went colder than the northern snowfields. Daryl faltered visibly.
She met his gaze and spoke with slow, deliberate weight, each word pressed carefully into place.
“Brother. Simon — that man — is a very, very… bad person. From now on, please make absolutely sure he is never allowed to set foot in our estate again.”
At her words, Leon — still standing at some distance — turned quietly.
Daryl noticed the way Kasha’s pink eyes had darkened with something that looked like fury, and he matched her tone, lowering his voice accordingly.
“What do you mean? A bad person — did he do something to you?”
“That is… something I’ll tell you later. Either way, today — if it hadn’t been for Sir Leon — I really would have been in serious trouble.”
“Well — yes, but — fine. Gratitude is gratitude, and I’ll see to it that Sir Leon is properly thanked.”
“There’s no need for thanks.”
Leon’s quiet voice came from behind them, but Daryl pointedly raised his own to speak over it.
“Regardless, I’ll handle that myself — you just lie back down. We’ve brought a healer, so there’s no reason for Sir Leon to remain any longer.”
“Ah — well — whether there’s anything more for me to do…”
The healer scratched the back of his head in mortified uncertainty, but when Daryl shot him a glare, he shuffled obediently toward Kasha’s bedside.
Kasha pressed on, doing her best to reason with her brother.
“Brother, please — just for a moment. Could you step out? There’s something I really need to say to Sir Leon…”
“No!”
Daryl’s voice boomed through the room with startling force. Kasha, Leon, the healer, and Sena all flinched in unison.
“You are a lady of the Rüschino household. You have the right to be respected and treated with care by everyone who knows you. Anyone who would allow you to become fodder for idle tongues — I don’t care who it is — I will not stand for it.”
Kasha recognized the sincerity in Daryl’s voice and expression, and let her eyes wander while she thought.
He’s not going to budge on this easily. What do I do? If Sir Leon leaves now, there’s no telling when another opportunity might arise…
From what she had managed to overhear from the moment she came to, she understood well enough what it was Daryl feared.
In a way, she found it oddly touching — that he thought of her so highly.
The problem was that Leon had no reason to stay here and continue absorbing this treatment.
Her mind worked quickly, searching.
“I — Brother. Actually, there’s something I’ve been making. An artifact — and Sir Leon said he knows a blacksmith he could introduce me to…”
“What? A blacksmith? Why would you need to be introduced to one through Sir Leon? Our family has its own blacksmith — the one who supplies weapons to the Red Bull of Rüschino. His skill goes without saying. I’ll introduce you to him tomorrow.”
“…….”
Kasha stared at her brother, self-satisfied and perfectly earnest, and felt something very close to despair.
“Brother. Please don’t do this.”
“Absolutely not, Kasha. You are a noblewoman of marriageable age. Without my express permission, you are not to spend time alone with any man, under any circumstances whatsoever.”
Whatsoever.
Daryl turned to face Leon as he said it, making certain the words landed squarely on him as well.
And then —
Leon, who had maintained silence throughout all of this, took one step forward.
“Then consider this.”
His voice was low and measured. Daryl squared his shoulders as though determined not to be diminished by it.
“What?”
“What if your sister and I were in a formal, recognized courtship?”
“…What?”
Daryl shot to his feet as though he’d been told something utterly incomprehensible.
He crossed the room to Leon in a few long strides and planted himself squarely in Leon’s face, close enough that it might have been mistaken for a challenge to a duel.
“What did you just say, Sir?”
“I said I wish to formally court the Viscount’s sister.”
“That is…”
A cold violet gaze and two burning green ones clashed with an almost audible crackle of tension.
The air that two large men in a standoff produces is not a gentle thing. Every other person in the room stopped breathing.
“Is this a joke?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“I said it clearly, and you heard me. The Grand Duke of Osilot and the Tyrot Ducal family are in the middle of betrothal negotiations.”
“Those negotiations are being conducted without my agreement. I will make my position unambiguously clear to my father today.”
“Ha. This is absolutely…”
Daryl let out a scornful exhale through his nose.
“…….”
But Leon held perfectly still, watching him with unblinking eyes.
Daryl caught himself. Noted the seriousness in that expression. And slowly, his own face creased into a deep frown.
“You want to court my sister — Kasha? Formally?”
“…Yes.”
Leon’s answer came slowly, but without hesitation.
The room held its breath.
Sena’s eyes brightened and she pressed her hands together. The healer stared wide-eyed, gaze darting between Leon, Daryl, and Kasha in rapid succession.
After a brief silence, Daryl collected himself and turned around.
“Kasha. Is this — is what Sir Leon is saying something you already know about? Is what he’s saying something you’ve agreed to?”
Despite the bluntness of the phrasing, Leon didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.
Kasha looked at Leon for a long moment. Then she opened her mouth slowly.
“Yes. It’s something we agreed to together.”
To be precise — it was a contract I proposed first.
From somewhere in the room came the muffled sound of Sena choking back a cry of delight.
And Kasha exhaled, deep inside herself, in enormous, quiet relief.
That exhausted, wary beast has finally stepped into my territory.
After a little more commotion — and after Daryl, the healer, and even Sena had been firmly ushered out — the bedroom fell into a stillness so complete it felt almost unreal.
“…….”
Kasha composed herself and offered Leon a chair. He came forward and sat, and was the first to speak.
“Very well. I’ll do it — the contract, as you wanted.”
“You’re saying… you’ll enter a contractual romance with me?”
“That’s what I said.”
“…Thank you.”
She said it with such unguarded relief on her face that Leon momentarily forgot what he’d been meaning to say.
He had intended to warn her — that agreeing to this didn’t mean he had lowered his guard, that he intended to watch her every move and uncover her true motives. Something along those lines.
But Kasha, still pale from her earlier collapse, let her shoulders drop and looked at him with such complete, undefended openness —
She looked nothing like a woman orchestrating some elaborate scheme. And so the words simply would not come.
Kasha’s eyes lit up as she spoke.
“Then I’ll start looking for a way to break the curse right away. I’d like to come to the Grand Duke’s estate as early as tomorrow — there’s a good chance it’s hidden somewhere in an everyday object in a personal space like your bedroom.”
She’s barely stuttering at all right now.
Leon noticed it quietly.
It was the first time since meeting her that he had heard her speak at such length — so clearly, with such fluency.
There was a brightness to her in this moment that he found, inexplicably, pleasant to look at. The recognition irritated him.
He forced himself back to the matter at hand.
“Tomorrow may be difficult.”
“Why?”
“If I tell my father today that I’m withdrawing from the Tyrot engagement, the atmosphere in the estate will likely be rather unpleasant for a while. He’ll do everything in his power to change my mind.”
Leon’s father, Grand Duke Osilot, was already in a precarious position. There was a reason he had been pushing the betrothal negotiations forward without even consulting Leon’s wishes.
His father would not relinquish the lifeline that the Tyrot Ducal family represented without a fight.
“Will you… be all right?”
Kasha asked, and for some reason her stutter had crept back. He was about to look at her and say something when —
Bang.
The door flew open with aggressive force, and Daryl reappeared.
He swept a quick, assessing gaze over them both — and visibly relaxed at the lack of any physical contact between them.
He then came striding toward them with something in his hand, which he shook in the air.
“Brother. Again — what is it?”
Kasha’s sharp question made Daryl pause — but only slightly. He squared his shoulders and held the paper out toward Leon.
“…What is this?”
“An invitation to a hunting competition.”
“A hunting competition?”
“Surely you know of the imperial hunting competition that’s soon to be held.”
“I’m asking why you’re giving it to me.”
“You’ve been throwing around talk of formal courtship, Sir — but if you truly mean to pursue my sister in earnest, you’ll need to silence those loose tongues in society first.”
Leon raised one gold eyebrow.
“How?”
“Attend the hunting competition as my sister’s official partner.”
Leon’s eyes widened slightly. So did Kasha’s.
“In front of everyone present — present your quarry to my sister as tribute.”
“……!”
In other words — make a public declaration of courtship before all of society.
“Do that, and I’ll believe you. Believe in your sincerity.”
A slow, satisfied smile curved the corner of Daryl’s mouth.
He looked, in that moment, very much like a bear who had unexpectedly managed a clever trick and was quietly proud of himself.
