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The faint moonlight began to shine around Noel, who was already surrounded by darkness.
Even so, his silhouette became a little clearer.
At first glance, Noel seemed to have changed a little.
It also . . . didn’t seem that way?
In any case, months were quite a long time, so it shouldn’t be surprising that things had changed a bit from when he left the mansion.
After a while, a shy voice came from below.
“Looking at you like this . . . For some reason, it’s like that.”
“That?”
“That that. I’ve seen it before.”
Rieta wondered if there was anything similar to this situation.
“Ah.”
Then she remembered the play the Duke had taken her before.
There was a scene where a young man made an eternal pledge to a young lady standing on the second floor terrace.
That was a bit true.
There was a moon in the sky, and there was a young woman who had fallen out of bed as well as a young man who had ridden a long way on horseback.
At first glance, it was similar.
“But the young man in the story was the most handsome man in town.”
“Why don’t you tell me that the girl in the story was also the prettiest girl in town?”
After exchanging similar words to each other, they chuckled together and laughed.
“I have to go now.”
Noel looked at the moon in the sky and frowned slightly.
He barely found time to come. How did time go by so quickly?
“Already?”
Noel laughed a little at Rieta’s answer.
Perhaps it was because he was happy that she didn’t want him to go.
“Yeah, I’m very busy, as I told you.”
Noel took a few more steps back.
As the angle of looking up changed, Rieta’s face became clearer.
Naughty little girl.
When he saw her sometimes, she was surprisingly pretty.
He frowned slightly.
He wondered if it would have been okay if he didn’t have to look at her like that.
He didn’t know why he felt that way, though.
“Rieta.”
“Yes?”
“Happy birthday.”
Noel was about to add something else, feeling embarrassed.
After all, this word is the most important right now.
“I hope you had a good day today.”
“It was . . . fun.”
“If I had time, I would have asked what happened. Because Brother must have done well.”
“Of course, Darrel is always nice to me, but you know.”
Rieta was now able to smile as usual.
It was probably because the anger that had built up in her mind for so long had finally melted.
“It was fun meeting Noel.”
“Of course, as much as your thumb, right?”
At his question, Rieta looked down at her five fingers.
When she was not accustomed to the Imperial language and the two talked about amounts or quantities, they used their fingers to express it.
And now, expressions such as ‘as much as your thumb’ or ‘as much as your little finger’ had become a special language for the two of them.
Words that included all the times one misses.
“. . . Yes.”
Rieta answered in a low voice.
But she stood far away, worried that Noel would hear her, so she answered again.
“That’s right, as much as my thumb!”
The answer seemed to have been good.
Noel’s low laugh came.
“. . . Really stupid.”
He didn’t know why, but he tacked on a silly joke.
Rieta tried to argue, but she stopped.
He somehow didn’t seem like he was talking to himself
“Then I will go.”
“Oh, Noel!”
Rieta stretched her legs out and pushed her body out of the window.
To a somewhat closer position.
“Why?”
“Sometimes, when you come back to the mansion. I have something to do with you.”
“To do? What?”
Learning how to behave in a way that would appeal to the soon-to-be-appearing female lead.
Of course, she couldn’t say that, so Rieta was just talking around in moderation.
“Just, this and that.”
“Alright. Since the Princess has said that, I will take the time to see you as much as I can.”
After he answered, she heard footsteps moving away a little.
Perhaps he left the horse to the gatekeeper.
Rieta suddenly thought that she needed to run to the garden right now.
Because she wanted to talk a little more with Noel.
“. . .”
But as she leaned her cheek against the window sill, she decided to just let him go.
He said he was busy.
There would be a delay if Rieta interrupted him, who was in a hurry.
“See you again, Noel.”
Rieta gave a cautious goodbye to the increasingly faint sounds of his footsteps.
And she yawned slightly.
She didn’t even count sheep, but for some reason a sweet sleep came over her.
After she waited for there to be no more sound coming from the garden, she closed the window.
After she collapsed onto the bed with a groan, she immediately fell into a very deep sleep.