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Shannon stared at the confused Reukis strangely.
Her gaze veered off Reukis, and rested somewhere behind.
It was where Helena’s tail, which had been following her, was hiding.
Shannon already knew that Helena would be watching her.
‘It’s something I’ve done a lot in the past.’
Helena was a very secretive and vigilant person.
Therefore, even when working under Helena, she only heard limited information.
Fortunately, the rate of her loyalty to Helena was higher than that of her curiosity, so it didn’t matter to her.
‘It feels different.’
It wasn’t as pleasant as she thought it would be to have someone else do what she had been doing.
The person Helena needed the most was a useful person.
With her powers weaker than before, she hopes to win the hearts of the Grand Duke and Crown Prince so that she could show her worth and usefulness.
If so, it would have been better to get it.
‘To do so, I had to steal Shannon’s face.’
Shannon quickly changed her expression and smiled brightly.
“Your highness, we’ve met before, but won’t you accept my greetings?”
As she took a step closer, Reukis instinctively stepped back.
“Don’t you remember me?” Shannon asked in a tone of embarrassment.
“Ah.”
Although her appearance was very different from the one he met before, this woman was definitely…
“On the alley…”
The woman whom Merria was reluctant to meet.
Reukis closed his mouth without saying anything to her.
Shannon shrugged as if she understood Reukis remembering her that way.
As she tilted her head, the white, pretty nape of her neck glimpse through her silver hair.
“You’re probably wondering how I got here, who was dressed in a humble way.” Shannon said as she smiled softly.
It sounded like a pitiful self-talk, but it was clearly directed for Reukis.
Reukis looked down at her still.
She certainly did leave an impression on him as much as they encountered in every dramatic situation.
Besides, she exudes an aura somewhere familiar, and this power he has never felt before.
The closer she got, the more certain I knew.
It was obviously the same power as Merria has.
‘Was this included in the reason why you were reluctant to meet this woman?’
Reukis thought, as he was trying to figure out how to get information from her.
Shannon, who recognized Reukis’ gaze with keen interest, gently raised the corners of her lips.
‘I don’t like this weak face but it’s so useful.’
She covered her mouth with her hand to hide the twisted corners of her mouth.
“About half of this body has noble blood…”
It was so devastating that if this was in the middle of a shopping street, it would have caught people passing by.
Reukis eyebrow rose up. He, who forcibly listened to the circumstances that he had not been curious about at all, nodded slightly.
It was the least reaction to sending a formal courtesy to the person he was facing.
When his reaction seemed more boring than expected, Shannon decided to change the topic.
“Why did you hold my hand earlier?”
“…I want to know your name.”
Even if Shannon had told him her name before, it was only hazy in his memory.
This reluctance to climb up was telling me that I should know her identity.
Again, Shannon, who interpreted Reukis’ words differently, smiled like a flower.
“My name’s Shannon Magner. Your Highness.”
Crumble~
There seemed to be a sound of light footsteps from afar, but it was overshadowed by Shannon’s answer.
Reukis asked, still staring at Shannon.
“There’s one more thing I want to ask you.”
“You could ask anything.” Shannon answered straight away, placing both of her hands together.
“Have you ever taken a magic measurement?” Reukis asked without delay.
Shannon’s face, who thought private questions would come and go, suddenly hardened.
Then she quickly fixed her expression and shook her head in a hurry.
“No…”
“I see.”
Upon hearing the answer, Reukis turned around without regret.
“Your Highness…!”
Shannon called him pitifully, but Reukis just left.
Looking at Reukis’ back, Shannon looked down at the ring on her finger.
“It was not given to her by the Grand Duke.”
As far as she knew, Princess Rackester was a person who didn’t have a single grain of magic.
But she was carrying something like this, so I thought it was a gift from the Grand Duke.
In fact, Reukis didn’t seem to recognize it even if I deliberately pushed it in front of him.
If it was a gift he personally gifted to Merria, it was only natural that he should have noticed the stealth magic.
But why?
‘This contains the power of Fredericks.’
Shannon’s eyebrows narrowed.
‘Merria Rackester.’
A woman who appeared occasionally in the fragments of my memories.
A foolish princess who burned the desire to monopolise Altheon, which didn’t even become the crown princess.
How could such a woman have taken the seat next to the Grand Duke?
“Was it because of this ring?”
Shannon’s laughter echoed through the maze garden.
✿
On the bench in the vast garden, Merria was trying to calm her pounding heart.
The scene I just faced clearly remained in my eyes.
ㅡ”Why did you hold my hand earlier?”
ㅡ”…I want to know your name.”
Shannon smiling like a flower and Reukis staring at her.
Of course, the first meeting between Reukis and Shannon in the original work was not today, and Reukis was now my lover.
However, when I saw the two, I suddenly thought this.
As much as I, Merria suddenly remembered the original, Wasn’t it possible for Reukis to happen the same?
If the trigger that allowed me to recall the memories was a severe flu, then maybe for Reukis, it might be his fateful first encounter with Shannon.
Previously, the two didn’t face each other properly due to the presence of Merria.
It must be the same that the two of them met by chance at the royal palace on a night like tonight, like we did.
‘It’s really not the author’s favorite kind of encounter?’
Did my mind weaken because I’m tired?
The more you like someone, the more you give your heart to that person, and the more you become a coward.
Although Karina, who’s always restless by Altheon’s side, was cute, I once thought I didn’t know why she was so embarrassed.
But I was in perfect shape right now…
The more I liked Reukis, the more I became afraid.
What if one day Reukis finds out that this world was a novel and becomes disappointed with Merria?
What if he shakes his head and leaves me?
What if he gives his heart to that sweet and kind Shannon?
If he wants to achieve the love he didn’t have there, in the original.
“Sigh…”
Merria frowned and let out a sigh.
There was one more reason I was so embarrassed besides the shock the two met.
Because Shannon was here tonight.
I forgot about the novel because I was preoccupied with decoding the notebook, so I was surprised to suddenly encounter the heroine.
Come to think of it, Shannon said that the victory banquet was held just around the time she reached adulthood.
After all, Shannon, it was also going to be her coming of age this year.
Shannon in the novel could not attend the Coming of Age Night.
On the first day, Reukis asked for a partner, but she refused and went to see Altheon, who would be alone.
On the second day, her heart broke and didn’t attend when Altheon came as Merria’s partner.
Altheon became Merria’s partner to win the heart of the Duke, but Shannon understood it with her head but not with her heart.
That’s why she chose not to see them at all.
Currently, she has not received a partner request from Reukis, and she has no reason to go meet Altheon.
The fact that Shannon was in front of me…
Had Count Magner forced her to attend again?
Shannon did not like places like banquets in another sense than Merria.
For Shannon, who has lived as a maid of a noble family, the banquet was not a place where she attended, but a place where she carried plates and laid tablecloths.
Even if one day she became a noble, it was not easy to get rid of the feeling of being dragged out of the back of the stage.
The result of the reality that Merria had changed was suddenly pushed before her eyes.
‘It felt like a threat.’
It seems that if I try to change my situation, the writer also changes it as well.
There would never be a way to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling.
It was natural to follow Merria’s decision.
How great would it be if courage grows as much as cowardice grows?
It was difficult for me to overcome this situation, as it was best to avoid it.
My head and chest were tormented by different things, I was distressed.
Merria breathed heavily.
If I do that, I wonder if this complicated mind would calm down.
I didn’t want to face him even though I thought of him.
At least for now.
But, sadly, as soon as I thought of that, he appeared before my eyes.
“Merria.”
Reukis’s low voice was stuck in my ears.
Merria’s shoulder, who had closed her eyes, flinched.
‘Why now…’
Merria couldn’t open her eyes easily and clenched her fist.
Reukis walked toward her excitedly.
Merria jumped up from her seat before he got completely close.
“Reukis. We… ah!”
Merria, who pretended to be fine and tried to say ‘we should go back to the banquet hall’, suddenly frowned.
It was because of the strong pain in her ankle.
‘Was it the problem with me running away from where Shannon and Reukis were earlier?’
Reukis approached Merria staggering and wrapped his arms around her shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
Reukis asked. Instead of answering, Merria nodded slightly.
“I’ll bring the doctor.”
At this time, Merria immediately stopped Reukis, who said he would bring a doctor to the middle of the garden.
“I want to go back now. I want to rest…”
Merria shook her head and muttered.
Reukis gently embraced her as she mumbled without raising her head.
Startled, Merria unconsciously put her arm around his neck.
“Reukis?”
When Merria called to him in a bewildered voice, Reukis whispered softly.
“Still, it’s better to get treated. I’ll have a doctor wait for you in the mansion right awayㅡ”
At the sweet words of Reukis, Merria didn’t raise her head and hugged him tightly.
I don’t want to show my face, but I did it out of the desire to feel stability.
I was relieved to feel his body temperature close to me. I decided to cancel my previous thoughts.
After facing him without running away, I realized it.
‘I wanted to see him.’
I needed him to calm down.
Embracing her unresolved anxiety, Merria leaned on him.
They headed straight to the place where the carriage was.
Reukis stopped in front of the coachman who opened the door and waited, he told the destination only by the shape of his mouth.
The witty coachman recognized his words and immediately closed the door.
Even after getting on the carriage, Reukis didn’t put Merria down.
While walking in the carriage, Merria fell asleep like she was passing out.
Her body, exhausted from the recent night, seemed to have reached its limit today.
Reukis, looking down at Merria in his arms, stared at her face.
He gently caressed Merria’s cheeks, full of tiredness.
Reukis’s expression hardened.