/
She wanted to ask why, but eventually decided against it. Instead, she looked at the exposed skin on his arms and forehead. The scar on top of his eyebrows and the long scar on his arms were obviously not there six years ago.
“Your words have gotten rougher.”
He burst out laughing, as if hearing something silly.
Deatrice stood still, not knowing what he found so amusing. There was this cheerful expression on his face when in a blink of an eye, he stopped laughing.
Then, she heard him say.
“Well, I’ve spent five years on the battlefield after all.” He squinted his eyes and looked her up and down, “But you seem to not have changed at all
”
For a woman who had never received such a critical glance, she could sense displeasure emanating from him for a fleeting second but she didn’t speak out. Instead, Deatrice pretended to be calm and waited for him to finish.
Lucius’ gaze, which had gone all the way down to her toes, finally came back up and stopped to stare at her eyes.
“You’ve gotten a bit boring too.”
He raised the corner of his lips, “Well, I guess what else could I have expected after you became engaged to a similarly boring man who’s just so full of himself.”
“Fredhi—” Deatrice stopped and looked away, quietly reproving him, “Don’t belittle him like that. He lost his life because of his father, and I don’t want to hear you criticize him.”
As she spoke, she clearly thought he would be mad or laugh at her.
Perhaps it would be because he was dissatisfied with her engagement to the second prince, and the sight of her engagement ring irritates him. He even called it a ‘damn ring’ before.
However, after a long silence, Lucius broke her expectations of him once more.
“You are right, I went overboard. Please pardon me.”
Although rather than a genuine apology, it seemed like he was just saying it for the sake of maintaining a good atmosphere between the two of them.
In any case, an apology was an apology anyways, so she decided to accept it.
“Alright.”
For a moment, he said nothing and fell silent. When Lucius closed his eyes, he seemed to be listening intently at the faint sound of music that could be heard playing from the hall.
The moonlight cast a soft luster upon his face, and the blonde colors of his hair became tinged with a bluish hue underneath the torpid glow of the night.
Lucius, who had been silent for a long time like he was truly enjoying this night, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Do you feel the same way towards me?”
Do you have the same sympathy and guilt towards me as you have towards your deceased fiancée? You even defend his name upon the scrutiny of others

He was curious. But as her silence grew longer, he realized how stupid and childish his question was.
“Nevermind. Don’t say anything.”
He abruptly got up from his seat. After that, he smiled charmingly and asked some questions as if to diffuse the situation.
“Have you practiced your expressions yet?”
After a while, Deatrice barely answered with a crack in her voice.
“No
”
“Good,” he smiled, “because I think you’d be better off crying anyways.”
He cringed in a playful manner. Seeing her awful expressions at the moment made him think it was impossible for her to act so lovey-dovey with him.
“Here’s what you need to do. Run out from this terrace, crying. But your style needs to—” Lucius took a step closer to her and cautiously pulled the pin out of the side of her head.
From the moment he started walking closer, Deatrice remained motionless and let him do whatever he wanted.
Although, it was more accurate to say that she wanted to move, but her body was too rooted to the spot that she was unable to. Sensing his warmth close by, Deatrice felt his hand gently brushing through her hair as it passed the tip of her ear.
Memories came gushing back to her like a relentless tide.
She remembered details about him. His warm eyes that used to look at her so tenderly, the way he used to smile at her like she was the sun, and how he would adjust his position to make her feel more comfortable whenever she leaned on his shoulder

Everything suddenly became vivid like it happened yesterday.
It had been so long since she had felt this.
Deatrice suddenly took a step back as an unconcealable expression showed up on her face, unable to bear the twisting pain in her chest.
At that moment, the wind came between them and ruffled her long curly hair. Staring back at her, Lucius just smiled like nothing was wrong.
“Yes, that’s it, you’re already doing great. Now run.” He gave her a cheerful smile, “Run towards the carriage while wiping nonexistent tears in your eyes. Can you do that for me, hm?”
How could he be alright when she’s currently in a mess from recollecting their past?
She looked up intently at him and hurriedly opened the door as if to run away from all this. Everyone’s attention became focused on her at that very instance.
Following what he had said, Deatrice swept her cheeks, acting as if she had truly cried. But this time, it was more of a gesture of embarrassment as she could feel all eyes on her person.
Then she ran.
Just as he had ordered her to.
As soon as she was out of sight, someone spoke.
“What was that?”
And so, one by one, the people told what they had seen.
“She definitely went out of the same terrace that Elliott got in, right?.”
“Both of them were at the same place? Oh my—”
“I saw it too! Elliott definitely followed her!”
“And then she came out crying?”
“What in the world happened?”
Those were all the kinds of questions they had asked, but the question everyone truly wanted to ask that would confirm whether their suspicions were true couldn’t manage to escape their lips.
So the two of them are back together again?