Once the feelings that had leaked out began to pour forth unstoppably. His hand gently wiped around my eyes.

“Don’t cry, my lady.”

“Yezar, may I be greedy for you…? I didn’t know, but I’m very greedy. So if you’re busy and leave me alone, I might get angry. I want to stay in your heart longer than… longer than when Her Majesty the Empress was in your heart. My first love was taken away, but I want to be your only last love.”

The words came out endlessly without pause. I had been content just hearing his confession of love. Words I had never dared to hope for.

Hearing that he loved me made me want even more. I wished he wouldn’t leave me alone. I wished he would continue to cherish me. I hoped I would never have to watch his retreating figure.

“My lady, you are mistaken. I am the greedy one. I wanted you, my lady, who knew nothing. From the beginning, I wanted to be by your side. That’s what I had been hoping for.”

Soon his lips swallowed my words. The night that followed after we learned each other’s hearts was endless.

***

I could feel him wiping my body with a wet towel. It wasn’t that I couldn’t move, but I wanted to entrust myself to his touch, so I stayed still. Outside the window where the rain had stopped, dawn was breaking.

Wearing a robe, I blinked my languid eyes and asked him.

“Yezar. What did you mean when you said you wanted to be by my side from the beginning?”

When I came to my senses a little, I remembered what he had said. So when I asked, Yezar, who had seated me properly on the bed, softly curved his eyes and spoke.

“I meant exactly that. I wanted you, my lady. I wanted to be by your side from the beginning. But I was afraid that if I held onto you with unclear feelings, I might hurt you… so I proposed a contract marriage.”

“Wasn’t that the first time we had a proper conversation…?”

Even searching through my childhood memories, there was no moment when I had conversed with Yezar. Before I possessed this body, Julietta might have glimpsed his face at a banquet, but there was no way we could have built a proper relationship.

“That can’t be. Don’t you really remember? My lady, you loved drinking even then. You would sip alone, tilting your glass.”

Then a memory naturally came to mind. As the original story was ending, my heart felt lighter and I had embarked on some rebellion. I secretly obtained clothes that commoners wore and went to a tavern to drink alone.

While drinking glass after glass, I met a knight. A knight who wore his robe pulled down low and endlessly talked about his infinitely gloomy and frustrating love story… A foolish knight.

“…No way.”

I had been disappointed when he suddenly disappeared. After my conversation partner vanished, drinking at that place was no longer enjoyable, so I stopped going there.

“That foolish and frustrating knight…”

“The adjectives have increased by one.”

He burst into laughter. Why was that? He spoke as if he had heard me call him that before.

“Yes, that’s right. That foolish and frustrating knight was me. Really, when I think back to that time, I can only laugh. A noble young lady, dressed ambiguously like a commoner, drinking alone without knowing the danger… If you had approached someone other than me, it could have been terrible, Julietta.”

I thought it was perfect disguise back then. But apparently he had recognized me as a noble young lady immediately.

“…But if I had told the servants, they would have opposed it. That’s why I went alone, and I worked hard to prepare and wear commoner’s clothes.”

“Such well-maintained long hair and skin exist only among wealthy commoners or nobles.”

“I don’t do that anymore… I’ll reflect on it, so please stop talking about it. And I have something to say too! Why did you suddenly disappear that time? You could have at least given me time to say goodbye… I had grown somewhat fond of you.”

Among the meaninglessly accumulated time, the conversations with that knight were different and comfortable. Later, I had wanted to ask who he was.

“I became curious about you, my lady. So I arbitrarily investigated who you were.”

“What…?”

Surprised by the unexpected story, I opened my eyes wide, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s something the original me would never do, right? Arbitrarily prying into someone’s identity is unpleasant behavior.”

He was always cautious with others. He wouldn’t do anything that might displease others first. That’s why I was puzzled. Why had he investigated me?

“So I honestly tried to tell you. But when I imagined how you might react, I became scared and ran away like a coward.”

“Then why did you appear before me again?”

Not as the robed knight, but as Yezar Ferhaem, he appeared before me again and proposed a contract marriage.

Yes, it had been puzzling. He wasn’t being pressured by his family to marry. At that time, I thought he had come to me because I met the conditions he wanted.

Even if not me, there would have been a few women, though rare, who would have agreed to the loveless contract marriage he desired.

“I heard rumors that you were looking for a husband. Ridiculous, isn’t it? I, who had been holed up in my room after Her Majesty the Empress’s marriage news, immediately went to the Orbetian Count’s house as soon as I heard that rumor.”

“…That’s strange. Yezar loved Her Majesty the Empress back then.”

After saying that, my chest ached. Noticing that my expression had slightly contorted, he apologized to me.

“I’m sorry. For making you make such a sad expression. Yes. I was definitely struggling with the pain of unrequited love back then. But I remembered the kind words you had said to me. Those direct and straightforward words comforted me in a way. Your voice, your gaze, your gestures… they kept circling in my mind.”

“Even if you say that, I can’t believe…”

Even if he had been bound by the fate of the novel, he had definitely been in pain from the loss of love. That’s why I had helped him break free from Bertisha.

Back then it was fine because I didn’t love Yezar, but now it wasn’t. I had seen all of that. How could I think that our hearts had been connected since that tavern?

Then Yezar took my hand. Like someone confessing their sins, he knelt before me.

“Yes. I know. You don’t have to believe it now. But please know this. Before I even realized it, my body moved first.”

“…”

“I, who had always acted as if it was natural to stand behind, my body moved first when it came to matters concerning you, my lady. My ears followed news of you, my mouth was asking you to become my wife.”

There wasn’t a grain of falsehood in his eyes.

“But I thought it would be cowardly to tie down your feet with emotions I wasn’t even sure of myself. That’s why I set a contract period for our marriage. What I said about not being confident in loving someone yet… All my senses were directed toward you, my lady, but I couldn’t properly name that emotion.”

Yezar didn’t run away. He looked straight at me and was properly confessing to me. That confusing moment of his.

“But now I know. What my heart was when I headed to the Orbetian Count’s house.”

“…It might be a mistake. In difficult times, everyone seeks someone to rely on.”

I knew that wasn’t the case. Because he doesn’t lie to me. Because he always confesses his sincerity to me with those clear eyes.

But still, there was anxiety in one corner of my heart. There was jealousy toward Bertisha. Because I’m greedy.

I didn’t want to share his heart with anyone else anymore. So there were words I wanted to hear from his lips.

Even as my gaze fell uncertainly, he calmly confessed to me. That voice that always filled my heart spoke to me.

“Julietta, when I’m with you, pain becomes as if it never existed. Only you came to mind. Before I knew it, the end of all my thoughts was you, Julietta.”

Yes. Those were the words I wanted to hear.

“…If you say that, how greedy do you think I’ll become? I’ll selfishly misunderstand and try to monopolize you. I might ask you to tell me you love me dozens of times a day.”

Even as I said that, laughter bloomed through my tears. Ah. I loved him. Even if he asked me to let him go now, I would never want to let him go.

“Such a lady would be lovely too. Julietta, the light of the emotions that bloomed during our married life will surely be the same color as your beautiful hair. It is love.”

His words about wanting me from the beginning weren’t lies. There was no sub male lead who had to only watch retreating figures in the novel. I realized too late that the novel’s fate I had seen had ended long ago.

Even without properly understanding his own emotions, from the day he came running at the news that I was looking for a husband, our connection had blossomed. That’s when our story had begun.

Hugging his shoulders tightly, I scolded him.

“Isn’t your realization too late?”

“I’m sorry. For being too late.”

“It’s okay. Now our marriage isn’t a contract with a time limit.”

There were many things I wanted to talk about with him. But sleep was coming. I thought I should rest a bit more at the inn and get some sleep, then go back and burn the contract first. I briefly sought sleep in his arms.