Chapter 27
The man, dressed in a black uniform that perfectly suited his jet-black hair and dark eyes, seemed to shine even more brightly today.
She had always known he was a strikingly handsome man, but right now, it was as if he had deliberately decided to bewitch anyone who looked his way.
Liriope’s face instantly flushed red.
The thought that Theo had heard every last one of the embarrassing words she had just let slip made her want to crawl into the nearest mouse hole and disappear.
On the verge of tears from mortification, she bit her lip and furrowed her brows. Then, smoothing her expression, she forced a smile.
But there was no disguising how awkward that smile looked.
“Lord Theo.”
When Liriope called out to him, Theo looked at her with a strange gaze and stepped closer.
His intense, lingering stare made her uncomfortable.
As she fidgeted, her eyes darting about uneasily, Theo’s words suddenly set her face ablaze.
“You are especially beautiful tonight.”
Completely unaccustomed to compliments, Liriope’s face flared red at once.
How could the very man who was particularly dazzling tonight be calling her beautiful?
“Y-You actually came?!”
Kadin’s startled voice rang out, his eyes wide at the sight of Theo.
It was only natural—Theo was not the type to attend festivals or banquets, so Kadin’s surprise was understandable.
Although he had teased about how, since Rosaline and Liriope would be wearing matching friendship dresses, he too should match with Liriope and attend the ball, up until yesterday he hadn’t breathed a word about actually going. So no one had expected him to appear.
“What do you mean by ‘actually’?”
Theo frowned in displeasure at Kadin’s exclamation.
“Why are you here?! You’re the one who never attends imperial banquets!”
“Why else? My woman is here.”
Theo said this calmly while gazing at Liriope.
That matter-of-fact tone carried a gentleness that she couldn’t fail to notice.
Suppressing a sigh, Liriope gave him another forced, awkward smile.
With Theo going around calling her “my woman” at every turn, her already tangled feelings grew all the more confused.
“Lady Liri!”
Just then, Rosaline emerged from the banquet hall, waving brightly.
Her radiant beauty lit up the space, and Liriope’s lips curved upward without her realizing it.
Then a sudden thought struck her—what if the two men standing beside her fell head over heels for Rosaline at this very moment?
That might actually be for the best. She cast a hopeful glance at Theo.
But—
‘Why is he only looking at me?’
Theo stared fixedly at her, as if there were something on her face, wearing an unmistakably displeased expression.
‘Right… In the original story, it was the Crown Prince who fell for the heroine first.’
Thinking that, Liriope shifted her gaze to Kadin—only to see him glaring at Rosaline as though he meant to devour her alive.
‘What on earth? Why is he looking at her like that?!’
“Lady Liri, why did you leave me behind?”
Rosaline, who had already reached her side, reached out as though to link arms with her in a playful pout.
But Theo seized Liriope’s arm and pulled her slightly behind him, thwarting Rosaline’s attempt.
“Do not touch what belongs to me, Lady.”
Liriope almost fainted at his words, staring up at him in disbelief.
‘Has he lost his mind?! She’s your woman, not me—her!’
Every word and action of his would only come back to haunt him once he eventually fell for Rosaline.
How much regret was he planning to heap upon himself?
This wasn’t even a “regret” genre novel, and yet he seemed determined to rack up regrets.
But then—
“Lady Liri’s body is not the Duke’s property, is it?”
Rosaline’s face hardened instantly as she rebutted Theo.
‘Oh no, not you too…’
“Did you not hear? I said ‘my woman.’”
Theo stressed the phrase, putting heavy emphasis on it.
“Yes. I am aware you are Lady Liri’s fiancé, so I can understand calling her that. However—”
“Did I ask for your understanding?”
Cutting her off with a mirthless laugh, Theo’s expression turned chillingly cold.
Yet the goddess-like Rosaline seemed unbothered, gazing up at him and speaking calmly.
“I would appreciate it if you did not interfere with my friendship with Lady Liri simply on the basis of being her fiancé.”
“Friendship,” Theo repeated under his breath, letting out another cold laugh.
Then, with a frigid look, he asked her:
“Is your friendship one that cannot exist without touching?”
“Surely the desire to reach out to someone you care for is natural.”
At those words, Liriope’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
‘Wait, that sounded… strange. No, not strange, but—actually yes, strange! Or… maybe not? Ugh!’
“Do not care for my woman so recklessly.”
Theo’s sharp tone made not only Liriope and Rosaline, but even Kadin, whip their heads toward him in shock.
His icy gaze lingered on Rosaline before his lips curled faintly upward.
“The only reason I refrain from saying more is because you are a lady, not a man.”
‘What kind of twisted logic is that?!’
Blinking in bewilderment, Liriope struggled to process his words.
Rosaline’s expression turned stony at once.
Caught in this escalating quarrel between the supposed male and female leads, Liriope’s mind whirled in confusion.
This wasn’t supposed to be a hostile-rivalry romance. In the original story, during the Harvest Festival, Theo had first taken notice of Rosaline because of one small act of kindness toward a commoner child.
That had been the beginning of his gradual attraction to her.
Rosaline, too, had started noticing Theo when their gazes met again and again, and she had naturally fallen for him.
Yet here they were, glaring at each other like bitter enemies.
Unable to make sense of it, Liriope rubbed her temples.
Just then, Kadin stealthily tapped her elbow and whispered:
“Don’t tell me those two idiots are fighting over you, are they?”
Her eyes snapped to him.
But Kadin, utterly unfazed by her withering look, went on blithely:
“You’ll be the future empress anyway, so how foolish of them. Right, my lady? Or should I say, Liri?”
Liriope let out a small sigh instead of answering.
‘Why do you look like the dumbest one here?’
The retort hovered on her tongue, but the specter of lèse-majesté silenced her.
“Forget those idiots. Why don’t you and I go somewhere else and talk, my lady—no, Liri.”
Keeping his voice low, as if wary of Theo overhearing, Kadin jerked his chin to suggest they leave.
“Is there perhaps somewhere the two of us can be alone?”
Liriope stared at him for a moment, then sighed softly.
“…Your Highness.”
“Yes, my lady—no, Liri.”
“If calling me Liri feels awkward, please just call me ‘my lady.’ The way you keep saying ‘my lady—no, Liri’ makes it sound as if my name is actually ‘My Lady No Liri.’”
At that, Kadin gave an awkward, sheepish smile.
Liriope’s first imperial ball since she transmigrated ended without enjoyment, ruined by Theo and Rosaline’s quarrel and Kadin’s foolish remarks.
Leaving behind Theo, Kadin, and Rosaline, all of whom had insisted on escorting her, she hurried back to the ducal estate.
There, she clutched her head in frustration, fretting over how bizarre the relationship dynamics among the male lead, female lead, and the secondary male had become.
Theo and Kadin she could maybe understand, but why on earth had Rosaline insisted on escorting her all the way home?
Nothing made sense.
At this point, she wished the Harvest Festival would hurry up and arrive.
‘But before that, the first major event in the original story is the Hunting Festival.’
Fortunately, the Hunting Festival was fast approaching.
All the nobles of the empire would be busy with preparations, and she too would be swept up in the bustle—enough to distract herself from these tangled thoughts, if only for a while.
“The Hunting Festival…”
She recalled the original plotline.
During the event, high-level monsters had suddenly attacked the noblewomen’s tents, leaving countless women and children dead or injured.
The memory jolted her into action. She seized a pen and paper at once.
She had resolved to prevent every tragic incident she remembered—innocent lives must not be lost.
“I’ll start by drafting a plan to fend off the monsters that attack the tents.”
The northern crises still needed preparation, but that could wait. For now, the Hunting Festival came first.
So she sat and began devising countermeasures.
