It was satisfying.

"Yeah. Next time...."

"....Next time?"

How odd. Was it just my imagination?

It was as if that guy was looking forward to something.

It made me a little upset, but, anyway, I continued and said.

"I guess I'll dress myself up, from head to toe, with red flowers....and th-throw myself in his arms."

"Ahem, that's a little..."

As soon as I finished saying that, Izar shrugged his shoulders and told me.

"You might die if you do that, you know?"

I answered him calmly.

"No. He didn't kill me today, see?"

"That's probably because he was too shocked..."

"No way. Him? Of all people?"

Izar's face was painted in confusion, as he didn't know what to say to that.

"Told you."

I nodded, full of confidence.

"It's because he liked my gift. Which means I'm his significant other."

"S-Significant other..."

Izar's face turned white, as if he had heard something he shouldn't have and would rather not have heard.

"Are you really crazy....?"

"What are you talking about? .... I'll even ask him to give me some strands of hair later. I'll ask for a strand every time we meet."

"Why the hell?!"

"Dummy. I'll sleep with them tucked inside my pillow. I'm gonna do that until we get married...."

I heard it will make you happy for a long time if you do that.

I whispered it out loud, acting all giddy.

Wow.

How creepy of a person was that?!

If I were him, I would run away without looking back.

"Where the hell did you hear such a ridiculous superstition?!"

However, as I said a few more things of the sort after that, Izar pressed his head in the carriage window frame with a sigh.

Then, he let out another deep sigh, looking at me with eyes full of words unspoken.

I eyed him strangely before suddenly realizing the other two had been too silent.

Looking back, I saw the pale faces of the duke and duchess.

Between the two, the look on the duke's face was even more telling.

I gave them a contented smile.

'Whatever the case, he must be thinking he shouldn't have shoved me in the position of the tyrant's fiancée if he knew I was this crazy, right?'

It was obvious.

Feigning ignorance, I turned my gaze out the window.

We would arrive at the mansion soon.

'He can regret as much as he wants.'

I was only telling this now, but the position of the tyrant's fiancée was like a tomb.

In fact, it was actually called a tomb because everyone who got into that position died.

Therefore, regardless of having received a marriage proposal, agreeing to it was...

...no different than telling them to die.

'Nevertheless, Scarlett survives for a long time because she is not involved in any assassination attempts.'

However, the duke didn't know about that, did he?

'That's why he's only wishing for my sweet death, just like those who kicked the bucket before me.'

The duke also had an inferiority complex towards the former duchess in many ways.

'I can't figure out what on earth made him be so displeased with her, but...'

What was certain was that after her death, he was venting that inferiority complex he had on her daughter.

Ugh, what a loser.

'I really can't understand why he married Scarlett's mother.'

He didn't even truly love her.

Scarlett's real mother was a commoner, but she was a very beautiful, elegant and remarkable person.

The elders of the family treated the duke with disdain, but they didn't treat his former wife badly ㅡ she was that great.

'And it's not like he's fond of his current wife either.'

The current duchess, Millia, was also a pretty outstanding person.

Despite that, the duke looked down on her, just because she was the woman he had cast aside before.

He looked down on her, and yet he couldn't help but feel inferior to her.

'Why does he live like that?'

I closed my eyes and continued my thoughts.

'Still, at least, the duchess hasn't schemed to kill Scarlett or expressed her approval in pushing her into such a position.'

And the reason why the duchess had turned pale right now was probably because she was just fed up with my vulgarity by her standards.

The duke, however, was different.

'At this rate, what if the tyrant says he can't associate with someone like me at all?'

What if he said he would rather call this engagement off, than go through our mandatory dates?

I couldn't stop the little smile from forming on my lips.

Apart from the dishonor our broken engagement would bring to the family...

'Duke Arman may also be the one on whom the tyrant might vent his anger.'

Uh-oh. He could even get killed.

That's why you had to be nice to others.

'Because karma always catches up to you.'

I didn't know what the duke was imagining, but as I saw his pale face, I laughed a little, even forgetting he had been yelling at me. 

I was almost sure he was thinking the same things as me right now.

So when our eyes accidentally met, I gave him a sweet smile on purpose.

As if there was no malice in it at all.

* * *

The butler of the Arman Family, Vector, couldn't conceal his worry after receiving the news of his masters early return home.

"Could it be that Young Lady Scarlett has caused trouble again....?"

No, that couldn't be.

'She hasn't stirred up any trouble for almost a month now.'

...although she became unpredictable in a different sense after the engagement.

Even so, there was no way she would have acted out in the presence of His Majesty.

'But then, why are they returning home so early?'

With a worried heart, he went out to welcome them.

Before long, an old-fashioned carriage bearing the family's emblem passed through the garden and arrived at the front gate.

As soon as the door of the carriage opened, the butler had to hurriedly move aside.

It was an instinctive movement.

Because something passed by him very quickly.

Belatedly, he chased the figure who had just ran past him with his eyes, before opening his mouth agape.

Young Lady...?

"T-Th-That–! Get her!"

"P-Pardon?"

The red-faced duke sprang down from the carriage and shouted to the butler.

Then, unable to wait for the stunned butler, he started to storm in instead.

"Get the doctor right away."

"T-The doctor, Master?"

"Scarlett doesn't seem normal."

The butler was perplexed, but then he suddenly realized Young Master Izar was nowhere in sight.

"Did Young Master not come back together?"

"...."

The duchess closed her mouth shut, at a loss for words by his question for a moment.

Izar had told Scarlett,

"No matter how I think about it, you really seem to have gone nuts right now. What if you really die? Funerals are annoying."

As he had said that, without answering him back, Scarlett stopped the carriage in the back alley where Izar used to go, dropped him off, and started the carriage, just like that...

In fact, the duchess was a little dumbstruck by the words and behavior of her two children, which was unimaginable for her as a noble.

And Scarlett, in particular...

After dropping Izar off the carriage just because he had mentioned something about funerals, the way how she had yelled, "Mind your own self," was really so–

"Madam?"

It wasn't only that.

While the duke and duchess had stood shocked and stunned by these chain of events, Scarlett had also said to them.

"You're aware I'm His Majesty's fiancée now, right? So, since I'll have my own schedule, it'd be better if we kept some distance."

She had uttered those words, looking mainly at the duke.

"Because, as the two of you may already know, we're way too close, aren't we?"

I mean, this.

She tapped her own cheek with her hand, in a way which clearly stated, 'You get it, right?'

With a very hateful face.

Of course, there was no way the duke would endure something like that. And that's how they had ended up in the messy situation they were in now.

The duchess, on the other hand...

"...I'm tired."

Something about Scarlett Arman had...changed.

That's what she started to think about.

The butler sensed the icy atmosphere and didn't speak any further.

After that, he cautiously escorted the duchess into the house.

* * *

Izar kept talking to me, even after I had shown him my almost stalker-like side.

"No matter how I think about it, you really seem to have gone nuts right now. What if you really die?"

Let me correct myself.

He didn't keep talking to me. He kept provoking me!

"You have such a lovely way of speaking, don't you?"

"Funerals are annoying."

"What?"

I wanted him to reflect on himself.

That's why I had personally dropped him off in the back alley where he often went before I returned home.

'I'm glad he isn't making a ruckus while drunk and all, but...'

It was because I had witnessed several times him coming back all beaten up by some thugs when they found him singing.

'How come I, who doesn't even get to see him that often, know about this fact?'

Which meant we could say that he got beaten up like that almost every day, right?

Dude, mind your own self.